The Dragon Calling Tech Support

You read that right, folks. The Dragon had to call tech support. Listen below for the results! Be warned, it's a couple long recordings!







The above recordings are one tech  support call for the Trendnet USB to 10/100Mbps Adapter purchased from tigerdirect. After trying install it on a PC with a bad onboard network port using the including drivers disc, I decided to give tech support a call to see what the problem was. Listen to it for the shocking results!

Corel Update with a shocking twist at the end!

As you can see from my previous post, I wrote about a Corel software situation my customers (who also became and still are great friends of mine!) stumbled upon. A few hours after I had published that blog post, I received a message from @corelsoftware on my twitter business account saying an email will be sent to me shortly. I then received the following email on 7/21/11, a couple hours after the blog post was published:

"Hi Justin:

Thanks for sharing the feedback on this customer’s situation. We would be happy to exchange their copy of Corel Home Suite for the more advanced feature set found in WordPerfect Office. We’ve taken your feedback re: Corel Home Suite’s ability to open WPD files together with the points you made on the product description. While the products are designed and priced to reflect the different needs of different types of users, we can appreciate how some of the product messaging on Corel Home Suite could be confusing. We will work to make that clearer in future.

Please let us know how we can connect to help this customer.

Regards,

Liz"

So, there is the first message from Liz  who works for Corel. Notice what I put in bold and underlined. This will be important to note for what goes on a little later.

Here was my response to the above message:

-----Original Message-----
From: Justin Rocque [mailto:Justin@dragonpctraining.com]
Sent: July-21-11 8:29 PM
To:Liz

Subject: Re: Blog post regarding Corel

Hi Liz,

Thank you for reading my blog post and for replying VERY quickly! I told my customers about the email I received from you and they are pretty shocked at the fast response as am I.  I was going to try to exchange the product at Staples where they got it but, because it has been opened already, I don't think they will let me. My customers are leaving next Wednesday (the 27th) to go back to NY where they live. How do we go about the exchange in a timely manner so I can uninstall and install the other version on their new PC before they leave? Do I need to send you the Home Suite in the mail or would you just like the product key and copy of receipt or all of the above? Can I download the trial version of the WordPerfect Office and you send me or them the product key through email? I told them about the Home and Student Edition which is about $30 more than the one they had already purchased. How do they make the $30 payment difference? Over the phone or online?

Thanks again for the fast response in this manner. My next blog update will reflect the excellent customer service!

-- Justin Rocque                                                                                                                 Dragon PC Training& Repair                                                                                          "Quality Service From A Man Who Cares!"                                          http://www.dragonpctraining.com

 Notice I said "excellent customer service." The quick response to this matter was excellent, no doubt. But... was the rest of the customer service excellent? We're about to find out in a bit!

Another message from Liz:

"On 7/22/2011 12:00 PM, Liz wrote:
Hi Justin,

Thanks again for your reply. We would really like to give your customers a call so we can provide the software and resolve this today.

Do you mind providing me with the contact information for your customers so our customer support team can reach out to them?

Best,
Liz"

My response:

"Hi Liz,

It's my pleasure. Their name is Ed & Ingrid C. Their number is. [undisclosed]. I have the Corel box and receipt and am going to send it to them (pictures of product keys and receipt) as an attachment in case they need it for customer support. I told them about the customer support call and they are looking forward to it.

Thanks again for your help,

--              Justin Rocque "

Liz's response on 7/22/11:

"Hi Justin,

Thanks again for bringing your customer's situation to our attention. We're glad we could help. I'll check back in with you on Monday to ensure that everything has been resolved and that your customers are happy before they head back to NY.

Please let me know if there's anything else I can do.

Best,
Liz"

 Here is a message I sent on Monday late afternoon because I have not heard back from Liz:

"Sent: July-25-11 3:11 PM
To: Liz                                                                                                                                  Subject: As of yet, no call to my customers

Hi Liz,

It's Monday. My customers called me yesterday saying they received NO call and I followed up just now with another call and.... they still have NOT received a call from anyone from Corel. Like I said, they are heading back Wednesday so that leaves the rest of today and tomorrow to take care of this situation. Their number, again, is [undisclosed] and name Ed and Ingrid C.
I am going to head back to Staples and speak to them about the situation to see if they will show some recourse in this matter and go beyond normal customer service and accept an exchange of an opened software product for a similar "premium" version of the product.

I'm looking forward to hearing back from you again soon for a final resolution,

-- Justin Rocque"

 The response from Liz:

"Hi Justin,

I sincerely apologize. I understood this had been taken care of, but I have escalated it and am working to have our customer support team call them as soon as possible.

My apologies.

Best,
Liz"

I have received a phone call from a Corel representative later on that day which was good. My customer also received a phone call that same day. I then sent him an email which was as follows:

"Good morning Austin,

You should have already received an email from Ed & Ingrid C. with the information you requested. I have a couple requests for you, if it's possible, to make things easier for them. First, I noticed on the Corel site, there is an option to download a trial of the standard edition of WordPerfect Office but not the Student and Teacher Edition they are purchasing with the exchange of the other product they had mistakenly purchased. What I would like for you to do is have them agree to the download version and forward me the link to download the software with product key. The only place they have internet at is the club house where they live and I don't know how fast it is and how reliable it is for downloading one large file. I'd rather download it onto a disc from my PC at my location and install it on theirs so they don't run into any complications. They may want you to send them the boxed disc as well for back up purposes but if you can't do both, tell them I'll put the Corel download on disc for them and print out the product key for them in case they need it again in the future.

