Newegg, Super(slow)egg Saver?

Newegg.com
Rotten egg smell
Background: Ordered a part, it will take, get this, 11 days, for it to show up...from Texas. I live in Florida.

WTF: Texas is not that far away.  I can order a part from Seattle Washington and have it here before then.  11 days? It takes 12 days for a momma gopher to make a baby gopher from scratch.  To create life only takes 1 day longer than Superegg Saver shipping from Texas.  Good thing it wasn't coming from California.  I drove 1500 miles from Iowa to Florida in 2 days. I would imagine that UPS / USPS could do it in 4, 5... 6?  Nope, 11... damn... days. And don't give me the 'weekend' as an excuse, take those out, still 9 days.

UPSMI: The initials UPSMI stand for UPS Mail Innovations.  Its a fancy way of saying we aren't going to deliver your products to you.  We (UPS) will take your packages to your local post office and drop them off there and then let them handle the final delivery.  While this sounds like a money saving idea and it likely is because FedEx has been doing the same damn thing for awhile now and it is ANNOYINGLY slow.  However, consider that not only does your package have to go to a sorting facility to get on the right truck/plane for UPS, now it does it yet again at the post office.  2 days lost from sitting in sorting facilities.

Newegg Superegg Saver:  This is the most bullshittiest, yes - bullshittiest, thing I have ever encountered.  This is Neweggs way of using UPSMI to save on shipping.  Had I originally known what it was without clicking the submit order button, there is no way in hell I would have ever chosen it. Note: Want something by Christmas? Do not use Superegg Saver shipping.  Likely won't happen.

Note to Newegg: Should you guys in your leather seats ever read this, and that is just not likely since it means you would have to care enough about the consumer to never have offered UPSMI as a shipping option; You guys used to be THE place to order stuff.  I used to avoid Tigerdirect.com like the plague.  I had gotten burned on a couple of purchases years ago that forced the switch to Tigerdirect.com. Every time I try to put an ounce of faith back in to your company something retarded happens yet again. 11 days? From Texas? I could understand if it was coming from China...customs, boat, etc. I have the shipping paperwork to prove it. Oh yeah, by the way, the link in the Shipping Information email doesn't even work.  It takes you to Newegg where your own website thinks it is a FedEx package! You have to click the http://www.upsmailinnovations.com/ link and add the link yourself.  Cheap asses. While I do not blame UPS for this at all, it is a Newegg website flaw...which you would think they would have tested.  Nope.  Apparently not.

Let's take a closer look at this screenshot shall we? Notice that there is in fact a tracking number..and a link to click on.  Most browsers nowadays have a bar at the bottom called a status bar.  If you put your mouse over a link but do not click on it, the status bar should show you where the link takes you.  Putting the mouse over the "click here" link in the email in the picture shows that Newegg's email shows it as a FedEx tracking number when it is not.  The email explains it is a UPSMI package.

Is it my fault for choosing such a slow way to ship, an easy argument could be made for it.  This isn't about that.  It's about the idea that I could have driven -at a normal pace- to Texas and picked it up myself and came back in less time than it has taken them to even get the damn thing out of Texas!  It only has 1 way to go, I would have had to go round-trip.



Note to Tigerdirect.com:  You guys have been nothing but great.  Thank you!

To wrap this up: Well, let's consider for a moment if you will that I work in a customer traffic-heavy environment that needs parts for PCs and the like at a fair enough pace to keep the customers happy.  Where do you think I am going to order from?  I would rather buy from eBay and take my chances.

P.S. - I ordered the part  5 days ago (-2 weekend days, leaves 3 days) ... tracking still shows it in Carrolton, TX.

I gotta get my ass to work to come up with an excuse as to why the part is taking so damn long to show up.  Thanks again cheap asses.

A Letter to Square Enix: Final Fantasy XIV

Fix it or I Quit

and take my friends with me

Dear Square Enix and Mr. Yoshida:

You have built a game, specifically Final Fantasy XIV, at a point in time that is perfectly aimed at becoming the most popular MMO on the planet.  People have been playing World of Warcraft for years now (myself was included) and have gotten bored with it.

Along comes...FFXIV.  After the attempt at V1.0 of which I was in beta, here is a MUCH improved version.  My hats off to the entire team for that feat. What an accomplishment!

However, in light of events that we are all now very aware of, and mine as well, I have a few problems with your service.

