I need to blog more....or at least be more interesting

Or do I? I currently monitor 5 blogs on a daily basis besides mine and I envy the people who find something to write about every day. I envy their ingenuity and creativity in coming up with new and interesting things to write about.

Oh, don't get me wrong! I think I could come up with things to write about every day, but I'm afraid they wouldn't be that interesting. For instance, I don't think anyone wants to hear that I'm frustrated that for the past week I have gotten stopped by a train nearly every day on the way to work. Most of them last anywhere from 2 - 10 minutes. This is time that I had NOT figured into my commuting schedule. I also don't think people want to hear how frustrated and angry I get when, during those said train delays, about 85% of the people just leave their car running and their foot on the brake. It's wasting fuel. When gas is $4.00 a gallon, I would think people would want to save a little.

Something I probably should share is that Dell sucks! I ordered a computer for my home (I haven't had one there in at least 2 years) on May 9th, thinking that would be PLENTY of time to receive it and be "plugged in" by the time of my surgery on May 23rd. HA! It was supposed to be sent out on May 19th. On May 19th, I received an email stating it was being delayed until May 27th. Ok, I was a bit miffed, but thought I would still have the use of it for the majority of my recovery time at home. Then, on May 27th, another email was sent stating it had been delayed again. Since I DIDN'T HAVE A COMPUTER AT HOME, I didn't receive this email until I ventured to Troy's house on May 29th. By then, they had cancelled the order. When I called customer service to find out why it had been cancelled, I was told that it was because I didn't respond to the email. AHEM! I don't have a computer, so how am I supposed to respond to an E-MAIL!? I also asked why it had been delayed twice and told that it was because there was a delay on the processor that I had ordered. After an hour on the phone with them and swapping the first processor for a different one that was 1) more expensive and 2) supposedly not on backorder, the computer was reordered. Unfortunately, my order was considered a new order, so I had to go to the end of the line and was told it wouldn't be sent out until June 12th. For those of you just tuning in, my leave was to end on June 13th. Argh. Alright. Fine. Send the darn thing!

You can imagine my complete annoyance when I received another email on June 12th (this time they called as well) stating that the order was delayed yet AGAIN! This time it was to be sent out on June 19th. When I called to find out why this was the case, I was told that they had received an unexpectedly large number of orders for this particular model. What?!? It's not my fault you had more orders than you were prepared to fill. Perhaps you should put a disclaimer on your website or maybe not take any more orders until you are not out of the item. It can't really be good for business, can it? If you take 1000 orders and are only able to fill 100 of them, you may have 100 happy customers, but you have 900 people who have no computer and are ticked off. I can guarantee you will hear much more from those who feel their needs haven't been met. At this point, I asked for some monetary compensation for the trouble and delay. Dell responded by stating that there were no additional discounts that they could provide, but that they were terribly sorry for the inconvenience. I hung up feeling powerless to stop "the man".

When the 4th delay email came on June 19th, I had had MORE than enough. I called to inquire what the delay was and was NOW told that it was due to a shortage of batteries for that model. To recap, I have been told that the delays were due to 1) a shortage of the processor, 2) overselling product and 3) shortage of batteries. I can only imagine what the reason for the next delay would be. Rest assured, I did not wait around to find out. I cancelled the order, did some research on the best models to by and picked up one from Best Buy (the SAME day). Dell may be able to undercut the price of their computers, but it's obviously to the detriment of customer service.