No Thank You

I saw a trailer this morning on tv for a ‘new’ movie coming out – Let Me In – and before it gets to the title I’m thinking “I’ve seen this… it was a really good movie.” But then there were a few of the trademark (hollywood) horror-film strobe-cut edits thrown in. You know the ones: a convenient lightning bolt or passing car illuminates something scary for a second then the camera cuts away. And it’s not out yet.

Turns out I have seen this movie, but I saw the original. It was called Let the Right One In
Why can’t Hollywood come up with an idea of their own? Let the Right One In was a fantastic movie, why remake it? And it’s only 2 years old!!

They’ve already proven they can’t be trusted. (I know, you’re thinking “that last one wasn’t a remake!” but yes it was)

I haven’t even seen this summer’s Karate Kid or A-Team yet. I’m almost afraid I’ll cry if I do. Come up with something original!

Bad news kids, remakes/reboots (I hate that term) are already in the works for Highlander, Planet of the Apes, (again?!?) and even The Wizard of Oz. Is nothing sacred?

Wil Weaton says, “Don’t be a dick”

… and he’s looking at you, Facebook.

Facebook continues its all-out assault on its users’ privacy with the new Places feature, which is (of course) on by default, with no warning. Lifehacker has the lowdown, including how to turn it off. As I’ve said before, if you dig Facebook, I’m not going to give you a hard time about it, but I strongly encourage you to turn this feature off. The world doesn’t need to know where you live, and when you are (and aren’t) home. Also: Fuck you, Facebook, for turning this on by default and not warning your users about it. You’re one of the most profoundly immoral companies in the history of the Internet.

Yeah, reason 424 I’m not on Facebook.

Dear Cisco,

Any ONE of those 32 zip-lock bags could have easily held all 32 SFPs.  I did not enjoy opening 32 bags, fishing through the instruction sheets, and still having to open 32 static bags.

Sincerely.

Speaking of Done…

I’ve been buying stuff from buy.com for… well, I think since they started. The oldest order I can find in my account is from about 5 years ago (it was an 80GB hard drive 😀 ) but I must have switched accounts or they don’t keep stuff farther back. Almost 2 months ago I ordered an air conditioner for my back room project. Some might think it weird to get something like that online, but the price was good and I didn’t have to go get it. Remember, I’m the guy that ordered a generator from amazon.com when the power was out for a week here.

The unit shows up in a normal-ish amount of time, but sits in the garage for a few days waiting to be put in. The day comes to install it, and the grill is cracked all the way down. Well poo. No problem, contact them and they arrange a pickup and will send me a new one. They probably could have just sent a new grill, but that seem to be too much work for whoever was handling this.

It took almost 3 weeks to get a replacement.

They never told me when it would be picked up. The only way I knew is because UPS stuck one of their notes on the door saying they missed me. So of course they waited for it to get back and they inspected it or whatever they do, and they sent another. Number 2 shows up and the box is pretty much already destroyed. The driver noted the damage. I should have had him take it back right then. I opened it and sure enough, cracked grill, sides were bent in, it was in worse shape than the first. It mainly looked cosmetic, so I actually emailed their customer support and said I’d consider keeping it if worked and they made that worth my gamble. They offered a whopping $75 partial refund. I even countered that, assuming they would rather be done with it than spend another god-knows how much in shipping. I said that wasn’t really enough, give me more, extend the warranty, or come get it. They scheduled another pickup. That pickup took awhile to happen, but I will give them credit for this one thing – they sent a replacement out as soon as they verified that one was on its way back.

Third time’s the charm? Now it’s been almost 2 months since the original order. I’ve had to be home waiting on UPS for each drop off/pick-up. UPS shows up earlier this week. I see the driver get out a large brown box… “Oh good, they double boxed this one!” I think because the other 2 were the white boxes that the AC comes in. “Huh… he’s just carrying that up here on his own? That’s like 100 pounds! Oh… wait… why does the box say Whirlpool?”
It was an over-the-range microwave. Sigh.
Again an email to buy.com – just cancel it, I’m done, I found it cheaper somewhere else anyway (which is true, I can get it from amazon for $50 less and free 2 day shipping) I wanted a full refund and the interest on my $600 for the last 2 months if they ever expected to keep me as a customer. I knew they wouldn’t do it, but I at least thought I’d ask. I got another generic “Sorry for any inconvenience, we’ve processed your request” email. I would have loved to gotten someone on the phone, maybe they could have at least faked a little sincerity or admitted this was pathetic customer service. They already spent probably more than the AC was worth in shipping and pickups, don’t you think they’d at least try to keep the sale? Or at the very least the customer? I’m a difficult customer to lose and I’ve been shopping there probably since they started… not to mention the people I sent there over the years to shop. They managed to do it though.