iPhone 13 Pro Order Experience

It has been many years since I ordered a new Apple product on launch day. My old iPhone was long in the tooth and the camera on the iPhone 13 Pro is a perfect reason to upgrade. So, I pre-ordered my iPhone, yesterday, and then set this morning's alarm for 4:40 AM PDT.

Yesterday's pre pre-ordering yielded nothing since it couldn't be found, this morning. So, I went ahead and started an entirely new order.

There were plenty of reports from people who couldn't use their Apple Card to make the purchase. Although this wasn't as bad as the iPhone 4 launch disaster, it was still a significant cause of concern since the Apple Card will give you back 3% as cash when you use it for online Apple orders.

After my order was placed with a confirmed delivery date of next Friday, I made multiple attempts to change my credit card payment from my debit card to my Apple Card. That was not a fun experience.

The first CSR I spoke to was amazingly helpful, but she just didn't have the capability, in her system, to make the adjustment for me. She recommended calling back later when my order had moved to the next step, after processing the initial authorization.

About an hour later, I called back. The CSR I spoke to told me that changing payment options wasn't possible. She said that I'd have to cancel my order and reorder the new iPhone 13. That was obviously not an option because I wasn't willing to wait an additional three weeks due the delay from all the orders that had stacked up since the time I had originally placed my order.

Then I tried something that has always worked for me: tweeting to @AppleSupport. Unfortunately, this was the one time they couldn't help me.

Next, I texted Apple via Messages. They recommended that I call Customer Service specialist at 1-800-676-2775. That did the trick. I could immediately tell that the CSR I was speaking with was highly energized and engaged in solving my problem which only took about five minutes. Persistence pays off.

Customer Service: DoorDash and Darby’s

 I do love great customer service.

DoorDash

Last night, I ordered food from DoorDash and I suspected a problem as my delivery time kept slipping from around 6:30, to after 7 PM, until it was finally cancelled by the driver. That was a bit annoying, which I shared on social media. This morning, I awoke to an e-mail from DoorDash’s VP of Customer Experience with a $50 credit. More than I could have hopped for. Companies, like people, don't always meet expectations – but it's what's done, after the fact, that can really make one shine.

Update: As if the $50 credit wasn't enough, DoorDash also FedEx'd a Milk Bar Sampler pack to me on March 5, full of yummy desserts. 🙏🏼 

Darby’s

Before

Also, this morning, as I was putting my trash outside, I noticed that someone hit my car, most likely while I was the dentist’s office, yesterday. Obviously, that was highly annoying as I recalled spending several hundred dollars, in 2013, to have my bumper removed, repaired, and repainted.

After

I immediately took my car to Darby’s body shop, on the same block I live on. I’d never been to Darby’s, but Albert immediately tended to my car by polishing out the scrape. As if that wasn’t enough, he moved on to polishing my headlights. I was in and out in less than 15 minutes all for the cost of leaving a well deserved Yelp review.

It’s the little things in life that make a big difference.

California Pacific Airlines: Dead on Arrival

How brutal is this? After more than nine years, California Pacific Airlines "crashes" trying to get off the ground on its first day of operations. (Ok, it didn't really crash, but one of their planes did have an accident, days earlier.)

I thought I would be part of history when I booked my ticket for California Pacific Airlines's first flight, on their first day of operations, last Thursday, at Carlsbad's Palomar Airport. (This airport has a special place in my heart since it's where I learned to fly.) I had to be in San Jose by 2:30 PM, Thursday afternoon, for my speaking engagement. I booked CPA's 7 AM flight, wondering what I'd do with the extra few hours before my talk.

As I bellied up to the counter to check in, before 6 AM on Thursday, I was immediately told by one of the three ticket agents/flight attendants that my flight was cancelled due to a mechanical problem. (I now wonder if it was related to their previous week's plane accident.) Then they told me they'd be happy to book me on the evening flight about 12 hours later. I told them that wouldn't work since I was returning that evening, also with CPA. 

I spoke to the agents both at ticketing and on their reservations phone line, all of whom were very pleasant, but they simply offered a refund. Mechanical problems, like this one, have happened to me, in the past, when United Airlines used to fly out of Carlsbad. When it did happen, United booked all of the passengers on new flights and provided car service to San Diego Airport, downtown. No such luck with CPA. They could have offered this, especially since it was their first day of operations. They also could have offered vouchers, ticket endorsements to fly on another airline, etc.

To put a finer point on the matter, I am writing this, a week after the cancelled flight, with no sign of the refund processing on my credit card (this was supposed to be handled Thursday morning). Perhaps soon? I also sent a direct, yet professional and respectful e-mail to CPA customer service which has gone unacknowledged. 

CPA Leadership MIA

One thing that struck me as odd was how quiet the Carlsbad airport terminal was, when I arrived. (CPA is the only scheduled airline flying out Carlsbad.) I wondered, on the drive to the airport, if CPA would have any banners, balloons, bagels, or coffee to celebrate their first day of operations. Instead, the pleasant CPA line employees were offered as cannon fodder for disgruntled passengers. Where was CPA's senior management or the board of directors to celebrate such a historic day? Where was Paul Hook, Mickey Bowman, Ted Valles, John Barkley, etc? Not a single executive was visible to apologize for failing to get off the ground on their first day. (The Union Tribune also noted the lack of fanfare for their first flight.)

