the life and times of endenizen » 2006 » June

Yes. It’s Best Buy.

I was recently inspired to hassle Best Buy yet again for it’s incompetence. I am a member of the Reward Zone program. Don’t ask me why, it costs $10 per year and I suppose it’s much easier to take advantage of their failure to accurately price products than to be a member of this “coupon club” that only encourages more negligent spending. I received an email containing my recent coupons but alas, like I discovered on the single other occasion I’ve recieved coupons (I’ve been a member for almost 3 years) they require you to use Internet Explorer! Far be it from me to reboot my computer to print these coupons (or use the one sitting next to me running Windows) I felt it was my turn to complain, once again. Since the email address linked from the coupons was “rewardzone.bestbuy.com” I felt I’d better find a method of communication that wasn’t improperly formatted (ha! good luck…). I went to the reward zone website and there was a “question/concern” form that looked promising. I filled it out as so:

My concern is the installation of Internet Explorer that the reward zone program assumes. I don’t use Internet Explorer because I use Linux. Even when I do use Windows, the mere thought of starting up Internet Explorer makes me throw-up a little. If Microsoft is paying you to limit your business to their customers, I’ll gladly go elsewhere. Otherwise, there are many alternatives to employ including a system that will simply email the unique coupon codes (or let them be downloaded with any web browser) and require the reward zone card to be presented when the coupons are redeemed.

Thanks,
Brian Ferrell - A long time but unfaithful and never altogether satisfied Best Buy customer.

I’m not sure I’ll ever get a response, let alone in the “24 hours” they promise on the website. Or maybe I will get a response, with what I’ve come to expect from such a company “we’re sorry for your recent experience, here’s more coupons.” We live in an age when one poor technology retailer can be replaced by 5 others with better service so I won’t feel bad if I have to avoid shopping at Best Buy altogether. Or maybe I’ll just limit myself to purchasing their signature “accidental loss leaders.” I wouldn’t feel bad about that either…

Update 1: There’s some lack of communication between their “guy who writes content for website” and “guy who writes content for emails originating from website” departments because I just got an email saying I will get a response within 48 hours. Perhaps they’re not as “eager to assist” as they claim.

Update 2: (and the end of my story) Less than 24 hours, so at least they’re proficient in responding to concerns… or are they? It took them 24 hours to come up with nothing and default to this auto we-don’t-care message:

Brian,

I am Michael with Best Buy Customer Care.

I apologize we did not meet your expectations with the RewardZone program. Best Buy strives to make each experience you have with us positive and as fun as possible, and we are disappointed if we don’t live up to that expectation. Best Buy relies on feedback, both positive and negative, to help us find areas to improve the Reward Zone program for our members.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Thank you,
Michael
Best Buy Customer Care Team

So, it is a sad ending to my story. No more coupons (not that I use them anyway) and not even a genuine response to my concern. I can’t say I’m surprised, but maybe, by some small stroke of luck, my concern has ended up in the hands of someone who actually read it. But that might be wishful thinking…

Progress Quest is a game that fulfills all of the requirements of an MMORPG. And, simultaneously, none of them. The game is, in fact, a zero-player game. The character creation process is the last similarity this game has to any other. Once that’s done, you’re done. But really, you’ve just started. You’ll spend the next 12 hours crawling through a seemingly endless dungeon with gamers all over the world. Just kidding, you don’t actually *do* anything in the game. The computer does it all for you.

The game has 4 different servers you can join and a leaderboard to see how you match up to fellow adventurers. Of course, these matchups are boiled down to the raw statistics of your character, and they don’t say much about your true skills in the game. You can join a guild or two if you prefer. Guilds will then get better status on the server and will in turn bestow on you their magical powers and bragging rights. Guilds are divided into 4 categories, Factions, Clans, Bands, and Trivialities. The top Clan of Oobag right now is the “Rectilinear Society” who’s motto is “A right angle is the right angle.” Such creative physical appearances as “square heads” could never be embraced in a regular MMORPG because everyone looks exactly the same. When the game is taken away, however, we’re back to using our imaginations.

Imagine any task you must perform, say, writing a paper for class. Take the end goal out and you’re left with a lot of useless typing. Now take any MMORPG and remove the end goal (if you can even figure out what that is) and you’re left with a lot of dungeon-crawling. This is where Progress Quest comes in. It takes the boring dungeon-crawling out of the game and leaves you with pure statistics to salivate over as you await Level 15 when you finally get the spell “Cone of Annoyance IV.” Of course, this isn’t the end of the game… oh no, you keep going! Eventually you’ll hit another level and get more spells and be able to use them on bigger monsters which give you more valuable loot which you can sell for better weapons and armor! And that’s really the point of the game, the weapons and armor. But that’s not really a point then, is it? There will always be more loot to get, better weapons, more money, more levels. By definition, there can be no point to a game that never ends. Besides that, it wouldn’t be very fun if you had to stop playing now would it? What have you accomplished when all that progress just …disappears?

Today (yesterday, officially) was 6-6-06. That’s almost 666 so Hell, Michigan had a big party to celebrate and we decided to join them (Hell is 90 minutes away). Supposedly (and I heard this from a guy who looked like he was totally in charge) over 10,000 people passed through Hell today. That’s quite an accomplishment for a place that Google does not even “understand.”

We didn’t know what to expect when we were on our way. I was afraid no one would show up or a lot of people would show up and just stand around wondering why they came. Actually, it was pretty much the latter, but most people discovered that drinking beer is a good way to make standing around more enjoyable. That, and discarding melted pieces of your tires along the road. I had a good time though. I enjoy the energy of large crowds and the excitement of special occasions.

The rest of my pics are here - Hellfest 6-6-06 - Hell, Michigan.