Mifftastic on so many levels

Man I am irritated. Two Thursdays ago, I went and test drove the Motorola Xoom at Verizon. I decided I liked it, but I was on the fence about buying one, because LG and Apple were both releasing new tablets this month.  Then I saw on FB that there was a way to use a coupon and get it $200 cheaper, so I went to Motorola’s website and tried to apply the coupon, but accidentally hit the wrong button (the buy button). This was a problem, because they didn’t ask for credit card verification because of my Amazon prime membership which keeps the card on file. The shipping wasn’t right, it was a mess because I am leaving town for a few days and I didn’t want it left on my porch to be stolen. I found out the coupon was a red herring.

So the next day I called Motorola and was told I couldn’t change the shipping info. I couldn’t cancel the order. I was hung up on, laughed at and verbally abused by their customer service. I finally got a hold of someone who said they would cancel the order and call me back, which he of course didn’t do. Then I talked to a manager who told me that signature would be required and that they would send me a free car charger for the hassle. I said ok.

Fast forward to last Thursday when the charge for the item fell off my credit card. I assumed this meant, since I hadn’t received shipping confirmation, that they had cancelled the order. I was miffed, because at this point I felt like they were the most disorganized company on the planet, but I chalked it up to “it was meant to be” and went about my day. Imagine my surprise when Sunday night at about 9 pm I got a shipping confirmation email from Motorolla saying that my item was being shipped via UPS overnight. I looked at the tracking number and though, “Huh, I thought UPS used a combination of letters and numbers in their tracking numbers. This only has numbers.” So I typed it in at UPS’s website and it came back invalid. Then it dawned on me that it must be a Fedex number, so I tried that. It said it would be delivered Monday before 1030. Of course I go to the lab well before 1030, so I figured there would be a note on my door when I got home.

I was already planning, at this point, to return the package since I have no confidence that their service, if anything ever went wrong with the tablet, would be any better than the disorganized handling of trying to order the damn thing. But in their infinite wisdom, Motorola sent the package, all $900 of it, without a signature required. I happened to check FedEx this morning which is how I found out this package had been left at my door. Thankfully, I happened to be at a stopping point with my work so I could run home and pick it up. I just wanted to scream, are you kidding me? As I inspected the package, it had multiple shipping labels (one for FedEx and one for UPS), both to my address. What the hell is going on in their shipping department? Inside the package was a different color of case than what I had ordered and no car charger.

Now I have to pay for shipping to send this back to Motorola, but in order to do that, I have to call them and get a returns number and explain why I am returning the package. I cannot believe anyone can be so incompetent and still be in business. I get why they can get away with this behavior of course. Most people are so desperate to have the new “it” gadget that they are willing to do anything and put up with anything in order to not be left out. I am just not sure it’s worth it.

I actually believe there is value in customer service. I am one of those lame people who still refuses to buy a company’s products if they treat me like crap. I obsess about avoiding some companies the way some people obsess about eating local organic food (in fact, I am one of those people too).

In other peevish news, my friend’s mom is dying of cancer. She is working on her PhD too, trying to do her field work and her comprehensive exams this semester. She had to be out of town and couldn’t do the latest round of sampling in the field, which one of the other graduate students covered for her. She needs a couple of lab tests done tomorrow when this student gets back from the field.  The student who did her field work can’t do all of the lab tests because she has a project due, so she asked people in the lab to help. A few of the grad students told her that it wasn’t that much work as she should find a way to do it (after she’s been gone all weekend in the field sampling). My friend, who is looking after her dying mother, called me to ask for help. I’m swamped, but I’ll be damned if I am going to let anyone go through what I did in the lab, so I will be here all night and tomorrow night so I can get my work done and do hers. I think it is really shitty to not pitch in in the lab when you can. We are here to help each other, not stomp on each other. The most important thing we can do is work together as a team, so we all produce great science and build partnerships that hopefully last a lifetime. I am really grateful someone was able to go to the field for my friend and help her. That was cool. Now it’s the rest of the lab’s turn to step up.