Get It While It's Hot

Buy songs from iTunes Music Store, but without the anti-piracy protection so you can share with friends. Try PyMusique

Truth or Fiction

I can't decide if this hilarious report at CNNSI is real or a spoof, especially when the headline is "Dinner At Yao's" but the intro says they are at lunch. It sure as hell is entertaining.

Why I Will Never Buy Anything from Buy.com EVER AGAIN

What the hell happened to Buy.com? Back in my tech deal hunting college days, I could always rely on that site for good prices on stuff I wanted, like music, movies, books. Now it seems like it's run by a barrel of monkeys, crooked ones too.

Here's my story:

On 3/4, I finally became sufficently enraged about my shitty T-Mobile reception to make the switch to Verizon, the only carrier that can provide decent reception in Manhattan. While surfing around for bargains on Verizon phones (which are by far the worst), I found the Motorola V710 for free after 2 rebates. As I was about to click on the "Place Order" button on the final check out page, I realized that the Verizon service terms section on the page was TOTALLY BLANK!! I didn't want to be locked into a two-year agreement just to get a free phone, so I called their cell phone customer service support line to confirm that the deal only required a one-year agreement.

After about 5 minutes being on hold, I was able to talk to a customer service rep. I confirmed with him that the rebate was for a one-year agreement and then was about to hang up and order through the website when he said, "You should order it through me because it will be much faster." I knew he just wanted to make commission on the sale but ordered it with him anyways because he did help me, or I thought. Throughout the order, he made several mistakes recording my info and I had to correct him on my SSN, existing cell number, email address and home address. In hindsight, I probably would have saved myself hours of frustration had I insisted on ordering through the website, but I was trying to be nice so I patiently asked him to repeat my info and corrected him time and again. After he finally had everything down, he told me I should go to whereismyorder.com to check my order. Once again, alarms should have gone off in my head: why was he telling me to go to whereismyorder.com when I was supposedly ordering from Buy.com?

When I checked my order a few hours later, I almost shrieked. Here's what I thought I had ordered: V710. Here's what the inbred (or "cocksucker" in Deadwood parlance) took down: V120e. Also, according to this website, I somehow had orderd the phone through wirefly.com even though I dialed a number listed on Buy.com!

I called the Buy.com customer service line again and entered my order # repeatedly. On the first couple of tries, the piece of shit, worthless sack of horse manure phone system could not even recognize the order number I angrily punched in, always missing the first 2 or 3 digits for some reason (I waited until the instructions were over before entering the order number too!!). When it finally recognized the whole 10 digits, it could not find the order!! I even had a Verizon customer rep on the phone with me trying to get in touch with someone, all to no avail. So, I filled out the customer support form, angrily demanding them to not ship the wrong phone, TWICE.

On the next two days (Saturday and Sunday), I received replies to my request through email telling me to call them to resolve the problem. Of course, I could not call them on my T-Mobile cell phone because my signal was so weak, which was the reason I was switching in the first place. On Monday, they shipped the phone anyways without waiting to hear back from me.

This is where the story becomes so absurd it's comical.

On Tuesday, I came home from work expecting to get the package since Fedex tracking indicated it had been delivered already. My doorman said he did not receive a package for me and did not know anyone named "S. Wilson," the name of the person who signed for the package according to Fedex. He suggested that I walk over to the nearby apartment buildings and ask around, which I did, also to no avail. Then I called up Fedex to ascertain the actual delivery address, which turned out to be E 45th St rather than E. 46th St. At this point, I started laughing because of the absurdity of the situation: the morons sent the wrong phone to the wrong address.

The next day I finally got through to the wirefly people through a number different from the one listed on Buy.com. I got an RMA number from the customer rep. When I asked for her name and extension in case I should have problems returning the phone later on, she was at first reluctant to tell me. After I pressed harder, she told me her name was "Cathy." Bullshit! She definitely sounded Indian, but whatever, I just wanted to get off the phone.

I finally cancelled my order with them and made the order through the Buy.com website. Of course, my phone arrived without any of the trumpeted free accessories (car charger/belt clip/headphone). Adding insult to injury, I can't even SUBMIT my rebate forms until SIX MONTHS after activation! There is absolutely no mentioning of this stipulation anywhere on that V710 page. What a bunch of crooks!

I now bestow on Buy.com my official "No Opposable Thumbs" award. I will never ever even consider ordering anything from Buy.com ever again even if every employee there offers me oral pleasure.

Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks. Buy.com sucks.

A Conversation

After having dinner together, my friend Andy and I headed to a bar to grab some drinks. I handed some spare change to a homeless guy leaning against a wall. Andy handed him the leftover pizza we had from dinner.

Andy: You shouldn't give homeless people money. They will just use it to buy alcohol.
Me: So? What's wrong with that? I use my money on alcohol, why shouldn't they?