I found exactly what I wanted (in theory at least) @ ChinaGrabber.com:

May 9, 2008:
Looks neat, huh? It’s a watch, and it’s a cell phone! It was advertised as a QUAD Band Cell Phone Watch - still advertised as so. Comes with bluetooth, headset, FM radio, all sorts of stuff. The u200i cell phone watch is even detachable and can be used as a flip phone, NEAT!

After an hour or two of searching for this cell phone, I decided to pull the trigger and order from ChinaGrabber.com, despite their lack luster reviews from Google. So in the end, it’s my fault for ordering from there. However, the customer experience to follow was completely unexpected.

May 21, 2008:
After I received the phone, I quickly read through the manual, put in my SIM card, charged her up, & powered her on… “No Service”…

May 22, 2008:
Okay, my room has bad reception anyway, so I decided to take the phone to work the next morning where we are literally down the street from a Cingular (now, the new AT&T) antenna tower… “No Service”…

I even got a new SIM card from an AT&T store, as well as try different people’s SIM cards… “No Service”…

Something can’t be right, it’s a quad band phone, even my tri-band made for Europe phones have worked @ my office.

First thing I did was call up ChinaGrabber - I receive an answering machine telling me to leave my info & email them as well for a response. I do both.

Here is the message I left them on Google:
Hello, I received the u200i yesterday. It was advertised as quad band, however, I cannot get reception anywhere in my area - It simply displays “No Service.” I have looked thoroughly through the manual & checked every option in the phone - there is no setting for it. I have several other unlocked phones from China, even a tri-band one, and they all work at the majority of places I have tested. I believe either I have a defective phone or this phone is not truly quad-band, or even tri-band for that matter. I would like a refund and a return shipment label please, unless you can fix this issue. Quoc-Viet

After a day, no response… after a week, no response…

Early June 2008:
During this time, I finally found more information on the u200i & got in contact with a couple different companies that sold the unit. I found yet another site that “seemed promising” & did advertise as two separate models for the u200i, SurprisingGift.com, which sent me the wrong model as well - go figure. With those guys, it was a completely different disaster through PayPal & me losing money - but that’s a story for another time. I wanted the damn phone, and one of these companies must have SOME success - I’ll keep whichever works… neither worked, wtf?

Turns out, the u200i is NOT quad band at all, but comes in 2 different dual-band options. ChinaGrabber sent me the wrong one.

I still have not heard back from ChinaGrabber after trying a few more times. I don’t do this very often, but it’s time to call up American Express & ask them to handle it for me - charge back & request for return shipping label.

June 6, 2008:
I hear from ChinaGrabber! What a coincidence, just a day or two after I call American Express, I hear from a “Tunde Sosanya” of ChinaGrabber (quotes because there is never any name @ the bottom of the email, just in the ‘From Sender’ field)…

Hello,
Are you with ATT?
Turn on phone. Then enter the following sequence:
*#3646633#
Select the first option, then the second for the 850mhz option.
Best Regards

Sounds promising! Excited, I go home & do exactly that… “No Service”…

Begin, customer service breakdown:
Yes, I am with AT&T. I tried that option, & went through every band option, rebooted the phone each time, & still get “No Service”. I am located at a University where we have a cell phone tower near us - all other tri-band & quad-band phones are getting full reception. I cannot make or receive any calls.

Quoc-Viet

June 7, 2008
Hello, Could you possibly try a friend’s t-mobile card and see if it will work with that?

Best Regards

My response:
I have tried it as well & it does not work (from original email).

Quoc-Viet

June 10, 2008:
Tunde:
Hello, we need you to return the item to us before we can issue you a refund.

Best Regards

Excuse me? You send me a defective phone - something DEFINITELY not as advertised, and I need to pay for return shipping? Okay, let’s try to reason with Tunde here…

Me:
I am aware of that. Will I be receiving a return shipping label to send the item back?

June 10, 2008
No, if you are asking for refund - which you are since you filed chargeback, then you need to pay for shipping back per or website and google checkout policy you aggreed to. Please let us know once you have tracking and we will issue you full refund or send out a different unit.

