Primo Customer Service

In the past I have been known to write about customer service that was lacking… But this time I have to share some customer service that just left me speechless….

Natalie and I decided to do our own lawn fertilizer and weed control this year…. and yes by “we” I really mean me.  I just couldn’t pony up the $200 for someone to walk my lawn… I already owned the sprayer and spreader so we made the decision to go back to our own lawn care.

I purchased Scotts Weed-Be-Gone and Scotts Turf Builder Plus Weed Control and applied them as directly six weeks apart but still had some weeds growing… annoying.

So I called the customer service number and got a delightful representative who was very willing to listen to my concerns…

I know some of you might find it hard to believe, but I hadn’t called with the intention to get anything free or replaced… I just wanted to make sure that I was applying the products correctly and to see how soon I could re-apply the products.

So while we chatted the customer service representative assured me that I had read the instructions and followed them correctly and then says, “I am processing your refund check for both products, where should I send the refund”… I was speechless…. I had no anticipation of a refund, but Scotts was willing to stand behind the product they would send me a check even without sending a proof of purchase, just because I had to call and the product hadn’t performed as expected!

WOW an A+ to Scotts for Customer Service!  There is no wondering if I’ll switch brands next time I shop for Lawn Care products!  Kudos for good Customer Service… the Art of Caring about customers isn’t dead!

Why didn’t i think of this

So this weekend I was watching some tastily programming on the food network and I saw a little dive in Minneapolis making burgers with Cheddar-Jack cheese… which is fine except they put the cheese inside the burger then cook it… The result a gooey cheesy burger… I had to try.

My first attempt turned out much better than I anticipated. So with this Idea being so simple but good I had to try it and take photos.

Prepping the Burgers stuffing the cheese

The Cheesy Burger on The Grill

The Cheese Oozing out of the Burger

Tastes Better than I expected!

It says it all

Living in a state that has been heralded as one of the most corrupt state governments (giving New Jersey) a run for its money, I have become annoyed by our politicians antics… well as you know our "Beloved" Rod Blago is now our former governor since he was removed from office by our state senate last week. 

A Chicago based retailer expressed their frustration in a recent ad and thought it was worth sharing.

Outages are Annoying

So today I was quickly reminded why we schedule planned outages for maintenance and how annoying unplanned outages are for end users.  Typically we are so busy scrambling to fix the problem we don’t think about how it feels to the end users when systems are down.

This year I am trying TurboTax.com to help navigate our Tax filings… I started using the tool online on Saturday morning and have gotten thru most of our filing… The “wizard” like tool even navigates charitable giving and a housing allowance…

The price for the Online tool is cheaper than downloading the software and since I don’t need to e-file more than once the online version worked.   Until today.  I had the  morning off and thought I would finish up our taxes until I was presented with this lovely little greeting….

At least they have a nice pretty graphic to put up when things go down… Hopefully it won’t die too many more times before April 15.

Winter in the Midwest

While its no secret I really enjoy winter… especially the snow.  Its not that I dislike summer (because you sure can’t go water skiing today), but I really do enjoy the changing seasons. 

Today though I am starting to rethink my love of winter… maybe its not love but a favorable association…. especially when you start to see numbers like these on the little weather station in the house and thermometer in the car.

I decided to let my car run a little this morning since the .6 mile commute doesn’t exactly get the engine warm and this is the temperature I was greeted with when I was ready to drive to work.

Its crazy to see that 2° above just 12 hours before seemed like a heat wave… especially when the high today is suppose to get to a blistering -2°

And finally a nice winter sun rise..

Not your normal Workers Comp Claim

Most of our staff went white water rafting about 10 days ago for our staff retreat and had a great trip on the Gully River in West Virginia.  Some of us did the whole 26 mile marathon including 6 class V rapids… what a awesome way hang out in nature!

But now some of us have been noticing we have little red bumps on our arms and legs…. It drove one of our staff members so crazy he had been calling the exterminator and treating his home for fleas. 

Today 3 of us figured out we all had the same thing and started to draw the conclusion that it was from our trip.  After comparing our red bumps we all figured out that we all had the same thing. 

Several went to the doctor and found out that its an allergic reaction to the river water… or some sort of bug bites.

So when white water rafting, watch out for the little critters or you might be enjoying the company of your fellow staff at prompt care.  Note to self… Your student ministry staff is only the best choice of guys to go to the Prompt Care with if you are willing to be rolling on the floor laughing… thanks for a great experience Chris.

Something you don’t see every day.

Tonight Natalie and I were heading out of the house to walk the dog and we noticed all our neighbors looking across the street from our subdivision.  I walked over to see what was going on and saw an orange single engine prop plane landing in the corn fields across the street from our house.  My neighbor Dave said the engine was sputtering and then cut out above our houses and the pilot turned the now gliding plane and landed in the corn fields.  So of course we had a new destination for our walk so we could snap a photo. (I had the phone on small photo size and didn’t realize until I got home.. so you just have to squint )

And we all thought that land option was for an elementary schooI… I didn’t know Dunlap, IL had a possible option for an ‘airstrip’… You learn something new all the time.

Did you know….

I have been receiving a bunch of those marketing calls lately… the kind that they can’t pronounce your name, your church name or don’t know “the person in the organization that makes technical decisions”.  I normally tell the caller we aren’t interested nor do we give out information about our network configuration or our recent purchasing history… Bottom line if our vendors want to know what I (or my staff think) they will contact us directly or read our blogs.

But.. for a random reason I entertained a recent callers request… This call was to ask about our recent changes in service with our Comcast services (see my post ‘more bandwidth for le$$‘).  The caller was asking what we thought about the value for the money, the service offered, the installers etc… then he asked what value do we place on the Microsoft Exchange, OWA and SharePoint Server services provided at no charge to Comcast Business customers.  I responded that the value was 0 since I didn’t know about the offering…

I quickly emailed our friend Lucy at Comcast and asked what this was about.  She sent me a

PDF

with the details that they offer Exchange Server and SharePoint Server as free offerings to customers… Not a really needed solution for us… but a good ‘did you know’.

Quote of the Day

I have been a little behind keeping up with my ‘the Office’ Desk Calendar… I just read the quote for Easter and thought it was worth sharing.

“Don’t be fooled by the term “dust bunnies”.  They aren’t cuddley… they are vicious and if they get into your disk drives, my goodness, they can bring your computer to its knees. They live their whole lives in corners hatching, defecating and laying eggs.
- Dwight

Talk like Yoda day, May 21st is.

Today is May 21st which is Speak like Yoda day. 

Ask, is the force with you I must?

Like our favorite Jedi Master, can you speak?

In the #citrt channel today join us talking.

For talk like yoda 2009 mark your calendars.