1.) World is full error 1017: Seriously? Did the guys that had the job to calculate the number of players fail miserably at their job? Could you not see that you were to be the next big MMO out there?  I have had the game since Early Access started, I managed to squeak in some time here and there to play a bit.  Most of t he time, I get error 1017, the world is full.  All the while, my friends and family are intermittently allowed to play.  I get home at 7:00pm EST,which as you can guess, servers are already full and there is virtually no chance in hell I will get to play with my friends and family members.

1a.) Playing along, running my Taru around (don't care if you call it a lalafell, it's still a Taru to us FFXI'ers)....disconnected from server, log back in? nope, error 1017.  I was just there and your server kicked me out. Blame my internet connection? Hardly, it's a capable 105Mbps with a latency of less than 20ms. The Xbox 360 never loses a connection in the middle of an online session, not once.

2.) When the worlds are full, I distinctly remember FFXI having a long login queue, sometimes over an hour, but at least there was a queue to show some sort of progress was being made.  Now we play a lottery system to see who gets to play and who clicked "A" first.

3.) Tell me again why I paid good money for something I do not get to play?  In Beta 3, most things worked, no server overload, no real queues.  Good beta test time.  Beta 4:  Error 3102 3 hours in, on a friday evening, Tech support was closed and therefore, missed almost the entire beta because there was a bug.  Ok, t his one was forgiveable...sort of.  You guys saw the huge crowd of people that could not login becuase of this problem.  Instead of taking the server offline for emergency maintenance and giving it a quick fix up, we were basically thrown out on our ass and given an apology by tech support on tuesday (which by then beta had closed on monday)

4.) Error 90000: thought you guys had that fixed?  Still got them. Nothing a quick reboot of the client didn't fix, still annoying as hell in the middle of a fate though.

5.) Support.  Sucks.  48 hour response time? Call Blizzard tech support sometime.  Usually the problem was solved in a couple of hours.  Even during FFXI there were times that tech support took a long time to respond. As my friends and family are leveling passed me and way ahead in the game, I will be left in the dust to fend for myself and beg for help in dungeons and the like or worse, use a PUG.  Don't know what a PUG is? Google it.

6.) You guys don't tell anyone what the hell the problem is within a reasonable amount of time. Not saying you have to give away trade secrets or anything, but damn man, read the responses you guys get in the forums.  173 pages from error 1017 and still no response from Squenix except an apology letter from Mr. Yoshida.  That's fine, apology accepted Mr. Yoshida.  Now please deliver the content and experience we are paying for.

7.) When the world is full, why do I get dumped clear back to the title screen, can't you just simply put me back to the world selection screen? I know it is only 1 extra click but damn guys, that is annoying.


The mechanics of the game are great. The leveling sucks though. Too fast. Everyone is going to hit cap on all characters before the first expansion gets anywhere near completion. I have played maybe 10 hours total so far and have a 15 conjurer, 13 archer and a 10 carpenter. 

Bottom line, 48 hours.  Fix it or I and others I know that have paid will return our unopened games to the distributors to request a full refund.  I refuse to pay for something I cannot use.  In essence, it is like paying for a car that you cannot drive because it will not let you in the drivers seat although it looks good in the driveway.

Note: Time of this posting is in PST, I am in EST, so it is actually 11:34pm here.

Voicemail ... Music

Really? Seriously?  Voicemail music?  What makes you think I listen to your type of music.  I don't want to listen to music while I am trying to call you.  Listening to the ring while I am attempting to call at least gives me some notion that your phone is ringing (even though it may be on silent or I am ignored).

You are not a big business, you have no right to force me to listen to "hold" music regardless of what you think.  The right I have to call you is given to me by you. I do not try to abuse that privilege.  Therefor, you should not abuse my ears by listening to your country music, or rap, or metal, or oldies etc.  What I want to listen to is up to me and that is why we have radios, iPods, etc etc etc.

The music, unless in the public free domain is Copyrighted material and is owned by someone or some company.  I highly doubt they gave you the right to use whatever song it is you are using.

Quality.  Need I say more? Most people don't understand the word digital vs. using your phone's mic to record the song.  Which by the way, sounds like shit.  Stop doing that.  Nobody but you understands what song it is or can comprehend the words to the tune even if they did recognize it. For you sound oriented people, it's like a car going down the road with 18's in the trunk and no sound deadening..you don't hear boom, you hear bzzzz from the parts buzzing. (IE: license plate)..dorks.

