Erieversible

Yes, artwork isn’t the obvious item that springs to mind when you think of ebay, but we were… desperate.  We have some very big walls to find paintings (or similar artwork) for and the quantity of potential items locally isn’t large.  If anyone knows of any places around the Buffalo area that have some good, large artwork, please let us know.

Anyway, the one thing ebay has is quantity, so I went looking.  It took some time to find something that looked good.  It took longer to find something that looked good from a seller who looked ‘right’.  It is amazing how many artists there are in China…

I’ve bought two pieces, and the first of those arrived today.  I have to say that far from being disappointed I am astonished how terrific the painting is.  Even that great doubter in our household (my wife!) is amazed at what we’ve got hold of at the price.  It is a marvellous piece of work and will go very well in the family room.

If the second piece is half as good I may have to repeat the exercise.  It takes time and patience to winkle out the self-representing artist who really has talent, but it is well worth it.  For the same price that you would pay for a large print from the likes of Sears or Target you can get an original painting of real quality.

I’d like to be notified, wherever I am, when the power fails at our house.  I’d like to be notified when the level in the sump reaches a certain height.  I’d like not to pay a fortune for that service.

There are a number of devices that will detect those events.  Some are ‘local’ and just emit a loud noise.  Some will call you up by phone.  Those sounded like they’d be perfect.  Except that we have a digital phone service and that won’t work without power.

So I’ll throw a UPS backup device into the mix, to support the cable modem/phone box.  Except that the digital phone service still won’t work.  At least, according to the “customer service” people at Time Warner Cable.  Unfortunately I don’t believe them.  Why not?  Well, they can’t explain why it won’t work, and they all appear to be quoting from standard question responses.  In other words, they haven’t got a clue and are just parroting pre-prepared answers to common questions, picking the answer that seems to best suit my question.  That is fast becoming the dictionary definition for “customer service”.

If I can’t be phoned with the alerts, how about an email?  What I really need is a device that networks and acts on these triggers.  Technology has moved on from phones being the pinnacle.  These devices should perform the same basic function but use up to date communication methods.  However, it seems no-one else thinks so, as such devices are nowhere to be found.

I think I’ll try the UPS route anyway.  Or can anyone out there tell me why that wouldn’t work?  Why does the cable modem/phone box care where the local power comes from?  It’s all way beyond my simple mind.

Update:  After battling past the first-level “customer service”, through the second-level supervisor and then management, I finally, at the 4th time of asking, received a believable answer from one of their technicians.  The answer?  A UPS will indeed be sufficient to keep the digital phone working for local (i.e. not affecting Time Warner themselves) outages.  But why was it such a battle, and what about the poor average customer who believes the first (or second, or third) answer given?  I guess it is back to the new fangled concept of “customer service” meaning “read from the script”.

Yesterday Raymour & Flanigan delivered 41 pieces.  Well, that’s their tally, but they count all the pieces that tables, for instance, come in.  By the time they’d built some of the items there weren’t 41 new pieces of furniture.  Unfortunately one of the pieces is damaged.  Now we discover that their quick delivery time is not exactly matched by their reaction time for such matters - it will be 2 weeks before one of their “technicians” can drop round to examine the item.  And that might just be the start of the saga to get it sorted.  Not impressed.

By contrast, Crawfords also delivered some items yesterday.  They delivered one item with apologies.  It was marked.  They didn’t have a replacement available so would we mind using this one for now and they’ll get a replacement and switch them over as soon as possible?  To be honest, the mark they refer to is probably less obvious than the damage to the Raymour & Flanigan piece. 

So, marks out of 10 for each store on Customer Service?  Clearly 10 out of 10 for Crawfords.  Right now I’m not inclined to offer Raymour & Flanigan even a single mark.  I’ve said this before…things go wrong, and the mark of an organization or individual is not that they make mistakes but how they react to that mistake.  The Raymour & Flanigan reaction so far is best described as lethargic.

We need more furniture.  Lots more!  Where will we go to look for it?  Certainly not to a company that takes your money, delivers fast and then makes you wait at least 2 weeks before you can hope to use the piece.  No, we’ll head to Crawfords.