Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!deimos.cis.ksu.edu!rutgers!njin!princeton!notecnirp!nfs
From: nfs@notecnirp.Princeton.EDU (Norbert Schlenker)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Prentice-Hall too fouled up for words
Summary: Horror
Keywords: Minix 1.3 Prentice-Hall horror foulup screed
Message-ID: <16382@princeton.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 14 Apr 89 20:43:17 GMT
References: <1053@myrias.UUCP> <2298@ast.cs.vu.nl>
Sender: news@princeton.Princeton.EDU
Reply-To: nfs@notecnirp.UUCP (Norbert Schlenker)
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Princeton University
Lines: 73

Well, I just got off the phone with Prentice-Hall's customer service people.
They are amazing.  The order department is just as amazing.  I am now tempted
to believe that the whole company is amazing.

On March 19, I ordered Minix 1.3 (the whole package, not the upgrade) along with
the reference manual.  I was assured that it was in stock.  I was told that it
would be shipped within three days.  Assuming that this was true, I asked them
to send it by UPS, and anticipated that it would arrive within a week.  (UPS has
yet to take more than a few days from anywhere in the country, and P-H told me
they were shipping out of a warehouse in New York.)  I had them bill it to my
Visa card.

Last week, not having received anything, I phoned P-H's order desk.  They shunted
me to customer service.  Customer service shunted me to individual customer
service.  At last, I was told that the order department had been out of its
mind on March 19 and that I would have to wait 3 to 3 1/2 weeks.  I complained,
but they said that was just the way it was.  I asked how it could take so long to
process an order, and was told that was just the way it was.  What can you do?  
I shrugged and waited some more.

Today is Friday.  The UPS truck has already been past my place.  The earliest
Minix would arrive now is Monday.  Since that would be 4 weeks from the date of
my order, I called customer service again.  No telephone shunting this time -
I had the number.

Customer service told me that my order had been entered TODAY.  Huh?  They told
me the paperwork would make it to their warehouse on Monday and that Minix
would be shipped Tuesday.  They told me I'd have it by the end of next week.
They had no explanation for the fact that my order had apparently been lost for
four weeks.  Perhaps it had been held up in credit, they said.  Not likely with
a Visa card, I replied.  Perhaps it had been held up in billing.  Not likely with
Visa.  They had no explanation for the fact that they told me last week
that I would have it this week.  They made no apologies for the fact that I
could have gotten it through Barnes and Noble two weeks ago (even via special
order) and they would have missed out on the difference between wholesale and
retail.  The supervisor told me she would look into it further.

Customer service even phoned me back after looking into it further.  They told
me again that they had no idea why my order was entered only today.  They did
offer to send me a package via FedEx on Monday - I was sure to have that by
Wednesday.  I agreed.  When I asked whether the other order could be cancelled,
I was told NO.  My order was apparently one of thousands, and they couldn't
cancel just one.  What about the paperwork that had to go to the warehouse and
wouldn't be there before Monday?  It had gone already.  How was my express
order going to make it to the warehouse by Monday?  It just would.  Couldn't a
cancellation make it to the warehouse by the same route?  NO!

So here is what we agreed to.  P-H will FedEx Minix 1.3 to me sometime Monday.
They will bill me for it godnosewhen, on an invoice.  The other copy, now in
the works, will apparently wend its way to me via some channel.  My Visa
account has already been charged.  When the slow copy arrives, I'm supposed to
refuse delivery.  When that gets back to the warehouse, my Visa account will
be credited.  I suspect that will be sometime around July, given P-H's record.

I haven't quite decided what to do about this mess yet, but let me give you
some advice.  If possible, buy Minix at a bookstore.  As a second resort,
order it through a bookstore on a special order - surely P-H can't afford to
alienate a book store in the way they have alienated me.  As a third resort,
order from their direct department, but don't do it on a Visa card.  Let them
send you a bill, and then pay them after an appropriate interval (two months
seems reasonable to me at this point).

In closing, let me say that everyone at Prentice-Hall was polite and friendly.
They just don't seem to know their ass from their elbow.  They have an order
system that loses orders, and they don't know why.  They have an order system,
apparently computerized, that requires physical transmittal of documents to
a warehouse and hence ensures an extra two day's delay in processing any order.
They have no audit trails.  No one is responsible for anything that goes on.
How do they manage to sell books?  How do they manage to get paid for them?
Why is this company still in business?


Norbert