Len Rapoport's • Don't Get Me Mad

New Review of Restaurant & Food Services Show of New York

2011-03-02T19:16:00.000-08:00

Another year and another great International Restaurant & Foodservices Show of New York.

The show was held once again at the Jacob Javits Convention Center and began on February 27th and ended on March 1, 2011. As in past reviews of this show, the industry professionals who attended had the opportunity to hear from some of the biggest and best names in the industry. They met with 550 exhibiting companies and viewed and sampled the latest cuisines and the newest equipment, restaurant and foodservice products.

A record number of industry professionals attended the shoulder to shoulder crowd that completely filled the lower levels show floor. From our view, this show was one of the most popular we have attended in years. But then again, this show pulls those in the industry from the entire East Coast and further and feeds them with tons of the best baked and cooked foods in the country.

This year we tried to seek out companies we have not featured in our four other yearly reviews and any one reading this years review is encouraged to read our past reviews to see so many other showcased companies we couldn't mention again this year. See complete review and our video and slide show at our web site.

Jet Blue Airlines causes massive chaos

2010-12-29T22:38:00.000-08:00

Jet Blue does it again. Thousands stranded at New York's JFK International Airport

December 29, 2010...Well, we thought we earned a rest, but the massive snow storm that his our area and the cancellation of flights for days caused us to cancel our plans. You can see a video we did showing how poorly Jet Blue Airlines dealt with this problem the day after the storm. Thousands of people were told to come to the airport, only to wait for many hours and then have Jet Blue cancel their flights. I spent 10 hours at the airport only to find my flight was cancelled.

You will never find me on a Jet Blue flight in the future...they simply had no idea of what they were doing and should never have even attempted to do business if they didn't have the crews or equipment to deliver on their promises. Shame on Jet Blue for knowing they were going to cancel over 50 flights for hours before they notified waiting passengers.

No compensation offered, only their 800 telephone number, which you can't get through to for days. Their should be an investigation on what went wrong and the lack of security at the airport on December 28th. This would have been an easy target for anyone looking to cause harm to American travelers that day. IPA is calling for a full investigation and hope others will do the same.

50mm Lens + DSLR=Amazing Bokeh

2010-08-07T17:51:00.000-07:00

50mm Lens + DSLR=Amazing Bokeh

Communications Director at Fancy Food Show Is In Our Hall of Shame

2010-06-11T23:11:00.000-07:00

An Open Letter From Our President

May 3, 2010....We are sad to announce that we will no longer cover the Fancy Food Show. NASFT has decided to discontinue our media access to this show because they feel "we no longer fit their strict profile of accepted media." After the many positive reviews over the years, the publication of their events on our site and the many press releases we have also published for the Fancy Food Show, they still have refused us media access to their shows.

Ms. Kramer and Mr. Tanner also failed to reply to my many requests for a valid reason for the refusal and only today, I had success in reaching Ms. Kramer on the phone. Although her explanation made little sense, she was not willing to offer any legitimate reasons for their refusal other then "our criteria has changed this year and IPA no longer meets these criteria"

IPA is recognized as the only online organization of its kind, one that builds credibility and exposure for ethical independent media professionals worldwide. Our independent staff members adhere to our strict Terms of Membership and many are employed by media outlets internationally.

If you agree that IPA should be entitled to media access to this show or if you are a member of NASFT and disagree with this decision, please let them know by emailing Louise Kramer at: lkramer@nasft.orgor Ron Tanner at: rtanner@nasft.org to register your complaint.

IPA does not accept paid advertising and covers these shows to benefit the exhibitors, NASFT, and the millions of IPA members and visitors that read our reviews of these shows each year.

We would like to thank all the NASFT members who we have met and featured in our reviews over the years. It has been a pleasure working with you and highlighting your products and our companies. I suppose it is time to say good-bye.

Len Rapoport
President - Executive Editor
International Press Association

Please see the email response below from Louise Kramer for our exception coverage of the 2009 show.

The Fancy Food Show Press Requirements

To register onsite, the following credentials are required:

Photo ID (driver's license, passport, government-issued ID, or official press credential)
Business card showing name, company name and editorial title, letter on media outlet stationery verifying your editorial position, or current publication masthead listing your name and editorial title.
For freelancers for print and web publications, bylined article from past year on topics related to the specialty food industry, and/or way to check online.
For blog writers, evidence of new posts created on a weekly basis within past three months on topics related to specialty food industry (printouts or links to coverage), plus evidence from a data-tracking service (such as Google Analytics or Quantcast.com) that unique visitors exceed 5,000 per month.
For freelance photographers and other media, verifiable letter of assignment from a bona fide media outlet.

Click on image above to see current IPA stats which show the number of visitors exceed their 5000 visitors each month by over 12,000. We have many articles and Press Releases dealing with the Specialty Food Industry and of course the four Fancy Food trade show reviews and the five New York Restaurant and Food Services Show Reviews.

Both the State of New Jersey and New York recognize IPA as a bonafide media outlet and New Jersey has issued NYP (New York Press) license plates for my vehicles.

Links to our past Fancy Food Show Reviews and Videos

2005 - 2007 - 2008 - 2009

Fancy Food PRESS RELEASES

To our friends and exhibitors we have met over the

past five years at this show....

Louise Kramer is the only public relations officer that has refused our access to a trade or consumer show. After IPA's five years of support and the positive and professional coverage we have now been refused access for no apparent reason other then we no longer fit their media criteria. Our coverage of last years show received rave reviews (see email above from Ms. Kramer), so we are at a loss for this years refusal.

IPA is a member based organization made up of over 400 independent staff members of the media and over 7,000 affiliate members in our many IPA groups on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and other networking sites

In over twenty years as a leader in our field and in the past 14 years an entirely web based publication, we simply can't understand her refusal to recognize IPA as an "accepted media outlet". Her suggestion to pay a fee to attend the show and then write a review was insulting and demeaning at best.

IPA does not accept any paid advertising which gives us the freedom to select specific trade shows we feel our members and readers would find of interest. Many of our independent media members pick up our reviews and republish them in their own media outlets including blogs, web sites, social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) and print publications.

Our web site receives many thousands of page views each month and our only source of income is from our members support. Our show videos appear on YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and other sites and of course in the show review as well. Our featured exhibitors have linked to our reviews and our videos and have received all this additional exposure free of charge.

See sample show video on YouTube with 15,000 views: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb0nWPYgz3c

You can see our past reviews of this show and the extensive past coverage we have given NASFT by clicking on these links:

http://internationalpress.com/index.php?file=fancyfood09

http://internationalpress.com/index.php?file=fancyfood08

http://internationalpress.com/index.php?file=fancyfood

http://internationalpress.com/index.php?file=fancyfood-05

To see reviews of other shows including the New York Restaurant and Foodservices Show go to our main Reviews section at:

http://internationalpress.com/reviews

The reason for this email is to let our friends and supporters in the food industry know why we would not be at the show this year.

I suppose I am from the old school that teaches its students that the more free positive coverage one gets the better. I can only assume that in these very difficult times, Ms. Kramer feels it is better to limit the extensive publicity and positive exposure that media outlets like IPA can offer them and tighten the restrictions so that media outlets outside of the food industry can no longer cover the shows. I wonder if the New York Times was also refused media access.

Please let your voices be heard if you agree with us. Now is the time for aggressive positive action that helps exhibitors at this show get the exposure they deserve and the publicity they are paying for.

Sincerely,

Leonard Rapoport

President/Founder

June 17,2010

A letter was sent to Ann Daw NASFT's current president. It explain in detail Ms. Kramers actions and refusal to grant us access with copies of pages, reviews and other information from our site. I also included other documents to support our qualifications and copies of emails complimenting me for the reviews from Ms. Kramer as well as many other show exhibitors and show management

I will post her response once I receive it.

July 17,2010...Update on Letter To Ann Daw NASFT's President
After sending our detailed letter, copies of previous show reviews, emails from members and exhibitors of NASFT and the Fancy Food Show, Ms. Daw never responded to our letter.

It is surprising for me to see this and saddens me after reading that Ms. Daw was appointed to her position because as the past president of NASFT stated that "Ann clearly gets the best out of people by listening and appreciating diversity of thought."

Apparently Ann doesn't get it at all. You can read my full letter to Ms Daw which is available in PDF format by clicking here. Form your own conclusions and see if you don't agree that the problems in many companies are not from the bottom up, but rather from the top down.
Apparently Ms. Kramer and Ms. Daw seem to be made from the same mold. We wonder why corporate America has created much of the mess our country is in today. Executives, simply don't care and don't want to deal with the problems in their own organizations.

I can understand her standing by her employee, but don't you think some form of reply would have been the correct thing to do? We now add Ann Daw NASFT president to our Hall of Shame.

A Miracle of Life~Possum Babies

2010-05-24T09:36:00.000-07:00

Are You Thinking of Getting Or Own A Dog or Puppy? If So Read Article Now

2010-03-21T21:46:00.000-07:00

This is Georgie - Join Him On Facebook

Millions of people just love their pet dogs and many, like me, purchased their loving pet from a puppy store. Now that there are so many reports on almost every TV station and in the media about the many puppy mills used to supply these stores, we as a society have begun to look at other options to find our new addition to our families.

Some believe that finding a nice "Rescue Dog" is the only way to go. However, there are many that find this quite difficult to do. Rescue Dogs, may actually not be rescue dogs, but rather mixed breed dogs that so called Rescue operations find, take into their homes and then put them up for adoption. There is always some form of adoption fee associated with these so called rescue operations and they can range upwards of $300 or more. They claim that helps cover their costs, including the necessary shots or medical care some of these dogs require.

From my investigation, I have found this is not always the case and in fact, many of these so called rescue operations are actually businesses set up to sell dogs for profit. One estimate of one operation I checked into was alleged to make over $100,000 per year and that is indeed a nice business. I even found one site that claims their is a Dog Mafia which is a crime syndicate in dog show circles. Another conspiracy theory or fact, I am not sure, but you can read about it and draw your own conclusions.

So where do you go to find a puppy and help the unwanted dog population find good homes. Well you can make sure you deal with a real non-profit rescue operation and not the many so called and unlicensed operations claiming they have rescue dogs for adoption. Local ASPCA and other organizations can usually steer you in the right direction. If you are looking for a specific breed you can check out the AKC's Breed Rescue Group listings. There are a number of others and PetFinder has a lot of information on their website as well, including many helpful articles and videos with titles like:

Before You Adopt

Which also includes other videos like Preparing Your Home for a Puppy and many others

Remember, that when you adopt a rescue dog, you do not have any information on their genetics, their dispositions, their health issues either current or future (genetics is important here) so their is always the risk that your little rescue dog may not be what you might have expected. Some ill tempered dogs are given to rescue operations by their owners that simply turn them in with the excuse that they are allergic to them or they are moving or some other reason, but seldom the truth.

Another way to find the dog you want could be going to a local breeder, which I personally believe is a good way to find the dog you want. You can usually visit their home, see how they are kept, their environment, meet their parents, see their papers (should be AKC registered and have the papers so you can register your puppy as well with the AKC). You can usually pick from the litter the one you want.

One of the new tools we can now use to determine our dogs genetics and breed is the new Dog DNA tests. The Chihuahua we purchased two years ago was sold as a purebred dog to us and the papers they gave us was from a dog wholesaler and the dog could not be registered with the AKC. Now purebred Chihuahua's are usually 6 pounds (read this full PDF on the breed here) or under. AKC will not allow you to show your Chi if he is over 6 pounds either. When our little Georgie bagan to grow and finally reached his full adult size, we realized there was something wrong when he tipped the scales at 13 pounds.

He also had a different head then the apple headed Chihuahuas and his markings were not typical of a Chihuahua. Everyone that would see our dog would say, wow he is so handsome, doesn't look like a Chi and is way too friendly and very calm. Doesn't bark like a Chi at everyone either.

We decided to have his DNA tested and purchased a dog DNA test on eBay from a company called BioPet Vet Lab. Easy to do the test, you get two swabs that go between the cheek and teeth of the dog for 10 seconds. You then do it from the other cheek and both go into the envelope to the lab for the test. Within 3 weeks the result comes back. In our case Georgie was a Level 2 Chihuahua which means he as between 34-74% Chihuahua in him and the rest was well, who knows.

We were able to get a full refund of $1,000 from the puppy store we purchased him from, of course I had to do a little arm twisting but after a few months, I received the refund.

So if you purchased your purebred dog and want to be sure you got what you paid for, get the test and you will have peace of mind. Now, even if you love your doggie and would never give him up, as with people, knowing your genetics is important in determining health issues now and in the future, so do it, just to know how to deal with your dog, train him or her and know what you have to do to keep him healthy.

A few things I have learned after my experience. Do check the internet and even the Better Business Bureau to see if the store or puppy place you intend on purchasing your puppy from has a good reputation. Don't let them tell you that they sell thousands of puppies (that is the tip off they buy from puppy mills) and the few complaints you see on the net or on the BBB web site is very small compared to what they sell. The truth is that most dog owners have no idea that they have been sold either a mixed breed or an unhealthy dog, mentally or physically, until now...we have DNA tests.

If you prefer to get a little "Mutton" our new name for our Georgie (out little mutton), then by all means look for local listings in Craig's or the internet. Do not pay hundreds of dollars unless they can prove they have made sure and paid for all the vaccinations and shots he has required. Even a mutt has a mommy and daddy, so try to meet them and see if they are well adjusted calm and submissive, well behaved and healthy dogs.

Remember that a dog becomes a member of the family. They are the most loyal and loving of all pets and they will creep into your hearts and your beds fast.

You can now see many photos of Georgie on his Facebook Fan Page

There are also a number of videos of Georgie on YouTube As well

1. Georgie First Day In Our Home

2. Pollution is Killing Our Beaches

3. Georgie At McDonald's

4. Georgie and Rocko (Shitzu)

5. Georgie Helps Catch Ground Hogs

If you haven't been watching the Dog Whisperer with Ceasar Milan on the National Geographic Channel, this is a must before and after you own a dog. We watched religiously when we first got Georgie and with his help was able to train Georgie to walk with us properly, to be housebroken, to be social and to be a well adjusted, calm and submissive pet. Visit the Dog Whisperers web site for more information as well and by all means, watch his show or rent his DVD's, I guarantee they will help you and enable your dog to have a wonderful life.

We love our Georgie and can't remember what life was like before he entered ours two years ago. I love to take him with me whenever I go to local stores that allow me to bring him. His favorites are Home Depot, Lowes and Kohl's because they allow me to put him in the shopping cart (I put a towel or blanket down in the cart first) and roll him around. He always gets lots of attention and this is how we got him to be as well balanced as he is now. You must socialize your dog and get him used to people and other dogs. His head goes from side to side and his tail wags when I tell him we are going in the car and to Home Depot. He has made many friends at the store and they all know Georgie, unfortunately, know one knows my name, but that is OK too.

Destination Weddings, Do You Give a Gift Too?

2010-03-13T17:11:00.000-08:00

Over the years we have been invited to out of town or destination weddings. When we get those invitations and if the people getting married are close friends or relatives (even our older cousins kids) we try to make every effort to attend. When we get those invitations from some that are on the opposite coast and would be expensive to attend, we laugh and say to each other, I bet they invited us hoping we wouldn't come, we are going to fool them and show up.

You see we like the idea of getting away, joining friends and family at joyous events. We always try to give a nice gift when we attend the affairs and never think that our attendance at their wedding is an appropriate gift. Yet, recently my middle son was married. They decided to keep the wedding small and have it in a beautiful hotel in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

You can see the story with a nice video on my web site.

Now the reason for this posting on my blog...

I have gone out of my way over the years to help family and friends. When my son announced his engagement to the family, we noticed not one person either family or friend sent them a congratulations card, no phone calls and not one gift. We thought that since their wedding would only be months away, that most would make up for it at the wedding.

Now we have a number of friends that go back 30+ years. Some kept asking where they had registered, but even with the information no gifts. Because this son had a destination wedding in Jamaica, we understood that some friends and relatives could not attend. Some did, the ones that could afford to, but a number of them didn't give any wedding gift. OK, we understand that some could barely afford the trip, they are young girls that barely make a living, but still wanted to be their for their friend the bride. But what about our Long Island and New York wealthy family and friends that didn't give gifts? Not one of my brothers children or his wife gave them a wedding gift, even some long time friends no gifts, nada, nothing and remember, these people didn't give any engagement gifts either.

Leona & Her Maid of Honor Lucy

Old friends also let us down, no gifts, excuses like I lost his address, or I have been tied up and forgot. Months later, same stories, I will be getting them a gift. Someone even told me you have up to a year to give a wedding gift...who made up those rules Emily Post? You go to a party, you bring a gift, period. You get invited to someone's home for a party or a dinner, you walk in with something in your hands, bottle of wine, cakes, something for their home or children, but never empty handed. At least that is how we were trained when we were younger.

I am at least happy that a couple of our friends who couldn't attend had the good sense to send them gifts. Doesn't take much to pop a check in the mail with a card, right? We are not talking about big money, just something to say congratulations, we love you, hope you can buy a gift or make good use of the money or gift.

The thing that really hurts is that we have always been generous with our gifts for our friends and relatives children on birthdays, holidays, new baby's and other occasions. My son's are not kids anymore and in their thirties and we finally had an occasion to test the generosity of family and friends and they let us down.

Unfortunately my oldest brother died at an early age, I am sure if he were alive his entire family would have done the right thing. I suppose I have to get into the Me, Me, Me mode now and stop being generous with gifts and favors, since it would only be one sided. I feel especially bad for my son, who said to me,

Dad, I don't know how to put it, I guess the word is disappointed in my family.

Now here is the topper... his cousin who is an extremely wealthy bachelor living in an eight million dollar penthouse apartment he purchased a few years ago in New York, has a successful financial business let him down as well. All three of my son's worked for this cousin when he started his business and this son helped him on a number of occasions with his web site and other situations. We all thought that he would come to the wedding, but unfortunately he was out of the country. This cousins way of congratulating my son on his upcoming nuptials was a note posted on my son's Facebook account, "Way to go Cuz" No cards, no phone calls, no gifts, no show at the wedding.

The kicker on this cousin was that he hosted my other son's bachelor party in his apartment only a few months earlier. He also attended that son's wedding held in New York City and gave a very generous gift as did the rest of the family, but when it came to my other son, who is the most family oriented of all three of them and possibly because he now lives in Florida, none of that side of the family and many of our friends, simply ignored him.

Shame on all of them and a word of advice to anyone reading this blog. If you can afford to attend a destination or out of town wedding, be sure you give a gift too. Your attendance at their wedding is not in place of a gift. Out of town weddings or destination weddings cost as much or much more then local weddings. My son paid almost $400 per person for those that did attend his wedding. The cost of a local wedding would have been much less. The people that did come had a wonderful 3 or 4 day vacation in the Caribbean and it only cost them about $250 per day per couple plus air fare. It was a 5 star hotel and it was all inclusive. They ate as much as they wanted, they drank until they couldn't see straight and they enjoyed all the entertainment in the evenings at the hotel. Yes, they all had a great time and a wonderful vacation and enjoyed the company of their family and friends.

Here is why we are so dissappointed... Aside from the financials, how do you think a wedding couple feels when their friends and relatives don't even acknowledge this happy occasion and come to a wedding without a gift.

I know my son was surprised, disappointed and a bit ashamed when he only wanted to prove to his bride how wonderful and generous his family and friends were. We are getting tired of making excuses for their poor behavior. Being wealthy is no excuse for poor manners.

My list of friends and family keep getting smaller....

Update....

I received a call from my sister in law some months later and just asked her the reason no one in the family gave my son a gift. She was shocked and told me that her daughter had told her she would be included in the gift she was giving. Of course she never gave a gift, so my sister in law was in shock when she heard it.

She called her daughter who confirmed no gift was given with apparently no sane reason other then my son never sent them a gift when their third child was adopted. My sister in law then called her son, who couldn't attend the wedding and he also thought he was included on a "family gift" and when he found out none was given, sent my son a beautiful set of dishes that was on the bridal registry.

My advice to my sister in law and to anyone that is going to be included on a family gift, is don't unless you know for sure that gift was given and you chipped in for the gift. People can be very strange and simply taking a free ride on someone else's gift in my mind is not a thoughtful and appreciated as much as the thought and care that goes into you giving your own gift and sending your own card with a personal message inside.

Never Do Business With Friends!

2010-03-13T10:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I lost a friend and who was my dentist as well. No he didn't die, but to me it is the same since I will no longer speak to him for what he did to me.

Here is some back information and history with him and his wife.

A couple of years ago his wife asked me to help her out with a video project she wanted to do for one of her client companies. They were paying and she needed a videographer and someone to help her work out some concepts. We did the project and had some rough spots because the original concept for the video wasn't strong enough to work in a video.

She had a second idea that we also shot at the same time, one that would become a YouTube video that was actually a commercial for her client. The first idea didn't pan out but the second video, a short 4 minute one did and has now received over 100,000 views on YouTube.

I had fun working with her and she had a creative mind and was very easy to work with. I ended getting paid more then expected and she couldn't thank me enough. Working with her was a pleasure.

A few weeks ago my friend the dentist (her husband) came to me and told me he wanted to hire me to help him relaunch his dental web site. The one he had was well, old and horrible and looked like a high school kid did it ten years ago. He said, Len, I don't want this to come between our friendship so lets figure out the costs so we are both on the same page. This is business.

I asked a few questions about what he had in mind and we looked at some dental web sites and saw some of those horrid dental sites that were produced by companies like prosites.com and others and after pointing out how all these web based dental sites looked exactly the same, decided that they really were only puff sites that looked pretty but really didn't have content personalized for the individual dentists. Although the dentists would have some of the ability to change the content, in many cases we noticed they simply used the canned stuff offered by the template company. We decided that we should look at other options on the net, find some dental sites we really liked and see if we could create one that we could be proud of.

I pointed out that these web based website companies are basically meant for dentists or doctors that have no knowledge of the web and wanted a no brainer. For many these sites are ideal because they all look identical (see their sample sites), are web based and all a dentist needs to do is go to their web site, login to his account, select the theme or skin for the site and then choose pages he wants on his site. He then fills in the copy in the boxes on the form, selects the color of his font, size, style and it flows into the finished pages from their database. All of these sites use the same basic templates and the text simple flows into the predefined boxes of spaces on those pages. You can see a sample of one of their sites here.  It is like purchasing a book and having them engrave your name as the author in the book. I don't know, I am from the old school and have always done my own original work.

You can see that this particular sample site has a black theme. It is just one of their showcase sites, that means one of their best sites. But what you don't realize is that they have worked on this site to make it look as good as it possibly can with their system. But what happens when a dentist with no artistic talent or understanding of working with typography goes in and picks the wrong size font or selects bold on body copy, or simply selects their default text? Well you end up with a page that looks more like this one on my ex-friends site:

Not being a custom site, and feeding the copy from a database means they are basically text sites, a few paragraphs on each page and if you look at one site or the next from the company, they all look the same. Now the problem with these sites is that they are what they are. Low cost, template driven sites that don't allow the owner the freedom to be creative or deviate from the template.

