Redempshin
11-28-2007, 06:39 AM
There's so much misinformation whirling around the warranty center that its just sad. Unfortunately the people you speak with on the phone are passing on incorrect information that they believe to be true. The information presented below comes from me as someone who has worked in customer service & order fulfillment for over 10 years. It also comes from information obtained from numerous calls I've made since November 20th. I love the products EA publishes (and it's divisions develop). I love what I've been able to play of Rock Band and deeply enjoy the Guitar Hero series that Harmonix developed. I'm not here with an axe to grind or multi billion dollar corporation to defend.
The company answering the phone is either an EA subsidiary or contracted company that's based in New England (my last 3 calls have been answered in new england). There may even be a second company answering phones and processing orders. When you want a supervisor, you get transfered to San Jose (or an area near it, maybe Redwood City, EARS EA Redwood Shores) on the other side of the country. To make things worse, their distribution center is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. One hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing. Managers at EA in California have said EA has sent people to their warranty call center and distribution to try and get things straightened out. Nothing seems to indicate Harmonix is involved in the replacement program outside of the, "dude, wth is wrong with these guitars and how do we fix it" part.
If you speak with someone at the warranty center, they'll declare that if there's a tracking number, then UPS has it. This is 99.99% untrue, anyone with a credit card can make a UPS account and print out a shipping label, boom, instant tracking number. It's what they're told or assume by management who doesn't know better or is attempting to deceive you and buy time. This may or may not be EAs doing (it could be the phone center).
When your UPS number shows "Billing Information Received" that does NOT mean UPS has your package. It means that someone has printed out a shipping label, that is all. UPS delivery men (& women) carry bar code scanners that they synch up in the cab of their car after they pick up packages and drive to their next location. That device either via cellular modem or radio packet transmits the pick up (and drop off) data to UPS which then updates your tracking number. That means, within 30 minutes of your guitar, kick pad, whatever getting on the truck, it will be updated on the site. Updates to the site can take longer if the delivery/pick up person is using older hardware or in a rural area where their devices can't communicate with their hub.
As the distribution center is probably in the same area as other distribution centers, the UPS truck will fill quickly and then go back to their HUB (which is usually near an air port) to drop off the packages and pickup/drop off more. When a package arrives at the hub, it's again scanned. The purpose of package tracking wasn't done for our benefit, it was done for keeping track of the hundreds of thousands of packages they move a day. Trust me, they don't "forget" to scan packages sometimes. If it's in their Hub, loading dock, truck or air plane. UPS know where it is.
When you contact the Warranty replacement group and they approve replacing your guitar, they send the shipping information to their distribution center. The distribution center generates a shipping slip that will be attached to the box your product goes out in, it may even already be on the box.
Reasons why your product haven't been given to UPS could be (these have been suggested by others as well as some of my own thoughts having worked in order fulfillment). Some of these assume that partial assembly is done at the distribution center.
*PS3 Guitars go out first since they have zero alternative guitars to use. They may or may not be swapping PS3 innards with 360 and vice versa, I haven't seen the outside of a PS3 guitar, but odds are the difference pieces are easily swapped. Internally is probably the same (plus a wireless transmitter). One of the EA managers I spoke with said "The 360 guitars were supposed to be sent out on Monday & Tuesday."
*They're awaiting Part #4482A2 which could be anything to Stratocaster end pieces to the little 360 guide button on the face of the controller. They could also be waiting for ALL of the pieces to arrive from China, Korea, where ever. (This thought makes me sad).
*There could be 200+ guitars, kick peddles, microphones in front of your order. Whether they called first or they were the squeakiest wheel, I don't know. But even with a large number of employees, there is a finite number of orders they can process in a day. Last EA manager I spoke with indicated there were "thousands" of calls. He was probably being sarcastic/trying to get some sympathy, but considering how many people on this forum alone have complained about problems, think about all the non PC users who don't browse forums.
Unless EA's distribution facility is delivering the products to UPS themselves, they have no reason to hold up an item. "Oh, we're waiting to have a full truck load before providing delivering to UPS." UPS will stop by that facility every day unless they put out the sign that says, "No deliveries today."
UPS was moving packages on Friday, after Thanksgiving, I received one, they alsoo move some packages on Saturdays. Blaming UPS is how the agent answering the phone gets you off his back (or something the floor supervisor probably recommended). I've worked support, they will come up with anything you might swallow as an excuse to keep you from yelling at them. No one likes telling (or hearing) the truth, "Our distribution facility is hosed right now, we don't know what the problem is."
