Newegg’s actually planning an IPO. It’s a profitable company and has been growing in a highly competitive market. But I’ve never shopped at a site where I’ve always experienced complete and utter satisfaction in every aspect. If Newegg continues to run its business the way they always have, it should continue its success. That IPO looks mighty attractive.

I haven’t seen a really great movie in a while. An awesome movie last year was Zombieland. I’ve never been into Star Trek, but the rebooted Star Trek was pretty entertaining.

Calling Customer Service

After emailing them and getting no response, I called their customer service line and finally spoke to someone after waiting on hold for 10 minutes. The call lasted 20 minutes and went no where. The rep asked all the typical info to verify my identity and the find the transaction in question. After explaining what happened, a little arguing, and another hold, the rep came back and said she pulled the wrong info and asked for my information again. Does that make any sense? During verification shouldn’t she have noticed the info I was providing was wrong? Now that I think about it, I’m wondering whether she pulled up any info the first time.

Mail in my Credit Card Statement?!

Then she asked me to send (snail mail!) in my credit card statement so they can verify I was overcharged. How does that even make sense? They charge me the amount, my credit card paid them that amount, so one way or another they have a record of it. Why would I need to mail in my statement to prove what I’m saying? I believe this is just a hurdle they use to make people give up. She seemed a little flustered as I was being forceful – perhaps this was going off script for her. So she put me on hold again (briefly).

Xoom, Get Your House in Order

Then she said their records show I was in fact just charged $20.00. I said my statement shows a $49.98 charge from Xoom Corporation and that I would have to pay that to the credit card. The simple fact is they overcharged me for no reason. She said again that’s why I should send in the statement. And I explained that there’d be no way for me to follow up on that, no way to tell if they received it or linked it my transaction, no way of knowing when they would get back to me, and the process would likely take weeks considering how this one call was progressing.

Nothing Accomplished

So she basically gave up and said that she would escalate this to a specialist and they’d get back to me within 24 hours. Then she mentioned they have trouble with their coupon system. Oh, come on. So I kindly explained that if no one gets back to me, I’d dispute the extra charge directly with my credit card company. And that was that.

So 30 minutes later and nothing was accomplished. Xoom is not worth the trouble if something goes wrong. Xoom has left me with a very sour first impression and I will not be using it again. I’d be extremely surprised if someone gets back to me. We’ll see.

But one way or another I’m getting that extra charge back. I don’t care if it were $5.00, it’s the principle. I just can’t stand getting ripped off, especially by people/companies that somehow think this is an acceptable way to do business and think they can get away with it.

A Positive Update: Issue Resolved

You can see below in the comments that Mr. Frank Walter, Xoom’s relatively new VP of Customer Operations, followed up with my case and got someone to help me resolve the issue. I have been refunded that extra fee. Mr. Walter admits to customer service problems and seems sincere in wanting to turn it around. Obviously a company VP can’t resolve everyone’s specific problems, but the fact that they’re acknowledging a problem and plans to improve is a step in the right direction. Many companies will never, ever publicly admit a problem.

The specialist the original rep mentioned never got back to me and everything I said originally is a true accounting of what happened. However, aside from the overcharge and my experience from calling in, the Xoom money transfer itself actually went through very quickly (1 day). I suppose they’ve had their coupon system fixed, lest they get deluged with more issues like mine.

The bottom line is the Xoom service is a lot more convenient and cheaper than doing international wire transfer at banks. If their customer service is up to snuff and technical issues like this are prevented, the service is great. But right now, if something goes wrong, dealing with customer service is a real pain. Obviously, time will tell whether their customer service improves, but if you don’t run into technical problems like mine, your money typically gets to the recipient fairly quickly.

She had the weight of an entire nation on her and she was already the biggest celebrity in South Korea and she just exploded into another stratosphere.

The video below is from the Skate America competition back in mid November, but it’s the same short program she did in Vancouver tonight. Her last world record (76.50) was set at this event.

