You continue to lower my already low expectations of you. Let me give you a recent example. Yesterday I stopped in to get a new Linksys wireless router. The shelf had 5 of them with the price clearly listed as $129. No price tag was on the box itself, so I assumed that the price that was marked on the shelf was correct.

I was wrong.

I noticed this prior to leaving and stood in the customer service line for 15 minutes to get this resolved. During that time I noticed 7 people behind the counter, but only 2 working registers. When my time finally came, your customer service rep (who greeted me with “you!” instead of the more common “hello, can I help you?”) called for someone to walk back to the shelf with me. It was at that point that the woman said “This is our overstock area, the real ones are here (moving down THREE slots on the shelf area) and pointing out the $199 price.”

Now, I would understand if there was one misplaced item; or if it sat next to the correctly priced stack of products; or if that was the only item marked incorrectly (I counted 3 others with this problem after I noticed it) – but none of those things were true.

During the short walking back to customer service counter, I opened my iPhone, started the Amazon application and found they had the product for $160 (more than the $129 I thought Best Buy was selling it for, but far less than the $199 they actually were selling it for). The app showed I’d get free 2 day shipping meaning I could get it for Christmas!

I then waited for the customer service rep to finish with his current customer. Upon completing that transaction he looked past me and asked the next person to step in line. I said “Um… I’m back.” He looked at me, sighed and said “Oh, you want this back then?”

I explained that I thought Best Buy should really take responsibility for a number of incorrect prices in the area; he wasn’t interested. I asked if they would price match; to which he said “yes, if its a local retailer.” I said “Ah. Because Best Buy doesn’t do business online, right?”

He then informed me (and I’m not making this up) “No, we don’t. Best Buy.com is a separate entity and its my job to keep OUR shareholders happy, not theirs.”

I informed him that I’d like a refund and in 1/2 the time it took him to do that, I purchased the product for less money than Amazon. — ‘Cause its MY job to keep the shareholders happy at whatever company best understands competitive pricing and excellent customer service.

Sincerely,

Me.

amazon, customer service, iphone

My car (Nissan Murano) has a lease that’s up in just a few days. As I near the end of the lease term I can’t help but reflect on what a great car its been. Its a great value, excellent size and gets really good gas mileage considering how big it is (ave: 21-24 MPG, depending on who’s driving).

Its also one of the most clever cars I’ve owned. Everything is laid out really well. I can rip apart any car design, but this one causes me to list only minor complaints (like the color of the background behind the instrumentation).

Speaking of clever, check out the picture below. Note the “Pause/Mute” button. This is brilliant! Let’s say you’re in your car listening to a CD. Your phone rings and you need to take the call. You can simply hit “Pause/Mute” and the tunes stop and screen blinks until you press it again. Sure, you could turn it off, but that would require the CD to have to spin up again when you are done with your call. This way, you can quickly get back to your music.

Brilliant feature! The number of times I’ve used it: 3.

I always remember that feature is there after I hit the power button. Doh! And I bet some point in the future, I’ll complain about how my next car (TBD) doesn’t have it!

cars, gear, tech

One of my all-time favorite point-n-shoot digital cameras is the Fuji FinePix F10 (below). This camera is GREAT. Its a 6.3 MegaPixel (which is plenty for most people) it has a very quick shutter and recovery time and it operates well in a variety of situations. The menus are easy to use and the battery life is great. Most of the photos I’ve taken are with this camera and its the standard that all others are held to.

So – when my dad said he wanted to get my mom a smaller camera, I immediately looked to the same family of cameras to see what’s changed and compare it to other models/brands that were highly recommended. I learned that the F10 eventually became the F30/31, which performs even better in low-light … so much so that a lot of review sites say the F30/31 sets the standard for what a camera this size should do.

The F30/31 has just been updated to the F50 – which JUST came out but has had some good reviews as well. So, we bought this for my mom and eagerly awaited the opening of her gift:

After several days of playing around with this camera, the list of features I LOVE is very long and includes menus that tell you exactly what the setting does, a smart face detection / red eye removal, fast recovery time and one of the fastest continuous shot modes I’ve seen (in a camera this size). However, there is one very, VERY big problem: the pictures look terrible!

Here’s an example (I have MANY more, but won’t bore you with them). This was shot in the evening with lots of ambient light in the area. It was on the “auto” setting, so the camera was doing what it thought was best for the situation (I took the same photo with various ISO, flash and mode settings – all did the same thing as the photo below):

Now … I had to scale down this 12 megapixel photo for the web, but if you get close to your screen you’ll see lots of colors in Johna’s sweater. Incase you’re wondering, its a brown sweater — and not a terribly dark one. The camera really had a tough time with low-light photos on darker colors … which is a problem since a lot of my mom’s photos will be taken in those settings.

