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(add your own horror stories, insert name of technical company)

today - Hitachi. I recently bought a emergency 1tb drive when my fucking Western Digital (spit!) drive took a dump. I was going to blame it on Java, or my MS Lifecam, but I've since narrowed down my problem to the hard drive.
What is my problem you say?

Drive stuttering. Not sure if that is the official technical term or not... for me it's the hard drive will go along fine for a while, and then it will hiccup and literally (as I'm playing a game) stutter and repeat everything, mostly sound, for anywhere from 10-20 seconds.
If I HAD the money I would go out and get yet another replacement hard drive, send it back to Hitachi and get a refurbished one, since it's well under warranty.. but I can't at the moment. This is *MY* work computer, the one I do EVERYthing on...Quickbooks, JK2 and 3, Elite Force, webreading, ebay, etc etc etc... I can't afford to be down for more than an hour or so.

grrrrrrrrrr

I rented some movies from Blockbuster not that long ago. I'd been a customer there for so long that they all knew me by name and would do me some favors if I needed it. But apparently Blockbuster is in such financial trouble that they have closed some stores and moved a few managers around. That's where my story begins.

So I take back the movies I had sitting there and found out that they were late. Really, really late. No worries. I'll just pay the fees and rent these 5 here. Nope. They changed their policy. In the past, when I was so late they'd call me and I'd just recheck them on the phone and pay for the late fees when I came in. Not any more. In this case they told me I owed them $80 and I now owned the movies.

"But you have them, " I says to them.
"Doesn't matter," says new manager while John stands behind her shaking his head.
"So you have the disks and say that I owe you $80."
"Yes."
"I owe you $80 for something you have."
"Yes."
"That makes no sense."
"Well, we can't check them out any longer so they are no good to us."
"Huh? Why can't you check them out?"
"Because they are yours."
"..."
"Are you going to pay for this?"
"No."
"Fine. We'll just charge your credit card."
"You mean the one you have on file that's expired? Have fun with that."
"We'll send you to collections."
"Over $80 that you say I owe on movies that you have and say you can't check out for arbitrary reasons?"
"Yes."
"Have fun with that. John, it's been good knowing you for 10 years. I've always enjoyed talking with you and spending my money here. When this place closes because your manager is a moron give me a call. I'll see what jobs we have open."

That is mess up Dave.

Matt: I don't know what to say When you are running a single HDD and it is failing, there is nothing much you can do except getting a new one this is why all my system have mirror drives (2) I'm working on saving some money to do a raid 1+0 (requires 4)
on my system and upgrade to window 7 32bit from Vista ultimate 64bit.

Chibibar said:

That is mess up Dave.

Matt: I don't know what to say When you are running a single HDD and it is failing, there is nothing much you can do except getting a new one this is why all my system have mirror drives (2) I'm working on saving some money to do a raid 1+0 (requires 4)
on my system and upgrade to window 7 32bit from Vista ultimate 64bit.

Click to expand...

Well the weirdest thing is that the system totally recovers as if nothing happened. I just ran a 3 hour test looking for bad sectors - none found. I HATE WD because I've had 3 of their drives fail in this computer since last summer. (before the new motherboard and cpu which are new since 1st of December)

Dave.. that is messed up beyond belief. You should have demanded the discs back, I'm thinking. Also, collections can't do jack for that piddly amount. 2: holding your card on file in most cases I think is illegal?

Matt² said:

You should have demanded the discs back, I'm thinking.

Click to expand...

I did. They told me that I couldn't have them unless I pay for them.

I think they are currently sitting in a drawer by the cash register along with a bunch of others from people going through the same thing.

That's completely retarded. More retarded than Stephanie Meyer's books.

Well let's not get carried away there, Null...

Blockbuster is a joke. Good example of business darwinism there:

http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:BBI

2002 - ~28$ per share

Currently? .... 0.33 $ per share

Good job

-------

Now, here's an example where business darwinism FAILS.

Comcast. I fucking hate comcast. I think they are overpriced and their product sucks. HOWEVER, the cable industry is highly monopolistic. Like they actually form non-compete contracts with each other....WTF is that? Some may argue that ATT is a competitor with its Uverse or DSL. I say hogwash. DSL isn't a comparable product in the slightest. Its far far worse than cable.

So FUCK COMCAST.

