Reposter – Saw it on reposter

Update: After getting in contact with Virgin’s helpful customer service team they have now resolved the delays in shipping my phone. The sexy HTC One arrived on Friday and so far it’s been, without exaggeration, the most enjoyable device to use that I’ve ever owned. I don’t know how long the honeymoon period will last but I’m incredibly pleased to have this phone over the new Galaxy S4 – the feel and finish of the aluminium body alone puts the experience of using this phone on par with using a quality power tool or driving a well-engineered car. Thanks to Nikki and everyone else there who helped out to get my phone to me by the end of the week. Also so far I’ve been fairly impressed with Virgin’s 4g coverage and network speeds. This screenshot is from my HTC One and is indicative of a typical speed test but I’ve seen it go as high as 25469 kbps!

File this one under ‘First World Problems’ but more than a week after the in-store date for the new HTC One I have still not received my device – the one I pre-ordered 23 days ago. This means that the closest I’ve gotten to the HTC One so far is photoshopping my hand into the Virgin Site as you can see above – great!

Let me tell you the story, a story that makes me question why I bothered in the first place. On April 8 I called and registered for the HTC One pre-order. They took my details and told me I’d receive a call closer to the launch date. I was told that, because I’ve been due for an upgrade for 6+ months, they would give me 2 months for free. I asked if I could get that deal if I went into the store on launch day and I was told I’d have to ask the store.

After calling the store I was told that I couldn’t get that deal – which makes no sense considering it’s the same company selling the same product. I resolved to wait for the pre-order so I could at least get something for my decision to stick with Virgin. It’s worth noting here that people who pre-ordered the HTC One from Telstra received a free set of Beats Solo headphones (Valued at $249).

The 18th rolled around and I was asked if I still wanted to have the HTC One pre-order fulfilled to which I (of course) answered yes. I was assured that the orders would be shipped starting on the 23rd. By the 24th I was annoyed to be receiving ads for the Galaxy S4 from Virgin via SMS but no notice of my order being shipped so I tweeted Virgin to complain, only to be informed that the HTC Ones should have been shipped already. Great – so where is mine? I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and wait a little longer. Dumb move.

On the 29th I decided to call again to find out if it was any closer to being in my hand. I was very annoyed to find out that not only had my order not been shipped, but it had somehow gotten lost in their system and had I not called it is likely the phone would have never been shipped. I was “helpfully” informed by the person on the phone that I had received a call back on the 18th (when I had confirmed to them I definitely wanted the phone shipped) and on the 25th, which I highly doubt considering it was Anzac day and my current phone – Virgin Mobile of course – showed no missed calls.

I didn’t argue because all I wanted was my phone to be shipped. After going through the legalese blurb she suggested that since it was the afternoon the order wouldn’t be dispatched until Tuesday the 30th. This was a shame considering the Virgin HTC One page itself says “90% of metro orders placed by 3pm AEST are delivered next business day*” (I had called at around 1:30pm). I ordered before 3pm AEST. I’m in Sydney’s metro area. You’d expect that my phone should have arrived on Tuesday the 30th or Wednesday the 1st at the very latest, right? WRONG.

I called them today (Wednesday the 1st) to see where my order was at since the order number I was provided with wasn’t showing any results on the Auspost couriers tracking website where it says “After placing your order with Virgin Mobile, it can take up to 24 hours (48 hrs for regional customers) for your details to appear on this site”. Up to 24 hours? It had been around 48 already!

I was then extremely pissed off to find that my order had not even been picked yet. When I asked if she could expedite the process because I’ve already been waiting so long I was told that she could only do so after the 3 day picking/shipping period. At no point ever was any 3 day picking/shipping period mentioned… are they just saying whatever is convenient to get me off the phone?

The icing on the feces-cake that this pre-order experience has been was when I went to the Virgin HTC One page to take the above screenshots. There, down the bottom, I find that the 2 months free I’ve been given for being well overdue for a phone upgrade is in fact hardly any kind of a reward for being a long-term customer since anyone who pre-ordered got 1 month for free. Thanks for the exclusive treatment Virgin.

I think it’s worth noting that some aspects of the process were good. I spent almost no time ‘on hold’ waiting for someone on the phone. The staff were helpful, polite and friendly when I spoke to them. My tweets were responded to promptly. These are all things that a customer service team should be commended for but when the customer experience ends up being as terrible as mine has been, it means that no amount of helpful responses makes any difference. Just ship my pre-order when you say you will!

I will wait to see if Virgin comes back with any response and I will post an update here with whatever they come back with. For what it’s worth I am a very tech-savvy person and many, many people seek my opinion when it comes to technology purchasing decisions. Until this pre-order debacle my experience with Virgin Mobile has been generally good. I really hope Virgin understands that in dealing with existing customers who are into tech enough to pre-order a top-end mobile phone they should be careful to make sure the orders are fulfilled promptly and if there are any issues it should be a priority to satisfy these customers first.

Update: The customer service guys are clearly more prompt than the warehouse! ~30 mins since my post here and they’ve already responded via twitter.

I’ve sent the details through and I’ll wait to see what happens.

Hi Boingers! Who wants to buy a worthless piece of currency for 90 cents? Yes, you can has a printable pdf for the Zimbabwean 100 trillion note!

Click here to get your hands of the pdf!

Anonymous has posted a moving memorial to Aaron Swartz (on MIT’s hacked sites no less). Read a mirror of the whole thing here, or see if it’s still hacked at http://cogen.mit.edu/

2012 Melbourne Cup race results and placings:

1. horse
2. horse
3. horse
4. horse
5. horse
6. horse
7. horse
8. horse
9. horse
10. horse

Humans: Sometimes aweomse!
[Cut to 1:30 for the glory shot]

Help make Luchi’s dream come true and vote for him in FBI’s Northern Lights competition! The prize is for him to be flown to Iceland where he collaborate with local artists and perform live in Iceland’s capital Reykjavik. This guy is a very talented Sydney musician who has been hard at work teaching music and recording for more than a decade, so please do him a solid and spend a second to vote for him and we can give his career the boost it deserves.

If you want to give his music a listen you can stream his 5-song E.P. for free right here:

So please visit the FBi Radio competition page NOW to vote for Luchi as the competition will end soon!

Thanks!

Amazing… simply amazing. This is how NASA feels about it.

My hat hair goes off to this fellow who went to the effort of making a wig from his own hair purely for the purpose of pulling a prank on his friends and family. Best of all he recorded it and put it on Youtube for us all to enjoy!

Using the ruse that he is making a “video project” he sits his friends down in front of the camera and acts natural while wearing the wig. When the prankees turn away for a moment he removes the wig (to excellent comical effect).

Best quote comes from the very end of the video:
A: “Who made it?”
B: “…I made it.”
A: “You made your own wig?”
B: “Yeah.”
C: “Why?”
B: “So I can put it on my head and trick people.”

[Via Wins!]

From the YouTube description:
“Shot on the actual streets of San Francisco, California, GYM5 features a focus on fast, raw and precise driving action. Filmed over four days, director Ben Conrad and his team are back to work on their second Gymkhana production and delivered the entire city of San Francisco as Ken Block’s personal gymkhana playground.”