A Company You Want To Avoid! Help Me Boycott!
September 9, 2006
This mostly only concerns computer nerds like myself, but if you’ve ever ordered computer components online such as memory or Flash cards for your digital camera, then you might want to read this.
I recently ordered some memory from an online company called UpgradeNation.com, and the deal soon went very sour. You can read all about it below. Anyhow, I am just letting everyone I know to steer clear of these guys and to join me in a boycott of their business. If you could also, send them an email saying that you’re my friend and that you are also upset about what they are doing and pledge to never buy from them.
CustomerService@upgradenation.com
If this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s yet another internet boycott in the style of the famous Maddox Orbitz boycott that happened a year ago.
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=orbitz_blows
Alright, here’s the official letter of complaint I sent to UpgradeNation.com and it explains the whole story.
>Being Letter.
To whom it may concern,
On August 18, 2006 I had ordered 2 sticks of 512MB DDR333 SODIMM RAM from your company’s online store. When I received my order, the contents did NOT match what I had ordered. I had received two sticks of DDR400 RAM which was not compatible with my machine. I know that your company did this because DDR400 RAM is usually cheaper and usually compatible with any DDR333 system.
I contacted your customer service and the agent assigned to my order was Mitul. He got my RMA in order and I sent the bad order back in. This Mitul fellow of yours was always quite brief and inconsiderate with me. I understand that you may be a busy company, but this kind of behavior towards your customers is unacceptable.
Today, I received the reship of my order and it was the correct DDR333 memory. However, I ran memtest86+ on these sticks and it reported over 100 errors with just one pass. Once again, I know that you sent me defective memory in the hopes that you could save some money thinking that I would never find out.
As I write this letter, my main workstation is still not functional because it has no memory. Your company has set me behind at least three weeks in my work, and I am very frustrated. I am an audio engineer that gets paid hourly for my work. If I wished to, I could sue over this ordeal and get quite a hefty sum in reparations for the work time lost because of your company’s negligence. This is an obvious bait and switch scenario and I am appalled that your company has the balls to call itself a trustworthy vendor with such thieving business practices.
I am hereby issuing this letter of complaint for the following grievances:
1. Not once did I ever receive an apology for this entire ordeal.
2. Your customer service was always quite brief and inconsiderate with me.
3. Your company deviated from my order TWICE, INTENTIONALLY just to save money.
4. Your company has set me behind three weeks in my work because my main workstation as of right now STILL does not have memory.
I hereby demand:
1. A full letter of apology.
2. A no-bullshit, full refund for all costs I have incurred, including RMA shipping charges. This means no restocking fees or any other fine print.
Failure to comply with these demands will mean that I will be forced to take legal action for the work time that I have lost as a direct result of your company’s negligence, for false advertising and fradulent business practices, and for any other possible damages that have resulted from this ordeal. A failure to comply will also mean that I will be forced to take this to the appropriate law enforcement officials who will investigate these fraudulent business practices of yours.
I could easily contact every single person I know and relay this story to them and tell them to never purchase from your company and have those people tell everyone they know and etcetera. I could easily rally up the hundreds of other people you have frauded, as evident on your ResellerRatings.com reviews page, and have them join my campaign as well. I could easily become a vigilante and turn this into my own personal vendetta. I could easily turn this into the horror stories that you have heard of small online companies being ruined by dissatisfied customers who have boycotted their business to the point where it is impossible for them to continue. I could easy do any of this, but as I have already told you, I am busy, and already behind on my work. I am giving you the option of the quiet way out, and although it pains me to not see justice carried out, I simply do not have the time to make sure that you never fraud anyone else again.
I want your company to consider this seriously and make serious changes to the way it conducts business. In the cutthroat world of online business, even one dissatisfied customer can turn into a swarm of people bent on killing your company. I’m sure there are others out there who feel the same as I do, and I am telling you that if this continues, IT WILL eventually ruin you in the fashion that I have described above – if it is not me, it will be someone else, and I can guarantee this. I hope it doesn’t have to go that far before your company learns its lesson.
Please respond as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Ted J——
>End Letter.
I know I said I wouldn’t boycott, but I thought about it and decided that this was too important. Spread the word so that other people won’t be screwed over by this company’s crap!
BOO! Our fear-mongering Secretary of Defense made some rash comments.
>Begin Rant.