Holding the Bag

So, where did that leave me? It left me with a 1,000 mile round trip drive, through LA rush hour traffic, to get to Silicon Valley. I've driven cross country about half a dozen times --- sometimes alone when I was in the Marines --- but this was the first time I spent 16 hours, driving 1,000 miles in a day. A new record for me.

By the time I returned home, it had been a 22 hour day, for me. This is the lesson I teach to others, about Apple:
Best possible customer experience.
What more can a company do to make the experience better for their customers (especially due to a company's shortcomings)?

If only CPA put as much care into their customers as I did with mine, requiring me to spend an unplanned 16 hours driving so I wouldn't cancel my commitment.

You cannot build a reputation on what you're going to do. Nine years in the making and CPA's customers were left worse off than if they never tried to get off the ground on that first day. At least that's exactly what my experience was and I think we can see the writing on the wall. I fully expect CPA to be tripping over themselves to make things better for their customers.

Too Much Security at USAA

Click to enlarge the USAA mobile app security steps.

Typically, security is a tradeoff with convenience. But, it doesn't have to be. However, it's far too easy for lazy companies to fall back on poor user experience by citing security or some other limitation while pointing fingers. One thing I love about companies like Apple is that they're fantastic at handholding a customer through a support issue, even if it's beyond their area of responsibility.

I've been a USAA member for 25 years. USAA began in the early 1920s as the United States Automobile Association offering insurance to military officers. About 20 years ago, the company expanded their services to enlisted service members and also offers insurance to other federal special agents. In 2009, USAA was one of the first companies to allow consumers to deposit checks by taking a photo of a check via a mobile app. One of the problems I've encountered with their mobile app is authentication.

The USAA mobile app utilizes a Quick Logon and Touch ID as a means of authentication. Instead of entering my password, the app can scan my fingerprint much like my Schwab mobile app. But, unlike my Schwab mobile app, it seems that when my USAA app is updated, I must re-enter my username, password, PIN, and then answer a security question. After that's completed, I have to re-enable Touch ID.

Here are the steps to enable these features...

Quick Logon
1. Enter Logon and password.
2. Enter ATM PIN.
3. Answer security question.

Hurray, I'm logged in and I can deposit a check, view my balance, download insurance documents, etc. Next step is to re-enable Touch ID.

Touch ID
4. Tap your profile image to get to your profile.
5. Tap Settings and Profile.
6. Enter your mobile phone number to receive a temporary passcode via SMS text message.
7. Enter the temporary passcode.
8. Activate Touch ID by tapping the Activate button.
9. Check the box to confirm finger print consent.
10. Tap View Document (PDF) to read the USAA Fingerprint Consent form.
11. Click the final button to activate Touch ID.

Hurray, the "You've successfully enrolled in Touch ID" message confirms that you can logon using your fingerprint until the app is updated. Yes, that is a huge pain to do every couple months, or so.

But wait, there's more. I contacted USAA via Twitter about this issue. As you can see from their reply, they said, "Yes and thanks for the update. Please reach out to tech support at: 877-632-3002 They are able to troubleshoot and provide help."

Calling USAA Tech Support

I called USAA tech support. "We’re currently experiencing a high number of calls. You may have to wait longer than normal," was the recorded message that I heard. Whenever I hear that plain vanilla (sometimes default) message I know that less-than-stellar customer service awaits me. A few minutes later a CSR picked up and I explained the issue. She told me that she'd have to escalate the issue to their web support team. After a couple more minutes of "We’re currently experiencing a high number of calls. You may have to wait longer than normal," another CSR picked up. I told her that I was transferred to her and asked her if she had been briefed on my issue. Unlike Schwab customer service which does a warm handoff, she had not been briefed; so I quickly explained the issue. She told me that I should delete the app and reinstall it. She added, since I was on an iPhone, that I'd have to uninstall the app from iCloud, too. Uninstall the app from iCloud? Now this was something I never heard of, before.

"How do I uninstall the app from iCloud?" I asked.

"Unfortunately, we're not trained in how to uninstall an app from iCloud," she responded.

I suddenly felt like I was talking to Microsoft tech support hearing the typical uninstall and reinstall instructions and "Oh, that's not my problem" deflection.

So, I asked if I did that, then would I still need to reauthenticate Quick Logon and authorize Touch ID. She said, once I uninstalled the app, deleted it from iCloud, and reinstalled the app, that I'd need to re-setup my Quick Logon and biometrics (Touch ID). So, my unasked question, to myself, was, "What problem did we just solve by deleting the app from my iPhone, iCloud (I still don't know what that meant), and reinstalling it?" But I realized, at this point, that asking would be fruitless since USAA CSR training is not up to par, much like their mobile app UX.

Is this blog post complaining, on my part? Yes, it sure is. But I'm hoping that it's coming across as constructively suggesting what USAA can do to improve their customer service for their military members and veterans. With a little luck their UX will be similar to Schwab.

Programming My Honda's Keyless Entry Remote

My self-programmed Honda remote.

The last time I took my Honda Accord in for servicing, my keyless entry remote stopped working. But, I didn't realize the problem until about an hour later when I tried to use the remote to unlock my car. Since I was still near Carlsbad, I took my car back to the dealership. I've always had great service at Hoehn Honda in Carlsbad, and this was no exception.

My service rep immediately recognized the issue – he jumped into the driver's seat, fiddled with the key while it was in the ignition and, voilà, my keyless remote fob was working. The reprograming process went so quickly that I didn't catch what the service rep did, but it was clearly a series of steps that took about 15 seconds to complete. When I asked him for the details he said that it wasn't easy to explain. I didn't pursue it since I was happy that the problem was solved quickly.

