Business | Zoli's Blog

Is Video a Crock? It’s Certainly Not the New Holy Grail. Get Off the Screen, Dudes.

Blogging, Marketing / PR, Personal Productivity February 2nd, 2010

Many of you will recognize the title – borrowed from "Enterprise 2.0 a Crock" Dennis Howlett.

Needless to say I was quite interested in his discussion with David Terrar, who is more of an E20 fan.

Hm…hard to watch. Dennis is too loud while David is barely audible. I kept on turning the volume up and down, until I quit after a few minutes. But it’s not just the technical issues. It’s a long video for the message it delivers, and I hate to admit but it could not glue me to my chair for 8 minutes.

His opinions and sometimes abrasive style aside Dennis is a great analytical thinker, but he is (as I suspect all of us are) simply more organized, more concise in writing. Simply more convincing – or thought provoking – and definitely easier to "consume" in writing, than this video-torture. So now you see where my title comes from. If Dennis says E20 is a crock, then I say so is video. It’s simply not the best medium for a lot of messages.

But I am not picking on Dennis. Here’s a video by Allen Stern of the CenterNetworks fame:

Tags: Blogging, crock, fad, media, rant, video

No Comments

Office Depot Deceptive Advertising

Marketing / PR January 29th, 2010

For being a netbook-fan I admit I am in the market for a super-slim lightweight laptop. The market has evolved, the current slimbooks are only slightly more expensive than netbooks, and I find the 13.3” screen size an ideal compromise between portability and straining my eyes with the tiny screens. So I was quite happy to see what I consider a good deal: a HP DM3 for $449 @ Office Depot.

I found it on DealNews a few days ago, but it became impossible to purchase almost immediately. I tried it for a few days, most recently just minutes ago, but am always getting the same response: no inventory.

The other SKU is available though, for $150 more. It appears the be the same configuration, without the discount. I tried to tweet up @OfficeDepot, but I guess they are busy handing out cookies. Finally I had an online chat with Customer Service, which basically conformed my suspicion: the SKU that’s available is the same physical unit, just without the discount. So here’s the beef (not cookie):

Office Depot is advertising a computer at $449
The price is listed as effective through Jan 30th, without mentioning any restriction on how many they are selling at this price
They do have available inventory
They refuse to sell it at the listed price

If this is not false advertising, I don’t know what is.

Finally, see the script of my Customer Service chat:

Office Depot Online Help

Chat Dialog

CSR Gary has entered the session.
Zoli: looking at item# 328626 – says no inventory. The same config available for $150 more under different SKU. But this one says price valid till Jan 30 – so how can I buy it?
CSR Gary: Thank you for contacting Office Depot , Please give me a moment, while I check that for you.
Zoli: thanks
CSR Gary: You are welcome
CSR Gary: Thank you for being on hold
CSR Gary: I am sorry item “328626” is no longer available for purchase
Zoli: Isn’t 808119 the same?
CSR Gary: yes it is the same
CSR Gary: may i have your zip code
Zoli: 94566
CSR Gary: item 808119 is available for purchase
CSR Gary: please do call our customer care
department @ 1-800-463-3768 and they will help you in
placing this order
Zoli: I see the availability online. but it is the identical product for $150 more then the other price, which claims to be valid till 1/30
CSR Gary: Yes
CSR Gary: We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused.
CSR Gary: Is there anything else I may assist you with?
Zoli: It’s not a matter of inconvenience. If your website claims it is avail for $449, and you do have inventory, then you should be sellign it for that price, not $599
Zoli: Otherwise this feels like deceptive advertising
CSR Gary: I am sorry the item is available until stocks last
CSR Gary: I will escalate this issue to the concerned department to remove the out of stock item from the website
Zoli: OK. Thanks.
Zoli: I’m blogging this as a case of deceptive advertising

Update – I guess I should not be surprised: Office Depot Associates Routinely Lie about Notebook Stock – reported Laptop Magazine almost a year ago.

Update #2: Did Office Depot really need this:

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )

Tags: consumer alert, consumerist, deceptive advertising, false advertising, HP DM3, laptops, netbooks, notenooks, Office Depot, online shopping, xref

No Comments

Comcast Data Usage Meter: What’s to Celebrate About Being a Year Late?

Customer Service, Technology December 1st, 2009

I admit I’m baffled. If a major service provider imposes consumption caps without providing a way to measure consumption, then promises a metering tool and fails to deliver for a year, than what exactly is the reason to celebrate when finally they start limited testing a year late?

But that’s exactly what’s happening: Comcast keeps promise, launches data usage meter says ZDNet and some others - GigaOM calls it a step in the right direction.

Yeah… a right step. Long overdue. I said over a year ago it was ridiculous to introduce the cap without a way of measuring it, and that the few tools available were largely inaccurate.

