Fair warning: A Vent Post!

mtntrainman Dec 24, 2014

  1. YoHo

    YoHo TrainBoard Supporter

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    Wait, did you leave the card information with an actual person and did that person tell you when it would ship?
     
  2. BarstowRick

    BarstowRick TrainBoard Supporter

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    Customer relations is just a lost world. No one today knows how to take care of a customer or provide for them in the way they'd appreciate. Automated systems that would rather put you off until later, call back numbers and you wonder when you are going to get a call back, AND when you do the girl in India couldn't help you but she sure sounds sweet. Sure give Helen the call she'll calm them down and talk them out of whatever it was they wanted. That's customer service. See there's no profit in customer service and you don't have any choices. If you get anyone's help at all it's because they wanted to otherwise you are up $#!+ creek without a paddle.

    I'm now going through this with my bank and their bill paying system. Even threatened to go to another bank....they don't care. Go. We aren't making any money on your account so go. Why should we care. Said in words almost undistinguishable but implied. I know what you are up against. Sorry to hear the troubles.

    By the way this will be the subject of Rick's Rant over on BRick.com. Not yet but I will talk about how customer service had degraded over the last 20 years particularly for us Toy Train Enthusiast and Model Railroaders. It's a throw away world and no one and I mean no one wants to keep anything they made running and operating. Parts are hard to come by and I don't care what it is you want.

    My two cents and I take change.
     
  3. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    If, when, and ever it does ship you still have the shipping service that routes stuff thru East Balonystan, adjacent to outer Slobovia, where the 500 pound ex Sumo wrestler,package sorter, takes out his frustrations for not winning the Grand Champion Belt. How do I know all this? Well I recently ordered a new head baker for my still living in the 1940s Wife. You know one of those gigantic things one sets under to dry their hair. Well I was tracking it with a supplied tracking number. It went everywhere but here, and then was passed off to another competing carrier, upon which it promptly managed to get to the wrong location and sorting terminal for delivery. Two more days passed and it finally arrived. Oh boy did that 500 pound former Sumo gentleman take out his frustrations on that box plus handed it off to a few more frustrated souls. The box had more penetrations through it than the targets at the 1000 yard range in Quantico. Miraculously the merchandise inside was completely missed by the numerous penetrations and the Wife has been happily baking her head every morning before going to work.

    Knowing your luck it will probably be routed via the Indian Ocean terminal where it will be placed on a tramp freighter, after which the freighter will be hijacked by Somali pirates and you will have to fork out a huge ransom to free your merchandise. It will then get placed on a Chinese junk for San Francisco where there will be a dock workers strike and it will set in harbor for the next 30 days.
     
  4. mtntrainman

    mtntrainman TrainBoard Supporter

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    Funny and sad at the same time. When my son bought me the video camera for xmas....he bought an extra card. Although both where bought at Amazon.....somewhere along the line the card got 'handed off' to the USPS. Now...we get UPS delivery by truck out where we live...but I dont get US Mail delivery here. I have a po box at the post office for that. Its why I always verify delivery method...it makes a difference. My son even verified it was being send UPS. So....I got the camera ok...the xtra card....well we think its in a time capsule heading to Endor. !!!!
     
  5. mtntrainman

    mtntrainman TrainBoard Supporter

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    One of the most annoying things is...The first gal I talk to before xmas laughs at me like "What the &^*&&^ are you doing wasting my time...we arent here to help you." The second gal I talk to yesterday is nothing but a giggle machine. Companies dont hire professional people...they just hire someone to fill a slot on the payroll.
     
  6. mtntrainman

    mtntrainman TrainBoard Supporter

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    YES...the info was left yesterday with "Ms. Giggles" who said she would pass it along the info to "Ms. LMFAO" who was 'unavailable to talk on the phone at the moment."

    NO...they didnt say yesterday that they would ship it Monday...although all indications where...in a phone conversation from Dec 22nd 2014....that they would when they all got back from their extended vacation on Jan 5th 2015.