The fear-mongerers of this administration have gone too far. They wish to relate everything with “9/11″ and “terrorists”. It is the exact strategy that the Party used in Oceania in George Orwell ’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, and I fear that “WAR IS PEACE” has become the very slogan of this government – using a constant state of war (the “War on Terror“) to psychologically and economically oppress its citizens and keep domestic peace.
Let us also not forget that this administration has failed to even do anything about 9/11. Allowing Usama Bin Laden to escape so easily was no accident; this administration obviously had no interest in Usama Bin Laden to begin with. They used 9/11 as an opportunity to take advantage of people’s fears and anger in order to capture Afghanistan and then allow Usama Bin Laden to “escape”. What was their real goal? Disbanding the Taliban, handing control of Afghanistan to the local warlords, and then instating a puppet government that will give the United States control of Afghanistan’s oil and natural resources.
The exact same strategy was then used in Iraq: scare the people with something, invade the country, and then instate a puppet government to take over its resources. The only reason this government wants to crush the insurgency in Iraq is because they do not want their oil refineries being bombed once they leave the country. It has nothing to do with “getting Iraq on its feet”, and the myriad discrepancies between this administration’s promises and its actions have clearly shown this.
Along comes Donald Rumsfeld. In a speech he gave on Tuesday in front hundreds of war veterans, he spouted that those who are critical of this administration’s handling of the Iraq war are part of a “new kind of fascism”. Rumsfeld equated the critics’ refusal to “confront the terrorists” to the actions of Nazi-appeasers who would not politically confront Hitler during the 1930s, allowing him to come to power. Let us not ignore the irony of his analogy if we simply flip the role of “Hitler” from the “terrorists” to this administration … Hmm, who are the fascists now? Why is it that “WAR IS PEACE“, “FREEDOM IS SLAVERY“, and “IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” are increasingly becoming a reality in our country? Even more infuriating than the erroneousness of Rumsfeld’s analogy is that he had the balls to say this in front of war veterans who fought valiantly to save the very freedom that he and this administration are now trying to destroy. This is the very type of “fascism” (as Rummy erroneously put it) that we’re purportedly trying to eliminate elsewhere in the world, but it is obvious that the “War on Terror” is not a fight for justice in our world. It is a Crusade through which this administration can take its people’s attention away from domestic politics so that it can seed a fascist regime within our own capital.
This administration controls all three branches of government, have transcended above our system of checks and balances, and have stood virtually unopposed in everything they’ve done, and yet they’re bitching that they’re being persecuted? Yes, gee, 70% of the nation disagrees with you … I wonder why? MAYBE YOU’RE DOING SOMETHING WRONG.
We are losing more and more of our rights every day and our government is turning into the very terror that we’re purportedly fighting overseas. Iranian President Ahmadinejad recently challenged President George W. Bush to an unedited and uncensored live television debate, to which the White House responded with the predictable criticism-dodging that Iran was trying to divert attention away from the nuclear issue. Funny … it seems the White House is the one diverting attention from something … State Department spokesman Tom Casey said, “It’s somewhat odd for the president of a country that represses all debate within its own society to be talking about free and open exchange of ideas.” This from an administration that squashes debate by branding anyone who opposes them as “dissenters” and “terrorists“, and most recently, “fascists” and “Nazis“. This is despicable. The greater crime lies with the Bush Administration, not President Ahmadinejad because this government pretends that we are a democracy with free and open speech and then believes that it has the moral authority to go around the world with its army and tell others how their countries should be run!
You know what … forgive me for this rant. I am wrong. This administration is following the correct strategy by equating the “terrorists” to “Hitler” and their political opponents to “Nazis”. This way, we can stop the evil terrorist Goldstein from destroying this great nation. Only by channeling all our people’s hate and energies against Goldstein can we stop his terrorist insurgency from threatening us on our soil. We will hunt him down abroad, so that we won’t have to fight him here. I am not saying that we will fight this war indefinitely, but when Eurasia can stand up, we will stand down. Goodnight, and God Bless Ameri – …
Wait … what? We’re at war with Eurasia right now? Eastasia is our ally? CHANGE THE FLAGS AND BANNERS! GOLDSTEIN HAS TRICKED US!!!
>End Rant.
Here is Keith Olbermann on Countdown, and his eloquent response to Rumsfeld’s comments. Though his first talking point on Britian during the 1930s takes an angle on the issue that I was too pussy to take, he and I basically agree on his second point which mirrors what I’ve said here. Enjoy as one of the few truthtellers we have left in news gives you his take on the issue.