It’s not that Comcast had no way of measuring consumption – otherwise how would they shut down the “guilty” accounts? No, it took them over a year to develop a tool to present the data – and even now it’s at limited pilot stage in Portland.

Not that such delays are unusual for Comcast. Does anyone recall the first promise of Tivo-driven Comcast DVR’s? Was it two or three years ago? I’m still waiting.

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )

Tags: broadband cap, broadband meter, comcast, Digital video recorder, Set-Top Boxes, tivo, xref

No Comments

MinTuit: What’s Next After the Intuit / Mint Deal

Business, SaaS September 14th, 2009

TechCrunch50 could not have asked for a better start: they get to announce that personal finance startup Mint winner of the $50K grand prize @ TC50 two years ago just got acquired for $170M.

Great exit for a startup – not so sure about concerned users. But the big question today is why it made sense for Intuit and what the future holds for Mint and its users. The consensus is that first of all this has been a defensive move. Mint started to bite into the Intuit / Quicken pie, and Intuit just had to stop it.

There is some irony in this deal: the playbook had been written by Microsoft, against Intuit.

Tags: acquisitions, aggregation, benchmarking, data mining, intuit, intumint, mergers, microsoft, Microsoft Money, mint, mintuit, money management., MS Money, Online Banking, personal finance, PFM, quickbooks, quicken, SaaS, Wesabe, xref

No Comments

Salesforce.com: Is the Glass Half Full or Half Empty?

Marketing / PR, SMB / SME September 4th, 2009

Is Salesforce.com’s glass for SMBs half full (of lemonade) or half empty? I borrowed the lemonade metaphor from Venturebeat’s post announcing Salesforce.com’s new Contact Manager offering for (very) small businesses.

On second thought we should use orange juice as a metaphor – as in disappearing orange juice, by Tropicana which offers less juice in a redesigned pitcher for the same price, and even tries to sell it as a benefit to consumers smile_angry

Salesforce.com “pulled a Tropicana” with the announcement of their $9 Contact Management edition, and the funny thing is, nobody seems to have noticed it. No, the media duly buys what Salesforce.com PR sells, welcoming the new edition as “giving something back to the little guy” , “breaking through a price barrier”, “making it affordable for SMBs to get in the Cloud”.

Nobody bothered to do some fact-checking, which would have unveiled that in the new Edition is in fact offering less for the same price, a’la Tropicana. Salesforce.com has pulled off a price increase and it went largely unnoticed.

Prior to this announcement the lowest-priced edition of Salesforce CRM, the Group Edition was priced at $9 per user per month, and it is now increased to $35. The few media outlets that noticed this refer to it as temporary promotion for August, that has now expired. Let’s see just how temporary it was: the “promo” started not in August but in June, and not in 2009, but 2008.

This promotion was supposed to expire in July of last year, but it did not – and I correctly predicted it would transition into a permanent price-cut, without much fanfare. Indeed the $9 pricing lasted over a year. And just for the record, prior to dropping the price to $9, CRM Group Edition had cost $20 – so the $35 new price is definitely not just ending a promotion, it’s a price hike of several notches.

But forget history, let’s look at value: having a Contact Manager functionality is certainly useful, although I suspect Google Apps (which is integrated with this Salesforce.com offering) will also offer enhanced Contacts functions. Still, nice – for 2 users only, as that’s the maximum number allowed for this edition. Talk about 2-person companies, let’s remember that Salesforce.com used to offer a free single-user Personal Edition CRM. I’ve just checked my dormant account, it’s still working – but the offering is no longer available for new users.

So let’s see: from free CRM for one user, later $9 CRM up to five users, we’ve gone to $9 Contact Manager for two users. Quite an improvement. smile_sad

Now if you have 3 users, the lowest entry point to Salesforce.com is now Group Edition at $35 per person = $105 vs. the previous price of $27. And if you have 6 users, you no longer qualify for Group Edition, your entry point now is Professional Edition at $65 per user.

Oh, well. Math lesson over, it’s a nice sunny morning, time for my glass of OJ ( not half full, not half empty – just full. smile_tongue )

(Disclosure: I’m Editor of CloudAve, a group blog sponsored by Zoho. This article is cross-posted there.)

Tags: contact management, crm, crm price hike, pr, salesforce.com, software pricing, transparency, xref

No Comments

Virtual Worlds and My Twisted View of USA vs. China

Business, Politics July 30th, 2009

<rant>

Virtual Worlds, such as World of Warcraft, Entropia Universe, Habbo Hotel, Club Penguin and Second Life grew 39% in the second quarter of 2009 to an estimated 579 million members, reports The Guardian.

A good chunk of these virtual worlds is owning virtual goods, that cost no-virtual, but real money: GigaOM reports that the virtual goods market is estimated to reach $1.8 billion this year.

