An HTC DoA: Part 4
Continued from Part 3.
So the unthinkable has happened - I actually received the shipping label from HTC yesterday! I immediately boxed up the phone and dropped it at a nearby FedEx box, and then proceeded to hammer the F5 key on the FedEx tracking screen.
Also to my surprise was the fact that the shipping label was for Priority Overnight shipping, and that the package reached its destination at 7:45am (PST) this morning! I'll update this post later on when HTC contacts me regarding my refund.
Update (07/16/2010): Still no contact from HTC. However, after re-reading the initial email they sent, it does state:
Once we receive the items we will review the condition and we will contact you by phone or email if we have any further questions. If no additional information is needed a refund should show on your credit card within 14 business days of receipt of the return.
So at this point I'll be sitting back and waiting for my credit card balance to update. I did end up ordering the replacement phone from Google on Tuesday, and it arrived (in working condition, no less!) this morning! Good thing, to, because I hear that this is Google's last batch of N1's that they'll be selling through the web store....
Concluded in Part 5.
An HTC DoA: Part 2
Continued from Part 1.
Day four of the return process and no real progress to report. According to the details given to me by HTC on Monday (see part 1), I should have received a shipping label in my email the following day. When I didn't, I called HTC support back. The agent I spoke with told me to check my spam folder (already done - nothing), and then said that she would 'escalate the ticket' and a label sent out right away. I thanked her, disconnected, and waited.
And waited.
End of day Wednesday rolled around and still no shipping label. I called HTC again and was told that it can take an extra day when things go through the escalation process and that I should expect it to show up in my email no later than Thursday.
Well, here we are on Thursday and still no label.
I called HTC yet again, and was told that yes, I should have received the shipping label today. The agent then proceeded to tell me that he update the ticket, 'increase the priority', and that I should keep waiting.
Really, HTC? I'm normally a pretty patient guy, but come on! I've heard of American customers getting new, replacement phones within days, but we Canadians need to go through this gong show of a return process and then re-purchase the device because otherwise we end up a refurbished phone instead of a new one. This is bad PR, people. It's time to start spreading the news.
Find out what happens next in Part 3.
An HTC DoA: Part 1
When Google first offered the Nexus One in Canada (by making a GSM version for AT&T, which is compatible with Rogers, Telus, and Bell in Canada), I jumped on. I had my order in the day the web store was updated, and in my hands by the end of the same week. Despite the cost, I consider it the best gadget purchase I've ever made.
Fast-forward to last week. With my wifes birthday coming up, I thought it would be nice to surprise her with a trip to the local Telus dealer (her carrier) for a shiny new phone. After looking at their offerings (the only two real considerations were the Motorola Milestone and the HTC Hero), she decided that she'd come down with a case of Phone Envy and wanted a Nexus One as well.
So, no big deal - we ordered the phone and waited. Unfortunately, due to the stat holiday on July 1st, the phone didn't arrive on Friday like expected and instead came in yesterday (the following Monday). I left the phone plugged in to charge, and when the light turned green to say all was well I fired it up.
And waited.
And waited some more.
The Boot Screen on my other, unlocked (and functional) Nexus One
After about five minutes of staring at the above picture (minus the lock on the bottom, as I hadn't gotten around to doing that yet), I got the feeling something was wrong.
I powered off the phone by pulling out the battery, then booted in to HBOOT mode (hold down the VOLUME DOWN key while pressing Power). That worked fine, so I tried to enter recovery. Unfortunately, I was met with the same screen. I tried several more times for both normal mode and recovery without success. Then I gave up and called Google.
At this point, I'd like to point out that I'm fairly certain it's just a software error. Unfortunately, the only way I could really do anything about that would be to Unlock the phone, which voids the warranty. As such, the call to support was warranted.
I called the number listed on the Google Phone Contact Support page (1-888-48-NEXUS) and after a few quick IVR choices I was greeted nearly immediately by a tech. He asked about the problem, what I had tried, and immediately agreed the phone was D0A and would need to be replaced. That's when things started to go downhill.
The problem is that I live in Canada, and HTC has a different policy for international orders than their standard 'send you a replacement and then send the old one back' policy for domestic ones. If you live in Canada and get a DoA phone, you have two options:
- Send it back via their normal repair process and get a refurbished phone (no option for a new one)
- Initiate a 'Buyers Remorse' return, get a refund for the device, and then order a new one.
The choice was fairly obvious - I ordered my wife a new phone, so that's what she was going to get. After gathering a little more information, the Google tech transfered me over to HTC support to process the return order.
As the new tech was going over the specifics, a thought occurred:
Me: Okay, so I do the return, and within 14 business days of you receiving the device and okay'ing everything, you credit the purchase price back, correct?
Tech: Yes, that's correct.
Me: So what about the duty charge that I had to pay CoD?
Tech: Oh, that. Hang on. --Pause-- Okay, I checked on that, and what happens is you'll get some paperwork from us once the refund has been processed. Once you have that paperwork, contact Customs and they'll be able to issue a refund.
So at this point, I may have to wait three weeks for credit from HTC (although apparently it usually doesn't take that long), and then I can file a claim to get my ~$70CAD that I paid for taxes back.
