Crappy tech service

Don’t bother buying a Brother printer. I helped to set up a new one today and, get this, it didn’t come with any type of interface cable. No USB, no parallel cable, nothing. It even says so on the quickstart instructions. WTF? Is that stupid or what?

Speaking of stupid, or perhaps just stubborn, AOL apparently doesn’t get the hint that we don’t need their service, and has called us several times. Of course, I brought this on myself—when we went to San Diego, I installed AOL (the free trial) on the laptop just in case we needed to get online and didn’t have any other means of doing so. (Never needed it; we got a strong WiFi signal at my brother’s place.) AOL is sure trying to master the hard sell. When I cancelled, the guy tried to resell me on AOL something like three times, even after I had explained that I didn’t need it and already have broadband access. Must be following the “three NOs before you go” rule. They sure aren’t gaining any favor at our house.

4 comments

  1. OMG! I’m so proud of you for accepting that you brought this on!!! (although before you installed it, i do remember you asking me if I really wanted this).

    They called here Monday (i think) at 1:15pm and 7:15pm….the SAME guy I think that I had told NO too. Then Wed at 8:45 (right at a commercial during LOST) and I told NO again! Then AGAIN Thurs nite where i wasn’t going to answer, but did and hung up before answering.

    They SUCK!

    The woman Wed nite did tell me that it took time to get off their list. What else can I do to get them to STOP! I’ve already had to report Hoffman Group for harassing us this week!

    Can we hide the phone?

  2. You know now that you’ve posted a note about canceling AOL service, this entry will get flooded with idiots posting comments like they did on mine:

    http://utterlyboring.com/archives/2003/06/13/how_to_cancel_an_aol_account_in_3_minutes.php

    That post is over a year old and I leave the comments open just so I can see how many folks are going to post. It’s getting ridiculous (up to 52 comments as of this writing, and that doesn’t count some really stupid ones I removed that included people’s passwords, SS#, etc… . AOL people are, truly, a different breed).

  3. Jon, I think most printers don’t come with cables any more. Saw it on the sign for an HP while I was wasting time at Staples the other night.

  4. They don’t come with cables any more at all? That’s just stupid… seems like just last year I thought it was dumb that all new printers were basically USB-only (and came with a USB cable, but not parallel), now this?

    And Jake, yeah, they are. They are.

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