AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

[dwenius]

I received a damaged packge via UPS this weekend. By my conservative and unscientific estimate, this is the 9th time out of 9 tries that UPS has succeeded in partially destroying a piece of electronics equipment entrusted to their care while I was either the shipper or recipient. Not that I am counting, mind you.

This particular device, a synthesizer fromm the 80s, is made of metal and was packed moderately well in a strong box, with layers of foam top and bottom and quite a lot of paper. Ok, I would have used a herculean amount of bubble wrap and foam peanuts, or paid for a sprayed-foam case, but that's moot; I wouldn't have used UPS in the first place. These damned starving musicians and their low budget attitude will be the death of me.

Upon inspection, the metal case of the unit was unblemished. No, not satisfied with the more usual forms of parcel torture, UPS decided in this instance to subject the box to a series of impacts so profound, internal components broke free and slammed around inside the chassis. Heavy components. I found a slider cap inside the synth. Re-attaching things together in a sane way might have been a mere matter of a few screws, but the real problem is that the synth no longer makes noise, and I DON'T KNOW WHY. It's a discrete device; every little resistor and cap is strewn across three separate PCBs, and two of those PCBs spent the better part of a week rubbing against each other like dry-humping teenagers, en route from Canada.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE. UPS, following their long-standing tradition of refusing to talk to customers, particularly customers with complaints, has now put their damage claim forms on the web. So I go to said form, and hey! The drop down menu (no free text allowed) knows about Canadian provinces! So I select Alberta, no problem, enter the postal code, other details, and submit.

Error on the Alberta postal code.

I try it in all caps, with a dash, with a space, lower case, mixed in both directions, and leaving it blank.

Error, error, error, error, error, error.

I know teenagers who are better with form design/parsing/error detection. This is BASIC SHIT, people: if you are going to parse and validate a form, then you should tell the user what formats you want via parenthetical example, and you MUST enforce continuity and parallelism across related fields. Hell, I make my guys work this way across the entire site, never mind ONE STINKING FORM. No, this level of brainlessness must be on purpose. UPS is merely taking their refusal to pay claims to a new low. So just remember folks: UPS is for losers. They suck like a black hole. If you entrust your valuables to them for any purpose whatsoever, I pity you, but don't come to me with horror stories, because I will have told you so.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!

Comments

[drjohn.livejournal.com]

Can't help with the brown plague, but let me know if you need any minor part ID or soldering once the finger-pointing ends. Hopefully you can get them to fix it or better.