phone tree rage

I'm setting up my office finally this week. See, when we moved into the Presidio, I was neck deep working on the music assets to Battlefront 2.

quick aside: does it seem to anyone else like neck should be spelled kneck? It feels like it should to me today. Knock, know, kneck. See?

Anyway, Battlefront 2. Yeah, so I'm done with it now. This means that when I moved into my office, I only really had time to set up my office enough to keep working on the project (to be read as: only functionally enough to do music editing). Well, now I'm going ahead and setting up everything else: software instruments, computer upgrades, integrating Gigastudio into Logic 7, etc.

I have three Gigastudios in my office right now. Ultimately, they're all going to be linked to one monitor via a monitor switcher. They're not at the moment because - somehow - the 5 volt power adapter to the monitor switcher didn't make the move with us over to the Presidio.

This means I had to order one. [Cue Jesse ranting.] The company that makes the monitor switcher is called IO Gear. When I first ordered the part, they said "We're back ordered right now. When we get them in next week, we'll send them out to you."

Fine. No prob. Except that when the next week rolled around, it never arrived. I called them and was told "Oh, sorry. Yeah, we're back ordered on that. When they get in, we'll send it out to you. You should have it by September 12th."

Yesterday was the 20th and I still didn't have it. I called again. Here's a run-down of the customer service Hiroshima that I dealt with:

1. I navigate a vague and mildly confusing automated phone tree for a while. Eventually, First Guy answers the phone and then gets really happy when he realizes he doesn't have to talk to me because he can funnel me off to someone else.

2. After waiting on hold for about 5 minutes, I find out he funneled me to the voice mail for their Strategic Marketing Manager. There's no way to back out to the main menu. I have to hang up, call again, navigate the same stupid phone tree, and wait for someone to answer.

3. I get the same guy when I call back. He acts like he's a different guy, despite his unique voice. He tosses me off into the phone system for a while again.

4. After a wait, I get a guy who's pretty knowledgeable. When I tell him I placed an order over the phone, he responds with "WHAT?! We're not supposed to do that! Who did you talk to?!" I didn't know. "What's the case number?" They never gave me one. "Wow ... We're not supposed to be doing business like that. Let me put you on hold for a moment."

5. This time, the phone system kicks in and says "Your average wait time will be [4] minutes." After four minutes, it tells me to leave them a message so that someone can call me back. If I don't want to leave a message, I can go back to the main on-hold queue.

5. I go back to being on hold (no one ever calls you back when you leave a message on a customer support line). After 27 minutes of being on hold, I hang up.

All for a freakin' power plug. Today I called back and - not all that surprisingly - they told me that "We're back ordered. You should have it by Monday the 25th."

We'll see about that, IO Gear.