On the phone with Qwest

March 25, 2004

I've been on the phone with Qwest for the last half an hour trying to get the phones fixed. Well, to be more correct I've been working with them for the last 60+ days. Each time I call it's the same routine.... "Yes Mr. Brauer we'll have that done within 3 business days..." Three days come and go and still no changes. Now that we're leaving town and I need to give the cell phone back to my employer it's a bigger deal. Dan in the CARE center said he saw why the orders didn't go through in the past. Why, oh why, would there not be something in the system to tell them to CALL me when the order didn't go through? Everyone has very good customer service skills at the Qwest center (professional, polite, controls the conversation well, listens). Read more about On the phone with Qwest

Lessons from the Don

January 21, 2004

Paul Jaber has an interesting commentary on fool.com where he talks about the business lessons that are presented in the first episode of The Apprentice. NBC's reality show features sixteen people with business backgrounds of various types, competing for a position running one of Donald Trump's companies. The commentary looks at the first show. The second episode pits the teams against each other in designing television ads for a private jet card. Again, there are some valuable lessons. Read more about Lessons from the Don

The Wal Mart you don't know

December 14, 2003

Fast Company has a must-read article for business owners about Wal Mart and how they can manipulate suppliers.

Customer service returns to the US

December 8, 2003

According to an article in the New York Times Dell is moving some customer service operations back to the U.S. that had at one time been sent to India. Dell is one of many companies that are finding that sending the work to India works for some highly repetitive work but not for widely diverse work. For supporting home users installing a new card it's fine, but for complex corporate networks its not working.

DirecTV: Guilty until proven innocent

October 27, 2003

In an interview with Wired DirecTV's Larry Rissler tells the magazine "There's a legal presumption that the purchase of the device implies use, and the burden switches to the defendant to show that it was used in a legitimate manner. We're talking about products that came into existence because of the satellite piracy industry."

He goes on to explain that they determine by where you buy the card from if they should persecute (they would call it prosecution) you. Corporate oligarchies reign supreme.

Businesses as publications

June 8, 2003

Scripting News has a note about the need for new companies to look at themselves as publications. To include in their plans extensive plans for publication. I must agree. Too many companies will have one or two articles that can be found on their websites. One of the most frustrating to me is Aqua Minds which has a wonderful profile of people using their product and implies that more are forthcoming. However, the page has been static for months.

Pages