Now to be fair, some of their skins or themes look good and they do allow the Dentist or Doctor the ability to switch the "skins" or "themes" when ever they want to so they can experiment and find one that suits their taste.

I noticed my ex, found a nicer template then the black one and frankly, it looks quite good, although it lacks the ability to introduce your own images, graphics, etc. on these pages and you can't deviate in any way from their template form. Almost all of the pages are strictly text, which I find a bit boring and in some cases either hard to read or lacking any substance. I know some believe that on a web site, you need to keep it concise and in most cases this is true.

I don't believe in using premade templates all with the same text (on every dentists site) and all of them looking exactly the same with the exception of the color scheme of skins. Yes, you have the ability to use your own copy on many of these pages, but if you want their premade ones like their FAQ's, FYI, or many others, they come complete with the text in place. For him, I am sure this was a good decision, but as they say hindsight is always 20/20. Meaning if I knew what I do now, I would have told him to simply go there and deal with them and not with me.

Now templates can be quite effective and are a handy and inexpensive way to create a site. You can either purchase the template as we did and customize it or if you don't have that ability, you can purchase one like the Prosites templates or even the ones sold by Intuit or many other companies on the web that are premade.

I am not knocking any of these companies and my son owns a company that produces very high end sites with very complex back end capability for the Hedge Fund community. Anyone that purchases one of their sites has full control over every function of that site and it is done in a simple and easy to use admin. He deals with companies and the sites are all SEC compliant sites. Their client company can update their performance figures each month and on the fly the site will create a PDF document with the results, charts, graphs, etc.

Their sites are so complex in terms of what they can do that it would cost $100,000 plus to create a site similar to the ones they offer for a fraction of that number. It took them years to develop all the programming that goes into these sites and looking at how clean they are and understanding the complex things they do is truly a marvel. I am a very proud dad. You can visit his web site construction company and see samples of their sites here. Once there you will see samples of sites, logo creation and even a link to see a demo site, but this is only available to registered site visitors.

So again, I understand this business model, but that is not the reason for this blog post. It is all about trying to help a friend and being disappointed in the way they have dealt with you.

In the case of ProSites, they offer, template sites at a cost of $2,000 start up and $55 per month to host the site. They deal with dentists and doctors, a group of individuals that are not noted for their creative abilities, a group that usually has the money to spend and some seem to be smarter then the rest of us (so they think). Please note, I am simply generalizing in my depiction here, but from my experience, many I have met fit this pattern.

My friend and I talked about these sites and decided we could probably purchase a nicer stand alone template web site from a company that designs template sites for dentists and other professions. Although it would require a webmaster to put it together, we felt it would be far better then anything the other sites could offer and would look custom.

If Prosites sells thousands of this single template site with various skins of themes, anyone going to one of their sites would realize that it is a standard template using the same before and after photos and videos on all these sites. As a patient, I think I deserve to see the dentists actual work and read his descriptions of his services and his talents, not a canned site that only has his name on the top of the page.

My friend, asked what it might cost to go in this direction. I said over the phone, that if we did a simple 8 page site, using a custom template, and a few head shots of his staff, it might cost around $1,000, but until I saw the template it was only a guess. A simple template site that I only needed to flow some copy into would only take a couple of hours per page then the time to shoot and process the images and incorporate then into the site and maybe it would take 20-25 hours tops.

It would still come in at half of what ProSites would charge and he would own his site, not rent one. If he ever wanted to change his hosting company he could do so. At Prosites, you can't, you are married to them at $55 per month, every month and over 5 years that actual cost of your template site would be around $5,000.

My dentist friend agreed that some of the nice templates we could purchase for as little as $64 was a good idea and after narrowing it down to three that we all liked selected one. We got the site in both a static XHTML version with style sheets (CSS) and a flash driven version. This would give us the option to use either version or even combine some of the flash with the static pages.

As I began to work on the project, my friend continued to add things he wanted and from an 8-10 page site, it was looking like a 20 page site with lots of extra's including custom titles that had to be created in Photoshop, stock photos that we could use and reading the copy from other dental sites that would give us some direction in what we would like to include on this site. The consultation and time spent before actually starting the real work took over 15 hours.

Once I began to work on the site, I found it was harder then I thought because all the page layouts had to be followed exactly as the template and style sheets dictated. Now this is not his fault, it was mine, so I chalked up the extra time I had to spend understanding their code as part of my education. Anyone working on these template sites will find it a challenge because you need to figure out how their CSS or style sheet works.

As I tried to modify the amount of text on a column, it would throw off the entire layout of the page. So it took longer to overcome these obstacles. I also found out that, since I didn't create the site, I had no idea what some of the styles actually did or looked like on a page. So looking at a style in the style sheet that said, col 1 or col 2 didn't mean anything to me and was hard to work with.

I spent a total of 40-50 hours working on this site, late into the night and one day my friend came down to actually sit with me and go over what he wanted. We went in and changed the art work I did for the Heading and sub head banners, we looked at each template page to see which ones we wanted to use for each section. We decided what the main pages would be, I suggested we link to a blog that he could go to and update each week as others do. We spent 5 or 6 hours that day and I was to meet him the next day again since his offices were closed to basically get the additional copy we needed for these pages and hopefully get the bulk of the site wrapped up.

He thanked me on Monday and understood why it had taken so much time to get the site to where it was already and said hopefully on Tuesday we could get most of the site finished. I worked on cleaning it up, creating the additional form he wanted on the site and at around midnight, I finally decided I was ready for the next day and could simply insert the copy needed to finish most of the job.

Please look at the website I created for him now, remember it was never completed, so you are only looking at a work-in-progress.  You can also view the original template with the flash banners and original template pages here.

Now during this process I kept reminding him to keep focused on what we needed on the site. Not to expand it out with pages of copy that would not be necessary. After all anyone that wants details on how to fight cavities, can find it on thousands of web sites and doesn't really need to go to the local dentists web site.

He thought that the $1,000 fee, that was a rough estimate on my part, included all the work I was doing. He said it also included shooting his 13 person staff, exterior shots of his office, group shots, cleaning them up, resizing them and inserting them on the site. Wow, what a deal that would be, don't you think? Even so, I was willing to do it, after all he was my friend and their is nothing I won't do for a friend.

After a few days of conversation and work on this project, I told him I would send a written proposal just to confirm my understanding and what the job included and this would be what I called Phase One of the project. I could see that if I didn't have him focus on what he really needed it would become a huge monster of a site.

Custom work on a template site, custom graphics, copy creation, forms that had to be tied into his hosting companies system and so much more and all for $1,000. So with a written proposal, we would both know what was included and he would end up with a great custom site that he could add onto in the future. Side note, we continued to work on this project and he never signed off on the proposal or even mentioned it after I had sent it to him.

I have been working on my own sites and some for friends for about 14 years now. I am the president of International Press Association and my job every day is to write articles for our site, publish reviews, edit our members works and create the new sections of pages of the site that I built years ago. I also do lots of research before writing articles, understand how to optimize my site for search engines and have years of sales and marketing experience. I worked for years with programmers and designers on this site and we also have a fully functional admin section that feeds into a database and makes many of the functions of the site work properly.

Now remember, I told you my son owns a website production company  and employes a staff of graphic designers and programmers to work on these sites, so I know what I am doing, but my friend, the dentist still would not take my advice. If I was smarter, I would have stopped the project before too much time was spent and told him that we differ in our opinions and that he might be happier doing it himself with a company like Prosites, but I didn't.

Every suggestion I would make he would disagree with. New logo design from the one he had 14 years ago, shot down. New tag line that makes sense, shot down. The necessary information on the site, copy that made sense, shot down. How to make the site search engine friendly, shot down. I realized I wasn't working with his wife who is a creative professional but rather a dentist with his own ideas of what looks nice and a person that simply resisted change.

He wanted to be hands on, even asked me if he could do the web pages himself. I explained that learning HTML or going through the learning phase of a simpler web edit program would probably not be worth his time. Even sites built by Intuit that would cost $1,000 or more for a custom site, requires some knowledge and they offer an hour of training, but even these sites have their limits.

Now here is why I no longer consider this man a friend and pulled out from this job...He actually fired me...but didn't have the guts to tell me, I had to find out myself.

On the Tuesday we were going to meet again, he called and told me he was looking into Prosites again just to get some idea of what they offered. After all my site was $1,000 including photography and there sites are $2,000 plus $55 per month, with nothing custom and no photography. I told him if he decided to kill our project and go with them his cost would now be $3,000 plus the monthly because I still expected to be paid for the work I did.

Tuesday, he never showed up for our meeting at my place. He made an excuse that he hadn't done all the needed copy yet. On Wednesday he was busy shopping with his wife. I reminded him when we spoke, that if he stopped the project and only wanted me to shoot the photos, it would be a half day and the cost would be $500 and if he didn't like my work on the site, I would forgo those fees, even though I spent 40+ hours and hours of consultation and planning with him before actually starting on the site. I spent hours explaining how the internet works and did extensive research looking at tons of other dental sites and grabbing ideas from the best of them.

Later on Wednesday I had an auto accident, I was at a stop light and someone didn't realize that me and the 4 cars in front of me at the light were stopped and rammed me from behind. I sent an email to my friend, to ask him where we were on this project and advised him that I had an accident. Not once did he respond to me regarding my accident, but he told me he was playing on the Prosite free trail site, they give you a 30 day free trial to see how their system works, and never mentioned he already decided to kill my site and go with them. I can only assume he wasn't even reading my emails by then and only working on his web site on Prosite.

Still no emails on Thursday from the dentist and I decided to take another look at the site I was working on and discovered it was now gone from the net. I knew that this meant, he had started the process to move his domain over to Prosites. I couldn't login to his original account now it was gone from his previous hosting company, but I did login to his Prosites account to see he had chosen their black theme for his site that looked more like wedding photographers site with photos of smiling bride and groom. The pages are so difficult to read, pages are clunky and there is nothing custom about the site. Each page is simply a page of text, and in many cases the same copy on every dentists site that uses Prosites.

Certainly it is easier to use their pages then spend the time to do your own. Prosites FAQ's address the issue of their popular templates showing up all over town. They claim that although there are many thousands of the exact sites out there, the chances of two dentists in the same town having their sites is small.

Can you imagine spending $2,000 for a web site that has been sold to thousands upon thousands of dentists all over the country? Wouldn't any smart dentist ask himself, is that what I really want to show my patients. A web site with the same text, photos, FAQ's and videos as so many others? Maybe it is just me, but I suppose for many, that is exactly what they want to do.

He had paid them the $2,000 for the entry fee, had transferred the domain to Prosites and not once called or emailed me that he had made the decision to do so and abandon the one I had worked on. I am not sure if I was insulted, hurt, frustrated or disappointed
but I am sure it was all of these things.

So after discovery of my friend deception, I sent him this email.

I see you have made your decision to go with Prosites, I think based on what I have observed, for you, this is probably the best decision, unfortunately you made that choice after I invested over 40 hours on the other site and all the hours of consultations we had. We looked at Prosites originally and you chose to go in another direction, but once you realized the complexity of the project and potential additional costs to keep adding to the base site, you decided to cancel the project that you hired me to do even though we both agreed to it and it is almost completed now.

I have to tell you, I am very disappointed in you and the way you have gone about this entire deal. I went way out of my way to help you because of our friendship and spent many hour rushing to get this done for you because you kept asking me to do so. You sat with me last Monday and I thought you were satisfied with the project and our progress and understood the hours of time I had invested. By Tuesday when we were going to meet again you had already signed onto Prosites and decided it suited your purposes and then you Back Peddled on me, not the other way around.

They say it is not wise to do business with friends and I now understand the wisdom in that saying. As a friend, I considered you one of my best, but frankly, you have now shown me another side, that frankly I don't like. You could have been more honest with me. I see you already began the process to move your domain over to Prosites without saying a word to me about your final decision.

I looked at the site and see you have completed what you feel you may need on this site and that is fine if you are satisfied with it the way it is.

I will not have anything further to do with this project or frankly you as a friend or as my dentist. This was a sneaky and underhanded move and I am frankly disgusted with what you did to me.

Have a great life and don't even bother to contact me again.

He called me Friday afternoon when he received my email.

Hi Len, he said, I got your email. I asked him if he read it, he said no he just saw the subject line. I advised him to read it and if he still wanted to talk he could call me.

We hung up and I never heard from him again....

Here is the definition of what Buyers Remorse means. In this case, I feel my dentist, after making the commitment to me suffered from Buyers Remorse and has now backed out of our original deal.

Buyer's remorse is the term given to the feeling a person often gets after making a large purchase. Although excited at the time of the purchase, once they've spent a lot of money, many people feel a deep regret and concern that they made the wrong decision, referred to as buyer's remorse.

So that is the long story and the reason I decided to post it because it confirms my belief that you just can't do business with friends or in many cases family either. When you are going to do business with a friend, even if you both state this is a business deal and you don't want it to effect your friendship, it will.

If you are providing the service, you will never charge as much as you would to a stranger and as a friend will go the extra mile to do more, and work harder on the project. Unfortunately, the party that hired you, will never appreciate your efforts because they feel it is expected that you should work for less and give them more. In many cases like mine, they may not respect or listen to the advice you have given them, because you are their friend.

This was one of the most frustrating situations I have experienced in awhile and one that has hopefully taught me a valuable lesson. I have written this to one, get it off my chest and two to warn others not to do the same as I have done.

==========================================

I just received this message from the CEO of Prosites and wanted to respond, but unfortunately deleted his comment in error, so here it is as it should have appeared:

==========================================

As an expert in website design, surely you must know you cannot copy and paste text from other sites and call it your own.

The statory fines for copyright infringement can run as high as $150,000 per violation, so I recommend you pull down that website before we contact our attorney.

Your rant perfectly illustrates an important point -- many doctors don't mind having a website that saves them money by avoiding the cost of creating a fully custom site. Our sites are very easy to use, and thus our doctors (who according to you "are not known for their creative abilities") have little problem making any changes they wish to their ProSites website. This again, saves them a lot of money. They can even change their entire website design anytime they want, free of charge (you on the other hand, would have to charge them for a brand new website).

Our website look great, and that's why we are so popular. You're just sour that your friend chose a website solution that is affordable, easy to use, and wasn't created by YOU.

Regards,

Lance McCollough
Founder & CEO
Prosites, Inc.

==========================================

My response to Mr. McCollough

==========================================

With respect to copyright violations, the text you claim to be your copyrighted text should be specifically pointed out to me so it can be replaced with other "dummy text". The site under construction which was never published and is only files on our server and not listed anywhere other then in this blog was just that dummy text that would have been replaced by the dentist with his own. Anyone looking at this site in progress can see this and the story also confirms this.

I am very aware of copyright law and have been a journalist and president of IPA for 20 years, so your threats mean nothing to me. If you point out the specific lines and text I have no problem replacing them.

As far as your comments about your company and its mission, I have no personal ill will to you and your product, other then my statements of fact about how they work, the cost, and the overall appearance, which is my right to state my opinion of your product vs. a custom web site. If you visit the IPA web site you will see this is what I do for a living, I write reviews of products and services and we are supported by some of the largest companies in the software and photographic industry including Adobe, Nikon, RCL and many other companies.

Now as far as sour grapes go, apparently you never bothered to read or you didn't understand this post. It wasn't about your company specifically, it was about doing a favor for a friend and how it backfired. I do not create web sites for anyone other then my own or work on IPA. If you read the copy, you would see my son owns a major company called Hedgeco Networks with offices in both West Palm Beach, Florida and New York City. His company produces beautiful web sites for the Hedge Fund industry and offers many other support services to this market. They also own their own brokerage firm. That said, I did my friend a favor and was creating a custom site as a gift. The thousand dollars was simply a very low fee so that this would be a business arrangement and not a favor.

As you can see, it didn't turn out that way. Now for those dentists that don't have a friend in the business nor the ability to do it themselves, well Prosites is probably a good choice, but given the option of a well made site, with original copy (not lifted copy from your sites or anyone elses) the choice should be clear.

In this case, he contracted me to do the job and after completing about 80% of the job, without any thought to me or how I would feel, decided to sign up with Prosites. Frankly, I wouldn't have minded from the start if that is what he wanted to do. But you have to admit, that after he hired me to do his site, sitting with me for two days working on it, getting educated by me and then without any conversation with me that he was going to pull the plug, did so.

Now it is not sour grapes, I am relieved I am off the hook, but how would you feel if someone did this to you, a friend who you were trying to help? Screw the money, I wouldn't even ask him for any at this point even though I wasted a week of my time. I bill $200 per hour for consulting, I couldn't break even on this job if he paid me $4,000.

Enough said, if you want to send me an email with the copy you claim is your copyrighted copy I will remove it from the "Dummy, Under Construction Web Site"

By the way, this blog and illustration was meant for educational and instruction and as such would fall under the webs fair use doctrine regarding copyrighted materials. I also provided the appropriate links to your web site as well. I am a journalist and this would be covered under the Fair Use Doctrine. If you are not familiar with this doctrine, please read below and follow the link for further information.

Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as for commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching or scholarship. It provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four-factor balancing test. The term "fair use" originated in the United States. A similar principle, fair dealing, exists in some other common law jurisdictions. Civil law jurisdictions have other limitations and exceptions to copyright.

lenrap@internationalpress.com

Did you ever fire a friend or family member? I have!

2010-03-13T08:19:00.000-08:00

Over the years I helped family members out with resumes they needed, letters to companies and lots of photographic assignments and generally they were pleased with my help and the results of my efforts. Some family members or friends however never realized the time and effort that went into those FAVORS and never bothered to show their appreciation.

Now appreciation to me doesn't mean buying me an expensive gift or thanking me over and over again, but it does mean a heartfelt Thank You, a simple statement like this one would suffice:

I know you took the time to help me and truly appreciate your effort and if you ever need anything from me, please don't hesitate to ask

At one time, years ago, I had to send my brother a letter to explain why I could no longer be the one in the family to write letters for everyone or do their resumes. You see it all came about after I was asked to work on a bogus resume for my niece who wanted to apply for a job, but didn't know how to put a resume together. The call came from my sister-in-law and she stressed it had to be written fast because the resume had to be sent out the next day.

My niece never asked for the favor, but her mom did knowing I was the family writer and also worked for and owned an employment agency for a number of years. To make this a shorter story, I spent 4 hours working on this resume that had very little substance and many exaggerations of truth and I was happy with the results.

I had to overnight mail this to them because years ago there was no internet. I then waited, waited and waited many days to hear if she got the job or at least to find out if the resume arrived in time, but nothing. No calls to thank me, no comments about the great job I did and no thank you. I finally decided to call my sister-in-law to ask how it went. She told me in a matter of fact way that they never used the resume because my niece decided she didn't want to apply for that position.

Still no thank you and no considerations for what I had done. That was the last straw and I wrote that letter to my brother to basically fire his family and let them know I would no longer be the "Go To Guy" when they needed someone to write their letters and resumes.

Now over the years, I have continued to put my self out and offer my hand in friendship and love to family and friends, but over the past few years, I have fired other friends and relatives. I have found that we live in a cruel world today where people have no problem asking friends, family members, co-workers and others to do for them, but never return the favors or will put themselves out for others.

We live in a world of

What can you do for me, not what can I do for you.

Now that I am 67 years old I look back at all the friends I had over the years and how many are still friends and sadly the number is very small. My wife and I have fired friends who have let us down in one way or the other.

My wife owns a small travel agency and fired one friend who asked her to work on a trip for them that literally took days to plan. This former friend was not easy to deal with and kept changing her mind and plans so my wife had to keep going back to do the research and present the trip plans. She later found out that this so called friend's husband decided to book the trip with another travel service, took all the information my wife had given them and found a deal for a few dollars less. They never asked my wife to see if there was a way to meet the price or even if it was exactly the same trip with all the extras.

Well, needless to say that friendship of over 20 years ended and my wife fired these friends. Now if they had simply come back to discuss this with her as friends would, she could have compared item by item why the other agent came up a bit lower. Every time she does, she usually finds out it is not the same items or there are hidden taxes the other agent didn't include. You see in the world of travel before the internet, every agent gets the same prices, but there are ways of working a trip and maybe using travel wholesalers that can bring the cost down.

You need to understand that many people are takers and not givers, so if you are going to do a favor and can do it without receiving what you need in return (a heartfelt thank you or other sign of appreciation) then go ahead. If you feel you are being used, then learn to say NO.

New review - Navigator of the Seas - IPA web site

2010-03-06T11:18:00.001-08:00

I know this blog is supposed to show you how to contact corporations to discuss good or bad things they are doing. Well you may wonder why I am posting this review of a recent cruise I took.

There is no better way of getting heard by large and small companies then by publishing an article or review, good or bad about their products and services.

As president of IPA, I have found a great deal of power in being able to tell my stories on our web site. Our IPA members can do the same. Imagine sending the link to this review to all the executives at RCL. By doing so, they realize I have the ability to help them do more business and that only strengthens my relationship with their company.

Check out my just published article and review of Royal Caribbean Cruise lines Navigator of the Seas. I shot hundreds of photos using my Nikon D90 and video clips too and after two weeks of work, ended up with a 33 minute video and a super review.

If you are interested in cruising, photography, travel or writing reviews, this is one article you won't want to miss. Visit my site at:

http://www.internationalpress.com/index.php?file=navigator

Read some of my other reviews too, as a member of IPA you too can get your message out, Loud and Clear.

Beat Ford In Court Today, Judgement in my favor $1800

2010-02-25T16:38:00.000-08:00

I sued Ford Motor Company today in small claim court today and killed them where they stood.

Some of you may know I have a 2005 Mercury Mountaineer (see story on this blog) and the paint on the roof had delaminated from the primer. Ford has had a paint problem for over 25 years and can't afford to handle all the complaints because repainting a vehicle when the primer is defective means stripping all the paint and primer off and down to the bare metal, priming and painting it again. Estimated cost to do this to the average car is around $5,000. With the millions of cars produced with defective paint over the past 20 years this would amount to Billions of dollars...so it is less expensive for them to simply deny any wrong doing and only pay out when you wring their necks as I did today (it really felt good).

For has practiced what the media called a Silent Warranty...the people that made the most noise of those that took them to court would be approached as I was to take some form of compensation. Their warranty on paint defects is only one year, but this problem does not show until almost 3 years, hence they play the game with the average customers ..."Sorry we can't do anything for you, it is out of warranty" They did this to me for a period of about 2 years, until I decided enough is enough and went to Small Claims Court, paid the $22 and sued them.

I had over prepared for the case, but the 8X11 photos of the peeling paint as it progressed, the two estimates and my speech about Implied Warranties convinced the judge that it was a paint defect and that it could not be environmental issues as claimed by the Ford Rep....Can you imagine after looking at these photos that the rep claimed it could have been bird droppings, UV rays, etc. My car has a total of 25,000 miles in 5 years, is perfect in other areas, and as you can see the roofs paint is simply peeling off. The judge was a very wise man, like a Judge Joe Brown on TV, he knew the truth from the lies.

