As part of a $3 million settlement, AOL has agreed to change their cancellation policy. See today's Wall Street Journal for the details.
This is like déjà-vu, all over again.
AOL, who pioneered aggressive cancellation “sales,” has been lambasted for this process for years. For those unaware (I envy you), this process is one where AOL trains their customer service reps to sell you on not cancelling. This customer-retention practice is unscrupulous and involves all kinds of tricks and techniques. This practice includes putting the callers on hold for over 10 minutes (hoping they will hang up without cancelling); restating the question of why do you want to cancel five different ways until you are so frustrated you shout obscenities and then they can justifiably hang up (before you can cancel, of course); and my favorite, the False Acknowledgement, "Okay, Mr. Kellick, we will discontinue your service," only to bill you again next month and the next and so on.
This was supposed to be stopped in 2000. AOL had a ton of bad press after failing to cancel the subscription of a federal judge in DC (nice one), but alas the practice continued and was copied by other companies (see Vonage posts).
We shall see, hopefully AOL gets the message this time, but I'll believe it when I see it.
Showing posts with label Wall Street Journal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wall Street Journal. Show all posts
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Monday, January 8, 2007
The Blogosphere, RSS, and the Wall Street Journal
I need to say “Thank you” to my local paper delivery service for not being able to deliver the Wall Street Journal. I have been a WSJ subscriber for years and I still believe the Journal is the best source for unbiased and critical reporting of today’s top issues. However, upon moving about a year ago, I was dismayed to find out that even though I have moved to the fastest growing county in Virginia, I could not receive morning delivery of the Journal. Instead, I would have to wait until the postal mail came sometime after lunch to get the news that I needed to keep on top of the day. Obviously, short of starting my own paper-route there was nothing I could do that would allow me to keep my routine of reading the top stories with my morning java, or was there? Along with my print subscription to the Journal, I also signed up for an online version that I could read 24/7 (as the news broke). Of course, I set my homepage (or actually one of my home "tabs" using IE 7.0) to this link and I was back in business.
Now by starting my cyber-routine at “coffee-time,” I can not only browse the Journal article I want, but I can scan my RSS feeds and keep up on the blogs that are of interest to me. That’s the difference in today’s online media versus the old days of 2002-03. Today we are much more aware of targeted media outlets like blogs or RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds that allow us to digest more relevant information and not wade through the cosmetic crap that fills up the AOL or MSN homepages.
Most of the readers on this page have probably figured out how to use RSS or scan blogs, but for those unlucky few who came across my musings by happenstance, I have listed a couple of tips that may help you consolidate your morning routine and ensure you have the information that is important to you.
First, get yourself a good mail program and/or browser. As a “Microsoft” guy, I use Outlook 2007 and IE 7.0, but you can use Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird as a ready alternative. The key is to have the ability to integrate RSS feeds into your mail or favorite websites section. There are specific RSS Readers that are great for this ,too. With a little preparation, you can open your program of choice and, voila, have the news feeds you care about. They may be from the Journal, Department of Homeland Security, or possibly Bob the Builder. Whatever it is that you are looking for, if it was posted, written about, or captured on video while you slept, it will be ready for you first thing in the morning. Personally, I like the integration with Outlook 2007 and IE 7.0. When I subscribe to a feed using the RSS button in IE 7.0, it automatically adds the feed to Outlook. Then any time a new feed is written, it comes into my mailbox like email messages. I can scan the subject line and determine its relevance before I engage the story itself.
But how do you find what you are looking for? Well, fortunately most traditional news outlets use RSS today, and most have topical RSS feeds (such as Tech Journal or Washington Wire). Also, a lot of today’s companies are instituting RSS feeds or blogs to discuss topics relevant to their development. If you want information from a supplier or vendor and want to be alerted of a change, a blog subscription or RSS feed is a great way to stay on top of it (i.e. Suite-Soft Blogs). Finally, there are several engines devoted to sorting out relevant blogs. My favorite is Technorati (http://www.technorati.com/). Blogs are a great way of communicating with other like-minded thinkers out there. Some great blog topics for businesses deal with tax strategies, corporate policy, and, of course, a plethora of sites on programming.