“About one in 10 Americans reached into their wallets last year and spent an average of $30 on virtual goods, those pixelated swords, outfits and other non-real items used in online games such as Habbo and Club Penguin” – quotes the LA Times, using the same research report.

So why am I ranting about this? Let me put it very simply:

We’re wasting our brain on stupid things instead of being productive, while sending real money to Chinese entrepreneurs who laugh their *** off while running their sweatshops producing these digital goodies.

And you wonder why the US is declining while China prospers.

</rant>

There, I said it … now I feel better. Now, for a refreshing and decidedly more intelligent view on China, US..etc read this piece by former wunderkind (may still be wunder but no longer kid) Ben Casnocha: Rising Tide Lifts All (Nation-State) Boats.

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve. For the latest and greatest -well, dunno, but definitely more intelligent posts than this- on Cloud Computing, Web Apps, Business and the like grab the CloudAve feed here.)

Tags: china, gaming, second life, USA, virtual goods, virtual worlds, world of warcraft, wow, xref

No Comments

Amazon, the World’s Default Shopping Destination (or is it Zamazon now?)

Business, Customer Service July 22nd, 2009

Recently I wrote about PaaS by Amazon – an no, as much as we like thinking of Amazon as the the key Cloud Computing infrastructure provider, it wasn’t about Platform as a Service. It was about Pasta as a Service. Yes, I am buying Al Dente Carba-Nada as a subscription.

After all, before it become the uber-cloud-provider, Amazon started in retail – actually, as the company that revolutionized retail forever.

Do you know how many product search / comparison engines there are today? I don’t. A few years ago if I wanted to find something online, I probably used those comparison engines – then a funny thing happened. I noticed that I would end up @ Amazon – direct or via a Marketplace vendor – anyway. Might as well stop wasting time… nowadays I will still research major electronics, but for less than $100 purchases I will simply jump to Amazon. They do not always have the best price, but often enough, and the convenience of shopping from a trusted source, safe delivery and excellent service (no-questions-asked refund when my netbook developed a problem) makes it a no-brainer.

We’re also converting our real-world shopping to Amazon: would you spend a few hours driving around looking for a stupid little spare part, or just order it online, even if shipping makes it a few bucks more expensive? (i.e. is two hours of your time worth $5?) I’m clearly not the only one: the UPS truck, formerly rarely seen in residential areas makes its stops in my street every day now. But back to Amazon, here’s a trick to save on shipping: a lot of products are eligible for Free Super Saver shipping when you spent $25. How many times did you search for a penny-item to buy when your total came to $24.19? Add the non-immediate purchases to your “shopping list”, then bundle them with a larger purchase next time.

Another option to get free delivery and shave off an additional 15%: Subscribe and Save. Who would have thought one day we’d be subscribing to groceries? But it makes sense when it comes to regularly consumed items. I have subscriptions for tea, sunscreen and several other products that are not easy to find in regular stores, I am using regularly, and the subscription price is favorable @ Amazon. Subscription does not mean hard commitment: you can adjust the frequency of delivery, skip individual shipments, request immediate shipment and even cancel without any penalty (phone companies better pay attention!).

In short, Amazon has become my default vendor by good price and convenience. With a few exceptions, and shoes were on of them – until today. Zappos is (has been?) arguably the world’s best online source to buy shoes.

But it’s not primarily a shoe-seller. It’s the Ultimate Customer Service company. Shopping at Zappos means a few things:

best price (or close to it)
easy sizing
crowdsourced feedback
painless, no-hassles, free returns (two-way postage included)

In other words not only they have the largest inventory of shoes (the choice is actually overwhelming) they invented the formula for risk free, convenient shopping – why even get in the car and go to shoe stores?

Well, now it’s all part of Amazon in a transaction just shy of $1 Billion. Zappos CEO Toni Hsieh assured his employees and customers he would continue to run Zappos as it is. I believe him – for now, since once again, Zappos is all about service. They have a better model than Amazon, and would quickly lose customers if Amazon fully integrated them, applying their own (otherwise outstanding, just not Zappos-level) return policies. And it’s not like there’s nowhere else to run: my personal favorite has been ShoeBuy, which may be a Zappos copy-cat, but it perfected the art: same service principles, and often slightly lower prices.

If Zappos blinks and becomes too Amazon-ized, ShoeBuy will thrive. Otherwise they better watch out. And oh..hm… I don’t want to be in the shoes (pun intended) of many current shoe-sellers on Amazon.

