On Kindles, Kitchens and Customer Service

I just thought I’d round off a few outstanding issues from previous posts … (yes, I know you’ve been hanging out to find out where my life has got too).

Firstly, my Kindle saga  …

I did, despite the flagged capitulation in my last post, contact Amazon.com and got them to again fix up their system so I wouldn’t be charged for my replacement kindle.

Two weeks later, they charged me for it anyway …

I had to laugh when I contacted them (again) to get this charge reversed and their excuse was that a contractor took my call and they couldn’t be held responsible for the error … I mean “Say what?”.

Anyway, the good news is that (I’m told, hopefully not by another contractor) that this charge will get reimbursed.  The better news is that when I was trying to find out how to contact Amazon.com (they don’t make it easy trust me) I did discover that Amazon has now opened an Australian site which means I can now buy books in Australian Dollars.

Yay Amazon!

Next the Kitchen  …

This was the kitchen that was 100% going to be finished when I got back from overseas … but didn’t quite get there.

Not much happened with finishing the kitchen for two months, but then in a flurry of activity last week (as Steph tried to tie up a number of loose jobs before heading interstate for a month) my kitchen suddenly sprouted splashback tiles and cupboard doors …

Yes, I did just move all the crap that’s accumulated on my breakfast bar  out of frame to make it look like I keep my kitchen clean

Voila .. one cupboard door.  (ignore the gap under the oven, that’s what I’m doing).

There’s still a few things that need doing on Steph’s return (for example as I’m typing this I’m tapping my foot on a rusty nail sticking out of a skirting board that needs re-attaching under my desk) but I think it’s still well on track to be 100% finished when I get back from overseas … in 2015, or maybe 2016 (I kid, I kid).

Finally, I have a disappointing tale to finish on … just over two weeks ago I wrote a bit of a gushing post about the new AvantiPlus Store in Sandy Bay.

I was really impressed with their service and at the time they promised me that they’d order in all the parts needed for a full bike service and give me a call in a week to get the bike back in good condition. I did check and they confirmed that if I hadn’t heard from them in two weeks I should give them a call as they may have forgotten.

It’s been two weeks now and that’s disappointing.

I gave up on a certain bike shop on Elizabeth Street a few years ago after spending thousands of dollars with them because they always took a month to get parts in that I could usually order for half the cost online and get delivered in a week.

I like (and do) support my local bike shops, but there has to be a parity in service from them to make that support worthwhile.

I’ll give Avantiplus a call on Monday and there may be a logical explanation, but I really thought I’d found a great team down there and I feel like I’ve had my first let down in a new relationship.

Aren’t I sensitive.

Next on my list of Impossible Missions … trying to get someone at TasWater to believe me that they are billing me for my neighbours water usage (the water pipes for the units behind my property run under my property and TasWater just put a single water meter on this pipe and are sending me the bill for it) … so far I’ve only written to them three times about this and had two of their plumbers come out and confirm it, but still the bills come and now they’re charging me for water usage … so I guess the warm up is over …  time to get serious.