By: SethCardoza - Published: 2012-01-23 15:04:09 in Category: General
In short, their customer service.
Companies are bound to make mistakes. Orders will be misplaced, packages damaged during shipping, and products will malfunction or break. It's how a company responds to those problems that makes them great, and I have consistently had a great experience with Amazon.
Most recently, I had an issue with a DVD I purchased. I had bought the I Love Lucy Complete Series (affiliate link) for my then fiance in October of 2010 (over a year ago). Well, since it's 34 discs, we weren't able to watch it all right away. In fact, we are just now getting close to finishing it. The second to last disc of the set gave us problems. It would not play properly, getting stuck in a loop on one of the production logos. We were unable to navigate to the menu or any other part of the disc. I checked the disc, and there were a couple scratches, which I know we didn't cause because this was our first time handling it.
Since it was purchased over a year prior, I figured we were screwed, but I would try to contact the manufacturer. I checked the packaging, and found www.paramount.com/entertainment, so I try to bring up the page, but it doesn't exist anymore. I can't find any sort of useful link on the Paramount home page. I search for the CBS Home Entertainment website, which does have a contact page, but no contact form on it. They do have links to Twitter and Facebook, so I contact them through Twitter, and wait for a response.
In the mean time, I figure it won't hurt to contact Amazon, since they are often very helpful, and maybe can at least get me in contact with the manufacturer. I explain the issue with the disc in an email, and ask if they are able to replace the single disc. I get an email within a couple hours letting me know that they cannot replace the single disc, but are willing to replace the entire set for me. They sent me a replacement, and are paying for the return shipping on the defective set. Their service is much more than I asked for, and certainly more than I expected, but why I continue to buy with confidence from Amazon.
By: SethCardoza - Published: 2011-11-11 08:44:52 in Category: General
I thought this old ad from one of my comics was neat. There's a coupon to save $0.75 off each Sea World park ticket. It might not seem like a lot, but remember tickets were probably $20 a piece or less at the time.
By: SethCardoza - Published: 2011-08-08 14:36:07 in Category: General
I was browsing Google Maps recently and noticed how large Walt Disney World Orlando is compared to Universal Orlando Resort. In the image below you can see Disney in the purple, and Universal in the red. To be fair, the purple is only the land Disney owns, and not necessarily their entire resort. With Universal, all that red is the entire resort. As you can see, they have no room to grow. Good planning on their part.
By: SethCardoza - Published: 2011-05-24 09:43:28 in Category: General
With the recent update to Android 2.2 Froyo, the Samsung Fascinate has the ability to take screen shots. There's no need to root your phone, or even install other programs. Simply hold down the back button and push the power button. You will see a message stating "Screen captured. Saved as image file." At this point, if this is your first time taking a screen capture, a folder will be created on your micro SD card labeled ScreenCapture.
By: SethCardoza - Published: 2011-03-08 16:56:55 in Category: General
If you don't know about Grooveshark, it's a really nice service that allows you to listen to just about any music your heart would desire. Unlike other free music streaming services, you can listen to the exact songs you want whenever you want, and however many times you want. Add music to a library, mark your favorites, make playlists and share them with friends.
They offer a VIP service for a monthly/yearly fee that provides an ad-free online experience, allows more songs to be added to your library and playlists, as well as access to their mobile apps. I've been so pleased with their service, that I signed up for their VIP service back in November, before I ever had a smartphone with a supported platform. They had planned to increase their subscription prices, but subscribers would be locked in at the price they initially paid forever. I knew I would eventually want to use their services on a mobile device, and didn't mind giving them my money to support the service while I wasn't using any of their mobile apps.
I've since purchased an Android phone and use their mobile app frequently. There's a small bug that won't update your playlists if you've added/removed songs via the website. It's a bug they know of, and they say a workaround is to rename the playlist via the website, and this will force the mobile application to update. It's an annoyance, but one I can deal with. I ran into another bug a little over a month ago. One of my playlists was emptied. I contacted them to figure out what happened and if there was a backup. They apologized, but they didn't have any backup. There's also no way for users to back up their playlists themselves. It wasn't too big of a deal, I mean, it's just some music. The playlists can be rebuilt, nothing of monetary value was lost. I rebuilt my playlists and moved on, until it happened again. I contacted Grooveshark again about the situation, and they apologized again, and added 3 months of VIP service to my account at no charge. There's really not much I could do other than rebuild the affected playlists again. It has since happened a third and fourth time over the past month and a half (I've been comped another 3 months of VIP service, giving me a total of 6 months for free), with Grooveshark still not backing up user data, nor providing users with a means to do it themselves.
Grooveshark really provided a great service, one that I raved about to friends frequently. As with many other Web 2.0 services, you might say I have little/no room to complain about issues with a free service, and I would agree, but I am a paying customer. Sure, it's just music, but I enjoy creating playlists of different types of music, different moods, etc. It's time consuming, and inexcusable for Grooveshark to not have backups of user data, especially for paying customers. At this point, I've stopped using Grooveshark, and won't use it again until the situation is resolved (even for free). I need to be assured that my data will not be lost, partially or totally, on a regular basis, or at the very least be provided with a way to back up my data if Grooveshark will not do it for me. It's a shame because Grooveshark had a truly great service, and one of the few that I would gladly pay for.