Listening to music instead of a ring is more like picking up a radio to order a pizza.  Stupid, irritating and mostly, just don't make any damn sense. 

Windows 8 and Sinking Ships

Before you start thinking I am going to bash Windows 8 and tout how it is a sinking ship, I will tell you now you are quite wrong. While I am a proponent for most operating systems, yes, I like them all for different reasons, I have no qualms about using Windows 8 (or 8.1 preview at this time) on my desktop at home.

All you naysayers can just stop.  I am soo tired of listening to how bad Windows 8 actually is.  When asking people why they think that, it is because that is what they heard.  Asking them if they have ever seen it or tried it, they (a very high percentage) have also never tried it!  How  the hell can you sit back and invalidate something when you have not even experienced it? This isn't like skydiving.  You don't need a parachute and you won't die if it fails to start.  Go to your local computer store and give it a try. Navigation is actually quite easy since the "metro", if you will, interface gives you the option of having most things you need right in front of you.

I run Windows 8.  I LIKE Windows 8.  Do I LOVE Windows 8? No. Here's why, the corners suck. really? Ok, for a tablet edition or a touchscreen version..yeah sure great.  For a desktop / laptop version (unless you have a touchscreen), sucks.

Here's a hint Microsoft and you too Mr. Gates.  Most people in the world are right handed. Taking in to account that the English speaking world (and most other languages as well) read from top left to top right, top to bottom, why the hell is the start button in bottom left?  Should it not at least be in the top right? Most controls on most window forms are in the top right.  Why the hell is my super button in the bottom left? I have to go all the way across my desktop to get to that button. (Which by the way is one reason I DO like Windows 8, don't need the button at all).

My parents now run Windows 8 on a new computer. I have only had one phone call from them asking where their contacts were.  Told them, they thanked me and that was that.   I have not had to TEACH them a thing!  Now you tell me how it sucks?  My parents are not ones for change.  They jumped from Windows XP to Windows 8. All I showed them was where the news app was and off they went. (which by the way, Dad loves)

Now for you nay-sayers that HAVE tried it and don't like it.  That's fine. Everyone does have their own opinion.  But keep this in mind as you sit back in your antiquated XP days; you are being left behind calculator boy.  We no longer use abacuses and have moved on to better things.  The world evolves and if you don't you wither and get left behind. XP lacks a lot of the features that even Windows 7 has. I couldn't being to tell you how much I miss 7's snap abilities when I am fixing someone else's Vista or XP machine.  That alone is worth it's weight in gold to me.  You sit back in your cream filled twinkie chair there fluff boy (or girl) and watch as the world will one day quit bailing you out of obsolescence just so your online browser games will work.


Some people are like, you have a touchscreen on that thing right? Nope. Why you ask? Can't justify spending money to buy one today.  Maybe tomorrow, maybe next month. Not today. I have a 32" LED tv hooked up as primary and a 22" 16:9 as a secondary to the side.

Now Microsoft, your turn.  Why in the hell are you still making 32bit systems?  How long have we had 64 processors? I mean come on. Make the jump already.  Innovation inspires advancement and change in business.  I know of some software companies that refuse to update their product simply because you are still creating an operating system that is 32bit? really? Most machines you buy today can easily handle 16GB of RAM or more...and they get stuck with 32bit.  We should all be arguing over whether we should upgrade our 64bit to a 128bit not having the 32bit debate that has been raging for over a decade now.  Vista should have been the last 32bit OS available.  That would have given them (both the consumer and software companies) 2 years to make the switch to 64bit.  2 years!  You guys built Windows 7 in that time! They have no excuse and neither should you.  Cut your programming costs by not offering a 32bit version of Windows anymore and do the world a favor; cause a shift.

