Thames & Kosmos Kudos

The Artist began this week's science experiments today using her Thames and Kosmos C1000 chemistry kit. She was off to a good start, but soon the instructions became ambiguous. Specifically, they said, "Add a shot of soda water." Oookaaaay. The instruction book lists the items from home that I will need to provide, and neither a shot glass or a jigger is listed. So just what do they mean by a shot?

A shot as in "...add a shot of Tobasco sauce to the roux..."? Or as in, "Add a shot of Bailey's Irish Creme to the hot cocoa"? The accompanying cartoon-like illustration shows liquid pouring directly from a bottle. That's no help.

On the off chance that I might reach a real person rather than a machine, I called the company. That is how I learned the somewhat off-putting price of the chemistry set was worth it. I received great customer service.

First, a automatic directory gave me clear choices. Then my call was quickly answered by a live person. I briefly explained my question and he got his copy of the manual to see exactly what I was reading.

The representative did not have a definite answer to my question. Instead he suggested I try the measured shot from a shot glass and see if that amount would work as expected. Furthermore, he instructed that I should call back if it did not work so he could replace, at no charge to me, the chemicals used in the failed attempt.

That is top-notch customer service, I could not ask for better. I did call back, though, to let the representative know the measured shot from a jigger was the correct amount. Perhaps the change will be more clearly noted in the next edition of the instruction manual.

Thank you Thames & Kosmos! I am a happy cutomer.

Borders Book Update

The Artist received her pre-order of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on Wednesday. She was feeling quite poorly on Wednesday, but the book still brought a smile.

She lamented that she waited so very long for it, and when it finally came she was too sick to enjoy it, but I saw that she read a good hundred fifty pages on Wednesday anyway.

Imagine my surprise when the postman brought a package from Borders on Thursday. "This must be the refund/gift card that they told me was coming when they accidentally canceled the Artist's order and were unable to reinstate the order without me paying for the book again,"I thought.

Nope. It was a book. Specifically, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Now we had two. A call to Borders customer service informed me that all the accidentally canceled orders were reinstated.

This, remember, is what I originally requested of Borders. But I was told that was not possible without placing a new order and paying for the book again. The impossible happened, it seems.

Now I wanted to be sure I could get this book back to the store and not pay shipping for their error, and make sure the gift card reimbursement they told me was impossible to stop from coming, was indeed coming. That is probably as confusing for you to read as it was for me to type.

I learned that nobody knows whether my reimbursement gift card was actually sent out or not (not sure I believe that). For my trouble, the customer service rep would reimburse my credit card for the price of the book and I could keep the duplicate book. What a novel idea! Pity they could not do that last week.

As for the reimbursement gift card, still, no one knows if it is on its way to me or if it is only an incommunicado electrical impulse in a microchip in a Borders server room somewhere. If it comes, Stephanie the Customer Service Rep said I can keep it.

Borders Customer Disservice

For her birthday, the Artist received a gift card to Borders. It was very convenient that we could use it at home to shop the very evening she received it. You see, she had a list ready of things she would like to use it to buy.

Order placed, items received -- except one, the latest release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows due to be released July 7th. She waits and waits, trying to be patient.

A couple of weeks ago I called to check when the book was coming because I had forgotten the release date. At that time the customer service rep told me that the pre-orders are shipped to arrive in my mailbox the same day as they are released in the stores. Great! We could expect the book on July 7th.

Imagine my surprise, disappointment, heartache for my daughter patiently waiting for the most wanted portion of her birthday present when Borders.com sends me an email that my order has been canceled.

What! Are you kidding me?

And I've been issued a refund.

How's that, I wonder. We used the entire gift card plus four cents from my credit card to pay for this order. Which was refunded? We used the entire gift card, so we threw it away.

A call to another customer service rep lets me know it was an error in their system. Really. No kidding. What are they going to do about it?

I can order again and they will cover the shipping.

Um, no--I already paid the shipping charges when we ordered all five items, four of which already came.

Apparently, when an order paid for via gift card is canceled, a gift card refund is issued. "But I don't want a gift card, I want the book."

Then I learn they have no way of stopping the gift card from coming to me in 10 - 14 days. That's right, I'd received the gift card that I can use to pay for my re-order after the book is released in the stores. My daughter is nearing tears. I'm sure there must be a way to stop an unwanted refund, but I'll play along because I don't know how to argue the point.

Next I try a different approach to the problem Borders.com created in my peaceful afternoon. Can they use the gift card number from the card they are sending me to pay for the book I would like to buy?