Last month, my Accord's remote stopped working, again. I figured that I'd wait until I brought my car back to Carlsbad for its next servicing since I could simply use the physical key to unlock the doors. But, that changed when I got a hankering after watching this Arby's ad around lunchtime, so I headed to Mission Valley for some roast beef. As I left Arby's, I noticed a Honda dealership next to the freeway. I drove up to the service department and spoke with a rep who did not understand my issue. Finally, I asked if, perhaps, there was someone else around who might have an idea of how to fix the remote? He went into the office where I could see him speaking to a Honda technician for a few minutes. They both came out and asked me if I'd ever had service done at that dealership. No, I told them. But I didn't tell them the obvious, which is that I always go to Carlsbad since dealerships do not share any customer records. The technician told me that I'd need to bring in both keys so they could be reprogrammed, together. After asking them, three times, what the reprogramming process entailed I caught the clue that they weren't going to elaborate beyond the fact that it would take about an hour and cost $95. No, thank you, and I headed home.

Programming My Remote

Once I got home and parked, I pulled up this Honda document on my phone: "Keyless Entry System Owner’s Manual." After a few unsuccessful tries, I was able to reprogram my car's keyless entry fob. The process is as simple and quick as what I saw the service rep do in Carlsbad, a few months ago. Basically, I repeated the same three steps of turning the ignition on without starting the car (referred to, in the Honda vernacular, as  the  "'ON' (ΙΙ) position"), pressing a button on the remote, and then turning off the ignition. Once I repeated this three times, with no more than five seconds between each step, my power door locks cycled and my remote was paired (programmed) to my Accord. All's well and now working as expected.

Give a man a fish...

The Right Way to Address Bad Service

Customer service is a pet peeve of mine. There's no way for a business to never have a problem. But, what a company does to address the problem is their moment to shine.

I've written many times about stellar customer service here, here, and here. I've also addressed how to get the customer service you deserve. The blog post is one of the latter.

I don't believe in receiving bad customer service and then posting to Yelp about it unless I've addressed it with the business, first, and given them a chance to fix the problem. Today, that happened to me and the business failed.

Blindsided

I've never given anything but 5 star reviews on Yelp. I believe in sprinkling the world with good karma. If I have a problem with a business, then I'll address it, on the spot, to give the business a chance to fix it. Otherwise, I'll let it go. Speak now, or forever hold your tongue. In other words, don't blindside a business with a bad review. Instead, address the issue on the spot with tact and understanding. Tact is the lubricant of human relationships, so use it liberally.

Today, I rented a truck from a local mom-and-pop U-Haul franchise. This is my third time renting from these owners, and, up until now, I was surprised that their seven Yelp reviews averaged out to 1.5 stars. It turns out there's a reason.

The husband and wife team do a good job when everything goes well. But, when something goes wrong, they come across as lazy. My lazy characterization is a combination of my observation, today, and the Yelp reviews.

Today, when I rented my U-Haul truck, I specifically asked for a few extras such as a hand truck, blankets, and a pad lock. The first two items cost extra... no problem, I've rented U-Haul trucks before and I knew that. The last item... the pad lock... is chained to the truck and the key to lock it is on the ignition keychain. When I tried to use the key to unlock the padlock, it wouldn't budge so the owner tried it and she didn't have any luck either. This pad lock is the only thing that secures the back of the truck. I didn't want to leave it parked on the street, overnight, without securing it. Too many homeless in my neighborhood looking for blankets, etc.

When I saw that the owner couldn't open the pad lock, I asked if she could replace it with a working on. She said no. She said that they didn't have any and she recommended that I buy a lock. I asked if there would be a discount and she said no, the pad lock is free. Then I asked if we could get a different truck and she, again, said no because "I have no other trucks," even though there were clearly other trucks, of the same exact model, on the lot. Even if those were reserved, she could swap out the trucks. I have no doubt that she lied to me simply to avoid refilling out new paperwork. She said that she was sorry and she was on her way.

After getting home and trying a bicycle lock, which didn't work, I saw no other option but to buy a new padlock, which I did. Not a big deal, but still an inconvenience, costing me extra time and money. So, it looks like they'll be getting a 4.0 from me on Yelp (my first). Not a big deal for them, since it'll help their 1.5 star average, but perhaps I'm being insensitive. Maybe this husband and wife are on the verge of bankruptcy. Who knows, but they certainly could have done better; or, perhaps I'm too easy going and I was taken advantage of.

Twitter Removes DM Limits

The key to good customer service: Be respectful.

Twitter is all about 140 characters. At least it was, until a couple weeks ago and that could be a problem.

The 140 character limit was driven by the 160 character limit of SMS. A 140 character tweet, preceded by the, up to, 15 character Twitter username along with punctuation fits perfectly into an SMS text. (The reason SMS is limited to 160 characters is an interesting story in itself.)

For the most part, tweets are public which anyone can see; no Twitter account required. On the other hand, a Twitter direct message (DM), which's limited to 140 characters, is always private. Originally, a DM couldn't be sent to any random Twitter user. The recipient has to be a follower of the sender to limit unsolicited, spammy, DMs. A smart decision.

With so many other communication channels to choose from, DMs weren't nearly as popular as messaging on other platforms such, as Facebook and other mobile apps.

The Perfect DM Application 

Over the years, though, I found the perfect application for Twitter's DMs: Customer service with "Big" companies (think: oligopolies).