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

Amazon’s PaaS, TaaS and GaaS (cloudave.com)

Tags: acquisition, amazon, Customer Service, online shopping, retail, shoebuy, shoes, xref, zamazon, zappos

1 Comment

The New Lenovo: Nice Hardware, Dumb Support

Customer Service, Technology July 21st, 2009

Lenovo, home of the (formerly IBM) Thinkpad’s is not exactly known as a price leader: those Thinkpads have a great reputation and a matching price-tag. But times are changing, and Lenovo is becoming budget-friendly: the recently announced Ideapad U series, the G550, and the all-in-one Ideacentre are all “cool” computers with an attractive price. For all my love of Netbooks I admit I got tempted to get my hands on a new Ideapad U350 – basically somewhere in between a superslim notebook and a netbook, for $599 – not a bad price.

And of course getting the free Windows 7 upgrade put me at ease that I won’t be stuck in Vista prison for long… but wait! How will I install the upgrade? Lenovo says:

Each upgrade kit will be mailed separately and contain:

Windows 7 Certificate of Authenticity

Windows 7 OS Upgrade DVD

Lenovo Drivers / Apps DVD¹

Instructions on how to upgrade the operating system

But there’s a small problem: this unit does not have an optical drive at all – which is all fine with me, in fact I’ve removed it from another, heavier laptop: all I need is a lightweight, portable productivity tool, won’t be watching DVD’s. Still, the prospect of installing DVD-based software without a DVD-drive is not that heart-warming, so I fired up this email inquiry to Lenovo (after some struggle to find an address):

To: websales@lenovo.com
Date: 07/18/09 10:04
Subject: Windows 7 upgrade for Ideapad U350
I’m considering a U350, but wonder how the upgrade to Win7 will take place since these units don’t have an optical drive. If the upgrade is done via download, does that mean Vista has to remain operational and I can’t get a a ‘clean’ Win7 install?
Thanks a lot,
Zoli

Today I received the following non-response:

Dear Zoli,
Thank you for contacting Lenovo, the makers of ThinkPad and ThinkCentre products.
I understand that you want to know if you can place an order for a U350 and want to know about the Windows 7 upgrade. You also want to know how to upgrade since these computers does not have an optical drive. I request you to please contact our Sales Department to get accurate information about the upgrade and to get help in placing an order,
If you have further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us at 866-42-THINK (84465) option number 2. We will be happy to assist at that time.
Once again, thank you for contacting Lenovo.

What load of crap! Why should I call Sales Department? Doesn’t his email address read Websales? Customer Service 101: respond at the channel you were contacted at. And it’s not like I am asking for a very difficult, individualized answer: in fact my question is so obvious it should have been answered as part of the Win& FAQ @ Lenovo’s website.

Serious loss of credibility… what kind of support can I expect when I have real problems?

(Cross-posted from CloudAve)

Tags: Customer Service, Customer support, ideapad, laptop, lenovo, netbook, thinkpad, websales, xref

3 Comments

Fiber One. Cardboard No (?) Deceptive Yes. Do They Think We’re Stupid?

Business, Marketing / PR July 19th, 2009

Fiber One has a risky tagline: Cardboard no. Delicious yes.

Why risky? Because ..well, cardboard is indeed the first word that comes to mind when I taste it. Oh, well, my Dad likes it. Lucky for him, since he needs it for health: it’s hard to find this much fiber in half a cup of breakfast cereal elsewhere. I assume that’s the reason for this product’s popularity, not taste…but wait, building on the base product’s success, there is now a whole range of Fiber One products, cereals, breakfast bars..etc.

They went mainstream. Translation: sweet, tasty, sugary, less healthy. From 57% of your recommended daily fiber intake down to 20% in some cases. But wait.. there’s one cereal likely a lot tastier and not that far from the original fiber content:

Forget the standard industry trick that the new box contains only 14.25 ounces instead of the original 16.2 for the same price… it’s almost as healthy and likely tastes better. Let’s check the small print:

At first glance the two products are close: 14g vs. 13g fiber. But how come the tastier version is listed with 42g Carbs while the original had only 25? And 160 Calories vs. 60?

Oh, there’s the trick: the ingredients are listed as per serving. However, the original serving size was half a cup, while the tastier Honey Clusters’ serving size is 1 cup. I repeat:

General Mills, makers of Fiber One is using (almost) double the serving size to compare fiber content. The true comparison would be on the same serving basis, which would show a drop from 51% fiber content to roughly 25%.

This is an outrage: while technically correct, it gives false impression, especially since these products are typically placed right next to each other on supermarket shelves – and on the company’s website, for that matter.

Shame on you, General Mills for treating us as if we were stupid.

Tags: carbs, cereal, consumerist, deceptive marketing, fiber content, fiber one, general mills, grocery shrink ray, health, marketing, nutrition

5 Comments

Is Video a Crock? It’s Certainly Not the New Holy Grail. Get Off the Screen, Dudes.

Blogging, Marketing / PR, Personal Productivity February 2nd, 2010