Finally, I gave up on it, turned it off, bought a much less expensive HP printer, and went back to work.

Several years later, I gave the printer away.

Xerox started calling me about a month ago. I told each caller that I wasn’t interested and that I would appreciate it if they would take me off their list. I explained that I owned no Xerox products and had no interest in owning any.

The calls continued.

Then I visited the Xerox website and located a contact form. I wrote there that I wanted the calls to stop and assumed that this would be the end of it.

Not so.

A week later, a Xerox sales representative called me because I had filled out the form on the website “requesting a contact.” Moments after the phone call (which I had allowed to go to voice mail), I received an e-mail from the sales rep and he addressed me as “Mr. Blinn William”.

I responded to the e-mail message, reversing the sales rep’s name as he had reversed mine and explained that the number he had called was on the federal do not call list, that I have had no business relationship with Xerox for a decade, and that I have no desire to have any relationship with Xerox in the future.

The rep apologized (good start) and offered “the website that you can go and have your name and number taken off our sales and marketing list. The website is xxxxxx.yyyyy@xerox.com.” I have modified the “website address” but included the general format here to illustrate that the “website” is really an e-mail address. One would think that someone who works for Xerox would know the difference.

Xerox continues to illustrate why I have no desire to own anything that the company manufactures.

The website and my e-mail were down from approximately 5:09 am (ET) until 7:11 am. BlueHost had noticed some file system inconsistencies on box 445 and started a file-system rebuild. During the time the site was down, attempts to reach it would have resulted either in a browser timeout or a “no route to host” message.

As you may already know, I have recommended BlueHost for many years. You may wonder if I still would and the answer is, without hesitation, Yes. When you’re paying $7 per month to host even one domain, it would be unreasonable to expect hot backup. I host the TechByter site, a site for Blinn Communications, a friend’s low-volume site, an a website for editors—all for $7 per month. If I were paying $200 to $500 per month per domain for hosting, I might reasonably expect warm backup but if I’m paying $7 per month and my sites are down for an hour or two every now and then, it’s not a serious problem.

“Every now and then”: For me this means an outage that lasts a few hours every few years. BlueHost has exceeded my expectations over the past half decade. And as for hot backup? I might expect that for $1000 per domain per month.

Today BlueHost noticed a potential problem and responded proactively—before the problem could manifest itself in a more serious manner so not only am I not at all distressed but I continue to recommend the hosting service without reservation.

This is the rest of the story.

A few days after posting that account, I heard from the appropriately named Freddy A. Angel at NewEgg customer service. “[P]lease accept our apology for the inconvenience you experienced and know that it is not our intention to cause you to be dissatisfied with our services in any way,” he wrote, and he went on to note that “customer feedback is very important to Newegg as it can pinpoint areas within our services where improvement is needed. The feedback regarding your experience has been forwarded to both Newegg customer service and the returns department management for review.”

The message also offered a discount that could be applied to any future order. “Understand that we are aware that it is never about the money but the level of service you receive each and every time you contact Newegg.”

A Complaint is a Gift

Just a few days prior to receiving Freddy Angel’s message, I had sent my monthly newsletter to clients and in that issue I had discussed customer complaints. When a customer makes a complaint, it is a gift and should be viewed that way. (The article in PDF format is here.) So the response from NewEgg told me two things:

1. NewEgg understands social media and has processes in place to detect mentions, positive and negative, on the Internet.
2. NewEgg understands that a complaint is a gift and doesn’t become defensive when a flaw is pointed out.

When something goes wrong, the best thing to do is simply admit the problem, do what’s possible to make amends, and do everything possible to ensure that the problem doesn’t happen again. NewEgg has done all of those.

And that’s yet another reason why I will continue to use NewEgg as an important source of electronic devices.

The Bluetooth wireless specification was designed by Ericsson (a Swedish company) to connect computers, mobile phones, PDAs, printers, headphones, and such wirelessly. The name was selected because the king apparently was able to make diverse factions communicate with each other.

Ericsson created the standard 18 years ago in 1994 and until this year I’ve managed to avoid using it. Not that I particularly wanted to avoid it but I never had a need for it and the few times I tried Bluetooth, convincing it to work seemed more trouble than I had time for.

Recently, though, I saw a pair of Bluetooth headphones that seemed an ideal choice for use at the office. The cord from my wired headphones was always being pinched in a drawer or becoming tangled in other things. But my netbook computer didn’t have Bluetooth built in so I bought an USB-Bluetooth adapter, plugged it in, and watched as the device drivers installed.

Then I followed directions to pair the headphones with the Bluetooth adapter. That was easy enough but the headphones, although visible to the adapter’s software, would not connect. They have to do that if you intend to use them as more than pricey ear muffs.