Right now I am paying 110$ / month for internet and basic cable. I don't even want the cable. When I drop that I will be paying 76$ per month. Granted its fast as all fucking hell (26mbps) but that is still really expensive. My main beef though has to do with some other stuff.

This is how that policy at Blockbuster works:

(please note that "Past Due" is not the expression Blockbuster uses, but I think it helps explain things better)



A customer returns movies (or games) that are more than XX days overdue (the number depends on which region your in... my Blockbuster in NY was a month, but the ones in MD and NC are 2 weeks).

- If the movie is late (returned after the due date), but not Past Due (the point at which the account gets charged for the movie)
1. The customer should receive an automated phone message about the late movie (via the phone # on the account... make sure it's up to date!) 2-3 days before it becomes Past Due.
2. If the movie is returned late but is not Past Due, the customer is charged a late fee (which depends on what region you live in... the late fee should never exceed $10).
NOTE: Depending on your region, you may have a grace period of X days to return the movie late without actually getting charged a late fee.


Past Due rules:

- If the movie is automatically charged to the Credit/Debit/Check card posted on the account,
1. If the customer has returned the movies, inform them of the Past Due and payment and let them know they can pick up their movies that they now own. They have 6 month to claim them. Otherwise, they go back into circulation in one form or another.
2. If the customer has not returned the movies, nothing is done since they paid for the movies and have possession of them.

- If the movies cannot be charged to the card on the account, or if there is no card on the account,
1. The customer is informed that the movie is Past Due and the charge must be paid for the customer to rent again. The movies are then held for one month. If the movie is not claimed, it goes back into circulation. If the customer comes back after this point and pays the fees, the movie (or a copy) is taken out of circulation and given to them.
2. If the customer refuses to pay, the charge is left on the account and the customer cannot use the account (on most occasions). Eventually (about 3 months after the charge), the issue is sent to collections. The amount sent for collections can be almost anything.



Blockbuster's reasoning:
When you make a membership, you agree to the rental and return policies, such as what is explained above. When you rent a movie and keep it for an extended (see: much longer than needed) time, you have taken that rental out of circulation. The longer the rental stays out of circulation, the less money Blockbuster makes. Nearly half of Blockbuster's total revenue comes from rentals. You have stopped Blockbuster from making money in the worst way possible by holding onto the movie, since they cannot rent it out to other people. As such, if you keep the movie for too long, Blockbuster will charge you the used price of the movie so that they can guarantee to turn a profit on the rental. That also may, in turn, give Blockbuster the ability to get another copy of the movie into the store to replace the one you have kept without having to pay "out-of-pocket" for a new rental.

Also, Blockbuster will not charge you more than the movie's retail value (+tax), no matter how late it is. The only exception is on individual TV show discs that are less than two months from the release date. That is one big advantage over a place like Hollywood Video, which could charge you up to $40 in late fees and THEN stick you with the cost of the movie.

...

Not that I'm fully supporting Blockbuster... they have a lot of practices that are outdated and/or need to be changed drastically. The only reason I still go to Blockbuster is because I know how to get the best bang for my buck when it comes to rentals and other stuff. I'd rather pay $5 for two movies that I get to keep for 5 days than go to the theater and pay $10 for one movie.

Sorry for the long post I hope it clears things up, even if you still refuse to give them $80. Say hello to Collections for me.

PROTIP: If you speak to the manager and complain that it's too much, most managers are willing to cut the fees of this size in half. That way they can still get $40 of the $80 instead of $0 and they (might) get you back as a customer. Please note that this should definitely be done before it goes to Collections, or you'll be stuck with the full fee.

EDIT:
And yes, a store will typically have 30-40 movies caught in limbo just like yours are. If Blockbuster just puts them back into circulation without charging you anything for the extended period you kept the movies, then there's no reason to have due dates or late fees at all!

Also, you think Blockbuster's business is bad? How about their main in-store competitor, Movie Gallery (who owns Hollywood Video)? They're at 0.0025 dollars per share. It's not Blockbuster's policies that are fully responsible for tanking the company. Most of the blame lies on how the rental business and modern media in general is shifting away from the previously-stead-fast system of old (see: Actual stores. circa: 5-25 years ago).

BFG, I'm sad to say. I had just switched to BFG from PNY because PNY had horrible quality.. but I just took yet ANOTHER video card out of my computer due to it's malfunctioning.. this is what, the 4th time? This one was a BFG GeForce 220GT 1gb.. and I'm sorry to see it have to get repaired by them.... now I'm back to my old PNY card =P ... sadly, BFG is no longer making video cards as of a few months ago, so we'll see what I get back? This video card's fan went out actually about a month ago, squealing, but I've been putting up with it because it was intermittent. This week it's been less intermittent and more annoying, so I took it out and i was very HOT.

