robricc,

I don't know hat there was about your original post that could be taken *too* seriously. It seemed fair. If Rob is responding to an insinuation that somebody at SB is out to screw us by messing up orders, I can understand, but I think that yn0t_'s statement "This has gone way past absurd. I think you have to TRY to be this stupid. Really." is quite fair. For my boring previous op-ed on customer service, click here .

Rob Voisey, believe me when I say that I view your accumulated credibility WRT customer service as unparalleled, but I am a bit surprised to hear you making excuses for the "guys in the warehouse" in this case. I would hazard to say that many successful mail-order businesses operate successfully with front-line pickers who are not familiar with all of the many distinctions between a zillion products, but who actually rely on checking the SKU when any doubt. I honestly can't count the number of places I have ordered multiple orders from over the past 10 years and who have *not* screwed up even once (West Marine, BoatUS, CampMor, L.L.Bean, All Electronics, CyberGuys, Amazon, ProVantage are just a start...) If any one of these performed at the the level of the SB/Digital River order fulfillment dumbvirate, they would be out of business. Unfamiliarity of the guys in the warehouse would be no excuse; it is a program management problem.

It is good that SB has someone in Jim Hafner-Eaton who is interested in improving things. If he spent 2-3 hours on this BBS searching for DR topics, it would be time well spent (potential ammunition for a nonperformance beef with DR).

With respect to "PO Boxes", since he says they will do forwarding, it sounds like Reggie is using what the USPS would like us to call a "PMB" - Private Mail Box (the Post Net type of deal Tony describes). Since I travel a bit for work, I use a local PMB as my working address for everything except voter registration. They'll take delivery from FedEx, UPS, DHL, USPS, Airborne, Viking Express, CREEP bagmen, you name it. Mine is a fairly ancient family-run concern that serves a lot of cruising sailors. In Reggie's place I could ask them to crack the packaging and double-check the contents before sending it. I doubt many mail drops provide this level of service, though, so I understand his concern. Reggie, good luck. Go for it!

(Oh, for the purposes of ordering from outfits like DR, it helps that my functional address is: #90, not PMB 90. They can then believe that it is an apartment ; it must also synch with my credit card billing address, which it does. Some agencies (such as my local election board) and companies who have enough motive to pay the USPS for detailed address databases may be able to sniff out PMB addresses and may declare it an invalid address for their purposes, but it still works 95% for me.)