He ruled in my favor and awarded $1800 which was the estimate I got for the repairs to my roof and rear door of my SUV.

Ford offered me $1700, before court and at mediation the same offer, if I would sign a release not to ask for any additional money if other parts of the car started to peel. They also had a confidentiality clause, so I couldn't talk about the settlement and finally a clause that the stated they are not quilty of any wrongdoing and they made no admission of guilt or improper painting of the vehicle.

After my active participation in various Ford Peeling Paint forums and groups including the one I formed on Facebook and their refusal for over a year to even talk to me, I basically told them to go screw themselves and I would see them in court.

They have been so nasty each time I have had to talk to them and so arrogant, that I was so happy today to beat them bloody. The regional service manager that came down to court today was a nasty son of a bitch and as we walked out, he turned to me and said you waited all this time to get $100 more then we were going to offer you, I turned to him and said, you know if the hood peels, I am going to come at you again and you also know I am a journalist and now I can write all about this all over the internet...he was not happy. :-)

Great day for me and all the others suffering with this peeling paint on their vehicles.

One down and one more to go as I filed today to sue the puppy store for selling me a mixed breed dog and forging paper work to show he was a pedigreed dog. Can't wait to take them on too.

I AM THE MAN...I warned them Not To Get Me Mad...

Len

===============================================

April 4, 2010

After 30 days of waiting for Ford to send me a check to cover the judgement amount, I decided it was time to remind them that they owed me some money.

I sent a Certified Letter to both Ford in Michigan (their legal department) and their corporate agent in the state of New Jersey.

I received proof they received the letters on or about March 29th. On April 2nd, I was pleased to find a FEDEX envelope at my door step. It was the check from Ford. You will note that the check date was March 31st, two days after they signed for my Certified Letter demanding payment.

I will be taking my car into the body shop this Sunday so they can begin the process of stripping all the old paint and primer from the roof and top rear door and painting it the way it should have been painted in the first place. Boo Yah!!!

Will post some photos of the repairs so you can see how involved it is to repaint these vehicles.

Side note...Puppy store saw the wisdom in settling our problem without going to court. Hopefully I can rest now and hope the next post on this blog will be a nice one, one complimenting a company for doing something good, not bad. It seems that lately it is harder to find companies and people going out of their way to make our lives better, but I am an optimist and know they are out there.

IPA Newsletter

2010-02-08T19:08:00.001-08:00

IPA Newsletter

Posted using ShareThis

Videotape Your Puppy, Kitten or Baby Pets, You Won't Be Sorry

2009-10-07T21:53:00.000-07:00

See my original article and video on Hubpages, lots of photos too!

Videotape Your Puppy, Kitten or Baby Pets, You Won't Be Sorry

Get Ready To Produce Your Best Videos Ever

If you are thinking of getting a new puppy or kitten or other little friend you may not even think of capturing the first few days of having your new pet, I can tell you that you will regret it.

Follow my easy steps below and you too can have memories that will last for years and ones that you can share with all your friends and relatives too.

You will need...

* A digital camera that allows you to take videos. I use my Nikon D90 DSLR which takes digital images and videos too. Most of the point and shoot digitals also allow you to take videos and now you can do it using your iPhone or iPod.

* Video camera that takes videos only.

* Computer Editing Software, Macs come with iMovie that will enable you to do this. There are many other programs that make it easy to produce and save your video for the web or to burn on a DVD.

Check out your camera or iPod or other device and make sure it works properly before you begin your production.

Make sure the batteries are charged and you have enough memory to shoot your video. If you intend on being in the video, then mount your camera on a tripod or other suitable device that will allow it to film you with your pet. If your camera comes with a timer or remote, that will make it even easier for you to film yourself. It is always nice to have a friend or family member that can shoot the video for you.

When you get your new friend home set up an area to take your first video...

We selected a small area of our hallway that has a large mirrored area on our closet doors. I chose this because we could keep our puppy confined so I could film him easily and thought the mirror would make a nice prop to see how he reacted to seeing himself for the first time.

Have some toys or play things and maybe even some other people for your film...

Children or another pet are great for the interaction. You can see from my video of Georgie that the family and their comments make this even more fun. After all, part of the excitement in watching your videos is not only to see your babies antics, but yours too.

Keep the video short and compact...

If it is too long it will tend to be boring, so keep it short and if need be you can shoot a bit longer, but be prepared to edit it so it is no longer then 3-4 minutes in length. If you intend on publishing your video on YouTube, it must be under 10 minutes in length so keep this in mind when filming and editing.

Remember to take lots of photos of your new family member too, they will grow very quickly and you will regret you didn't take more videos and photos when they were little babies.

Now Georgie is 2 years old and he is still my little boy and a star in my home.

* You don't have to spend a lot of money for a good digital camera that will shoot videos.

* There is a lot of free movie editing software for both PC and Mac. Some of the best is available for a 30 day free trail too.

* Have some tissues or clean up supplies, as you can see Georgie had a little accident. They will get excited so be prepared.

* Once you have your video you can upload it to YouTube, Hubpages, Facebook, MySpace and many other sites and share it with your friends and relatives.

* Don't use hot lights or have anything that could be dangerous that your puppy or kitten can end up getting hurt. With all the new digital cameras, there is no need to have additional lights unless you are shooting in a dark area. Open the shades, pick a spot where there is plenty of natural light and have fun.

:Adobe Releases Photoshop Elements 8 for Windows and Mac

2009-09-22T22:44:00.001-07:00

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Sept. 23, 2009 - Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe(r) Photoshop(r) Elements 8 software available for Windows(r) and Mac, providing automated and intelligent photo-editing technology across both platforms. With the newest version of the No. 1 selling consumer photo-editing software,* Adobe continues to make cutting-edge innovation accessible to users who want powerful yet easy-to-use tools to tell compelling stories with their photos.

"With nearly 20 years of Photoshop innovation under our belt, we are able to leverage industry-leading technology that the professionals use and make it accessible to our Elements customers," said Doug Mack, vice president and general manager of Consumer and Hosted Solutions at Adobe. "We've simplified the editing process, without taking away any of the power, and incorporated smart tools with built-in intelligence to bring once difficult tasks, within reach of everyone."

Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 for Windows

See the complete Press Release on this great new software

Wonder Why American Auto Manufacturers Are In Trouble? Shame on Ford Motors

2009-03-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

This is a repost that I did on another blog dealing with paint issues on Ford and Mercury vehicles. The web site is lemonlaw.com and here is a direct link to subject dealing with Ford Paint Defects on 2000-2005 vehicles.

"Ford has issued a Technical Service Bulletin that shows a major paint defect in many large 2000-05 Ford, Lincoln and Mercury cars, trucks and SUVs that used aluminum body parts (hoods and fenders) to reduce vehicle weight. Affected models are the 2000-04 Crown Victoria, Taurus, Expedition, F-150, Ranger; Mercury Grand Marquis, Sable; Lincoln LS, Town Car Navigator and the 2000-05 Explorer, Mercury Mountaineer.

According to the TSB, “Some vehicles may exhibit a bubbling or blistering under the paint on aluminum body parts. This is due to iron contamination of the aluminum panel. . . . Ford’s Scientific Research Laboratory has performed a number of tests on vehicle body parts returned for corrosion related concerns. Testing has revealed that the aluminum corrosion was caused by iron particles working their way into the aluminum body part, prior to it being painted.”

CAS Executive Director Clarence Ditlow said:
“This is a very expensive defect to remedy. The TSB requires “extreme care to be taken” including special tools and segregated work areas to remove the corrosion by blasting, repriming and repainting. This repair is so difficult that CAS recommends the best fix is to replace the corroded part with a primed steel part and paint it. Ford cannot guarantee this repair will eliminate all the iron corrosion or prevent other areas from bubbling or blistering in the future.”

If you have a Ford or Mercury now and it is under warranty, be sure to check to see if you have any paint bubbles or other paint defects now as it will only get worse and once over their warranty you will be on your own. Although this specific bulletin only deals with models through 2005, with Ford, who can tell if it isn't an ongoing issue.

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Here is my post on the other web site....

I have a 2005 Mercury Mountaineer purchased on 7/14/2005. Vehicle only gets driven about 5,500 miles each year and has 20,700 miles on it now. Of course it is over the 36 month warranty and now I have peeling paint on my roof.

You get the circle jerk from the dealer who tells you to call Ford Customer Care, who of course turns you down on any repairs. Called again today to let them know I am a journalist and wanted to get further information on their policy and they said since it is not a safety issue there was no recall on the vehicles and nothing they would do.

Called my dealer back and told him I just wanted to know if the dealer was going to help and that I wanted to write an article on this issue and once he heard that shut me down completely and told me he wouldn't say another word and I should contact Ford media relations.

Apparently these guys know all about these issues and because they are in such sorry shape will not address them or offer any support. I suppose it is just easier losing future sales from all of us then to pay to fix the problems and still most likely lose us anyway.

Generally no problem with the vehicle other then this, but from what my body shop tells me this can be a major problem as the paint can begin to peel off from other parts of the vehicle as well. To fix the roof, it would cost $800 because they must first strip all the paint off down to the metal and repaint the entire roof again. He showed me that the undercoat paint was shinny and said it looked like it was never sanded down to accept the top coat of paint. It just isn't sticking to the undercoat.

I would never buy another American made car again. I had a Jeep Cherokee before this one and one before that one. The first one was a lemon and was taken back after one year under the Lemon Law and the second one had its share of problems as well.

Never Again, these car makers should go out of business, they simply don't know how to make a decent product and their service and customer care is horrid to say the least.

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I know that there may not be anything I can do about this, but intend on writing a letter to Alan Mulally (President and CEO) and possibly to our government officials letting them know not to help these companies out of the mess they got themselves into.

Keep checking back to see if I have any success. I also filed a complaint with the NHTSA and their office of Defects Investigation, but since it is not a mechanical issue and only a cosmetic one, I can only hope some class action attorney's get on this one. I will see if I can find any class actions and see if I can join them too.

Forum Bullies, They Can Attempt To Destroy You If You Don't Watch Out

2009-03-14T21:36:00.001-07:00

I have been having a problem with one individual name Ted Dillard who I first met on LinkedIn back in December 2008. Ted is an author of a few books on dealing with Smart Object Raw files in Photoshop and tips on working with your images. I am sure an intelligent guy and Ted even teaches digital imaging as well. But from his own admission he is a geek and I have the feeling he just is an angry guy from his posting and his bullying on the forums.

I have joined a couple of photo groups at LinkedIn in hopes of meeting other talented photographers and people in the industry, like Ted. Since I was not that familiar with how LinkedIn worked, as I wasn't with FB when I first started, as a newbie there, I wasn't quite sure about the sites etiquette. I tried to use their invite system which allowed me to send an invite to a number of people from one of the groups I joined. I did the invite with a little note explaining who I was and the process was similar to what we do on Facebook.

I got a number of turn downs because people didn't know me and I suppose LinkedIn is a business oriented networking site where Facebook and MySpace aare social oriented networks. After sending some of these invites out, I received a message from LinkedIn that I should make sure I know the people before inviting them because they might consider your invitation spam.

I still wasn't sure how to do this, especially if I wanted to expand my personal connections. I decided to start a discussion on two of the groups I joined, asking the best way to invite new contacts without getting in trouble with LinkedIn or the members. Well Ted Dillard, got all over me about that and a few other matters that didn't seem to upset or bother anyone but him (and one of his friends).

There were a number of positive tips including one that said, simply send out a message, not an invite to those you would like to connect with and explain how you feel that you would have something in common with them and would like to know if it was OK to send them an invite. This was a great tip that enabled me to add close to 100 new and valuable connects to my account.

Unfortunately, Ted Dillard, the self appointed forum cop, decided to Flame me on this forum and began to climb all over me and not for just this posting, but because I posted it to both groups he belonged to. He also didn't agree with just about anything I posted to anyone else regarding discussions etc. and continued to taunt me that I was also now guilty of Self Promotion. Now in every other group I have been with, when you usually join it was customary to introduce yourself to the group. I have had a few in the past on Yahoo and thought this is a good idea. Say hello, fill the members in on your background and invite them to connect with you if they liked. Well Ted, once again went literally crazy and he and a friend decided that Self Promotion or even a mention of your company or web site was a no, no, on this forum.

I soon realized that he and his friend were what was termed as a Forum Bullies. So I decided to call them out for what they were and posted a link to a wonderful article I found about this issue. Please take some time and read it and then you can come back, it won't take long.

Ted and his friend finally stopped, maybe because they were the only two that would pick on me in the discussions and he really couldn't convert others to join in his aggressive behavior. I was able to stop both of them and all was quiet again. Ted and I decided to have a truce and stop boring the other members.

I had thought everything was fine until I found he had also posted his story about the horrid Len Rapoport who he liked to refer as "This Rapoport Guy" on another photography forum for professional photographers and photojournalists. He started his post with the fact that I had spammed him on LinkedIn and I also was a very evil person indeed.

You can actually read all the posts on the thread for yourself. Of course you have to understand that Mr. Dillard has had full editorial control over the thread and his comments, which have been deleted and edited and then put back up. Nice way to tell a true story, one sided of course.

He claimed that IPA, my company, sells press cards to poor unsuspecting individuals who could get in harms way if they used it to go to a fire or report a war in Iraq.

Of course nothing could be further from the truth and he knew it because he admits he went to my web site. If he did then he already knew that our members are not cleared to cross police or fire lines, you must obtain a Working Press ID from the police and you need to prove you cover these events and are working full time in the media.

Our members receive press ID only good for covering trade and consumer shows, lifestyle events, sports, concerts, movies, parades, public events, etc. they do not cover breaking news, we leave that to the pros that make a living doing that.

He was really just trying to cause a stir with photojournalists on this forum and he did. Apparently the people on this forum are working photojournalists and with Ted's evil spin on IPA and "this Rapoport guy" they bought into it and all hell broke lose.

So Ted started out with his attack this way..."First, this Rapoport guy asks to connect with me on LinkedIn. (By the way he did) Then, I get spammed by him, and he not only spams me but he doesn't even have the sense to BCC, so he CC's everybody on his contact list" Actually on LinkedIn you can send out about 20 messages to your connections at one time. I have 250 so that was not the case. He was one of my connections and as such a message should not have been considered spam. I also apologized that I didn't realize on LinkedIn at that time how to BCC. Hell after spending 15 years on this computer and running 7 web sites, wouldn't you think I know how to BCC a list in an email? Talk about an angry guy. Hey Ted, do what I do when I don't want to read an email, TRASH IT, don't you know how?

So here is just a small sampling of what these guys put me through. Now remember, most have never been to my site and simply followed Ted's lead on this thread and posted their comments on what he fed them.

"Don't you know how this can undermine all photojournalists"

"You are putting these wannabe's out there and they could get hurt"

"A REAL Press person DOES NOT pay for their credentials they EARN them. I earned mine" " if photography is your hobby, enjoy it. But understand that there are people out there who count on getting that shot to pay the bills, people who have had to sell their own equipment to pay those same bills, and people who are insulted by you standing there with that $5,000 camera, and $4,000 lens just to past the time, and brag to your buddies."

"If IPA was so great how come none of their members posted anything on this forum thread"

Actually I told a few of our members about the thread and one wrote this lovely email to their forum support address.

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I am not a current member of Lightstalkers.org, but have read some of the recent criticism of the International Press Association posted on your site.

As an active member of IPA, I find the blatantly critical remarks of Ted Dillard and others rude, uninformed and essentially irrelevant to the IPA and its valuable work and accomplishments. You members of the "universal press" bearing various names should know that "bullying" is against the ethics of any legitimate press group--no matter what its agenda (political, social, or otherwise). Also, it's been my experience that bullies are not the sharpest (or most successful) crayons in the box. -- And, really, fellas -- if you're still concerned about being "kicked to the curb" at this point due to the popularity of your press badge, maybe you should repeat "Journalism of the Streets 101," -- or join the IPA and get legitimate press credentials.

I have found the IPA and President and Chief Editor Len Rapoport to be extremely helpful and valuable to the ongoing work and careers of serious photojournalists.

The International Press Association Web site itself offers complete examples and strong evidence of the organization's versatility and excellence in all areas of press activity and publishing. As to the IPA Press Badge -- I can honestly say it does wonders, even for new members, in opening doors and providing legitimate access to myriad events, locations and areas of immediate importance to photojournalists which would otherwise be inaccessible.

Len Rapoport is truly a person of high personal and professional integrity who leads a highly acclaimed, successful, serious and excellent press organization. I think you can tell that I am a very enthusiastic and supportive member of the IPA and will continue to be for the future.

Thanks for your ear -- always keep one open.

Ellen L Gilmer
Correspondent, IPA

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Don't you know, they ripped her apart too. How dare they! Can you imagine a group of wolves like these presenting themselves as professionals. In all my years in business and as a corporate communications consultant, I have never seen a group of people quite like this one. Funny, on one post they claim no one from IPA has come to our defense and when they do, they proceed to flame her too.

What is wrong with these people? I discouraged other members from doing the same, because I knew what they would do to them as well. I have decided to put up a Testimonials page with contact information so anyone in doubt about IPA could actually see what our members think and even contact them.

Hey guys did you ever hear of those that don't have press ID and have thousands of dollars in equipment shooting celebrities, they are called Paparazzi, don't see you worrying about them, how come. They are in peoples lives, they stalk them, they cause accidents (remember Princess Dianna).

Well you get the idea. These pro's that are not making a living, feel threatened by anyone else that might also have access to some of these events or have the ability to learn how to be a member of the media through IPA.

I understand getting annoyed if someone shows up with a totally bogus press card that he bought off the internet,or produced on his computer, but that is not what IPA does and they just wouldn't accept that no matter how I tried to explain what we do.

So here is part of one of the answers I gave this group of these uninformed and some arrogant "professionals" who had smart answers to everything I had to say.

This is only a small part of the response, which ended up being around 30 printed pages when I copied it to my computer. I posted this to explain what IPA does and why our members are happy to be part of our organization. To date, after being on the internet for about 10 years or longer, there is not one complaint from any members, past or present, nor any complaints about us from anyone.

Read this answer to one of the Forum questions.

1. If you were talented and wanted to build your portfolio and display it on a legitimate web site that didn’t look like a networking site or a photo library you might want to use your Members Profile on our site to display your best works. We even limit the number of photos a member can display at any one time to force them to edit their portfolios and only show their very best work. They can rotate and change the images at any time, but anyone checking their work doesn’t want to have to go through hundreds of photos.

2. Our web site receives anywhere from 1 million hits per month plus and according to Alexa we receive as much as 6 million or more page views each month. So the chances of getting exposure is very good.

3. IPA is a relatively small organization that started years ago in the State of New Jersey as a local organization offering photo seminars and workshops. When we discovered the internet we began to change our mission and about 5 years ago built the web site you see today. Being small and only having about 350 total staff members meant we could get to know all of our members and take lots of time working with them and helping them improve their work and their portfolios.

4. We never went after the working press or photojournalist working full time, it was not our interest, nor did they need our help, so being pulled apart here for catering to the beginner in many cases is actually quite true. We do not take advantage of them, rather we are a school of sorts for them giving them the tools they need to learn and earn some money in this business. Our members are photographers, videographers and journalists. They don’t get lost on our web site, it is their home and many don’t feel they even need their own web sites now.

5. If you view our mission statement you will see that our mission is to level the playing field for the many individuals that work for or own web sites, publications and media companies. These individuals and companies must compete with the major media corporations in gathering their photos and stories for their respective publications, both digital and traditional and at times, this can seem like an impossible task.

6. In order to gain access to many local and public events, trade and consumer shows, get a press position at parades and public events, you either need to qualify by being part of that industry or be a member of the media. Our press credentials authorize our staff members to cover these events for publication on our web site, which as you can see is a digital publication.

We offer these people that offer our members this access a tremendous amount of support and promotion in the form of listing their events at no cost on our web site

We then cover the events and write a full review, that for me can take as much as two days work. Remember, I don't get paid to do this, it is part of what we do to teach our IPA members how to cover these shows.

7. Our members get to network with many other members of the media at these events, get to know their way around a press room at a show or event, meet the PR people running the shows and of course get to meet all the people they interview at the show or event.

One of our members reported last week he was in New Orleans trying to cover the Mardi Gras parades and couldn't get a good vantage point to take his shots. The police stopped him from gaining a good position and didn’t know who IPA was. He called me and I suggested he show them the letter of authorization we sent him. He went back the next day and was given the access he needed with no problem. He was able to get the photos he wanted and will publish them in his profile on our web site, thus building his credentials and reputation for doing this type of work.

Now I was asked, " isn't this then a contradiction in your statements that our members are not permitted to cross police, fire lines or enter into security sensitive areas" the answer is NO.

This was a simple situation dealing with crowd control and was not considered a security sensitive area otherwise the police would not have given him the access he requested. It is stated on every piece in our members Press Identification from the press cards to our letter of authorization. Hope this answers any questions regarding this matter.

8. Some members, as I do, will print some of the pages from our web site and create their own book, showing our site and their work on our site. When they do travel abroad or to places that may not be able to check out who we are they can present the book. I recently went to Budapest, Vienna and Prague and was not only given access to every attraction, bus tour, boat rides down the Danube, but received a VIP tour of the stables where the Lipison Horses are kept.

You can actually see some of my photos either on our YouTube profile or on our web site in an article I wrote about the trip.

9. Our members are not looking to cover current breaking news as members of this forum are. They are not cleared to get into security sensitive areas and this is printed on all the material including their press cards from us and in the letter of authorization. They are cleared to cover events to be published on our web site.

The reason of course is one of security and we do not want to issue ID to anyone we feel might present a security risk to others or to IPA. We cannot do background checks on our members, but we do have the right to void a membership at any time and refuse to renew a membership if we feel a member has stepped over the line. Read our Terms of Membership and you will understand we do not take approval of members lightly.

10. We have a problem with bogus IPA press ID being sold on the streets In Thailand,

a company in California and others including one fellow who attempted to take our Logo art and PPA logo and make his own. Of course he was reported to us by the company he went to, to have the card printed. Both PPA and IPA stopped him immediately.

11. If you go to our article on the bogus press ID, I think you will have many other answers to your questions.

12. Now even though IPA is a small organization you can see there is quite a bit of confusion and in our case “Imitation is not the nicest form of flattery” On this thread alone people have thought we were the people with the 4 page web site in California using our name or similar to IFPO, a company that has been around a long time selling all sorts of ID including ones to be a Model Agent, Talent Scout, Freelance Press cards, and much more.

Now understand IFPO is a legitimate business and I don't mean to infer they are doing anything wrong, I am just stating facts that we are not them and should not be confused with these other companies.

Anyone can see visiting their web site what their business is, it is selling all sorts of "educational items" to amateur photographers only to find out that their Freelance Press Card has little if any merit in the real world.

