Screw you, DHL; Microsoft Rebate Checks Come FAST (How Fast?); And Upon Further Review, Yes, You Did Include the UPC
I’m going to go sports-free today.
In other words, I’ve got tons to rant (and a little bit of raving) regarding customer service issues.
(Warning: L O N G blog entry today!)
Quick-hitters:
- So I just signed up for a free seven day trial of Sirius Internet Radio.
(I know…I’m WAY late to the party).
So far, I like the idea of commercial free radio, though I was hoping that the stations were COMPLETELY interruption-free (every now and then, the DJs insist on interjecting their thoughts between songs).
You could say that I’m testing out Sirius to try to convince my sister to sign up. With her AAA card, she should be able to get a decent deal on service + a radio, though nothing close to the $0 deal that was posted on SlickDeals recently, which even included a $30 gift card!
- I understand that credit worthiness is as understood as Mars, but I gotta wonder why Discover card is willing to offer me a promotional 0% balance transfer rate for a year, Chase is offering the same—as well as 2.99% for life (and that check is still sitting on my desk just in case)—but Citibank insists that their 0% for 4 months or 7.99% for life offers are worth my time.
Worse, while Discover only offers me this when I log into my online account, and Chase sends me balance transfer checks about once a quarter, Citibank insists on sending me these checks 2-3 times a week. I guess that’s why I bought a Staples MailMate shredder.
- Current rebate-o-meter: $1,049, with at least $200 “cut” (check written, and en route to me.)
Current unfiled-rebate-o-meter: $500 or so 
(I’m so lazy.)
- Screw you DHL, and you too, idiot driver! I had a package scheduled for delivery on Wednesday, but I was not available to sign for the package (it was signature required). I got the notice on the door that night, and the next day, my sister was around to sign for the package.
That evening, the driver never came around! I checked the status of the package, and it said that a delivery attempt was made at 2:54pm! Ok…then where’s the second notice, remarking that Friday would have been DHL’s third and final delivery attempt?
I was around all day on Friday, awaiting the package, and around 7:00pm that night, I checked the status of the package again, and it appeared that the package never made it into the hands of the driver! WTF???
I called DHL earlier today, and the rep flatly told me that it was returned to sender. When I asked him why only two delivery attempts were made—by my count, there was only one delivery attempt, but whatever—the rep told me that the first delivery attempt was made on Tuesday.
(WRONG! Look at the status page! And I’m completely ignoring the fact that the package went to the wrong shipping facility on 6/2, a day before the supposed first delivery attempt!)
The rep asked me if I received a notice, and I pointed out that I received one on Wednesday. I then explained that, if the second delivery attempt was made on Wednesday, then why did I not get a notice on Tuesday? In addition, if this was the second delivery attempt, then wouldn’t I have been notified that the next delivery attempt would have been my last?
That’s when the rep dropped this bomb: he said that the driver scanned the package three consecutive days, and that the third scan was done on the sixth.
(If that’s the case, then wouldn’t the first scan have come on the fourth, and not the third as the rep mentioned earlier?)
The rep added that, regardless of what the online tracking says, three scans = three delivery attempts. I pointed out that the driver might have been at my front door once out of the three attempts, and the rep would not budge on his three scans = three delivery attempts argument.
I’m almost 100% convinced that, after Wednesday’s delivery attempt—regardless of which delivery attempt that was—the driver didn’t even try to contact me via the intercom on Thursday, and didn’t even bother to attempt a delivery on Friday. Good thing the package contained nothing of great importance.
I suppose DHL guy still isn’t as bad as the FedEx driver, who really loves to throw packages against my front door. And as much as I think the UPS guy is not at all funny, at least he cares enough to leave me notices every day that he attempts a delivery.
And I don’t want to hear, “Well, if the package was important, then why didn’t you sign the back of the notice?” One, even if I did so, I’m not even sure that the driver made a second or third delivery attempt! How can he leave a package without stopping by my front door? Two, I still live in the complex where an LCD was stolen from my front door, and someone’s boxed up broken tuba (!!!) was stolen from their front door!
Screw you, DHL.
- After all that ranting, I think it’s time to switch gears. I submitted a $30 rebate for Windows Live OneCare, which, according to my records, was mailed out on 5/6/08.
The rebate check showed up in my mailbox today.
(In a world where rebates takes 8-12 weeks, usually from the date of receipt, but sometimes from the date of the end of the promo, or even 30 days after the end of the promo, a rebate that takes four weeks to receive is awesome.)
I checked my email inbox and noticed that I had only gotten notification that the rebate processor got my submission on 5/27 (the email itself arrived 6/3). Thirteen days—nine business days—from receipt to a check? Wow!
Even funnier is the fact that, when I checked out my online rebate status, it says this:
Date received: 05/27/08
Date checked mailed: 06/19/08 (est.)
Estimated check arrival date: 06/29/08
In other words, the rebate processor still thinks the check is only in the processing stages!
Incidentally, Microsoft rebates are handled by Young America, the same company that processes TrendNet rebates (rejection rates = Ray Allen’s free throw shooting percentage; really really high, in other words), Corel and Office Depot rebates (really really slow), and Sony software rebates, which leads me to my last story…
(Young America also used to handle Kaspersky rebates, and while I had no real problems with Kaspersky rebates handled by these guys, many people on SD weren’t so lucky).
- Three days ago, I checked the status of a pair of Sony Vegas Movie Studio 8 rebates at web-rebates.com. One rebate was good to go, but the second rebate had this little remark attached to it:
Now, the UPC was a sticker, which I stuck smack dab on the top edge of the rebate form. Certainly you can see how a moron could miss that, right?
(Unless the piece of invisible tape I used to further stick the UPC to the rebate form yellowed in transit, and thus blocked the UPC from plain sight, I guess…)
Naturally I did what I do best: I sent a hate-filled email to their customer service desk, using the webform found here. This morning, I got this reply:
Dear Mr. Ung,
Thank you for your interest in the Sony rebate offer.
We have reviewed your request and find the UPC was submitted. Your $30.00 rebate has been processed.
Please allow 10-14 days to receive your rebate check.
We apologize for the error and the inconvenience incurred.
It’s good to know that these rebate processors don’t mis-see (:P) UPCs, and then immediately trash the rebate submission afterwards, which begs the question: why don’t they? If a rebate submission is clearly invalid, then why keep them?
Perhaps it has something to do with rebate companies trying adhere to a strict quota of only processing a select percentage of rebates…
(Nah.)