Why can't we, as consumers, e-mail a tech support question to our ISP, phone company, etc? The answer is obvious: because Cox, AT&T, etc would be inundated with e-mail manifestos, tirades, and diatribes.

However, with more and more "Big" companies using Twitter, the drama of a public customer/company battle could escalate into a PR nightmare. Enter the Twitter DM.

Over the past few years, when I've had a problem with Cox, AT&T, and GoDaddy, I've used Twitter DMs to get ahold of their customer service department without drama or waisting my time navigating an interactive telephone menu.

The process is simple: Send a respectful tweet to the corporation's customer support Twitter account:
"Hi, I'm having a problem with my service. Could you follow me so I can DM you?"

These companies have active social media customer support personnel, so it usually takes only five or ten minutes, during business hours, before they've followed me. In many cases, they'll immediately DM me, before I've even noticed they started following me.

For this to work, you need a reproducible problem. With Cox, my connectivity, which is typically 100+Mbps had dropped to less than 100Kbps. I DM'd them a screen shot of the slow bandwidth with a note that I've restarted the cable modem and other steps I took to troubleshoot the problem. They're responses have typically been, "We're seeing the same issue. We can have a technician out there, tomorrow, between 8am-noon, noon-4pm, or 4pm-8pm. Which works best for you?"

Now that is amazingly quick and simple. This entire interaction might take place over the course of 30 minutes, but I actually spend less than five minutes documenting my troubleshooting steps and DMing the CSR.

This technique can work for complicated support issues, too. GoDaddy consolidated my domain names into a single account, but the DNS for some of the domains didn't transfer, which I discovered the next day when incoming mail was bouncing back to the senders. I explained the issue all within 140 characters. They quickly responded that they were on it, as they reinstated the backup copies of my DNS.

Concerns

So, that gets to my concern. Twitter has removed the 140 character limit in DMs which could mean CSRs might be reluctant to continue using it if they begin receiving long and unreasonable messages. And I'm wondering what Twitter will gain by making this change. Of course, they could always switch back to the 140 character limit and use e-mail when needed, as GoDaddy and I did.

Perhaps I'm old-fashioned, but I feel like removing the 140 character limit is the equivalent of showing up at a haiku conference and saying, "Hey, everyone, instead of doing 5-7-5, we're going to do 7-5-7 so we have more content."

Yes, I'm a customer service snob. But I've been on both sides of the fence and I give as good as I expect.

Noteworthy Customer Service

Everyone loves great customer service, especially me. It's an integrity issue and it's one of my pet peeves.

I've had my Accord for more than a decade. Recently, the factory installed GPS nav system was on the fritz. Honda offered to repair my system for a couple thousand dollars, which is steep considering it's merely the GPS DVD that needed to be fixed.

Following a recommendation from a local business, I brought my car into La Jolla Audio. I'm happy to say that everything the rep, Gary, at the shop told me was wrong.

First, he told me it would cost $800 if he could repair it in the shop. But, if he had to send out the DVD it would cost closer to $1,000. After spending the day trouble shooting it, he told me that he'd have to send it out; but it would still only cost $800 because the repair prices had dropped.

Second, he told me that it typically takes at least two weeks to repair the DVD player. He was also wrong about that. Six days later, he called me back to say that he'd received the repaired DVD player and it was ready to be installed.

As soon as I hung up the phone I drove over to La Jolla Audio. He told me that it would take about an hour to install and program the repaired unit. It turns out that was wrong, too – it only took 45 minutes. Very refreshing.

I could have done the work myself for about $300, but it was worth it to have an expert do it. It might be easy to reason that his process was planned, but that wasn't the case.  He gave me his best estimates not based on the soonest the repairs could be made, but rather the average, with a couple possible delays thrown. That's the hallmark of excellent customer service.

Ideal Online Scam?

I think I've encountered the perfect online scam; or, at least I can now envision how it would work.

Over the past ten years, I've blogged a few times about my experiences in junior high school with lasers and holography. A few years ago, I read about Wicked Lasers on TechCrunch. The diode lasers they sell are spectacularly powerful – more than a thousand times more powerful than the helium neon lasers I used to make holograms in my basement as a kid. A few years ago, I began to place an order for a Wicked Laser but I stopped myself from hitting submit when I saw that the company was based in Hong Kong.

Last December, I saw that Wicked Lasers was going to stop shipping to the U.S. after the New Year, so I placed an order for a discounted laser of $375. After all, TechCrunch reported on them multiple times.

Gotcha

The gotcha that I'm seeing more and more often is that companies charge your credit card as soon as you place your order and then ship their product more than a month later. When this happens, the consumer's best avenue of recourse is to ask their credit card company to run a chargeback within 60 days if they think they're being scammed. I have yet to run a charge back for any purchase I've made, but I am seriously considering it in the future. I've most recently seen delayed shipping from Nanoleaf and Stack Social. Nanoleaf delivered my product on the 60th day and Stack Social has been replying with delayed shipping dates, but I'm still within my 60 day window.

Genius

What makes Wicked Lasers the model for online scams is that their customers will accept a two month delay since the product is coming from Hong Kong. During that time, Wicked Laser missed a few shipping dates, but their customer service team was responsive via phone and e-mail. Now, they no longer answer their phones, but their e-mail team is still responsive. Yet something is amiss. Wicked Laser's e-mail replies are written in excellent English, but vague enough to seem like a fortune cookie message or horoscope. Each response, in a vacuum, seems like it was addressed to me, or at least that's what I wanted to believe:

One month after ordering:
"Our support staff will not have any additional information regarding the shipping of your order until it ships. If you no longer want your order, we can cancel your order and process a full refund immediately."

