Posted: November 10th, 2010 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Reviews | Tags: Amazon, Business | 3 Comments »
What follows is a cautionary tale – not necessarily for potential Amazon.com customers, but for business owners as well.
My wife and I have been saving up for a new television for a while. (We had a 27-inch CRT television, and flat panels have come down to a reasonable price. Even so, it’s a good chunk of change when you’re living on one income…) So imagine our excitement when we found a sweet deal through Fatwallet: A 42” 720p Panasonic plasma for $480 from Amazon.com. (Before you launch into educating me how hopelessly outdated 720p plasma is, remember: we’re going from a 27” heavy-as-hello CRT with a 4:3 aspect ratio, and nowhere near HD.)
Anyway, this was a great offer and we jumped on it. We made sure when we ordered a flat screen t.v. that it was being sold through Amazon and not a 3rd party.
Here’s the problem: We never got our tv!
Well, to be honest, that wasn’t the real problem here. The real problem is that Amazon.com didn’t care that we never received our television. This is a text book case of how not to handle a customer complaint…
In the beginning, life is good.
One day after we placed our order, we received an email stating that our t.v. would be shipped within the next 24-48 hours. After that, the email stated, we would be able to track our shipment and see when it would be delivered. Great. In fact, the whole first week seemed to go by without a hitch.
Then we saw that the shipping company had listed our t.v. as “out for delivery”. That was an exciting moment, until we saw that the date of that was 3 days previous.
What the hell had happened to our t.v.?
It shouldn’t take 3 days to find our house and unload the t.v. since the local distribution center was 30 miles away. So we called the shipping company and one thing led to another..
Amazon.com contracted with Ceva shipping, who in turn sub-contracted to a second, more regional shipper – Let’s call them “company B”. Apparently, Amazon never passed the contact information along to the shipper, so they couldn’t call to schedule a delivery.
At that point, shipping company B returned the t.v. to Ceva so they could return it to Amazon as “undeliverable”.
Now, I understand that mistakes happen and things don’t always go perfectly, but it took us another 3 days of repeat phone calls to the shipping companies to find out where the t.v. was. Ceva would say that they handed the delivery off to company B, company B in turn said they had handed it back to Ceva. Both companies felt it was not their problem as they had handed it off to the next party in the process. Bottom line: no one had any idea of where this television was, or when they’d be able to find out.
This alone is unacceptable in the modern age of GPS and computer tracking, but it gets worse.
How to lose a customer.
When I called Amazon to get them involved, it was 6 days after our television was supposed to have been delivered. I calmly explained the situation and worked my way up the chain of command. I eventually landed with a very pleasant woman named Sarah, who was a “hardline support agent.”
Sarah seemed interested in helping me track down my television and even called her contact at Ceva at one point and then company B herself. When she took me off hold, she explained that they gave her the same story they gave me.
I told her that I was getting irritated by this and that it’s quickly becoming not worth my time to wait for Amazon to work things out with their shipping company – especially when I could just go to the local box store and pick up a comparable television that day!
Her response?
“I’m sorry sir. I understand your frustration, and it’s too bad that you had to experience this with your first big order from Amazon. This sort of thing hardly ever happens. You’re just unlucky.”
Really? “too bad” “just unlucky” She pretty much told me, “sucks to be you” (albeit in a pleasant voice). All of this was made worse by the fact that she couldn’t even tell me where my t.v. was.
So, I thanked her for her pleasant demeanor and told her to cancel the order and issue a refund.
An hour later, I was hooking up my new Samsung HD plasma screen t.v. that I got from a local box store for $20 more than the one I never received from Amazon. It was worth every penny of that extra $20.
It didn’t have to be like this.
For the life of me I just cannot understand why Amazon had nothing more to offer than, “gee we’re sorry.”
If Amazon had offered to upgrade my t.v. to the next size up, or overnight the same model I ordered to my house with a competent shipping company I would have been a happy customer. If they had even offered a token $75 gift card, it would have gone a long way toward making me feel like they cared about my business. Instead, they did the opposite – made me feel like I was just another number that they could live without.
One of the first lessons I learned when working with customer support was that a customer should always be left happy. If you can take a disgruntled customer and turn him into a satisfied customer you’ve done wonders for business. The reason for this is that most companies (apparently not Amazon) realize that a disgruntled customer is 7 times more likely to do what I have just done – share his unpleasant experience with everyone he knows. It’s a frustrating fact for businesses that most happy customers rarely tell their friends about a shopping experience that went well, while the irritated shopper will shout from the mountain top about the time things didn’t go right. It’s human nature. People like to grumble and complain. But why would a company choose to have negative things shared about them rather than the positive?
Why didn’t Amazon choose to have me tell people about how they made a mistake, but took care of me as a customer in the end?
Instead, they leave me compelled to say, “I won’t be shopping at Amazon.com again.”
