Ho Ho Ho (and rake)

5.3.2015


For Christmas 2014 Ez's grandpa got him an electronic chessboard.  It was loaded with thousands of classic games and could challenge and train the user in the game of chess.  Ez loves chess and while all of our computers have chess on them, this one was tactile and that was a big advantage.

Or it should have been.  The damn thing's LCD - which indicated where it wanted you to move its pieces - was broken.  Parts of digits and letters were missing.  We couldn't tell where it was pointing.  So we sent it back.

A month later, with zero communication from the company who sold it (and who we returned it to), I phoned.  The really nice Bostonian gal (with a not-terribly atrocious New England accent) informed me that I needed to wait six weeks for returns.  I gave them 12.  In early April I called again.  They informed me that the item had been backordered and they canceled our order since it was taking so long.  I asked them to let me make that decision and they obliged.  They said they'd reinstate the order and send the chess board when they received new stock.

It's 21 May and grandpa's Christmas gift arrived yesterday.  I haven't unboxed it yet, but I'm hoping they've corrected their faulty LCD.  It's also a weird throwback to customer service of days past:  You buy a mail order item, return it for replacement, wait a thousand years with no company-to-customer communication, get ambiguous information with customer-to-company communication, and six months later get a box in the mail.  It used to be like that for everything.

Tonight -  Specs' 12 Adler Museum Cafe
(kickin' it North Beach style) 


bye-ee!
whrr ... clik!