OHSHIT REPORT: Discounting our own discounts
58When something goes terribly wrong here at Mediocre Laboratories we draft up internal memos called "OHSHIT REPORTs". We use OHSHIT REPORTs to help share details across the company about what went wrong, coordinate work across teams for how we're going to fix it, and dive deep into root causes. Here's a copy of a recent internal OHSHIT REPORT we created.
Background
The Acer Chromebook (CB5-571-C5XU) was put up for sale on Meh.com with unclear specifications within the front page bullets. Additionally, the product was for sale at a lower price on Acer's eBay store.
Timeline
January 28th: Acer Chromebooks are brought up in daily Meh planning meeting. @Hales introduces a Full HD IPS chromebook, as well as the one that we sold (CB5-571-C5XU). It is mentioned that the Amazon link given for the CB5-571-C5XU is not the exact same product. The difference at Amazon does not get passed to writer @JasonToon. (And yes, we often only schedule out a week in advance, if we're lucky; we don't even know what we're selling next Thursday.)
February 2nd: @JasonToon posts writeup for review. One bullet says "Dual-core Intel processor, 4GB RAM, 32GB solid-state drive, 15.6" full HD IPS display: turns out a Chromebook can be a real computer." The display description is based on the similar Amazon comp. Our chromebook is indeed HD, but Full HD led customers to believe it was 1080p when it was actually closer to 720p. No one catches the HD/Full HD confusion during review because “we're humans and not infallible computers,” which at least some people think is a good thing.
February 3rd: @Moose creates specs from the manufacturer's page. @Moose should have checked the Amazon comp to see how different it was. @Moose should have checked the writeup for discrepancies or errors. @Moose didn’t.
February 4th:
*12:08 AM Eastern:* @mnehme1 posts links to eBay sales that had it for sale at $169.99 refurbished directly from Acer. Other users express concern about bullet that says Full HD when specs say HD.
6:37 AM Central: CEO @Snapster messages @Moose, @Shawn, and @Hales in Slack about concerns over lower comp and confused resolution specs. Slack has a default Do Not Disturb mode on so @Hales and @Moose do not get notifications.
7:13 AM Central: CEO @Snapster messages @Hales and @Moose on iMessage.
7:25 AM Central: @Hales sends @Moose a text message because he has an Android.
7:32 AM Central: @Moose confirms error in bullet point mentioning Full HD and eBay price comp.
7:43 AM Central: @Shawn changes price on Meh.com to $155.
7:41 AM Central: @Snapster posts details about price change based on the eBay comp and confusing specifications.
10:11 AM Central: Acer eBay store raises their price back to $199.99. Thanks a lot guys. Great timing.
Resolution/Action Items
- @MEHcus and @Shawn will work together to refund customers who had already purchased at $200 the difference
- Going forward, @Moose will review writeups after finishing specs to scan for discrepancies
- eBay will now be more thoroughly checked during the product comp price search
- CEO @Snapster will be trained on using our existing trouble ticket system that automatically call @Hales and @Moose on their personal phones to alert them of problems
- 21 comments, 19 replies
- Comment
That was a great read. Thank you!
These explanations help so much. You're doing all possible to avoid repeats. (Too funny that ebay raised their price though)
There is an option in slack to notify anyway even if do not disturb is on. :)
@sohmageek it's too late now. my systems training is imminent :-|
@snapster I'm sorry :(
@snapster
That was awesome. I too am glad you're human and not robots.
I'm still not convinced.
Aren't there some scapegoats you could have just blamed all this on instead?
@narfcake i volunteer as a tribute.
@narfcake I say we blame this on Johnny Manziel and call it a day.
@Moose This is the best OH SHIT report since the dev team fixed the site crashing every time a Fuku was offered (or just the crush of people at rollover time).
Damnit @moose.
I hope you guys have an internal scapegoat of the month.
Just looked at who posted this, not as funny that all the @moose blaming was actually done by @moose himself. Either way, damnit @moose!
Also, damnit @Lotsofgoats!
@TaRDy I would just leave @moose out of it and let @Lotsofgoats handle it. Because LOTS of goats.
@ceagee so, I just got that @Lotsofgoats got lots of goats to serve their goat term. I'm a bit slow this week.
@Thumperchick That's OK. You are suffering from baby brain. Not sure we can say that is @lotsofgoats fault though... might be @humper at fault for this one... (or at least I'd hope so LOL)
@Thumperchick sounds like you wanna sign up! :D :D :D :D :D
Well done. Love looking behind the curtain.
This seems like the perfect opportunity to introduce a Donkey Trophy!!!
It may have given you folks ulcers, but reading your ohshit report was absolutely delightful. Thanks for the timeline. Everyone who has ever worked in Chaos Central, in whatever organization, has been in one or more of the roles.
Sure a lot of finger pointing at @Moose up there, but ya know who is really to blame right?
@Lotsofgoats
The transparency here continues to impress…
Next report is going to deal with @Hales and @Moose sleeping and missing the phone call.
I love reading your OHSHIT Reports. I wish we (my organization, both locally and university-wide) could do something like these, but too many of the people involved and their superiors are so paranoid and insecure that we usually just end up just pretending that everything went perfectly and the people complaining about the inconsistencies are assholes and/or morons.
I'm not 100% sure of the differences in model numbers, but there is also a Groupon for a similar (possibly identical, except for model number) model: https://www.groupon.com/deals/gg-acer-156-chromebook
@baqui63 Thanks for your link. The one you linked had 1080 (the "Full HD") and Meh had close to 720.
@caffeine_dude Careful, the Groupon one only has 2gb of ram.
Always a fun read. Thanks guys
@Snapster at the lower price I was able to let potentially new customers know about "A crazy great deal on a strange website". If they did not buy it, it is because they are 1080 or nothing types. They also are not a big fan of referbs but that price was nice.
I love that Acer changed their price back up at just the wrong moment like they planned to screw you over! You should sue!
stop blaming me, I'm sick and I have a temp covering
sheesh
@Lotsofgoats Poor goat, feel better soon. Good thing you have a designated subgoat. If people keep poking at you, sic your pet solenodon on them. It's a venomous mammal.
@OldCatLady I want one of those.
@OldCatLady It looks like ROUS , don't you think ?
@ceagee
@ceagee Yes! Very implausible, but they're real.
I love these. :D
You are cool guys.
Good stuff guys! I thoroughly enjoyed that and appreciate the effort to try and get things right.