On the other hand, once companies check our web site and see our members profiles and their published works, in most cases, they will offer them press access to their event. Actually even I, have to send links to my reviews and my profile to prove that I can cover the event properly before they will grant me the access.

So it isn't about the Press Card itself, anyone can print their own on their computer today. It is showing these people you can offer them the review or coverage they expect and help their business. In every email we send to new members and all over our forum we keep stressing the importance of doing the work you promise those that give you access to their events. We tell our members over and over to build a professional profile on our site to enable them to gain that access.

I tell potential members that after 9/11 security is tighter and more people attempt to gain media access today then ever before, but the smart people at these companies will want to see their published work. Frankly, many won't even allow me to attend if I simply tell them I am the president of the company. They want working media, those people prepared to give their event press coverage.

But let me not digress, this is not about the others and I only use these two as illustrations of how people can confuse IPA with others. You can certainly understand our concerns about this confusion.

IPA has registered our IPA logo and name with the US Trademark office and IPA is a registered trademark of our company, but that doesn't stop the fakes using our name and others trying to do the same.

13. We have a list of countries we consider hot countries and will not accept any members from these countries, again as part of our security issues.

If we simply SOLD PRESS CARDS, then we would simply accept anyone that would pay for them. The reality is our press identification package is free to all of our qualified members and remember all of our members in order to stay with us must have a valid profile on our site.

We do reject any application that we feel is not legitimate including one recently from a Palastinian web site that promoted the killing of all Jews. I suppose they didn't realize that Rapoport is a jew. As it turns out, we also reject residents of Israel as well, because it would be hard for us to determine who they were. Remember we do not cover breaking news and certainly we don't need anyone in Israel of Palestine to cover the local trade show on the latest weaponry.

14. We will not ship any press identification to a PO Box or to a second party. The members usually pay on Pay Pal with confirmed mailing addresses and accounts. We know who they are and where they live. Another security issue.

Over the years most of the bogus cards or verifications we have received in our offices have come from law enforcement authorities. They usually contact us because they confiscated the Press ID from someone that has attempted to beat a traffic ticket, get into a place they shouldn’t be allowed into or other issue. I have never, I mean never, had any calls of complaint about any of our staff members and I think that goes to prove our guys and gals really want to learn and be part of our group.

I hope this gives you and others a more complete idea of who we are, our goals and our member base. I could publish all the thank you letters from companies I have worked with but if you simply go to the Alienskin web site or others you will see our logos there, and links to our reviews of their products.

If you visit my profile on LinkedIn you will see 250 connections and many are friends. The President and CEO of the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, the countries leading hospital for orthopedic surgery is there and many other executives from the major photo industry as well as PR people who have known me over the years.

My background is not as a photojournalist per se, it is much more. I have been a marketing executive, a business owner dealing with the major film studios, a corporate communications director for leading clients like the New York Palace Hotel, Kinney Systems in New York, New York Waterways and many others. and an internationally published writer and photographer.

Being a communications, marketing and business owner and a photographer and writer for so many years makes me the ideal man to run IPA. You don't have to be an artist to own an art gallery, but you need to not only know about art, you need to know how to work with artists and their potential clients while running a successful business.

I am not simply a photographer although, photography was always my passion and an important part of my life. After serving my country as a commissioned officer in the NY National Guard, I worked for an executive recruiting firm and decided to start my own, which was called Opportunities Plus. My job was not only to hire and train our staff but to interview and place sales and marketing people on high level positions. This helped teach me the skills to communicate with individuals and motivate them so they could take a good interview and obtain those positions.

I finally ended up in sales and marketing and worked for some years in the women's clothing industry where I traveled around the world to work with manufacturers we used in Bangkok Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and other countries. I have always had a camera in my hands and you will see some of my early photos I shot on some of my business trips. All the commercial advertising my companies needed I either shot or produced for them. That includes the many catalogues we produced.

My wife is a travel professional and owns her own agency. We have had many wonderful opportunities to travel around the globe, including Africa, Thailand, China, Eastern Europe, the Amazon,Egypt and lots of other exotic locations and many of the photos I shot were purchased for use by some of the travel operators we dealt with over the years.

Later, I opened a company that dealt in movie related licensed merchandise and met with may of the major motion picture and video companies to obtain licenses to produce our products. Movie Tee's was the first company to advertise our movie related products on the back of the video tapes. I was also one of the early pioneers in the video industry and taught video stores how to sell movie related merchandise and not simply rent videos.

As a communications consultant, I worked with some of the leading companies in the country. They included CBS Fox Home Video, Disney, Paramount, NY Palace Hotel, Kinney Parking Systems, NY Waterways and many others. I also attended many trade shows as an exhibitor and also as a attendee so I am an expert on these shows and still cover many in the NY area for our web site.

My photos have appeared in many national magazines and publication world wide and I have always shot catalogues, press release photos, etc. for all the companies I owned or worked for. I was Neil Diamond's first photographer in the 1960's and shot his first and a couple of other album covers for him.

Many of those early photos of Neil, that have defined him over the years, I shot. Of course over the years these early photos of Neil have appeared in millions of album covers, books, sheet music, concert books and many leading publications like Rolling Stone, Life and hundreds of others.

My album cover for Neil's album "In My Life Time" which included a book inside with many of my photos was part of a discussion between Neil and David Letterman during one of his many publicity appearances.

At my age, IPA is is not about making money, hence we do not accept any paid advertising on our site. We do not sell mailing lists to anyone, we do not sell all sorts of up sell products once a member joins. The only item other then some logo merchandise in our store is some business cards for member that want them. What does this all mean? We don't owe anyone anything other then our members. They are the people that support IPA with their small yearly membership dues.

IPA is simply the culmination of my life’s work and not about the money. I enjoy being able to help others, I enjoy writing and meeting new people at the shows and events I attend and I bring my experiences from all parts of my career now to IPA. I now love networking with so many others on LinkedIn, Facebook and the other sites we now have groups on and I love corresponding with you all and reviewing your web sites and portfolios. I have always been a giving individual and from the many years of experience teaching companies how to communicate with their customers, I think I know a thing or two about it.

I hope this history and explanation will help you understand what IPA is all about and what I am all about, or at least explain why I feel we serve a valuable service for many companies and individuals who have supported us for these last 20 years.

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It has now become my mission to let others know about forum bullies and how they are no different then those bullies we met back at school when we were kids. They are the same insecure individuals with very sad lives that thrive on torturing others. I think they should be understood for what they are and ignored if at all possible.

This is one of the reasons that the only forums I belong to are the ones that are monitored closely and have strict rules about Flaming others and vicious attacks by these bullies. I wrote to the support team of this site days ago but only received a response that they don't get to the emails too often and it could take some time to answer. Heck, if you can't run these forums properly then why bother putting them up? You just know that people will abuse them and their is no way to stop it.

Definition...Flaming

Note: Please do not comment about Mr. Dillard unless you are willing to login with your name or username. I have received a number of comments that were, well, not very proper and I don't want to become a Ted myself by allowing these comments. I have also received some that frankly, I believe might have come from Ted from the style of the writing and the fact they were all either annonymous or today from a person named Nick :-) that has no profile posted.

If you have an opinion I am happy to hear it or if you have had a similar issue, please let us know about that as well. It is hard for anyone to defend themselves including myself from what might be considered personal attacks without any proof, anything I have stated in this blog posting is true to the best of my knowledge and I would like the same should you state any facts or comments. If you just want to post a comment about people like this or a similar experience that is fine.

Thank you for understanding that I would prefer to take the high road both here and at IPA.

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Just in from Lightstalkers.com....

From: support@lightstalkers.org
Subject: Re: Offensive Posting Follow Up
Date: March 21, 2009 6:15:22 PM EDT
To: lenrap@internationalpress.com

Thanks for this, that's what we needed. We're giving them one opportunity to resolve this politely, and we'll then take direct action if necessary. Thank you again for cooperating with this process and do let me know if I can help with anything else.

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After supplying them with proof that Mr. Dillard's statements were untrue by sending them copies of LinkedIn postings and emails, they agreed with IPA that this was not the type of posts they will allow on their forum.
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Ted was kind enough to share they email to him:

On Mar 21, 2009, at 6:13 PM, Lightstalkers wrote:

Hi Ted -- it's been brought to our attention that you've made factually incorrect assertions in your IPA discussion here:

http://www.lightstalkers.org/international-press-association

I'm not trying to get involved in your grievances, and we do respect your opinions. However, our Terms of Use do specifically forbid members from making false statements about another person (or organization); it falls under our prohibition against libel. In this case, the subject of your comments has disputed your assertions, and we are required to respect that.

I'm writing now, in good faith, to give you the opportunity to either remove or edit your comments yourself; we would sincerely prefer not to be forced to do it on our end. Again, we're not trying to get involved; we're just applying the Terms of Use equally to all members.

Thanks for your support and understanding,

Shinji Kuwayama
support@lightstalkers.org

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You can see that when someone makes false statements on a public board, in print or over the airwaves, they must be based on fact and not ones based on emotion of anger, hate or revenge.

This article hopefully will serve others should they also find they are the victims of a malicious or libelous posting on a forum or web site as I have. You can fight back and stop it.

Packet8 Voip Gets Into My Hall of Shame!

2008-12-10T15:23:00.000-08:00

If you have been following my plight with Verizon and their Fios install mess and a subsequent mess dealing with their porting my number to them before they did the install, then you have only read half of the problems I have been having over the past 3 months.

The second part of my problems were with my Voip provider Packet8, owned by a company 8X8.

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Packet8 Internet phone service was introduced in 2002 by publicly traded 8x8, Inc. (Nasdaq: EGHT), a 20 year old telecommunications company with more than 68 multimedia and VoIP technology patents. Since then, 8x8 has applied this expertise to the development and provision of reliable, high quality voice and video Internet phone services for both residential and business users. When you subscribe to Packet8, you can feel confident you have chosen one of the VoIP industry’s most respected and admired service providers.

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I originally went to Packet8 believing that I would save tons of money on my long distance calls and the lower monthly service charges. I have been with Packet8 since 2006 and for the past two years have suffered with poor quality, poor tech support and a very poor experience with them porting my number over to them from Verizon. See the below history of problems I reported to them. Each one took months to resolve if they were resolved.

Recently I was going to switch to Verizon Fios on their triple play deal but after Verizon failed to show up for two days of appointments and a number of screw ups there, I decided to cancel my order with them and stay with Packet 8.

Unfortunately my business (second phone in my home office) number was now at Verizon and we had to now port it back to Packet8. To make a long story short, I spent over 10 solid hours and 2 months attempting to get the number back. Their customer service kept giving me the old standard answer it could take 6 weeks. I knew this was not true since Verizon seemed to get me to them in 6 days.

After 9 weeks of calling, faxing authorization forms, explaining the Verizon mess with so many of their customer reps, I decided to call it quits and had Verizon install a hard line back so I could keep my valued number. Having a good phone number and having it for 15 years and on every piece of stationary, web sites, listings etc. is a major deal, especially if you lose the number due to some dopes mistakes.

I finally found out that you can't port a number if is is not currently on a working phone. Well, after I cancelled my work order with Fios, this number went into Verizons number pool, ready to be picked up by the next customer. When I discovered this, I called Verizon in a panic, asked to speak to a supervisor and asked if I could put in a new order for a new phone line to lock up that number. We would put in an installation date a month later, to give Packet8 a chance to port the number back.

After many more calls almost daily to Packet8 on when they thought I would be whole again and my number would be back with them, each rep gave me another answer.

• It can take 6 weeks be patient

• Did you complete the request form? I will email you one, complete and and fax it back to us.

• We can't seem to locate your form. Can you fax us a copy of your phone bill? I explained I didn't have one since Verizon hadn't installed the phone line yet and was holding the number for me.

• Finally 2 months later one rep figured it out..."You can't port over a number on an installation, it has to be a working number and that is why it is not coming over"...Duh...didn't anyone know this at Packet8? After all I spend so many hours telling my grim story to each and every one of them and each time asking for a supervisor and being told "I can help you with this", but they couldn't.

Last week I spoke to a nice rep, who assured me they would issue credit for the past few months that I didn't have full phone service or wasn't able to receive any calls to my proper phone number. She would also check to see what was going on and get back to me. She never did and I had to explain this entire story over again 3 more times.

On Monday of this week, I decided I had enough jerking around. I called Verizon and asked if I could push up the install date on my work order and get the line installed sooner. To my shock, I was told for some reason that order was cancelled and not in their system...Here we go again. A new order was entered and thank god, the number had not be snatched up by someone else.

Now the new install was only two days later. I opted for the tech to come out between 10 AM and 1 PM. Why was I not surprised at 1:15 PM when no one called or showed up. Once again on the phone with Verizon and guess what, the order I placed on Monday was also screwed up and they didn't have me down for the install on Wednesday.

At last I found a guy who was kind enough to call the install center in Maryland (they handle New Jersey installations, no wonder there is a lack of communication) and promised me that someone would show before the end of the day. Better yet, the installation tech arrived and told me the number they gave him to install was not my number but another one. Just when you think you have control of a situation you find out you are out of control again. I was lucky today because I had a great installation guy who took the bull by the horns, got on the phone and got my number for me.

Finally, we got the line back in. They also allowed me a $10 per month credit for one year to help with the mess and now I would be paying just about what I paid for the Packet8 line. Of course there is no comparison with the quality of the sound and calls I make on my hard line compared to the internet phone, it is so much better.

When I called Packet8 to see what they would do for me in terms of refunding my payments for the past couple of months, their answer was I used their service, so I had to pay for it. I would think they would say, "Mr. Rapoport, we are so sorry for your problems, we are sorry to hear that that any one calling you was told your phone was disconnected. Let us do something to compensate you for the trouble" This was not the case, I spend an hour again on the phone with Eva another customer service rep who made me go through the entire story again with her, went to a supervisor and came back with a one month refund (December) and she would cancel my account with them. I tried to reason with her that it is only the 8th day in the month and I was really only getting an 8 day allowance on this account not a month.

No matter what I said, no matter how I promised to write the sales manager of the company Huw Rees, or write the story in my blog or my web site, no matter how I explained that they should compensate me for at least the few months my phone was not working, it didn't matter. I finally gave up and decided to do what I must now do to prevent others from going down this dark, dank road to Packet8.

Packet8 is either right behind Verizon or ahead of them in their inability to get things right and offer the service they promise. Both companies need to really examine their customer service issues and understand that we are in a bad economy and if you don't have loyal customers and take care of them, you will lose them forever. Didn't they ever hear about negative publicity, especially in the internet age when everyone now has a blog and a loud voice, a voice that can reach millions of people with a simple google search.

Of course I will be calling AMEX to put the past few months charges in dispute. If you are not aware, when a seller gets a dispute from a credit card company they are charged a fee, much like a bounced check fee at a bank. They then have to prove that they deserve the payment or they will be charged back the amount and the buyer will receive that as a credit. So they would rather play this game, get a charge back fee, have to assign someone to answer the complaint and hope they win...instead of giving me a $90 allowance instead of a $30 allowance. Can you imagine their thinking?

I suppose many customers threaten to do something and never follow through, but I can assure you I will seek satisfaction no matter what it takes. I am like a pit bull, once I am wronged, no matter what the financial importance, I will hang on to their pant leg like a pit bull, until I win the fight.

I wouldn't advise anyone thinking of going to Packet8 to stop, take a deep breath and read this story again. Hell, two years ago hard lines were expensive compared to the Voip providers, but now you can get Verizon for only $39.95 per month with unlimited local and long distance calling and if you need overseas, you can always use Skype at 2¢ per minute, so what is the great advantage now of a VoIP?

Frankly Verizon gave me a better deal at only $29.95 includes the extras like caller Id, etc. Now Packet8 is only $5 per month cheaper and for the first time in over 2 years I can hear people talk to me on that line. The volume and clarity is unreal compared to what I had become used to on Packet8.

Check the deals in your area with the phone company and the cable companies and stay clear of these Voip companies. They are not regulated as are the other companies and you don't want to have to depend on them if your phone is important to you.

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Update...12/14/2008

Review the below Notes Correspondence of Case ID 578868

Note Created Date: 12/12/2008 10:48AM

Note Summary: Customer Support/Packet8

Note Detail: Dear Packet8 Customer,

Thank you for contacting Packet8 Customer Support.

Your refund for $33.04 has been processed. Please allow 5-7 days for the refund to reflect on your credit card.

Thank you,

Packet8 Customer Support

Note: They also allowed me another $7.37 for what I think is my toll free number. I had two accounts with them one was a regular phone line and the other an 800 number.

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Considering that anyone trying to reach my business line was told the phone was disconnected for over 2 months because they never gave me the correct information about porting this line back to them and the problems dialing out on this line, I would think they might have wanted to be a bit more generous.

Packet8, Shame On You!

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December 19, 2008 - Update

Today I received a call from Packet8's LPN Department to let me know they can't port over my phone number without a bill from the other company. Duh...I had to tell him the whole story and let him know I had already cancelled my service with them a couple of weeks ago and had the phone installed again with Verizon.

I also received an email stating that they first received the forms I completed on November 18, 2008 to port the number back over to them. A month after the form was faxed...and now they say that it can take 4-6 weeks to port that number. Unreal...

Do you wonder why companies in the United States are in trouble. Wonder why they are going offshore for their customer service. Verizon and Packet8 both have the worst customer service I have seen in years. There is no dedication to getting the problems fixed and no follow through to make sure the job was done and the customer is satisfied. God Bless America, if this continues we are all doomed.

Facebook A Great Place To Network With Others...

2008-11-19T18:15:00.000-08:00

As president of International Press Association a web based organization with international members of the independent media, photographers, photojournalists, journalists and others, I do quite a bit of networking. This means going to trade and consumer shows, media events, travel destinations and many other places, but I have found the internet one of the best places to network with others.

Check out this video: Harolds NY Deli - Humongous Portions

I first started to network on LinkedIn and you can even see a link to my profile on this blog. I also joined YouTube which gives me an opportunity to post my little video productions, grab the code and then simply paste it into my profile page on my web site. I also went over to MySpace and opened an account there, but frankly, I think MySpace is more for the kids and haven't done anything there other then upload some videos because I have found their compression scheme on uploaded videos much better then the one YouTube uses. I tend to use MySpace as a free storage unit that can serve my videos, slide shows and images on my web site without my server getting bogged down and using my bandwidth to serve the content myself. I have included some samples of a MySpace video and slide show to show you what I mean.

Now back to Facebook. Facebook is a wonderful social networking site that encourages you to invite your friends and family to your "Friends" network so you can share many aspects of your personal life with them. This means your photos, videos, profile, your current mood, your interests, what you are doing now, links and so much more. They offer companies like mine two ways to set up a presense on Facebook, the first is meant for the musician, artist, photographer, small business to have a "Page" on Facebook. Unlike a group the page lets you invite people to become a "Fan" of your page. You can usually find these pages set up by individual fans of a singing star or actor/actress. Many models amateur and professional will also set up a Fan page and IPA now has one as well. You can view our page by clicking here.

On our page we can include fans photos, videos, topics to discuss, wall postings and much more. It also allows us the ability to send out a message to all our fans. We can invite them to a party, meeting or if you are a singer, the next performance of your act in their town.

Now the Group page is a bit different and can only be set up by the entity that owns that group or company. So you will see our International Press Association Group on Facebook that looks a bit like the page, but again has its own special features.

On our group we have similar features to upload photos, videos, wall postings, links, etc., but we can't send a message out to part of or all of the group members. The difference is that one is a company page and the other Fan Page is just that a fan page and tends to be a bit different.

We ask all of our members and friends to join both and if they want a personal relationship with me to simply invite me to join their Facebook network. All they need to do is a simple member search using my name: Len Rapoport.

Now remember, you can use these sites to take advantage of many free services that other site will charge you for including Classmates.com, Friend Finders, and others and they probably have more members on a Facebook or MySpace site then many of those paid sites. Give it a try, it is not hard to learn how to use and you will find a great way to keep in touch with old and current friends and relatives too.

Gotta Love Scotts Lawn Products - Best Guarantee

2008-11-19T16:12:00.000-08:00

Well, as you know I just love companies that believe in their products and are "willing to put their money where their mouth is." The Scotts Miracle-Grow company, the folks who produce the garden and lawn products is a company that optimizes this statement.

I have purchased their products almost exclusively for my garden and lawn with the exception from time to time on a sale product from another company. The reason I give them most of my business is not only because I like their products and have the best lawn and garden in my neighborhood, but because this is a fine American company that makes a quality product and gives you a no questions asked satisfaction guarantee on all their products.

Now understand a normal guarantee usually covers a manufacturers defect in the product and then they may replace a part that you would install or you might have to return the item to their factory service center. In some cases they want you to send them the balance of the unused product. Well all of those guarantees for me is just about worthless because in dealing with this type of product the cost to return a $40 spreader would be more then it would be worth.

Secondly, how would you ship a used bag of fertilizer back to them? What would the cost and effort be? So Scotts lets you know up front on every hang tag and label that they offer a Satisfaction Guarantee and that like the Costco Guarantee means if you are not happy with the product for any reason, let them know and they will refund your full purchase price.

I had occassion in the past to call them about one of the lawn chemical products that didn't seem to do what I had expected and they gladly sent me a refund after I sent them a part of the lable (usually a UPC proof of purchase tag). Now a number of years later I had one of their rotary spreaders and the gear box on the underside split open and I couldn't repair it myself.

I was getting ready to throw it out, after all it was only around $40 and I had it for 2 seasons. Of course I only used it maybe a dozen times in that period, but I had the original store receipt an their guarantee label in my files and pulled them out. I decided to call their toll free customer service number and had a very sweet lady offer to either send me replacement parts, which I declined for fear it could take me too much time and effort to fix it myself (if I could) and asked if they could simply refund my money.

She agreed to do so with no hesitation and asked me to remove the wire that goes from the handle to the hoper and send it to them with a form she emailed me. I took my wire cutter out, snipped the cord and rolled it up and mailed it to them with a copy of the original store receipt.

Within a couple of weeks I received this letter of apology and a check to cover the full amount of my original purchase. Who does this today? Companies that believe in their products and appreciate their customers, Scotts Miracle-Grow is just such a company and I can assure you and them, that I am a customer for life.

Hell, if you figure the costs in advertising and getting customers to purchase your product, I suppose offering this type of service and support to build loyal customers comes out to be a fraction of what it would cost to get another customer to buy their products.

Scotts, once again you have given us all faith in the American manufacturers that understand what it takes to do business in this troubled economy.

Verizon Fios...Fawgetaboutit!!! - Verizon a Big Failure

2008-11-19T12:21:00.000-08:00

Verizon Fios keeps sending me their offers in the mail and I have even had a guy knock on my door to try to sign me up. So with the horrible economy and all my cable bills going up, I decided to make the switch. Hell at $94.99 a month for a year, no installation costs and their boxes included with high speed internet, Extreme HD TV, and their Freedom Essentials telephone, how could I resist. After all I am paying Comcast $150 per month and my Voip phone costs me another $30. I would save over $1200 my first year and even if they raised rates on my second year, I was sure it would still be lower overall.

