I spend a few moments today ordering a few new odds and ends for my dead PC (namely new Mobo, CPU, memory and case). Things have moved on from when I last bought parts, and not only do I need the above (because the old memory etc. isn’t compatible), but I spend a while trying to figure the difference between the different parts, almost accidentally buying a mobile processor at one point.
Big thanks are due at this point to Bob Thompson (And Barbera), for writing, PC Hardware In a Nutshell. At this point it was just the thing to explain the differences between the Northwood and Wilamette cores, the 845G and GL chipsets and so on. Cheers to the Tompsons.
Anyway, a good day at work.
Halfords phone to tell me that (finally) the front part of my new car hifi has arrived. To say that getting this far has been an exercise in frustration is a bit of an understatement. Here’s the story:
A month ago (29th June) I ventured into Halfords to try and buy a new stereo for my car. The chap who tried to serve was pretty useless. They only had one minidisc unit on display, and as it turned out, that was out of stock. The chap serving at that point didn’t know what to do, the "audio chap" only worked weekdays. So I ended up dealing with the store manager, who couldn’t tell me the prices of any of the bits, so said the audio chap would phone me the next day.
The next day came and went, and I didn’t get a call, so I called them the following day. Luckily, although they’d not called they had got the prices on the bits, so I went ahead and asked them to order them.
A week went past and I’d heard nothing so I called. I’ll say this once, but this happened about 4 times, once a week. The chap at the other end took a while to find the order (for some reason they really had a problem with this), then went and had a look to see if they had anything. By the second week they had the CD Changer, but nothing else. When I asked how much longer the missing items would be, they said that they didn’t know but would find Sony and call me back. They never called back. Next time I phoned would be a repeat of the above.
In the end I got a bit sick of this and visited the store itself (not easy when it’s an hours drive away). The muppet serving me managed a pretty good repeat of the above, so I spoke to the store manager again. I was pretty clear that while I understood it wasn’t their fault they didn’t have the goods (if the manufacturer doesn’t supply them, there’s not a lot they can do), I was sick and tired of the useless customer service. He agreed and said he’d call by the end of the day. They didn’t.
The next day I phoned, and they promised, again, to find out what was going on. All the time I’ve been quite sympathetic to their predicament. They are ordering from a third party, so if the third party won’t tell them something, or tells them lies, then there’s not a lot they can do. I do however get really really pissed off with prodding a dead jelly fish. I’d be ever so much happier if they just told the truth, indeed if they tell me that Sony promised them a date, and the date passes, then then I’d understand. But not returning phone calls, and acting like a useless sheep when called really really annoys me.
Anyhow, the last call I had was that the CD Changer had gone back to Sony as it had been recalled (faulty), and that the head unit should be here by today. The CD Changer would take another week.
And right on cue, a call to tell me the head unit is there. At last. It’s amazing how much shouting and complaining I’ve had to do to get where we are now.
We’re not over yet though, the head unit isn’t fitted, and the CD changer isn’t here… but we’re a third of the way there, perhaps.
Once I’ve got it all fitted, I think this’ll be the last time I use their services.

Posted by Phil on August 04, 2002 12:00 PM | Categories: Misc