Archive for the ‘Buyin' Stuff’ Category
Old Spice you have swayed me
Posted by TJ in Buyin' Stuff on July 14th, 2010
That’s right. I’m prepared to trade in my uber metrosexual body wash (i.e. whatever is on sale at CVS this week) in exchange for Old Spice body wash. Not necessary because I want to smell like a Korean War veteran or a 13 year old with a funny mustache. No, I want to make the switch b/c they’re producing arguably the funniest line of commercials I’ve ever seen. And now I see they have maybe the most creative embrace of social media I’ve ever seen. If you send a tweet to @OldSpice, you might get a homemade YouTube video from the Old Spice man himself. Here’s an example response to internet luminary Kevin Rose
p.s. I hope Drakkar is paying attention to this and gets w/ the program
Nice job Best Buy
Posted by TJ in Buyin' Stuff on July 8th, 2010
Remind me never to buy an appliance from Best Buy.
Our dryer keeled over a few weeks ago. This after almost 10 years and countless loads of my fur lined underwear. So I cannot be mad at the dryer.
I went to buy a new dryer from Best Buy. Picked something out super cheap (we’re gonna wait to get mac daddy, White House Grade appliances to our next homestead. but I digress). Ordered it on delivery. Problem number one rang clear to me like the liberty bell on the sesquicentennial. The fella doing my order was probably alive when dryers were invented. Which was fine. However, he could not operate the best buy ordering system to put in my delivery and contact info. After many futile attempts, he jotted down my info and said “I’ll put this in later”. I’ve experienced this more than a few times from retail personnel. This is the red flag to end all red flags. Like waving it to the bull and keeping a sword cleverly hidden behind it, I waded in and said “ok, that’s fine”. I knew better. We all know where this is going.
Best Buy didn’t get the correct info.
So I waited for a callback to schedule the delivery from Best Buy. And waited. And never got the call.
I called the distribution center and got someone on the line. Surprise! They had the wrong contact info. I immediately corrected the mistake and got my delivery time. And I was satisfied. But only for a time.
Fast forward to yesterday. I was having a miserable day and was slated to leave early to handle this dryer situation. I waited for the call to let me know the dryer’s arrival was forthcoming.
I waited. And waited. And dreamed of having an automated mechanism to once again dry my undergarments.
No call came.
I stayed at work. Stewing. Boiling. Wanting to let some delivery jockey have it.
I called Best Buy. Again. And asked “look dudes, WTF?”. And they responded “Uh, we came to your house and called you?”
I asked which numbers they called, knowing they somehow didn’t get my correct number in the system. So they tell me what I already know: the two occasions I told them to call me at a different contact number had apparently been a figment of my imagination. They didn’t have the correct numbers. And therefore, couldn’t reach me to get the delivery scheduled properly.
So here I am. Week 3 w/out a dryer. I don’t have a fancy backyard with a big ol clothesline to hang stuff up on people! I’m draping all of my clothes over the banister to dry them. Which leaves everything wrinkled (well, more wrinkled than usual). I’m supposed to get the new dryer in a few days. Let’s all hope it happens.
God oh god I want my iPhone back
Posted by TJ in Buyin' Stuff, Technology on June 23rd, 2010
It’s true. In the search for truth, I’m perfectly willing and able to risk my geek street cred with the following blasphemous statement:
I hate my android and I want my iPhone back.
Yes, I made a mistake. Yes, 6 months ago my iPhone broke, AT&T wasn’t willing to cut a long term customer a deal on a replacement phone, and I fled in anger for Verizon and an android phone.
I lived the life of a totally contented newlywed: the android and I flirted (in the store), I made my initial overture (how much does this thing cost?), and I finally committed (for 2 years and $100 a month). The honeymoon was brief. I told everyone “We’re so happy together! He (she?) makes me so happy! We check mail, surf the internet, and make stupid comments on Facebook together!”
Everyone believed me. Everyone liked me. Everyone wanted to be me. (perhaps I’m getting a little carried away)
“You really went for it didn’t you Muehleman”
I did indeed. I did indeed.
…
Then the honeymoon ended.
My new phone was slow. Clunky. I didn’t like the email interface as much as the one on iPhone (how is THAT possible given that gmail is by google and the f’ing operating system is by google?). All of the apps were at least a generation behind their Apple counterparts. Pandora crashed. The weather widget was always the last city I was in. I left weird messages on the wrong people’s wall in Facebook (sorry hot girl i had a crush on in high school — [maybe I shouldn't blame this on the phone?]). I could’ve dealt with any of this save for the following three transgressions:
1) The keyboard positively sucks. If you’ve ever typed on an iPhone and gotten used to it, you know the folks at Apple have figured out which extraneous keys to include and which ones to ditch. The space bar is big and easy to hit on the iPhone. It’s tiny and. always. getting. in the. way on the Android. Who uses a freakin comma when they’re typing on their phone? Or need the period button when you can doubletap the keyboard. I’ve had the phone for 6 months and still cannot type on it. And it enrages me everytime I try.
2) The battery life is totally unacceptable. I realize this last part could be due to the phone. But I point the finger at the data synch for always sucking the life out of my phone in mere HOURS. It’s so bad that i had to turn it off. Now I have to manually check for new messages. What is this? 2003?!? We live in the future people. I need my messages now!
3) I love the iPod in my iPhone. That is, I listen to a lot of music and need a great music player. I’ve now tried 4 different music programs on the android and they all piss me off. Some organize music well but the quality is lacking, some create cool playlists but can’t organized worth a damn, and others do none of the above. Playing music on the iPhone was always elegant and easy to manage.
So, here we are. June 23rd. Tomorrow a hotter, sleeker, sexier iPhone comes out. And I’m perfectly willing to accept that this marriage has been a disaster. A foolish, poorly thought through, and expensive divorce.
p.s. one positive thing to come out of this is that I know buy all of my music from Amazon MP3 (please check out their Twitter feed too. You won’t be disappointed) and have officially said screw you to iTunes for buying music.
p.p.s one negative thing to come out of this is that given how much damn money i’ve spent on phones this year, I may end up in a real divorce. Don’t get rid of me PLEASE HP!