Steve Caldwell’s Weblog

As a favor to one of the authors, I’ve posted a pdf of the paper below here on my website for anyone who may have trouble finding an electronic copy elsewhere:

My girlfriend and I recently tried to buy a futon online from Target.com. It didn’t work out so well. Taking a page from the Cluetrain Manifesto, we thought we’d share our experience so that other consumers don’t have to suffer the same mishaps at the hands of Target. Here below is my girlfriend’s story of our futon debacle:

Target’s Abbey I Futon

DON’T BUY THIS FUTON!!!! I bought it, and the first time it was delivered one of the arms was broken. After calling Target three times in one morning, they finally told me I needed to call the manufacturer– they could not help me directly! So I called the manufacturer who promised they would send me a new arm. Two and a half weeks later, no new arm had arrived. Furious, I called Target. They responded quickly and sent me out a new one directly (why didn’t they do this the first time???). Meanwhile we’ve had a broken futon sitting in our living room for three weeks. We got rid of the futon boxes figuring we would send the broken futon back in the new futon’s box and because we did not want the clutter anymore. Of course, we did not count on the new futon also arriving BROKEN! In the same exact place so we could not even make one good futon out of two! Now Target is insisting that to get a full refund we have to set up a return with UPS and BUY a new 8-foot-long box. The whole reason I ordered online was because I live in DC without a car. I have no way of getting a new box. The whole process was a fiasco and a big waste of wood.

My father has a website with is photography.  All of his pictures can be viewed on a single page.

My father has just launched a website (with the help of my brother and me) to showcase his work as a freelance photographer. Check it out at www.thcphotography.com.