So I signed up over the phone, nice rep took my order and we set up an install date of 10/14/2008. They tell you that they will show up between 8 AM - 12 Noon, so I got up nice and early, moved some of my furniture as they suggested so they would have access and was ready to go.

The rep showed up around 10 AM and walked around my home shaking his head about my wiring. My electrical inbound wires were near the front of the house, the telephone lines on the left side of the house and the cable connections from Comcast on the right side. I have 7 outlets for TV and one for my computer. He told me that I might not be able to get great service in all of my TV's because of the wiring. I said I couldn't take a chance of not having equal or better service because I work from my home office and own an internet based business.

Finally after an hour and a half, he admitted that this job would take 8 hours and would be a two man job and that he really couldn't do it himself. I asked if he could get a supervisor out to look at my situation to assure me that it could be done properly. Apparently that is not possible from what I later found out. So after he left and told me he would have them note that it was a two man job, I received an email with a new install date of 10/30/08, 2 weeks later. Now there were issues with paying Comcast for another month which starts on the 25th of each month and my phone bill. The reason for the 14th as an install date was to avoid that extra months bill.

Well, I called their retention line, you know when you want to cancel a service they send you there to try to save the customer...well the guy there promised once I was set up they would reimburse me for the cable and phone bill for that month. OK, I thought that was fair, so I waited until the next install date. I got a dozen recorded calls on the phone to remind me of the install date and a few emails as well.

On Oct. 30th, once again I was up at the crack of dawn, cleaned up the house, my office and was ready for the installation. As the hours passed, I was concerned and finally at 11:30 AM called their retention office because I didn't know who else to call. You see you can get lost or have your call dropped if you go through their main toll free line. For a company supposed to offer superior service and be in the communications industry, their phone system is the worst circle jerk I have ever seen. After a number of options that never really fit, you can't seem to get to any human. When you do and find out it is the wrong department ("oh, you need our Fios team") and they attempt to transfer your call, you get dropped and once again enter the world of automated phone answering systems as you call back in and again have to explain why you are calling.

To shorten the story, I won't go through all the calls to Verizon on the day of my promised install, but needless to say they never showed, they never set it up for a two man install and at 3 PM that day I decided I was just wasting my time with Verizon and asked them to cancel my order. I decided to wait for their retention people to speak to their supervisors and let me know if there was anything else they could do for me, especially since they screwed me up now two days. The best they offered was a $180 discount, $30 per month for the first 6 months of service. I felt it wasn't enough now and the next morning when they called me to set up a third date for another 2 weeks later, I decided to simply cut my losses and cancel the order.

I got another call about an hour later to inform me that my telephone number was already ported over to them and no longer would work for me since it wasn't hooked up to any companies service. So now I lost my number, would have to have Packet 8 my Voip service get it back and deal with people trying to reach me and finding the number had been disconnected.

So now, Packet 8 told me they would give me a temporary number so I could make outgoing calls, but I would still have the incoming call issue until the number ported back over to them from Verizon. Two weeks passed and the number was still not working, so I called Packet 8 who told me it could take 6 weeks which I argued it should not. Verizon told me they do these very quickly and would only take a few days.

Packet 8 wasn't much help either and I couldn't get to a supervisor there either. So once again, with them, I spoke to a half dozen people until I found one that told me that the number must have gone back into the pool of available numbers once Verizon canceled my order.

He was right, so once again back to Verizon now in panic that my 15 year old business number would be given away to some one else. The number was so good, 888-2777 that I didn't want to lose it. All my stationary, business cards, web site, web site registrations and listings, etc. would have to be changed and you know how hard that could be when you own a media company and have tons of web pages on the net.

So I got on the phone with Verizon because Packet8 told me that number wasn't available in their pool of numbers. Sure enough it was in the Verizon pool and was still available. I explained what needed to be done. I told them that I had to place a new phone line order and grab that number until Packet8 could port it back over. I pleaded with them and told them I didn't want to lose thousands of dollars reprinting stationary, etc. and wanted to avoid a law suit against Verizon. I certainly have grounds if I could show financial loss.

She told me they would have to run a financial check, I told her this was a second line in my home and that should not be necessary. I suggested we set up the new order with a long installation date. This then would lock the number, give me time to port it over to Packet8 and then we could cancel the new line install.

She was very nice and really wanted to help me and did in fact take my phone number, told me she would go to a supervisor and set it up and call me back. Well, she did it just right and the install date was set for late in December, so that should be sufficient time to regain my number.

Now I have to stay on top of Packet8 to make sure they will do it. I faxed them a request to port the number over so they have my written permission and have to deal with people calling my business number only to hear a message that the phone has been disconnected with no forwarding number.

I have asked them why their service was so poor and so messed up and the answer was they are very busy. I can guarantee that they are overwhelmed with new installs and probably aren't adding any new staff to handle the action. Frankly, now that I know they have to put a huge box in my home where the lines go in and out, I an not sure I would even want this service. They said they could put it in my garage, but frankly with all my shelving and wall space taken, there isn't much room to put this box in. If I wanted a big ugly box on the outside front of my home they could do that, but it would be seen by anyone entering my home, not a good option.

I am thankful that I decided to cancel before the installation because I know if I had a problem, their service would not be very good and I might be out of business while waiting for a tech to either call me back or show up.

Stay away from Verizon Fios for now, they are not ready for Prime Time and although their marketing team would have you believe they are, their install and support team will tell you "they are just too busy."

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December 19, 2008 - Update on this story

If you read this story, you should also read my posting on Packet8 as the story continues there.

The short story is that I couldn't get my number back from Verizon and over to Packet8 and Verizon almost lost my number that I have had for 15 years. I decided to finally give in and had Verizon install the line and left Packet8. It is more then two weeks now and because of faulty installation and issues on the "Pole" I have not had phone service on that line.

I will keep you updated on this very long and frustrating journey.

Levolor, Limited Lifetime Warranty, Another Great Company

2008-10-03T14:41:00.000-07:00

Wow...you would think that a blog named dont get me mad, would be a blog with tons of postings on companies or people that piss me off. What a surprise for some when I invite them to view my blog and they see that most of the posts really deal with the opposite, companies that prove they deserve my business and my loyalty.

I found another such company, Levolor, yes the folks that have been around for more years then I am old and a company that offers a fine product backed by a Limited Lifetime Warranty.

OK, here is my story about some cellular blinds I purchased about 13 years ago from a local blind store here in New Jersey. I hung one of the blinds on a bedroom window and two matching blinds on a set of glass doors leading out of the bedroom onto my patio.

The room was at one time our master bedroom, but when we added a floor to our home, we moved upstairs and used this room for my son and later as a guest room. I noticed a couple of week ago that the one window blind had an open gap in the middle of the blind.

I didn't even think of a warranty so I attempted to fix it myself by taking the blind off and spraying the open seam with spray adhesive and clamping it closed to allow it to dry. I then hung it back up and noticed it started to split in other areas as well, so I realized it was obviously a defect in the glue they used when they made these blinds.

After all it hung on the window with very little use for many years in this guest room and the other ones on the doors were just fine. I decided to take them into Home Depot to see if I could find a close match to replace the one blind. I happened to ask the rep in the blinds department if Levolor had any sort of Limited Lifetime Warranty on this item, frankly not expecting a positive answer. To my surprise she told me they did and that they were a great company to deal with.

Bingo...hope springs eternal....and my hope for the best was confirmed..She then gave me Levolor's toll free number, told me to call them and if I needed them to do anything to receive the new blinds or order them for me to come back. As I said, love Costco, love Home Depot.

So off I went to try to find the original receipt for these blinds, contact Levolor and work on getting a new blind to replace the old one. Since it was so long ago, I was able to get all the information about the purchase from the tag on the blind itself. On the top of the blind on the back, there was a tag. As you can see in the photo, it shows when I got these, the size and more.

So I called Levolor and spoke to a nice rep who told me she would send me a Warranty Claim form to complete. I asked if she could email it to me and she did. I realized I didn't have the proof of purchase they asked for on the form, so I called the original store that I think I bought them from. I explained the entire story to them and they weren't very nice about it at all and seemed insulted I went to Home Depot with the problem instead of them.

They also told me that my warranty was void if I attempted any repairs of my own on the blind and that they would send the blind back to Levolor for me at a cost of almost $70. When I questioned the absurd fee, they explained that covers their shipping and handling fees. I told the woman for me to UPS this to the company would be around $7 and why would I even spend any money sending it to them if she told me they wouldn't honor the warranty because I attempted to fix it. She got angry at me and told me that I should go back to Home Depot or Lowes and deal with them...nice huh! Now you understand why small stores go out of business...they just take things too personal and can't look at the bigger picture.

So back to my story...I took a number of photos that you see here and asked Tawanda Hall the Levolor rep if that would do the job. Unfortunately she had issues seeing the photos and even after trying a few times to upload them to my web site she still couldn't work on this claim. I called in cold again and got a wonderful Levolor rep Kim Samples who was really on the ball. I could see she was a pro and must have had years of experience at her job.

Kim was able to get my photos, the claim form and walk me through their process without any problems. I asked her if they could match the pattern, kind of knowing the answer when I asked the question and she told me no. I then told her about the two other blinds I had on the doors and showed her the photo

I asked her what I could do to make them all match and she told me they wouldn't let me have a mismatched room and although they would prefer to replace the one defective blind, in this case they would replace all three...can you believe that...a company telling you that they didn't want you to have a mismatched room and would make it right!

So now the next step was to give Kim all the dimensional information from the blinds in the room. She told me to go into Home Depot and select "Any one of the Levolor cellular blinds I wanted" Any I repeated, because I wasn't sure what this meant and she confirmed any one. "Does that mean no matter what cost or what collection" I asked. She said "Yes...take a look at all of them and let me know which ones you like"

So off I went back to Home Depot. They pulled out the Levolor books and I selected a beautiful Linen Woven Snow White replacement blind from their Designer collection. On the window blind I selected the cordless version (which usually costs more) and on the two for the doors the same continuous cord version.

One of the blinds for the window arrived about 10 days later and the two door blinds followed by a few more days. I now have them up on the windows and they look beautiful. I of course had to repaint the room and moldings now because I was putting in these new Snow White blinds, but that was fine. I even shampooed my carpet, so now the room sparkles again and is ready to welcome family and guests that want to stay over.

I can truly say that Kim and the folks at Home Depot and Levolor have once again confirmed to me that it pays to only buy from companies that offer a quality product, a no nonsense warranty on that product and a company like Levolor that has staff trained that understand how to treat their customers as VIP's and make their lives a bit less stressful during these difficult times.

Kudo's to Kim Samples at Levolor and her wonderful company, you have made me a big fan of your company and your products for life. Hopefully my blog and my web site (I will publish this there as well) will make others aware of your company, products and policies and that helps sell even more Levolor product.

My new window blind above with no cord, simple to use, beautiful to see...

My new door blinds. The new Snow White color makes the room brighter and allows more diffused light into this room. I am so pleased with the way this all turned out.

Costco The Best Retailer By Far...

2008-10-03T14:12:00.000-07:00

Many that have been reading my blog have discovered that there are some companies I really love and some, well, I don't.

We all know that Costco is one of my favorite retailers because of their wonderful warranty and return policies on all the products they sell. Often, I think they are too liberal and I have seen a number of situations that have really irked me. Once I saw a woman return a dead bunch of cut flowers and receive a refund. Recently I saw a customer return a dead tomato plant in September that she had in a flower pot and enjoyed during the summer growing season.

I actually witnessed this abuse of their return policy and just couldn't stop myself from opening my big mouth. I know many of the people that work at Costco in Hazlet, New Jersey where I live because they have been there for so many years, this tells you something too, doesn't it. Costco and Home Depot are my two favorite stores, hey I am a guy where else would I shop?

For this reason, I just couldn't stand there and let this person abuse one of my favorite stores. After watching this return take place I decided to step in and say something. Hey, Costco employees can't say a thing even though it must kill them when they have to abide by the rules and take the return without question. They have to be nice to all of their customers, but I don't.

When my buddy John, the sales associate, came over, I decided enough is enough. In a some what loud voice, standing right behind the woman making the return, I asked John if I too, could return my dead plants. I continued that I didn't realize that the Costco policy would allow a return on a dead tomato plant at the end of the growing season. John gave me a wry smile, he knew me well and knew what I was doing.

The woman who was making the return and knew she was trying to pull a fast one on them, turned around and told me to mind my own business. Of course she was talking to the wrong guy...I never back down from people like this, I said, well, if you can purchase a seasonal plant and return it at the end of the season and get your money back, then I suppose I should be doing the same thing too.

I assume I got my message across and even if Costco didn't give her a hard time, she will think a bit more before pulling another one of her scams against my favorite store...at least I would hope so.

Frankly, it thought it WAS my business to say something...for two reasons. I have been a Costco shopper for many years and over those years have been a Costco stock holder, so I feel an attachment to this company and its employees. I don't want them to have to change their policies as many companies do because of too much abuse. I must assume they have the cost of these returns factored into their prices and they must have a relationship with their vendors to expect a certain percentage of returns too. I also know that this really does bother some of their employees, but because they have been trained to deal with customers a certain way, they can't say anything negative for fear of antagonizing a customer.

I also realize that on some items they may not have the lowest prices in town. Maybe that higher price helps them maintain a profitable business, even with what has to be the high costs of running their exceptional return policy and offering world class customer service.

I have purchased cameras and many electronic items at Costco and paid a bit more for some then I might if I bought on the internet or from the cheapest dealer I could find, but frankly, it is worth the extra money to buy it here. You can't purchase a camera anywhere, try it out for a month or two and then find it is not what you expected and return it. Many stores and internet dealers will charge you a restocking fee, refuse the return entirely or in the case of an online retailer, will make you pay for the shipping both ways...Costco online lets you make your return to any one of their stores and even refunds the shipping costs you paid when you ordered the item...Who Does This? No one I know....

Let me give you a real example of this benefit, so you can understand why I prefer to buy as much as I can at Costco...Go and purchase a $1,000 camera or computer at a Best Buy or an online retailer and attempt to return it. Not only would they give you a hard time if it wasn't in pristine condition with everything in place as if it were never opened, but they might hit you for a $150 restocking fee (15% seems to be the norm) if they will take it back at all. If it was bought online, you can figure another $30 or more, for the back and forth shipping costs too. So if I paid a $100 more for that camera at Costco then the cheapest retailer I could find, I might ask myself, is it really worth the small savings buying elsewhere?

To me the answer is NO. I would rather pay a bit more (on some items) and buy it at Costco. I feel that the small extra cost is the cost of my insurance that will enable me to evaluate the product to make sure I will be happy with my purchase. How many stores ask you to take their optional insurance on a product and charge you another 10% or more for it...at Costco it is free and in most cases goes way beyond the normal manufacturers warranty period.

Here is another example of their wonderful return policies.

I had a power washer that I bought last summer 2007, used it possibly 4-5 times for maybe 5 hours of total use. This year, when I attempted to use it again, it just wouldn't work. I brought it back to Costco, and they refunded my full purchase price, no hassle, no problems. Any other store might have told me to contact the manufacturer and deal with them. In many cases that might involve shipping this heavy unit back to them at my cost or dealing with their parts department and trying to do the repair myself.

On a side note...Home Depot is pretty good as well on returns and customer satisfaction. I especially like the fact that I don't have to find my receipt to make a return. They can do a look up taking my credit card (that I used to charge the item on) to determine when I bought it and the purchase price.

Imagine what our world would be like if every company followed Costco's lead? If they did...Would they all go out of business? Would the world come to an end? Or would manufacturers simply have to make a better product to live up to their claims?

If we bought a product and it delivered what the manufacturer promised we wouldn't have to return them, thus saving the company money on repairs or replacements. We would be happier to buy that brand again, because we would get what we expected. The manufacturer of course would be rewarded by increased sales from a strong and loyal customer base.

Not everything you buy should be dictated by price alone. There are a number of companies I have found that believe in the same philosophy as Costco. Please go to my two posts in this blog, one on Grohe and the other on Levolor to see two such manufacturers. I can think of some others too, Lexus, Apple (computer) and USAA (United Services Automobile Association),
These are three other companies that I rate 5 stars out of 5 in producing products and services that are second to none.

I would also be remiss if I didn't mention some of the people that have given me the exceptional service and now friendship at Costco, Hazlet, NJ. I truly feel we have become friends over the years. Frankly, I see these people more then I do my own family.

A Big Thank You Goes Out To These Hazlet, NJ Costco Employees

My friend Geri, John, Becky, Karen, Pam, Ann in marketing, Amanda, Tracy in Tires, Debbie the manager and so many others that I can't come up with their names right now. I promise to expand this list the next time I am there and will write their names down. After all at 65, I find it hard to remember where I put just about anything, so names are always a challenge :-)

It is all of you and the Costco policies, great products, value and guarantee, that have prompted me to not only acknowledge your hard work and your exceptional devotion to customer care, in this blog, but because you are all the products of the vision of your co-founder and CEO, Jim Sinegal.

Please take a moment to read more about this remarkable man (center, shirt open) and how he differs from many of the greedy corporate executives we have learned to loathe at this link. I am a true believer that people like Jim and their strong commitment to their employees and customers have made Costco the largest and best retailer in the country.

Thank you Jim, for passing your passion and great work ethics to all of the good people that work for you. Keep up the good work and try to teach some of the other CEO's and politicians how they too can become winners for both their companies and for their country.

By the way, doing a search for the Costco Logo art you see here, I found a site that shows that Costco rated number one in customer service...doesn't surprise me, I knew this already.

Forrster's 2007 Customer Experience Index

How Your Bank Can Ruin Your Vacation As Commerce Bank Did Ours

2008-05-26T19:40:00.000-07:00

My Commerce Bank account is a small checking account I had set up a couple of years ago to handle my father’s bills. When my father passed away last year, I maintained this account and from time to time over the past year I would cash some checks and did little else. I would access it online to see my interest on the account and would receive their paper statements each month.

I was getting ready to visit Budapest, Vienna and Prague on an extensive business/vacation trip and decided my best rates on foreign currencies would be had using my ATM card in each country I visited. My wife insisted this was the best way to handle this and not to take much US currency because we wouldn’t need it. I of course always feel a bit uncomfortable not taking cash with me, but conceded to her wishes.

I decided to make an additional deposit to my Commerce Bank (America's Most Convenient Bank) account prior to leaving and added another $575 to the account at the drive through window. When I made the deposit the teller told me that the account was flagged inactive. I asked her why and she said because of the lack of activity on the account this past year. She said it wasn’t a problem and she would make sure it was activated. She also gave me the banks phone number to call later in the day to make sure it was done. I called and was told that the deposit I made would reactivate the account and I shouldn't be concerned.

I explained, over the phone, that I was going to Europe and didn’t want to have any problems since this was my main “Cash” card and was assured the account was in good standing now that I made the deposit. My ATM card had an expiration date of 2009, so I thought that was OK too. Never did I realize that the bank also canceled my ATM card without any notification in writing or by phone, leaving me to think this card was still active.

Now lets go back to our arrival after a less then wonderful two separate flights totaling 11 hours. We were tired after this long trip and it was about 4 AM our time when we arrived in Budapest. At the Budapest baggage claim we saw a convenient OTP Bank ATM and attempted to use it. Of course the menu was in Hungarian, but we did see a button for English and we began the process. I put my Commerce ATM card in to the machine, put in my pin number and then attempted to withdraw some “Forint’s” Hungarian dollars from the machine. An error message came up, but it was in Hungarian, not English and I had no idea what was happening.

I attempted to cancel the transaction, but my card was not returned.   I was fortunate to find a very nice Hungarian man, Arpad Halasz, who spoke English and came to my aid. He promptly called the ATM’s help number and although I wasn’t sure what he was saying to the rep on the other side, I could see he was getting agitated. He told me that their might have been a malfunction of the machine and I should phone my bank, have them cancel the card. He again tried to explain that I was from the United States, needed the card to obtain funds while in their country and had no way to call my bank back in the states. After a while, the "friendly" bank operator simply hung up on him after refusing to send a service technician to retrieve my card.

Now what do we do. We are in a foreign non-English speaking country, very little cash and no one to help us retrieve my Commerce card. The gentleman who helped us decided to visit the branch of this bank which was at the other end of the Airport and demand that they help me out of this mess, so off we went.

The clerk at the branch didn't seem to want to help me either, until I handed him one of my business cards and showed him my Press ID, and explained I was invited to his country by the Czech Airlines to write a review of my trip and if he refused to help me I would surely include the story of his bank in that review. He started to make calls and I thanked the man that had helped me get to the bank. I gave the teller a copy of my Commerce ATM card which I had made along with all my other credit cards, and documents in my wallet. Being a traveler and a journalist, I like to do this in the event I lose my wallet or it is taken from me by one of the many pick pockets in some of the countries we have visited.

After about 40 minutes he put me on the phone with one of his bank reps who spoke English and she advised me that the reason my card was taken was because my bank, the Commerce Bank had ordered them to do so. Not only was I shocked by this, but I was furious with my bank. I knew this had to be the real story because of the entire "Inactive Account" incident at the bank before I left the U.S.

So without much money in my wallet and over 2 hours wasted and frustrated I rejoined my wife who was sitting in the baggage claim area all this time not knowing what had happened to me. We exchanged $100 cash that I had for the Hungarian currency and was able to charge our cab fare, so we had enough to get to our hotel.

Our options now were to either charge everything we could, take some cash advances from our credit card or limit our cash spending to the $300 we took on our trip. Of course doing this on a 10 day European work assignment was going to be very hard indeed. We were fortunate that most of the major costs were already paid for or would be paid using our credit cards. Many of the other items like museum entry fees, public transportation, sight seeing buses, boats, purchases of souvenirs we wanted to bring home, might be a problem for us, but we were intent on making this work.

Because this trip was for my company and I was writing an extensive review of these three countries I was able to meet with various companies, museum public relations or marketing personnel and obtain media or complimentary press access to their services or attractions. This helped us keep our cash needs down and enabled us to complete our trip, which could have been a major disaster because of my bank. The few hundred in cash, the press access we had, the favors afforded us by the generous people at the many museums and attractions we visited helped us make our meager cash budget stretch a great deal more then if we weren't a member of the media.

We did have to waste a lot of our time finding the proper people at each and every company we needed to visit or use their services and this cut into our trip and also wasted many hours of our time. The effort involved in finding the public relations managers in a foreign country and then making a presentation and showing our work to them for free access was almost embarrassing at times, but we had to do it because of my banks screw up.

In one case it took almost two hours to locate the public relations director of the Jewish Museum in Prague and then we had to pass all their security to visit her in her offices. Each and every day became a challenge for us because of Commerce Bank and I began to write this article in Budapest knowing that I would visit their branch, find out why they did what they did and ask why in all this time, they never had the decency to contact me or let me know they were going to cancel my account and ATM card.