So I get the RMA guy on the phone.. he's actually very pleasant, found all my info, etc. I get OFF the phone and get the RMA email with info.. asking for proof of purchase... which I faxed in 3 months ago when I bought the card (TO THE DAY! Date on the receipt is March 8th 2010, I sent it in on March 9th.)..very annoying, yet not pissing me off enough yet.

HP.. working on a DV7 laptop that originally came with Vista on it. It's not accepting network drivers from HP's site (via usb drive) for Vista.. as a last ditch "is this the motherboard defect I've heard about?" I decide to install Windows 7 .. it installs the drivers in PREINSTALL mode! Great.. only my customer has no license for Win7, so back to Vista.. (but not before copying the Win7 drivers folder to the usb drive!)

Vanguard is really pissing me off. I've been requesting financial statements from them on behalf of a client of ours in order to calculate some cost basis information that is missing on some of the funds that he owns. Long story short, they've sent me incomplete statements twice and each time I have to set up another time with the client so we can call Vanguard and have them send out what we need again which results in them having to snail mail documents to the client who then has to forward said documents to me. They are the only company I've had this much trouble getting statements from and I fucking hate them for it.

God damned fucking NORTON!!!!

arsrjksakdjfhsakdjhsakjuhedweio uryoaiuapo[du czdsaytv ryar0d!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh man I've been there.

I am mad at Micromedics right now. My laptop has been having some issues so I had to send it in for repair. Luckily it is under warranty still so I call up Newegg's warranty people and they inform me they will send me a box so I can send it in. I wait about a week and a half with no response so I call them up and they send me out a new box. I finally get the box and send out the laptop. I keep and eye on the tracking number and see that they received it on 7/21. So today after not hearing anything I decide to call them up. They than tell me that the laptop was just received in on 7/28. I inform them that according to the tracking number they received it on 7/21.

They than tell me that due to the serial number on the bottom being faded they had to wait for approval from my warranty provider and they just got permission and a Tech would be looking at it soon. I ask why it took a week to get approval when I provided them the S/N and they have worked on the laptop just a few months ago (for the same issue I might add). So than they tell me that they had to wait for the approval and it was not their fault. So I than call up Newegg's warranty service and they inform me that they never received a call from Micromedics. So Newegg's warranty people call up Micromedics to see what is going on. So I get called back and informed that it was Micromedics itself that needed approval to work on the laptop because of the S/N (once again despite the fact that I gave them the S/N and they just worked on the machine a few montsh back)

Now I could understand maybe a day or two hang up becuase the S/N was faded but a whole week? That seems a bit long. But on a slightly positive note Newegg's warranty people told them to put an escalation on the repair so hopefully I will get my laptop back soon but as of right now I am not to happy with Micromedics.

Momentum Payment Systems. Piece of shit sales reps and asshole customer service reps. Canceled today after 2 weeks with them.

too angry to even see straight almost.

Hey Ross!
we don't even have brick and mortar rental places in my part of Minnesota anymore, they all closed up....its hilarious!

i guess netflixs and redbox were just too much for them.

I thought Movie Gallery / Hollywood Video went out of business?

Bones said:

Hey Ross!
we don't even have brick and mortar rental places in my part of Minnesota anymore, they all closed up....its hilarious!

i guess netflixs and redbox were just too much for them.

Click to expand...

K. Don't know why you find that to be hilarious.

Matt² said:

I thought Movie Gallery / Hollywood Video went out of business?

Click to expand...

Movie Gallery filed for bankruptcy back in 2007... apparently they had to do it again in 2010 and close 805 of its 2415 stores: Movie Gallery Files for Bankruptcy - DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com

...Then they just decided to close everything back in May: Movie Gallery Shutting Down All Stores | homemediamagazine.com

There are rumors that Blockbuster will be filing for bankruptcy in September... Blockbuster Is Said Likely to Get One-Month Reprieve on Debt - Bloomberg

...And I got the last two links from I Hate Blockbuster which has apparently existed for 10 years now

Ross;425048][QUOTE=Bones said:

Hey Ross!
we don't even have brick and mortar rental places in my part of Minnesota anymore, they all closed up....its hilarious!

i guess netflixs and redbox were just too much for them.

