I bought a dress online from
Newport News back in July.
This was what the online photo advertised it looked like. When I received it, it was dingy gray and shapeless. I looked like Cinderella cleaning the chimney in that dress, prior to her transformation. So I returned the dress last month, via UPS. With the tracking number, I knew that it got delivered back to Newport News on 8/22. So yesterday, after checking my credit card and it was still not credited, I emailed their customer service...
ME:
I returned my order via the enclosed UPS label. UPS tracking says you received it on 8/22/08, but I still have not received the refund on my credit card yet.
Customer Number:
053159****
Invoice No:
00074****
The UPS tracking number was
1Z 023 Y24 90 0741 ****
Please check and issue my refund as soon as possible.
Thanks.
Newport-News Customer Service Response #1:
We want to take this opportunity to let you know that you should allow 4-6 weeks for your return to be processed. Your credit should appear on your next or following statement. We appreciate your patience in this matter and hope this information has been helpful. If 4-6 weeks have already passed please let us know the date your package was returned and also the method used to return to us.
If you need further assistance, please reply to this email and one of our Internet Customer Service Representatives will be happy to assist you or visit us on the web at
http://www.newport-news.com.
We appreciate your business and look forward to hearing from you again soon.
Sincerely,
Gail G.
Newport News Internet Customer Service
ME again:
OK yea. You were NOT so helpful with the copy and paste answer. I ALREADY TOLD YOU in my original email that I shipped it back via the UPS label that
Newport News provided to me, and I even gave you the tracking number, which UPS says was delivered back to you on August 22nd. It would REALLY help if you actually READ the customer service emails prior to copying and pasting in your pat answers.
I find the 4-6 weeks to process the return unacceptable. It took you one day to process my original order and charge my credit card, but when I return something to you it takes 4-6 WEEKS to credit my credit card???? If this is really the case, I will NEVER shop with you again. I have never returned anything to any online merchant that it took 4-6 weeks to credit my credit card. That is absolutely UNACCEPTABLE.
Newport-News Customer Service Response #2:
We are very sorry you feel this way. However as Gail did say, it does take up to 4 to 6 weeks to process and issue a credit for returned merchandise. Since this time as not yet passed, please allow some additional time to complete your return.
If you need further assistance, please reply to this email and one of our
Internet Customer Service Representatives will be happy to assist you or visit us on the web at
http://www.newport-news.com.
We appreciate your business and look forward to hearing from you again soon.
Sincerely,
Lloyd
D.
Newport News Internet Customer Service
************
Needless to say, I'll NEVER shop there again. I've never returned anything I've purchased online and had to wait 4-6 weeks for the refund to my cc after they've received it. NEVER.
Before the carnage started.
The ice cream cake was still very firm but John managed to avoid injury.
Interest in the treats was high!
As it is every month, it was fun. But today I have other things to talk about.
I recently read about the origins of MRI technology and how it came to be used extensively in medicine. It's a wonderful application of technology that allows for non-invasive diagnosis of many, many conditions including many cancers. MRI stands for "Magnetic Resonance Imaging." What I didn't know is it was initially called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NMRI).
Why was the "N" dropped? One reason is a fear that the public wouldn't accept the machine if they thought it would bombard them with "dangerous nuclear radiation." In fact, that's not what happens when you go in the machine. But the word "nuclear" is politically charged and the population at large is not scientifically educated enough to deconstruct the terminology.
As a science-and-logic-loving guy, the poor level of scientific and philosophical education that we see in the public at large distresses me. Today, I'm focusing on science.
I don't know if leaving "nuclear" in the name would have proved problematic. It might have. What if some entity (a company selling a competing but inferior technology for instance) decided to try to scare the public away from the new NMRI machines? Would we then today have fewer of the machines around and miss out on the benefits?
Non-hypothetical examples abound relating to such topics as evolution, genetic engineering, nuclear power, stem cell research, and on and on. I don't want to turn this post into advocacy for something specific so I'll move on.
And you know who is not helping? The media. Here is a recent headline from the UK:
Crumbs: half of Britons injured by their
biscuits on coffee break, survey reveals
Yikes, I love cookies (cookies = biscuits in the UK). Should I be worried?
Well, no.
The reality of the situation is described comprehensively here. In brief...
"Half of Britons" is 25 million people. It's completely unclear where that number comes from based on the study (and I use that term loosely) that was published. A number that is clear is the 500 people were hospitalized due to incidents which occurred while eating cookies. The hospitalizations were a result of such mishaps as "falling off a chair reaching for the [cookie] tin" and "being bitten by a pet." 500 is rather shy of 25,000,000. And I'm sure those people would have been much better off eating ice cream! <smirk>
Digging deeper, we find that the study was conducted by a group of high school students at the behest of a cookie manufacturer. Oddly enough, names of the sponsoring company's products made it in to the press release but the same can't be said for competitors' products.
So there we have it, the whole thing was just a bit of creative advertising. It was wrapped in scientific language and released as news. And the media - they ate it up and presented it for public consumption so to speak.
I have more stories but I think this post is long enough already.
Maybe a couple of my more gullible coworkers felt safer because I chose to serve brownies rather than cookies. I will console myself with the thought that Listgirl readers will no longer fall for such chicanery.
At least I have a great husband who poses for fun pictures, and he's always optimistic and cheers me up.
Last night came and went as Veronica Mars quietly exited the tv kingdom. The CW has canceled VM after 3 seasons. Todd and I watched the two hour series finale and bid her goodbye. I'm sad that yet another smartly written show with a strong female lead character has gone away. Just like Buffy. I only watch 3-4 tv shows regularly, and this was one of them. I don't like shows like Lost, where the mythology goes on and on and nothing gets resolved. I can't bother to give them one hour of my time a week, only to have no resolution at year's end. I hate that. Won't do it. I hate reality shows. Todd and I might be the only people in the USA who don't watch American Idol or Dancing With the Stars. The thing about reality shows... who really cares? I guess millions of Americans do. To me it's unscripted dumbed-down tv. I don't like to remind myself how depraved human beings can be, or why Darwinism SHOULD work for those idiots they show on tv. So goodbye Veronica. It never rains in southern California.