Hey, being a red-blooded American male, I value Jenna Jameson's fine asset(s) as much as any other man and by golly ... BY GOLLY! But I had to crack up when I read this posting on her MySpace page:

I had to put the 'belly pics' folder on private because everyone is stealing my personal pictures. I want to enjoy my pregnancy without having to worry about who is doing what with my pics. Sorry. JJ

Sorry, I still think it's funny that someone in her line of work gets concerned about pictures of them in wide circulation. :)

Hmmm. Don't ask me why I was on her MySpace page. It was ... research. :)

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 3:17 AM | Permalink

Wow. I didn't really buy Bill Gates a boat, but it sure feels like it. I could probably buy myself a boat if I didn't have to put all my discretionary income to updating this computer. And it's not the income, it's the TIME it takes. Last week, I decided to upgrade my home network to Vista. But then, I had to upgrade each machine to Office 2007. And then my WSFTP needed to be upgraded. And then, the upgrades cascaded. It's been a long week. To top it off, my new Belkin N1 router is a piece of junk - that's $119 down the drain. I'm typing now on a Linksys N1 router that I've only owned for a few hours, and acquired for a lot more than the Belkin cost.

Continue reading "10/06/2007 - I BOUGHT BILL GATES A BOAT" »

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 9:10 PM | Permalink

Okay, I have long since given up on getting fair treatment from Dell, and have given up on Dell. Lately, this has just been more entertaining than anything else, and I'm happy to have cost Dell more in support resources than the cost of the upgrade I've been fighting for. Here's the latest from Dell, and my response.

In summary, Dell sold me a Windows XP license two weeks ago that I shouldn't have had to buy, as it's the second license for this one machine. I had to buy it because Dell dropped the ball many months ago. You'll read that later in this entry. The problem is this: no one is selling XP now without an upgrade voucher to Vista. But Dell is milking Microsoft's products for all they can get and, by my latest calculation, this transaction could end up costing me far more than amazon.com is selling Vista for. Now, Dell wants me to uninstall XP, return it (at my own expense) and then purchase the Vista upgrade. If they had included an upgrade voucher two weeks ago like Tiger Direct and other more reputable vendors do, all this could have been avoided.

Continue reading "01/10/2007 - DELL'S SUBSTANDARD VENDOR PRACTICES" »

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 6:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

For those following this saga, I replied to Dell again, patiently explaining my case. You'll read my response here, and then, UNBELIEVABLY, you'll see an automated message I received from Dell telling me that since I have an XPS system, I need to call an 800 number rather than email the support staff. I have received this same automated message several times over the last two weeks that I have been fighting this battle.

At this point, I have given up on my Vista upgrade and given up on Dell. Their customer service is atrocious. Their support staff can't comprehend English with any proficiency. Yes, they can read the words but can't follow the thought or the logic. Their replies are scripted and hot-keyed (especially in chat) and when they do need to type something in by hand, the replies are filled with spelling and grammatical errors. Not a positive reflection on a major corporation.

Continue reading "01/09/2007 - DELL IS CONFUSED, NO SMALL WONDER" »

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 6:35 AM | Permalink

Well, my long torturous saga with Dell continues. Now we're down to squabbling over $49, plus shipping and handling. The problem is, I can't get ahold of anyone at Dell who (1) wants to give a minute of their undivided attention and (2) understands English well enough to comprehend what I'm saying. I have spelled this out six ways to Sunday to three different people at Dell and none of them read past the keywords they recognize from their "How to do Customers Services and Informations Manual" that Dell must give them when they start their jobs.

It's simple. I bought a new Dell XPS system ten months ago. It did not ship with OS disks but, instead, came with an application to create a one-time CD of the Operating System and the associated XPS drivers. The application did not work. I contacted Dell ten months ago to get a copy of the CD, but they didn't understand English back then, either, and I never got my CD's. Now, after a huge weather-related crash, I had to buy a new 500gb hard drive and then spend $190 to buy XP Professional from Dell. If I had the OS disks all along, I wouldn't have had to buy a second operating system license for the machine. With me so far? Well, when I bought the XP Pro, no Vista upgrade voucher was included. Instead, Dell wants to charge me another $49 to upgrade, plus shipping and handling. No one else is selling XP without an upgrade voucher now - no one but Dell. I can pre-buy Vista Business from amazon.com for $199. Dell wants the $190 I already spent two weeks ago, plus another $49, plus shipping and handling. THAT is a rip-off.

Even funnier, Mr. Mogudishu thinks that I'm talking about the Dell system disks that I ordered on Dec. 30 of this year AFTER having to spend all that money on XP. Those were the existing disks that I tried to get nearly a year ago, and never got. Apparently they've made it easier to get them now. So even though they are basically useless to me now that I've purchased a second XP license for that machine, I may as well have them.

I think I've communicated this using very good English so that anyone can understand the story. This is not the first time I've brought up this issue on this blog and have even sent Microsoft a letter to complain about Dell's vendor practices with regard to customer service and OS disks. Someday, someone will file a class action suit against Dell for damages directly related to the fact that Dell's customer service people can't understand English at a level proficient to resolve consumer issues quickly, without complication and without the consumer having to spend unnecessary money to resolve issues.

What you will read next is their answer to my original complaint. If it wasn't so sad to see a company so blatantly disregarding customer service, all the misspelled words in the official Dell response would almost be funny:

Continue reading "01/09/2007 - SPEAK ENGLISH, DELL!!!" »

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 12:42 PM | Permalink

Okay, I finally did it. I sent a letter off to Mr. William Gates of Microsoft. Now I know he's not the "hands on" guy there now, and I know that my letter will likely not be read by anyone who really cares, but it made me feel better to send it. I vented! My beef is not with Microsoft so much but with Dell Computers. I bought an XPS system some months ago and they did not ship an operating system CD with it. Instead, there was a note in the box that told me that I could use an included application to burn a "one time only" copy of the system utilities/drivers disk and the OS. I looked everywhere, but that application was not included with the system. When I contacted Dell Support, I told Mr. Abdullah Omar Docar (who went by the name of "Bob") that the application wasn't there. He insisted that it was and that I just couldn't find it. I pursued it a bit further but finally, just dropped it, frustrated with Dell. I bought a top of the line HP dual core system and just hoped for the best with my Dell. But, as luck would have it, we had a serious storm two weeks ago that resulted in us losing power for five days. When it came back on, there was a tremendous power surge a day later that took out the Dell. I spent $800 to fix the problem and part of that included buying a full copy of Windows XP Professional Edition to replace the XP Pro that I already legally owned, but had no disk for. What follows is my letter to Bill Gates - a letter that just expresses frustration with corporations that get so huge they live in a fantasy world and are basically untouchable, though they think that they really are in touch. I will have additional posts about Dell and some of it is good. I'll get to those as I have time. But for now, I think I'll be moving to HP when I eventually replace some of the other computers on my network.

What do YOU think of the practice of not including OS disks when you purchase your system? How often have you needed your OS disk and didn't have it? I would be interested in your stories.

Continue reading "12/31/2006 - DELL COMPUTERS - NO OS DISK INCLUDED" »

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 4:49 AM | Permalink