Six weeks after ordering:
"Your order has been shipped and is on its way. You won't receive a tracking number for another 2-3 weeks because we first ship in bulk to our domestic warehouse, then directly to you."
(This is brilliant because it seems plausible and it stretches out the delivery to just about 60 days.)

Four weeks later:
"We are still waiting for the tracking information from the carrier. Orders that has shipped in February were returned by Chinese customs and shipped again after that."

Two weeks later:
"Your order will need 4-8 business weeks to be delivered from the date it has originally shipped."

April 22, 2015:
"We just received the latest update that your order is one of those that were held by customs and after trying to ship your order a few times, we can no longer ship the item to you. A refund will be made on your account. This will take 1-2 weeks before it gets credited to your account."

At the end of April when following up on my refund:

"Its mainly because we have exhausted the refund limits of our processors for the month which will replenish this May. You can check with me around Thursday next week for the transaction number."

Follow up from this past Thursday, May 7, 2015:

"We sincerely apologize for the delay in refund. Its mainly because we have exhausted the refund limits of our processors for the month of April which will replenish this month. We are doing the refunds based on the the order ID. However, I have included your order ID to be refunded as soon as the processor limit is lifted. You can check with me around Thursday next week for the transaction number."

How Will it End? Perhaps it Already Has

I'm sensing a pattern.

It's certainly plausible that everything Wicked Lasers has told me is true, but I feel like I've been scammed. It's very frustrating to chase down companies who know about order hiccups, but don't tell the customer unless the customer follows up. If I have been swindled, then I have to admire their technique of stringing customers along past two months while being responsive to customer service queries. I really wanted to believe that my shipment was on its way. In the words of Alexander Pope, "Hope springs eternal."

Super Stellar Service

As a consumer, nothing makes me happier than superior customer service.

Yesterday, I effortlessly exchanged an iPhone case at my local Apple Store. When I was done with the exchange, the Apple employee took me through the iPhone Apple Store app. This app allows customers to self-checkout items rather than hailing an Apple employee to process the transaction. This works for all their products except for the two serialized items they sell on the floor: Apple TV and the wireless basestations. That's amazing. As far as I know, it's the only place where customers can self-checkout without supervision. Obviously, that makes pilferage easy, but Apple doesn't seem too worried about that.

This afternoon, I caught a lift with a Uber driver from Ethiopia. Like most San Diego Uber drivers from East Africa, my driver was a former taxi driver. Since I used to live in East Africa, we had a great rapport. I couldn't help commenting how nicely his iPhone 6 was connected to his car vent. He popped it off and gave it to me so I could have a closer look. It was a Kenu car vent mount that snuggly held an iPhone without having to remove the case.

This evening, I took a trip back to the Apple store and bought a Kenu case. Of course I checked myself out. It was my first experience with Apple Pay and I was hooked. On the way through Bloomingdales I bought a Brooklyn t-shirt, that caught my eye, using Apple Pay and that was dangerously easy for this impulse purchase. Before leaving the mall I used Apple Pay, for the third time in an hour, at The Container Store. That, too, was a breeze.

The Apple Pay transactions happen so fast that I almost missed them except for the part where I had to sign; after all, it's still a credit card transaction. The cashier at The Container Store told me a previous customer said that the store receipt had the wrong last-four credit card digits. I took a look at my paper receipt and, sure enough, the last four digits didn't match my credit card. But, then it hit me that Apple Pay generates a unique, one-time, credit card number for each transaction.

Service with a smile in the blink of an eye. What more could I ask for?

Heads Up: Package Delivery

UPS: We Love Logistics.

I'm wondering why package delivery services don't offer heads up delivery notifications, out of the box. They already provide automated status updates, so this idea seems like a natural evolution.

Generally, when I'm tracking a FedEx or UPS package, I can provide my e-mail address or cell phone number to receive updates. FedEx and UPS are good about customer service. In my experience, they (especially FedEx) have frequently attempted a second delivery at my request. I realize that UPS is much larger than FedEx, but we're talking about moving bits, not boxes. Since I've already provided my contact info for tracking status updates, why not also send a heads up notification? UPS/FedEx Driver in your area. Please expect delivery within the next 90 minutes.

Today's UPS Story

After putting more thought into it, I realized that my heads up solution seems more than doable. Obviously, I missed a UPS delivery, today. I called UPS to hold my package at the local UPS facility. Then I tweeted them about my heads up idea. They misunderstood and tried to help me get my package, not realizing that I'd already arranged that. Ok, fair mistake – I appreciate the help.

UPS suggested I sign up for My Choice. I gave that a go, but the sign up process wanted to confirm my cell phone number billing address to verify my info. Unfortunately, I tried to sign up with my Google Voice phone number, so I gave up. Too much friction and not the best UX. Perhaps I'll try signing up later. In the mean time I had two options. First, I could wait for UPS to redeliver my package tomorrow. That option might cost the driver an extra five minutes worth of his time. Instead, I chose the second option and decided to go to the local UPS facility and pick it up. It's worth the 32 mile round trip drive rather than sitting around tomorrow.

Sizzling Customer Service

One thing I absolutely love is excellent customer service.

This afternoon, I had lunch at a place that was rather slow, plus I found a wire brush bristle in my sandwich. I've been here several times before and today was the exception. The owner offered free cookies. Mistakes happen – it's what's done to make up for them that sets great businesses apart from mediocre ones.