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Posted: December 19th, 2009 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Debt, Reviews | Tags: Building Wealth, Debt, Rich, Thomas J. Stanley, Wealth | 2 Comments »
I just read an interesting interview with Thomas J. Stanley, Ph.D from bankrate.com, and I thought I share some of the highlights with you.
The interview is based around Dr. Stanley’s new book Stop Acting Rich: …And Start Living Like A Real Millionaire
, and he discusses some more commonalities between the rich and how it sets them apart from the rest of the population.
Here are some of the interesting points Dr. Stanley raised in the interview.
1. The rich are very frugal.
Many of “the rich” had parents that were not only frugal, but well disciplined. This makes a lot of sense since discipline is required to succeed in anything at life, aside from simply getting lucky like winning the lottery.
2. Most millionaires today came from middle-class backgrounds.
They don’t come from affluent families, and they didn’t inherit their wealth. In fact, Dr. Stanley’s research shows that most came from comfortable, middle class families. They say they never felt embarrassed by their home or where they lived growing up. But they did have that uniquely American socioeconomic mobility that allows not only opportunity to become wealthy, but the siren call to hyper consume.
3. Resisting the call.
The nut of the interview, if not the book itself, is that the rich eschew conspicuous consumption. While they grew up in an environment that lends itself to consumption of luxury goods and “prestige products”, the rich simply didn’t partake. Instead, they simple live below their income.
4. Occupation matters.
What you do apparently matters more than simply determining your income. Many of today’s rich spend their time pursuing careers that have little to do with accumulating wealth. Contrary to populist screeds in much of the media today, the rich are not wall street bankers, investors or lawyers, but rather educators, engineers, business owners and retail store managers who “have a tendency to live below their means and to be quite efficient in transforming their income into wealth.”
5. Home is where you hang your hat, not an investment.
Most of the rich today don’t live in million dollar homes. In fact, there are 1,138,070 millionaire households who live in homes valued at less than $300,000, while only 403,211 who live in homes valued at $1 million or more.
6. Just who are “The top 1%”
The top 1% makes for a nice sound byte during political campaigns, but just who does that include? Stanley refers to the top 1% as “The glittering rich.” This demographic has an income of at least 7 figures and a net worth of 8 figures or more. They are extremely rich, and as Dr Stanley’s name for them suggests, they spend like it too.
Interestingly, even the “glittering rich” spend below their means. Of course, this might be because their means are so ridiculously large they have a hard time living outside those means. But, that doesn’t stop suddenly rich celebrities and lottery winners who blow through 7 figures in a matter of months, so I guess the moral is that if you earn it, you’re more likely to keep it.
7. Meet the income statement affluent.
Beside the glittering rich, Stanley profiles what he calls the “income statement affluent.” This demographic is made up of people with high incomes, but relatively low level net worth. They’re not as effective at transforming their income into wealth. This category includes a lot of physicians, attorneys and executives. The income statement affluent tend to be driven toward hyper consumption and the need to show off their high social status.
8. Meet the balance sheet affluent.
The balance sheet affluent have more modest incomes, but relatively large net worth. Stanley found that farmers are in large concentration in the balance sheet affluent. Other members of this group include educators, engineers, and small businesses owners. The balance sheet affluent are very effective at transforming their incomes into wealth – they accumulate assets while others accumulate liabilities.
9. Meet the aspirationals.
I couldn’t say it better myself, so here’s a direct quote from the interview regarding “aspirationals”:
“in sheer numbers, the largest consumer segment for pricey cars, vodkas and homes is not the millionaire population, it is the aspirationals. These are people who think they are acting rich via their adoption of prestige brands, but in most cases they are only acting like each other.”
They take their cues from Hollywood and the advertising industry. The problem is that most aspirationals know few, if any, really wealthy to emulate.”
10. How to become the frugal rich.
It should come as no surprise, certainly at this point, that the single biggest factor to becoming rich in America is to live below your means. Here is the minimal target savings rate for a typical family by age, According to Dr. Stanley:
- 30′s – 5% of their annual income
- 40′s – 10% of their annual income
- 50′s – 20% of their annual income
Sadly, most Americans are far below these figures. Probably because most are aspirationals?
Part of living below your means is owning a home you can afford. Beside the monetary reward to doing so, there’s a psychological benefit to owning an affordable home – “a highly significant correlation between satisfaction in life and living in a home and neighborhood which are easily affordable.”
Stanley’s rule of thumb for house price is that it should be less than 3 times your total household realized income, also never take a mortgage that’s more than 2 times your total household annual income.
Those would have seemed like laughable rules a few years ago, but they’re sounding much more sensible these days even if you aren’t trying to become a millionaire.
You can read the full interview with Thomas J. Stanley here.
