I am very juvenile

But this on andyroddick.com made me laugh today:

Dear Flickr: Your Customer Service Sucks #flickrfail

Last week my mom was in town as a tourist.  First trip to New York, so she took LOTS of pictures.  Midweek i thought it would be nice to get some pics printed up to give to her to take home, so I ordered a bunch from Flickr.  Total cost of the pictures was about $6, but mom was leaving on Sunday so I paid $20 for next day delivery.  I ordered Wednesday night, and expected the pics by Friday or Saturday  (estimated delivery thing said Friday).

My confirmation email said “Your order has been received and will be completed within 1-2 business days”.  They didn’t mention that it would take up to 48 hours to process before I ordered, only once I’d paid, but no biggie, eh?

My package arrives Monday.  I’ve paid $20 for five day delivery, not very cool, but hey ho such is life I guess.  Then I open the pictures, and half of them look like this:

So I paid $26 for a bunch of images that were ‘currently unavailable’ and five day shipping.

Don’t you check the product before it leaves the warehouse? Wouldn’t even need a human, would just need to scan for images that look like the above AND NOT CHARGE PEOPLE FOR THEM OR SEND THEM TO THEM.

And to add insult to injury, their (I’m assuming outsourced) customer service (flickr@certifiedcustomercare.com) absolutely sucks too.  Waiting ages for responses to emails, only to be told that they told me next day service meant I had to wait 48 hours before they ship.  Haven’t gotten a response on why they sent me a bunch of blank images yet though.

Absolute rubbish. I LOVED flickr up until this experience, but it’s completely destroyed my opinion of the brand. #flickrfail

A list of things I don’t like.

Sometimes people say I’m grumpy. I don’t think I am, it’s just that certain things really annoy me. In no particular order then, here are some things that get my goat:

1. People on the subway who don’t have their ticket ready, then stop in front of the barrier to look for it. HELLO? IF YOU DON’T HAVE YOUR TICKET STAND TO THE SIDE SO THE REST OF US CAN GET THROUGH. Thanks.

2. People on the subway who insist on standing by the door instead of moving in, then look annoyed when I barge into them. I reserve my sharpest elbows for these pond dwellers.

3. Taxi drivers who are off duty yet slow down to ask you through the window where you want to go in case it’s on their way home, when of course it never is. I’ve started saying ‘your house’.

4. When we’re at it, the bloody TVs in NYC taxis too.

5. People who spit in the street. Scum.

6. People who don’t clean up after their dogs. Scum.

7. People who take 15 minutes to sort their coffee out at the milk/napkins/sugar area in Starbucks (with apologies to @iansohn).

8. Emails with ‘let me know if you have any questions’ at the end. Oh right, OK. I do have questions, and I would not have asked them if you hadn’t put that. Thanks.

9. The fact that no matter what @dunkindonuts I order from, anywhere in the city, I have to repeat my ‘milk and no sugar’ instruction no less than three times. I’m considering laminating a little card.  This is the most basic of coffee orders: put milk in it, don’t put sugar in it. I shouldn’t have to repeat it over and over.

10. MySpace.*

*Edit: Ok, to clarify: I mean MySpace auto play music.  Hate it hate it hate it.

Today, Adobe did a very smart thing

They bought Omniture, the leading Web analytics solution.

I’ve worked with the guys in Orem, where Omniture is headquartered, a good bit over years: great bunch, with a really smart and switched on leader in Josh, impeccable business ethics and an absolutley kick ass product.  Was always a joy to work with them, and I love the way Josh runs his business.  The fact that their solution was head and shoulders above the competition didn’t hurt either, although the Google product beats them on price (it’s free).

I happened to be there when Omniture announced they were in the black a few years ago, when employees came in to find thousands and thousands of black balloons covering every inch of the office, four  foot deep. It was quite the trip: felt like a little slice of Silicon Valley, in deepest Utah.