Thanks very much for your prompt assistance in this matter! By the way, you have a pretty familiar last name.

Have a great day,

--              Justin Rocque"

Notice I said "Student & Teacher Edition" and "exchange" here.


Here is Austin's response on 7/25/11:

"Hi Justin--

I realize they want the H&S version of the program, but to make things easy, I planned on over-nighting the installation discs to them. Plus, I need a little more information before they commit to the H&S edition. Rest assured, they will be well taken care of. Like you, I have been in the business for 15-18 years and pride myself on ensure my customers are overly taken care of. "

 A couple days after this message, I went out do dinner with my customers before they headed back to NY and found out what went down when they spoke to Austin again over the phone. To cut a long story short about what went down, Austin ended up selling them the standard version which was a whopping $179 and, as you can see in the next message below, they did not want the one my customers mistakenly purchased back. I found that odd because, as you can see with the first message all the way up top, they "would be happy to exchange..."

Even though I was pretty upset about how the situation ended and wanted to do more, I have agreed to put a cap on the situation because what was done was done and I didn't want to make matters more confusing than it already was. I was going to wait until they got home and see how everything went with the installation of the program with the help of Austin on the phone before I updated this blog.

On 8/5/11 I have gotten this message from my customer, Ed:

"Dragon,

Mr Corel called this AM - we are installed!  He walked us through it, although, I think we could have done it orselves.  Yipee!   They do not want the first one back....

Ed"

So, as you can see, they got the program installed and everything is working. Right before Ed sent me that message, I got this message from Liz:

"Hi Justin,

I just wanted to check in with you to ensure your customers received their discs and that they were able to install the program smoothly?

Please let me know if anything comes up in the future.

All the best,
Liz"

Here is my response to Ed's message first:

 "Date: Friday, August 5, 2011, 4:35 PM

Ed,

I'm happy to hear that. I was almost ready to publish an update on the Corel situation on my blog but received a follow up email from Liz to make sure everything went through ok. Of course, I told her what went down and another thing I noticed about the whole "Corel" thing and told her what was on my mind like I've been doing these days because holding back these days in my life, as you know, get's one nowhere. So, I just sent that off to her and will give you one more status update either through here or through my blog and..... the "Corel Case Files" will be closed. ;-)

I'll get back to you soon,

Dragon

PS> You saying "they do not want the first one back" just took the cake and gave me more of a reason to respond to her message! Thanks!! ;-)"

Of course, Ed insisted I not go any further and put the blame on themselves but were happy campers now..

"Dragon,

Don't make any waves on our behalf - we made a mistake in buying (the first one) AND we knew they mostl likely would NOT take it back . . . we accept that - we are happy campers now.

Ed"

Even though they were happy campers, I, the Dragon, felt Corel could have done more. If I didn't think they could have done anything to resolve this, I wouldn't have went through this whole mess. My customers could have just gotten the CHEAPER home and student version for $99 instead of having to shell out another $179 through Corel themselves. So... Liz wanted an update so an update she shall (and did) receive...

Sent: August-05-11 4:30 PM
To: Liz
Subject: Re: Corel checking in

Hi Liz,

You just caught me at the right moment because I was about to finish up and post an update to the Corel issue. Here is where it boils down to now. You have nothing to be blamed for because you did a great job with everything and I appreciated it very much. I sent an email to Austin a couple weeks ago and said the following:

"Good morning Austin,

You should have already received an email from Ed & Ingrid C. with the information you requested. I have a couple requests for you, if it's possible, to make things easier for them. First, I noticed on the Corel site, there is an option to download a trial of the standard edition of WordPerfect Office but not the Student and Teacher Edition they are purchasing with the exchange of the other product they had mistakenly purchased. What I would like for you to do is have them agree to the download version and forward me the link to download the software with product key. The only place they have internet at is the club house where they live and I don't know how fast it is and how reliable it is for downloading one large file. I'd rather download it onto a disc from my PC at my location and install it on theirs so they don't run into any complications. They may want you to send them the boxed disc as well for back up purposes but if you can't do both, tell them I'll put the Corel download on disc for them and print out the product key for them in case they need it again in the future. "

As you can see, I mentioned the one I told them to get and the one for him to sell to them which was $99, $30 more than the one they had already mistakenly purchased. So, when they exchange the other one (which you agreed to do in the first email you sent to me), it will only cost them $30 more.

He responded back saying the following:

"Hi Justin--

I realize they want the H&S version of the program, but to make things easy, I planned on over-nighting the installation discs to them. Plus, I need a little more information before they commit to the H&S edition. Rest assured, they will be well taken care of. Like you, I have been in the business for 15-18 years and pride myself on ensure my customers are overly taken care of. "

This response was OK but... a couple days later, after the transaction had been taken place on the phone with him and our customers Ed & Ingrid, I met them for dinner to see them one last time before they left and they told me..... The guy Austin sold them the "Standard" version which was $179, not the "Home & Student" one for $99 I specifically told him to sell them because of what I said to you already and said to him in the email above. I also told him the situation on the phone as well right after he left me a voicemail. Maybe there was some confusion on the phone during the transaction but there is still no reason why he could not have sold them the one I already mentioned. The whole purpose of the email I took time to send him was to prevent anymore confusion and more "unnecessary expenses" imposed on our customers.