By the way, look for the RSS Gadget in the Microsoft Windows Vista™ Operating System. It is nice to have a feed for RSS always on the desktop. I am sure there is a “Widget” available for you Mac guys as well. Finally, I have a friend who lives by the phrase “Cash is King,” but I am repeatedly thinking to myself, “Information is King,” and the blogosphere is becoming a great place to find it.
Now by starting my cyber-routine at “coffee-time,” I can not only browse the Journal article I want, but I can scan my RSS feeds and keep up on the blogs that are of interest to me. That’s the difference in today’s online media versus the old days of 2002-03. Today we are much more aware of targeted media outlets like blogs or RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds that allow us to digest more relevant information and not wade through the cosmetic crap that fills up the AOL or MSN homepages.
Most of the readers on this page have probably figured out how to use RSS or scan blogs, but for those unlucky few who came across my musings by happenstance, I have listed a couple of tips that may help you consolidate your morning routine and ensure you have the information that is important to you.
First, get yourself a good mail program and/or browser. As a “Microsoft” guy, I use Outlook 2007 and IE 7.0, but you can use Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird as a ready alternative. The key is to have the ability to integrate RSS feeds into your mail or favorite websites section. There are specific RSS Readers that are great for this ,too. With a little preparation, you can open your program of choice and, voila, have the news feeds you care about. They may be from the Journal, Department of Homeland Security, or possibly Bob the Builder. Whatever it is that you are looking for, if it was posted, written about, or captured on video while you slept, it will be ready for you first thing in the morning. Personally, I like the integration with Outlook 2007 and IE 7.0. When I subscribe to a feed using the RSS button in IE 7.0, it automatically adds the feed to Outlook. Then any time a new feed is written, it comes into my mailbox like email messages. I can scan the subject line and determine its relevance before I engage the story itself.
But how do you find what you are looking for? Well, fortunately most traditional news outlets use RSS today, and most have topical RSS feeds (such as Tech Journal or Washington Wire). Also, a lot of today’s companies are instituting RSS feeds or blogs to discuss topics relevant to their development. If you want information from a supplier or vendor and want to be alerted of a change, a blog subscription or RSS feed is a great way to stay on top of it (i.e. Suite-Soft Blogs). Finally, there are several engines devoted to sorting out relevant blogs. My favorite is Technorati (http://www.technorati.com/). Blogs are a great way of communicating with other like-minded thinkers out there. Some great blog topics for businesses deal with tax strategies, corporate policy, and, of course, a plethora of sites on programming.
By the way, look for the RSS Gadget in the Microsoft Windows Vista™ Operating System. It is nice to have a feed for RSS always on the desktop. I am sure there is a “Widget” available for you Mac guys as well. Finally, I have a friend who lives by the phrase “Cash is King,” but I am repeatedly thinking to myself, “Information is King,” and the blogosphere is becoming a great place to find it.
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
“Constitutional Crisis”, Defended
Happy New Year!!! 2007 is already shaping up as a banner year. Well, that is for you fellow Penn State, USC, Auburn, Boise State or Wisconsin fans out there.
Let us begin 2007 with a nod to Chief Justice John Roberts’ new report on judicial pay. For those of you unaware, here here is a link to a “biased” report from today’s WSJ blog.
Let me preface my opinion by saying that I was fortunate enough to attend a breakfast seminar last month with Associate Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and heard a parallel lecture by the former lawyer and law professor, followed by a thoughtful defense and somewhat worrisome forecast that is thoroughly neglected in the linked blog.
To sum the report by the Chief Justice, there is a need for pay increases in the judicial branch in order to compete for the best and brightest legal minds. The objective is to recruit thoughtful professionals to sit on the bench and give us an unbiased approach in the duties of legal interpretation.
