Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Backpack Eddie Bauer

I like Eddie Bauer products and their, I think, lifetime guarantee. The zipper of my backpack stopped working so I took it to the store to have it repaired. They would not repair it, they would only exchange the backpack but as my model had been discontinued they gave me another model. 

I didn't like it as much as my old one and I had sent my feedback to Eddie Bauer as they welcome them.
Thank you for taking the time to contact Eddie Bauer with your suggestion regarding our Backpacks.  We always like to receive feedback firsthand from our customers. Your comment will be forwarded to the appropriate department for review. 

The older model had a cover/hood over one of the side pockets, The new model doesn't have it so when I carry a bottle it sticks out. It is not only the aesthetic factor, but when it rains water can fall in the pocket.


I will follow up with Eddie Bauer later to see how my feedback has been received.




Monday, October 24, 2016

McDonald's vs. Burger King

McDonald's receipt is some three times bigger than Burger King's. McDonald's could save some money (paper, ink) not to mention being better for the environment if they went for a smaller format.


Kohala Cola with Organic Plant Extracts


100% organic ingredients
Sweetened with organic agave syrup
With low glycemic index (<39)
With organic plant extracts (my bold)
No caffeine
No granulated sugar
No phosphoric acid
No artificial flavours
No artificial sweetener added
GMO free

I had asked what are these organic plant extracts and received the full list of ingredients.


So the Organic Plant Extracts are: Cinnamon, vanilla, lemon, Orange, mint, Nutmeg Cola Nut, Ginger and other ...

"And other ... " bothered me, not a lot, but it did. I asked about the "other" and, as expected I might say, I haven't received any answer. Usually "other" is not so natural and organic so companies don't want to "disclose" it and I suppose they don't have to.




"This is the last email I’ll send you about the Habits seminar."

This was in the "Try the Habit Seminar, risk free" email:



but a few hours later another email:



I suppose it happens.

However, the price change was interesting.

First email:


Second email:





Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Salt Spring Coffee, still waiting after more than one year


date:
Thu, Sep 17, 2015 at 3:04 PM

Thank you for your email and interest in our cold brew.

I am checking in with our cold brew distributor for a list of outlets in Vancouver for you.

I will get back to you as soon as I can.





However, in fact I should be pleased there was no follow-up. I would have felt compelled to go and buy their cold brew and perhaps I would have become addicted.

As it stands I had bought only once (not in Vancouver) before I had asked them where I could buy there as well.

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Tangerine 'Important' Message

I launch the Tangerine Android app and I see:


How difficult is to retrieve the message from the website and display it in the app?

I didn't bother to check the message for some time, and when I did it was too late, only a few weeks were left to enjoy a 2% interest rate.


So I lost money and Tangerine did also as I assume customers making new deposits would have been worthwhile for them in the medium/long term even with the 'high' interest rate they would have had to pay for a short time.


Friday, October 14, 2016

McDonald's Lanes

At the McDonald's I usually go to when it is busy people get confused where to wait in line to order as some people have ordered and are waiting to have their orders ready and other people are waiting to order and you don't know who is who. Sometimes a McDonald's employee is there and directs people, but only sometimes. I suppose they do not care much as not too many people, if any, would give up and leave. If you are set on eating from McDonald's you are going to, even if there are many other choices nearby (the respective McDonald's is in a huge mall with a food court and many other eating places).




In order to clear any confusion my idea is to have lanes, painted with 'Ordering' and 'Waiting', same as roads have arrows at some intersections so you know which lane is for what.


One device to take care of your teeth


I am using all these things to clean my teeth, and I do not know how effective they are but I like to think they help, each one in its own way.


I am dreaming of one device to replace all of them, the kind of device you put it in your mouth and it works by itself while you watch TV. The company who would make it would stand to win a fortune, it would be like Apple with their first iPhone.


Monday, October 10, 2016

Waste Management 'Act Green / Act Clean' instead of 'Think Green / Think Clean'


They should have on the trucks 'Act Green /Act Clean'. I wrote to Waste Management about this, I am curious whether they will change their logo.


The fifth book of the New Testament is called Acts not Thoughts. The apostles 'acted', they didn't only only 'think'. It is big a difference between acting and thinking.


Very good answer from WM, and I got it (the slogan is for the company not a moving ad):

Thank you for contacting Waste Management in regards to our Think Green, Think Clean slogan. I absolutely appreciate your feedback and do agree that acting in a sustainable way is just as important as thinking environmentally.

As an environmentally progressive company we want our customers to know that thinking green is behind every decision we make. It is about the opportunities we have to protect human health, natural resources and the environment. As well as being a leader and innovator in the development and implementation of environmental solutions. To learn more about our environmental solutions and to view our sustainability report please visit our website .

Please do not hesitate to contact me at eca@wm.com if there are any additional questions or concerns or if I can assist you any further.

Thank you for choosing Waste Management. Have a great day!


Waste Management Customer Service

Saturday, October 8, 2016

Gut, Besser, Paulaner

This is an ad for the Paulaner bier at the international Munich Airport (the second busiest airport in Germany behind Frankfurt Airport, and the seventh busiest airport in Europe).

The company's management must be very proud when they walk by.


And I fell for the ad. I so badly wanted to drink a Paulaner bier when I was back home, after all I suppose the ad was directed at international travellers like me. Bayern Munich is an international brand easily recognizable and associating Paulaner with it was a very smart move.

So what would be the best way to find who sells Paulaner than writing to Customer Service.

Steps:

1. Go to www.paulaner.com/company/contact
2. Click on 'Contact for customers' link
3. Choose the topic 'Supplier/retailer addresses'
4. Click on 'form' link
5. Fill out the form and submit.

It has been more than one year and I still wait for a response. Perhaps I would have enjoyed Paulaner so much I would have become a customer for life. Now the moment has passed.




Thursday, October 6, 2016

Amazon makes me "deny" myself

Beside 'Sign Out' there is a question, Not <First Name>? Sign Out on the same line!



If I was Ann, the line would be Not Ann? Sign Out so I am supposed to not sign out but I want to.

Long live data analysis! "Data trumps intuition"  is the mantra at Amazon.

'Website Optimization' book by Andrew King: For Amazon every 100 ms increase in load times decreased sales with 1%.

Amazon must have analyzed some customers will end up not signing out, as their logging out action would be incongruent, and the consequence is they will order more by not having the inconvenience to log back on. I wonder if this is the case

While conventional wisdom has held that customer service is Amazon’s secret sauce, Bezos’s core innovation was to place data at the center of his corporate culture. Despite big data’s hype, Bezos is unique in his data focus. The rest of us are using buzzwords to try to keep up.

Here’s what it takes to do it right, according to the Amazon boss:

1. Metrics define your corporate culture.
2. Listening to data starts at the top.
3. Democratize data.

More about the above points on Data Driven: What Amazon's Jeff Bezos Taught Me About Running a Company

Sunday, October 2, 2016

XING - "The company name is only visible to logged-in members."


This is not true. Google reveals the company name if you search by the name :).




XING (named openBC/Open Business Club until 17 November 2006) is a career-oriented social networking site[4] for enabling a small-world network for professionals. The company claims that it is used by people from over 200 countries. Available interface languages include Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Swedish and Turkish. By displaying how each member is connected to any other member, it visualizes the small-world phenomenon.

The platform offers personal profiles, groups, discussion forums, event coordination, and other common social community features. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XING