CARDRUNNERS
What's Your Edge
Andrew I haven't played any events yet.
I haven't really gone out a ton and when I have gone out, there hasn't been a ton to note. I did realize this year that there is no reason to ever book bottle service through a 3rd party. We were always led to believe that we couldn't get good tables with out the help of a VIP Host. They are full of shit. Every table we've had this year has been great and we've contacted the hosts ourselves. It's actually a really easy process. You can use JackColton.com to get the phone numbers for the club hosts.
I met Jermaine O'neal at a club.
Dell Rant
I've had the biggest nightmare scenario with Dell over the past few weeks. I'm going to post this story with the hope that potential Dell buyers won't buy from them and to explain a complicated monitor situation that may come up for other poker players. Before I came to Vegas I purchased a new Dell Studio XPS 16. When I was thinking about making the purchase, I talked to not one, but two dell technical support people. I needed to confirm that this laptop would support a 30" monitor at 2560x1600 resolution. Unfortunately, FTP and Stars only give out monitors that only have DVI ports. It's not a big deal if you have a desktop, but it can get dicey if you are trying to attach it to a laptop. I knew the laptop didn't have a DVI port, so I needed to make sure that I could convert from the HDMI or Displayport. They both assured me it would not be a problem. They both lied.
It took me about 4 other several hour long conversations with Dell support and the purchase of 3 different converters to realize I would not be able to support my monitor. I should note that these were special converters that I had to find online. I overnight them each time, because I was assured they would work. They never did. I blew close to $100 on shipping and now I have to go and return all of these converters. Good times.
To make matters worse, I have two of the same monitors. I was going to keep one at work and one and home and take the laptop back and forth. Basically, the dell technical support is the most clueless group of people I have ever come across. At this point I know far more about monitor resolutions than anyone on their team. This is because I had to spend hours on google figuring shit out on my own. I'm not particularly computer savvy overall.
I tried to talk to managers to get a clear answer on the converting issue and to also voice my displeasure. They don't really seem to have managers at Dell. I could never talk to anyone with any authority. They also didn't seem to care that I wouldn't have bought the computer in the first place if they had given me accurate information. I considered returning the laptop, but I actually like it a lot and there doesn't seem to be a ton of options on the market at a reasonable price for what I need (I'm mostly looking for a high powered graphics card in a portable laptop). Most of the laptops with great graphics cards are huge and very heavy. That's not good for me.
The bottom line was that I would need to get a monitor that supported displayport technology. I should mention that Dell invented this technology to seemingly fuck wth people like me. What is wrong with HDMI or DVI is beyond me. Guess what? Only Dell makes monitors right now that can support Displayport. So, as much as I'd never like to purchase from Dell again, I went online and ordered a 30" monitor for $1700. I overnighted it for $100 so that I could finally get my grind on. I was supposed to get the monitor on Monday and was excited to finally be done with this saga.
I got an email over the weekend saying that my order would be delayed a week. Fucking great. Luckily, a day later I got another email saying that it would actually come on Tuesday. I woke up today again excited to get the monitor. When I checked it's status on line it was flagged with a delivery exception note. They had called me the day before to confirm that my vegas address was where the monitor should go and to make sure there wasn't any fraud going on. At the end of that discussion, they assured me everything was good to go. This morning I thought back on that conversation and shook my head. Fedex confirmed that Dell had ask them to hold the package because there was a fraud concern. I called Dell and they said they needed an email from AMEX. I then called AMEX and they said they had not flagged the transaction like Dell claimed, but they would email Dell anyway. I then called Dell back and they confirmed the receipt of the email. I called back later in the day to make sure we wouldn't run into any issues and they told me that we wouldn't. Well I just called Fedex to confirm that I would get the package tomorrow and they told me it's already in Nashville on it's way back to Dell.
Fuck Dell. I don't even know what to say at this point. It's so ridiculous. Ok, end rant.
I'm going to 3 Phish shows this weekend. I'm really excited for that. Hopefully I survive.
Jun 17, 09 00:17:49
You should check out MultiPlexPC.com - I bought my rig from them, it's a multiple monitor computer with 8 screens that I use for poker. They are a smaller company and treated me really nice. Good luck with your returns.
Jun 17, 09 12:45:21
I'm going to highlight your post as it would be viewed at the boardroom at DELL
You are satisfied with your computer purchase:
"I considered returning the laptop, but I actually like it a lot"
Your customer service incident was resolved without having to bother anyone important:
"I could never talk to anyone with any authority."
Our joint purchase initiative was successful:
"I went online and ordered a 30" monitor for $1700."
High fives and cigars all round.
It's not an accident that their laptops use Displayport and that only they make Displayport monitors. As far as they are concerned, until you start returning stuff and not buying their addons and peripherals (that's what a monitor is for a laptop) you are just another satisfied customer.
EDIT: That came off kinda dickish, didn't mean it that way, just trying to highlight that as a customer, your only real power is in refusing to pay for their stuff. As long as you're still paying for stuff they are going to keep doing what they are doing.
Jun 17, 09 19:35:41
ordered a dell 2 months ago and after they sent me the wrong tower for my dual monitor set-up i told the guy id tell everyone never to buy a dell. he was actually trying to sell me on something else and avoiding his epic fail.
Jun 21, 09 16:49:26
andrew, i had the same shit happen with me about 2 years ago. bought a 17" dell inspiron and wanted to buy a 30' monitor. called dell to make sure it would support it, 2 customer service guys promised it would. bought the 1500 monitor. didnt work. same freakin story.
then i pluggedin my mac and it insta-supported the 30in monitor even tho its an older computer. once you go MAC you never go BACK baby!
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