Best Regards

June 13, 2008
I’m getting a lil p.o.’ed now, but no need to go completely ape shit on these guys:
Why am I responsible for shipping if I was sent a defective unit?

I’m asking for a refund instead of an exchanged because of the total lack of customer service & satisfaction. It was nearly impossible to ever get a response from your company until I filed a chargeback.

Tunde:
We can’t verify it was defective until we recieve it. Again, please send watch back so we can close dispute.

Best regards

June 16, 2008
Hello, have you been able to get a tracking number so we can issue you a refund?

Best Regards

My stance:
As I have stated before, I feel I am well within my rights to not have to pay for return shipping for a defective product. I don’t care what your policy is, it is simply not my fault that the item is not working.

If we can’t reach an amicable agreement, I will continue to let my credit card company deal with this issue.

June 18, 2008:
Okay, we’ll ship you a return label or whatever.

Best Regards

Okay… why did I have to even argue about getting a return shipping label?

June 24, 2008:
Hello, did you receive return shipping label?

Best Regards

Notice how now it’s 850/1900 dual band… and not quad band? Interesting… I don’t know if I want to deal with these guys anymore… they did send a return shipping label, but it wasted several weeks of my life now just trying to get some sort of customer service - which so far, is below average.
I have just dropped it off w/ UPS. You should have the tracking #, but in case you don’t, here it is:

Quoc-Viet

June 30, 2008:
Hello, We received your u200i watch. since we have the quad band u200i and there is a no return policy we are going to go ahead and ship out your quadband u200i.

Best Regards

Hey, what do you know, it’s a quad-band again. After wasting a month of my time, no thanks.
I do not want a replacement phone. You have wasted enough of my time - I don’t care what your return policy is or is not. I simply want my money back.

I will not accept any packages from your company.

Tunde:
should not have filed chargeback… read the return policy on our google checkout acct.

BR

Me:
I would not have had to if you returned your calls or emails prior to me filing one 2 weeks after unsuccessful contact.

This is by far the worst customer service I have ever received from any company I have ever dealt with. If my credit card company does not take care of this, you will hear from my lawyers, this is a complete waste of time.

Not that it’d be worth more time and money, but luckily, working for a university, I have a legal plan that basically allows me lawyers - one of the benefits. I don’t expect to have to call them up yet, as long as I receive my refund.

July 1, 2008
Up to this point, I’ve just about had it with ChinaGrabber… horrible customer service - only way they could have been any worse would be to insult me… wait, what’s this in my inbox?

Tunde:
you are a college student.. can’t expect you to act like an adult yet.

BR

I don’t know why, but I feel totally insulted, not so much by the college student part (emails from my work email, which ends w/ uci.edu), which I have already graduated years ago… but by “can’t expect you to act like an adult yet.” Hmmmmm…

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t feel this is how customers should be treated by CUSTOMER SERVICE representatives.

My final email to ChinaGrabber (hopefully):
Are you serious? Trying to insult me now? I graduated years ago, I’m working for the University of California, hence the email address.

What is your first & last name? I would like to reference you when I file my official complaint with BBB later this week.

I’m done with this… right after I send my letter to the BBB (if they are even part of BBB) & do my google sellers review. Time for Ankur to do his magical thing & get me on google ranking for reviews of ChinaGrabber.

One of the employees was nice enough to give us a course walk when I asked if they do any walk throughs. I have never received nor expected a course walk from any karting place. His lines & theories were different than my approach, which was enough to improve my best lap time by almost a full second. I won’t mention his name because I’m not sure if he will get in trouble if his boss finds out he was giving a course walk.

So far, that was the best $18 dollars (2 races) I’ve ever spent at a karting place. Gotta love member appreciation days.

My review on Yelp.

They even have a youtube video of their place, neat!

New Kids on the Block performed together for the first time in 15 years (found @ bottom):

Toyota makes a great concert series, makes up for that whole crappy “I want my mpgggggs” song, hahaha (New Kids on the Block, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Cold Play, etc).

