How many seconds in a minute and other corporate misdeeds

According to Apple, there are five seconds in a minute!

I just did a software update on my MacBook Air, and near the end, the screen said there were five seconds left.  i watched and watched, but the number didn’t change.  I did Mississippi-one, Mississippi-two and so on.  I stopped at about Mississippi-thirty.  A bit later, the counter disappeared.  And a bit later, the system rebooted.

Yahoo! Finance redid their web page several weeks ago and took away drag and drop.  I have a list of symbols in a TextEdit file that I would drag and drop in the symbol look-up list.  I have been using this successfully and satisfactorily for years.  Then poof!  It didn’t work!  I now had to copy and paste.  Gosh!  Drag and drop has been an Macintosh feature for over twenty years.  Now Yahoo! decides its users don’t need drag and drop.

This week Yahoo! Finance flummoxed its users again by providing some very circuitous means of providing a list of quotes.  Instead of a spreadsheet-like page, they have buried a text list on the side of the page.  By some magical clicking, one can get the spreadsheet listing, but I haven’t memorized it yet.

Many users left comments complaining about this, but I doubt if there will be any change.  Some threatened to go to Google Finance.  I tried Google Finance and didn’t find it any easier to use.

My suspicion is that corporations put together focus groups and browbeat them into accepting what management wants to do.  Then management browbeats long-time customers into accepting the changes by saying the changes were what focus groups wanted.

Of course, there are many fine corporations that bend over backward for customer satisfaction.  Toyota has had some bad recalls, but many of their dealers bend over backward to provide customer satisfaction.  My examples are Kari Toyota of Superior WI and Maplewood Toyota of Maplewood MN.

For the likes of the corporations that screw up the customer experience, I can only say that the U.S. Postal Service has historically provided far superior service, when Congress lets it.  And believe it or not, the IRS too.  I have had the IRS send me corrections on my returns, both for underpayment and overpayment.

What corporate efficiency?

“Free marketers” laud the efficiency of corporations over the inefficiency of government.  I think there is no difference between the forms.  What it depends on is management.  A good mayor or governor can get some great things done.  A lousy CEO or low-level corporate manager can make a real mess of things, such a mess as to cause death or injury.

What follows are my notes in trying to navigate vanguard.com to find a report that I was told today was available.

Vanguard site navigation

You sent me email that I had a report for Vanguard High-Yield Corporate Fund Admiral Shares Report, but you provide no direct link to it.  I finally reread the message and find that there is a link to Fund Reports.

I clicked on that but did not find Vanguard High-Yield Corporate Fund Admiral Shares listed!

Oh, there is a little drop-down box in the upper right corner that toggles between regular and admiral shares.

I toggle to admiral and then I get "Please wait".  I waited!  I went downstairs to get a snack!  I came back!  The "Please wait" box was still present.  I did something or another and got a page that asked me to log in.  But I already had a page up that had me logged in!  I am using that page, without logging in again, to send this message.

Off to try to get back to where I was ten or fifteen minutes ago.

Comment in satisfaction form

Recd msg today, 2016-09-20 of fund report for High Yield Corp Admiral.  No link given in msg.  Finally found my way to page with list of reports.  Latest report is 2016-07-xx!?!?

Also added in another part of satisfaction request: hire some good human interface people.

Follow up after signing off ins satisfaction.

Downloaded report, but Vanguard was unhappy with my Adobe Reader XI.  Report would not open, damaged.  Version is 11.0.17, undated.  Finder gives date modified as 2016Aug 5.  Checking for updates gives “Already up to date”.

End of notes.

Junk mail and the fine print

I keep hoping that some internet provider will offer 30Mbps service at $30/month with no other conditions, like phone or TV.  So I keep opening the envelopes and it is always the same old offer.  For example Charter Spectrum offers up to 30Mbps internet at $29.99 per month when bundled with TV at $29.99 and phone at $29.99.  The fine print also reads “for 12 mos”.  The print is so fine that I can’t even determine if there is an abbreviation period after “mos”.