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Posted: December 5th, 2009 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Insurance, Reviews | Tags: AccuQuote, Insurance, Review, Reviews | 6 Comments »
As I mentioned in a previous post I used AccuQuote.com to comparison shop for life insurance policies online for my wife and myself a while back. I had actually compiled a list of notes while going through the process with the intent of writing an Accuquote review. While it may have taken a while to finally get down to write, here is that review. I hope you find it useful.
Accuquote review.
For those unfamiliar with the concept of AccuQuote.com, it’s a one-stop shopping site for life insurance quotes. It allows you to search and compare offers from various insurers based on your own criteria.
Using the web site is really quite simple. For example, to get started, you simply go to the web site and click the “Get a Free Quote” button.
You then enter basic info like your first name, last name address, phone #, email, as well as your gender, DOB, height and weight.
Next, select the amount of coverage desired. (read: Life insurance: how much do I need?) and select type of insurance (read: Life insurance: what kind should I buy?). Then specify whether you’re looking to buy new coverage, additional coverage, or a replacement policy.
Next comes the most involved (and personal) part of the Accuquote process – your health history!
You’ll have to answer the following questions:
- Do you use nicotine?
- Do you take prescription medication regularly?
- Have you ever been diagnosed with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer or depression?
- Have you had any major surgeries?
- Did any of your parents or siblings have cardiovascular disease or cancer, prior to age 60?
Then there are some questions that aim to gauge your lifestyle risk:
- Do you engage in any hazardous activities such as private piloting or scuba diving?
- In the past 10 years, have you had any DUI’s, or have you had more than 2 moving violations in the past 3 years?
- Have you ever been convicted of a felony?
- In the past 5 years, have you filed for bankruptcy?
It’s important to note that you would be asked these questions by any reputable insurance agent regardless of where you went to purchase life insurance, it’s not just Accuquote.
After the health history and lifestyle questions, you need to select your desired rate class: Preferred Plus, Preferred or Standard Rated.
The Accuquote site has plenty of easy to use references for how best to answer the questions, and how to decide the amount and type of insurance you need. These are interesting and helpful, but you should definitely do your own research before using the first value you see.
At the end of this section, all that’s left is submitting your information. After you click the submit button Accuquote reviews your application info. Next, you will be contacted by email with a list of 5 or so insurance providers detailing their rates, terms and conditions.
In the next couple of days I received a phone call (my preferred type of notification) during the time which I specified was best to reach me. The person on the other end was my AccuQuote agent. He discussed the options available to me and actually recommended the one I had independently chosen – and it was NOT the most expensive! It was the 3rd most expensive option, but the cheapest option with an AA+ rating (in fact it was cheaper than some A rated companies!)
The company rating was important to me because I wanted to be sure that if my wife and kids ever needed the insurance (i.e.: in the event of my untimely demise), they would receive payment in a timely and hassle-free manner.
After selecting the insurance company and policy I desired, it was time to prove that I was really as healthy as I said. This meant blood work. I was expecting to have to drive 20-30 minutes out of my way to the nearest hospital lab. I was wrong. AccuQuote employs local visiting nurses to drive to your home (or place of work if so desired) and do that vampire like voodoo that they do so well. So, a couple of CC’s (it felt like pints!) of blood later, I was on my way to work and verified preferred plus a couple of days later.
After all of that, they mailed out the application and once I signed it and returned it, I was fully insured in the event that I shuffled off this mortal coil. Provided, of course, that it was not by my own hand within 3 months of completing the process. Suicide, it seems, is only covered after the 3 month grace period. Who knew?
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Posted: November 7th, 2009 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Reviews, Tips | Tags: Saving Money, skill swapping, Swap a skill | No Comments »
The tag line says it all:
Swap what you can give or can do for what you need with swapaskill.com
Swapaskill serves as a hub to connect people from all over the world – some looking for something, and others looking to provide something. Need your house decorated, and like to get rid of that second car you no longer need? Not a problem. Submit a posting or peruse the search results and find a match.
You can swap items, or skills or both.
The intent behind the site is to form a community of people who pay it forward, and help one another out. To that end, there’s no profit involved but there is a rating system of 5 stars. Each participant gets to rate the other’s involvement with a value of 1 (bad) to 5 (excellent) stars. The result is an online visual reputation that’s intuitively simple to understand.
The web site is very easy to use. The search feature even provides tips to help you form your queries. There’s a portion of the page dedicated to the top 30 skills in demand as well as being offered. It’s laid out like tags on a blog, so the text is weighted based on the amount in demand or being offered – i.e. skills that are in really hot demand are bolder and bigger than less popular skills.
A lot of members are in the UK, but it’s really limited only by what you want and what you can give. Obviously, decorating someone’s house in the UK in exchange for a used car isn’t going to work if you live in the US, but if you’re a graphic designer who’s looking for a web site, or a blogger looking for a writer, those geographic boundaries melt away.
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