I just received a response to the email I sent to Borders a few days ago. I wonder if you will be a stunned as I was when I read it. I will post Borders' response and my rebuttal.

Their letter to me:

Thank you for your inquiry regarding the premiere issue of Shock Magazine.

The premiere issue of Shock Magazine that went on-sale earlier this month contained an allegedly unauthorized photograph on the front cover and retailers were directed to remove copies from sale and return them. In response to this directive and the fact that it is now time to place the second issue of Shock on sale, Borders is in the process of removing the premier issue from our shelves.

I hope that this information is helpful. Please feel free to contact us if you have any other questions or comments.

Sincerely,

Scott

Borders Customer Carehttp://www.bordersstores.com

My rebuttal to them:

Dear Scott,

Why does your response look so familiar? Oh, yeah because of this:

From: Borders Customer Care
Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2006 6:48 AM
To: Bill Byars
Subject: Borders (CC0000003028339)
Importance: High
7/5/2006

Dear Bill,
Thank you for contacting Borders regarding Shock Magazine.

Please accept my apology for the delay in responding to your message. Although we strive to answer email as soon as possible, we sometimes receive more inquiries than we anticipate. If you need or prefer immediate assistance in the future, you may wish to call our Customer Contact Center at 1-888-81-BOOKS.

The premiere issue of Shock Magazine that went on-sale earlier this month contained an allegedly unauthorized photograph on the front cover and retailers were directed to remove copies from sale and return them. In response to this directive and the fact that it is now time to place the second issue of Shock on sale, Borders has removed the premier issue from our shelves.

I hope that this information is helpful. Please feel free to contact us if you have any other questions or comments.

Sincerely,

Patrick
Borders Customer Care
http://www.bordersstores.com

This is pathetic, Scott. Borders has now stooped to a canned answer
to customer complaints. It's all about the party line isn't it?

"Allegedly" is hardly the appropriate word considering the discussion that's been going on for the past month and a half. And you'll have to forgive me if it takes a few minutes for me to recover when I read "...In response to this directive and that fact that it is now time to place the second issue of Shock on sale, Borders has removed the premier issue from our shelves." Do you think all your customers are fools that we can't see what you are really saying? Stop insulting me, please. This talk out of both sides of your mouth is ridiculous. Borders left the issue and its stolen cover photo on the shelf until the second issue came out. Plain and simple, and you know it. Stop trying to cover with the lame "in response to this directive."

For your sake, Scott, I hope you are only writing what corporate HQ tells you to write. I hope you have more ethics and a higher moral standard than your employer.

Please bounce this email to your supervisor/manager. I'm more angry now than I was when I wrote my original letter.

I guess you have to be the judge here. I was completely stunned when I received the reply from Borders. No, not stunned by the content. Stunned because I didn't see it coming. How naive am I? I mean the whole reason I even started this blog is because of the Alienware thing. This latest toe-to-toe with Borders is not all that different. There's still a lot of bullturd being slung around and the little guy is always on the dirty end. I hope you are taking some kind of action. I'm just getting warmed up.

Here is a copy of an email I recently sent to Borders Books regarding the copyright infringement of Michael Yon's photograph.

"Dear Sir/Madam,

Up until about two weeks ago I was a long time subscriber to your Borders enewsletter and a frequent customer purchasing nearly all my professional reading material at your stores. I have recently unsubscribed and will no longer purchase books at your stores after discovering that Borders has engaged in what I believe has been identified as criminal activity at worst and unethical business practice at best.

Your decision to continue stocking Shock magazine is the catalyst for me cutting my contact with your stores and affiliates.

I am appalled that Borders would continue to stock on it's shelves a magazine whose publisher blatantly stole Michael Yon's photograph and used it on the cover. I take the theft of intellectual property seriously and will happily and aggressively notify as many people as I can of Borders decision to continue to perpetuate this unethical behavior by leaving Shock on the shelves.

I would be glad to resume doing business with Borders once Shock is permanently removed from your shelves. Unfortunately, I have very little faith this will happen. I am aware that Shock is published by HFM which also publishes many of the other magazines on your shelves. I wonder if Borders would react more appropriately if Shock was a stand alone magazine and not in the company of the likes of Road & Track and Elle."

There is so much more we can be doing. If we work together we can create a ground swell that Borders and other stores that are continuing the unethical practice of stocking Shock magazine will be unable to ignore. The challenge is yours to accept. Is that latte more important to you than the protection of intellectual property?

