When the American Apology Shirt took off in 2003, I got some fairly good customer support. They contacted me and upgraded me to a premium storefront at no charge. Of course, they kept 90% of over $100,000 in revenue, so the $7/mo probably isn't killing them. But just now I had a very bad experience. Since part of the bad experience is that they aren't returning phone calls, I am sharing this with the world instead.

I wanted to print some custom shirts for my consulting business. I opened a new store to keep it separate from americanapology.com. I wanted to print about a dozen t-shirts, each slightly different. I had to make the new store premium in order to do that. This, I thought, was not a problem, because new premium stores are free for 30 days.

• Problem #1: The same day I opened my new premium shop, I was charged $6.95.
• Problem #2: When I called customer support, the person I talked to couldn't help me. They promised I would be called back, but I never was.
• Problem #3: In my order, for a dozen different shirts, one shirt was a duplicate. So I got 11 different shirts and an extra. I thought perhaps I had mis-ordered, and I didn't check closely until after the 30-day return period. Turns out I ordered correctly.
• Problem #4: About a month later, I called again just to follow up. The person I talked to said there was no record of my earlier call, but that there would certainly be a followup call this time. There was not.
• Problem #5: The shirts were very popular, so I ordered three more, plus a replacement for the one that was never shipped. That's four different shirts. When they showed up, there were three different shirts and a duplicate.

So, rather than waste time waiting for a callback that never happens, I'm posting here. Please continue buying my shirts from AmericanApologyShirt.com, since I don't have the inclination to change to a different provider, but please reconsider using Cafe Press for anything else. And if you find something similar to Cafe Press, let me know and I'll consider changing as well.

Addendum: Cafepress called and left a message, asking me to call back. This is wrong. The problem report I filed detailed everything wrong with the orders. The message should have said, "We've sent a new shirt to replace the one you ordered and paid for but didn't get; it's in the mail already, at no further charge. We also reversed the charge for your free trial month. There's no need to return the two duplicates that we sent you; we apologize for the problems." Anything else is a continued waste of my time. Maybe they'll do better tomorrow.

Addendum #2: Cafepress will send one replacement t-shirt.

Addendum #3: The replacement t-shirt was received. The Premium shop payment that was deducted the same day I signed up for a "Free Trial" was not credited.

I've been using the 3007WFP for a few months now, and I'm generally quite happy. But I do want to document a few annoyances:

• My screen has one bad pixel. It's dark, and on a light background looks like a permanent speck of dust.
• The monitor accepts only DVI-D input, and prefers dual-link. You can't hook it up to a TV or DVD player, or to a game player. This is in sharp contrast to the 20" Dell, which is very promiscuous in its input, accepting DVI, VGA, S-video, and composite video.
• If it's plugged in but turned off, it makes a high-pitched whine.
• For a few minutes after being turned on, the backlight flickers.

(Don't ask why. There is no why.)

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On July 20, I'll be flying to Singapore for a one-year Master of Public Administration program at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. I hope to combine several of my interests: China, free software, and management. Perhaps when I'm done I can move up from project manager to bureaucrat.

The dreadlocks are part of his body. Thus, if he is hit by a pitch, he would be awarded the base, unless he failed to make an effort to avoid the pitch or was struck by the pitch in the strike zone--in other words, were his hair to intrude upon the strike zone in trying to get out of the way, hanging over the strike zone or such. Also, if tagged out on the bases via a tag or on the hair, he would be out. If he were to be struck on the hair by a batted ball, he would also be ruled out. — Mike Port, baseball's vice president of umpires, on Manny Ramirez.