Spooners Frozen Yogurt in Fort Collins

The purchase went great, but the first snag was that they didn’t send the deal out right away. I bought it on a Friday and for some reason they didn’t deliver the deal until the following Monday. This restriction was included in the fine print, but didn’t really feed my need for instant gratification the way the Internet is supposed to. Of course, by Monday the purchase was forgotten and didn’t come back to mind until I received a notification about my voucher on the following Wednesday (remember, this was supposed to go to my friend).

So today, 10 days after my initial purchase, I asked my friend about it. He never did see an email about the Fro Yo, so I tried to forward him the notification I had received. He wasn’t able to log in and access the voucher, so I sent him my email and password so he could get the coupon.

After all this, I thought I would send an email to Seize the Deal support and see what they said. Initially an Out of Office notification was sent out, they only have support from 8am – 5:30pm CST Monday through Thursday. The request was sent out at 12:30pm on Monday, it was MLK Day so maybe Seize the Deal keeps Banker/Government hours. Surprisingly, only 3 minutes later a real response was sent offering to forward the link to my friend. This course of action had already been pursued and I informed support of that as well as informing them that I just sent him my login and password so he could get his Voucher.

Seize the Deal’s response?

“Very good – Glad you were able to get it to him.”

Really? No Apology? No explanation of how this is supposed to work? No link to an FAQ for people who don’t get their Vouchers? Nope, just a “Very Good”.

I’ve spent a couple hours trying to figure out how to get a voucher for $5 in free Fro Yo and Seize the Deal doesn’t care. I think next time I’ll just skip it and just pay full price for the yogurt, it will be cheaper.

Now, I’m no CEO, and I don’t claim to know everything about business, but I would like to send a couple tips out there to Reed Hastings. Just basic business advice.

1. Keeping existing customers increases profit.

Netflix, lost 1 million customers because they monkeyed with their pricing. Marketing history is FULL of schemes to increase your price without losing customers, and I’m sure reducing value, creating complicated new price schemes and confusing customers with new company names is not at the top of the list. Honestly, Netflix streaming library is pretty weak right now. Seems like it would have been easy to gradually pare it down a little and then come out with a new “premium streaming” package that could be purchased for an upgrade, or maybe add a pay-per-view system for new movies like Amazon is working on. No, instead they chose to upset their customers, remind them what they were paying Netflix each month and lost a million customers.

2. Protect your brand

Brands are important. Ask anyone, read any marketing book, brands are vital to your business. Netflix has a brilliant brand. Red envelopes, dvds, the Netflix name… all brilliant. Why do you think Redbox is Red, because Netflix built such an amazing brand around those envelopes. Now Netflix is throwing the number one brand for DVD rentals out the window and going with Qwikster (a name that they don’t even own on twitter yet) and Netflix will now be known as the lame streaming library that is overpriced and contains only B-movies and TV shows. Not smart. DVD rentals are your bread and butter, why not make Qwikster the new streaming service and leave Netflix alone.

The bottom line is Netflix was making upwards of $50 million every quarter, it will be interesting to see if the management has killed the Golden Goose under the name of staying competitive and moving with the market. Some business models aren’t meant to be viable forever and your best bet is to make hay while the sunshines. Hopefully Netflix hasn’t quit early.

A few minutes ago I got a call from the same number. Didn’t bother to answer it this time. Listened to the voice mail and could barely make it out. The call was quiet, the accent was bad (male this time) but I barely made out the name of an ex-employee and the Lexis Nexis name. After 8 listens I finally deciphered the call back number. I always liked this employee and wanted to help, so I called the number back.

Again, a different person with an Indian accent. I told him I was returning a call, and he asked for the verification number (like it was on me to figure out what he wanted). I said I couldn’t understand the voicemail, but I knew the person’s name. He finally figured it out, had generally poor phone skills, but the employment was verified.

I share this for one reason. If you are using Employment Verification through Lexis Nexis, this was my experience. If I hadn’t liked this person I wouldn’t have jumped through any hoops to figure out who was calling, how to call them back and what they wanted. These people must be from the worst call center on the planet, I talked to three of them and none were easy to understand. Likewise, if you have applied for a job and there are any issues with employment verification, it could be because somebody was using this service and your old boss was too busy to monkey with them.