Conspiracy Theorem (Traffic Signals vs Car & Gas)

This rant, unlike others, actually offers a solution.  Read up on my plight and what pisses me off this time:

You can guess on any number of occasions as to just how many traffic lights you actually are stopped by on any given day doing your everyday mundane activities.  Plenty; and at times, way too many.  Usually when you are in a hurry, every traffic light that adorns that particular path that is required for you to reach your destination in a timeliest of manners, turns red 200 feet before you get to it, causing you to stop and wait for that 1 car to cross the intersection; meanwhile holding most of the inner city traffic hostage.  I don't know about anyone else, but I am damn tired of paying for the amount of gas we use for just going to work and the like.  Yes, sure I would love to have an electric car, but have you priced one of those? Buying one doesn't justify the money you would save on gas.  The extra cost is absorbed by the price of the car.  It's a conspiracy I tell you. It's to keep us energy dependent on the big corporations that are currently in control and will likely be for a long time to come.  The distance I would drive to work would enable me to never buy gas again; unless I was going on a trip out of town (Chevy Volt at this time gets around 90 miles on a single charge).  While this is awesome, they start off (in my area anyways) for the 2013 model runs on average $38,000 USD. in the 5 year auto loan, versus my current car a 2012 Honda Civic coupe,; the Volt would cost me an extra $3,399 a year to own, not counting the higher electric bill from charging the Volt every day I used it.  I currently burn 2 tanks a month (about 24 gallons) for a cost yearly of a tad over $1000.  So to drive a Chevy Volt, I would pay an EXTRA $2,399 per year just so I didn't have to buy gas.  Batteries don't last forever and I would have to buy replacement batteries for the Volt eventually.  etc etc etc. Electric? Nice! but no thanks at this point.

Everyone that owns a car, bus, van, or motorcycle already knows that gas mileage is best when cruising at a respectable speed such as 55-65mph (in most vehicles).  Starting and stopping is not only the hardest part of travel on your vehicle, but also uses the most gas (petrol elsewhere).  Traffic signals inhibit the best gas performance from your vehicle by causing stops and starts unnecessarily.  This starting and stopping is hard on your brakes, your engine, and your wallet from the extra cost associations.

Traffic lights are necessary to avoid accidents and allow turns into lanes of traffic otherwise deemed hazardous.  Bullshit.  Traffic lights are there so that your car not only has to idle and burn gas doing it, but it is causing your engine and other car systems to fail prematurely.  The oil companies are gaining a huge source of income simply from your car not running optimally. The car companies gain from the extra parts that will need to be replaced earlier such as brakes wearing out, rotors warping from being too thin to hold the heat etc.  Vehicles are known to overheat sitting still from not getting any fresh air through their radiators to cool the engine off with; this can be extremely expensive to repair. This does not even cover car accidents from people forgetting to stop at an intersection and read-ending someone else that was stopped for that traffic signal.

Most of this can be alleviated by simply removing the traffic signals and replacing them with passways.  By passways, I mean over or underpasses that essentially bypass the need for traffic signals.  For instance, if you wanted to go straight at a 4-way intersection, they could build and overpass or underpass so that you can continue without having to stop or even slow down. On that note, you can simply build the whole road in the air or underground.  east-west roads could go on the ground while north-south roads could be passways.  When wanting to get on to one of the cross streets, there is simply a ramp that leads into the travel lanes just like on interstates.


I know, you are thinking that the cost of building these passways will be a considerable burden to the taxpayers. Not necessarily. If we take into consideration the police, road crews, towing services, fire department personnel, and ambulance personnel that are required every time there is an auto accident, the passways would pay for themselves in short order and be a money saver int the long run.  While I have no concrete numbers to shove down your throat, doesn't matter. It makes sense.  We save money from gas and car repairs, government saves money from personnel and equipment costs that are no longer needed and can be cut back.

How do we build these passways in already built cities? They do not have the room available to put in turn lanes and the like. Look at other cities up north in the U.S.  They have built roads above roads and roads underground. Why not now? In the intersections that are there now, you could have a mini cloverleaf off/on ramp system using that real estate for getting on and off the passways.

Big Bang Theory

This isn't so much a rant as it is more of a self-realization.

The more I watch Big Bang Theory (one of my favorites), I ralize more and more that I am close to what Sheldon is; a huge geek (though he is a nerd by definition), that seems to over-explain himself on many occasions that do not require that type of narration.

Other than the lack of a vocabulary as Sheldon's, the basic thought processes are roughly the same, well, that and I don't have the huge problem with inter-personal conversations.

I am starting to amass collectible figures such as the bobble-head Spock http://amzn.to/HQK3lb we just purchased for my girlfriend, potato-head star wars characters http://amzn.to/A5iug5 not to mention the jack sparrow figures.  That's all ok though, I like my figurines.

