Tivo Corporate is Effing Retarded

I’m writing this to vent and to also prepare anyone who may be thinking about buying a Tivo. This is what you can expect. I will be quoting the Tivo site in this post.

Ok so Im moving in with my girlfriend. I have become hooked on Tivo since my old roommate exposed me to it. Naturally I have to buy one for our place. So Last Friday I placed an order at 11:55 AM Est on the Tivo Website. Thinking that this

(When will my order ship?

Orders that are placed before 2:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) Monday through Friday (except Holidays) will ship that same day. Orders placed after the 2:00 PM EST deadline will not ship until the next business day.)

is going to happen.

So I’m thinking cool my Tivo will be in by Wednesday. I receive an automated email which is standard and old technology for online stores saying my order was received.

Tuesday I get another automated email saying my credit card was been charged and my unit should be shipping soon. So at this point I’m a little pissed and confused. You cant tell me it takes 3 days to complete an online transaction. I know better I sold online stores for a couple of years and I know just how easy online transaction processing is.

So I call Wednesday morning to try to find out if it has shipped and can I get a tracking number. Per This policy

(How do I find my tracking number?

If you provided a valid e-mail address when you ordered, you will receive an e-mail listing your tracking number when your order ships. If you do not receive a confirmation e-mail within three (3) business days of ordering or if you do not have an e-mail address, you can call the TiVo Sales Support Center at 800-292-9104 and we can track your shipment for you.

What should I do if I track my order and there appears to be a problem?

If you select Ground as your shipping method, it can take up to six days for your order to arrive. If it has been more than six days and your order has still not arrived, or if you selected 2nd or next-day service and your order is overdue, please contact the TiVo Sales Support Center at 800-292-9104.)

I call the number fuming and a nice little girl answers the phone. I ask her if she can get me a tracking number. She tells me she will have to request that from someone else and will have to call me back. I ask her to email me the information and she tells me they don't have email. That fact alone is fucking retarded in this day and age. SO im like cool she will call me back soon. 4 hours go by and no call. I call back and she tells me shes still waiting for the information. I give a firm yet not rude explanation of how easy it is to integrate real time tracking information in to an ordering system via some code that the shippers provided. She insists she has to wait for a call back. I call at 5 pm at closing time and they still can’t give me an answer. I got rude at this. I was like "so what your telling me is that I just have to wait and pray that my order ever ships?. " She was like "yes. "

Skip ahead to this morning. I call again and they still have no information for me. They used every excuse in the book. They even tell me that they only charge credit cards on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So basically don’t expect for your box to ship until Wednesday or Friday since they won’t ship out until they have received payment. They also told me they only receive email of the orders and they have to manually key it in to complete the sale. (This is fucking stuck in the dark ages of online commerce) Remember my first conversation where the first girl said they didn’t have email. They blamed UPS, the holidays ect. So about 11 I get an automated email from their website saying my box shipped on Wednesday. Im really happy about that. Only 5 day to process an order.

So finally 30 minutes ago I get a call from the first girl saying she got my tracking number for me. WHEEEEEEEEEEE!1!11111 I almost shot my water out my nose.

Anyway Im writing a letter and sending it to every manager or person that has anything to do with the management of this company. If there was a competing service out there I would have cancelled my order on Tuesday but they have a monopoly currently.

I needed to vent this one out.

S


PS My tivo will be delivered tomorrow. Only 8 days later.