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Oct. 8th, 2009
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siliconshaman.livejournal.comThought I'd drop this note here, as I'm sure everyone might enjoy a laugh...kinda.
Back story, I occasionally volunteer at a place that refurbishes old machines from businesses and sells or outright gives them to charitable causes. Anyway, got a donated desktop tower today that came from a local fast-food joint. No names, obviously, but lets just say it smelt rather of burgers.
Anyway, I tried to boot it, and it goes to post but that's it. Lights are on but no-ones home, won't even make bios. So, power down, isolate and crack the case...and recoil in horror as this brown sludge oozed out of the case! For a moment or two I just blanked on W.T.F it was, all I could think of was bad B-movies!
Then I released that this poor machine had been sitting in the kitchen for years, and aside from the inside of the fridges, was probably the coldest thing in there. All the vaporised fat and grease in the air had condensed inside it, coating everything in a thick greasy, but thankfully non-conducting layer. There had to be at least a couple of inches of rancid semi-solid fat at the bottom of the casing.
Unfortunately, it had also gummed up the fans and while a half inch layer of fat isn't electrically conductive, it is a damn good thermal insulator...and the cpu's heatsink was embedded in a semi-gelatinous blob of it with no fans working. The processor was as fried as something forgotten and carbonised lurking at the bottom of the deep-fat fryers.
I have to admit... it's the first time I've seen a computer that died of heart disease!
Although the absolute capper was one of the other volunteers asking what I recommended doing with it.. I suggested calling the Environmental Protection Agency to cart it away.
Back story, I occasionally volunteer at a place that refurbishes old machines from businesses and sells or outright gives them to charitable causes. Anyway, got a donated desktop tower today that came from a local fast-food joint. No names, obviously, but lets just say it smelt rather of burgers.
Anyway, I tried to boot it, and it goes to post but that's it. Lights are on but no-ones home, won't even make bios. So, power down, isolate and crack the case...and recoil in horror as this brown sludge oozed out of the case! For a moment or two I just blanked on W.T.F it was, all I could think of was bad B-movies!
Then I released that this poor machine had been sitting in the kitchen for years, and aside from the inside of the fridges, was probably the coldest thing in there. All the vaporised fat and grease in the air had condensed inside it, coating everything in a thick greasy, but thankfully non-conducting layer. There had to be at least a couple of inches of rancid semi-solid fat at the bottom of the casing.
Unfortunately, it had also gummed up the fans and while a half inch layer of fat isn't electrically conductive, it is a damn good thermal insulator...and the cpu's heatsink was embedded in a semi-gelatinous blob of it with no fans working. The processor was as fried as something forgotten and carbonised lurking at the bottom of the deep-fat fryers.
I have to admit... it's the first time I've seen a computer that died of heart disease!
Although the absolute capper was one of the other volunteers asking what I recommended doing with it.. I suggested calling the Environmental Protection Agency to cart it away.
Guitar Hero support update:
Oct. 8th, 2009 07:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jjjiiiSomeone who commented on my previous post said that they were charged for shipping both ways on a warranty claim for their GH controller. Apparently the policy has been changed, I am getting a mailing label sent to me, and return shipping on my replacement controller is free. So, yay. Sucks to be you, and I'm sorry they did that to you. Everyone else can rejoice in the knowledge that they're likely paying more for their controllers to cover the free shipping on warranty claims, I guess:)
Hopefully the replacement controller will work better when I get it.
Getting through to their support people via phone was hard. I'd normally do this via the web, but that seemed even harder -- there's a part in their support claim process where you have to pick what product you're contacting them about by selecting it from a pulldown which apparently is populated with every product Activision has produced in the last decade or so. At least I didn't see Kaboom or Keystone Kapers in the list, so I'm pretty sure it's only recent stuff. But seriously, 100+ items in the pulldown, every package variant, and even t-shirts.
I gave up trying to find my product, and I called the number the email told me to call for troubleshooting. First, I got stuck in their voice activated voice mail system. I'd get through a few steps and then the robot wouldn't be able to understand what I said. After not understanding after three attempts, it would hang up on me! WTF? Not connect me to a live person. Bad choice, Activision. After calling back twice and getting hung up on by the voicemailbot because it failed to understand me saying the word "Three", I finally somehow managed to get it confused at a different menu level where apparently it was programmed to connect me to a live person.
I got a static-y connection to someone with (I think) a Russian accent, who stumbled through a script. Eventually I was able to get them to understand that the issue was with the controller and was a hardware issue, not a software, connectivity, or calibration issue. Working through their script was fairly tedious, and they tried to get me to troubleshoot things that were not the problem, and I'd explain patiently that that was not the problem, reiterate what the problem is, and then they'd proceed robotically to the next step in the script. If I wasn't me, I would have lost patience and cussed them out at several points, but I stayed cool and kept it professional, and they were eventually able to help me, although it really felt like I was dealing with a mildly retarded robot. I feel sorry for people who are required to read scripts and can't even vary what they're required to say. I equate that with slavery, honestly.