At 11:00AM this morning, my customers sent me this message:

"Dragon,

Mr Corel (Austin) called this AM - we are installed!  He walked us through it, although, I think we could have done it orselves.  Yipee!   They do not want the first one back....

Ed"

So, they do not want the first one back. This means an "exchange" of the other product is not going to happen, meaning our customers are going to have to eat the $70 they already spent on the first one they bought by mistake. Correct? So, $180+70= $250 without tax they spent on two Corel programs. Do you want to know what else is pretty upsetting about this whole thing too? I went to Staples yesterday to do my usual business shopping and noticed on the shelf... Corel WordPerfect Office X5 Home & Student selling for $49.99!! http://www.staples.com/Corel-Wordperfect-Office-X5-Home-Student/product_863355 If they had gotten the Home & Student one as I insisted, it would have been only $30 more directly from Corel (with the exchange) which is the main purpose of going through your company (and spending time on writing emails back and forth, of which I didn't mind as long as there was a positive outcome) (and because Staples obviously does not allow exchanges of any opened software unless defective and swapped for the same one). If we did not bother to do that and just buy the H&S at Staples for $99, it would have been $170 total (+ tax), still cheaper than going through Corel directly. Staples also has a 30 day price match. I would have noticed the H&S go down in price especially by 1/2 and would have told them to go to the Staples in NY with their receipt to get $50 back, which will make the total of both programs $120.... $130 less than going through Corel directly.

Like I said, this is not your fault. You did more than what I expected you to do. But, in the end.... did "our" customers receive the satisfaction they wanted and am I satisfied with the results?

I do not think so. People would ask me why I would care about the money other people spent and how I went above and beyond and did what I could do. When I have customers who are still customers for over eight years... they are more than customers and transition into close friends.

So, I guess what's done is done now and the case is now closed. My updated blog post will still reflect your positive customer service though but the ending result, unfortunately, will not be very positive.

Thanks for your kind follow up and have a great weekend,

-- 

             Justin Rocque

      Dragon PC Training & Repair

“Quality Service From A Man Who Cares!”

    http://www.dragonpctraining.com

So, as you can see with that long explanation above, especially in that last big paragraph I made in bold, this whole Corel situation DID NOT pan out the way I wanted to by any stretch of the imagination. And, what makes it worse, here is the final message from Liz:

"Hi Justin,

Thanks for providing me with this detailed update. I have reached out to Austin and our refund department to understand what happened. The last I heard, they were to process a refund for Corel Home Suite. I am not happy to hear that this issue has not been completely resolved yet. I hope to have some more clarification and answers for you on Monday.

Best,

Liz"

Well, that message was sent on August 5th. All of the Monday's in August have passed and half of the Monday's in September have passed as well. I haven not bothered to look into it any further because, as you can see above, it's just not worth it anymore.

So, here are my final thoughts on Corel and their customers service:

If you have been using Corel's office suites for quite some time and find them to suit your needs and are comfortable using them then, by all means, keep using them and don't switch to anything else on my behalf.

However if you are still using an older PC with Windows Xp and an older Corel program, be prepared to purchase the specific Corel program which matches the older one when you get a new PC because the older version will not work on the newer Windows.

As you can see from the image above, the "Corel Home Suite" will NOT be able to open the .WPD files created from the programs above it (well, you can't see this by the image above but I explained it in my first Corel post). However, Microsoft Word can open those files quite well. A bit odd, don't you think? I ranted about this "odd" thing in my previous Corel post here: http://dragonpctraining.blogspot.com/2011/07/corel-is-crapel-to-me-now.html

My advice is to purchase the WordPerfect Office X5 - Home & Student for about $100. Sometimes, you can find it for half off at a retail store. But, to tell you the truth, my firm advice is to just skip WordPerfect Office all together and just go with the industry standard, Microsoft Office Home & Student for about $119, less if you purchase it with a new PC. 

Now, for the Dragon's score on Corel's customer service based on a 1-10 scale, 10 being best:

Response time to problem: 10 - because Liz was super fast at responding to the blog post.

Steps taken to resolve problem: 9 - because Liz did her best at resolving the problem.

Tech Support & Sales:  6 - although this should really be a separate score for each, only one person took care of this so, even though he did great at the tech support part, he failed to sell the right product to the customer, even with the assistance of myself who knew what the customer needed.

Follow-up on problem status:  4 - although Liz did great with asking about the status updates to the problem, she failed to give me that last update as to why everything went the way it did at the end. I'm not one who likes to be left "hanging" and I'm sure nobody else out there likes to be left "hanging" as well so that's a big no no in my book.

Final resolution to problem: 2 - I'm sure I don't have to explain myself here!

So, there is the final unfortunate result of the Corel situation. The good thing is my customers got taken care of and are happily using their Corel software the way they used to back then. The bad thing is... it wasn't worth the expense and Corel failed at the promise they made with the FIRST email.

