Recently I’ve had the privilege of having the best customer experience I believe possible. I’ve had some pretty good experiences in the past but anymore for most companies that is something of the past. When mistakes are made it is as-if the company says “Oh well” after all we all make mistakes, the difference is I’m a paying customer. For the companies that remember that, those are the ones that I am loyal to, the others well unless I’m forced then I avoid them like (insert any anecdote that is your favorite). The “well done”, “good job” goes to Microsoft and their Microsoft Store. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve had my share of pain from MS and as a developer that uses mainly their products I’m committed to that pain. But this is not about that, I pre-ordered the new Forza4 game for my stepson but I was also looking forward to playing the game and was going to order my own copy soon. To my surprise I received an email saying that the shipping was upgraded for free to overnight. Thinking this is great, I get to play...

Are you going to be shopping for a new phone? A new one to seriously consider is the WP7 (Windows Phone 7) from Microsoft. I’ve had mine now for a couple of weeks so I’ll give my review. There are a few different hardware choices out there so I won’t really say much on that, Microsoft has done a really good job in enforcing a set of minimum requirements so it really comes down to personal preference like if you want a physical keyboard, how much memory, how big the screen is, etc. Here is what I have found for the Good, Bad and Ugly.  

The Good What I really like and what Microsoft has done really well in the implementation is the home/lock screens. The home screen is so different from anything else on the market (at least for now) and provides a great way to easily see how many text messages you have, emails, apps that have updates via push notification,...

One thing I really hate is poor customer service. The thought that a company is so big they can stop caring because in the end they will still make a boat load of money. I had my experience with SBC (who purchased and then ruined ATT) a few years back and it was an extreme nightmare. Long story short I got a secondary home number ported they switched that to be my main number to port and then lied that they didn’t make a mistake (I received scanned documents from the porting company of all paperwork issued), and couldn’t undo anything about it and in 2 weeks would have it working again, but I would have to have a new account, new email, etc. This was after telling the technician that came to my house they made a mistake and his reply was “I have my paperwork.” I have to say, however, don’t know if it is a lesson learned or they just lost enough business where they have to care again, but my recent dealings with ATT and with their customer service I have to say are among the top I’ve every had. I feel for this person’s story and implore everyone to repost this anywhere they can!

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I have a pretty diverse background when it comes to work that I have done. Part of that time was being a help desk technician and eventually working to be a technician I/II (network engineer, but more on that in a bit). I did another career change, went back to school and became a software developer.  A friend of mine got an idea for an on-line appointment application and development started on appointment2appointment.com. When software development was done for appointment2appointment.com (don’t bother looking for the url – read on) in 2004 I had went with a dedicated server from Server Beach (btw: was a great company that got acquired by peer1). Never having any sales or time to really devote to getting sales (having a full time job this was a personal venture with a friend) we had one paying customer. So the server really grew to be a test server for different projects and to run my own website and email from. But in 2009 looking to cut some cost I decided I could do this myself. Getting business Internet access,...

If you don’t have a web site not only can we help you but the sooner you get one the sooner you can stop missing out on potential customers. Personally I never use a white or yellow page phone book anymore, and haven’t for many years now. Search engines have gotten so good at collecting information that with a simple web search I can find any business I’m looking for; and as an added benefit many times I can get customer reviews of that business also. These are the businesses that I and others like me end up using. Now there is coming a new shift to the internet. With mobile devices becoming more powerful and more connected to data services the next generation looks to an ‘app for that’ over anything else. In-fact for many if they can’t get the information on their phone they won’t even try from a computer. I have been a Windows Mobile phone user for many year, but I have to be honest the applications on that have been not so good. The iPhone changed the industry and the new Windows Mobile 7 Phone looks to even top the iPhone. I will be getting one when they come out at which time I’ll do a review for the one I get, but will this change the way I get my information and stay connected? I look forward to seeing…

If you don’t have a Windows Home Server yet, when the Home Server V2 is released sometime this year get it! Windows Home Server was announced Jan. 7 2007 and is based on Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 so regardless of what you think about Microsoft, this is a solid product. I love most things Microsoft, so for me to just get one last year was way overdue – let’s face it; it is still a small investment for a computer that just sits there with no keyboard or monitor – so why is it a must?