Tonight, I went to a Home Depot I'd never been to before. As I walked out I saw a Sizzler restaurant on the other end of the parking lot. I hadn't been to a Sizzler in years and it pulled me in. An employee saw us walking up to the restaurant and held open the door. The manager behind the counter was extremely courteous and the wait staff was very friendly. There was an obvious pattern of top notch training in customer service. On top of all this, the restaurant looked brand new as if it were opening night.

There's something very pleasant about great customer service when your hungry. It's the polar opposite of hangry.

Welcome to Walgreens: 30 minutes here, 30 hours there.

Thanks for your patience.

I've been patronizing my local Walgreens (Store #: 6656) for the better part of a year. It's the people that work there who really make a difference. From the cashiers that always greet me when I walk in to the photo processing employees who provide stellar service with my photos, books, greeting cards, and canvas prints. I've been to a couple other Walgreens in the San Diego area and they seem on par with my local store.

Yesterday, I discovered that customer service is a different story on Long Island.

Tomorrow is my mother's birthday. I decided to print a custom card for her and have my sister pick it up. Instead of a 30 minute process it took 30 hours.

Yesterday, I uploaded the card and immediately received an order confirmation e-mail with an estimated completion time of about 45 minutes. A couple hours later I knew there was a problem when I hadn't received the confirmation e-mail that the greeting card had been printed. I called the Walgreens on Long Island and, after getting bounced between a couple departments, I finally spoke with an employee in the photo processing department. He told me, "We're printing them now." Ok, thanks, I told him – let me add that each person I spoke to had zero enthusiasm. But I still had a feeling things weren't going to work out well. This hunch comes from growing up on Long Island.

Two hours later I called back when I still hadn't received a confirmation that my greeting card had been printed. Once again I was bounced between a couple departments before getting a women in the photo processing department.

"Hi, I'm calling to check on the status of my photo order," I said.

"Our photo machine is down," replied the woman.

"Actually, it's not a photo. It's a greeting card," I said.

"Hold on," she said.

I was back on hold for a few minutes.

"This is Carl. How can I help you?" asked the manager.

"Hi Carl. I'm calling to check on the status of a greeting card that's being printed at your store," I said.

"We're out of paper. If we find any paper we'll call you back," said Carl.

I called my sister to tell her not to stop by Walgreens just yet.

About an hour later my sister texted me that she had received a call from the manager. Carl left a voicemail explaining that they couldn't process our order since they couldn't find any paper. End of message.

I called the Walgreens corporate customer service number and explained that my original Walgreens of choice was out of paper – I asked if the order could be changed to another Walgreens.

"Sure, no problem," said Rick at Walgreens's corporate call center.

Less than an hour later I received a print confirmation e-mail from the new Walgreens. One thing I've learned about Walgreens is that these confirmation e-mails are automatically generated when the order is printed. I've submitted orders while standing in the store and received my confirmation e-mail at the exact moment it was printed. It's a great system. In this case, a confirmation e-mail was also sent to my sister since I listed her as the person picking up my order:

Joe Moreno sent you a photo order that is ready for pickup at the Walgreens location shown below.
They are FREE of charge to you and are available for pickup under your name. Joe Moreno will be charged when you pick them up.
Please print and bring this email to this store. It will help us locate your order faster.

The final, unfolded, product, delivered.

Fast forward to today when my sister stopped by the new Walgreens to pickup our order. She texted me, "At Walgreens and they can't find them. They're looking."

Relax. Inhale. Hold it. Exhale.

I called my sister while she waited. She told me that she showed the confirmation e-mail to the employee but they still couldn't find the order. "I'll let you know what happens. Stay by the phone," she said as we hung up.

A few minutes later she texted me, "Got them!" She also sent me a couple photos of the card followed by, "Then they wanted me to pay." She had to explain that I, not her, should be charged. My sister sent me one final text message, "The guy told me it should have been folded, that's why he he couldn't find them."

Mission accomplished!

That wasn't so hard, was it?

What's the Point?

I belong to a business book club that brings in the authors for our monthly meeting. This gives us, the readers, some hidden insight including the story behind the story. Earlier this year, our book choice was Service Failure. This book highlights a key concept that I love which is to simply take a customer to complete satisfaction without passing the buck. The key, much like Apple or Nordstrom, is that leadership starts at the top. Outstanding customer service has to be in the DNA of the organization.

Great Expectations from House Call

Frustration results when reality isn't in line with expectations. Delight is just the opposite, it happens when reality exceeds expectations.

Before: Overloaded closet.

Last Thursday, my overloaded closet collapsed from the weight of my hanging clothes. I dreaded the thought of finding a reliable and capable handyman.

For months, I'd been quietly watching a team of former Qualcomm alumni working in the corner of a cafe. Their startup was a location based handyman service called House Call.

After coming out of stealth mode, I heard their presentation at One Million Cups. I liked their handyman screening process and I loved their promotional legwork. House Call came up with an innovative way to canvas a neighborhood and post door hangers. They first looked up the USPS's delivery routes since that's public information. Next, House Call hired college students to hang their collateral – but how do you supervise their work? Simple, have each student fire up Map My Run and wear it while hanging the door hangers. The students upload their GPS data to House Call for verification and payment.

Original nails vs. new 3" screws.

I tucked their service away in the back of my mind for the next time I needed home maintenance. So, when my clothes came softly crashing to the ground I gave them a call.

