When you decide that you’re going to start a new company and you chose a name, and then go ahead and spent the time and effort and money to design a logo and get ready to do mailings and all the parts of a new ‘launch’, at what point in the process do you actually check to see if the name was already in use?

If you say in the beginning, you’d be wrong. The actual answer is after. When you go to register the domain name - of all things. Find out not only is it in use, but it’s in use in the same state. Hrm.

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If you are looking for an online photo processor, do not choose WinkFlash. Their customer service and return policies are horrid. I’m not even going to bother linking to their site, on the chance someone wants to see their site, or even worse, it gets picked up by a search engine. What I want the search engine to index is “WINKFLASH SUCKS”.

I just got off the phone with them, and after a much heated debate where they refused my refund, I told them that I would never use their services again and I would tell others the same thing.

Here’s the problem:

We ordered our Christmas cards from them. We went through the site’s step-by-step wizard and added the text we wanted. When the cards arrived, they didn’t have any text on them.

I wanted a refund, and I wanted to reorder ASAP. I contacted customer service. The first time, I tried getting through for 2 hours with a constant busy signal. When I finally got through, I was on hold for an hour. Each time a rep would pick up, their voices would be muffled and unable to be heard. They would then dump me back into the queue to start waiting again. This happened to me 6 times! I finally hung up and tried the next day.

Again, after 45 minutes of busy signals, I got through. I explained the problem and reordered. We went through the entire process, and I showed the rep where the wizard asks for the text and then you proceed into the cart, but other than the onscreen display, there is no final confirmation of the ‘what will be printed’ image. There should have been a way to click on the item in the cart and display it. There isn’t. Each time you click on the item on the cart, it restarts the wizard as if you want to edit it, and creates a new item. The thumbnail in the cart doesn’t show the final printed image either.

Even after placing the order, you cannot go back into your order history and display the final image.

However, in order to get a refund, I had to send the original cards back to them (and pay for shipping). Their policy is not to refund shipping costs if the order was completed as expected.

I included a letter with the information they requested, as well as an explanation on why I was due the shipping charges ($8). The order was not as I placed it, it was missing the text.

When the refund came through, it did not include the shipping charge refund (either direction). I just spent 30 minutes of busy signals trying to get through to someone. Got through, was on hold for 10 minutes and finally spoke to someone. She said that they would not refund my shipping charges. The order was printed as it was placed and that is their policy. And I quote “If there was a problem with our ordering process, wouldn’t you think we would have heard about it from the thousands of orders we take?”

Obviously there is a problem with your process. Not only that, but there is a problem with the entire UI in which a customer cannot review the product ordered.

Winkflash you suck. I don’t want a credit for the shipping charges, because I’m not going to ever order with you again. Why should I order and then have to pay shipping again? I want my money back. I spent almost in much for shipping it to me and back to you for a refund then I did for the entire order.

Bottom line: Don’t waste your money on them. They may have inexpensive pricing, but it’s because they cut corners on quality, customer service, and technology.

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I just can’t stand it anymore. My head is going to asplode…

I just had a tech support call from two individuals (secretaries) who told me that when they were updating their files the other person wouldn’t see the change.

My first thought was that one had a local copy and one had a network copy. Or that one was working with an email attachment and making changes to it. I could *almost* forgive either of those as being accidentally stupid. I’ve seen people save a local copy for changes, and then in the future open it from the recent files list rather than the original location, so they accidentally have the wrong version.

Nope it wasn’t that. The two secretaries share a departmental folder. I assured “Mary” that if they were saving the changes that the changes were saved. If “Abby” didn’t see them, then was something else going on in the process and that they weren’t working on the same file.

She told me that they were. I opened it. Made a change. Saved it. Opened it on the other computer, and the change was there. See? Works every time. I wonder why it didn’t work for us. I’m not sure. Why don’t you show me what you are doing. Ok.

As soon as Abby goes to open the file I have to bite my tongue before exploding. THEY AREN’T THE SAME FILE YOU ~!@#~@#!$!. Abby and Mary each made a folder under the common “Office” departmental folder. One was called ‘Abbys Files’ and one was called ‘Marys Files’. They each had a copy of the file in question within their own directory. And each would open up their own copy and make changes. When the other one didn’t have them, they would call the other one and have the changes reentered.

I also discovered their brilliant process for taking meeting notes. Open the Excel file. Delete all the information from the previous week. Save it (over the same name erasing everything previously). Print a copy. Open Word. Open Last week’s file. Retype the minutes for individual ’sections’ (roughly 30 of them). Print it. Clear the document. Type the next section. Print it. Clear the document. Repeat 28 times.

Now they have the end result they wanted. Printed copies of each weeks notes in summary and broken down on individual pages stored in the appropriate physical folder. If they ever need to refer back to any meeting, they have to go and find the single physical copy that was printed out. Heaven forbid it’s ever lost or damaged.

I can’t handle it.

Current Mood:  annoyed

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Once More, With Feeling has to be one of my favorite Buffy episodes of all time. When it first aired, it was well received by fans, even if it didn’t win an Emmy (helped in part by a ballot printing error).

We own the CD soundtrack and both Jean and I sing along. It’s a great album for staying awake when you are driving by yourself too. Last week, when we went to Kingdom Crusades, I listened to the album twice; once on the way down, and once on the way back up. I’m also 99% sure that we own the script as well, and that it was a Christmas gift for Jean one year.