They got me a RMA number, and said they'd send me a mailing label to my email address. Then they said that I just need to send in the part of the guitar that has the problem. More wtf communication breakdown here: I could *not* get their callcenter rep to understand that the neck was not the problem. They kept insisting that I only need to send them the neck. I kept repeating that the problem was with the whammy bar, which is part of the body of the guitar, but they say I need to send them the neck only, and that they will be returning a whole new guitar to me. I really don't understand this, and since I need to send it in the original packaging anyway, I'm going to send the entire guitar, just to make sure they don't come back and tell me that I failed to send the correct piece. I guess I'll keep the strap.
So... I don't know how long it takes their processors to email me the mailing label, but I don't have it yet... I did confirm that they have my email and mailing address and contact info correct, so hopefully in a few weeks I'll have everything straightened out and will be rocking with a rigid, stiff, turgid whammy bar that could pound a ten penny nail through a two by four, and can pleasure women from across the room.
Hopefully the replacement controller will work better when I get it.
Getting through to their support people via phone was hard. I'd normally do this via the web, but that seemed even harder -- there's a part in their support claim process where you have to pick what product you're contacting them about by selecting it from a pulldown which apparently is populated with every product Activision has produced in the last decade or so. At least I didn't see Kaboom or Keystone Kapers in the list, so I'm pretty sure it's only recent stuff. But seriously, 100+ items in the pulldown, every package variant, and even t-shirts.
I gave up trying to find my product, and I called the number the email told me to call for troubleshooting. First, I got stuck in their voice activated voice mail system. I'd get through a few steps and then the robot wouldn't be able to understand what I said. After not understanding after three attempts, it would hang up on me! WTF? Not connect me to a live person. Bad choice, Activision. After calling back twice and getting hung up on by the voicemailbot because it failed to understand me saying the word "Three", I finally somehow managed to get it confused at a different menu level where apparently it was programmed to connect me to a live person.
I got a static-y connection to someone with (I think) a Russian accent, who stumbled through a script. Eventually I was able to get them to understand that the issue was with the controller and was a hardware issue, not a software, connectivity, or calibration issue. Working through their script was fairly tedious, and they tried to get me to troubleshoot things that were not the problem, and I'd explain patiently that that was not the problem, reiterate what the problem is, and then they'd proceed robotically to the next step in the script. If I wasn't me, I would have lost patience and cussed them out at several points, but I stayed cool and kept it professional, and they were eventually able to help me, although it really felt like I was dealing with a mildly retarded robot. I feel sorry for people who are required to read scripts and can't even vary what they're required to say. I equate that with slavery, honestly.
They got me a RMA number, and said they'd send me a mailing label to my email address. Then they said that I just need to send in the part of the guitar that has the problem. More wtf communication breakdown here: I could *not* get their callcenter rep to understand that the neck was not the problem. They kept insisting that I only need to send them the neck. I kept repeating that the problem was with the whammy bar, which is part of the body of the guitar, but they say I need to send them the neck only, and that they will be returning a whole new guitar to me. I really don't understand this, and since I need to send it in the original packaging anyway, I'm going to send the entire guitar, just to make sure they don't come back and tell me that I failed to send the correct piece. I guess I'll keep the strap.
So... I don't know how long it takes their processors to email me the mailing label, but I don't have it yet... I did confirm that they have my email and mailing address and contact info correct, so hopefully in a few weeks I'll have everything straightened out and will be rocking with a rigid, stiff, turgid whammy bar that could pound a ten penny nail through a two by four, and can pleasure women from across the room.
Confession time
Oct. 8th, 2009 09:43 pmmel-redcap.livejournal.comI'm spending a lot of time reading my way through the archives here. It seems to be therapeutic after stressful days at work. :) And it's affecting my behaviour...
I put in a tech ticket at work this week. I tried all the 'normal' troubleshooting moves with no result, and I was feeling pretty grumpy (see above comment about 'stressful days at work', and modify with thoughts of 'about to be late to a meeting and have three people asking me to do Just One Little Thing right now). So when the tech who got the ticket called me back right then, I was already wanting to tell him "Look, I'm not one of your run-of-the-mill lusers, okay? I do my troubleshooting up front, the Uber Tech Gods of Tech Support HELL say nice things about me, I rock, all right? Stop asking your stupid weed-out-the-luser questions and get over here to fix this genuinely borked machine!"
But I didn't, because he was a nice man trying to fix my problem, and my glorious power-user aura does not shine through the telephone. So I answered his questions while typing as fast as I could and holding a second conversation with the guy breathing down my neck. (I know, that was bad, one must give tech support one's full attention... but breath-boy wouldn't take "can I do this after the meeting?" as a brushoff.)