I recommend not booking through their website. Instead, use their iPhone app since it has much more functionality. By using GPS, House Call can detect when handymen are in and out of your area. Their app also informs customers when the handyman is on his/her way along with their photo.

Although I could book a specific handyman based on ratings I chose to let House Call pick one for me since rapid response was my priority. Within an hour House Call called me to get the details of the job. Less than 30 minutes later, José called me to book my appointment for Friday. 

After: Happy hanging clothes.

The next day, José showed up on time, looked over the work, and turned to. He definitely wanted to do the best job possible. First he showed me the difference between the small nails the builder originally used and his three inch screws. He then asked me if I wanted the sunken screw heads filled in and painted. Thanks, that was much appreciated, but no thanks since I didn't have matching paint.

Both the quality of José's work and his attitude exceeded my expectations. Unlike Angie's List, which only provides reviews, House Call vets their contractors.

This company is a recipe for success with funding in their pocket and the team from Gimbal at the helm of House Call.

Author: Joe Moreno

$5,000 Security Breach, Part 1

$17,000 AWS bill in the making.

4/15/2014 Update: This story was picked up by ReadWrite.

Part 2 Here

The problem with the Heartbleed bug is you never know when and where you'll get hit. Actually, this is true for all security breaches.

Yesterday, I received an e-mail from Amazon asking me to update my credit card info for one of my personal Amazon Web Services (AWS) accounts. I logged in and saw that my running total for April was over $5,300. My typical monthly bill is less than $6.00 which is about 1,000 times less.

At first I thought it was a mistake. I hadn't fired up any EC2 instances this month and my account had no EC2 instances running in my region. I filled out a billing inquiry request form and selected the "call me now" option. Within a minute my phone rang and I was speaking to an AWS customer service rep.

I explained that I've been an AWS customer since 2007 and I've never seen a billing issue like this.

He said, "We've been seeing more and more of this. Check your spot EC2 instances in other regions and you'll see high end instances running."

Sure enough, he was right. In Tokyo, São Paulo, Sydney, and Singapore I had expensive server instances running.

"Your AWS credentials have been compromised," he said.

How did they get compromised? When did it happen? Was my development machine hacked? It couldn't be my Time Capsule since that's encrypted. Were one of my physical servers hacked? Did I have a backup, sitting on a server, somewhere, that was hacked? Am I about to get stuck with a $5,360 bill?

"'They' spin up spot instances which isn't subject to Billing Alerts. You'll need to cancel those spot instances, revoke your AWS credentials, and change your account password," he said.

"When did this happen?" I asked.

"Let me look," he replied.

My mind was still racing as I tried to figure out the source of the breach.

"These instances were spun up on April 2," he said.

Very smart; launch the attack early in the month so the victim won't know anything's wrong until they get next month's bill.

"Is this related to Heartbleed?" I asked. It had to be.

"No, it's just a case of your AWS credentials getting compromised," he answered.

He walked me through the steps to secure my account.

"Can you see what 'they' were doing with these spot instances?" I asked.

"No, we can't see inside the instances. But, they're usually mining for Bitcoin," he answered.

Ahh, now that makes sense. Spend $5,000 of someone else's money to mine, say, $1,000 of Bitcoin for yourself. Can't follow that money trail.

"I'm going to send you a questionnaire. Please fill it out describing what happened and, due to the large amount involved, I'll need a manager to review it. But you won't have to pay for what you're not responsible for," he said.

I let out a sigh of relief.

I was still dripping with sweat since I'd just returned from a run when I saw the initial e-mail from Amazon. While I was in the shower it hit me. I know how my AWS credentials were compromised. But I'll need to do a little more research first.

4/15/2014 Update: How did this happened? See Part 2 of this story to find out.

Author: Joe Moreno

Mix and Match Rant

In the past, I've been highly inconvenienced when I've mixed and matched products and services from different vendors. So much so that I now avoid it by paying a premium.

To put it in perspective, consumers do not buy a car from one manufacture, the engine from another, and the service plan from, yet, a third company. Too much finger pointing. While the upfront cost may be less, the TCO is only cheaper if your time is worth nothing and you never have a problem.

I've gotten a little aggravated over the past few months when I've seen friends, who've paid good money, only to be given the runaround when there's a problem. Frustration results when reality is not in line with expectations. The one thing everyone has at the top of their list is to have their day run smoothly and being bounced between different companies with mediocre customer service is an unnecessary distraction.

You can probably read between the lines as to what I'm talking about.

Whew... now I feel better.

Best Buy's Geek Squad

Even though Geek Squad has been around for nearly 20 years I just had my first encounter with them last Thursday. The agent, Bo, was polite, but there were only two or three of them to handle the lunch time rush of customers which stretched the agents thin; and I don't think making an appointment was an option.

The problem was a finicky power adapter port on a Samsung Galaxy Note. The Geek Squad agent didn't need to troubleshoot the issue, he simply asked if it was possible to charge the phone. Since jiggling the cord made it possible to charge it under the right circumstances the agent said that he'd order a new phone since this issue was covered under the Best Buy extended coverage plan. But, which phone number was the plan under? A home phone, work phone, cell phone? Finding the coverage warranty took awhile since their database records the plans by phone number, not serial number. I asked the agent why they didn't put the plan under the device's serial number instead of the phone number and he pointed out that replacing the phone would change the serial number. Touché. So now I'm thinking that the extended warranty plan should be under both the serial number and phone number.

