Of Course Jon Has Something to Say – Twitter’s Purpose (to me)

Twitter is this and that and can make the world change and blah blah blah. Well I did not know too much about Twitter a few months ago and now I think I found the best use. As a core member of the team that put on another successful Angel Capital Summit, I learned a lot about Twitter due to the amount of use by team members. Those of you that know Linda Hughes know that she is a Twithlete. Linda can get the word out, over, in, and around anything you need. I don’t have a huge following and that is partly user error. I was given the opportunity to learn more and I stopped being a good student as I became busier with other aspects of my role.

FYI, I love this movie and the guy dancing around in the background in a bunch of scenes reminds me of Mr. Paul… my high school accounting teacher.  

Collaboration again…

I retweeted a number of different tweets from people like @iempoweru, @intlentreprenr @LynnKoves @blkdogstategic and many others. There are a lot of people with a lot to say and that leave everyone reading and writing and so on… The point is that Twitter is another means to an end for communicating and should in no way replace anything. It is actually a nice enhancement, sort of like a turbo. Punch it if you need to and a well build machine can produce a nice spike in traffic. So that’s me on Twitter marketing.

The point… Sometime it takes me so long

Twitter is an amazing customer service tool, both on the consumer and industry side. My issues with Sony gave me a great case study on Twitter and the new consumer power. I did not sit down and accept the rules put into place by the manufacturer since they are not fair to the consumer. I do not want to go into the details and you can feel free to read all about it in earlier posts. The reason for the blog is the great response and resolution that occurred once the right people had their feathers ruffled. I owe this to Twitter because once I diplomatically tweeted about my disappointment, @SonyListens responded. When they over promised, which probably would not have been a problem if I was not already ticked off with the handling of the situation, it might have been different. They do not like bad press and Twitter is apparently press these days.

There you go…

Twitter is part of the new press, Have good customer service because people will talk and as they say… The lunatics are taking over the asylum. The press is no longer the press and even the so-called legitimate news channels and programs include some sort of Twitter segment. Jimmy Fallon does a good one and CNN does an interesting job of telling people what the tweeters at home are saying… PRESS.

Thank you Sony – The Changing of the Pancake (twitter works)

 

Sony has done what they needed to turn the sad pancake happy

The Result… 

Sony is sending a box and I am giving them back the old computer. Sony will then send me a new computer that is the updated model of my current unit. This is all I wanted and unfortunately it was an uphill battle, however, the battle is obviously worth it since I will be made whole as a result of the effort.

Thank you for the response and the final decision once I started dealing with the right people. Also, thank you to those that read my rants, supported the cause, and respect the customer service process.

Maybe I Missed my Calling, or is it Who I am

Alright, first on the agenda is a thank you to everyone that has endured my ranting about Sony and still reads my blog. I am hoping that we are near the end of the who situation and I it might be because of my superior computer testing skills. Well that is just a tad over the top of being moderately extreme but it is sort of true. I have problems with this computer and it is crazy but true. When at the local coffee joint with free WiFi the problem is not there but that is due to lower expectations of the internet speed. Well at long last I have come up with a reproducible problem that has to mean something to some one that fixes computers.

Check Out this Fancy Chart:

 

So There are a few things you can gather from this data so I am going to sum it up in a few bullet points:

• The Sony is faster than the Toshiba
• Upload speeds are consistent for both machines
• No difference for the VGA card on the Toshiba, it is actually faster
• Slowdown with the VGA port for the external monitor on the Sony @ ~39% of the regular speed
• Fair amount of slowdown on the Toshiba for the HDMI cable @ ~31% of the regular speed
• Major slowdown in the Sony @ ~11% of the regular speed

Well here is the calling I missed… I am not a computer programmer, developer, administrator, networker or any of that but I do know what people need from their IT equipment. This goes back to a earlier blog about Joanie and Chatchi, but that is for another time. My point is that it did not take me long with all the other stuff that I am doing to notice a major change in the internet speeds when a certain thing occurs and it happens to only one of the guinea pigs. Well maybe I should go get certified and all that other fun stuff. Or… maybe I am one of those hybrid workers they are talking about on the news. Either way I sent the information to twitters @sonylistens since Sarah claims she can help. Again I am not that well versed in computers from the inside so if anyone want to share with me the possibilities of the above chart pointing to an issue… feel free.

I don’t mean to call anyone out but Chris Roberts or Ryan Korkie or someone… give me some insight.