Toyota Concert Series

And sometimes i’m not. This morning I woke up, and had a can of Pokka coffee (I swear) and was happy until I got to work at the early time of 9:30. (Wiki of Japanese canned Coffee)

However, my new french press (I only roll Bodiums, what!) was looking for something new.

My buddy Shelly C - (A active Yelper too! ) thoughtfully bought me this from a store in Pheonix, Arizona.

Momma Vakil (my mom) saw the bag around her house, and thought (”you kids buy the dumbest things!”) and immediately freaked out about the price of 14.99. (Of course, the huge “Fuck” via branding on the package did not help either.
Two thumbs down!

Coffee made in French Press;

*caffeine - Lots of it, gave me a nice Coffee buzz

*Nice color (looked darker than the pictures)

*aroma - great aroma, however, had a slight burnt smell. Anyone else?

Overall, for a non-chain coffee, many of you know, you may get a bag of nasty tasty coffee once in a while. However, (if this is any indicator) - the coffee tasted fresh, as if it was only a month old.

Two thumbs up!

www.wakethefup.net

Warning: the video may be too graphic for some

Ankur rides a dyno…

Jesus rides a dino…

Coincidence? I think not!
- Quoc-Viet

Overall, I got 13 runs - they were hoping for 16, but we ran short on time, but I was only expecting 8-12. The course layout was AWESOME. It was really nice how they minimized the space used for parking & maximized the course size while still fitting everyone.

This was my first autocross (not counting Lone Pine since it was a time trial, officially) with the Power FC & 265 tires all around. Second gear feels SOOOOO good thanks to Lien from FRSport, who hooked up the Power FC adapter & base map off Cat’s S14.

Early in the day, Mako, the one who always takes awesome pictures of everyone’s cars, took a ride along. “I didn’t realize your car was automatic until you started driving, then I just felt sorry for you.” Sad, but true. Mako noticed that I was taking the turns really wide & said I should be taking the apexs much closer than I currently am.

I had developed this style because of the lack of acceleration of my heavy stock automatic car - if I took turns wider, I was able to maintain a much higher speed average. If I slowed down and took turns too tight, the acceleration coming out of the turn felt like dog poo. Of course, I am positive I took it too far & take turns WAY too far out. During the morning, I was running 75 seconds down to 73 seconds. That was enough to be competitive with most of the newbies, but embarrassing for the class I am in (and considering I’ve been doing this almost 3 years now, yikes).

I spent half the day working on this and got ride alongs with faster guys & girls.

During my work assignment, I got lucky & only had to do gate duty, woo hoo! I still managed to get a sunburn on my shoulders because I took off my long sleeve half way through the day & didn’t reapply sunblock.

By the afternoon, I was getting into the high 71 & low 72 second range. I was lucky enough to get Jason Flores (races an 89 Honda Civic SI in STS with Steven Yeoh, check out his codriver’s blog here: http://yeohbaby.blogspot.com/). Jason gave me some tips, notably that I was entering the hairpins too fast and too sharp. After applying his techniques (which I still need to practice better), I was able to shave about .4 seconds off my time.

Here’s the video with some of his comments @ the end:

Run w/ Jason (YouTube version):

Run w/ Jason (Hi Quality version):

All available videos @ higher quality (640×480) available here: http://www.bewbews.com/wpg2?g2_itemId=1447

Thanks for the tips, Jason!

No pictures this time, I got too lazy. For those who want to see pictures from the championship (next day), you can check it out on the solo2.com forum thread: http://forums.solo2.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=203.

I was suppose to show up to the championship on Sunday too, but didn’t make it - half way into the day I realized my tire was STILL rubbing into the driver side harness. By the end of the day, relays were clicking like crazy & exposed wire was looking really sketchy. I spent Sunday patching up the harness & readjusting the coilovers - seems like they keep getting a lil loose on one side.

I’ll be prepped soon enough to get a baseline of where I stand overall - hopefully by July.

QV

Of course if that happened during a corner, my oh my.

Can you get more nerdy than this?

The McMahon’s just been roll’d, hahaha.