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I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

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Re: I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree on the moral obligation to humans, but think it's best to keep the focus on not having a moral obligation to corporations (beyond T&Cs or contracts you willingly consent to). Not that you're wrong with the "souless robot" concept, but with the advances in AI, I wouldn't the first one to play out like Chappie. "Why you humans do this? Why you all lie?" - Chappie

Have you seen "the good place" ? There is a hilarious part where "janet", their omnipotent and omniscient anthropomorphic IA - with basically no concept of suffering - triggers a defense mechanism where she pretends she is scared to die. Found it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etJ6RmMPGko

Haha, I haven't seen that before, but that scene really piqued my interest.

[SPOILER]

"Attention, I have been murdered" - Janet

[/SPOILER]

Re: I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

#262
post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By "engaging counsel", I didn't mean suing them. I meant getting professional advice regarding the situation.

That tends to involve less than a house, but still costs more than the Switch itself. (I just got a quote this morning for a what I thought would be simply "explain my property deeds", and it came out at £500...)

So is there a UK equivalent of Nolo?

Re: I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

#263

I have never, ever dealt with any above mid-sized company that handles customer service and delivery well. There seems to be a set of standardised industry practices that are completely and utterly customer hostile. The moment regular company employees stop dealing with customer issues, delivery, etc., and hands it over to "specialists", it's basically a crap shoot whether you can get any issue resolved at all, becau…

This is not fully true. Amazon used DHL with me once - they didn't deliver because of a code/gate thing I used to live at. I called Amazon and they got the DHL DRIVER on the phone - me, Amazon customer support, DHL Driver on a single phone call. Amazon CS fucking rocks sometimes. So yes, there are companies that can go the extra mile and seriously dial up the heat on the delivery company. I think the best CS will cal…

Amazon and Apple are the two biggest companies I can think of that does awesome CS, and that's because they do it in-house and they rely on consumer lock-in. If an Apple fanboy or an Amazon Prime member have a super-bad experience, they will leave and get locked in somewhere else.

Re: I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is SOO true. I ordered some circuit boards from Seeedstudio (good and cheap board fab, btw). I paid extra for DHL to get them quicker. I submitted my boards to Seeed (Shenzhen) October 10. On Oct 16, said they were shipped to DHL. Awesome. Told DHL via their webapp and text messaging that "I do not need signature. Drop at doorstep". 10 boards were a whopping $5. Guaranteed delivery by 19'th, cause thats what I p…

> "I do not need signature. Drop at doorstep" Isn't the point of the signature to protect them ? You can't just say "I don't need a signature, I promise not to sue you." and expect them to just be ok with that, or have I got the wrong end of the stick here?

Sure you can. Many offer this option officially. For example, when I've ordered iPhones from Apple, they let me "pre-sign" online before delivery, which means the delivery person will drop it off if I'm not home.

Of course, the tradeoff is that if your package gets stolen, they're no longer responsible for it, which is why I've never actually done this.

Re: I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

#265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I do not need signature. Drop at doorstep" Isn't the point of the signature to protect them ? You can't just say "I don't need a signature, I promise not to sue you." and expect them to just be ok with that, or have I got the wrong end of the stick here?

Sure you can. Many offer this option officially. For example, when I've ordered iPhones from Apple, they let me "pre-sign" online before delivery, which means the delivery person will drop it off if I'm not home. Of course, the tradeoff is that if your package gets stolen, they're no longer responsible for it, which is why I've never actually done this.

Absolutely. If I were ordering bigger ticket items, you can be sure I'd tell them "I want to pick it up at the shipping office".

But in my case/story, it was $5 set of PCBs I had fabricated. Shipping was $20 for what amounted to an ePacket. I took the chance of having someone steal them (unlikely) to tell them to just drop it off at my dorrstep (in reality, a screened in porch).

Re: I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

#266
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A pity that multinational companies can usually afford much better lawyers than the average Joe. It's really not the same as threatening your neighbor with a "We'll see each other in court", for a parking lot dispute.

This itself is an interesting question. The foundations of the justice system talk about testing everyone equal in the eyes of law but somehow equal access to legal resources is never talked about. I think we need to think over this as a society. There are some countries like Germany where for people with low income the state pays money to hire a lawyer rather than providing a lawyer.

But that is also problematic. What if you have an average income, are part of middle class and have normal job. Now according to this system you are not poor so state won't provide lawyer to you. But hiring a lawyer to represent you against some ridiculous lawsuit by company with huge bankroll and lawyer company on retainer will ruin a person like this. You might have to sell your house just to afford it or something similar and this would financially ruin you and your middle class family.

Re: I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

#267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure you can. Many offer this option officially. For example, when I've ordered iPhones from Apple, they let me "pre-sign" online before delivery, which means the delivery person will drop it off if I'm not home. Of course, the tradeoff is that if your package gets stolen, they're no longer responsible for it, which is why I've never actually done this.

Absolutely. If I were ordering bigger ticket items, you can be sure I'd tell them "I want to pick it up at the shipping office". But in my case/story, it was $5 set of PCBs I had fabricated. Shipping was $20 for what amounted to an ePacket. I took the chance of having someone steal them (unlikely) to tell them to just drop it off at my dorrstep (in reality, a screened in porch).

Yeah, it can be totally reasonable to waive the signature in exchange for assuming liability. Depends on where you live, what you ordered, how you feel that day....

Re: I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you seen "the good place" ? There is a hilarious part where "janet", their omnipotent and omniscient anthropomorphic IA - with basically no concept of suffering - triggers a defense mechanism where she pretends she is scared to die. Found it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etJ6RmMPGko

Haha, I haven't seen that before, but that scene really piqued my interest. [SPOILER] "Attention, I have been murdered" - Janet [/SPOILER]

The first season is complete, on netflix, and have a non disapointing ending. The season 2 is running. Nice "feel good" show overall.

Re: I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

#269
In the US and if through USPS, if a package is shipped and delivered, the person receiving the package now owns it and is under no obligation whatsoever to return it. It's literally 'finders keepers':

"By law, unsolicited merchandise is yours to keep."

You solicited one, they delivered more than one. Not your problem. Note that this is for USPS. I'm not sure it holds up for private carriers.

http://about.usps.com/publications/pub300a/pub300a_tech_021....

Re: I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

#270
post #188
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Believe me, even if you are home 100% of the time, packages will still not get delivered because "nobody was home". IIRC DHL is especially prone to this. I think the drivers try to catch up time or whatever.

DHL is mostly subcontracted to local companies. Yes, drivers do that when they have a residential address, because they cannot pull the same trick with companies at factory/office hours, they hope it goes unnoticed with individuals. But I also have a DHL driver doing the opposite: you stay at home all day and nobody rings; then you notice that the parcel is marked as delivered on the website. What? You get outside an…

> But I also have a DHL driver doing the opposite: you stay at home all day and nobody rings; then you notice that the parcel is marked as delivered on the website. What? You get outside and you see the parcel was thrown in your yard over the wall/fence/portal. You go back to DHL website and you download the receipt, to discover a beautiful fake signature of yours forged by the driver.

IN cases like that, I would have a very hard ethical time in pushing that issue of fraud onto the driver. To be honest, I haven't done that... but the thought would definitely cross my mind.

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