If you run into any problems with a software, hardware, or any technology-related company in general, let the Dragon know so he can help you get the issue resolved. The status and outcome will be posted on here for everyone else to see so they too can be helped if they run into a similar issue as well.

There will be more posts on more technology subjects coming soon! If you have a tech question you would like answered and think other people will benefit from it by having it posted on here, send it to the Dragon for consideration in a future blog post!

Until next time,

Dragon

Update Those Updates!!

Many times, I get customers asking me about the so-called pop-ups popping up on their computers and whether it is OK for them to do what it says or ignore it? Unfortunately, a lot of them click on the "Update Later" button and continue their business. I don't recommend this at all because the computer is not secure when this is done. There are a few updates you need to worry about and keep up to date. The most important one is the Windows Updates from Microsoft, next is your Anitvirus software, Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader, and last but not least is the updates for Java.

Windows Update:

Usually, windows updates on it's own then, when you shutdown the PC, it installs the updates. Sometimes, when you turn the PC back on, it finishes installation of the updates as well. Sometimes, because of the time Windows is set to install the updates, the updates do not get installed automatically. This is usually because the PC is off or on standby during the time Windows is scheduled to install the updates. If this is the case, you have to manually install the updates yourself. To do that, follow these steps:

In your notification area (formally known as System Tray before Vista), you should see an icon which looks like this:

That little icon circled in red is Windows Update telling you it may be downloading updates, installing updates, or just letting you know there are updates available for you to download and install.

Single-Click on that icon (Click once using the left mouse button). A window similar to the one below should come up.

Click on the circled button "Install Updates" to install the available important updates.

The window should then look like the one shown below:

You can minimize the window and do other things while Windows Update is running in the background doing its thing or you can leave it the way it is until it is finished. It's up to you. When the updates are finished installing, you will get this window shown below:

That is telling you the updates are installed. You can click the red "X" to close that window because it's finished. Sometimes, it will say to restart computer to continue installing the updates. If it says that, save your work from your currently opened programs and click "Restart Computer" to restart and have Windows finish installing the updates.

That's all there is to it! If you get stuck or have any other questions, feel free to let the Dragon know!

Antivirus:

Most of the time, your Antivirus software updates on it's own. There are some instances when it does not. Because of the the many types of Antivirus software out there, I can't discuss how to update each one through here. If you would like to know if yours is up to date and would like some instruction on how to update it, send me an email and I'll assist you that way.

Adobe Flash:

Taken  from Adobe's site: "Adobe® Flash® Player is a cross-platform browser-based application runtime that delivers uncompromised viewing of expressive applications, content, and videos across screens and browsers."

Know what Adobe Flash Player is now? I didn't think so! To explain that in simpler terms, the application is used within a web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc.) to display multimedia content such as games and video. You need  Adobe Flash to display videos on Youtube, for example.

Because of the popularity of Adobe Flash and how it's used, security vulnerabilities arise so Adobe has to update the application. You may have been seeing a window pop up from Adobe telling you there is an update available for Adobe Flash. It looks like the window below:

Instead of clicking on the "REMIND ME LATER" button like I know a lot of you do, click on the "INSTALL" button circled in red. After you click "Install," it will only take about thirty seconds to install the update. If you are using Firefox as your web browser, you need to close the browser to continue the install process. That's it. Install it and be done with it. Better safe and secure than sorry.

Adobe Reader:

Adobe Reader is a program used to view and print PDF files. A PDF file is explained as this, taken from Adobe's site: "Portable Document Format (PDF) is the global standard for capturing and reviewing rich information from almost any application on any computer system and sharing it with virtually anyone, anywhere." Basically, you can view a PDF on any computer (and also on most newer smart phones) and it will look exactly the same on that computer, no matter if it's running Windows, Mac, or Linux. It will also print the same as it looks on screen.

Just as with Adobe Flash Player, security vulnerabilities are found in Adobe Reader as well, which are patched in the updates. 

Because Adobe Reader is created and maintained by the same company as Adobe Flash, the updates for this is very similar and need not be explained again here. If, for some reason, you do get stuck on figuring out how to update it, send the Dragon an email and let him know. 

Java:

Java is similar to Adobe Flash in a way in that it's mostly used within web browsers, mainly on game sites such as pogo.com and Yahoo! games. There are some software for Windows out there which are programmed  with Java to run using Java. The programs are usually pretty small in size.

If there is a Java update available, Java will let you know by placing an icon in the notification area like the one below circled in red.

It's a picture of a coffee cup with coffee steam coming out of it, java to be exact! Ha! When there is an update available, it will say so in that white box where the text is. Left click on the icon once to open the Java update window. You will see a window like the one shown below.

Click "Install" which is circled in red show above. You will then get this window shown below.

Now, before you all go rushing to click "Next" like a lot of people do, look at that small square with the check mark in it I circled up there. See it? Do you see what it says next to that check box? It says: "Install the Yahoo! Toolbar." It even shows a nice picture of the toolbar in that window too. Pretty little thing, isn't it? If you just rush along and click "Next," that lovely little toolbar will install and the next time you open your web browser, you'll say, "How the heck did that toolbar get up there? I don't want it there nor did I install it!! How do I make it go away?!!" Well, you did install it without realizing it by NOT unchecking that little check box circled above. If you feel you want that toolbar and use Yahoo! then more power to you. Here are a few reasons I have against this and other toolbars:

They always have some way of installing sneakily on people's computers without them realizing it. I have gotten many customers who had up to four or more toolbars on their web browser and they, not only wondered how the toolbars got there, but also wondered why their web browser took forever to open. Also, they decrease your browser viewing real estate. This will force you to scroll down a page more than without the toolbar.