All is fine for collectibles, but when I find myself wanting and original Optimus Prime, I have to start wondering when the aging of my mind will finally catch up with my body.  Yes, I have grown up a bit in the last few years, but not to the degree I think that I should have.  Some of us grow up to be real men, others of us are eternal children with "real men" tendencies.

Touching back on the geekiness I have fallen in to, I own a scooter now.  Yes, a grown man riding a scooter isn't likely the most manly thing, but, when you pass a muscle car at 60mph, you have to laugh a bit and wonder if the driver of said muscle car is belittled just a tad.  I can tell you that the scooter will beat a ford focus off the line to 40mph.  After that the Focus overtakes it, but that's likely a factor of gearing in the scooter.

Patience vs Maintenance

When living in an apartment complex, there are certain things tenants and facility should be aware of.

Tenants:
1.) Do not break things. If accidental or not, man up to it and pay to have it fixed.  Most facilities won't bitch too bad if you just grow a set of balls and pay for the damage.  Most of the time you won't even have to move unless it has something to do with the main office building being flattened by a bulldozer; but I digress.

2.) Put your trash where it belongs.  If you own a red chair that looks more like a lazy-boy, do you think it is prudent to set it on top of the dumpster rather than disposing of it as you should? 

3.)  Follow common courtesy to the staff and other patrons.Turn your damned radio off before I shove it up your ass.   I listen to all kinds of music, even the whored-out Rihanna once in awhile; but honestly, if I wanted to listen to what you are listening to, I would be over there listening to it with you with a cold beer in one hand and my lady in the other.  Am I over there? Nope, what does that tell you.  I don't want to listen to whatever the hell you are listening to at his point in time so please turn your shit down!


Facility:
1.) When something breaks, fix it in a timely manner. Especially if it has to do with safety. Don't wait until the stove starts to spark before you come fix it.  Don't wait until we can't cook on the burner until you come fix it. Don't wait to come fix the screened in porch b/c the holes in the screen let it fresh air.  Don't get the pest control people out here because I own my own bug spray from Ortho; bad ass stuff therefore we don't need your mass produced commercial chemicals that make the place smell like shit for the next week; t hen the bugs come back anyways.

2.) Clean the Trash up. Can't say how many mattresses and old chairs I have seen sitting beside the dumpsters.  Come on, you have a forklift thing, use it! Pick the crap up, throw it in there.

3.)  Courtesy and politeness to the customers. While walking in to pay my rent (with a money order I might add because it takes them 2 full weeks to cash a check), all I got from teh office staff was, "Hi, oh ok, bye!".  I love being dismissed before even opening my mouth.   Guess my mohawk and black motorcycle jacket is a bit much for them ;)


Here's a bit of background:
June2011:  GF and I decided we want to move in together, so we start apartment shopping.  Everything all fine and dandy so far.  We find this place, The Preserves in Lake Wales, FL.  Everything looks great from the tour, to the floor plan etc.  So we agree that when her lease runs out at the end of august we will move over there.  All still fine..until...The end of August comes.  The apartment was not ready for us to move in.  The carpets hadn't been cleaned, walls hadn't been painted, nothing was done.  Looked like a disaster area just like it did back in June. This place had a full 2 month notice of intent that come the end of August / beginning of September we were going to move in.

So here we are, money in hand, paid the entire move in cost to the complex which amounted somewhere close to $1500 or so, I think, and no apartment.  Within 24 hours they had the carpets cleaned, and the walls painted..or so it looked.  The walls may have been painted, The floors may have been cleaned, but whoever did them sucked hairy balls.  Here's a short list:

• Baseboards in the bathroom are a joke, not cleaned, not even painted. 
• Bathtub is not sealed as it should be on outer surface on bottom to prevent splash-overs from ruining bathroom floor
• hand railing on stairs was never painted, looks like crap
• front door molding is rotting.
• front left burner on stove does not work (socket that element fits into is shot, needs replaced)
• dishwasher was not leveled and flushed to counter surface (it is tilted and not centered properly)
• 3 different wattage light bulbs were in the kitchen fixtures, we took them out and replaced them all with the same wattage CFL bulbs
• screening on the back porch has mulitple holes (ranging from 2 inches to 6 inches) that have been there since we moved in

Summary: This complex looks nice until you live here.  Maintenance is a joke.  Office people don't care. It was a step up from where we were, but not by a long step.