Posts Tagged ‘fail’

AppleFail

// October 14th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Tech

I don’t consider myself an Apple evangelist, or PC/Microsoft evangelist for that matter. I’m a firm believer in ‘the right tool for the right job’. So, at home I use a PC and a laptop for browsing the web, etc – I don’t need oodles and oodles of processing power to watch a YouTube video, and I don’t need it to be ‘pretty’ either. If I ever get enough cash together, I will, for sure, get a Mac Pro 8-core machine to serve as a ProTools machine, but not until I get the £6000 together to do so.

I like my kit to be value for money, and when I spend a fair amount on something, I expect it to work. If it doesn’t, I expect a good level of service. I got my iPhone through The Carphone Warehouse, and I decided that, as this is such a high-value handset, I would take out the Geek Squad subscription.

So when my iPhone developed a fault, I wanted someone to look at it. I took it into my nearest Carphone Warehouse and described the fault to the Geek Squad agent. He advised that this was a hardware fault, but due to its age, it would be a warranty fix. Unfortunately for me though, he told me that Apple don’t allow anyone to tinker with their hardware, so it must go back to Apple for examination/repair/replacement. This would take up to 4 weeks.

4 WEEKS? FOR A BUZZING NOISE? As an alternative, he suggested that I take it into the Apple store and go through the issue with one of their Geniuses. I phoned the Glasgow store only to be told that yes, this did sound like a hardware fault, and yes, it would probably just be replaced in-store, but no, I could not come today. “Why not?” I asked. I was advised that I must make an appointment to see a ‘genius’, and that the next available appointment was in 2 days time. Disappointed, I decided that I should just make the appointment and get my phone fixed. Oh, but I can’t make the appointment on the phone with the girl I’m speaking to – I have to do it online at the Apple website.

So not only can I not just walk into the store and get a replacement, I can’t even make an appointment ON THE PHONE? How difficult do you want to make this, Apple? You suck. #fail

The Whale Has Failed

// April 5th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Mini Post, Twitter

Twitter is broken. Instead of worrying about it, why not kick back and head on over to The Fail Whale Fan Club. Unless you’re seeing this post via Twitter, in which case, it’s fixed.

Bye.

My Bad (Ikea experience)

// April 2nd, 2010 // 2 Comments » // DIY, Twitter

After a slight bedroom mishap on Sunday, I had the need for a replacement bed. Not the mattress, just the bed. Jen and I hunted around and looked at a number of different places, but we decided on Ikea. I’d coped with a half-broken bed for four nights now, and it was time to bite the bullet and buy the bed. So off to Ikea Braehead.

We wandered around the upstairs one-way system for a while before we found the bedroom section. They’ve changed the layout, don’t you know? We had a look at a few different beds, toyed with the idea of getting at mattress too, but eventually picked the bed we wanted. We picked the Heimdal bed frame. We really liked the look of this bed, and we REALLY liked the look of the price. £55 for the full kit. I took a note of the aisles and locations of the various components of the kit and proceeded to collect everything. It turns out that Ikea sometimes don’t put things where they tell you. The slats for this bed, specifically. However, I eventually found them and moved on to the checkout. Ikea are more efficient and taking your money than they are at putting things in the right place, it would seem. Now, off to the car park.

Rather than trying to get the (very large) trolley over to the car, I left Jen at the pickup point with everything until I went to fetch the car. No problem. The car’s all parked up, the back seats are folder down and the boot is open. Now, in with the kit. Oh. Wait. Hang on, I need to tweet about this:

Shit. Do I await the advice of the Twitterverse, or do I come up with a plan of my own? Well, knowing some of the people I follow (Alan Ogden), I’m expecting less than helpful replies, so I need to come up with my own solution to this. It’s time to phone my sister. Her fiance Robert has a bigger car than me, and access to a van if required. Great. He’s on his way. While I wait for him to arrive, I get the smaller stuff in the car and check what delights Twitter has offered up in reply to my problem:

Great. Alan’s replied. In a fashion which was expected. Not to worry though, the cavalry has arrived. Robert’s here! We get the oversized bed part into the back of the car and head home. That reminds me, I’d better get Robert some beer for digging me out of this hole. We manage to unload everything into the house and Robert heads home.

After that, it was just a simple case of chucking out the old bed and building the new one. A relatively simple process, and one which didn’t take too long! We had the bed built and ready for use in half an hour! Buying the bed and getting it home took longer than actually putting it together.

Maybe Ikea should consider giving the measurements of the packaging as well as the items within. It could save a lot of heartache in the long run.