Order Difficulty

So, I just tried to order a laptop from Dell. I called one of the numbers listed in a previous quote they emailed me. After dealing with the automated line, a women answered and explained that I have a dedicated rep (I am that special you know), and that I would have to call him. I was surprised that I was not transferred, or that she did not ask if I would like to have them call me back. So I called the number she gave me and got a voice mail. So now I wonder if I should not take this time between me wanting to place an order and actually being able to place the order to do more research on other vendors products?

Update:

I just got an email from my "personal account representative" (the email lists him as a Relationship Sales Advisor) at Dell. He says he tried to call me, however, I have no voice mail and the receptionist did not have any incoming calls for me in the past 20 minutes (a nice little break!). The email subject line was "please call" and he instructed me to "please call him" and was kind enough to give me a phone number. The phone number however was not in service. I replied to the email and he called me and took the order. Now I am waiting to receive an email confirmation. We will have to see what happens next.

Update 2: So it is now the next morning and I still do not know if the order has even gone through. I was lucky enough to receive an email advertisement from Dell offering to sell me....a laptop.

Update 3: Two hours have passed since I left a voice mail at the original phone number I had. I have not received a call back or an email confirming the order. So is there a laptop on the way?

Update 4: So at 5:30 they sent the confirmation, and not only did someone list the fax number as a phone number, but after three years of direct contact with me, they still have the name wrong on the account - not misspelled, but completely wrong.

Update 5: So Dell has gone to hell... I didn't bother to write how two days after confirmation we received a letter saying Dell opened a new account for our business. I also didn't mention the unbearable torture I had to go through to find out why they opened a new account. I really do not want to even begin to talk about Dell Financial Services, as they seem to be completely incompetent. So 5 days after the laptop was supposed to be here, I was asked where it was. It seems Dell has decided it was going to need 3 more weeks to get the laptop here. So I called to ask why I was not updated? The automated system hung up on me twice and so I repeatedly pressed zero until a human answered. He was nice of enough to tell me I had a "personal account rep" and then transferred me to voice mail.This is customer service at its best. I left a message and am now waiting, again. Why would anyone want to deal with Dell if this is the service they are going to receive?

Update 6: So I finally got through to Dell and they said there was a problem, but they did send the laptop by overnight delivery. I then received the letter saying they were making changes to their accounting systems. I have to give them credit for using overnight delivery and for sending the letter, but maybe they could have sent the letter, before actually changing everything over? And maybe the CSRs who answer the phones for the accountign departments could be given some more information.

Voice Mail Standards

What is the number one item we need to leave on a voice mail if we want to make sure we get a call back? I would say a phone number.

So why do so many people wait till the end to leave their callback number? Sometimes it gets cut off. Sometimes it is said so fast that we need to listen to the entire message again just to get to the phone number.

So this is my attempt to try and set a standard for leaving a voice mail message.

We should always start with the big three:

1.       Our name.

2.       Our company.

3.       Our phone number.

After those are covered we can then leave our brief message and politely ask how we would like the person to respond to us or if we will try back again another time. At that point we should repeat the “big three”, pausing after saying “…and my number is…” thus giving the recipient a moment to begin to write our phone number.

If we need to listen to the message again to capture the phone number, we do not need to listen to the entire message just for that one little piece of information.

I hope someone can utilize this suggestion to improve their communications, either leaving or receiving messages.

Change

I came across this today and thought it was very appropriate based on the current financial situation occurring around the globe.

“Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable.”

- William Pollard

Common Keyboard Shortcuts for Word

These are some standard shortcuts that can be used from the key board to perform simple tasks. I found this list at the Microsoft Office Online Training site. There is an incredible amount of information there. I am re-posting the list here for my own convenience.

SHIFT + LEFT ARROW = Left one character at a time
SHIFT + RIGHT ARROW = Right one character at a time
SHIFT + DOWN ARROW = Down one line at a time
SHIFT + UP ARROW = Up one line at a time
CTRL+ LEFT ARROW = Left one word at a time
CTRL+ RIGHT ARROW = Right one word at a time
HOME = To the beginning of the current line of text
END = To the end of the current line of text
CTRL+HOME = To the beginning of the document
CTRL+END = To the end of the document
PAGE UP = Up one full screen
PAGE DOWN = Down one full screen
CTRL+PAGE U = P To the beginning of the previous page
CTRL+PAGE DOWN = To the beginning of the next page
CTRL+O = Open
CTRL+Z = Undo
CTRL+Y = Redo
CTRL+S = Save
CTRL+P = Print
ALT+F4 = Close the active window
CTRL+B = Bold
CTRL+I = Italic
CTRL+U = Underline
CTRL+R = Align right
CTRL+E = Align center
CTRL+L = Align left
CTRL+C = Copy
CTRL+X = Cut
CTRL+V = Paste
CTRL+C+CTRL+C = Open the clipboard
CTRL+F = Find
CTRL+H = Replace
CTRL+A = Select whole document
F7 = Spell checker
SHIFT+F7 = Thesaurus
CTRL+SHIFT+S = Style box
CTRL+SHIFT+F = Font
CTRL+SHIFT+N  = Change font to Normal style

Honda video on the results of failure.

I came across this video at http://blogs.openforum.com/2009/01/25/failure-is-the-new-success/ Here is a link to the blog of Guy Kawasaki:  http://blog.guykawasaki.com/

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The First Post

Another blog....

This is not intended to become a regular item on my list of things to do, however following the theme of the rest of the site it is just a sample of who I am and the abilities I have.

I do appreciate you taking the time to read a little though.

Thanks,

Tony