Their dedication to their customers and their product has always stood out to me, and they’ve innovated throughout the years and done more for the  analytics arena (and I would argue as a result, strategy) than anyone I can think of. Stoked for the guys out there, stoked for Omniture, and super excited for the possibilities that the Adobe aquisition will bring.  Measurement is the holy grail: understand what your users are doing, and you can give them more of what they want, when they want it.  Being in a position to deliver both the content experience  (ads, flash, video etc) AND detailed info on user behavior within those experiences gives Adobe a real edge.

Congrats guys. Both of you.

Dear Warren Ellis… (or how I got to be blocked on Twitter!)

Tuesday was a landmark day for me: I got my first (known) block on Twitter, meaning that another user clicked the ‘block’ button, preventing me from interacting with them.  Feels kinda weird.  I’m @kaimac on there, in case you were wondering.

How did I come to get blocked, you ask?  Good question.   First, some background….

Some of you may know Warren Ellis, the comic book guy from England who started his career with the legendary Deadline way back when, and has since turned into somewhat of a living legend himself.  He’s written a bunch of super cool stuff, including loads for comic giant, Marvel.

Which brings us to the Disney acquisition of them this week.  They just bought them for $4 billion bucks (gasp!).  Actually a super smart deal from Disney: I have no doubt that they’ll leave well enough alone and just milk the licencing opps rather than trying to change anything creatively.  After all, if it aint broke don’t fix it.

The morning the acquisition was announced, Warren (@Warrenellis) tweeted some pretty funny stuff:

Two of my fave tweets ever, actually, but that’s by the by.  Anyhow, the next day he tweeted this:

which I thought was pretty funny, so feeling a bit sarcastic, replied with:

Not the funniest thing I’ve ever said, but at least a 6/10 I thought. You know, ‘cos he’s talking about severed heads and that’s the last thing Disney would ever want him to talk about, so of course he’s not a sellout, eh?  Haha funny, ya?

To which he replied:

Funny, granted, but also a little over the top.  And then with one cruel click, he blocked me, meaning that I was no long able to follow him on Twitter.  *sniff*. So that’s how I got to be blocked, for the first time ever.  Next time I guess I’ll remember to use the emoticon

Anyhow, @warrenellis: sorry about that. I’m not a loony flamer, was just trying to be funny.  Won’t happen again.  Obviously enough I guess, ‘cos you’ve blocked me. But you get the point. Actually getting blocked has given me an interesting perspective on Twitter’s block feature.  In a nutshell: it’s very broken.  But that’s for another post!

So what do you think…  should I have been blocked?  Fair enough ‘cos I was such an idiot, or an over-reaction?

Update @ 10.30 EST, 4/9:  Ha! Warren just unblocked me. @iansohn is taking the credit.

Me Chatting with Kimberly Maul of PR Week

Good chat with Kimberly Maul of PR Week about consumers in the social space, the Facebook/Friendfeed business and some work we did for Ford recently.

Steely Dan – Crowdsourcing Their Set List

Steely Dan are playing a bunch of nights at the newly renovated Beacon Theatre on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  That in itself is pretty cool, but what’s especially interesting though is that for certain nights, including tonight, ticket holders for the show pick the set list.

Anyone who bought a ticket in advance of the show had the opportunity to vote on what songs the band plays. Top choices made it in to the set list.  Excellent, no?  They might be old fogeys, but they’re moving with the times, crowdsourcing what they play. Love it.

Also, Donald Fagan is responsible for one of the coolest album covers ever, and is, imho, one of the coolest people to ever walk this earth.

Anyhow, interesting trend that we’re going to see more of.  If I’m going to see a show, why shouldn’t I be able to participate in some way?  Would be cool to see Fagan on stage with his iPhone, asking for folks to @ him requests.  Or having people critique the show, or even just chatting (tweeting) with folks up in the nose bleeds.  Project the iPhone onto the screens and you’re away!  Ok, bit far fetched for two fellas in their 60s, but you get the idea

Now all that remains to be seen is whether I can rustle up a ticket or not. Waked past the line yesterday and it was like Jerry Garcia had risen from the dead and sent his disciples to the Upper West Side. Splendid

Friending everyone you meet – what’s up with that?