The maker of the adapter, IOGear, was spectacularly unhelpful but I did eventually find “updated” drivers on the IOGear website. Unfortunately, the “updated” drivers were older than those on the CD that shipped with the adapter.

The Windows Update found a Broadcom driver that it said would work, so I downloaded it. The installer crashed after about a minute, time after time. I suspected a conflict with the computer’s antivirus program and, after temporarily disabling that, the installation ran to completion.

But the headphones still wouldn’t connect.

I tried removing the device and reinstalling it so that the new drivers would definitely be detected and used. No change.

I reinstalled the drivers again. No change in terms of performance but this time the application claimed the headphones were working. They weren’t. A reboot didn’t make much difference but a new message appeared suggesting that rebooting the system once more might fix the problem.

And it did. More than a week after I began to install the Bluetooth headphones, they worked. And now they connect whenever I turn them on while in the same room with the Bluetooth-enabled computer.

Technology is wonderful but only when it works.

NewEgg has a reasonable return policy so I went to the site to request an RMA.

The website said “Unfortunately, our records indicate that the manufacturer’s parts warranty for this product has expired. Please contact the product manufacturer for additional service options.”

Clearly that was an error so I opened a support ticket with NewEgg.

For the past WEEK I’ve been trying to get this to work and IOGear has been of no help whasoever.
Now you tell me that I can’t return it???????
I sincerely hope that’s a mistake.

Less than an hour later, it was clear that the website was wrong.

“We do apologize for any trouble this may have caused you. After checking, item # 33-139-009 is still with Newegg warranty and we can issue RMA for you. Please reply this email to let us know the defective details so we can help you further. Thank you for your understanding and patience.”

I replied to confirm that the device was defective.

“Abby” at Newegg then replied “We would be happy to help you on this case. Please reply this email to let us know the defective details of the item # 33-139-009 so we can check for you. Thank you for your understanding and patience.”

So I said, “I followed the instructions to install and set up the device. The computer was never able to see the device via the network. A support request made to IOGear has received no response.
I have purchased locally another device that works.
There’s really not much more to say. I installed it. It doesn’t work.”

“Abby” then replied, “We do apologize for any trouble this may have caused you. Before issuing RMA, please kindly reply this email to let us know whether you still have all the accessories and retail box with UPC code and also verify your current shipping address. Also please note that any physical damage will void Newegg warranty automatically. Thank you for your understanding and patience.”

Who said anything about physical damage?

Yes, I still have the device, the power supply, the power supply adapter, the cable, the box, the instruction booklet, and everything else that came with the device. It has not been physically damaged. It just doesn’t work.

So then “Abby” said, “Please reply this email to let us know whether you need refund or replacement for item # 33-139-009 in order # 137920815 and also let us know your current shipping address so we can issue it for you. Thank you for your understanding and patience.”

Hmmm.

FOR APPROXIMATELY THE THIRD OR FOURTH TIME, I WOULD LIKE A REFUND. Is anyone actually reading this????
It doesn’t work.
I have replaced it with something that does work.
This isn’t something that requires are great deal of thought!
Please provide an RMA for a refund.
In case that was unclear, please provide an RMA for a refund.
In other words, I would like a refund. Please issue the RMA.

[OK, I was probably needlessly surly at that point, but still …..]

“Abby” replied: “We have issued you RMA # 51877940 for a refund. You will receive an email confirmation shortly. Everything you need to know will be included in the email, including the address you need to send the package to. Please make sure to write the RMA number is on the box in order for us to process your return in a timely manner.”

Should it really take half a dozen e-mail messages to resolve something this simple?

The unusable IOGear device is packaged for return and UPS will have it on Wednesday.

Every time I started Windows 8, I was presented with a message from the manufacturer, Toshiba, “Would you like Toshiba power saving technology to turn on the Optical Drive?” Invariably, I answered Yes and just as invariably, the drive didn’t appear in the list of available devices.

Uninstalling all Toshiba applications that seemed to have anything to do with power had no effect.

Turning off the Toshiba Power Saver service also had no effect.

So the obvious next step involved deactivating all installed applications that can be deactivated (Alien Skin plug-ins, Adobe’s Creative Suite, and Ultra Edit Studio, for example), formatting the drive, and reinstalling a new version of Windows 8.

At 7:55 on Saturday morning, I was ready to start the new installation. And once again I had the opportunity to be impressed with the ease of installation. Just follow the bouncing ball, provide a bit of information, and watch. At 8:13, the process was complete, including being connected via Wi-Fi to the Internet. And the optical drive worked.

I’ll still have to reinstall a bunch of applications but I know how to do that and it’s something that can churn along on the notebook while I’m working on the desktop system.

What’s the point?