Click to expand...

K. Don't know why you find that to be hilarious.[/QUOTE]

I dunno why but this movie rental store thing, is made funny by the fact you have an Clerks avatar. I can't think though why he would find it funny, but basically torrents, netflix, redbox, and on demand really took a shit on people driving to a specific store to rent movies. Redbox has an advantage because there are like 4 within 5 miles of my house, and they are in both a grocery store and walmart, both which can be used for other purposes other than just going to for a movie.

crono1224 said:

I dunno why but this movie rental store thing, is made funny by the fact you have an Clerks avatar. I can't think though why he would find it funny, but basically torrents, netflix, redbox, and on demand really took a shit on people driving to a specific store to rent movies. Redbox has an advantage because there are like 4 within 5 miles of my house, and they are in both a grocery store and walmart, both which can be used for other purposes other than just going to for a movie.

Click to expand...

you basically nailed it right there, I found those places to be a dying breed of failsauce. the entire rise of internet streaming made me only to happy to never have to darken their doorsteps again. so anyways, yeah its kinda hard to explain on my side but it comes down to bad experience with how those establishments in my area viewed their customers. made worse by the fact my town had only a movie gallery and a Hollywood video. so I i have no love lost for these places as they eat it and go the way of the dinosaurs.

Bones;425129][QUOTE=crono1224 said:

I dunno why but this movie rental store thing, is made funny by the fact you have an Clerks avatar. I can't think though why he would find it funny, but basically torrents, netflix, redbox, and on demand really took a shit on people driving to a specific store to rent movies. Redbox has an advantage because there are like 4 within 5 miles of my house, and they are in both a grocery store and walmart, both which can be used for other purposes other than just going to for a movie.

Click to expand...

you basically nailed it right there, I found those places to be a dying breed of failsauce. the entire rise of internet streaming made me only to happy to never have to darken their doorsteps again. so anyways, yeah its kinda hard to explain on my side but it comes down to bad experience with how those establishments in my area viewed their customers. made worse by the fact my town had only a movie gallery and a Hollywood video. so I i have no love lost for these places as they eat it and go the way of the dinosaurs.[/QUOTE]

We had several choices within reasonable driving distance, and 10-15 years ago it was fine, rent a few movies wasn't to bad, prices started jumping and it just wasn't worth it to worry bout returning them. Especially since there are so many options on Netflix and if that fails you usually can pick up the slack with a Redbox.

The places that I am still surprised do any well are bookstores the only reason me and the misses go to the Barnes and Nobles near us is they have a halfway decent used book section (prices between 2-5$ depending on quality of book and age of it). Without that there is no reason we would pay the huge prices with the fact Walmart and places usually sell the same books cheaper (new), or amazon/half/ebay. Also I think the used book section at our Barnes and Nobles is extremely rare among the stores

try stores like suncoast or FYE, I have no idea how they manage to survive...

Ya FYE's business model is how much can we mark this up and still sell at least one copy.

this made me think... Would there be any business to make out of these larger stores that have/are going out of business? I'm thinking, divide the space up into units so that there's 8-12 "mini-theaters" where people can rent movies instore and watch on hidef big screens instore.. have 4 - 8 seats and be like having a party there, comfy seats, popcorn, food and drinks etc...

think there'd be any business in that?

that is an amazing idea, and it sounds like a ton of fun...I would love to bring recording equipment and record a mst3k style commentary track...

Regal Cinemas. Went to see Resident Evil: Afterlife today and discovered that Regal has reintroduced a slightly graphically updated version of the fucking STUPID roller coaster intro that they used way back in the 90's.. ARRGGH I hated that thing! It's cheesy, it's stupid, it makes me physically nauseous!

***. I'm trying to install a just gone gold version of a software and it is way more difficult than any install wizard should ever be.

AT&T.


Because I like getting calls and apparently they don't like me getting calls.

Ever.

Gametap / Metaboli is really starting to piss me off. It looks like I've chosen a good time to end my subscription (arguably the perfect time would have been last year), I just hope they don't try to pull any funny business. Reading around the forum there are at least a half-dozen threads from people who have bought games from the non-subscription side of Gametap, but ended up waiting a week or more to get product keys, and many are still waiting. People may have bitched about GOG's marketing stunt, but Gametap is really being worse by pretending to still be in business.