Thanks, and I hope we are near the end of this ride. Feel free to sign my petition, it’s fun and exciting and it will make you feel good, http://wp.me/pGawQ-mQ. The picture is of the paper Sony sent back saying there are no issues. Funny, I found the video card/external monitor thing so what now…

More Wags of the Finger at Sony

 

I found this service due to the lack of customer service I am receiving at Sony for my Vaio laptop. Three hard drives and two mother boards within 10 months. To top it off the machine was sent back to the Geek Squad from Sony’s San Diego facility with the notes… No Problems Found, Everything Works ok Tested Overnight. When we started it up at the Geek Squad the hard drive light was pegged and the machine got hung up. I don’t think they even looked at it.

Please sign this petition!

Either Click the Picture or Click below… Just Please Click!

http://www.groubal.com/sony-vaio-nightmare/

Of Course Jon Has Something to Say – Sony… Wag of the Finger

I have calmed down a bit but not to the point I want to be due to an ongoing issue with my Sony Vaio laptop. Let me being by saying that I have had great experiences with Sony product, the TVs look great, my original Sony desktop is still running after 7 years, and my wife has a nice laptop. I understand when things go wrong and appreciate the service that a company with integrity provides. I am disappointed more than anything else.

What does a computer company considered worthy of replacement and at what cost?

There is some formula that all large computer companies must follow because they all seem to run the same way, which is mail, fix, mail, fix, mail, fix. Some models throw in some onsite support and all of them require a phone commitment of at least an hour to get anywhere. I worked at a company that has a regular Dell guy come in and replace motherboards like other change their pants. Every day I would see the same person and it made me start to wonder about efficiency. I don’t know the answer, I just see and what I see is a lot of running around to save equipment that has failed. It sure seems to me that the man power, postage/Fedex etc. fees, and loss of productivity combines to an astronomical number and it might be something to audit.

What good is refurbished?

 The first refurbished item I ever received was a Palm Pilot and it was broken again within six months. I have had various items that are factory refurbished and they unfortunately did not keep well. I have a theory that electronics are either built right or built wrong. It is possible that there are flukes that I am the only one with this problem and factory refurbished is beneficial to the consumer but I have not been convinced. It electronics fail, they are likely going to fail again from my experience. 

Why am I so disappointed? 

It all started with a slow down, then a solid hard drive light and then poof. I was about to go away on a vacation and as a consultant, I need accessibility to keep in touch with clients. This was the beach trip this summer and we decided to take a three-week trip back east, half at the beach and the other part in Baltimore. The computer was not fixed by Sony because they sent the wrong part, a motherboard instead of hard drive. I then had the Geek Squad (thanks RJ in Park Meadows) hook me up with some super-fast service that was billed through the Sony warranty. Great… humming right along right…

After the trip the computer started slowing down again. That light was pegged again and luckily I received the package from Sony with the new hard drive and recovery discs. Granted it was about three weeks late, I had it just in time to rebuild again. This time I had some help from Chris Roberts, who I have mentioned on other blogs as the hacker extraordinaire. Rebuilt and humming along again right… no wrong. The computer lasted a while running slow and I thought maybe I rebuilt it funny. After rebuilding and recovering everything from the backup, I started the laptop up today and the light was back. Glaring at me laughing and it made me mad.

What now… How can this be?

In an attempt to do the best thing possible I went to see RJ at the Geek Squad again. He was very helpful in telling me that there appears to be a bad SATA adapter on my motherboard eating my hard drives. This seemed to make sense except the mother board was changed between the first and second hard drive. Call me crazy, I just think there might be more to it, maybe something wigging out my mother board. Well, I called Sony and they are willing to send me a box so they can take a better look at the machine at their facility in San Diego. Unacceptable on the fourth piece of equipment to fail so I am now typing this on a loaner Toshiba and RJ sent the computer back through the Geek Squad.

My prediction… I get the computer back, something refurbished is now running the show, the computer fails again, I get another loaner, rinse repeat. I am not sure how long this will go on, I just know how I feel about Sony and their customer service. This might seem like an angry post but it is not. I am simply pointing out inefficiencies in a system and the customer service breakdown that has turned me off to Sony. Best Buy saved the day by allowing me to take a new computer and use it until I either receive mine back, or Sony decides to junk the bad seed. I have a feeling I am going to have a spare computer that goes into the shop a lot and it will haunt me until the bitter end.

Sony… You get the Sad Pancake