My sister had arrangements to watch her kids so a few of us went out to watch Thor about a week ago. We visited the only theater in Loveland Colorado, the Metrolux 14. Prior to our visit, I actually submitted a link to Ebert’s article through the contact page on their website and asked them if they had problems with Sony projectors and 2D/3D. I did not receive a response.

We chose the 2D version of Thor since my previous 3D experiences have not been enjoyable. The first thing I noticed about the film was it’s blurriness. As the title sequence played, my first thought was that I needed to visit the eye doctor for a new prescription. The titles were just blurry. As the movie continued, it did not get more clear. The close up scenes were OK, but the sweeping views of Asgard that someone spent a lot of time and money creating were fuzzy.

So what did I do about this? Did I chase down a Metrolux 14 employee and demand my money back? Did I storm out? No, I sat and watched the movie. My job isn’t quality control for Metrolux 14. I have no idea if they have sony projectors, if they were using 3D lenses or if somebody just didn’t adjust the focus. All I know is we spent $35 on four tickets to watch a movie in a theater. We could have waited a month, bought the blu-ray copy and watched it on the 46 inch flatscreen or with the home theater projector and had a much better experience.

It may be a while before I go watch another movie, but when I do it probably won’t be at the Metrolux 14. There are a few movies opening soon (Super 8, Green Lantern) that are on my list to view, so a visit to other local theaters are may be in order. As I watch these movies I will post the name of the theater and my experience so you can know what to avoid. Likewise, if you have comments about the Metrolux 14 or any regional theaters in Northern Colorado pleas feel free to share.

Back in November Emily Johnson was crowned Miss Maine, but six weeks into her reign NBC announced they had moved the Miss USA pageant to June from the traditional April to better fit in their schedule. Miss Johnson had a prior commitment, her sister’s wedding

“That was the only date the entire year I couldn’t do it,” Johnson said. “For a while, I was bawling my eyes out. I was so devastated.”

Miss Maine officials weren’t pleased.

Mackenzie Davis, executive director of the Miss Maine USA pageant, says she understands Johnson’s reasoning, but she says Miss Maine is a serious commitment and that she’s disappointed Johnson withdrew from her duties.

Emily has given up the title, prizes, trip to the Miss USA pageant in Las Vegas so she can be in her sister’s wedding.

Developer 1:

Accepted my project at a low hourly rate. Got started, but didn’t seem to grasp the project. After about a week of back and forth it was obvious he wasn’t going to do what I asked, so I cancelled it.

Developer 2:

This is a well reviewed development company, who seemed to have it all together. I created a project with three relatively simple tasks and got and estimate back that was about 10 times the length that I had anticipated. Sure, the hourly rate was low, but the project time was huge.

My question is, is this typical? I have a theory that overseas development firms are charging ridiculously low rates (1/10th of what an American developer would charge) but making up for it in the hours they bill on the project. This isn’t any observation about the technical skills of the developers, but more of a review on how their business model works.

Does anyone have any thoughts/similar experiences? I would love to hear them.

Smith, 39, originally purchased two tickets “as he’s been known to do when traveling Southwest,” the airline noted, but when he decided to fly standby on an earlier flight, only one seat remained. Although he had been seated, he was asked to leave.

Not only was Smith booted from the plane, on his eventual flight he sat next to a woman who was also told to purchase two tickets, so it looks like this is corporate policy this week. Apparently their plan to make up for not charging for bags is to charge fat people double for their flights. Who knows, might work.

It’s understandable that Southwest would want to protect the safety and comfort of their other customers, and it’s possible that Mr. Smith was too large to sit in his seat, but his experience was inexcusable. If airlines are going to make these kind of decisions about the size of their customers, there needs to be some standard of measurement, and there has to be a better way to handle the issue outside of embarrassing a person in front of a planeload of people.

Southwests’ ads promoting that Bags Fly Free! ask other airlines why they hate bags. Maybe someone should ask Southwest why they hate their customers.