Now, one of things we’ve never done is go to a Buffy Sing-A-Long. This is done in the tradition of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, with actors, props, a preshow, the whole kit and kaboodle.

It looks like we’ll never be able to either. Apparently:

Lawyers for Twentieth Century Fox Television, a division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., told a licensing company that had given the green light for the sing-along events that it had gone beyond limits of the show’s licensing agreements.

It’s best summed up by the opening line of the article which reads: Lawyers have driven a stake into the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" sing-along.

I’m sure that while the lawyers got to be the mouthpiece of the decision, many entertainment execs were also involved in the process. They weren’t making enough money to replace the white rhinoceros leather seat covers in their car more than once a year, so they decided if they couldn’t make money from the sing alongs, that the fans shouldn’t be able to do it either.

Fuck them. How many times can fans of shows be crapped on. This is a show which has been off the air for 4 years, but still manages to have a lively fan base. Many shows come and go on TV, but it’s only the truly great ones that survive the years. If you don’t think that Buffy was a great show, then you’re just looking at the surface appearances that turned many of the critics sour. Yet, even with its poor (comparative) ratings, it managed to have quite on impact on our culture and media. I don’t know if realizing that it made Time Magazine’s Best TV Shows of All-TIME would change your opinion… but it just might.

Current Mood:  disappointed

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FYI: Long post

I really detest the sales practice I’m going to call ‘hidden bundling’. I’m not sure what the actual term is, but it’s certain not upselling. When you upsell, you add-on *additional* items that the customer may not have thought about, but make the overall sale more profitable. It might be an appetizer or dessert at a restaurant, or it may be additional memory for your computer, or a carrying case for the nice new spiffy MP3 player you bought. In all these cases, you get what you wanted, and then the salesman gets you to buy something extra.

That’s *good* salesmanship.

The process of hidden bundling is covert and sneaky. I know why it’s done, because I was forced to do it. Many moons ago, I worked at the Camera Shop. With all the cameras we sold extended warranties. As salesmen, we were measured on the amount of extended warranties we sold. If you sold someone a camera and told them they had a 1 year warranty on it, but they could buy an additional 2 year extended warranty for $X, you had a much harder sell than if you simply sold them the camera with a 3 year warranty and had the ext. warranty already ‘priced in’.

Now, the astute customers already knew what the cost of the camera was, as they had shopped around. And when you tell them the price, and they notice its higher than other shops, they would question as to why we were higher. Then you’d explain about ours having a 3 year warranty, and when they said they only wanted 1, you’d take ‘away’ the ext. warranty, price match, and still get the sale.

Others would look at their receipt, see the price of the camera, and then an additional line which said extended warranty $X, and question it there. Often you’d just tell them that’s the way it was rung up. Occasionally, they would ask to remove the ext. warranty and save the extra $.

More often than not, though, you’d see the bundled item, never let the customer know they *had* a choice, and get your sales numbers up. Was the ext. warranty a good thing? It may have been to some, and not to others. The point isn’t the value of the bundled item, it’s the fact that you never gave the customer a choice.

So that brings us to 2007. My father had the luxury of dealing with a horned salesman at the Verizon Wireless store the other day. I go over to see him for lunch and he tells me he upgraded his phone. It only cost him $50 after a mail in rebate. He didn’t get the bluetooth just the headset that came with it for free, as he was going to get a bluetooth headset from his nephew.

At that point, the bells started going off. I deal with cell phones alot, and I know that they don’t *come* with a headset, or a case, or a car charger. Those are the items that they normally try and upsell you. There is a huge profit margin there, and that’s where Verizon and the salesman made extra money.

Are you sure they came with it Dad? You didn’t pay extra for it. No, he tells me. The phone was $50 and it included all those things. I saw the scam already developing, and I don’t mind calling it a scam. I asked him to find his receipt and looked it over.

Sure enough. The phone was free (because of his contract renewal), and the headset, case, and car charger were all rung up separately equating to $49.99 - the cost of the add-on package. “Dad”, I asked. “Why is the case in the bag?” Because he didn’t plan on using it either. He got a RAZR and was just going to keep it in his pocket. So now, he’s got a $19.99 headset he wasn’t planning on using and a $9.99 plastic case he wasn’t going to use either. When he found out how they were rung up, he got pissed — and had every right to be. He’s planning on taking them back and getting his money refunded.

Unfortunately, my father was the exact same kind of person we used to prey on during my camera selling days. They aren’t quite as technically savvy as they could be, and by portraying a scenario which makes them thing they are *getting a deal*, they walk away happy, and don’t even bother to double check anything is out of the ordinary. He was told the phone was $50 and included those items, so when his bill was $116 (before the 50 mail in rebate), it was exactly what he expected it to be — and no flags went up.

The salesman should have *told* him the phone was free, and given him the *option* of buying the kit. A good salesman would have pointed out that they kit was much more economical than buying the individual parts, that you were required by NJ law to use a handsfree kit or headset in the car, etc. Then, he still may make the sale, but the customer is informed. In my dad’s case, he still would have bought the car charger. Even though it wasn’t as good as a deal, it was the only component he needed from the kit.

Instead, the salesman used deceptive techniques to sell someone something they didn’t need or want, but made them think it was ok.

I almost want to get the receipt myself, find out the salesman’s name, and go speak to his manager about it. Hopefully the manager would see it my way, and not be the one who taught his salesman the ‘trick’ in the first place.

Current Mood:  angry

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