Wow that's a lot of text, probably chock full of typos and grammatical errors. Some of it may be wrong, but most of it comes from my own experiences.
The company answering the phone is either an EA subsidiary or contracted company that's based in New England (my last 3 calls have been answered in new england). There may even be a second company answering phones and processing orders. When you want a supervisor, you get transfered to San Jose (or an area near it, maybe Redwood City, EARS EA Redwood Shores) on the other side of the country. To make things worse, their distribution center is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. One hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing. Managers at EA in California have said EA has sent people to their warranty call center and distribution to try and get things straightened out. Nothing seems to indicate Harmonix is involved in the replacement program outside of the, "dude, wth is wrong with these guitars and how do we fix it" part.
If you speak with someone at the warranty center, they'll declare that if there's a tracking number, then UPS has it. This is 99.99% untrue, anyone with a credit card can make a UPS account and print out a shipping label, boom, instant tracking number. It's what they're told or assume by management who doesn't know better or is attempting to deceive you and buy time. This may or may not be EAs doing (it could be the phone center).
When your UPS number shows "Billing Information Received" that does NOT mean UPS has your package. It means that someone has printed out a shipping label, that is all. UPS delivery men (& women) carry bar code scanners that they synch up in the cab of their car after they pick up packages and drive to their next location. That device either via cellular modem or radio packet transmits the pick up (and drop off) data to UPS which then updates your tracking number. That means, within 30 minutes of your guitar, kick pad, whatever getting on the truck, it will be updated on the site. Updates to the site can take longer if the delivery/pick up person is using older hardware or in a rural area where their devices can't communicate with their hub.
As the distribution center is probably in the same area as other distribution centers, the UPS truck will fill quickly and then go back to their HUB (which is usually near an air port) to drop off the packages and pickup/drop off more. When a package arrives at the hub, it's again scanned. The purpose of package tracking wasn't done for our benefit, it was done for keeping track of the hundreds of thousands of packages they move a day. Trust me, they don't "forget" to scan packages sometimes. If it's in their Hub, loading dock, truck or air plane. UPS know where it is.
When you contact the Warranty replacement group and they approve replacing your guitar, they send the shipping information to their distribution center. The distribution center generates a shipping slip that will be attached to the box your product goes out in, it may even already be on the box.
Reasons why your product haven't been given to UPS could be (these have been suggested by others as well as some of my own thoughts having worked in order fulfillment). Some of these assume that partial assembly is done at the distribution center.
*PS3 Guitars go out first since they have zero alternative guitars to use. They may or may not be swapping PS3 innards with 360 and vice versa, I haven't seen the outside of a PS3 guitar, but odds are the difference pieces are easily swapped. Internally is probably the same (plus a wireless transmitter). One of the EA managers I spoke with said "The 360 guitars were supposed to be sent out on Monday & Tuesday."
*They're awaiting Part #4482A2 which could be anything to Stratocaster end pieces to the little 360 guide button on the face of the controller. They could also be waiting for ALL of the pieces to arrive from China, Korea, where ever. (This thought makes me sad).
*There could be 200+ guitars, kick peddles, microphones in front of your order. Whether they called first or they were the squeakiest wheel, I don't know. But even with a large number of employees, there is a finite number of orders they can process in a day. Last EA manager I spoke with indicated there were "thousands" of calls. He was probably being sarcastic/trying to get some sympathy, but considering how many people on this forum alone have complained about problems, think about all the non PC users who don't browse forums.
Unless EA's distribution facility is delivering the products to UPS themselves, they have no reason to hold up an item. "Oh, we're waiting to have a full truck load before providing delivering to UPS." UPS will stop by that facility every day unless they put out the sign that says, "No deliveries today."
UPS was moving packages on Friday, after Thanksgiving, I received one, they alsoo move some packages on Saturdays. Blaming UPS is how the agent answering the phone gets you off his back (or something the floor supervisor probably recommended). I've worked support, they will come up with anything you might swallow as an excuse to keep you from yelling at them. No one likes telling (or hearing) the truth, "Our distribution facility is hosed right now, we don't know what the problem is."
Wow that's a lot of text, probably chock full of typos and grammatical errors. Some of it may be wrong, but most of it comes from my own experiences.