    P>S>

    "Your throttle will be shipped on 1/9/15 and the credit card will be charged then"
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 6, 2015
  7. Allen H

    Allen H TrainBoard Supporter

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    Hmmm, been following along with your thread George.
    I've been setup with Digitrax from the beginning and have only had to deal with them a couple of times with a few of bad chips with no issues.

    Recently (about the time you started this thread) I've decided to upgrade my system from a Simplex to a Duplex setup only for the fact that I need to have a couple of throttles sent in for repair. I was told that if I'm going to do this that I should pull the trigger and not just repair them but to have them upgraded as well since they will be phasing out the Simplex system sooner or later.

    Just before Christmas I dropped them an email asking some specific questions about this process. Yesterday after they got back, the first thing in the morning I get an email from them, cool! Then I read the email.......

    As far as I'm concerned it was nothing more than a canned email. What it said was "Yes we can help you but you'll need to fill out the proper forms for submission, be sure to include a form of payment if it's not for warranty work, and we'll be happy to take care you of you and will return them as soon as we can". Great!

    I don't think they even read the email or if they did they just skimmed over it while sipping their coffee. So I figured "Screw this, I'll just call them and see how far I can get with a phone call"? Not sure which one of the girls I talked to but they connected me to the proper ext and of course, no one answered so I didn't bother leaving a message.

    I instead replied to the email I got earlier and stated 'Thanks for the prompt response but you NEVER answered my questions, can you please take the time to READ my email and then reply? It would be most helpful. Thank You"

    Within 5 minutes I got a reply saying "My apologies, yes you'll need to do ...blah blah blah" and I got my answer.

    So after reading your saga and getting that kind of a response from my email, I can say I'm a little hesitant about this upgrade process. But I have no choice so I guess I'll see how things go with my turn. I waited until after the holidays and I have several throttles that will need to be upgraded so I plan to send in 2 at a time so I won't be without anything for any extended periods.


    This is becoming a major problem anymore, no one wants to work or take responsibility anymore?
     
  8. jhn_plsn

    jhn_plsn TrainBoard Supporter

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    Lou, thinking of you. Sorry for your loss.

    Sad to see all the frustration around Digitrax service. I was lucky to have many friends who have dealt with the repair department so my expectations where a bit defined. I have a tethered 402 and UT4 that had a broken directional toggle. I wanted one to be Duplex for the upcoming Anaheim show so sent in the UT4 for repair and upgrade around Thanksgiving. I was not banking on getting it back with the holidays, but I was pleasantly surprised when it showed up last Friday. It looks like all they did was send me a new throttle rather than repair the old one.
    I will admit that I was not confident in using the forms from the site and filling it in without any kind of electronic CC info confirmation. But now I can use the 402 for consisting and the UT4R while out and about running the trains.
    Fingers crossed Mr. Murphy does not happen upon us this year.
     
  9. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    It's the good old American "I'm here, so pay me- Oh I have to actually do some work to earn it?" syndrome. I had a phone conversation with one of my medical specialists' offices this morning. Felt as though I was talking to someone with at most an eighth grade "education." Bleh.
     
  10. DCESharkman

    DCESharkman TrainBoard Member

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    Look how far Jethro Bodine got with just a 6th grade education........ All the way to Beverly Hills!

    Consumer customer support just stinks anymore, and corp to corp customer support is starting to fail in the same ways.

    I attribute it to the No Child Left Behind, so make them all equally stupid law.
     
  11. Allen H

    Allen H TrainBoard Supporter

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    I couldn't agree with you more David!
     
  12. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Yup. Our education system is working, so let us experiment with how many ways we can screw it up. First we'll try this stupid idea, and if that doesn't produce enough idiocy, we'll try another ridiculous plan. After all, it is only fair that we should all be equally dysfunctional, illiterate and lacking any work ethic! And we'll keep it up, until we're a Third World Nation, or die trying!
     
  13. Allen H

    Allen H TrainBoard Supporter

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    Damn BC! Don't hold back, let us know you really feel! [​IMG]
    Oh, and don't forget, we wouldn't want to offend anyone either by telling them they are not trying hard enough.
     
