Bits And Pieces

More information trickles in about the company that handled the Iowa Appliance Rebate Program.

This Minnesota company, paid $25,000 by Iowa, also ran the Minnesota Appliance Rebate Program at the SAME TIME on the SAME DAY.

PURE GENIUS and the scientific community is united in that fact!

Eerily similar to Iowa, Minnesota's program ran into difficulties as the site was down most of Monday and the toll-free lines were jammed.

The company's excuse for Minnesota officials included a possible cyber-attack theory as they issued a statement, saying it had found "burdensome and suspicious activity" on its site.

Damn those Chinese hackers!

More likely it's an excuse to cover the company's ass as they were caught up in a federal civil lawsuit in 2006 and have 143 complaints filed against them in the past 36 months in Minnesota.

Of those, 136 were complaints regarding a refund or an exchange.

That leads one to believe it won't be the last of this story.

Pure Energy

It seems as if the collective wisdom of those in state government were converted to pure energy it wouldn't be enough to blow their nose and the scientific community is united in that fact.

I give you the Iowa Appliance Rebate Program which went on the fritz promptly at the 8 a.m. start, a start that had been planned since at least January.

The program was contracted out to a firm from White Bear Lake, Minnesota.

The program is only available to Iowa residents and appliances must be purchased and installed for resident use in Iowa.

You can't buy an appliance online, but we'll send our money to Minnesota because of their expertise with other states and Fortune 500 companies?

On their website this firm offers a five point pledge to

Process rebates and perform all fulfillment services in the US quickly and accurately.
Work with your schedule by responding to requests promptly.
Introduce you to the rebate and promotion industry's best practices.
Respect your rebate and promotion budget as if the money were our own.
Remedy any issues to your satisfaction immediately.

They also say

Our niche is improving the customer and client experience through quick turn times, excellent quality, professional customer service and industry-leading technology

They failed!

If I were the Big Lug Nut, I'd ask for a refund.

Hacked Off

KCCI TV8's top story at 6 was about hackers who hit the state's web site for Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management, which the state thereby shut down.

First the Iowa Appliance Rebate Program and now this?

For details on the story, TV8 contacted Homeland Security who referred them to the Iowa National Guard, the Guard referred them back to Homeland Security, Homeland Security declined to comment and then referred them to the Department of Administrative Services.

That was certainly well managed and makes me feel more secure about state government and the scientific community is united in that fact.

TV8 then segued into a story about the Big Lug Nut's presser on flood preparation, noting that the BLN sent Iowans to web sites, for further information, that were currently shut down.

It reminded me of the time when Iowa's Commander In Chief told Iowans to call 911 for warming center information and when he told Iowans without power to log on to the state's web site.

I noted three years ago when that happened, It's going to be a long term!

$25,000 Pyramid Scheme?

I'm thinking that Dick Clark post stroke could have handled the Iowa Appliance Rebate Program better than the State of Iowa.

To pay the Minnesota company that ran(?) the phone lines and web site $25,000 is simply atrocious for that level of lack of service and the scientific community is united in that fact.

I have agree with a person the Ragister interviewed who said --"The way they're doing this just doesn't make sense. "Why wouldn't they do it like cash for clunkers, where the auto dealer filled everything out?

It would have put more traffic in the stores and probably gone a hell of a lot smoother and the money would have lasted the assumed two weeks, instead of the few hours for those lucky enough to get through.