A Tale of Bad Customer Support… With a Happy Ending

For my domain email needs I use Rackspace and, for the most part, have been happy. Over the past several months though, I have had issues with their webmail freezing when using Chrome on my Windows 7 work machine. Because I only use webmail to check and purge spam, I never really decided to do anything about it. That was until this week.

Earlier this week my payment to Rackspace did not go through. Curious as to why this is the case, I logged into the control panel and started a live chat with one of their support representatives. Because it was a billing issue, they suggested I email their billing department as they couldn’t help me. This type of thing is frustrating, but common with most companies. Since I had support on live chat I decided to inquire about Google Chrome support. I opened a ticket the previous day about this issue but had not heard back from anyone. Over 24 hours to reply to a ticket is not the type of support I was used to. On the live chat, I was told that Chrome wasn’t officially supported. This kind of shocked me. Chrome is now the #3 browser and is already at version 10. It’s hardly a beta product. It should be something that they support. I was left kind of disappointed.

Since I got my answer to my ticket in live chat, I went in and closed the ticket I had opened. When closing it you get to rate the helpfulness of support. Since no one bothered to reply to the ticket, I gave it the lowest rating possible; a 0 out of 5. I did have to go out of my way to get an answer to an already submitted ticket, after all. Within an hour of closing the ticket I receive a call from an unrecognizable number. It happened to be Rackspace. They wanted to make sure I was satisfied and apologized for my dissatisfaction with the ticket I had opened. They gave me correct information about Chrome (it’s a problem with Chrome and Windows 7 when you have new email sound notification enabled, it freezes the browser) and apologized for not responding to the ticket and making me seek support from the live chat.

Needless to say, what started out as a bad customer experience turned out to be a good one. Rackspace knew I was dissatisfied and they made up for it. After rating tickets and surveys and performance with just about every company that asks for them, I honestly was not expecting anything to come from that low rating. Nothing ever does. To my surprise, Rackspace did. It shows they are willing to go the extra mile to make sure they have happy customers.

Kudos Rackspace.

First Thoughts on the iPad 2

So, I did get an iPad 2. I woke up at 3am to place my order and received it less than a week later. In fact, I’m blogging from it now. Here are my first thoughts on the machine.

First off, let me say I do not regret my purchase. The iPad is every bit as awesome as I thought it would be. I’ve used it browsing the web, reading my RSS feeds, reading books, and playing games. I use Reeder for feed reading. The app is great on the iPhone but the iPad reader is extraordinary. I thought it would take some time to get used to reading books in iBooks, but it hasn’t. I actually enjoy it. The app that I use, and love, the most is Zite. It’s a news app that creates a personalized newspaper for the user. The interface is great and it incorporates so many different news sources you will always finde something interesting to read.

The keyboard will take some getting used to. I try to type without looking at the keyboard, but because the keyboard is smaller than a physical keyboard it does make it difficult to do at times. Once you get in the rhythm of the layout, it becomes easier and easier. The web browsing is surprisingly fast, thanks to the changes in iOS 4.3 and the dual core processor. I’ve not played any graphics heavy games, but I’m sure that will change with time.

The smart cover is also an ingenious product from Apple. The stands it creates are perfect for typing and watching video and it does protect screen. I do have to minor issues with it. It tends to leave bars down te screen where the creases meet the glass. This can be solved by wiping it with a soft cloth, but it is still kind of annoying. The other issue is that it does not protect the back. I’m not interested in protecting the back from damage, a smart cover would not do that. It would be nice if it protected it from dirt though.

Anyway, I love my new iPad and am so glad I finally got one. I can’t wait to see what other apps and uses I can find.

iPad 2

Tomorrow, or more accurately at 3am this morning, I will be ordering the iPad 2. I’ve been wanting an iPad for a long time. I love my iPhone and would love to have an iPad to blog, browse the net, read books, etc on. Basically, I’ll be using my iPad as a replacement for my MacBook. I rarely do anything besides simple tasks on my MacBook, so I think it will be a great replacement.

My mom has an iPad. I know, how in the world did my mom leap over me in the tech world? I can’t answer that. I do know that she loves her iPad and is almost constantly on it. Whether she’s using it for work or playing her kids in Words With Friends, she never seems to be without it.

One of the biggest things I’ll use the iPad for is reading books. I’ve wanted an e-reader for quite a long time. I love to read books and am one of those odd people that prefer to purchase all my books. I’ve never been a huge fan of utilizing the library. I have no idea why. Anyway, because I love to read and love purchasing the books I want to read, my bookshelves have gotten quite crowded. Having an iPad will help reduce the clutter. They will all be stored on my virtual bookshelf. History books I will still probably purchase physical copies of but novels will be ebooks, I’m sure.

So, in a few short hours I hope to be ordering a 32 GB white iPad 2 and Smart Cover. The hard part will be waiting for it to arrive.

Three In a Year

It’s really amazing to think that 12 months ago I had 4 living grandparents and now I have 1. It has been a rough year, for sure.

With my grandparents on my dad’s side, the deaths were at least somewhat expected. My grandpa was having some health issues and went into the hospital. A couple of days later he was dead. We were at least able to say goodbye to him. With my grandma, we expected her death long before she actually died. She suffered from Alzheimer’s and other health issues that had to do with her being confined to a wheelchair. I’m sure we all thought she would pass before my grandpa, but she didn’t. She survived for 10 months after my grandfather passed.

My grandpa on my mom’s side was a huge shock though. One day he was completely fine and the next he was gone. He died from an abdominal aneurysm. He was a great man and I will miss him dearly.

With all the sadness that my family has experienced over the past 12 months, I really hope that the next 12 are full of happiness. I just can’t help but wondering when the string of bad luck will end.