✧✦Catherine✦✧Mar 3

my housemate was coughing a lot for no clear reason so i figured i'd buy an air purifier. i found one with a true HEPA filter and good score by that one autistic person who is obsessed with comparing filters of vacuum cleaners, by Levoit

Levoit includes a "Test Report" in their marketing materials by SGS and including their trademarked logo, referring to a specific "SGS ID" of a test, but no details

so obviously i emailed SGS and asked them to confirm whether such a test has been conducted.

i got a response from a Senior Sales Executive in Filtration and he Cc'd three other people in the lab that did the certification asking them to search their archives.

i wonder if i'm the first consumer who bought this device to go and ask this question, and if yes, whether i made their day

Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Mar 3

i have a skill that i developed during my many years working in open source, which is that instead of whining on irc on social media i go and file a bug report. this usually goes quite well and all of the parties are happier for it

a few years ago i started applying it to entities like "banks", "governments", and "certification labs", and i get the distinct impression that most of the people who complain about problems do not actually make any attempt to solve them by talking to those responsible

Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Mar 3

RE: [EXTERNAL] Re: Cert Question Catherine

this email chain has now crossed several corporate boundaries

Show threadKurt Raschke

@whitequark i once emailed a publisher about a DOI in a publication of theirs not working and it was incredibly evident that they had no idea how to handle such inquiries from outside the industry because i ended up being added to multiple internal email threads about the issue...

(it was eventually resolved in spite of considerable confusion)

Mar 3 at 5:55pmWeb
Show threadNicolás AlvarezMar 4

@kgr @whitequark I once bought an ebook on Apple Books and hit a bug, so I reported it to Apple. Then I read the book and found an error in the translation, so I reported it to the publisher.

The publisher replied a week later thanking me and confirming it was indeed a translation error. It has been 10 years and my Apple ticket is still open.