My side of the conversation:
"Yes I have done [standard troubleshooting step #1]."
"Yes I have done [standard troubleshooting step #2]."
"Yes other users are experiencing this."
"Yes I have powercycled it."
"...But not THAT way. Um. What second button? Okay... I'm not near [borked machine], can you hold a minute while I go try that?"
I get rid of breath-boy without actually having to threaten him with my whacky stick (yes, I have one), and head off to [borked machine], muttering under my breath about how I'm SURE this won't work, it IS dead, this is a waste of my time and I have SO many other things I could be doing with it.
I powercycle, using both the big glowing green obvious button and the extremely non-obvious second button that is cunningly hidden behind an unobtrusive flap the same colour as the rest of the housing, at knee level, with no labels or pointers whatsoever.
The d@mn thing is no longer borked. It pops back to life with all the lights that should be glowing, glowing, all the lights that should be blinking, blinking, and all the lights that should be off, off. It is positively eager to perform its designed function like a good little robot servant should.
THE B@ST@RD. How DARE it be fixable by a full powercycle! How DARE the method for inducing a full powercycle be so non-obvious! Why the HECK did they design it like that! What a STUPID WASTE OF MY TIME! If that damn second switch had been labelled or marked in ANY way I would have had the stupid thing fixed YESTERDAY talk about a TOTAL FAIL of CUSTOMER SERVICE and RANT RANT RANT RANT RANT!!!!!
So I grouched my way back to my desk in high dudgeon, picked up the phone, took a deep breath, and--
--thanked him, sincerely, and wished him a nice day. Because he was a nice man, and he had fixed my problem.
(And I sincerely doubt he had any say in the design of that flippin' switch. Yeah, I figure they built it like that to hide the "don't turn this off until the other button has been off for at least 30 seconds or you'll kill the internal processor" switch from lusers who like to stab random buttons, but that design team is still going to star in my new collection of voodoo dolls.)
I put in a tech ticket at work this week. I tried all the 'normal' troubleshooting moves with no result, and I was feeling pretty grumpy (see above comment about 'stressful days at work', and modify with thoughts of 'about to be late to a meeting and have three people asking me to do Just One Little Thing right now). So when the tech who got the ticket called me back right then, I was already wanting to tell him "Look, I'm not one of your run-of-the-mill lusers, okay? I do my troubleshooting up front, the Uber Tech Gods of Tech Support HELL say nice things about me, I rock, all right? Stop asking your stupid weed-out-the-luser questions and get over here to fix this genuinely borked machine!"
But I didn't, because he was a nice man trying to fix my problem, and my glorious power-user aura does not shine through the telephone. So I answered his questions while typing as fast as I could and holding a second conversation with the guy breathing down my neck. (I know, that was bad, one must give tech support one's full attention... but breath-boy wouldn't take "can I do this after the meeting?" as a brushoff.)
My side of the conversation:
"Yes I have done [standard troubleshooting step #1]."
"Yes I have done [standard troubleshooting step #2]."
"Yes other users are experiencing this."
"Yes I have powercycled it."
"...But not THAT way. Um. What second button? Okay... I'm not near [borked machine], can you hold a minute while I go try that?"
I get rid of breath-boy without actually having to threaten him with my whacky stick (yes, I have one), and head off to [borked machine], muttering under my breath about how I'm SURE this won't work, it IS dead, this is a waste of my time and I have SO many other things I could be doing with it.
I powercycle, using both the big glowing green obvious button and the extremely non-obvious second button that is cunningly hidden behind an unobtrusive flap the same colour as the rest of the housing, at knee level, with no labels or pointers whatsoever.
The d@mn thing is no longer borked. It pops back to life with all the lights that should be glowing, glowing, all the lights that should be blinking, blinking, and all the lights that should be off, off. It is positively eager to perform its designed function like a good little robot servant should.
THE B@ST@RD. How DARE it be fixable by a full powercycle! How DARE the method for inducing a full powercycle be so non-obvious! Why the HECK did they design it like that! What a STUPID WASTE OF MY TIME! If that damn second switch had been labelled or marked in ANY way I would have had the stupid thing fixed YESTERDAY talk about a TOTAL FAIL of CUSTOMER SERVICE and RANT RANT RANT RANT RANT!!!!!
So I grouched my way back to my desk in high dudgeon, picked up the phone, took a deep breath, and--
--thanked him, sincerely, and wished him a nice day. Because he was a nice man, and he had fixed my problem.
(And I sincerely doubt he had any say in the design of that flippin' switch. Yeah, I figure they built it like that to hide the "don't turn this off until the other button has been off for at least 30 seconds or you'll kill the internal processor" switch from lusers who like to stab random buttons, but that design team is still going to star in my new collection of voodoo dolls.)