Not only was their actions improper, unprofessional and certainly not friendly, but it has cost me and my wife more then just a simple inconvenience on what was going to be a wonderful trip to Europe that we looked forward to for some time.

Each night as I lay in bed, I kept thinking of what my friendly bank did to us. They ruined our trip, wasted many hours of our time and caused us untold stress in having to deal with our lack of cash in three foreign countries where English is not the language of choice.

As my anger took the better of me, I kept asking myself, "What should I do? On my return to the US" Should I close my account and call it a day? Should I contact some of my friends in the media and become a story on how a bank can mess ones life up, as Commerce did to us? Or should I write about the bank on my blog and my web site and then if necessary take additional legal action? After all only a few weeks ago we saw a case that made us laugh a bit. Apparently a man had to sit in the lavatory on a Jet Blue flight for 2 hours, for reasons that were not very clear. He hired an attorney, got on the news with his story and I understand is now suing the airline for millions of dollars.

I decided to visit my branch and see what they had to say and then make my decision. I can assure you all that with my 18 years as owner and president of International Press Association and the many articles I have written about companies and governments not getting it right plus my heavily read blog "dontgetmemad.blogsspot.com" the Commerce Bank might want to review how they do business and make changes in their procedures so others won't find themselves in a foreign country with no money and no one to speak to.

Shame on You Commerce Bank, you let us down, but I can assure my readers that I will make sure that Commerce understands the importance of notifying their customers of any change in their accounts. It is hard to believe in this day and age of identity theft and high bank account security that they wouldn't do this as normal policy.

I will report back to my readers as soon as I can and let you know how this bank handles this horrid situation...or simply watch your local news for this story, I am sure it will be better then the guy being put in an airlines lavatory for 2 hours, his story pales by comparison to mine.

Initial Contact With Commerce Bank - May 28, 2008

Commerce Bank's Branch Manager Robert Jordan of the Hazlet, NJ branch, called me today to apologize for what had happened. His explanation was that the teller should have told me that my ATM might have been deactivated as well. She should have also told me to see one of their supervisors, regarding my account. Although she did give me the phone number of the bank to call and check on the status, this may not have been enough. I think the rep I spoke to when I did call, should have been the one to alert me that my card might now also be inactive. Since she was the one I called to make sure everything was in good order, it was her job to ask if I had an ATM card and to make sure it was active.

When I pressed Mr. Jordan about the banks policies regarding the cancellation of an ATM card and deactivation of an account without notifying the customer of these actions he told me he couldn't comment on bank policies. I explained that my credit card companies have all called me in the past when the see any suspicious activities on my account. This is the reason I called all of them prior to my trip to have them put a notation on my file that I would be in Europe for the 10 days and not to be concerned if any charges came in during that period of time.

The only card I didn't call was the Commerce Bank, thinking that my deposit and conversations with them was enough to make sure the account was now activated and working properly.

Mr. Jordan asked me to write a letter to the bank to explain my situation because I would not simply accept an apology or a coupon for a free dinner at a local restaurant. I believe the bank has to offer proper compensation and by doing so, it may motivate them to make the changes necessary in their policies regarding proper notification on any changes in ones account. This will help to ensure that their other customers won't find themselves in a similar situation as ours.

It is unfortunate, that individuals must take radical and even legal steps to make some companies realize that they have to try harder. My acceptance of a free mail or a verbal apology might be enough for some, but I believe that some companies have to be hit in the pocket before they take a situation seriously. By doing so, the problem is then elevated to the people at a company that can make a policy change. Commerce Bank, a bank that claims they are "America's Most Convenient Bank" proved that they must make these changes in their policy and notify their customers of any change in an accounts status in order to maintain this reputation.

At this point, I have already contacted one local newspaper and one television station about this situation and both have an expressed an interest in telling my story to their viewers and readers. This is an option I may decide to exercise if the bank doesn't come through with what I consider a legitimate offer of compensation.

One final note, Mr. Jordan had stated that the bank would have reactivated my card if I had called them from Hungary or would have issued a new one and sent it to me overnight. When we arrived in Budapest it was 10:00 AM there time and 4:00 AM EST. I am not sure if we attempted to call the toll free Commerce Bank number on the back of our card, we would have been able to get any help. There was also no way for us to get the OTP bank to return my card and open the ATM machine. This card I was told, would be destroyed during a normal service call. Frankly, we were in a state of panic and didn't even know how to make a call to the United States from Hungary.

Even if we had reached Commerce and they offered to send a new card overnight we might not have been able to receive it. We were only going to be in each of the three countries we visited for two days or 3 nights. This in itself could have created a problem if a new card was sent to us. Even if we had them send it to our next hotel and asked them to indicate they should "hold for arrival", on the package, in our minds, there would be a security risk in doing so.

We decided to try to make it work without the ATM card and hope for the best. Our last option of course would be to take a cash advance on our credit cards, but this was not necessary since we were able to charge as much as we did, gain complimentary admissions and services because of my press affiliation and use the small amount of cash we did take with us.

We have now learned another valuable lesson, don't depend on your bank cards and take enough cash with you on any trip. Something could go wrong and you need to have a back up plan if it does.

Follow-Up Dated June 9, 2008

The branch manager requested I send him a letter so he could forward it to the proper personnel in his company to handle this situation. I wrote the letter, copied the blog and delivered it in person to the branch. I later found out instead of sending it to their customer relations department he forwarded it to their corporate staff counsel Mr. Christoper Tucci. Since I had not received any replies from them in over a week, I sent an email to Mr. Jordan to find out what our progress was and was answered by Mr. Tucci who sent me an email copy of his letter.

I want to share this with all my readers, because it simply confirms what I and the many others have been saying in so many blogs and articles on the net, Commerce Bank has lost its heart and forgot their primary mission.

Please read this letter and you be the judge if this is how you would handle an upset depositors complaint. This letter has not been changed in any way and is the same in the email form as it was the written letter I received in the mail today.

From: christopher.tucci@yesbank.com
Subject: Commerce Bank, N.A. relationship
Date: June 9, 2008 2:46:29 PM EDT
To: lenrap@internationalpress.com

Mr. Rapoport -

Below, please find a letter attached that was mailed to your attention last
week. For the purposes of the account closing, we can use today's date as
notice to you of the ten (10) day provision. Thank you for your
anticipated cooperation.

(See attached file: Rapoport response.doc)

_______________________
Christopher J. Tucci, Counsel
TD BANK, N.A. Legal Dept.
1701 Route 70 East
Cherry Hill, NJ 08034
AIM # 01-010-05-00
856.470.2241 direct
856.874.2423 facsimile
Christopher.Tucci@yesbank.com

May 30, 2008

Leonard L. Rapoport
15 Carlow Way
Hazlet, NJ 07730

Re: Commerce Bank, N.A. account no.: 7861322464

Dear Mr. Rapoport:

Commerce Bank, N.A. (“Commerce”) is in receipt of your May 28, 2008 correspondence to Mr. Robert Jordan of our Hazlet store. After a review of your allegations, we must respectfully decline to reimburse you for any costs or fees associated with your recent trip to Europe. It is the long-standing policy of financial institutions to place accounts with no activity on “inactive” status to protect their customers. In addition, any access device connected with that account would also be placed on “inactive” status in that situation to protect the customer.

As Mr. Jordan explained, a simple phone call to Commerce would have rectified the situation after your card was captured in a foreign ATM machine. You have refused nominal reimbursement from Mr. Jordan and instead, started a series of harassing activities towards Commerce employees. We must ask that you immediately cease and desist this behavior and insist that you close your Commerce checking account referenced above. If the account is not closed within ten (10) business days from the date of this correspondence, Commerce will close the account and mail you the remaining funds.

Commerce views your demands of financial compensation within five (5) days, with the result of noncompliance being your publishing this situation to the “media” a very serious matter. Please be advised that Commerce must comply with all Federal and State regulations, as well as, regulatory requirements regarding these types of demands.

Commerce reserves all legal and equitable rights available to it under your deposit contract with us and any applicable Federal and State laws. Please be advised that any libelous statements made concerning Commerce or its employees will be considered actionable by Commerce and this matter will be forwarded immediately to outside counsel for Commerce to file an immediate lawsuit against any party associated with those comments. Please be guided accordingly.

Very truly yours,

Christopher J. Tucci

I have responded to this email and frankly at this point, it appears that I must turn this over to my attorney for further action. I have two of the IPA researchers working on a story to understand a consumers rights regarding the banking industry and will be writing a full article on our other web site. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, you may want to see some other postings regarding Commerce Bank that may or may not confirm my findings.

http://mentorcoach.wordpress.com/2008/04/05/how-commerce-bank-lost-its-niche-and-its-heart/

http://jjrc.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/why-i-hate-commerce-bank/

http://www.sethgunderson.com/archives/2006/02/commerce_bank_c.html

http://www.rateitall.com/i-944605-commerce-bank.aspx

http://www.alexgeana.com/2007/06/commerce_bank_c.html

http://commerce-bank.pissedconsumer.com/bank-closed-my-account-after-a-bad-check-20080212112972.html

I am sure if you simply googled any banks name you would find negative postings about each one of them, but if you read between the lines, you will see the same thing coming up over and over again. This bank has lost their way and has lost their heart.

Update - June 25, 2008

As you can see, they decided to close my account and mail me the above check. I had already made the decision to do so and had pulled most of the funds out of this bank. I wanted to see if in fact they would follow through on their threat, which they did.

I have decided not to pursue any legal course of action at this time. I have been too busy to deal with this now, but I do have options open should I decide to take any action at a later date.

This bank deserves the poor reviews they have been getting. Any company that can't deal with a situation like mine in a proper manner does not deserve the loyalty of their customers. From a bank with a heart, this bank has now become a bank without any clear direction and it is a shame.

I would advise all of my readers of this blog to simply question the rules and regulations of their banks to make sure this doesn't happen to you.

Please visit my web site to read my review and view my photos of my trip to Budapest, Vienna and Prague.

Did You Ever Get Someting Strange In A Food Package?

2008-04-30T17:03:00.000-07:00

Over the years I have had a few strange experiences with packaged food items I have purchased. We have all heard of the story about the guy that opened a can of soda and found a finger in the can. I suppose most of us have found a pit in the bag of dried fruit or maybe a hair in some other food item. Some years ago I had purchased some Andies Candies, you know the one they leave on your pillow at the hotels. This box was filled with peanut butter instead of the mint filling.

I had a party in my home, served the candies as part of the dessert table and after many were eaten found that some had worms in the candy itself. I know you probably would have been as disgusted and embarrassed as we were. So what do you do? Do you throw them out and wash your mouth out with mouth wash? Do you take the remains back to the store and get a fresh box? Or do you do what I did, you contact the company and let them know about the problem.

This happened to me a number of years ago, probably mid 1980s. We didn't have the internet and knowing how to right letters on my Tiffany stationary, I thought I would have a better shot of getting someone's attention, I was right.

I was contacted by the company and I explained my horror at finding the bugs in the candy, especially the embarrassment at our party. They of course asked if I could send the box of candy to them so they could examine it. I never do this and would tell you not to do this as well.

I suggested they send someone to my home so they could examine the candy. I felt once they do this and see the complaint was legitimate I would stand a better shot of receiving deserved compensation. Although in those years, we didn't have lawyers advertising in the media to sue everyone, nor did we have the internet to share horror stories, so bringing this issue to their attention and getting compensation, was something many people just didn't bother to do.

Not to make this a very long story, this is the outcome of my complaint. They hired a local insurance adjuster who contacted me and came over to my home. I showed him the candy and there was no question about liability. He was very nice and told us he would recommend that they offer me a settlement.

I was offered $3,000 at that time, which I suppose is like $10,000 today and I gladly accepted their offer. They explained that the peanut butter filling was a new item for them and they found if they were left on the shelf too long that this could happen. Apparently the eggs of these bugs must have gotten into the candy mix and survived the candy making process.

I probably would have been happy with a years supply of their products, but this incident just confirmed my belief that you need to speak up and let companies know when they or their products fail to meet up to the simple standards we expect from them.

I also assume that they knew of the problem and wanted to keep it quiet. Imagine the recall that the FDA would have forced them to do if they knew this was an ongoing issue. Today we know better and call our local TV station, get reporters out to our homes and then hire an attorney who ends up getting us the thousands of dollars I ended up getting by myself.

Now if you want to read another story about finding another nugget of gold in a food product, read my next post about biting into a nice size piece of wood chip in a box of candy hearts.

Forget Turbo Tax This Year, They Really Messed Up!

2008-03-15T21:21:00.000-07:00

If you are like me, you may be ready to do your 2007 tax returns, but better consider the software you select this year. Turbo Tax a long favorite has dropped the ball both last year and this year. You can go to their web site and read all the complaints in their Inner Circle or from their customer postings. Here is one I just posted this evening. Will see if I can get a refund from Intuit on this horrible program.

I have used Turbo Tax for so many years, I can't even remember when I started using it. It just seems to get worse each year not better. There used to be a wealth of information you could call on easily to explain difficult situations, now the few videos are almost worthless.

The interview process is so lame and confusing that it took me more time to go through this process then to simply look at the forms and enter the values there. Pages and pages to go through for each question instead of one page where you can simply answer all the values for that question and then submit them.

The handling of stock transactions is so poor that for the first time in 20 years I received a notification from the IRS that I was missing my Schedule B, which never printed (because I was under the $1500 requirement) but IRS still asked for it. Then all the imported stock transactions from Ameritrade came in without the date of purchase or price and I had to complete at least 100 or more manually, only to find out that they never printed properly on the final return and I received a 13 page notice from IRS to supply the basis on my transactions as they didn't receive them.

This year, I noticed that Schedule B didn't print again so I manually printed it and added it to the return. Better to be safe then sorry.

Finally, because many of us now "Trade Stocks" because of Jim Cramer and the way the market fluctuates each day that I ended up with about 500 trades for the year in 3 accounts. I decided Turbo Tax was useless and Ameritrade uses Gainskeeper which is free on my account. It will print out a report of the years transactions with the buys and sells, wash sales, etc. and give you the totals you need.

Then I had to go to Forms to check a couple of boxes that said I would attach my list and I was able to enter the values there. No where in the Interview process did it allow me this option. You have two options, the spread sheet or one by one. With so many transactions it would have been a nightmare, now it took me a couple of minutes to print it from Ameritrade, add the numbers from the 3 accounts, enter it on the form and attach these schedules to my return.

It would appear that each year Turbo Tax takes things that aren't broken and break them instead of adding better functions and ease of use.

This year it didn't import all the data from last years return properly. When I got up to doing Schedule A, it said

it would appear I didn't use Schedule A last year

, which was not true so I had to enter the values manually.

For $80, this years Home and Business was definitely not worth the money. I am only sorry I didn't purchase it from Costco where I could have simply taken it back and gotten a refund. Oh yea, when I tried to find a decent customer support line to discuss why IRS returned it all to me and what I should do, I spent over an hour on the site trying to figure out where to find the support.

One last thing about eFiling...forget this option. If you don't physically check your return manually you may not catch some simple errors like entering data incorrectly or something not printing properly as was the case on my 2006 return. If you make an error on an Efile return you are screwed, there is no way to correct it short of re filing a 1040X amended return and paying again to file it. Would you really trust sending a complex return on efile without checking it first? Maybe on a simple return you can do this, but frankly for $17 bucks, why would you. Enough is enough...

You guys better wake up or you too will find that the publics loyalty to this brand will soon diminish and you too will be another company that owned its market and are no longer in business like so many others that took their business for granted.

Len

Grohe You Get What You Pay For...Best Warranty

2007-09-03T21:00:00.001-07:00

There is an old saying that goes "You Get What You Pay For." I can tell you that I have always been a bit skeptical about this saying because it was my belief that some items that cost more then others are not necessarily better or worth the extra cost.

This is certainly not the case when purchasing Grohe plumbing fixtures as I have found out over the many years I have had them installed in my home. My first experience with Grohe goes back almost 25 years ago when I purchased a faucet for my bathroom sink. Some years later, we added a second floor on our New Jersey ranch home and once again decided to go with the top manufacturers at that time. The water basins and sinks were made by Villeroy & Boch, all the faucets, showers and tub hardware was Grohe. Now over the years, I have always loved my Grohe items, because the quality is beyond compare. The faucets are made by Grohe in Germany and they have been engineered to last a lifetime and look as good 20 years later as they did the day they were installed.

A couple of years ago I purchased a Grohe kitchen sink faucet, it wasn't inexpensive and I think I paid almost $400 for it, but even the Home Depot units from China were over $150 and they just didn't compare. The chrome finish is flawless and is hard and shiny as a diamond. All you need to do is spray it from time to time with a mixture of plain white vinegar and water and wipe off any white lime deposits. For a higher shine, use a high quality chrome polish and it will look new.

Getting back to my sink faucet...I noticed my water flow had diminished a great deal in the kitchen. A friend who is a plumber took the head off and the water was fine so we realized the head was probably clogged up. I called the Grohe, dealer where I had purchased the faucet and he took care of getting me a free replacement. I didn't even have to send the old part back and Paul Stewart at Richmond Tile was my dealer and he knew me well. Now if you think this is great, wait until you hear this story.

I decided it was time to update my downstairs bathroom again. We actually did it about 12 years ago, but had some water damage and couldn't replace some of the tiles on the wall and had to use different tiles on the fix and it never looked right. Add to this my work changing all the doors on all my downstairs rooms from the flat panel doors to the 6 panel raised doors. When replacing these doors, I had to pull out all the doors and the frames and this ended up damaging the tile floor in this bathroom...so here we go again, doing it one more time.

As I shopped for new tile, vanity, sink, water basin (toilet), lights, fan, etc. I also thought of replacing some of the Grohe fixtures with new ones. The dealer also showed me Jado another upscale company that also makes a great product, but after seeing the cost to replace it all, we decided to simply use the existing Grohe fixtures and just purchase a new sink faucet (Grohe of course) to go with the updated sink/vanity.

As I took the fixtures down and began to demo the walls, I noticed that some of the Grohe parts had worn out. The hot and cold water cartridges were not working properly and were all clogged up with lime deposits. The hose on the shower was showing some wear on the top and a cap on the bottom of our shower bar was not staying in place due to a broken part.

I called Grohe and spoke to their warranty department. Mr. Michael Montalbano who works in their International Customer Support area was my rep and he asked me a few questions about my products and asked me when I purchased them and then asked me to send him some photos of the parts that were not working properly or damaged. Since I am a professional photojournalist and the president of International Press Association, taking those pictures was simple for me.

I shot the photos and uploaded them to my server and send Michael the list of what I needed and a link to the photos. Once he verified I was the original owner of these items, he began the process to replace them. I received the replacement parts in about 3 days total. I was shocked to say the least...how could a company operate so efficiently and really live up to a Limited Lifetime Warranty as Grohe did?

They didn't ask me to return the defective parts, they didn't require me to dig up a 10-15 year old receipt for the product and they didn't take 4-8 weeks to make the replacement as others have done before. The process was so painless and Mr. Montalbano was such a helpful gentleman that I know I will become one of their best evangelists. Not only have they produced quality products and have put their money where their mouth is (their warranty), but in the event a product does not live up to a customers expectations (or theirs), they step up to the plate and make it right.

Now that I have all the parts needed to reinstall the shower and other items in this bathroom, I have gone upstairs to my master bathroom and noticed my shower head shows some peeling on the chrome head and the knob on my shower which is a crystal like lucite has some small defects, so once again I will contact Michael and ask for his help. I am sure he will once again prove the old adage "You Get What You Pay For." So I would recommend that before you go to Home Depot or Lowes, think hard and fast and check out the Grohe line of bath and kitchen items and spend a bit more (or a lot more) and enjoy every day you use you sinks, baths or showers and you will never purchase any one of those rip off extended warranties the stores try to sell you. There is no need to do so with a Grohe product, because this company will take care of you for your lifetime on any one of their products, no matter what goes wrong.

By the way, I asked a bit more about their Limited Lifetime Warranty. Michael explained that it covers the original owner of the product only. If you sell your home, then the Warranty on those installed items is no longer in effect. Glad I decided to continue to upgrade my home over the years and keep it current, nice to know that their are still companies that value their customers and stand behind their products. Kudos to Grohe and their staff for a job well done.

Visit their web site and find a dealer near you.

Special Thanks to Paul Stewart at Richmond Tile, visit their showroom in Staten Island, New York or their web site at: http://richmondtile.com/

International Customer Support
Grohe Americas
Tel: 630 582 7711
Fax: 630 872 5669

Letter To Imperial Healthcare - Neptune , NJ

2007-06-01T16:49:00.000-07:00

With the passing of my father, I wrote a letter of appreciation to the people that took care of him during the last 4 weeks of his life. The following is a letter sent to their administrator and one I felt compelled to write.
====================================================================

May 29, 2007

Mr. Josh Bambergers
Administrator
Imperial Healthcare
919 Green Grove Road
Neptune, NJ 07753

Dear Josh;

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you and your caring and efficient staff for taking care of my father Julius Rapoport during his short stay in your facility.

As you know, my father at 93 years of age, came to Imperial only a few short weeks before he passed. His congestive heart failure and other physical and mental issues made living in assisted living impossible and his rapid decline made it even more important to have him in a care facility that could keep a keen eye on him. Although we have discussed the hallway near the nurses station as not one of the best solutions, I have to admit, that this temporary fix was one that kept dad in the eyes of your wonderful staff at all times.

It is hard for any family to have to say good bye to a loved one and both Compassionate Care Hospice and Imperial Healthcare helped the Rapoport family get through a very hard time. I can say with conviction that I have never met a more caring and warm group of professionals in all the years I have taken care of my father.

Although I hate to name individuals for fear of missing a few names, I can’t help to mention the exceptional support from Ben ( I felt he was family), Maria, Izzy, Yanni (not the famous singer, but the beautiful aide), Suzanne, Barbara, Robin and all the others, my heartfelt thanks to all of you for not only a job well done, but for your sincere kindness during a difficult time for our family.

In a world that is often motivated by money and greed, it is rare to find people that love what they do and love the people they do it for. I am not sure I could be as noble as your staff, nor be able to meet the many challenges they have to deal with each day.

My father kept his sense of humor to the end and told me how wonderful the staff was to him. I know he blew kisses to some of the aides and Yanni must have received some kisses on the cheek from dad, it was his way of thanking them for their care and kindness.

I hope to visit in the next few days to say thank you once again in person. In the meantime, please feel free to use this letter as one of recommendation to anyone considering a long or short term care facility for a loved one.

Sincerely,

Len Rapoport

President

On The Passing Of My Grandfather

2007-05-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

On The Passing Of My Grandfather

By Andrew Rapoport - 3/22/2007

My grandfather was a great man. More than anything, he cherished and cared for his family. He left behind a family tree that he often told me he was very, very proud of.