Now, don't get me wrong. There are some good reasons one may want to use a toolbar and I'm all for that. I've just decided, after explaining more than I wanted to about toolbars in this blog post, I will make separate post solely on toolbars themselves; what they are, the popular ones, and the benefits of using them.

Now, back to the Java update. If you do not want that Yahoo! toolbar, uncheck the check mark in the check box by single clicking on it to remove the check. Then click "Next."

You will then get the window shown below saying it's installing Java.

Wait about a minute for the install to complete. When it completes, this window will appear:

Click "Close" and you are done. That's all there is to installing the Java updates.

This concludes how to install the most important updates on your computer. Doing this will prevent a lot of computer issues from occurring in the future. If you have been keeping your computer up to date and run into an issue, then it's time to give the Dragon a call to get it taken care of and have him give you some pointers to prevent that issue from happening again.

I hope this has answered many of your questions about those pesky "pop-ups" all of you have been getting on your computer from time to time. They pop up for a reason and those reasons have been explained above. If any of you get a different pop up and have no idea what it is and where it came from, let me know so I can look into it for you and possibly add that one to a future blog post on pop-ups.

Stay tuned for more blog posts coming again soon,

Dragon

Corel is CRAPel to me now!

Approximately since my business opened over eight years ago or so, I've been helping out these wonderful customers of mine who moved to NY a few years ago. They always used and still, to this day, use the Corel WordPerfect Suite. They use it because it is easy for them to use and they don't want to change to another program, such as Office, to relearn another program if this one suites them well. I have no problem with that and I'm the same way when it comes to software of anything else for that matter.

However, here is where problems arose. The customer's hard drive on her desktop went bad so instead of getting a new hard drive, ordering the recovery media, and reinstalling Vista as well as software and updates, I said it's cheaper and more feasible to get a new desktop, considering the prices are much lower than when she purchased this desktop four or so years ago.  They both agreed and I showed them the HP Slimline model Staples had for sale in the paper. It's more than enough for her needs. I told them all they need is that and I'll take care of the rest. I told them to get the Corel program again so I can install it no the new one and because the old one won't work with Windows 7 64 bit.

They got the HP Slimline and the Corel software. I took everything back to my SOHO and started working on it. I did the normal routine on the PC I always do such as, uninstalling the bloatware crap, installing all available updates, antivirus, and installing the Corel software she purchased.

After installing the Corel software and transferring the data from the old drive to the new PC, I double-clicked on a .wpd file to make sure it opened properly in this Corel Home Suite she had purchased. To my surprise, it did not. I was like, WTF?

I went online and did some research on the .wpd extension and realized it was a format for Corel WordPerfect. She had purchased the Corel Home Suite which are two different programs all together. The home suite is more of a lower-priced package for families who want to do office stuff (letters, resumes, etc) as well as spreadsheets and pictures with the "Photo Album" and "Paint it!" software. The Corel WordPerfect Office Suite has more advanced office tools such as PDF creation, working with MS Office files, and more. There is a Home and Student version for $99.99 for up to three PCs. That's $50 less than MS Office Home and Student.

So, the question is, for people who only purchased one Corel Suite in the years of using PCs, how would they know which one is the right one? People see Corel on the box and it mentions the software to write, do spreadsheets, and more, for about $70, why would they get the more expensive one with most of the features they would never use? The Corel Home Suite should honestly be able to open the .wpd files. I find it stupid and foolish on Corel's part they do not allow that. MS Office can open the files which is great. It's a good thing the newer PCs come with Office Starter to be able to open Word and other types of files. It would be foolish to have to spend more money to do that.

So, now the question is going to be, would she want to get the Corel WordPerfect Office for $99, which is about $30 more than the one she had already purchased and be able to use it on this and the husband's laptop or would she rather stick with this one? I don't use Corel for obvious reasons I'm not going to get into here but I'm sure this software suite is going to be way more different than the WordPerfect Office she is used to. Another question is... will Staples let her exchange the opened Corel software in exchange for the other one. Because it costs a bit more, they might but that always depends on how customer friendly the manager is. She can still open the files within Word and then save them as a Word file but, with so many of those files, I don't think she'll want to do that. Plus, if the Corel Home Suite isn't like the other one she is used to, why keep this one?

So, that's the conundrum this time! I'll post an update on the situation.

Another important post will be coming soon so stay tuned!

- Dragon

Why doesn't Dial-up just GO AWAY already?!

Towards the end of April, a customer, Burt, who I help out many times in Fort Pierce, told me about a friend he knows, Ralph, who was having computer problems. Burt told me Ralph's computer was about as old as Burt's old one before I helped him upgrade to a newer Win7 machine. Burt's previous computer was an HP running Windows Me. If you are unaware of Windows Me, it was basically more of an "upgrade" operating system from Windows 98 SE. You can find out more about this short-lived OS (Operating System) here: Windows Me From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Burt then said Ralph was still using Dial-Up and it wasn't letting him get online to check his email anymore because of some error. After an aloud "Ugh!" from me, I said I'll still help Ralph out because that's the kind of guy I am. Burt then gave me Ralph's contact information and address.

