rectangular milk jugs

We’ve eliminated 11,000 delivery trips to Sam’s Club by moving to this jug. The one big challenge has been that it’s different to pour. If you tip it and put it into the glass, it works fine, but if you pick it up and pour it like the old jug, you’ll miss. So we’ve had a lot of people crying over spilled milk.  — Sam’s Club CEO Doug McMillon

putting two and two together

After explaining the necessity of the $700 billion economic rescue plan, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson goes on to say, “I wouldn’t bet against the long-term fundamentals of this country,” he said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “But this is a humbling experience to see so much fragility in our capital markets, and ask how did we ever get here.”

May I propose a suggestion?

actions that speak louder than words

Does this resemble the actions of someone who has nothing to hide: Palin allies sue to halt trooper probe.

The truth of Troopergate will certainly be made public. Sarah’s supporters are hoping it be can be suppressed long enough to get her elected. I wish integrity mattered more to Americans. I’d love to hear Sarah apologize for abusing her power to meddle where wise counsel advised her she ought not meddle. I’d love to see Sarah honor the pledge she made to cooperate with the investigation. 

Now that she’s a VP candidate, the investigation she was to cooperate with is now a “witch-hunt.” We have learned that she has been systemically using personal email for official government use. How can we assume this was anything but a deliberate effort to skirt federal laws requiring the archival of government communications? This is every bit as bad as Bush’s “loss” of emails.

America, are you sure you want this woman one beating heart away from the office of President?

Great Products #2

I have recently read two books, both of which should be read by every American voter, especially during an election year. The books are very complementary. I suggest starting with Basic Economics, A Citizens Guide To The Economy. Basic Economics contains the most fascinating and salient points of The Wealth of Nations, which is often referred to as Economics 101. Wealth of Nations is a great book but it is not easy to read and you need to be an economist to fully appreciate it. Basic Economics contains the same great economic information but presented in layman terms. Because is it very modern, the case examples are within recent memory and that makes the economic lessons resonate. You can see a preview of the book on Google Books.

My second recommendation is China, Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World by Ted Fischer. After reading Basic Economics, China’s rise as an industrial giant makes perfect economic sense. If you expect to be in the workforce for the next decade or three, you really should read this book. Or one like it. Amazon.com reviewers also like China Shakes the World: A Titan’s Rise and Troubled Future — and the Challenge for America.

Great Products #1

Today I replaced the brake shoes on my commuting bike. After 350 miles, I had noticed that the OEM pads performed poorly and squeaked and chattered when wet. Worse, while changing a tire I noticed gouges in my rims (see photo). Notice the shininess of the old pads. That shine is metal bits of my rim that the cheap pads ground off with dirt and road debris. While that might tempt some to pony up for disc brakes (thief magnets) but I had a better idea.

1089

Ten years ago I purchased a set of Kool Stop brake pads for my Mt. Bike. I’m not sure how many thousands miles I’ve rode them but they are fantastic pads. They brake wonderfully in all weather conditions including grainy Michigan dirt, urban road grime in Georgia and Washington, and slippery Texas clay. Part of why they brake so well is that they clean the rim instead of grinding in debris. After buying them, I never gave another moments thought to braking problems.

Until I got my commuter. I had looked for Kool Stop pads at two of the Local Bike Shops and neither carried them. I had considered taking the pads off my Mt. Bike. But then it would be lacking a set of decent pads. I did a quick internet search and ordered them off Amazon.com. I’m almost disappointed there will be no rain for tomorrows ride.

e-delivery of invoices

While I’m ranting about business practices stuck in the 20th century, there is a simple reason I frequently decline online delivery of statements. What assurance do I have that after I terminate my account, I will still have access to my account records?

If you want me to sign up for e-delivery, give me some assurance that my records will remain online and accessible for a reasonable period of time. Regardless of the status of my account with you. In other words, match the functionality of paper statements.