Well, the really fine print with all the conditions includes: “To reduce Charter direct mail, visit charter.com/dmoptout.”

I filled out the form without concern because it did not ask for any information that Charter didn’t already have, that is my name and address.  It didn’t even ask why I wanted to drop out.  Charter probably doesn’t want to read what I wrote above.

But maybe thousands of us could make a difference.  If you think so, please pass on the link to this blog entry.  If you pass the link to this entry, I'll see how well the campaign worked. Thanks!

Good service news

Geek Squad sent me email the other day with a link to a status page for the repair of the laptop that I spilled coffee on.  I saw that it was shipped on Saturday.  Today I saw from the UPS tracking number that it had been delivered to a loading dock in Kentucky this morning at about 8:30.  Later the status page said it had been received at 10:57

I think there may be a discrepancy between the UPS time and the Geek Squad time.  The first is using local time and the latter is using customer's time.

Anyhow, as the afternoon progressed, the messages were needed a part at 1:42, part in stock at 1:43, and work completed at 3:16.  I supposed I'll get a status tomorrow that it was shipped, and I will probably be able to pick it up Friday, maybe Saturday.

This incident has sold me on comprehensive coverage for more expensive items.  I don't know what the repair would have cost me without the coverage.  And as I get older and more clumsy, this kind of coverage seems like a very good idea.

Insecure corporations

Ring! Ring!

Hello!

This is XYZ Corporation.  Would you like to take a survey about your recent experience with us?

No, thank you! Click!

Bing!  You have email!

Please take a moment to answer a few questions about your recent visit to our site.

Delete!

Do you have enough fingers to count the surveys you've been asked to take in the last month?  Maybe even the last week?

Your car repair garage wants to know what you thought after you had an oil change.  If you are regular customer, isn't that enough?

After you report a problem to Netflix, the truly friendly folks want you to hang on for a brief survey.  After you told them how helpful and friendly they were!

You visit a doctor for a preliminary visit before some minor surgery.  The clinic calls you to ask if you would take a brief survey about your visit.  Can't the clinic wait until after the post-op visit?  Even then, I'll tell the doctor whether I was pleased or not.

The big, bureaucratic insurance company I've been using for several years mailed me a survey about its service.  I just answered everything in the middle and sent it back.

It seems like the large corporations measure everything and know the value of nothing.

Apple stores – efficiency over effectiveness?

CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer "were of the opinion that the stores didn’t generate enough revenues to justify their operating expenses."
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/is-apples-retail-model-set-to-change-forever.html/
"Are Apple employees worried about their jobs?" , Aabha Rathee, Wall St. Cheat St., 2012-09-03

Is anybody really looking at the side effects of the stores even existing?  How many sales are there online because customers know they can go to an Apple Store for more direct help than online?

For example, if I buy a Macintosh online, buy an Apple Care contract, and something goes wrong, can I get timely help online.  Well, I bought one Mac from a local dealer, but took it to an Apple Store because of a problem.  The techie looked at it, gave me a quick fix, checked the battery, and replaced the battery at no charge.  Messrs. Cook and Browett, how many times are similar stories are there like this.  If Apple provides superior technical assistance, how do you measure the benefit to increased sales?  Apple customers pay a premium for superior service.  If you reduce that service, why should customers pay that premium?

It's like an auto dealer cuts back on the number of mechanics because they are not generating enough revenue.  Why aren't they generating enough revenue?  A very large portion of the dealer's customers have bought long-term service contracts; therefore, they pay little or nothing when they bring their cars in.  If the dealer's customers have to wait a long time for pre-paid service, are they going to be so willing to buy their next cars from the same dealer?

You can't run a business as a series of silos with no relation to all the other silos.  A business is more like a chain of gears.  You take one gear out and everything stops.