The NewEgg gift card fiasco

newegg.com has finally pissed me off. I've been a customer for at least four years. They have decent prices, and a good "power-search" tool. I've placed many orders, returned partial orders, and in all this time they have never screwed up anything for me... until now.

I need would like to build a new computer. Something with four cores. Mmmm. Christmas was coming up and so I gently grafted this desire into the extended family gift-giving grapevine. Word got out that I wanted a newegg.com gift certificate. "Why not just cash?" Well, I have a habit -not necessarily a bad habit- of hoarding any cash I get. It ends up in a savings account, or goes toward paying off my student loans. Disgusting, I know... but with a gift-certificate I'm pretty much forced to buy something I actually desire.

Grandma was the first to attempt the purchase. She couldn't figure out the website, so she reverted to cold-hard-cash. She's 84, I don't blame her. Thanks Grams.

My father-in-law was next to give it a go. The guy is a scientist, so he had no trouble with the site, and even bought it a few days early to make sure I received it. Sure enough, on Dec 21 I got an email from NewEgg containing the proper redemption credentials. Danke.

The rest of the family procrastinated a bit, and bought them on December 24. That's two brother's-in-law, a sister-in-law, and my own parents. Now, maybe they weren't waiting until the last minute, maybe they just wanted me to receive my gift no earlier than Christmas Eve. Unfortunately I haven't received any yet. I did get an email though:

from	Newegg. com (info@newegg.com)
date
subject		Gift Certificate From www.newegg.com
mailed-by		newegg.com

So, there's one certificate- except that the email doesn't have a body. No body, means no Claim code, no Security code, no form letter to tell me where the love came from. So now I have to track down my family members and ask if they tried to send me a gift card from NewEgg- because if they did, I didn't actually get it; and I'm not sure if I ever will...

NewEgg, you've let me down. Did the NewEgg grinch get any of you too? Leave a comment!

Ode to the cake.

They lined up. Engineers, Testers, Managers and Business Analysts, united in their quest. Some spoke business. Others spoke leisure. All salivated at the bounty of sweet fruits and cake that lay at the front of the queue.

In the eyes of some (most?) of my fellow employees, not all cake is created equal-- and one cake does stand out from the rest. The wheat among the chaff; the diamond in the rough; it is an island of flavor in a sea of lesser sheet cakes. The All-American Chocolate Cake. That sinfully decadent mound of meaty chocolate- layered with yet more chocolate. The darkest, richest, most desirable concoction ever to emerge from the Costco kitchens.

"I must have some..." could practically be seen in cartoon thought-bubbles above those lined-up. And as the last slice of All-American Chocolate Cake departed the level 1 break room, sighs and moans were audible. The heads of those patiently awaiting their morsel of chocolate cake dipped ever-so-slightly at the dismay of missing out. Eager expressions of those tardy to the break room quickly changed to match those in the queue. The platter on-which this glorious cake had arrived, was scraped clean. None of its gooey chocolate goodness would go to waste.

Let us implore The Management, to procure for us a second All-American Chocolate Cake at future birthday gatherings.