As I’ve mentioned several times on TechByter Worldwide, Microsoft says that Windows 8 can update Windows 7 systems, Vista systems, and even Windows XP systems. With the possible exception of Windows 7 systems, this is not a good idea. And sometimes even an upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8 doesn’t work the way you might want it to.

The problem in this case was an incompatibility between Toshiba’s power management applications and Windows 8. By the time Windows 8 is generally available, Toshiba might have solved the problem. Notebook computers are the most challenging types of computers to upgrade because of the many non-standard apps that the manufacturers include.

So if you have a Windows 7 computer, it may be worthwhile to try an upgrade if you want to move to Windows 8 but be prepared for a situation that requires a completely new installation.

*”As it turns out”: Supposedly this is the phrase Apple’s Genius Bar employees are trained to use when they must give a customer bad news.

Details (success or failure) will be one of the subjects on this week end’s program.

Cross your fingers.

Really, Google? Really?

Why are ads such as these allowed?

Maybe you can’t call it an outright fraud but if you search Google for the terms “fraud” and “policeauctions.com”, you’ll find that a lot of people do. (See below.)

The “offer” uses a picture of the late Steve Jobs, which implies some relationship with Apple

The domain name “policeauctions.com” suggests that this company is working with one or more police departments.

They offer “iPad’s” (possessive) instead of “iPads” (plural) for “up to” 90% off. The term “up to” is one of the best known weasel terms in advertising. If something sells for $1000, I can offer you a discount of “up to 90%” but when it comes time to check out, I could give you a discount of $1. “Up to” means “less than” so all discounts will be less than 90%.

Some sites such as this require up-front payments to bid on items. Somebody “wins” and everybody else loses but the company keeps the money

Can any consumer be dumb enough to believe that Ipads are in a “overstock” condition? Or that you’ll really get a 90% discount?

Apparently so.

You might be wondering what Facebook does to prevent these kinds of ads and the answer appears to be “very little”. Ads clearly are not checked before they are posted but Facebook’s Brandon McCormick tells me “These kinds of ads are against our policies. When we find or are made aware of them we remove them. This ad has been removed from the system.”

I understand that the economics of Facebook make it impossible to check the validity of every ad before it’s placed so nothing happens until someone complains and thd ad is taken down. That’s good, but what about the people who clicked the ad while it was live? And what happens to the person who or company that violated Facebook’s terms of service?

Is the domain banned? (The fraudster could just sign up for another domain.) Does Facebook ever take legal action against fraudulent advertisers or pursue remedies that might be mentioned in the terms of service? In other words, you might wonder (as I did) what, if anything, is done to create a certain amount of pain for those who break the rules,

Brandon McCormick: “We have a combination of automated and manual review for ads but as you point out given the volume, we occasionally miss one. Follow-up action depends, but if a business is fraudulent or continues to try to run ads that violate our policies we will remove the company from the system entirely.”

Note that dates on the following posts clearly indicate that policeauctions.com has been in business since at least 2007:

• DC1 on Scam.com: I bought a 14K white gold ring with 16 diamonds that was supposedly worth an estimated $2000. I won the bid for it at $400. I later went to sell it after a few months, and the most that I could get for it was $25. [Posted in 2007]
• NESTA2814 on Scam.com: Police auctions.com is a complete joke. Check out my blog. I am on a quest to make sure as many people as possible find out about this unscrupulous “company.” They need to be shut down. [Posted in 2009]
• No Moron Here on Scam.com: “PoliceAuctions.com is not affiliated with Local, State or Federal Government.” [Posted in 2009]
• Brinkley511 on ComplaintsBoard.com: “I have placed at least 20 or more bids on items that were supposedly seized from police/government raids and siezures. On every item, I was not the high bidder, but was sent an email with a second chance offer to buy this item at a higher price. Every email says that another one of the itmes had been located and was for sale to me at this higher price. Since when do police/government seizures include multiple jewelry items exactly alike? This is a scam website that peddles items in an auction setting when really they are expecting a certain price for an item, when they don’t get it, they offer you a “second chance” buy. SCAM!” [Posted in 2009]
• Tami W. on Sitejabber.com: “I bid and won 2 rings from them. One an amethyst, received it with one stone missing. I wore for 3 days to show people and 2 more stones fell out. They said value was over $700, I don’t believe it. I also ordered a Tanzanite ring valued over $800, I wore for a week and lost a stone. Can’t get ahold of them!!! Very dissappointed with this site. My other question is how does this “police” auction site get so many new items to sell????” [Posted in 2011]

Other comments worth reading:

http://reviewnscams.org/Policeauctions.com-Review.php

http://www.legitauctions.com/Policeauctions.com-Review.html
“Basically this is a membership site and you get information for your membership fee each month. The site states that membership is free but once you start peeling back the layers of information you do come to the information that states the free membership is restricted and only offered so that you can get an idea of what is going on at policeauctions.com.”