May
22
I have arrived?
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
I was just cleaning up some spam comments left on bovak.com and was getting a little annoyed. Then I realized that I WAS GETTING SPAM COMMENTS. This is a watershed moment for bovak.com; this validates me as a blogger: I am now worthy of the spammers taking time to post virus laden Cialis spam on my site.
Please don’t burst my bubble by pointing out that the spammers are probably using automated scripts and that all this really means is that some web crawler found my site, I already know. Just let me bask briefly in the glory of my new found celebrity.
May
10
Two companies that I will not do business with
Filed Under Gadgets, Travel, consumerism | Leave a Comment
Nothing gets under my skin more that poor customer service, and this week I had two experiences so frustrating that I am very likely never to do business with those companies again.
First was with Brookstone. I recently changed roles within my company and there were many cake and card parties as well as some parting gifts etc. The gift fad this year seems to be small digital picture frames. I received three of these after having bought one for myself at Christmas time. Being the gadget hound that I am I knew that people thought these would be the perfect gift for me. I accepted all of them graciously and thanked everyone for being thoughtful, but two months later the gifts were still unopened.
This week I had to run to the mall for something and thought to return these items for store credit, in order to buy a mother’s day gift. When I get to the store the clerk informed me that they “can’t do anything for me”, because I don’t have a receipt. I explained that they were gifts and I didn’t have a receipt. I also pointed out that they were brand new, unopened Brookstone branded products, and that they were actively selling these exact models for Mother’s day.
No dice. Brookstone would not take back unopened, Brookstone branded merchandise for store credit. This makes no sense to me; I was not asking for money back; I was not trying to return something purchased at another store. All they accomplished is to piss me off and send me somewhere else to buy my mother’s day gift. I am also fairly certain that I will never buy gifts for anyone at that store ever again.
I left from the mall to the Airport for a business trip. I was planning on attending The New Yorker Conference on Thursday and then had business meeting in New Jersey on Friday. I decided to stay at the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick, NJ, because I was taking a late flight and the Hyatt is within walking distance of a NJ Transit station. The plan was perfect: I could take the train into the city on Thursday while leaving the car at the Hotel and then return via train Thursday night for my meetings in Jersey on Friday.
There was only one problem. The New Brunswick Hyatt didn’t honor my reservation. When I showed up at 12:30 in the morning, the hotel clerk informed me that “a computer error caused them to overbook the rooms and they didn’t have a room for me.” Instead, they offered me a free hotel room at the Somerset Plaza Hotel which is 15min away. I tried to explain that the reason I was staying at this hotel was the proximity to the train and that my company pays for the room so a free nights stay doesn’t really mean anything to me. She obviously had given this speech several times this evening and was callous to my concerns and inconvenience.
By the time I found the Somerset Plaza Hotel (a horrible old hotel that is run down and poorly staffed) and checked into my room it was 1:30 in the morning. Making casual conversation with the desk clerk, I discovered that this “computer error” happens several times a week and that the Hyatt is always sending disgruntled guests to them in the middle of the night.
Even though I travel more than 100 nights a year, not doing business with Hyatt ever again doesn’t seem to me to be sufficient penalty for them, anyone have suggestions on how I can best inconvenience them to the extent (okay three times the extent) that they inconvenienced me?