Even though there are obvious opinions levied in the WSJ piece, I highly doubt Mr. Roberts’ report was created out of greed. In fact, I would argue that the Chief Justice is financially “okay” and far from needing a handout. Therefore, rather than selfish motivations, Mr. Roberts is illustrating effective corporate forecasting. He understands the marketplace trends and is presenting a logical approach to correct market imbalances. Mr. Roberts does not use personal citations in his report; nor is it an indictment on existing judges and their ability to perform. It is, rather, a thoughtful social exercise that assumes trends based on capital market philosophies. In order to assume the best interpretation of law is being made, we would want the best legal minds responsible to issue those interpretations. In our capitalistic society, compensation is a barometer for achievement, and while the argument is not to compete entirely to scale with private sector firms, there should be some attempts to correct the gross imbalance and make the honor of Judge a notable achievement again.
Currently, salaries for District Judges are fractionally higher than those of other state legal positions such as associate attorneys at the state and local levels, but significantly lower than counterparts from the private sector. Again, I do not (and neither do Justices Roberts or Scalia) advocate matching salaries, but at least increase the pay to allow for some of these legal minds to entertain the possibility of serving on the bench without the penalty of departure from their current lifestyle.
The fear here is that we are encouraging the process of promoting a prosecutor whose only career experience is that of a state employee to become a judge whose job it is to mediate cases directed against the state. To me, that sounds a little too socialistic for my tastes. As a business owner, I want my judges to have a firm understanding of the private sector and what it means to defend us from the oft-times overbearing nature of government. Of course, if you don’t believe Justice Roberts or Scalia and want to view a case study of this process yourself, simply analyze corporate law in the European Union.
Let us begin 2007 with a nod to Chief Justice John Roberts’ new report on judicial pay. For those of you unaware, here here is a link to a “biased” report from today’s WSJ blog.
Let me preface my opinion by saying that I was fortunate enough to attend a breakfast seminar last month with Associate Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and heard a parallel lecture by the former lawyer and law professor, followed by a thoughtful defense and somewhat worrisome forecast that is thoroughly neglected in the linked blog.
To sum the report by the Chief Justice, there is a need for pay increases in the judicial branch in order to compete for the best and brightest legal minds. The objective is to recruit thoughtful professionals to sit on the bench and give us an unbiased approach in the duties of legal interpretation.
Even though there are obvious opinions levied in the WSJ piece, I highly doubt Mr. Roberts’ report was created out of greed. In fact, I would argue that the Chief Justice is financially “okay” and far from needing a handout. Therefore, rather than selfish motivations, Mr. Roberts is illustrating effective corporate forecasting. He understands the marketplace trends and is presenting a logical approach to correct market imbalances. Mr. Roberts does not use personal citations in his report; nor is it an indictment on existing judges and their ability to perform. It is, rather, a thoughtful social exercise that assumes trends based on capital market philosophies. In order to assume the best interpretation of law is being made, we would want the best legal minds responsible to issue those interpretations. In our capitalistic society, compensation is a barometer for achievement, and while the argument is not to compete entirely to scale with private sector firms, there should be some attempts to correct the gross imbalance and make the honor of Judge a notable achievement again.
Currently, salaries for District Judges are fractionally higher than those of other state legal positions such as associate attorneys at the state and local levels, but significantly lower than counterparts from the private sector. Again, I do not (and neither do Justices Roberts or Scalia) advocate matching salaries, but at least increase the pay to allow for some of these legal minds to entertain the possibility of serving on the bench without the penalty of departure from their current lifestyle.
The fear here is that we are encouraging the process of promoting a prosecutor whose only career experience is that of a state employee to become a judge whose job it is to mediate cases directed against the state. To me, that sounds a little too socialistic for my tastes. As a business owner, I want my judges to have a firm understanding of the private sector and what it means to defend us from the oft-times overbearing nature of government. Of course, if you don’t believe Justice Roberts or Scalia and want to view a case study of this process yourself, simply analyze corporate law in the European Union.
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