Honestly, I don’t think Tracy McGrady is a good long term prospect at all and the Knicks know this obviously. He’s here now to clear cap space next year. I don’t think he’ll remain healthy and his style just doesn’t win championships. He hurt his knee in the 2nd game back for crying out loud. McGrady said he’d want to stay if the Knicks bring in top talent and that money doesn’t matter. But unless he has a stellar season, he’d have to take an Iverson-like salary for the Knicks to keep him. AI’s salary is ridiculous by the way – why did he come back for crumbs?

Well it just snowed another 3 inches last night and I think it’s still going. I am never freaking getting this package. I’d walk out to the truck if I knew when they were coming. There was a reason this package was supposed to come before the previous weekend. And now I’m wondering when the heck I’m actually going to get it. When all the snow melts? That could take another week for crying out loud. Geez UPS guy, suck it up will you? Snow’s not going to kill you.

Federer won the the 2010 Australian Open over Andy Murray in straight sets last night (or early morning). That’s his 16th slam and he doesn’t show any signs of letting up at 28 years old. I love how 2/3 weeks ago people were saying it’s wide open and that there are 5-8 guys who could win. Actually that’s true, which just makes it so much more amazing that at the end, it’s still Roger. At 28, he’s still beating the young guns and winning slams. It’s just amazing, this guy is the most dominant athlete of the last decade.

For people who don’t follow tennis, 28 is old in the tennis world, a tennis player’s prime is usually 20-25. And tennis fans rave about Roger because you really have to watch him play over the years. The numbers and records he’s putting up may never get broken. In many cases, he’s not just breaking old records, he’s completely shattering them.

I honestly have never liked Murray but I do feel sorry for the young guy with Great Britain putting so much weight on his shoulders. It’s surprising when you look at the situation and Murray’s coming into the final with more pressure and expectations than Roger Federer, the #1 seed. But my view towards Murray has softened a bit after his speech at the trophy ceremony.

It was clear that part of Murray’s strategy was to keep going to Federer’s backhand. But Fed’s backhand was ROCK solid today. I actually expected a bit more errors from that wing. These days if Roger falters, his backhand is the most likely shot to break down first, the side were errors come from. But his backhand was really great – he hit some awesome angles and several winners with the backhand. And Fed served very well and that was key for both players. I thought his loss last year was due to poor serving (had he served better I believe he would’ve won in 4 sets).

I have a tendency of reversing the results of a match when people ask me “what’s the score” or “who won” but I was so tired/sleepy this morning after the match that when someone asked me who won, and I said Federer, she thought I was lying and refused to believe me – saying that I looked so sad, that Federer must have lost. I smiled and went to bed.

Nadal retired from the match due to a knee injury. This is not a good sign for people wondering whether Nadal can ever return to his 2008 form and his long term prospects at the top of the game. Nadal is not one to retire on a whim. The thing is, he came into this match relatively fresh and then this knee problem flares up again (knee tendinitis took him out for half the season last year). I think Cilic has what it takes to beat Murray but he might be tired. Cilic is an absolute warrior, having played three 5-set matches already. He’s young but he’s still very calm and stoic out there – he’s not flashy or temperamental. There’s a lot to like about the kid. And he has the raw game to make it to the top.

Fed plays Davydenko tonight and I think he’ll come out on top. He’s lost to Davy the last two times after going undefeated against Davy 12 straight times. But those were all in best-of-3 matches. I don’t see Davy pulling off the upset at a slam but we’ll see. I think the key for Fed is to serve well – if he comes out serving poorly, it will not end well for him. It should be a good match. Fed looks to be in great form in his last few matches but none of those opponents had anything that bothered him. I’m just glad his match is in the day session so I can catch more zzz’s tonight. As for Tsonga/Djokovic, I think Djoko might finally win one against Tsonga this time around. Djoko has had a cakewalk in the draw and is fresher since Tsonga had that 5-setter against Almagro (damn I didn’t know that guy had power).

Who am I rooting for to win the tournament? GOAT.