Alienware Arghhhh

So while I'm waiting for chapter two to unfold I've been doing some hunting and have found a couple of other folks who have posted similar or identical problems with their Alienware Area 51 MJ-12 7700. I've inquired with them as to the resolution they received and will be sure to post that info as it comes back to me.

I am a regular reader of Michael Yon's Online Magazine which is linked over there on the right side of this page. Michael is an independent writer who spent a long time in Iraq with the US Army and is now in Afghanistan reporting the truth from there. He has a "media influence neutral" approach and is well respected by the military as well as other media sources for his willingness to tell it like he sees it.

He's currently in a battle over the copyright of a photo he took in Iraq that a magazine called "Shock" illegally used on their cover to defame the military and the Iraq war in general. Anyone following the Alienware saga on any of the many blogs out here should visit Michael's site to learn more about corporate misconduct and the willingness to stick it to the little guy.

Among the peripheral battles are the ones going on with stores that stock the offending magazine on their shelves. The intervention of people like you and me has resulted in many stores pulling "Shock" off their shelves. Apparently the law says that if they continiue to sell the magazine, they are committing a crime. Rite-Aid, for instance was quick to yank "Shock" and will not restock it. Unfortunately another corporate giant, Borders, cited the First Amendment as grounds for their decision to display and sell a magazine that by the publisher’s own admission is comprised of stolen goods. This is garbage. You and I and a boatload of others can help put pressure on Borders to do what they know is the right thing. The kicker here is that "Shock" is published by the same people that publish Car and Driver, Road & Track, Woman’s Day, Flying, Boating, and Elle, among others.

Do I think Borders caved to pressure from the publisher? You bet. Can we do better? Oh yeah. Do you get Borders online coupons? Unsubscribe and then write a letter to them telling them why. Are you member of their book club? Bail out and tell them why. Do you swing in there for a coffee and use their WiFi? Forget the coffee. Go in and use their WiFi to send them an email telling them you object to the stocking of "Shock" magazine. But first head over to Michael Yon Online and read all about it.

I've got the phone pinned to my right ear listening to the same four bars of "new age, you're on hold" music I've been hearing for the past two months. You guessed it, I'm talking with Alienware Tech Support. Mind you these guys are just the messengers and I've got no beef with them. They seem a little limited in their options, but the issue at hand is systemic, pervasive, incredibly frustrating and seems to be centered on a single corporate realization. Alienware knows they suck and is trying its best to limit their exposure. They are doing this by farming every phone call to Tech Support even when the real issue is customer service and satisfaction - or in my case: dissatisfaction

I purchased an Area-51 MJ-12 7700 at the beginning of May 2006. (I know, I know. "Didn't you read all the internet blogs and comments about how crappy Alienware is?" Let's move on, that's all water over the dam.) Anyway, it arrived on May 10 and immediately started hanging up when booting Windows from a cold start. Over the course of the following three weeks I spent a ton of time talking with Tech Support, basically doing a technicians job: swapping hard drive positions, reloading, reformating, check this, check that, do the hokey pokey.... Finally, on May 30 they said, "Send it back and we'll repair it." Hallelujah! So I packed it up and sent it off to Memphis. It arrived there on June 7 and on June 12 was shipped back to me.

I opened the box today and there was my Alien with a cover letter that said:

"It is unfortunate that your system had to come back to Alienware for repair. Rest assured that I and the Alienware Service Team worked diligently to address all reported computer issues." I performed a thorough diagnostic evaluation of your system and have determined the following: Failure was duplicated. Your computer has been repaired."

So, I plugged her in and fired it up. During the Bios check I noticed it only detected one hard drive (uh oh, there's supposed to be two) and then I got the bad news: Operating System Not Found. WTF! So, almost eight weeks has passed and I am no closer to having a working machine than the day I placed my order.

I've been on the phone with Tech Support for the past hour because Customer Service won't deal with the problem. This is not a Tech issue. At this point it's all about Customer Service and I am here to tell you: there isn't any.

Currently they have decided to take it back and make it right. Some say I should go for the refund, and end the relationship, but there's more here than just my tip of the iceberg. I'm up to the challenge and promise to publish the good, bad and ugly of this saga until it comes to an end. Stay tuned.