Not so long ago, social networks were pretty straightforward:  MySpace & Facebook were for friends, Linkedin for business contacts, and a bunch of others for everything in between.  If you met somebody (online or off) that you got on with you connected with them on one of the first two, if you met somebody you were doing business with and liked (or wanted to) you connected with them on the latter.  They were, in one way or another, qualified contacts.  Seems like in the last year or so particularly, the boundries between them all have gotten blurred.  I’ve had facebook ‘friend’ requests from people whose name I don’t know, or whose face I don’t recognise.  Met them once, was on a conference call or in a meeting… exchanged cards at a conference.

Twitter self-polices in a way, in that if you’re following somebody who drives you crazy, you’ll quickly unfollow or ignore them.  Part of the beauty of Twitter is that it’s a great way to connect with folks you didn’t know previously. That’ll be the subject of a different post though…

My point is that connections run the risk of losing value.  If you connect with everyone you meet on linkedin, how valuable is that connection to you or your network?  If you can’t vouch for that person personally, is the fact that you’re linked of any worth?

Personally I try to only connect only with people I consider to be friends, or folks who I like  or liked working with and respect.  There’s a good deal of crossover between Facebook and Linkedin for me within those two groups (a different issue), but the same rules apply.

What do Web services like Facebook & Twitter owe their users?

There’s been lots of noise recently around Web services and their relationships with their users. Facebook users were up in arms about the recent privacy policy changes (since rescinded), there’s increasing noise about the customer service (or lack thereof) from Twitter. Facebook’s redesign has caused an extraordinary backlash: you’d think some of these folks had been personally assaulted, such is their anger. Gmail  goes down for 15 minutes, and it’s like the world has ended.

Gmail, like the others above, is free for non-enterprise users.

That’s the key point when looking at these complaints: these services are all free.  So, just as users of Google’s free analytics product have much less right to complain than those of the higher end and more fully featured (but paid) Omniture Site Catalyst, the real question is whether  it’s reasonable to expect a certain level of service or % of uptime when you’re not paying for a product?

If you’re getting something for free you have to take it as it comes to some extent, but in truth it’s more complex than that.  Long term each of these services will look to generate revenue from their users in some capacity (some like Gmail already are); whether through subscriptions, advertising, sponsorship or some other stream.  To succeed, they need a happy and active user base. Ignoring their users’ complaints at this stage could damage them long term: the Web is littered with the carcasses of services that ignored their users.

You could reasonably argue that Twitter users have no right to complain about not getting a level of service they are not contractually entitled to, but in order for it  to succeed, they need to keep users happy so they don’t go elsewhere. The road to that success starts with listening to their users’  complaints. The customer is always right, even when it comes to free services.

Interesting thoughts on this over at the Social Media Club. It’s their question of the week. Where do you stand?  Are folks being reasonable in complaining, or does the fact they’re not paying for the service mean they have to accept whatever level of service they receive?

I am going to the driving range today

For the first time in over a year.  It’s not going to be pretty: if you’re at Chelsea Pier tonight and you see an English guy (me), keep your wits about you.  I have the unique ability to fire a golf ball in any one of 360 different directions with no warning whatsoever. It’s pretty special.  Don’t think you’ll be safe standing behind me, either. 

Update later.

Update:  That was excellent.  I wasn’t nearly as bad as  I expected (I really suck as a golfer, but have fun trying which is the main thing).  A few shocking shanks, but a few sweet shots too. Weird to be hitting balls onto a pier surrounded by water, very different to what I’m used to.

I’d forgotten how amazing it feels when you catch it perfectly.  Awesome.  Going back tomorrow, hehe

http://brightkite.com/objects/2982583c046d11de969d003048c10834