Think your house is small?

Bet this one is smaller.

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Have you ever wanted to say “thank you” to soldiers you encounter in your life.

We may hate the war. We may think our politicians are clueless.

But the soldiers are doing their duty. And, I don’t know about you, but I’d like a way to say thanks.

The Gratitude Campaign exists to give us that.

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Back on 06.Jan I was posting about Circuit City losing a bunch of money by firing 3,400 people who worked there and knew what they were doing and replace them with cheaper, and much less knowledgable, sales clerks.

That is not “customer service” in my book.

As I noted there, BestBuy was making lots of money because they understood customer service … they hired people and then trained them so they would know their stuff.

And, as I had posted just a bit before, my favorite computer store, MicroCenter understands customer service. Their employees know their stuff.

Now I’ve discovered a New York Times article about Amazon.com and customers. In this article, Joe Nocera, a New York Times columnist, tells how he didn’t get his PlayStation 3 from Amazon.

It seems it was shipped. It was delivered. His neighbor signed for it. And then, his neighbor, trying to be helpful, set it outside his door where it was stolen. Now remember … it was signed for.

Anyway, Joe called Amazon and asked for a replacement. As Joe said …

In my heart of hearts, I knew I didn’t have a leg to stand on. I was pleading for mercy.

The Amazon rep, listened, and then …

 After assuring himself that I had never actually touched or seen the PlayStation, he had a replacement on the way before the day was out. It arrived on Christmas Eve. Amazon didn’t even charge me for the shipping. My son was very happy.

 Joe goes on to tell all about Amazon and Jeff Bezos and Jeff’s obsession with the customer, with customer service and with what drives the customer experience.

Amazon.com’s margins are low, but their customers are loyal. They don’t do what makes money this quarter … they do what makes money year after year.

They train and empower their customer service reps so that they can agree to reship a $500 product … and land millions of dollars worth of free PR in the New York Times.

Are you tired of being broke? Are you tired of email spam asking if you are tired of being broke? Are you tired of everyone trying to make money by trying to sell you a way to make money?

Then check out this parody.

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A while back, a group called the Richter Scales created a video called Here Comes Another Bubble. It is a clever parody song using the music from We Didn’t Start the fire.

However, it was quickly taken down because of a DMCA request claiming copyright violation.

I posted about this back on 14.Dec.2007 at www.myephemerae.com/here-comes-another-bubble.

You can read about why it was (probably) taken down at this page on Valleyag.com: valleywag.com/tech/online-video/here-comes-another-takedown-332666.php

More information and commentary (particularly of interest to photographers) is at Here Comes Another Fair Use Dispute (12.Dec.2007: www.jmg-galleries.com/blog/2007/12/12/here-comes-another-fair-use-dispute).

Now, the Richter Scales have responded. They have posted V1.1 of the video back onto YouTube and provided full credit to all the images both in the video itself and also on a credits page on their site: richterscales.com/bubble_credits. 

Lane Hartwell, the artist who originally objected, has a page about the issue here: fetching.net/2007/12/my-statement-regarding-the-new-version-of-the-richter-scales-video

The Richter Scales comment is here: www.richterscales.com/blog/2007/12/announcing-bubble-version-11.php

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I’d barely finished my post about my favorite computer store (MicroCenter, www.myephemerae.com/my-regular-computer-store). I’d explained why it’s my favorite: the staff knows their stuff.

Then, I discover this InformationWeek article titled Clueless Circuit City Scrooges Itself Out Of Christmas Sales (http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/ 2008/01/clueless_circui_1.html).

In summary, last March, Circuit City decided to fire 3,400 people who worked there and knew what they were doing and replace them with cheaper, and much less knowledgable, sales clerks.

Sorry, but when you are trying to make a wazillion dollars selling stuff that consumers don’t really understand, like PCs, cameras, and televisions, you need staff that knows their stuff.

What happened? Well, their 3rd quarter and Christmas sales tanked.

In contrast, their competitor, BestBuy, trained its staff on their high tech products so they could actually help customers and what do you know … BestBuy’s 3rd quarter profit went up 54%.

Seems I’m not the only one who values staff who know their stuff.

Having posted about a New Computer Store (www.myephemerae.com/a-new-computer-store) it only seemed appropriate to mention my regular store as well.

I live less than one mile from the Dallas location of MicroCenter (www.MicroCenter.com).

I love this store for one huge reason … the sales staff know their stuff. Not only do they know where stuff is (which is a huge accomplishment in many retail stores today), they understand me when I don’t use the right words, and know what I should have asked for when I make a mistake.

(My personal computer is a PowerSpec (their house brand) and I’ve been very pleased.)

While clicking around the TED website (TED.com) looking for information on the brain, another presentation I found was by Helen Fisher. Helen is an anthropologist who studies love. She looks at how it evolved, the underlying brain biochemistry and what it means to human society.

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(PS: I’ve written before about TED.)

In this presentation, …

She outlines the three stages of love (lust, infatuation and long-term attachment), shedding light on eternal questions like why we love, and why we cheat. She also discusses the natural talents of women, and their new significance in the modern world. She ends with a warning about the widespread use of antidepressants — and a truly hilarious story of romantic pursuit.

While visiting the Escape from Cubicle Nation blog (www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/get_a_life_blog) I visited the Blogads blog (weblog.blogads.com) where I saw this recent post …

After seeing a $25 price-tag for a simple USB cable at Staples, I went around the corner to Intrex and bought a longer cable for $4. Hope I’m sufficiently scarred to never again buy anything wired from Staples.

That intrigued me enough to visit Intrex and check it out. I’m impressed.