"No Ma'am, we have no way of tracking those numbers." Sorry, I'm not buying that one for a minute. I've lived too long with my data flow expert husband to believe that garbage. The other option is that Borders had complete idiots design their systems. And I don't think that is the case.

At last, the representative came up with a solution I could live with. Not happily, but I could live with it. I could order again today, paying with my credit card. When I receive the gift card I can call back and she will make a special note in my customer file that Borders should allow me to use the gift card to credit back my credit card account.

Still very dubious I asked what assurance I have that Borders will let me charge back with the gift card. The rep assured me she would make the not in the file and send me an email stating the same.

It seemed I had no choice if the Artist were to actually receive her long-awaited book. Within about 5 minutes I had the email that the order was placed. As I wrote this post I received a second email from customer service about my special payment instructions. That makes me feel a little better.

In the mean time I hope there are serious looks into the order fulfillment system at Borders.com which keeps orders for 3 months and then -- without instruction--cancels them the week before they are due to be fulfilled. All the wasted postage on sending out gift cards needlessly drives up the price of books.

Repair Clinic

RepairClinic.com, that is.

When I get good customer service I like to shout it from the mountain tops. Being in Ohio, blogging is more effective.

I recently received great customer service from Repair Clinic dot com. I don't recall exactly how old my electric stove is, but it is old enough for the drip pans under the burners to look like this.
The enamel has blistered off the steel and rust is forming. Now, I am not a fan of the it-will-never-look-clean-again look! After some hunting at the local stores and in catalogs for drip pans, I could not find any with the gray porcelain enamel, and nothing that specified my exact stove make and model. Everything listed a couple of models and said it worked for "most other" models. I wanted to be sure.

An internet search brought me to the "Appliance Parts" section of Repair Clinic dot com's website. I entered my information and found the exact products I was looking for. Compared to the catalogs, they were more expensive. But they were also enamel covered, not plain metal, and I knew for certain that they would fit. The shipping charges were reasonable.

So I bought. My products shipped the next day and I received them in a very short time. Today, as I put the new drip pans onto my stove I noticed a flaw in one of them. Rats!

Then I noticed the packing slip from my box. The slip has very clear instructions about how to return products for returns or exchanges. That was a good sign.

They also listed a number to call if damaged products were received. My call was handled quickly, professionally, and I was issued a replacement for the defective part on the spot. I was given a replacement order number and they told me I would have the replacement part tomorrow. Best of all, since the part I received was defective (the enamel was chipped and the steel gauged) I did not need to bother with returning it.

Thank you, Repair Clinic!

Thank You, Chartpak! Finished Biology Project

A lot can change in 11 years. It was about 11 years ago my mother bought this Visible Woman science kit made by Skilcraft for her granddaughter.

Now that baby granddaughter is in the 5th grade. For a school biology project she put together the Visible Woman. For the most part, the project went well. There was one mishap. When it came to painting the pieces we misinterpreted the instructions and painted the uterus the wrong color.

It was my (less than) brilliant idea to try removing the paint with nail polish remover. Bad idea. The acetone did remove most of the paint. It also etched a cloudy haze into the plastic. It apparently also weakened the plastic so that it cracked.

Since 11 years had passes since the purchase of this product I didn't have much hope, but I tried calling the company anyway. I wanted to see if I could buy a replacement uterus.

Hope dwindled as I searched on line and learned the company that makes Visible Woman, Skilcraft, a division of Craft House, had been bought by another company called Chartpak.

But by then I had invested so much time on line looking for a phone number I could not give up without trying. I called and learned from the customer service representative that I was calling Chartpak.

I asked if they were the company that made the Visible Woman.

They had acquired the company that made it.

I explained my problem and desire to order a replacement part.

The representative told me the parts did not come separately, but he would see what he could do. He took my information and told me to expect something in the mail by the end of the week.
I was so very impressed when a box containing a new Visible Woman kit was delivered! My daughter's science project was saved and her satisfaction with the project greatly increased, as you can see here.


Thank you, thank you, Chartpak! We will most definitely be ordering a Visible Man for our son when he is ready to do a fifth grade biology project.

Already impressed with Chartpak's customer service, I think we will be buying more of their products in the future. It just so happens we have an Artist here who would love to replace her watercolor set with these when it is used up. She also has an interest in calligraphy that has been thwarted by a difficult fountain pen. She will benefit from one of these fountain pens.