A couple of days later, I gave Ralph a call to see what the situation was and set up an appointment. I arrived at Ralph's house on the 21st of April, headed into his office and this is what I found...

It was an HP Pavilion 6746C. The full specs can be found on HP's website. Don't get  me wrong; I have nothing against that computer. Heck, my first PC I actually bought was an HP Pavilion 6835. But that was over eleven years ago!! I have upgraded many times since then and had recently purchased a newer HP Slimline model. One big difference between myself and the man I was helping out is; he is in his eighties and never really used or had a need for a PC (his wife always used it) and I started out with PCs as a hobby, used them for college, and now, obviously, for my computer business and everything else. The main reason why he wants to use the computer now is so he can email his daughter back and forth who lives out of state. That's it but I think that's great.

Now, on to the problem at hand and conclusion. I had Ralph show me what was going on with his dial-up.  Basically, the Walmart dial-up software (yes, Walmart had an internet service!) he was using was corrupted and needed to be reinstalled; something about the registry settings in the program or something to that affect. I asked Ralph if he had the Walmart disc (or disk) laying around so I can reinstall the program. He gave me a CD-R with "Netscape" written on it. I had a puzzled look on my face as to why he gave me this disc of which he said he used to try to reinstall too but to no avail. After trying to install the program using this disc, multiple times, I realized it was a Netscape.ca disc..... a Canadian version! Trying to explain this to him after showing him it was asking for a "province" to choose for access number retrieval was a BIG chore. So, I said I'll see if I can find the Walmart disc and get it all taken care of.

After doing some research online about this situation in my SOHO (Small Office/Home Office), I found out Walmart merged with Netscape's internet service and there was no way to reinstall the older Walmart program. The download links were redirecting to Walmart's main site so I downloaded the Netscape ISP software and installed it. 

After trying to log onto the Netscape service using the Walmart log in information, it denied it, saying it needed to be an "@netscape.com" username. I then decided to give the Netscape company a call and tell them the situation. The guy pretty much said I could not redownload the older Walmart program and would have to create a new Netscape account for the customer. The billing information would still be the same. I said, thank you, and hung up the phone. 

There I sat, at around 2AM or so in the morning wondering what the best route was to go about this screwed up situation. Here is a man who just wants to use cheap dial-up, which was working fine all these years until recently, to talk to his daughter who lives out of state. But, of course, the service merged with another service (happens too much in the computer industry: Compuserve-AOL, Skype-Microsoft, need I say more?) and that requires a new email address. So, I thought about just doing away with this Netscape crap all together and decided to go for Netzero, considering we had to change the email address and this ISP is newer and more popular than Netscape, which is, surprisingly, still around. 

I went to the Netzero site to download the software to install on the PC I was setting up for the customer. After many attempts at trying to find a link to DOWNLOAD the software to set it up, I ended up chatting with customer service online. The transscript is as follows with no edits:

You are now connected with : Diana
Diana:	My name is Diana, how may I help you?
Diana:	Hi Justin, how may I help you?
You:	Hi, Diana.
You:	I have a situation....
You:	I am trying to help out an old customer of mine who has been using walmart connect (now netscape connect) for a long while until it stopped working on his 12 year old Me PC.
You:	I'd like to try to get him away from that crap ISP and set him up with a netzero dialup account but, of course, there are no more netzero cd's around for obvious reasons.
You:	I went to the site to see if I can download it to install on his PC without having to sign up for an account first.
You:	I need to have some game plan by 10:30a tomorrow. It's now close to 5am where I am.
Diana:	Hi Justin, please be informed that in order to download the NetZero CD Rom first you need to sign up for an account.
Diana:	Please visit our Web site at http://www.netzero.net/support/start/cd.html for information about ordering a NetZero CD, installing and creating an account.
You:	I understand but that is quite a challenge when the customer's house has no internet access at all and uses dial-up of which I am trying to fix.
Diana:	Hi Justin you may also call us at our sales number at 1-800-638-9876 and a Customer Service representative will be happy to assist you. Representatives are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
You:	Thank you very much for your time.
Diana:	It has been my pleasure serving you today.
Diana:	Do you have any other concerns or questions that I can assist you with?
You:	Other than wishing dial-up access in the US would not exist anymore, no, but thank you. No offense to Netzero though, of course. I started out with Juno a long time ago.

So, there you have it. As you can see above, the ONLY way to download the Netzero software is to sign up for an account FIRST or possibly have them send a disc by calling the customer service number, which will take a week or so to get. Is it me or do you also find not being able to download the software to set up on a PC in a location with NO internet access kind of RETARDED?!  Here it is, 5AM and I've been up since 8AM or so the previous morning with no solution so I had a thought...

I went to Att.com to see if they had any specials because I know the DSL lite is $19.95 a month or something close to there. I went to the site and, sure enough, they had this deal where if you sign up for the faster service (Xtreme or whatever it's called now), you get the modem for free instead having to pay $75 for the damn thing. I printed out the pages with this information and, finally, headed to bed and worked on a game plan to try to convince this man, who just wants dial up and nothing fancy, to sign up and use DSL.