If I cancel my account with you, my paper records don’t self-destruct. If you want me sign up for e-delivery, implement and publish your document retention policy that is client friendly and aligns with IRS guidelines. If I have an account with you and cancel it, my account history must remain accessible to me for at least 3 years. 

Considering the cost of printing and mailing statements versus the incredibly cheap cost of storing electronic records, this seems like a no-brainer.

Here are a few more suggestions for a good implementation:

 • Provide a simple method for downloading multiple statements. Quite often I don’t care at all about my statements until the end of the year when I want to download all of them. Selecting a period, clicking download, renaming the statement, and repeating a dozen times is tedious.
 • Give the downloaded files a name useful to humans. Filenames like 82383423546602382_08-08.pdf are not  human friendly.
 • Prefix filenames with a date nomenclature like: YYYY_MM or YYYY_q1. That way, when I’m looking at a folder with several years worth of statements, they are sorted properly.
 • If I cancelled my account with you N years ago and you’re about to expunge my records, make a good faith attempt to inform me prior to that event.

Dear Sam’s Club

Dearest Sam’s Club Business Credit,

Thank you for the kind letter. I feel inclined to reply telling you why I have ended our relationship. For about 12 years, we had a pleasant relationship. It worked like this:

a) I shop at my local Sam’s Club
b) I pay with my Sam’s Club Business Credit (SCBC)
c) you send me a bill
d) I pay it.

It’s a pretty good system.

Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but about 3 years ago I drastically reduced the use of my SCBC account. You may have also noticed there was no decrease in my purchases at Sam’s Club. Something compelled me to get a MasterCard and use it instead. Read on to learn why. 

In 2005 we moved from Michigan to Texas. One of my moving checklists is a list of all my personal and corporate accounts with utilities, banks, investments, credit cards, etc. On move day, which is already quite busy, I file a USPS change of address to forward mail and then log onto a bunch of web sites to update our postal address.

Everyone I do business with allows me to log on their web site and change my postal address. Yes, this includes business accounts with banks and credit cards. It is very convenient. If I forget anything important, it gets forwarded to me.

It’s a good system with one exception. One company requires that I submit a fax with my change of address request. I cannot update it on their web site. I cannot send an email. I cannot update it at a local store bearing their name. This company also stamps their statement envelopes with “DO NOT FORWARD,” so that they won’t follow me to my new locale. After the 2005 move, months went by before I was contacted by a nasty person who chided me for not paying the bill I didn’t get.

The nasty person was from GE Capital calling about my SCBC. I asked the nasty person why they don’t allow my statements to be forwarded. She told me it’s so that they can get my new address from the USPS and update their systems. Apparently several months of statements being returned wasn’t sufficient to warrant an update.

During the months of no statements, I had visited Sam’s Club stores and was never notified of the outstanding balance. I get regular promotional emails from Sam’s Club but no notification of the outstanding balance. After that unpleasant experience, I all but stopped using my SCBC. Don’t take my word for it, check my (now cancelled) account history.

Fast forward to 2008. It’s been several years of barely using my SCBC account. We’re talking 2-3 statements per year, one of which is because you automatically charge my business membership to the account. In May we moved from Texas to Washington and you’ll never believe what happened. (Hint: back up 4 paragraphs)

This time around, I asked the GE rep to cancel my account. I appreciate the letter of regret you sent but I do not believe you are sorry I’ve cancelled. If you really cared about my business:

• you would make it easy for me to manage my account information.
• my account would still be accessible so I can see my statement history, particularly the ones I’ve never seen.
• you would have updated my address and resend the statement, like my Credit Union did. In the first month.
• you’d have noticed that for the last three months, I’ve been shopping in Washington and am on Pacific time. You could have avoided waking me.

Bonus points are awarded for adding a notification feature that sends me an email or text message N days before it is due like American Express does. Shucks, ANY updates to your web site after a decade of stagnation would be welcome.

Goodbye SCBC.
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