This isn't going to be a straight FFXI post. I'm including it here because I do not have another blog at this time, and also because I do think there are some things which are somewhat relevant to FFXI in this, but not as bad as the experiences I will outline below.
All I will say is that my friend is not that happy to begin with (and, if she doesn't get the UPS shipment with the bulk of her computer upgrade within a few hours, she's really going to get pissed -- oh, by the way, to UPS: She knows the package is in our hometown. Get it to her. NOW. She knows some of the crap you guys pull too, and this is sensitive stuff. Get it to her in pristine condition, or else...)
Anyway, with that computer upgrade, she decided to take me shopping (because she also wanted to get me my Christmas and birthday presents (more on that in a bit)). She decided to take the plunge and purchase a monitor-capable HDTV (her eventual goal being to hook both her computer and her PS2 to the HDTV -- otherwise, she'd simply have gotten a monitor, but she needs something larger because of her eyesight).
So, off to Worst Buy we went. After picking out my birthday and Christmas presents, we got to the HDTV section, and my friend was very meticulous in picking out a potential set. She knows what she's doing (she does her own computer building, and knows far more on that end than I do), and is very picky that, especially if it's going to be that superior to a standard setup, she wants her blacks to be black, not a washed-out gray like her original choice of brand turned out to be presented as on display.
So, she picks one out, takes it home, and finds it to be an utter -- piece -- of -- crap.
No, seriously. She tries to hook it up, and basically has conceded that her OLD monitor is so much better that she's going to get older models and have the one she has refurbished.
What I seriously think they're trying to do is extortion: To get any kind of a quality picture, the HDTV is basically only a piece of hardware which absolutely must be professionally installed with professional wiring, cabling, etc. -- that the stuff provided with the set isn't even worth being provided, but is just false wiring between points A and B.
This is unacceptable because the store basically is known, for the price level of the HDTV's which she was looking at, to charge the entire price of the TV for professional installation. Seriously. I saw a $350 TV that, if you wanted the pro installation, would run you ANOTHER $350!!
Without that, it's clear that they are selling you (and knowingly so) a piece of crap that's worth, essentially, nothing. At minimum, you'd have to fork over another $200 or so for the wiring, and that's if you didn't need the labor...
Extortion. Freaking extortion.
I don't know precisely what the problem was (my motto when she has serious stuff to do is to get out of the way), but let's just say that is going back as soon as UPS decides to get off it's asses and get my friend's computer upgrade (or most of it) to her. As in NOW, people...
Of course, there's one other bugaboo: There may be a 14% restocking fee on the unit when she does. She's about one more problem with this kind of stuff from contacting consumer groups about this crap. It really looks as if there was material mis-representation as to the nature of how these things work (in my read, that several hundred more dollars would have to be outlaid to get anything of the quality vis-a-vis what they show in-store), and the fact that the restocking fee might not even apply to these particular things in the first place, at least according to the receipt.
So that's got my friend agitated even beyond all this UPS crap.
As if that was the only problem we ran into that night...
I had decided to get a copy of GTA IV for the PC for my Christmas present (and, after I realized that the Ouran High School Host Club DVD volume 2 would not be out until later in the week, decided to get a Rumblepad 2 for my birthday -- Ouran v. 2 will have to wait until about Feb. 1.), and found the last copy out in the Worst Buy (was on sale at $10 off).
Took it home, installed it on the computer, and got a nasty surprise:
The game will NOT run at all on anything below a video card which is recognized to run DirectX 9.
But wait: That wasn't really the surprise.
You see, I ran the DirectX diagnostic, and found that I was running DirectX 10. (It may even be a requirement for Vista...)
I understand that I don't have all the spec-outs which might be required to make these new-fangled games work, but it really sounds to me as if that: If you don't have several hundred dollars every six months to upgrade your computer (or your television) to the stuff the game manufacturers demand for the titles you want, you're not good enough for them.
I mean, let's go back to the television for a second with respect to a PS3. I can forget about ever doing Final Fantasy XIII or beyond now. Because it's not enough to get just the PS3. All indications are that getting the PS3 pretty much demands a new HDTV, and I already lined out what that demands.
Is it that we are all supposed to die if we can't make a freaking six-figure income for you bastards??
You're essentially making an entry-level PS3 a $1000 investment!!!
And, with this crap, it sounds like Rockstar, which has no hesitation on it's Social Club to advertise certain video card companies, is going to demand that, unless you get the video card and audio card and the like that they are all but advertising (read: that they choose to recognize as sufficient), then you are f*cked with respect to GTA IV.
Here's a hint, Rockstar: That's extortion. I can handle having a little less performance (which see a Besieged on my laptop).
What I can't handle is that basically you're telling people on desktops to spend hundreds of dollars they probably never intended to spend (nor do they have) on new cards, and people like me on laptops to spend thousands on a new gaming laptop.
No. F*cking -- no. I'm not going to buy a Fata1ity laptop just to satisfy your sorry asses. Patch it so that some of us who like our gear and don't have the money to upgrade at this time do so.
Otherwise, you'll be called out on the extortion the same way the HDTV bastards are.
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