Once the extended warranty was found the agent pointed out that they do not transfer data from the old, defective phone, to the new phone which would arrive next week. Instead, the agent handed out a sheet of paper with instructions on how to back up the phone's data. Obviously, it's not our smartphones which are so important compared to the information on our phones. Consumers very rarely transfer data between phones so I expected this service to be offered by the Geek Squad. But, you can't have everything. Apple offers free data transfer services from PCs to Macs. I wonder if they do that for people switching from Android to iOS?

Doing it Right

One thing that gets me excited is elegant customer service which I've blogged about many times.

One thing that bums me out is the lack of dry cleaners in my neighborhood. There is not a single one near the southeast tip of Balboa Park which means I have to go downtown – not convenient or cheap.

After reading several reviews on Yelp, one dry cleaner floated to the top: Adamo. Customers spoke of the superb service from the proprietor, Mrs. Lee. But, the challenge with this cleaner is it's in a busy area of downtown so parking is difficult.

When I told Mrs. Lee that it was my first time she gave me a discount when I paid at drop off. She pointed out that it's hard to park on the street and she recommended that I call her from the curb and she'd bring out my dry cleaning. 

No Ticket Needed

As I rolled up to retrieve my dry cleaning there was a Budweiser truck double parked while the driver was unloading beer directly in front of Adamo so I pulled in behind the truck and called Mrs. Lee. 

"Hello?" answered Mrs. Lee.

"Mrs. Lee, my name is Joe Moreno. I have some dry cleaning to pickup and I'm out front behind the Budweiser truck...," I said.

She interrupted, "Oh, your stuff is here and it's all done."

"Do you need my ticket number?" I asked.

"No, I'll bring it out to you in just a minute," she answered.

Less than 60 seconds later I saw Mrs. Lee walk out of the store with my dry cleaning. As she handed it to me she pointed out that she was careful not to iron the seersucker shirt. A point I made to her when dropping it off. She also showed me where my ties were hanging too. The entire handoff took less than ten seconds.

It's impressive that she remembered not only my order, simply by name, but also the details. Everyone loves to be treated well, no matter what we're paying.

All Servers Die So Take Care of Your Customers

Adjix, Epics3, et al, server farm with two dead (vertical) servers.
Serving up nearly 100K unique visitors daily on 512 Kbps.

Adjix

Born: August 19, 2008

Died: December 31, 2011

I wish that I could say Adjix died peacefully, in its sleep, but it was a sudden, unexpected death as it went down fighting.

RIP Adjix.

New Year's Eve 2012
I received a call from a couple of key users, on New Year's Eve afternoon, that my beloved Adjix was having problems. After the calls, I discovered that the Adjix database had unexpectedly stopped and needed to be restarted. We knew that the Adjix database didn't have much life left after the San Diego power outage of September 8, 2011 knocked out some servers in the cluster - but I wanted to keep Adjix running until the last possible moment.

After identifying the problem, during the afternoon of New Year's Eve, I restarted the database server and I could tell that it would take several hours to rebuild the indices and check the database integrity due to its large size. After all, you do want your database to be ACID compliant.

Then, ominously, just before midnight EST, the physical database server (hardware) stopped responding to any and all commands.

Today, six months later, I gained physical access to that server - the last one in that dying cluster - and this is the final entry from the logs (-0800 is PST).

2011-12-31 21:52:43 -0800: Rolling forward master [80.1% complete] 17154000 SQL transactions processed

Sure enough, the logs confirmed that, with less than eight minutes left before the New Year, the hardware stopped responding.

Future Proof
Although I never charged anyone to use the Adjix APIs, I still felt that everything I delivered should be future proof.

In theory, we can see that Adjix links redundantly work as expected:

http://adjix.com/ai26

But, I have to admit that I'm amazed to see, six months after Adjix died, that others' Adjix links are still alive and kicking:

http://twitter.com/search/adjix

(Note: ad.vu is the ultra-short version of adjix.com.)

Not only did Adjix automatically store every single shortened URL in its own adjix.com Amazon S3 bucket, but Adjix also gave every user the opportunity to store the Adjix shortened link in their own S3 bucket.

Applying Lessons Learned
In early 2010, I launched a photo sharing service, Epics3, which allowed users to share photos on Twitter and Facebook as well as store any photo they uploaded to their own Amazon S3 bucket. Just like Adjix, this was a simple solution to implement resulting in two separately owned and operated servers redundantly serving up the same content.

As an example, the first of the following links is dynamically generated from the Epics3 server and the second one is served statically, directly, from an Amazon S3 bucket.

http://pics.joemoreno.com/2gi3

That, my friend, is future proofing. You'd think, after four years, that it would be more popular.

On New Year's Eve 2012, Adjix died. Long live Adjix (and all other customer data).

Eagerly Awaiting My Allen Edmonds

About a dozen years ago, I bought a couple pairs of Allen Edmonds dress shoes. The big selling point of these shoes was that they could be sent back to the factory for refurbishing. I knew, one day, that I would take advantage of their offer. After spending most of the last 12 years either working at Apple or on active duty in the Marines, I didn't have an opportunity to wear dress shoes very often.

After all this time the day finally came when it was time to send them back. Allen Edmonds sent a confirmation e-mail to me when they received them. Tonight, I received an e-mail that began with, "Remember theses?" and a photo of my shoes.

Before photo when my shoes arrived at the factory for refurbishing.

Yup, those are my actual shoes.

The e-mail also had shipment tracking info and a photo of my fully refurbished shoes.

After photo and ready for shipping

My 12 year old shoes look like new - for about 1/3 the price of new pair. I can't wait to get them back.