All was said and done, and I prompted received a confirmation email repeating what the agent said. However, as of posting I still haven't received a FedEx shipping label in my email as promised. I called HTC back, and they escalated the ticket and said they'd resend the label, so now I'm waiting on that. Once I've got the label in and the phone sent away, I'll order another N1 and see what happens.
Howto: Find the Serial Number on a new Dell Monitor
I picked up a few Dell P2210t 22" widescreen LCD monitors the other day.
Very nice!
As part of my asset acquisition process, I have to document serial numbers and assign an asset tags to each new asset. When I turned the monitor around, though, I ran in to a problem:
WTH?
Hey, uh, Dell? Did you forget something?
Well, actually they didn't. Apparently all of the required labeling is too much of an 'eye sore', so Dell has decided to hide it:
Pretty Sneaky, Dell
I would have appreciated it if Dell would have made more of an effort to point out where it is (I actually had to refer to the unpacking diagram to show me), but that's it. Hidden with the USB ports is a small little pull-out card. Now that I know it's there, though, it does make it easier to get a serial number off of a monitor when I have to figure out which asset belongs to which program when someone has inevitably pulled off the asset tag.
Fun Fact - Number of times the word 'ass' appears in this post: 6.
Dell Packaging
I ordered a bunch of new kit last week, and in typical Dell fashion they decided to send the order to me as they get the parts, rather than just send it all at once. This morning, I received the first piece:
Seriously, Dell? All that for one lousy DVI extension cable? Well, at least they're still better than HP.
BIOS Updates on the MSI Wind U123
I've been updating the BIOS on my MSI Wind U123 religiously since I got it, hoping each time that the latest update will finally allow me to boot, well, anything other than DOS from my class 6 SDHC card (so far, no dice). Went I went to apply the latest update, though, I was greeted with a slightly different message than normal:
ERROR: BIOS has no flash information available
As it turns out, this message doesn't actually state than the end of the world is near, or that you'll never be able to update your BIOS. In fact, all it means is that the laptop isn't connected to AC power and is running off the battery. Simply plug in your laptop and the update will run without issue.
Now why couldn't they have just said that in the first place?
Windows Cannot Connect to the Printer: 0x0000007e/0×00000006
An HP P4015dn - This morning, the bane of my existence
Windows 7 has been very good to me so far, but this morning I was literally pounding my desk in frustration over a printer issue. I just received two brand-new Dell Optiplex 780's and was in the process of configuring the printers on them when I happened across this little message:
Windows Cannot Connect to the Printer: 0x0000007e
Now here's the situation. The computers are running Windows 7 Professional x64. The printer (an HP P4015dn) is connected to a Windows XP x86 machine and shared normally. Of all of our printers, this is the only one directly shared with a computer due to a wiring issue I have yet to correct (although now I'm going to make an effort to fix it). I have several other computers running XP and Vista (x86 and x64) that already print this computer without issue, so I was rather stumped. Then I realized I had attempted to install the Vista x64 Postscript drivers instead of the Windows 7 ones.
Unfortunately, Windows 7 no longer provides a dedicated 'Printers' control panel, and the 'Devices and Printers' one doesn't have a Server Properties option to let you manage installed drivers. So, I stopped the print spooler service and manually deleted the drivers from C:\Windows\System32\spool\Drivers. When I tried to re-add the printer, though, I got this message:
Windows Cannot Connect to the Printer: 0x00000006
Hmm. Google wasn't much help, so I went to an old standby - I mannually added the network printer by choosing to create a local port (silly, I know). Here's how to get this working:
- In the Devices and Printers control panel, choose Add a Printer.
- In the new window, click Add a local printer.
- On the following screen, select Create a new port, and then choose Local Port from the drop-down list and click Next.
- When asked to enter a Port Name, use the full path to the printer. For example, if your printer share is called Dave and is a computer with the name PrintSrv1, you would enter \\PrintSrv1\Dave as the Port Name. If you receive an error saying The network path was not found, check the computer name and share name, then try again.
- You should be asked to install a driver. Manually download the correct driver (in this case, the HP Universal PostScript driver worked for my HP P4015dn) from the manufacturer's website and extract it to a folder on your computer. Then click the Have Disk... button in the Add Printer wizard and point it to that folder, then click OK and Next.
- Wait for it to install the driver.
At this point, the printer should be installed and functional. Print a test page to make sure everything worked alright, and then do a little dance (as long as no one is looking)!
From the Search Results: Processors
To the person who found my blog by searching "does intel quad q6600 work with windows":
Yes. Yes it does.
From the Search Results: Backing Up
To the person who found my blog by searching for "raid 1 backup", please note: RAID IS NOT AN ACCEPTABLE BACKUP SOLUTION!
Any method of RAID (other than RAID0) is good for protecting against failing hard drives. However, it is by no means a backup solution, as it doesn't save your data from things like accidental deletion, file system corruption, users, and malicious software. If you're looking for a backup solution, investigate external hard drives, SAN/NAS devices, tape backup units, etc....
Please. For the sake of your data, get a real backup solution.
Short: Kensington 0, Me 1
Kensington makes a decent desktop lock. However, they're nothing that ten minutes and a pair of wire snips can't take care of - it's a very effective way of unlocking a case when the key has been lost for years....
As a side note, the magnets in old hard drives make for a perfect method of removing small metal shards from ones flesh. Just sayin'.
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