"A 5400 RPM hard drive is no different from a 7200 RPM hard drive"

Update Nov 27th: So I called in to ask for exact instructions on how to properly install all the drivers on my computer. Usually I do this myself, but I want to see if there was some faster automatic way to install the drivers. Upon installing the OS, I told them I wanted to setup to partitions, and the technician told me that DELL doesn't support this. WOW...what a bunch of crap!

Update Nov 27th: Today I finally got my 7200 RPM hard drive from Dell and I guess they really did run out of parts. Because the hard drive they sent me has a capacity of 300GB which is 160GB more than my old hard drive. About time something went my way!!!

This was what the Dell hardware department manager told me tonight. All I can say is...wow. This past week I've been dealing with Dell's utter bullcrap. My laptop hard drive mysterious died on me out of no where last week. No warning whatsoever. Just died on me. I was pretty devastated, but I figured with Dell's spectacular customer service and support I would resolve this problem with breeze.

So I called them Tuesday night and proceeded to wait a good 15-20 minutes. And finally I got to speak to a representative and proceeded to give them my laptop's service tag. Here was the response I got:

Sorry sir. But your service tag is not showing up on our systems. It appears that you haven't purchased a laptop from us.

I was like WTF? What do you mean I haven't bought a laptop from you? I am looking at a receipt that says I spent nearly two grand for this Dell laptop and you are telling me I didn't buy it from you? The representative told me I had to talk to the customer service department to fix this. Unfortunately, they were open only from 8 am to 8 pm. So I was basically out of luck tonight.

Frustrated I had to basically wait until tomorrow morning to get any help. So the following morning, I called in and explain my situation. Turns out because my original laptop had a problem and I had to get an exchange, the exchanged laptop's service tag never got registered with my account and thus it wasn't showing up. They explain to me that this would be fix within 24 hours. 48 hours at most. And they said they would call me back as soon as this has been fixed. 48 hours no call back. So I called back to get an update. And this time I wait over an hour to get any reasonable help. I got transferred from one department to another department and finally ended up in the customer service department who simply told me that I had to wait longer for the service tag to be registered.

GRRR! This was starting to piss me off. It's been over 3 days and I still haven't started to fix my laptop hard drive problem yet. I am still working on getting them to recognize the fact that I bought a laptop from them. The worst part was that the weekend was coming and the customer service department is closed on the weekends. So basically, I had to get this service tag issue solved today or else I would get no support till monday. So I ended up calling on Saturday and this time the service tag got registered. Yeah!

And after some chatting and testing, they acknowledge that the hard drive has indeed died and they would send me a new hard drive. I give them my shipping address and then proceed to wait for the new hard drive. When my new hard drive arrives I am pretty excited and pop it in and start doing all the drive installation and application installing.

However, there was one big problem. I noticed the system's installation was slower than pre-hard drive failure. I only noticed this because I use my laptop everyday with lots of computer intensive stuff. So I look into the model number of my hard drive and it turns out that the hard drive actually has a lower RPM. It is only 5400 RPM while the original one I had ordered was 7200 RPM!!! Ridiculous!!!

So I called Dell again and complained to them the situation and they tried to basically talk me out of it by saying that there was no difference between a 5400 and 7200 RPM hard drive. It all depends on the processor and memory of the laptop to make a difference. Well HELLO!?!?! My processor and memory is making a difference!! And even if it made no difference, I feel ripped off Dell. Because basically I paid more for this 7200 RPM and they are telling me it is the same now??!?! After some more arguing and scolding of Dell, they finally decided to send me a new hard drive with the 7200 RPM. Something they should have done in the beginning. And I told them that I found it absurd that they could even suggest to customers that there was no difference and hence that is why they sent me a lower quality hard drive.

After mentioning and scolding them on this issue, the technician looked into the issue and told me that the reason I got a 5400 RPM hard drive was because they ran out of 7200 RPM hard drives. What a bunch of crap!! You run of out of the equipment so you start sending lower quality equipment to make up for it? That's pathetic. Stupid Dell. Has really made me think twice about buying a computer from them again.

www.webserve.ca = world's worst webhost.webserve.ca

I can't even begin to express my frustration at Webserve. Two years ago, I purchased a domain and a webhosting package from Webserve thinking it was a real deal. I was only paying a little over $200 for 2 years of service with included a lot of great stuff in the package.

First started out good, but then I began to notice the website was consistently down. It seem every week there was a least a period where the website was slow or completely unreachable. Fed up, I called their supposedly great technical support to ask them what was going on. They of course, offered next to no advice other than the fact that their system was undergoing upgrades. After about a year of putting up with this garbage, I pretty much gave up on the host. And basically didn't use it anymore.

I can't exactly remember the details of the package, but I got an email the following year requesting that I pay an invoice to renew my domain. I didn't want to, so I just emailed them back saying I didn't want to renew. They redirected me to this online form which I had to fill to cancel. Which I did, and apparently my domain was canceled. I still had my hosting package for an entire year though so I just figured I would cancel that when the time came.

So a year goes by, and then I start getting these invoice requests for my domain name renewal. And I am thinking...what the heck? I already CANCELLED my domain. WHY ARE YOU REQUESTING FOR A DOMAIN RENEWAL? I tried to email to the helpdesk to get some answers, and they just kept redirecting me to that same online form to cancel the domain. But I ALREADY cancelled it, how do I cancel something that is already cancelled??!?!

And a few weeks later, I start getting invoice to renew my hosting package. At this point, I am totally baffled. I don't want my hosting package. I just want to cancel everything and not get ANYMORE invoices. How hard is that to ask? I email them again, and I get no responses. I call them to ask for support, and end up waiting in the phone queue for a good 30 mins, and then I am told to leave a voice message. Which I do explaining my current situation. Again NO REPLY.

How the heck does this company do business? Why does it take so LONG just to cancel a service at this company? Customer support/releations is NON-EXISTENT. I haven't spoken to anyone who has been remotely helpful. All I keep getting is redirection to other people who just redirect me again. I am going around in circles.

Today, I've spent over an hour on the phone just waiting. Still NO REPONSE.

DON'T USE WEBSERVE.

Stop spreading us your lies Translink!

On a bus ride to work, I requested a stop and started walking towards the exit. A passenger in front of me was allowed off first as I was still making my way to the exit. The bus driver then closed the door and was about to drive away from the stop just as I reached the exit. I asked politely to be let off, the bus driver refused claiming I was “walking too slow.” He then said I could get off the next stop, and started driving away from the stop. I was completely applauded. I asked for his name, and was met with the response that "I have no right to ask for his name." When I claimed I had every right because I was a customer, he said I was nothing more than a "passenger." Is that what users of your service are called? And Translink claims the fare hike was to improve the service for “customers”? Who are the customers? Stop spreading us your lies Translink.