We’re still doing research on what the replacement will be for her. But as of today, we’ve thrown in the towel and returned the F50.

In the past several days, we’ve visited most of the “expert” camera stores in their city and have yet to talk to anyone who has heard of the F50 camera (it came out in the last month or so). Also, no one can agree on what brand makes the best low-light cameras (Sony, Panasonic, Canon, Fuji and Olympus have all been mentioned as “the best” by sales people at different locations of the same store chain).

When we discover the perfect camera, I’ll let you know.

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As a father, its my duty to teach my children everything I know to prepare them for life. So far, we’ve spent time reviewing the finer points of car design, Disney and Macs. I thought it would be a good time to test Kyler by throwing him a curve ball that went against everything I’ve taught him on one subject so I could see his reaction. Enjoy:

(Quicktime required to view video.)

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Two of my favorite things together, at last.

WWE and ATT (the former “Cingular”) announced this week that they’ll being offering all sorts of wrestling goodness on your cell phone. Now … all I have to do is convince my boss that I’m watching wrestling matches on my phone for business purposes.

(Announcement link)

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This is the best idea ever! Let’s face it, most people hate to clean. Especially if those people are guys. Mary Poppins had the right idea: you need to make it fun. But, since I can’t snap my fingers and have things automatically clean up for me (not yet, anyway), then this might be the next best thing:

I officially want a remote control car and a swiffer for Christmas. Why is it that I think I’ll just get 1/2 of that gift? And why do I already know which 1/2 I’ll get?!

If you want to try this yourself the instructions are here.
-Kevin

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Every year, right after Thanksgiving, I start to get in the holiday spirit. This year, I came dangerously close to actually putting lights outside the house. Don’t worry, I was able to stop that impulse in time.

This year, in addition to my normal rituals of sending out the Christmas Wish List, decking the halls (inside only) and busting out my favorite Christmas/Holiday CD, I’ve also brought a little bit of the holiday spirit with me to the workplace. This year, its in the form of a Christmas tree that sits on my desktop blinking and flashing away while I do my work.

Its also a great reminder of how many days until Christmas. Holy crap … 27?! I have to get to shopping! I’ll blog later…

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I finally got with the times and bought myself an HDTV. Its nice, too. The Sony Bravia 46″ LCD TV. After LOTS of researching, here’s what I’ve learned about the High Definition world:

• It changes. Frequently.
• Your normal TV signal (which probably looks decent) will look like CRAP on a new HD TV. No exceptions.
• Try to get an HDTV that has 720, 1080i and/or 1080p. The more of those, the better. — Just know that there’s not much content out there in any of them and even less in the 1080p world.
• You’ll most likely need a new DVD player.
• You’ll totally need a new cable or satellite service (and equipment)
• TiVo-like functionality is limited in the HD world.
• There are FAR less channels available in HD than you’d think.
• Yes, the government wants to push HD. No, the date isn’t really all that firm.
• If you can wait, you probably should.

I couldn’t wait. Mostly because my TV was REALLY old. And it may or may not have been dropped … a few times. Let’s put it this way: watching a movie in letter box showed very clearly just how off the screen was. The left side of the screen was much lower than the right.

So … once I had the TV the real “fun” started.

I called DirecTV. 8 times to be exact. After much pain and agony, I spoke with a person who seemed interested in selling me more DirecTV services and was actually helpful. He scheduled the install… which didn’t happen until 2 days after their scheduled date.

Once I contacted someone and got them to stop by the house and install everything, I could start to total the “extras” I was buying to get my new TV to look better than the old one it was replacing:

1. New HD DirectTV DVR Receiver
2. New DirecTV (45lb) satellite
3. New wiring
4. New HDMI cable to connect the new receiver to the new TV
5. New composite cables to connect the DVD player (which, thankfully, worked) to the TV
6. New composite cables to connect my Xbox to the new TV … so my games would look decent.
7. New HD DirecTV service plans for local and HD channels

I’ll spare you the final price tag (mainly because I’m not sure I want to admit to it), but a friend of mine who recently went through the same experience told me: “When you start to think about HDTVs, plan to spend an extra $600 more than the cost of the TV.” — Sadly, that’s a very close estimate.

But, hey, the Home and Garden Channel looks AMAZING now!

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