  14. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    From a little research on the Web.

    The United States ranks 14th in the world in cognitive skills and educational attainment, while Pacific Asian countries and regions dominate the top rankings, according to a report commissioned by Pearson, the multinational education company. The report cited a "culture of accountability" as the reason South Korea, Japan, Singapore, and HongKong were ranked in the top four for their overall education performance.

    Basically we have regressed from earlier years and it shows anytime you need some form of customer service whether government or private.
     
  15. Jeepy84

    Jeepy84 TrainBoard Member

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    14th and dropping like a rock. You guys wouldn't believe how ill prepared high school grads are, even the ones that make it into college. Granted, I was teaching at a state system school, where making money far exceeds the importance of knowledge, but these kids couldn't even form complete coherent sentences! And they were bio majors in my introductory lab class, they want to be medical doctors and the like. My plan when I get old is to not get sick.
     
  16. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    We'd be better off if there was less concentration on nonsense such as self-esteem (something the individual MUST develop on their own!), and other sad, useless diversions. Turn off the damned computers and make the kids use their own brains. First develop their personal memory skills, learn some mental discipline, etcetera. Thereafter start in with electronic devices. Those who brought us the personal computing revolution started the way I am stating, and guess what? It did them NO harm!

    About an hour ago, I was listening to a sports interview show. They had a star student athlete from an regional university, and their associated sport coach. I couldn't stand it any longer, and shut the radio off. Every third or fourth word from the kid was "ummm" or "uhh". Every sentence uttered started with "Ummm. Well I am this, uh, and then that. Ummm, we practice hard, uhh, and ...." The kid is verbally illiterate, yet highly classroom graded! Then our reporter moved his microphone over to the kid's coach, and out of that mouth came the same garbage speech. BLEH. I firmly believe that my peers back in about fifth or sixth grade were better speakers than what disgraceful baloney we are suffering with today!

    Me kollej go, am be smartur speeker ewe than!
     
  17. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Yeah. The 'don't upset anybody', ("correctness"), movement has been nothing but devastating to our society. :angry:
     
  18. Jeepy84

    Jeepy84 TrainBoard Member

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    Without this digressing into a political debate, history tells us that most empires only last from 250 to 300 years before they collapse. At the beginning, pioneers and revolutionaries who believe in self sufficiency build a strong city or state. Then they confederate with other cities/states in the area for mutual defense. A central government is formed to control all the cities/states. Classes that once were independent are now in a position for one to control the other. Wealth increases, the idea of self sufficiency and reliance diminishes. Everyone believes they should have an equal share of the riches of the country without having to do much if anything to earn it. Morality falls until it is so rare as everyone only cares about how much they can get for the littlest amount of effort. Eventually an outside force invades, an epidemic occurs, etc. hand the empire falls. Sound familiar? I was mostly talking about Rome and the Incas.

    Anyway, all this digitrax ranting makes me worry about my zephyr, haha.
     
  19. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    What you stated is absolutely true. It has happened constantly, throughout all known and recorded world history. But it just is not taught. In fact, I have argued with present day university level 'educators' who deny it as any bit factual. I have long felt there is an ignorant sense of immunity surrounding us, which in itself is nothing better than nails into our national coffin.

    Yes. We do need to get back "on track" with the topic again.
     
  20. Jeepy84

    Jeepy84 TrainBoard Member

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    Most university level educators are the kind of people who just abhor work and like to think of themselves above the plebs. Arguing with them let alone trying to have a meaningful discussion with them about anything based in the"real world" is mostly an exercise in futility. Trust me, I used to be one of them. Twenty years ago, if I was old enough then, I would want to be an educator, but anymore, no thanks. Don't forget, those people's attitudes shape the grade school educators' minds. Laziness and narcissism is indeed taught in today's schools, and masked under a ridiculous homework load that ensures the teachers don't actually have to teach.

    Please note I'm speaking in absolutes but there are the occasional good exception.
     

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