Consumer Maven

HP Computing

Our firm is a virtual agency, held together by the company headquarters and staffed by professionals who work from their homes.   Right now I'm working from home on my HP Notebook. It's almost three years old but I bought it with so many cutting edge features that it easily can still compete with many notebooks being sold today.  I have several HP products.  I've been using Personal Computers now for a very, very long time.  This means that I've also used many different brands of computers, printers, monitors, scanners, etc.  My favorite for the last several years has been HP.  Whenever I had a new HP product, I found their customer service to be superb, and what’s more, when I call I'm speaking to people that are employed here so in between any long waits we can banter about issues that would not be possible if the support were outsourced.  But I digress.

Recently we decided it was time for my location to replace the desktop, which is or was an old Compaq.  My old desktop is something I jokingly refer to as the computer held together by duct tape.  The CD drives both croaked over a year ago.  The sound card has issues (which means I don't get distracted listening to music, to be sure!).  The computer doesn't have enough memory to run some of my programs, and certainly not enough memory to run an external CD drive, and has been at it’s maximum installable memory levels for years.  The hard drive ran out of room a long time ago, requiring many programs to be uninstalled.  The duct tape that was allowing the computer to still be usable was having a 2GB USB Flash drive to work from.  I finally decided that yes, it was time to say good bye to this old thing and to take the plunge and reinstall all the software and set up multiple e-mail accounts and all the good fun that comes with a new computer.    

You can imagine the excitement in finally taking the plunge and placing an order for a new computer. This wasn’t just any computer, but one customized for the needs of this office.  Using our corporate credit card, the order appeared to successfully go through. You can imagine my disappointment when I received an email a few days later saying that the order was declined. Apparently, thanks to the many losers who choose identity theft as a way to spend their days, we can’t have a computer sent to a location that is not the billing address. Since our billing address is different from anyone else’s workplace address, this is a problem. I understand HP’s position in maintaining the integrity of a customer’s credit card usage, but I am so unhappy that I cannot buy the product I want without going through having cash advances, transfers and other rigamarole just to get the computer system that I want. That is, if it is still offered by the time I finish doing everything that needs to be done so I can order it in my name.   If I am going to go through all this extra hassle for this machine, then HP, you must really be worth it!

What's happening, Whole Foods?

I used to love shopping at Whole Foods.  My favorite years with the company were, unfortunately, many years ago just before they became a publicly held company.  Back then, what I reveled in when I was there was not only great food and superior customer service but employees who were as wacky and colorful as the store itself.  They've always seemed to have efficient employees, but 'back in the day' I remember having fun with them while I shopped, or when I checked out and gave them enormous sums of hard earned money just for the satisfaction of eating organic and eating well.  In my case I have extraordinary dietary restrictions due to medical conditions, so stores like Whole Foods have long been my only choice to procure the bulk of my groceries.

I remember when Trader Joe's first opened up a store in the city.  I checked it out several times, and it was friendly and okay, but back then nothing could ever compare with my Whole Foods shopping experience.  Unfortunately, now nothing can compare with it now, even a trip to Jewel where Scot31, the automated attendant, helps me check out by myself.  Something's happened to Whole Foods, and it's as if the core of the apple is not quite right.  For starters, in the past few years I've noticed some really great cashiers get fired - these have been the ones that have looked very unconventional.   So one of them had a lot of makeup on (a guy) but he was a great cashier, never seemed to make mistakes on my bill, and knew how to bag correctly.  Gone are some lively and fun guys that made my last stop in the store, the checkout, enjoyable.  Gone is the intangible part of customer service that should separate Scot31at Jewel from a living, breathing human being. 

Why am I complaining?  Simply this.  I've noticed that the past few years things have gotten very superficial in the customer care area.  I've lost track of the times that a cashier will smile but not look at me, and in fact NEVER make eye contact with me the entire time my groceries are rung up and my money passes hands to theirs.  Last week my workplace purchased gift cards for business associates to the tune of $300.  The gal that rang this all up put them in a small paper bag.  I had to ask for a plastic bag that was large enough for me to hold onto.    Recently I've been buying as much as I could at Jewel.  When a cashier checks my groceries out, I get eye contact and a friendly demeanor.  When Scot31 checks me out, at least I don't expect human contact.

I'm concerned about where Whole Foods is going.  They've had some good people working for them that they've lost, and some good people who still work for them who now seem disconnected and spiritually adrift.   Personality changes do not just happen in an environment for no reason, and this isn't happening just in one or two stores.  I've spoken to friends who shop in other areas of the country and they've noticed this happening to their stores as well.  I hope they can turn things around.  Their original vision, if they still have a passion for it, is an important one.  What's going right now is something that probably only regular shoppers, and especially the sensitives are picking up.  When this becomes notable by Joe and Jane Doe, people like me will not be able to shop there any more.

Coincidentally, I've noticed an upswing in the customer service at Trader Joe's.  The past few years, especially notable since last year, has been service extraordinare.  The cashiers not only make eye contact but they 'stay' with you and focus on you, the customer, during the entire transaction.  My last impression, and anyone's last impression of a retail store is usually the experience at the cash register.  For some reason, Trader Joe's has got it right. 

No Longer a Cingular Girl

As an early adopter, I was also one of Cingular Wireless's first customers.  Years ago when Cingular Wireless was known as Cell One, I had one of those clunky and huge cell phones that looked like they could double as a brick.  A few weeks ago my two year contract was up. After looking at their company website to see what plans they had, I was unhappily surprised at the offerings.  My problem with the offerings related to the costs of the plans given the minutes available and the increasingly poorer service I had begun to notice.  At first I thought it was just a bleep in the Chicago area, but a friend in Texas commented that she had noticed the level of call service decline over the past two years as well.  Another Chicago Cingular customer friend of mine had the same experience. 

After looking at several other companies, I decided to switch to T-Mobile, a company that offers one year contracts.  The idea of not suffering with a company for two years was attractive to me. Previously I entertained the thought of switching to pre-paid cellular but I have to admit that the phones I had seen in most of those plans weren't going to meet my needs for fashion, style and quality, none of that being in the order of most importance.  So... I made the switch. The interesting thing about the switch is this.  After nearly a decade with Cingular, I never so much as received a letter or phone call (I kept my cell number) that asked me why I left them.  Apparently they don't care.