In the last few weeks he was awake, it was apparent that my grandfather's defining quality was likeability and his sense of humor. He defined the quality that we all refer to when we talk about what it means to be a Rapoport. It’s that likeability and sense of humor that we possess that makes us different from any others. He also instilled that natural work ethic and sales ability that so many of us received.

So I cry tears of pride and respect today but I try not to cry tears of sadness.

When I think about the fact that Grandpa was married to the same woman for over 50 years, raised 3 successful sons and had 9 grandchildren. After Grandma left us, he was lucky enough to spend over 15 years with his wonderful young love Arnel (she is 93 years young). When I consider that he was always committed to his relationships and supported his family, when I realize that for most of his life, he was healthy and happy and able to participate; when I remember him, I remember him as a funny but shrewd man, with a voice of wisdom;

I cry tears of admiration and I try not to cry tears of sadness, because tears of sadness aren't befitting of the memory of my Grandfather.

Just as his life wasn't sad, his death isn’t a tragedy. He can finally be at peace because I know that his young mind made it hard for him to endure the last years of his life. It’s rare a man lives a full enough life so that even others can look back upon his legacy and beam with positivity and smiles.

Join me today, not in tears of sadness, but in tears of celebration of a life well lived.

Grandpa we’ll miss and love you and will never forget the great memories we have.

My Father, A Man Of Great Strength

2007-05-23T04:43:00.001-07:00

Eulogy for My Father

Julius Rapoport

Born 3/14/1916 - Died 5/19/2007

Once again, I stand before my mothers grave now to have her beloved husband, my father, join her in these hallowed grounds.

Not being a religious family, we were however one that cherished many of the Jewish traditions. Although dad was never given a formal hebrew education, nor did many of us, I am sure we often wonder if there really is a life after death.

I want to share a story with you that some of you have heard before. When mom was buried here 8 years ago, I was driving dad back to the Airport. We were on the Garden State Parkway (I remember the exact spot) and we were very distressed and crying in the car talking about mom. I explained to dad that I knew that mom was indeed watching over us and that we should take comfort in knowing that. At that very moment a car swerved in front of us and I noticed the license plate on the car began with the letters FAY [my mother's name].

I was in disbelief and showed dad the car and exclaimed that this was surely a sign that mom was in fact looking at us now and would take care of us. Now for a family that never practiced or even believed in organized religion, this was a sign that there are some things we just can’t understand or explain and just maybe their is another world we all go to when we transition from this one.

In 1931 when dad was 17 years old he made mom’s sweet sixteen party. Mom was his first and only love while they were married and he was truly devoted to her and our family. Of course he was a hard man at times, but we understood this and probably learned much from his strength. After all his child hood was not an easy one. He lost his older brother Freddie when he was very young due to a horse and carriage accident. He watched his father who owned a successful millinery business go out of business and struggle to support his family during the great depression. The Rapoport’s didn’t have much and Ruby [my father's older brother] and dad shared a bed each night while aunt Rose [his younger sister] had her own in the little bungalow they lived in in Coney Island in the 30’s and 40’s. They didn’t have enough food for the table and they used to tell me that bubby Mollie would say to them in Yiddish (when they would grab for some meat on the table) to “Eat Bread, Don’t Stuff Yourself On The Meat”.

Our generation can’t imagine how hard it was for a family to survive, but this is what the Rapoport’s had to endure growing up. So we wonder why they were tough when they had to be. They were all hard workers with a strong family bond and love and ones that never took a dollar for granted. Some may say, dad was a penny pincher, or a man that never liked to spend money and I would agree, he was. Unfortunately this condition was out of his control and was a result of a hard child hood. He knew the value of earning an honest living and even sold confetti during the Coney Island parades each summer to feed his family. Later he would pack up his car, taking out the rear seat to have more space for merchandise and drive two hours to the Farmers Markets in Long Island. He would set up a few tables with his own hand painted signs and sell women’s and children’s clothing that he got from Kiev and Rose’s dry goods store. Alan [my older brother who passed away at age 60] and I ended up going with him on many of those trips and we sold comic books we got from his uncle Lou’s candy store. I will always remember when we arrived home very late at night and my father would throw a big bundle of bills on the table and mom would count how much he made that day. This was exciting times for us and I will never forget them.

Although as a young man he worked as a salesman for a paper distributor selling the local bakeries and stores their wrapping paper or other paper needs, he still gave us a rich child hood. Living in Coney Island, walking to the beach in the summers and enjoying all the rides at Steeplechase Amusement Park was indeed a child’s dream. We never had to go away to summer camp, our lives in Coney Island were better then any camp could ever be and we all ended up working on the Boardwalk each summer. I worked at Shatzkin’s Knishes and Alan worked at the nearby Skee Ball arcade. Alan always gave me free games and extra tickets for prizes they had in their showcase.

Dad was a shy man, a man that didn’t like to go out much and socialize. Mom would be the one to force him out and encourage him to enjoy others. My fathers best friends were his family. His brother Ruby and his wife Yetta and his baby sister Rose and her husband Kieve and all the children in our families. It was all about family in the early days when we were kids growing up in Coney Island. We spent the weekends with our cousins and family. We slept over each others houses, we stayed home and enjoyed the beach and boardwalk in Coney Island or we went away for the summer to the bungalow colonies in the Catskills or to Lake George to spend a few weeks on a real farm. Our family was one extended family and we did everything together.

Dad loved to entertain and invite company to our home. He would take great joy in preparing platters of food and we always had company in our home. We certainly weren’t rich, but dad was a good provider, we had what we needed. When we were old enough to get a work permit, we worked on the board walk in Coney Island and the money we earned was ours to use for our own own needs.

I remember when mom’s, mother, Grandma Dora took illl and couldn’t live alone in Coney Island, my father offered to take her into our home on Avenue P. He was a good father, husband and son-in-law. He would even bail out my uncle Mike who had a tendency to always gamble and get into trouble with the shylocks [illegal money lenders]. I remember my father on the phone with him late at night offering him the cash he needed to stay out of trouble.

We enjoyed a wonderful adult life with mom and dad too. We spent so many happy days in their small home on Ave. P and then when they decided to move to Florida, we spent many cold winters at their home in Tamarac. Dad was a devoted and loyal husband. When mom got sick and her Alzheimer’s became so bad that she was a danger to herself and dad, he finally agreed it was time to send her to a home. I am sure this was the most difficult decision in his life. It was the realization that he would now lose his wife and best friend of over 70 years and it was heartbreaking for him. He did not give up on mom and made sure to visit her every day and bring her something to eat. He often told me that it was important to come each day not only for mom, who at that time didn’t even recognize him, but to let the care givers in those homes know that she did have family that cared about her and would be there each day to check on her.

He would point to all the other listless souls in the room and say to me, these are the forgotten ones, who’s family is up north and don’t come to visit. You now understand why I am here every day. He befriended all the staff and they took care of mom as if she was family. He taught me the importance of being a care giver for a loved one and it was his example that I followed all these years in taking care of dad.

He also met his second great love, Arnell at mom’s nursing home. Arnell was the activities director and would help mom in her exercise classes and keep her mind working as long as she could. She would share stories about mom with me and Arnell soon became the closest of friends and a member of our family. It was this 16 year friendship that I am sure, helped dad live as long as he has. Arnell became his most important contact with the outside world. She became dad’s care giver too and took him to the doctor’s when he had an appointment and offered him the love and companionship that gave him a reason to live.

When mom died after suffering for 8 years with Alzheimer’s it still tore him apart even though he had expected it. Then Alan died shortly after mom and this was the moment that he began to decline in his mental and physical health. Although he was shy, he was a man with great dignity and independence. It killed him to have to depend on anyone to help him do the simple tasks like zipping up his jacket or putting on a seat belt in the car, he wanted to do it himself. “I can do it, I am not a child” he would yell at me. Each time I would ask him how he was doing he would tell me he was O.K. I would ask if he thought he needed to go to assisted living and he said he would tell me when he did. He never did...the same when he was failing and couldn't lift himself out of a chair or bed when I asked if I could move him to a long term care facility and he once again told me...I will let you know when I am ready. He wanted his independence, his dignity and his strength, but these things could no longer be his.

If we were asked to define his life, it would be simply a loving father, a loyal husband and a good friend. He was a man that thought about his family right to the end. He told me many times that he didn’t want to ever be a burden to me. Imagine, he felt guilty about me visiting him or taking him to the doctors. He used to tell me not to visit him so often and that he understood I had a life too. I always told him I didn’t think it was a burden and I did it because I loved him. He kept telling me it was hard getting old and that he would never have imagined living this long. He was tired with the stuggle of these past few years, fighting his heart failure and other medical and physical issues, but never once wanted to be a burden and told me over and over how he loved me and didn’t know what he would have done without me. This is what kept me going when I thought I didn’t have any strength left to give him.

He gave me more then I gave him with his love, support and sage advice. I always felt better after discussing my problems with dad, he knew how to cheer me up and get me back on track. I could talk to him about anything and he listened with concern. He never stopped being my father, right to the end, when he reminded me I was getting too fat. He loved Gladys too and always told me how lucky I was to have her. He thought she was so beautiful and told her this each time he saw her when we went to visit him. He loved his grand children and some years ago told me not to wait to give the children a gift on his death. He said they might need it now and instructed me to send a check to each one of them, no matter how well they were doing financially, this was going to be a gift from their grand father.

He was a charmer to be sure and all the nurses in all the homes he lived in these past few years always told me that “Your father is such a nice man, a true gentleman”. Even at the very end, we saw him blow kisses to the aides and nurses at the nursing home and told me how kind they were to him. He looked at photos of him and mom when they were younger and kept telling me what a beautiful and wonderful woman she was. In his last days, the hardest days for him and us, even in a semiconscious state he still kept his sense of humor.

When Arnell arrived, he was slumped over in his chair and she called to him, Julie, Julie, wake up, I am here. With eyes still shut, he took his weak and discolored hand, put his thumb between his two fingers and wiggled it at her. You know, the gesture he used to do when he said, I got your nose. On one of his last remaining days, he suddenly awoke to see Arnell standing over him and he grabbed her and kissed her. He knew we were there for him even if he seemed to be unconscious.

I only wish this gentle man will now be able to join mom, Alan and all of our other friends and family and enjoy a new life, one without pain and suffering.

Dad please watch over us all and protect us as you did during your life, Rest in Peace Dad, I love you.

Restaurants Some Good and Some Bad!

2007-04-01T12:34:00.000-07:00

I am sure we all have our favorite restaurants. They may offer great food, terrific value, friendly staff and atmosphere and of course convenience. Living in New Jersey, just 35 miles to the Big Apple has given me an opportunity to check out some of the best the East Coast has to offer. Add to this the fact that I am a photojournalist and my wife owns a travel agency and you can add many other opportunities to the list of establishments I have eaten in.

So you may ask, why am I writing this blog...well, over the past few months two of these restaurants stand out in my mind as the complete opposites and I wanted to share my opinions with my readers.

One of the best local restaurants I go to is called Houlihan's of Leawood, Kansas and has been in operation since 1972. They are one of 81 around the country and this particular store located in Holmdel, New Jersey is part of the A.C.E. Restaurant Group one of Houlihan's New Jersey franchise owner companies. Arnold Runestad president of ACE now has 13 locations in operation in our state with 10 more on the way and is now looking to expand into other geographic areas.

You can read more about Houlihan's by clicking here.

Now Houlihan's is one of the best casual dining restaurants we have dined in and we love to go back to our Holmdel, NJ location often. There menu is full of wonderful choices and I tend to be a picky eater, so this down home restaurant has many dishes I love. Some of my favorites include their Lettuce Wraps, Spinach Dip with Cheesy Lavosh, or their Blackened Chicken and Caramelized Onion Quesadilla for starters, and a hot bowl of their wonderful Baked Potato Soup which I order every time I go there. I like a soup that is thick and filled with goodies and I can tell you this soup will never disappoint you.

As far as their main dishes go, once again I love their Chicken Asian Chop Chop salad and usually order one and share it with my wife (they are huge) and then order either their Grilled Rosemary Chicken, Down Home Pot Roast, Blackened Chicken in a Spicy Cream Sauce over Pasta and a special dinner combo we order from time to time that comes on a huge platter with their Baby Back Ribs, Rosemary Chicken and their wonderful fried Shrimp (all this under $20). Since we often share this dish, we ask them to split it

Their entrees and a salad or appetizer should be shared , because they offer great food and true value to their customers. I won't go into their desserts, but let me tell you that if you do share dishes you can order one and once again, one is enough for two.

Now, why do we love Houlihan's? Well not only is the food my kind of food, the atmosphere is warm and friendly, their staff is exceptional and their manager Mr. Alfredo Rivera is one of the best we have seen anywhere. On occasion things may not go as planned. We might end up with poor service (it can happen anywhere), but rest assured if Mr. Rivera is there , he will come to your aide. He knows just the right things to say, will offer you a complimentary item to make up for your problem and make sure you are satisfied with the resolution and want to come back again and again.

My personal thanks to Alfredo Rivera for always showing us his special kind of hospitality. How can you tell who he is at the restaurant. Simply look for the hardest working man there. He might be showing you to a table or even serving you at a table, when his wait staff is short or in trouble. I have seen him clean off dishes from tables as well. Yes, boys and girls, he is a manager and a hard working one too.

Houlihan's is our top neighborhood pick and the best of the lot (Chili's, TGI Fridays, Olive Garden, Macaroni Grill, Charlie Brown's). Now if all of the above makes you want to visit your local Houlihan's, I have one other Bonus suggestion. Complete the service questionnaire that they put on each table. Make sure to include your birthday, anniversary and your email address. On your special day, you will get an email mail with a gift of a free entree or a free dessert and their are no strings attached.

We tend to order their huge entree with the ribs, chicken and shrimp, share it and the total bill comes to $0.00...you heard me, if you don't order anything else, there is no charge. No restaurant I have ever gone to will give you a free anything if you don't buy something else. Of course we order a soup, some drinks so our last bill on my wife's birthday came to around $5 and change with the tax. By the way, no sharing charges ever, and if you tell them you are going to share a dish, they will break it up in the kitchen, make sure you both have plenty of potato's on each dish and serve it to you. These shared dishes are usually bigger then most restaurants serve as a single order.

Note: Read a full review with photos of Houlihan's at our International Press web site.

So now that we know about Houlihan's and their good food, value priced menu and excellent service, lets look at one of the worst I had the displeasure to visit.

The Okeechobee Steak House in West Palm Beach, Florida is a restaurant that I had the misfortune to go to because of a recommendation from another couple that now live in Florida. Here is something I found on the net that gives you a bit of their history:

Open since 1947, Curtis and Jeannie Lewis have earned the right to call their restaurant a "classic American steakhouse." They cut and dry age all USDA prime and certified Angus beef on the premises. Come for the beef, not the sides, some of which could use updating...

So let me tell you what I hated about this restaurant...everything...

The place was so old and crummy that it looked like an old bar with very old wooden benched booths and old decor, tables and chairs. They were smart enough to keep the lights low or you would have walked out when you saw their menu and prices. I gasped when I saw most entrees ran from $25-$40 or more and they came with virtually nothing other then the main dish. Not being a big steak eater, I knew I was in the wrong place, but with any good steak house like Ruth's Chris, Morton's, Smith and Wollensky or others, you might pay these prices, but they are clean, modern, beautiful restaurants with exceptional service and food. I can tell you that the Okeechobee Steak House is not in this class at all, yet their prices are.

After looking at their prices and their lack of selection, I decided to just write off this one and ordered a $14 hamburger, thinking that at least it would be the best burger on the block for $14. They proved me wrong here too. I asked what came with the burger and was told I could have a potato or vegetable so I opted for a baked potato. I asked if they could put some onions on the grill for me so I could put it on the burger...my friend pointed out they charge $4 for fried onions. I asked if they could just put a slice on the grill for the burger and I didn't want a side dish. The waitress said she would ask.

My wife ended up ordering a fish dish and shared it and the pork chops that my friends wife ordered. I believe the two chops were $28, nothing special here and way overpriced considering none of these dishes included a trip to their shameful and sparse salad bar. Most salad bars are an exciting excursion and usually contain tons of fresh vegetables and some have fruit and nuts (Charlie Brown has a great salad bar), but not this one. Ice Berg Lettuce and a few other items and that was I believe $4.99 extra...can you believe their nerve.

So we passed on the salads, not worth $1.99, got the 1/4 pound dried out hamburger with a crummy small baked potato, nothing else on the dish except some lettuce, tomato and onion on the burger. Now remember, I asked the waitress to have them simply put the onion on the grill, right...well they wouldn't do it. The hamburger bun was nothing special and worse then a McDonald's bun. I think my wife had a glass of wine, the other couple had two drinks too. The check came to around $150 for the 4 of us and I ended up paying $57 including my tip for me and my wife. She had one pork chop, small piece of fish, I had a terrible burger, no ambiance at all, uncomfortable chairs and to top it off, I had to have them valet my car, because their lot was too small to park my own, so of course I had to tip just to get my car.

Now don't get me wrong. If I go to a nice restaurant, I expect to pay for their overhead, their decor, their exclusive location, their exceptional service and great food, but how in the world can this joint get away with this, I wondered. I figured they have to be living off the old customers, that for some reason, have remained loyal. I just can't imagine anyone in their right minds going there and enjoying their dining experience. After all how many people can sit down and eat a 38 ounce steak today, unless they were from the old world and didn't have to worry about eating this much poison in one sitting or paying $50+ by the end of the meal.

I give the Okeechobee Steak House my "Hall of Shame" rating for poor decor and atmosphere, inferior salad bar, overpriced menu, poor sides, and very poor value for the food they serve.

Oh, I forgot to mention, they wanted a $7.50 sharing charge if you wanted to share that huge steak...how is that for Chutzpah!

You know, I now realize why many of the independent restaurants have been unable to compete with the national chains...they just can't compete any longer when it comes for consistency in their menu, value, decor, professional staff and learning the proper way to treat their customers ... No Grilled onion, plate share charge, over priced salad bar and not included in their expensive entrees...Forget visiting this "Landmark Restaurant", their time has come and gone and they should sell out to the next developer that offers them a few bucks for their location.

Safeguard Self Storage 180º Turnaround from Bad To Great

2007-01-05T21:18:00.000-08:00

Please read my updated comments now...Ben Martin is the current facility manager and is a prince among men. This man couldn't be nicer and as a result we are still with Safeguard and have expanded our space to a full 20X20 foot location. The turn around is 180 degrees for this facility and I would gladly recommend it now for your storage needs....8/22/2007.

We have also been informed of the passing of Rob. He was a very young man and unfortunately passed away. I was told that his death might have been caused by medication he had been taking which created the wild mood swings he exhibited. I want to express my deepest sympathies to his family and friends for their loss of this very young man, who went before his time...12/28/2007

I am leaving this story on my blog to illustrate how companies handle their customers and how you might want to handle issues you have with companies. I hope this doesn't show my lack of respect for Rob's family, but I believe it is important to understand how some medication can in fact cause individuals to act irrationally and as in this case even cause death.

I have spent the better portion of my life in people oriented positions which included being the owner of an executive search firm a sales and marketing manager in the women's clothing industry, and the owner of a licensed movie apparel company working with leading film studios. I also spent 7 years as a marketing and corporate communications consultant to one of the largest east coast parking companies in the country and many years as a consultant and writer. Currently I am busy running a 400 member organization which I founded called International Press Association. IPA is a web based organization made up of members of the media, photographers and journalist and has become a well respected international organization.

The reason for the brief bio is to let you know that all of my career positions were based on my people skills and understanding of how to motivate individuals to either do their jobs better or to convince people or companies to purchase my companies goods or services. I have been very successful in all of these career and personal choices and one only has to read the articles on my IPA web site or this blog to see I have a keen understanding of how a company and their employees should treat their customers.

A couple of years ago I had to rent some space in a local storage facility Safeguard Self Storage in Holmdel, NJ. At that time I had an incident where the local site manager accidentally closed the bay doors as I was backing in and by the time the doors sensor realized it hit the roof of my car and began to go up, damage was done to the roof rack of my SUV and to the top of my car.

I had to shame this company to pay for the damage done to the car and finally, after numerous attempts, settled for a small allowance against my monthly rent. I didn't want to get the manager in trouble so, I didn't make a big deal out of this and moved on. I left Safeguard when my needs for space ceased and later found out the manager, I was trying to protect, allegedly entered customers rented spaces and helped himself to some of their belongings. This came to my attention when reading an article in our local paper. I was surprised to see this, since he seemed to be a nice guy.

This year my son moved back to New York from Florida and needed a storage facility while he looked for an apartment in New York City. I shopped around for him and called Safeguard again thinking they were a nice, clean place and would offer us a competitive price for the space. They offered me a decent deal on a 20'X20' space and I ended up taking one in the middle of August with a move in date of September 1, 2006.

My son arrived in New Jersey and began to move his belongings into Safeguard and soon found out he needed more space. It was necessary to now take another 10'X10' space to supplement the first one. Of course the cost of the smaller space was much more expensive per square foot, then the larger space, but we felt it wouldn't matter since it was only a temporary situation. After all with the first month free it wouldn't be that bad.

We thought we would keep the 20X20 when my son moved into his apartment and give up the 10X10, but as it turned out, we were able to get his remaining items, after his move to New York, into the 10X10 space. Of course we were paying approximately 50% per square foot more for this small space, over what we paid for the larger space, but it was still going to be less each month then keeping the 20X20. We really had no choice now so we stayed with Safeguard. There goes the competitive pricing we got only 2 months before on the larger space.

The manager of Safeguard Holmdel is a young man named Rob. Rob is one of those guys that likes to play bully, you know the type, the Alpha Male. I understand from Rob, that he once managed a health club and had a number of other jobs in his young career, which is not really something I would be bragging about. Now he sits in a storage facility all day...from his list of jobs, it didn't seem like a lot of great career choices to me, but who am I to pass judgement. The only reason I mention this is to show his arrogance, which you will understand, as you finish reading this article.

Let me give you a little profile of Rob and his lack of people skills. One day my son forgot the key to his facility and asked if he could borrow the snips to cut it off. Rob informed him he couldn't let him use it and there was a $10 fee to cut the lock off. Now I understand this may be a company policy, but don't you think that either Rob or Safeguard should try to accommodate their customers especially on something so trivial? Rob was extremely rude and made what could have been a very simple thing into an adversarial situation. My son called me, I drove down with my snips and cut if off myself in 5 seconds.

At the same time my son needed to use their rest room and Rob refused to let him use it and told him it was out of order, again this could have been the case, but in both situations that day, Rob was not pleasant and was quite rude to my son. When I arrived at Safeguard to cut the lock, I thought Rob was just having a bad day, so I went to introduce myself to Rob. I decided to give Rob a nice Lenox China Christmas Salt and Pepper shaker set, as a gift (retail value $22). I was going to store these in my son's space, because I had bought a number of Lenox Holiday items at the Lenox outlet store that I was going to sell on eBay for Christmas. I thought by extending my hand of friendship and my token of good will, I would at least warm Rob up and just maybe, he would begin to treat my son a bit nicer then he had. I soon found out that was my mistake.