I  gave him a call and went back to his house the following day (or the day after that), told him about the situation, told him about AT&T's current offer and he agreed to it. I called up AT&T for him and got him all set up with the service. The DSL kit came later that week. He gave me a call, I showed up again, hooked it all up and he was good to go. I had to train him a bit on the new "simpler" set-up and, after a few tries, he managed to do it on his own.

So, the moral of this story and adventure is... never try to fix anyone's dial up issues anymore. It's not worth my trouble and their disgust when I tell them why it can't be fixed. For about $20 a month, which is only $10 more than dial up, why hang on to dial up? I know there are some reasons where one has no choice but if it is your area and you can get it, go for it!!! You'll thank me later!

And like I said in the title, why doesn't dial-up just GO AWAY already... in the US?!! To me, it isn't worth the trouble anymore... especially when NEW PCs DO NOT come with a DIAL UP MODEM!! Another customer I helped out had to spend an additional $60 with her new PC to get a USB dial-up modem. After a few months of trouble with that and her Gmail account.... I had her switch to DSL too. So, there you go, AT&T, I added those two, plus another two (one being Burt who I mentioned above and a friend of mine who lives in the same community) to your service. Where is my reward? ;-) I should contact them about being an affiliate.

Until next time....

Dragon

My next trip at Staples made me a happy camper because I was satisfied and so was my Stuart customer

On March 30, 2011 at 2:00PM, I had an appointment to meet another customer in Fort Pierce to purchase the same HP desktop noted in the previous post. He had an old Gateway with Xp so I told him it was time for a new one and he agreed.

He went to the Staples in Fort Pierce a day prior to see what they had available. He decided on the Slimline or the other HP a step up from that model. He called me that day asking if he can keep his current monitor or purchase a new one. I said he would be better off getting a new one because his computer and monitor were over six years old and his monitor has been doing odd things. We made an appointment the next day to get a new PC at the Staples in Fort Pierce.

After taking care of some personal things that morning and before I headed to Fort Pierce to meet him, I decided to give the Fort Pierce Staples a call to make sure they had the PC in stock because of the reasons already stated in the previous post. It was a Wednesday so I already had a big assumption and gut feeling they were sold out; they were.

Being near the PSL Staples store, I asked the man on the phone if any other stores had them in stock. He said the ones in St. Lucie were showing some in stock. I then said this is for a customer of mine I was going to meet in Fort Pierce and wanted to know if there was going to be an issue if I were to purchase the PC in the PSL store and return it in the Fort Pierce store and have my customer repurchase it there with a monitor and everything else he wanted. He said that wouldn't be a problem. I thanked him and hung up the phone.

I drove into the PSL Staples store parking lot and went inside to check if they had any in stock. I didn't see it on the shelf but saw a tag for it and nothing else (no "Sorry this item is out of stock" sign). I asked the EasyTech guy to check for me. He said inventory showed some in stock. He looked at the top stock above the displayed PCs and found one. After asking him to hold onto it for me for a minute, I walked outside to give my customer a call.

While talking to my customer outside, I told him what was going  on and he agreed with what I was doing for him. I told him I'll still meet him at his house in about thirty minutes.

I went back in the store and told the EasyTech man I'll get the PC and nothing else. I then told him about my incident which occurred about two weeks ago (noted in the previous post) because he sees me in the store a lot and remembers me as does the other EasyTech man who used to work at the store I used to work for over a year ago. The man I was talking to then pulled out this sheet:

I honestly couldn't believe my eyes! It was a sheet with the website and password for the online training my customer wanted a couple weeks ago, yet the manager didn't let her have it!! I thanked the man and told him how much I appreciated it and quickly stuck it in my pocket so he didn't get in trouble for going above and beyond to help me out. After he rung me up for the HP, I thanked him again and headed out and to Fort Pierce to meet my customer at his house.

After a nice thirty minute drive, I was at my customers house in Fort Pierce. I went inside for a bit and talked to him and his wife about what was going on. I suggested and then they agreed we use my car to drive to Staples. I don't mind driving my customers to the store and I've done this a few times before.

We arrived at the Staples store, I brought the PC I bought from the PSL store inside and we started looking at the ones on display. He decided on the one I already purchased at the other store and also picked out a 21.5" Samsung monitor. We were all set and they both started to look for the EasyTech man who helped him out before. I saw the man I usually see when I shop there and put my hand up with my finger pointing upwards. I don't yell across the room for them, do a big annoying wave, or even snap my fingers. I find that to be VERY rude and, after having it done to me back then, it pisses the associate off to no end! Being in retail for many years, I respect the people who work in retail. I know how the job is and how people treat them and I do my best to make sure I'm not one of those customers.

The EasyTech noticed me and, after he was finished with his current customer, headed over and greeted me and "our" customers who he helped the previous day and who we were both helping that day. After talking about the computer and about the one I brought in, we headed to the EasyTech bench so I can do my return and they can repurchase it. My customer mentioned the protection plan and I told him what it was about and had the EasyTech man tell them more about it. I said to the customer it was their call. They both agreed on the two year. So, they got the HP Slimline, 21.5" Samsung monitor, and two year protection plan. That made us all happy; the customer because he got what he wanted to get, the EasyTech man because he got a good sale with the protection plan, and myself because everything the customer wanted was in stock and I'll be able to go back to his place and set everything up for him and train him a bit on how to use it. Also... it's another Xp machine replaced with a new Windows 7 machine which, for some odd reason, makes me happy because I love helping people with brand new technology.

