How long?

Well, I'm on hold with Digital River customer service right now. I'm the 23rd caller and my wait time is estimated to exceede 24 minutes.

I placed my order on 08/08 and my online order status has been "pending shipment" since 08/09. So much for the overnight shipment I requested to get it by last weekend.

I ordered a blue 30 gig. The Rio Customer Service people told me just now that they show 4 in stock and refered me to Digital River where they fill web orders. So far, I'm not feeling serviced.

If I had it to do over again, I would:
1. Place a phone order, not a web order (may avoid DR).
2. Get a personal commitment on ship time before ordering.

If they ship today (I have no indication that they will) it will have taken exactly one week to get to me. I'm not going Neo yet, but check with me in a few days.

This waiting on hold deal makes it harder to spend 1.5k.

Edited by Greenbean on 14/08/01 06:50 PM.

Boy, it must be nice... being such a successful company that you don't even need to ship products to your customers.

Sorry you're drowning in the digital river, Greenbean. You have my sympathy. I wanted an empeg so badly for so long, if I'd been forced to go through what you're going through, I would have blown a fuse for sure.

___________
Tony Fabris

Update:
After 30 minutes on hold Shane at Digital River said that DR does not handle shipping for SonicBlue and refered me back
to SonicBlue at 800 468 5846.

I will refraim from emoting at this point but suffice to say my lunch break has not be well spent.

Not wishing to make it worse Greenbean, but my empeg is waiting at the TNT depot just down the road from work. There should be no excuse for failing to deliver this one! It does sound like US shipping is rather, erm, inefficient from other posts I've seen. Believe me the wait is worth it, I waited a year or so for my mkI and have been without my mkII for about 9 months now. The benefit of all this time is my mp3 collection is now pretty much ready to blow in, although choosing *only* 10Gb of the 70Gb of music I have waiting is going to be tricky. Will open it up in a month or so for a little upgrade... Hope you're not waiting too much longer. Phil

Good for you. In a way, I may have created my own poblems by ordering an AC adaptor along with my unit.

This combo may have blown up the interface between SB and DR (installs ERP software for a living). Or it could be bad karma from that kid I beat up in the 4th grade...

I ordered mine about a year ago, the day I was leaving for vacation. I e-mailed Rob to hold the shipment untill specific date (when I return). I got a call from a local TNT agent around noon the day I returned (sadly, the agent called to tell me our customs is not buying the theory that empeg is a computer - hence 10% car stereo duty )
Amazing what that eight or ten people company was able to do, don't you think? On the bright side, they are now supposed to have more time to develop new sexy products...

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
Q#5196, MkII#80000376, 18GB green

I may have created my own poblems by ordering an AC adaptor along with my unit.

Oh, that would suck. Holding up the empeg while they try to find an AC adapter. Somebody needs to locate the responsible party and administer a dope slap.

Or it could be bad karma from that kid I beat up in the 4th grade...

That was YOU?

Oh, well, in that case: Neener neener, I've got an empeg and you don't! Nyah Nyah Nyah!

___________
Tony Fabris

Good news! It was indeed the extra AC adaptor that was holding me up. SB said that I needed to cancel that order and place a new one for the Empeg only. I have, we'll see what happens.

Warining for US customers: The online order status may not convey useful information. I'm guessing it just grabbed the status of the Empeg and listed that as the status of the entire order.

Maybe I'll get two my mistake. "Honey, they went to all the trouble to build and ship them both - let's just keep them..."

I'll update on the status of my new "lean and mean" next day shiping order just placed today.

I know they have the AC adapters in stock - something just ain't right with that store. Apologies for the service, I will forward the thread from here to someone appropriate (I think they already hate me at the eStore so a little more complaining won't hurt).

Rob

Greenbean,

I wish somebody on the BBS had piped up earlier and told you about the Digital River wormhole. It would have saved you a lot of aggravation and worry. Essentially, everything on the US eStore has to go through the wormhole, and the exit times are a bit unpredictable. I know that Rob, as used as he is to providing excellent customer service, gets a bit perturbed about this and tries to influence wormhole entry/exit intervals, but he should just relax, take some time off to write a spy novel, and let interdimensional eStore movement take its course.

In April 2001, I began my effort to get 2 additonal sleds for my Empeg. In July, I was able to get one by sending an e-mail to the president of Rio and *offering* to drive to Portland, Oregon to retrieve it. His able assitant was apparently able to leap in front of a single sled before it entered the wormhole and she packed it up and sent it to me just in time for a holiday road trip (not the way I like to do business, but it did the trick. I hope her sutures healed nicely!)

Week before last, Rob observed that the wormhole had opened and that sleds and adapters were available on the eStore. I ordered a 3rd sled. Luckily, I did not order an AC adapter (having already ordered 2 AC adapters from All Electronics), so my order was not delayed by this bit of faulty intelligence (You see, the adapters had been seen at the verge of the wormhole but had been sucked back in!!).

When I returned Monday from a work trip, the box with Sled #3 was waiting at my mail drop. When I looked at the date of manufacture on the sticker on the sled, I saw that it said Novermber 17th, 2000 -- about 266 days ago -- conclusive evidence that the wormhole exists.

Jim

... so does this mean that the tuner modules will actually ship sometime around April/May 2002?

Just a quick update. It all arrived this morning as planned. Thanks again guys. Phil

I just got my new sled from SB too, it actually came very quickly! But the funny thing is I just got an email (3 days after receipt) from the eStore that my sled is backordered and will be delayed.

Wonder what is still fourth coming, may be the invoice


-Doug
Mk2-12G Blue (Now A/R Green)

My old mentor (and boss) used to tell me; "See your company as the customer sees it". He would routinely call tech support for our software products, pose as a potential customer and see if salespersons were "embellishing", and poke around our (then new) website.

The outsourcing strategies that companies employ always start off with the best of intentions, but if shareholders could see what many of them become after a few years of atrophy...

No new news on my order yet.

Jim, that's one of the cleverest posts I've seen on this BBS. Made my morning. Rates right up there with this one.

___________
Tony Fabris

Definitely amazing. Not to mention the fact that I had a problem with my credit card and they were helpful and kind until it got solved.
I am sorry for the ppl in here who are having problems to get their Riocar delivered. As to me, I have to say the the only negative aspect I found so far with empeg is the appearently endless wait for the radio module...

Taym
_________________________
MK II BLUE/RED 12GB #923