Goofy Samsung Customer Service Issues

I recently decided to order the relatively new Samsung NC20. I originally read about it in this Wired review, then found that it’s also the highest-rated netbook in a recent study by Consumer Reports.

Strangely, the NC20 is not offered on Amazon, my usual retailer of choice. So I attempted to order it directly from the Samsung website. [Update: it's now available on Amazon. But it wasn't when I put in the order.]

I got all the way to the end of the order process, and thought the deal was done. I never got a confirmation email, though. Still, I do a lot of online ordering, and I figured I’d give it some time, and just see if the computer came.

Weeks later, it hadn’t come. Every few days, I would go back into my email and search the archives for “Samsung” and other keywords, thinking that perhaps a confirmation, or non-confirmation, email had actually arrived, and I’d just overlooked it. Nothing. Since I live in an apartment building with no doorman, I have a box at the local UPS Store, and that’s what I’d used as my shipping address. I walked over there several times to make absolutely sure that my computer hadn’t arrived. The guy behind the counter noticed my repeated visits with no result, and suggested that perhaps I was the intended recipient of a mystery package that he was keeping behind the counter. My hopes rose, but the package wasn’t for me. Nevertheless, he and I would discuss it again two more times before we both gave up on the idea.

Today… and this must be at least a month later… I decided to call Samsung. Read the rest of this entry »