We were all set and headed out of the store and, like they say, the rest... is history! ;-)

One thing I would just like to note on the online training I mentioned above: it is stated on the sheet the online training is a $230 value. The training covers Windows 7 and Office 2010. This is just a site where you click "play" and go through some videos. There is no interaction nor is there any documentation the person can print out. So, in my opinion, I don't believe this is really worth $230. Back when I worked in Best Buy when Vista was out, we had a disc for sale for $20 which covered about the same things this site covers.

But don't take my word for it, check it out for yourself. Click here for the link to the Windows 7 training. Click here for the Office 2010 training Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

You may, of course, leave a comment about anything else I post or even send me an email.

That's it for now! Until next time,

- Dragon

Staples didn't go the extra mile to make my customer a happy camper

On March 6, 2011, I met one of my customers, whom I've been taking care of for over 8 years since I opened the business, at the Staples in Port St. Lucie Florida to help with a new PC purchase. She lives in Stuart and I was going to have her pick the PC up there but, like a lot of times when it comes to Staples, they were sold out in that store. In case you didn't note above, this was a Sunday, the day stores have the new ads out and the day people go shopping for the things in the ad which are currently on sale that week. Having something not in stock in a store the day the ad starts is just foolish and is bad for business. Also (and most notably), it upsets customers AND business customers who shop there for THEIR customers to satisfy their technology needs. I know this because I've been in retail for eight years and I know how the "system" works.

The PC in question I recommended for her and the one she eventually purchased (after some persuasion since she was still using an 8+ year old HP desktop running Xp but she trusted my judgement and knew I'll take care of her) was the HP Pavillion Slimline s5710f. At the time it was selling for $349.99. You can click on that link above for the specifications of the desktop. As you can see, it's not the top of the line, but for basic computer tasks she uses a PC for, it's more than enough for her needs.

During that sale week and a few weeks prior, Staples was (and still is to this day this post goes out) offering a few free things:

If you have trouble seeing the above ad snip, it says: FREE PC Setup | FREE data transfer | FREE Microsoft online training. I obviously was going to do the setup and data transfer for my customer so she just wanted the training. I mentioned this to her as well and said this would have been a nice thing to get because it was free and whatever questions she had after the training, I could have helped her with. She mentioned this to the Easytech associate who was ringing her out. He was putting it in for her but the register required him to fill out a work order sheet. Basically, this sheet requires them to fill out information about services being performed on the PC, which entails them to keep the PC in the store until the work has been completed. He did not know why it was doing this and neither did I because it was just a website to go to and it does not require any setup. He brought the manager over and she said the training needed to be entered along with the setup and data transfer. Basically, it was a package deal. I asked if they can add that stuff to it and I just take the PC to work on but they enter it in the system  stating they would be working on it. This will be a win-win I thought; they get to ring that package out so it will look good for their store numbers and the customer is happy because she got what she wanted. Of course, she did not allow this to be done. So my customer got the PC, Office 2010, and left the store a little upset.

Here is what I  didn't understand:

• No where in the ad did it say this was a "package" deal. It just said it was a $300 value. 
• Since it was a "package" deal, where everything had to be rung up as a package, why couldn't everything be rung up and just have the PC services being performed say "completed" just to make the customer happy so she gets the online training she wanted and I can continue to work on her PC? If that was not possible, why not just give the customer the website and password needed so she can go to the site? 
• Also, and here is what really concerned me, this package deal was for any new PC a customer purchased in the store. What if the new PC the customer purchased was the FIRST PC they ever purchased. They obviously would have wanted the "FREE setup" and the "FREE Microsoft online training"  so they could learn how to use their FIRST PC they ever bought. They did not need the data transfer. Now, because it was a package deal, they probably could not have gotten two out of three and that would have upset that customer as well. I'm sure they wouldn't have rung that package up and done the two out of three services because they couldn't even do the simpler one out of three listed in that package. I honestly think the customer should have a choice in what FREE thing they want to have done on their PC. Having it as a "package" which does not state it being a "package" is not good for the customer and not good for the store as well who is "required" to do all three services, which will take a few days to get done.

So, as you can see, my customer and I, being a small business owner who shops at Staples A LOT for my business needs and my customers personal needs, were not happy campers.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to the blog of Dragon PC Training & Repair. This blog will mainly focus on the Dragon's business and customer-related experiences when it comes to technology stores, sites, services, and anything else he comes across in his business. The purpose of this is to get the word out on companies and services who deserve compliments for their job well done or, unfortunately, legit and realistic complaints for something they could have done to satisfy the customer but have failed to do so.

In the future, there may also be technology tips and recommendations for everyone to learn from. For now, everyone can find out what the Dragon goes through with his computer business when dealing with the above so you can learn how to solve the issues the Dragon comes across in case it happens to you in the future.

If you have any questions, comments, or complaints about what the Dragon posts, feel feel to send an email to him or leave a comment.  He'll be more than glad to get back to you!

Have a great day and stay tuned for the first real post coming soon. You can also follow the Dragon on Twitter for updates @dpctraining.

- Dragon