Ah well, live and learn, I guess.

That 6.4-gig drive I ordered from GlobalMicro.com has turned out to be an awful headache. Their company's internal procedures are so screwed up that they don't know their left hand from their right foot.

I web-ordered the 12.5mm 6.4-gig drive over a week ago and never heard back from them. Last Friday I called them and asked what's up. They couldn't find my web order, despite the fact that the web site sent me back a confirmation code- that code is useless to them. It turns out that their high-tech system for processing web orders involves printing out the web orders then hand-transcribing these into their internal computer system. Can you say "human error"?

Anyway, so the salesman tells me that they're out of the 12.5mm drives anyway. So I verbally ordered a 9.5mm 6.4-gig drive for the same price. All seemed well. But he calls and leaves a message on my home answering machine on Monday, telling me they're out of the 9.5mm drives, too. But guess what? My credit card has a $164.00 charge from their company on it already. I call again and the guy who answers promises to get to the bottom of this and call me back today. He doesn't call. I call this afternoon and speak to a secretary who claims that my card has been credited. I call the original salesman again, who offers me a 4.8-gig drive instead, and can't verify if my card has been charged or not.

So here I am, unable to purchase a new drive from a different company, because my account doesn't have enough balance to buy two drives. All I can do is wait and see if they really reversed the charge or not...

Tony Fabris
Empeg #144