By: SethCardoza - Published: 2011-02-02 19:54:36 in Category: General
Valentine's Day is a sexist, made up, capitalistic holiday. All advertisements aim at men buying stuff for women. No one ever talks about a woman buying something for their man, and why does anyone need to buy anything at all. Let's all band together and boycott Valentine's Day this year.*
*Disclaimer: Seth Cardoza is not responsible for temporary celibacy, sleeping on the couch, sleeping outside, sleeping in one's car, diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, upset stomach, lost or strained relationships, stabbings (accidental or intentional), or any other forms of bodily harm, both inflicted and/or received.
By: SethCardoza - Published: 2011-01-18 20:43:58 in Category: General
If you haven't heard, I'm getting married this year. One of the fun things I get to do is talk to vendors, food vendors, photographers, videographers, DJs, and hotel/resort managers. I recently spoke with a wedding photographer, and a question I always have is "Who gets the rights to the photos?". This is very important to me for a few reasons. One, because the pictures are of me and my family, and I want to be able to do what I want with them. Two, what happens in 20 years when we want to get another photo album, or more prints, and your company no longer exists to get permission to do so or purchase from directly.
So, I ask the inevitable question, and this photographer tells me we are allowed to print the images ourselves, but cannot take them to a commercial printer. This means I can't even take my pictures to CVS, Walgreens, Walmart or the local developer to get a few 4x6's printed. She then goes on to say that
We do all the work, why should they be the ones to profit off of it.
This photographer is paid to photograph the wedding, and wedding photography is not cheap. If you feel your work is worth more than what you charge, and feel the need to retain the rights so that you can make more money off of printing, then you're doing it wrong. Charge more for your photography work if you truly have the talent to warrant it, and provide better service.
Times have changes, and you need to update your business model to follow suit. This outdated business model makes you look cheap, and your explanation makes you sound bitter.
By: SethCardoza - Published: 2010-06-17 09:56:48 in Category: General
As I was eating my highly nutritious granola bar breakfast this morning, I noticed some writing on the wrapper. Nature Valley National Parks Project will donate $0.10 for each wrapper you mail in, through August 31, 2010. My first WTF was "why would I spend $0.42 on a stamp for you to donate $0.10?" I'm sure I could mail more than one per envelope, but it's still not very cost effective. Secondly, if this is about nature and preservation, wouldn't it be better to have a code on the wrapper that I can enter into a website so i don't have to waste a paper envelope, and fossil fuels don't need to be burned to deliver all these wrappers to your processing plant? I should note that they will donate a minimum of $250,000 (and a maximum of $500,00), but this seems more like a poorly done marketing campaign, and a mock effort at actually helping the environment.
By: SethCardoza - Published: 2010-01-07 09:46:44 in Category: General
Yahoo has an article in finance listing 10 items that are pointless to buy in 2010. There are several items on the list that I will definitely still purchase in 2010 despite Yahoo's flawed logic. The first being DVDs. The article states:
On average, DVDs sell for at least $20 each. That's pricier than signing up for Netflix or renting movies from cable providers' on-demand channels.
I've never paid $20 or more for a DVD. Maybe if you are an idiot and go to a specialty shop to buy the DVD the week it comes out, you will end up paying this much for a DVD. I rarely pay more than $10 for DVDs because I don't mind waiting for them to drop in price after their initial release. It's similar for TV shows on DVD. I've never even paid $20 for a season of a TV show on DVD. While I do expect there to be a further decline in DVD purchase because of Blu-ray, Netflix, and Redbox, I see no reason not to buy a DVD if it's something you will enjoy over and over again.
External hard drives are another item listed, stating that online backup services are the way to go. First, never put all your eggs in one basket. You should have more than one backup, and never rely on someone else to do it for you. Secondly, the article even contradicts itself by stating these online backup services are more expensive than external hard drives. These online services have their benefits, but if you just need a backup of documents and pictures get a couple cheap external hard drives, or even better internal hard drives and an external enclosure.
Next up is compact digital cameras. It seems that in 2010 smaller is not better. Yahoo would have you believe that compact digital cameras are going the way of the pager because of bigger and better DSLR cameras. The problem is that DSLR cameras are much more expensive, and much much larger. While I would love to have a DSLR because I enjoy photography, no one is going to want to bring a these to the club, restaurant, party, etc. to take casual pictures with friends and family.
Update: Gareth makes a great point in the comments, while DSLR cameras probably won't replace compact point and shoot models, cell phone cameras are getting better with each generation. I expect them to be a much more likely replacement as it is a device almost everyone has on them at all times anyway.
Last up is CDs. This is the toughest one for me to argue for continuing buying, and is more of a personal preference. I still haven't paid for a digital download of any audio, but have purchased a few CDs as recently as a week ago. Just like DVDs, CDs can be found rather cheap if you don't mind looking around. I like the fact that I have a physical good for my money, for the same or even a lower price than its digital counterpart. It's easy for me to grab one disc and bring it wherever if that's all I want, but I will most likely rip it to my computer and put it on my mp3 player as well.
The average person will most likely be purchasing these items well through this year. While some are adopting newer and better technologies, not everyone needs to, or has the money to as newer technologies are often more expensive.
By: SethCardoza - Published: 2009-12-16 13:18:44 in Category: General
I've had these shoes for a little over 6 months now. I wear them everyday, but the most I will do with them is a lot of walking at the mall or theme park. Not long after I got them, my heels and the balls of my feet would hurt if I stood for more than a few minutes or walked for a long period of time. I contributed it to the fact that I've been getting lazier and lazier with age. I recently got some Dr. Scholl's insoles though, and in the midst of removing the ones that came with my shoes, I notice that they have become almost paper thin. These things have completely broken down with moderate wear. I threw in the Dr. Scholl's insoles and my feet are feeling great again. Don't buy these shoes, ever.
