*Words of Wisdom From The Elder

“Announced at our all company meeting back last month, our Chairman, Dan Gilbert, is starting a non profit academy for people that have an entrepreneurial interest, but may not really know how to get going. The organization will be known as Bizdom U. They are currently taking applications for the academy to open in January 2007. Ten to twenty lucky people will get to learn about business inside and out. Live and breath it and in order to graduate you have to write a business plan. Once you do, your business gets funded by the academy. If you live in the Detroit area and want to start your own business this is a great opportunity. Check it out.”

I just got of the phone with my wife. She was explaining to me that a person she works with fiance is a nurse at the local hospital and reported there had been 45 cases of the West Nile virus in the past three days here in Hattiesburg, Ms. What is going on!? I just got my new lawn mower and had planned on mowing the yard again this evening but now, I’m not so sure. According to the current numbers, there are only 32 reported cases in Mississippi. Either someone is stoned, can’t count, or the bugs down here are now fighting back! Updated September 2nd, 9:15 PM
My wife wanted me to correct the fact that it wasn’t someone she worked with at WCU, but rather a student of hers. Which I also might add was 2nd place in Miss Mississippi pagent this year. Another update on this is the local paper ran an article that not all of these cases are being reported to the state because some of the blood tests are being run by offices that are contracted for the hospital and aren’t required to report back to the state. I find this absolutely stupid. The CDC should step in and make this a federal rule that anyone who can run a blood test has to report back to the state their findings when it comes to diseases. Why is it I seem to be the only one with any common sense in this state?

I’ve had three or four people try to find me on MSN Messgenger in the past week.  Unless I told you exactly what to use, you would never find me.  Being that I am a junkie of said technology I decided to change my handle so people could better / more easily “guess” my handle.  I do this all the time.  For example I’ll get someone’s business card or I’ll be reading their blog and I will want to chat.  I’ll take their email address and try it in MSGR.  More times than not it works and I have an instant connection with someone.

Don’t worry for those that are on my list, all two of you,  I’ll be messaging you to remind you. Just accept my new handle and be happy.  For those that are dying to know, it will be my email address at this domain which is:

keith at dot net pimps .net
(the above string is an email address obfuscated for spam engines)

I was going through mail this morning (no not email, real mail) and my mortgage lender sent me an advertisement regarding Total Protect’s Home Warranty. I normally don’t read ads but this is from my lender so I read them all just in case. It’s funny because now that we are home owner’s my biggest fear is some major gizmo in the home is going to all of a sudden quit and I’m going to have to fork over thousand’s of dollars to get it either fixed or replaced. Probably my biggest concern is air conditioning. We have two air conditioning units for our home. One cools the north wing and other the south wing. If one of them all of a sudden goes, we are talking thousands of dollars. Living in the heart of the south where temperatures are above 90 degrees each and every day for 4-6 months out of the year doesnt’ help my feelings either. My mother-in-law just had to replace an air conditioner. Her air conditioner was over 20 years old but she doesn’t run it that much. I figure it got about 4-5 years of solid use compared to mine since our’s stay on all the time. Insurance is primarily peace of mind but is it worth it? According to the brochure I got the price of the coverage would be $36.95 / month and a $50.00 deductible. Using the quote rate on their web site our deductible would be $95.00. Either the mortgage lender doesn’t know how big our house is or they are cutting us a break. Either way I’m going with the $50.00 because that’s what I have in writing from them. So $36.95 / month is $443.40 a year. If an air conditioner blows up within the next year or a refrigerator, I’m ahead. If a washer or dryer goes I break even since I can buy a new dryer or washer for that amount of money. But what about stoves and garbage disposals? The bottom line is how much stuff breaks? I don’t know nor can I remember from growing up. What are your thoughts? Home Warranty insurance good or bad?

Last week I was in Boston, MA for Tech Ed. Roughly 10,000 – 15,000 IT professionals decended upon Boston to add to the already horrible traffic situation. It was my first time in Boston and I had a blast. I went to Cheers twice, Jullians, Avalon, Fenway Park and of course the Convention Center where I walked about 10 miles a day (no joke). Before I left for Boston I was trying to get an order re-filled for my contacts. My eyes are extremely sensitive to light and this is why I typically have a pair of sun shades on my head even in the heart of winter. I have been using 1-800-Contacts for several years now to get my contacts. The only *catch* using them is you have to have a valid prescription. Right before leaving for Tech Ed mine ran out. So I got an appointment, got a new prescription, called 1-800-Contacts and placed my order on a Wedensday before leaving on Sunday. Since I had already placed an order before they told me I would get priority shipping and my shipping costs would be waived. Great. It turns out USPS doesn’t give a damn about its 1-2 day express shipping. To them it means, 1-4 days. They just don’t care, litterally. Fed-ex will drive through swamps and face a huricance head on to get your package delivered in 1-2 days. To make a long story short I had to leave for Boston without contacts. I called 1-800 and they were going to ship me another order to Boston and I was to instruct my wife to refuse the package when it arrived to the house from our lazy friends at the postal service. Turns out there were problems with the shipping address. For some reason a major carrier has trouble finding a 25 story &#*#$^^*#$ing hotel! By this time it was middle of the week and I just said screw it, I’ll deal with it when I get back home. This morning I called into 1-800-Contacts. Side note here. Usually when you call a place like this you expect to be on hold. 9 times out of 10 when I call the phone rings and I get a rep immediately. No pressing this number for this, or dial this extension for that, just straight through to a sales rep. I sure wish the rest of the world would pay attention to this. Put your freaking sales people as the first line of defense! We have the same philosophy where I work, get a human on the phone with a client as soon as possible. Moving on. I knew I was going to have to explain this long story to the sales rep so being a great southern story teller with years of experience I began painting a verbal picture filled with southernisms. The gentleman on the other end said, “Mr. Elder I really appreciate you explaining that. It sounds like you’ve been through a lot with this. The first thing I am going to do is put a $10 credit on your account. You’ve been so patient, most people would be yelling and cursing at this point at me.” I then said, well, it isn’t your fault so what’s the point. The gentleman on the phone then created a new order and as shipping the contacts business overnight. So this little order has cost them 2 expedited shipping fees and $10.00. Now of course they aren’t making any money on this order, but it doesn’t matter, I’m a happy customer because the sales rep showed compassion and my problem was fixed in the most expedited manner it could have been. The $10 credit is just a bonus to this whole mix-up. The moral of the story is, it doesn’t matter if the business screws up. The real true test of a company is how they “fix” or “handle” the problem after something does get messed up.