Vote With Your Wallet

Let's hear it for good customer service!

OK, maybe that first line didn't grab you as a radical new concept. But I'm on a kick to reward companies that don't outsource their help desks to who-knows-where and have people who sound like they actually want to help you.

So, in that vein - let's hear it for newegg.com.

First - a disclaimer. I don't work for newegg. I don't know anyone who works there. I'm not getting a discount on my next order for writing this. I wouldn't even bother with a disclaimer, but a few years ago, someone in an online running forum asked about good GPS watches for running and I said I liked my Timex. Someone immediately posted that I obviously work for Timex. I didn't and don't.

If you don't order computer equipment or other technology products online, you may not have ever heard of newegg. But here's why I like this site: THEY GET IT!!

What do they get? The value of customer service. A simple concept, perhaps, but lost on many, many companies. If you have a problem, they fix it. Quickly and cheerfully. Not to mention creatively.

Here's an example: I placed an order for a few pairs of music player headphones and thought it would be a great opportunity to use a $25 gift card that I'd gotten.

The order came to $25.06. The order page took the gift card, but didn't give me the chance to enter another card to make up the difference. The order, of course, was rejected for insufficient funds on the card.

I activated the site's online chat help and was connected immediately to an agent. I told her the problem and she said - hmmm, how about I just take six cents off the order price and put it through again? That should work. It did work.

Understand that I'm not exulting about saving six cents. It's that she didn't give me the robo-answer of going back to the site, finding the product number, resubmitting the order, and jumping through a hoop of fire to use that gift card. I immediately got nice warm fuzzy feelings about newegg.com and will most certainly shop there again.

Maybe if we all decide to only patronize companies that consider your time and business valuable - we'll wipe out the companies that don't. Or get them to change. Vote with your wallet!

Get Over It, Dude!

"Let it go" is a sound piece of advice, often given to people who are trying to get past some frustrating situation and move forward.

Except sometimes, you just can't.

I know I can't. As noted in my prior blog, it's been two years since I departed Bloomberg Radio to return to CNBC. And the circumstances that led me to leave rankle me just as much today as they did the day I left.

Bloomberg LP in general is, shall we say, a quirky place. The eccentricities of the company, and the people who run it, have been well documented elsewhere. All I know is, despite that, while I was there, I wound up in THE perfect job for me, the one I'd always wanted. From 2001-2005, I anchored mornings with my good friends Connell McShane, now of Fox Business Network, and Ben Farnsworth, a New York legend on both radio and TV.

Since I was 8, I wanted to be on the radio. I was unwavering in this career goal. I decided early on to specialize in business because I liked the subject, and found to my delight that it was an advantage in an era when very few broadcasters specialized in that subject.

Despite Bloomberg's quirks, and an unorthodox approach to programming radio and television, I loved my job. I was good at it. Despite the frustrations surrounding those quirks, I would have been happy to keep doing it forever.

Except one day, they took it away.

Someone in power decided they didn't like my voice (they unfathomably decided this about Ben as well) and removed us from the show. From there, things quickly deteriorated to where by March 2006, I was vastly underemployed. I wrote, did brief reports, produced, helped others, but it just wasn't the same.

Thankfully, the wonderful people at CNBC were there to rescue me. I'd left there on excellent terms (see my blog about karma!) and had always kept in touch. I was offered the job as breaking news producer and gladly accepted. And now that I've been back there for two years, it seems like the home it's always been. In terms of the overall culture and the people, it was and still is the best place I've ever worked.

But I still can't get over the Bloomberg thing.

A good friend of mine told me "Dude" (yes, he actually used the word "dude") .. "don't let people live rent-free in your head."

He's right. I guess. But it feels as bad today as the day it happened.

Those who are on the air in radio and TV will always be subject to the whims of those who manage them. You have to accept that. It comes with the territory.

I'm lucky. I have a great job at a great place and - the frustrations of not doing much radio aside - consider myself to be quite fortunate.

But I don't know that I'll ever be totally at peace with this. I tell people that TV producer is what I do, but radio anchor is what I am. And I'll always believe that.

Various Anniversaries

This blogging thing is supposed to be, above all else, fun. And it is. Except when it starts to feel like an assignment with a deadline.

I was reminded of this a few days ago when my good friend and fellow blogger Wes Richards (http://wessays.blogspot.com) pointed out to me in an e-mail that as of today, it had been one month since my last blog post.

Wes is a prolific writer and blogger, and I've always been impressed that he's been able to keep up the quality as well as the quantity.

I've written broadcast news stories my entire adult life. I enjoy doing so. I rarely if ever have trouble coming up with them, and, I'm proud to say, they mostly match the high quality standards I set for myself.

As I point out in the "about me" section of this blog, I've rarely gotten the chance to just write for fun. And this blog IS great fun. When a thought strikes me and inspires me, the words just come. Since I'm not writing this blog for any boss and there's no money involved, I write when I feel like it and when I don't, I don't.

Except I'm starting to feel guilty about it.

I look at some of the blogs I've written, and I'm really proud of them. But I also remember the few days when I hadn't written in a while, and decided that I really should. Except that I had nothing of interest to say, and sat there starting at a blank screen. Blogger's block!

So, this one really is to explain myself, thank all my blog-readers (and you know who you are!), and to tell you that - while I hope that another month does NOT go by between posts - I'll only post when one of those inspiring thoughts strike me. After all, if I don't enjoy writing what I write, you won't enjoy reading it.

And since we're on the subject of anniversaries, it was exactly two years ago today that I told the folks at Bloomberg Radio I no longer wished to work for them. That was one of the most triumphant yet sad days of my life, and the subject for another day. And you won't have to wait a month for it!