Now remember, that rate we first got on the 20X20 space, which now became a higher rate on the smaller space, became even more expensive. We received a notification that we would now have to pay a new 7% state tax which was being imposed on rent at these facilities. OK, we understand this happens when state government passes new laws, but how about the additional increase of another $10.70 each month, that Safeguard now added to this account as of January 1st, because their costs increased. I suppose on a month to month lease, the consumer has few rights to object to these increase and our rent increased another 15% or more between the tax and the Safeguard increase.

Once you have loaded all your items into a storage unit, it is very hard to move. That is why these places offer a free month, they know that most customers who believe they will only need storage for a couple of months actually stay a year or longer. Unless you want to pay for a truck rental and spend a day moving from one place to another, you stay where you are and they know it. Now remember, all these increases happened to us, in just about a 4 month period.

When we signed the lease and I paid the first month with my credit card and possibly the second month too, not sure, we asked Safeguard to bill my son's credit card for the rent each of the following months. For some reason December's charge didn't go through and we discovered the reason was that Rob at Safeguard forgot to include the 3 or 4 digit security code when entering the information. Of course Rob sent us a letter that the card was rejected and we had 3 days to call them and make the payment or we would incur a $10 late fee. I thought this was a bit harsh, but my son called, discovered the problem and while I was there with him, gave them the security code and information they needed for future charges. We thought there would not be any further issues.

Once again this month I received a notice from Rob at Safeguard dated 1/2/07. The notice explained that the credit card company declined the charge again and if they didn't receive payment by the close of 1/6 a late fee of $10 would be added to our account. The letter arrived in my home on January 4th. Since Safeguard is located near my home in New Jersey and my son is now in NYC, I called him to let him know there was a problem again. He told me he would call and was sure that once again, they forgot to include the security code when applying the charge to his account.

Today, I received another letter from Rob at Safeguard dated 1/4 (only 2 days after the first notice) that they have now charged my son's account the $10 late fee because the payment was not received. How could they charge a late fee when the first letter clearly stated that the fee would not be imposed before 1/6? It further stated that if payment was sent for the original amount that we should add the $10 late fee to next months payment. Now as you read this I am sure you can understand my outrage at these dunning letters. They didn't wait until 1/6 to impose the fee, they sent the notice with the late fee on 1/4 only two days after the first notice. Most companies would either mail you a polite notice, or call you and give you some time to contact them or make the payment, Rob at Safeguard did not.

Some companies have a policy to charge your card on file a week before the payment is actually due or will mail a rent notice out a couple of weeks in advance, so if there were any problems you still had time to correct them. I have never seen any company or any individual, in all the years I have been in business, or in my personal dealings, charge a late fee after two days after notification of a problem. Personally I have never paid any bills late, have an A+++ credit rating and don't owe anything to anyone, my credit rating is around 780 out of a high possible score of 850, Rob bragged he had a credit score of 800, see what I mean about being an Alpha Male. By the way their web site claims they have easy payment options and automatic credit card billing...as you can see their payment option is not so easy.

I assumed my son already called and got this matter cleared up but because of the second letter I decided to call Rob myself and find out why he had issued a second collection letter only 2 days after the first letter and only 4 days into the beginning of the month. He once again was short with me, told me that my son had called yesterday with another credit card and the matter was now resolved. When I asked why he sent out the second letter only two days after the first, he told me that he sends out the second letter 5 days after the first one...but as you can see from the scanned letter above, the first one was dated 1/2/07 and the second one went out on 1/4/07 that is 2 days by my count.

As I discussed their procedure and how it was a bit harsh and wouldn't build customer loyalty, he seemed to care less. I further explained that this was simply a credit card issue and not a case of a dead beat, he replied that this was the second time it had happened as if to say "We are Dead-Beats". I was a bit in shock but still kept my cool and tried to reason with Rob. Now remember the first time they forgot to put in the security code, the card was good, it was their error, not ours that the card was declined. We even came in to the facility in person to correct the problem and make sure that had what they needed to charge the rent each month. When I asked Rob why their was a problem, he said it never happens on other cards, but on their system it some how didn't save the security code on his card and it was rejected...I really think they might have just written the wrong code down in their records because the card is fine when used anywhere else.

I asked him why he just didn't call us to ask for a new card or for payment and he told me he doesn't have the time because he sends out 500 invoices each month. I seriously doubted this is really a problem because he also told me he as at least 8 problems like this a month. I had suggested it might be better to simply make the calls or even send out an email to those customers it would take less time then mailing the notices and would be a more efficient and friendly want to deal with any credit card problems. He once again seemed annoyed by my comments and suggestions on the proper procedure to deal with his customers. He told me he didn't have Internet access so he couldn't send out email notifications, another one of my suggestions. He explained that Safeguard would shut off the access to their facilities except when they had to do some company business. He also said he personally felt insulted because he is a manager and should have the access all the time. He further explained that he likes to receive his Sirius Radio over the net because he can't get decent reception because of all the steel in the facility. He told me how he wanted to listen to Howard Stern on Sirius Radio and couldn't...I could have guessed this has to be a Howard Stern fan...remember he is the typical Alpha Male.

I once again tried to explain that I have spent years as a consultant to Kinney Parking Systems in New York and this was a similar business to his. We had to rent space each month in our facilities as they did in theirs. I told him that at Kinney, I would go out of my way to satisfy a customer and even had a company newsletter that I wrote and produced that was distributed to our customers. The newsletter was geared to offer customers benefits and savings and always had my direct phone number so customers could call me directly with their concerns. It was the only way I could tell what was broken and what I needed to fix at Kinney. That input was valuable and I encouraged our customers to contact me.

Rob the AM, continued to be rude. He basically told me that he too had years of great business experience (remember he managed a health club) and thanked me sarcastically for telling him how to do his job, yes he really said that, I couldn't believe it, but it is true. I had previously told him I was a journalist, gave him the URL of my web site and told him I write many different articles including some about companies that just don't treat customers correctly. He told me that he hoped I wouldn't write about him, well Rob, you earned this article.

I tried very hard to be pleasant and professional and continued to explain how these letters and his actions would only cause his company to truly piss customers off, he basically told me to mind my own business. At that point I decided it was a losing battle and said good-bye.

I will send a letter to Safeguard corporate or a link to this blog and see how they respond. I have a feeling from my past experience with Safeguard that companies that hire people like Rob or the last guy who was convicted of stealing customers property, often are not aware of these problems. One of my friends told me years ago that "when you see a company with poor customer service or management, you can be sure that the Head of the Fish Stinks" this meant, that when the head of a company is bad, it filters down, or stinks, from the head of that fish down to the tail or the lowest employee. Of course I can be wrong, after all Safeguard states on the web that "We guarantee your complete satisfaction every single day." so we will see if they actually can live up to their companies tag line.

When I think of companies that go the extra mile with exceptional customer service, I think of, Costco, Ben & Jerry's, Nordstroms, HearX to name a few. I am sure you can add to this list, there are so many companies that just know how to treat and appreciate their customers.

Rob, you are the tail of the Safeguard fish and Rob you stink. I only hope that the head of your company is simply unaware of your actions and would never condone them if he knew how you bully their customers and are bitter because you can't listen to Stern on the radio. Stay tuned to this blog and I will report their response to my letter.

================================================================================

1/30/2007

Update on letter sent to Ken Finlay, President Safeguard Self Storage - 3350 Peachtree St. - Atlanta, GA 30326

On January 12th, I sent a cover letter to Mr. Finlay to explain my background and the reason for writing a letter directly to him regarding this situation. I enclosed copies of the invoices and notices I received from the Holmdel facility and a copy of this blog posting.

To date, I have not received a reply, either by phone or in the mail from Mr. Finlay's office. I can only conclude Mr. Finlay did not want to comment on my concerns and condones the actions of his Holmdel manager. So once again we find that the saying "The fish usually stinks from the head down" might be a true statement in this particular case.

It would seem strange to me that Mr. Finlay wouldn't want to address this matter since bad publicity can cost them new customers, especially if one is on the net and does a google search of "Safeguard Self Storage - Holmdel, NJ". Do it and see what comes up. The first match is their listing for the facility with contact information and the second listing is this blog. I would think, based on this alone, they might want to correct the problem or at least have the decency to answer my letter.

This appears to be another company that doesn't deliver what they promise.

###

Letter of Appreciation 32 Years Later...

2007-01-05T10:37:00.000-08:00

My father is nearing his 93rd birthday and I had to clean out some of his old papers and personal items when I moved him to a new assisted living facility. He has a small stack of papers with a rubber band around them and I began to look through them. Some were old legal papers, birth certificate and other assorted papers that no longer were needed, but in the stack there were two sheets that caught my attention.

The first was a Letter sent to one of my fathers companies dated January 30, 1974 from a customer who was looking for a new Condo in Florida and happened to meet my father the sales manager at that time of "Lime Bay" a new condo development.

I have scanned this letter so you can read it here.

Although it might be a bit hard to read here, the letter deals with how pleasant and professional my father was to this customer. Now remember this letter was one of two I found in my fathers only personal papers and he kept this one for 32 years.

The other paper I mentioned was one he received from one of the companies he worked for and acknowledged him as being the first salesman to reach the million dollar mark selling mutual funds. This too was dated or or around the mid 1960's.

So the next time you meet someone that does their job well or goes out of their way to help you, take the time to write a letter to their employer and let them know about their exceptional staff.

You letter can also end up being the one they save and cherish as my father did his.

A Simple Compliment To An Employee Can Make A Difference

2007-01-05T10:22:00.000-08:00

Many of us go through our lives doing what we do each day and the only recognition for a job well done is a pay check. I used to have a boss that would never give you a pat on your back for a good job. He used to say "the pat on the back is that you still have this job and you get paid each week".

This type of boss, doesn't know how important that little thank you or recognition can be to an employee. When people discuss a good boss, you will always hear things like, he is understanding, supportive, appreciates what I do and "I would do anything for this man/ woman, he is such a good boss".

So if you are an employer, learn this important lesson, people need to be acknowledged when they do a good job. It doesn't mean you have to begin to hang the "Employee of the Month" plague on the wall, but it does mean that a simple, "Job Well Done" or "Thanks, you did a great job and I really appreciate it" can go a long way in building a strong relationship between you and your employees. Treat them fairly and acknowledge them and you will find the rewards are far more then offering them a few dollar raise.

Today there is so much pressure on all of us that these simple acts of kindness and appreciation can make the difference in a persons life. Don't think about it, do it, you will be surprised how this Good Karma will come back to you many times over.

Reply From HearX President

2006-12-13T16:21:00.000-08:00

Please read the cordial reply from Dr. Paul A. Brown, Chairman of HEARx

Let me reprint the second paragraph of this letter for you:

"That is why we are particularly pleased to receive such kind words as yours. We join you, by copy of this letter, in praising Robert who truly exemplifies the HEARx commitment to quality patient care and satisfaction"

A copy of his letter was sent to Robert Rosengarten the individual I was impressed with and wrote about and his regional manager.

Now you understand how important it is to send a letter to a company president when one of his employees impresses you or extends himself and shows he has exceeded your expectations of what you would expect him to do.

I feel as strongly about writing a nice letter as I do a complaint. Both have their place and both alert a company to the good and bad individuals in their employ. It also doesn't hurt your chances of getting exceptional VIP treatment the next time you have to go into the store or use their services.

A few important points in writing a complimentary letter

When an employee extends themselves to you and you want to show your appreciation let them know you would like to write a letter to their employer and find out who the president or senior executive is of their company.
Ask them to supply the proper name and address for you to write to. In some cases they may offer you a comment card. Make sure you copy the information from the card and write a letter which has more weight then completing the card.
Make a note of the particulars of the incident...flight number, date, time and other specifics. This will be important when writing your letter.
Once again stick to the facts and keep the story as short as you can but still tell your story.
By all means compliment the company and the executive you are writing to to let them know that you understand that having such a wonderful employee is a a direct result of their efforts in hiring and training their employees.

I have also found that certain companies care about their customers and their employees show it, while others are owned or run by executives that are arrogant and believe the customer is never right and it shows when dealing with their employees.

You can see from Dr. Browns reply that he is a gentleman as was his employee and it is his ultimate direction to his staff that helps them hire the type of individuals that can help them run a successful business and keep their company strong.

I hope this helps my readers in composing their own letters. I can tell you that I get a proud feeling when I know that in some small way I was able to put a smile on a good guy or gals face at the end of the day. By letting them know that some of us, do appreciate their hard work it can make their day. Wouldn't you smile too if someone you dealt with told you how good you are or how they appreciated working with you? How often do you tell a waiter or waitress how you appreciated their good service (aside from a good tip, which they might not even look at).

Try this simple experiment...the next time anyone in a store, on a plane in a restaurant or even someone performing a service for you, impresses you, verbally let them know it. Watch their face and see how good you will feel doing it.

Watch for information and links to my "Bad Boys" web site. You won't believe what I did to expose some of the worst on the net.

Len

How To Write A Complimentary Letter

2006-12-13T15:36:00.000-08:00

Read a letter sent to the President of one of the largest hearing aid retail companies in the US.
This letter was written on my company stationary. As president of IPA, I felt sending a letter from one corporate head to another would be the correct approach.

November 28, 2005

Dr. Paul A. Brown
President
HearUSA
1250 Northpoint Parkway
West Palm Beach, FL 33407-1912

Dear Dr. Brown;

I wanted to write to you to let you know about your exceptional audiologist Mr. Robert Rosengarten who helped my 91 year old father correct some issues with a new pair of Siemens digital hearing aids we purchased at another one of your locations. Mr. Rosengarten who is located at your Monmouth Mall location in Eatontown, New Jersey did more for us in the one visit then a number of visits at two of your other locations.

My dad originally resided in Deerfield Beach, Florida and was moved north to stay with my family in Long Island, New York. The first set of hearing aids we purchased had to be returned to the Florida store because we just couldn’t get them to fit or work correctly. Part of the problem, I am sure, was the limited time he still had in Florida before the move to New York and not having family in Florida to help him with the hearing aids and the problems.

We ended up returning these hearing aids purchased in Florida (that didn’t seem to do the job) and purchased a more expensive and supposedly more powerful set of Siemens Prisma 2 P BTE in the Glen Cove, Long Island store. We also had issues with these, regarding the fit and the correct adjustment for optimum hearing and were tempted to simply return these for a refund as well.

My father came to visit me for the Holiday week (I live in New Jersey) and I decided to take one more shot and scheduled an appointment at your Eatontown store where, Mr. Rosengarten works. Mr. Rosengarten is a warm and friendly gentleman with a great deal of patience. This and his professional expertise helped my father (who was not able to hear a thing) with these Siemen hearing aids. Through a number of tweaks on the computer and verbal tests, he helped my father gain some of this lost hearing. Although, we know it will never be back to what it was and we still might have to go back for some more adjustments, for now my father can take part in conversations and will not feel as desolate and isolated as he had been before.

I would like to thank you and your staff at this time for employing staff like Mr. Rosengarten and wish your company continued success and a happy holiday season.

Sincerely,

Leonard Rapoport
President

International Press Association

See his answer to this letter in my next post...

6 Tips To Writing A Winning Complaint Letter

2006-12-12T08:03:00.000-08:00

Many years ago I read a book that was a tutorial on how to write letters to corporate executives and actually get them to read them. The trick was to order and use the engraved stationary from Tiffany because, their stationary was watermarked with the Tiffany name and was quite impressive to the recipient. Remember, 20-30 years ago Tiffany was known for their beautiful engraved personal stationary items and usually purchased by those that had good taste and a good bank account. Today, I believe you can only purchase their over-the-counter stationary items because they no longer print this custom stationary.

The concept of using their stationary is quite ingenious. You see most key executives receive tons of mail and have their staff sort through it for them. Only those letters that appear to be important or of a personal nature written by the execs wealthy friends, would ever make it to the executives desk. When you address the envelope, you always address it to the executive, c/o of the company and mark "Personal" on the outside. Because the envelopes have your engraved name and address on them and the quality of the paper is of course Tiffany quality, the secretary will put this on the executives desk "unopened" thinking you are a personal friend of their boss. Once the exec opens your letter and looks and feels the impressive and expensive stationary, they will read it and in all my cases using this stationary, I have received replies.

I can tell you the last time I wrote a letter on my engraved stationary it was to report a manager of a local movie theater to the head of his company...Shari Redstone. Shari is Sumner Redstone's (CEO and controlling shareholder in Viacom and the man that fired Tom Cruise) daughter and a key executive who's day-to-day task is to guide their National Amusements theater chain. With some 1,500 screens and more than $500 million in revenues Shari is guiding them through the toughest patch in the industry's recent memory.

But with all she has to do each day, this intelligent and caring woman took the time to cordially answer my letter and then took the necessary action to correct the problems I had described in my letter.

Without getting into too much detail here is the story...

The manager of our local NA Multiplex theater was acting in a rude and unprofessional manner and was in fact a bully. One evening I had decided to venture out with my wife to see a movie. I had a torn Achilles tendon and in a cast and on crutches. We were waiting on line outside the theater, in the lobby area, while they cleaned it for the next showing. As we and about 80 other patrons waited to go in, I asked if I could get a head start to the seat before the crowd trampled me. After all the theater seats around 300 and it wasn't as if I wanted a special seat.

He actually refused my request and explained it wouldn't be fair to the others. Now you know that folks that are handicapped, elderly or in need of additional time to reach a seat are always afforded this simple courtesy. The people around me that heard him, couldn't believe it and were in shock, yet he still refused. This was only one of the poor decision's we witnessed this man making.

There was no question in my mind that a letter was due and who else should receive my letter then Shari Redstone.

I knew from my own experience as a marketing executive that companies want to know what they are doing wrong so they can make adjustments when necessary. Companies spend tons of money running focus groups to determine what we think about them...so I was sure a well written letter on my fancy stationary would receive an answer.

A couple of weeks later I did receive a reply directly from Ms. Redstone and it couldn't have been more cordial. I was told this matter would be reported to the local Regional Manager for action and he would contact me within a couple of weeks. Shari even invited me to write back to her to inform her of the resolution to this problem.

The regional manager had not contacted me as promised by Ms. Redstone and after waiting almost two months I wrote a follow-up letter to Ms. Redstone to thank her for her letter and concern and to inform her that I was never contacted by her regional manager.

In less then one week after my follow-up letter, the regional manager's secretary contacted me to let me know he was on the road and would call me soon. He contacted me a day or so later, apologized profusely and explained what course of action would be taken regarding the manager.

He offered me a number of free passes to the National Amusement theaters, which I refused. You see it wasn't about compensation, I explained, it was about letting people know that they are accountable for their actions. He insisted I accept the free passes and I did and a few days later received about 20 or so which we used over the next few months.

The manager was ordered to attend a course in "People Skills" and is a born again gentleman who now takes great steps to endear himself with his patrons. Each time we go to this theater, the manager gets up at the front of the audience with his megaphone to welcome and thank us for attending his theater. He even explains a bit about the making of the movies or runs trivia contests to keep us entertained until the movie begins.

I think my letter of complaint in this case has had a very positive effect on all of the customers that attend the movies shown in this Multiplex theater and a positive effect on the manager who is now a better person and one that does his job the way it should have been done.

Here are six key tips on writing an effective complaint:

Purchase that expensive, engraved stationary, from any upscale company that watermarks the paper with their name.
Do your research on the net and find out who the top person is at the company you want to write and address the letter to them.
Keep the letter as short as you can, but do explain the facts, accurately to them in your letter.
If you can, give them your recommended solution to the problem. In this case I clearly explained that this manager needed to improve his "People Skills". I did not ask them to fire him or demote him, just to send him for training.
Don't get angry in the letter or you will lose their interest and they will simply think you are another nut case writing one of these letters.
Be clear, accurate and professional...do not become emotional in your letter.

I have used my Tiffany Stationary now over the past 25 years about 2 dozen times and each time I have had amazing results. At the time I paid about $100 or so for a few hundreds sheets and matching envelopes, but that was 20 years ago or longer. I figured it cost me around $1-$3 or so for each letter I had to send, but I can assure you it was well worth it. Over the years I have received thousands of dollars in compensation and free gifts from companies and all of this was deserved, but would never have happened if I didn't take the time to write my letters on my engraved stationary.

Watch for more success stories, coming soon.

Len

Don't get angry, get even...

2006-12-11T20:59:00.000-08:00

My name is Len Rapoport and I am a photographer - journalist - corporate communications and marketing consultant and past sales executive and business owner.

I work from my home office in New Jersey and own and run a web member based global organization called International Press Association. As the president and founder of IPA with hundreds of photographers, journalists and videographers from all parts of the world as members, it is my job to set the example for our members and show them how to write commercial reviews and articles and how to take commercial quality photos.

I actually don't know much about blogs, which is quite funny considering and spend most of my days online. I suppose I just don't have time to do any personal surfing unless I am gathering information for an article I am writing for my site or doing searches for items I may want to purchase. I also think that I am not the type to read other peoples personal thoughts about their lives and opinions on just about everything that happens in their lives...and yet here I am starting a new blog. I decided this blog would be one that would share my thoughts on things that get me mad and would probably get you mad too. It will also be a place to acknowledge those that do the right thing and deserve to be recognized and applauded.

You know so many of us have had good and bad experiences. There are times however that you just can't take it anymore. Maybe you would love to just publish these experiences to either expose those that are truly "Bad Boys & Girls". Maybe you are not sure how to write a letter to a company that needs to be told about a negative experience you had. On the other side, you may want to write them because you were so pleased with their company, product or employee and you really want to compliment them in a public or private way. For all of you, this blog will show you how to do both.

So what you will see on this blog will be the things I can't or just don't think is appropriate (good and bad) to post on my companies web site. If you visit the IPA web site at: http://internationalpress.com

you will see some articles and reviews I have written. Some deal with the importance of being an advocate for the elderly, while others might simply be a review of a travel destination, trade or consumer show or product. You can read my latest review on the wonderful Vallarta Palace Hotel in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico by clicking here.

This blog will be a place for me to unwind and do some personal writing and hopefully be an enlightening place for you to come to learn how to fight for your rights too.

One friend told me that I was great to have as a friend, but he would hate to have me as an enemy. I suppose it is because I am the kind of guy that will take the time to write the letter to a company to compliment them when they deserve it. I am also the guy, to write the letter to a company, to complain about something they are just not getting right.

Hopefully, my successes being an advocate for my friends and family and in some cases others will help you deal a bit more effectively with corporate America or government and will find a way to take back control of your lives. Over the many years of successful letter writing and aggressive action both in the courts and through the articles that have written, I have discovered certain techniques that work and I will share them with you.

Yesterday my sister-in-law suggested I start a business to help others seek justice and possibly become their advocates. At this stage of my life, I would rather teach others how to do-it-themselves. Thanks Cathy for the idea for this new blog, hope it helps others.

Thank you all for visiting and come back often.

Len