Howdy true be-loggers, welcome to Sunday Leftovers! This week we will discuss Nazi sales people, Shaving cream, and Potato Latkes? Let's open the fridge and see what's leftover...
[The Back Window]
CREDIT: My Favorite Planet
CREDIT: Two Hours Traffic
[Poster Bitch]
A few months ago I found an excellent video of Ryan Adams and the Cardinals that the BBC recorded. I managed to find a poster on Amazon for that exact concert and bought it, knowing it would look very cool in my music area. Two weeks ago I decided to play catch up on my vendor reviews for Amazon. I freely admit - I mistook this vendor with the business who sold me Ryan Adams' book Infinity Blues. That business delayed the book twice so I thought I was giving THEM at ding with ONE star off (but I didn't recall destroying anyone with a review or rating).
On Wednesday I get an email from the poster company:
I'm really perplexed why you left us a "4" for the amazon.com feedback? We deliver exactly what we promise- and fast too. We also offer a no questions asked return policy. Before your feedback- we had perfect 100% positive "5" feedback score for hundreds of sold items. bummer. please refrain from buying our items in the future.
Sincerely,
(Name Removed)
This guy doesn't identify himself and his email is from an AOL account, so my first thought is - who the hell did I give a 4 out of 10 to? I email him to figure out what transaction this is for and his response is:
you purchased one of our posters. i'd be willing to bet that it was exactly as described, packed well, and arrived on time. we also offer a return policy. having said all of that, one can only wonder why we deserved a less than 100% positive feedback? If a less than 5 score seems like no big deal- well, i'd say that it is the first we have received after hundreds of transactions on Amazon.
well, we're a small shop. we had all positive feedbacks up to your 4 and someone else's unfair 3 on Dec 7. now our feedback score for this week is 89%.
your two unfair feedbacks have tubed our account and made us look like a bad seller for what should be our best week of the year- 2 weeks before Christmas. we're about to close our amazon account now.
it is a shame how many folks don't consider how simple feedback can adversely impact a small business on the internet.
PS - I am copy/pasting this directly from email, so all of the punctuation errors are the business owners.
This guy gets to me with his whole small business argument. Reflecting on the transaction, it came fast and without damage. I had no issues with their service, so I now feel obligated to correct my "mistake". When I log into Amazon and realize it is out of 5 stars - I immediately think - "What is this guy's fucking problem?". But my feeling was that the guy deserved the correction if it means that much to him. So I take time out my ultra busy morning to figure out how to remove the 4 rating. I email him back:
Sorry - I did bulk reviews and mistook you with another related transaction. I have removed my feedback and score.
I will add that you don't have to be so confrontational. In this situation, it was a mistake - perhaps - since you are exerting the energy - you should just asked the customer why they reduced the score from a perfect 5 and work with them on a correction.
He then responds with:
no one is being so confrontational, I just told you my thoughts and assessment of your feedback.
I appreciate you removing your feedback.
When I got back to the hotel that night, I started thinking about this interaction: A few key words popped into my head "hundreds of items sold" and then "someone else's 3". If they had hundred of transactions rated at 5, my 4 wouldn't have done a damn thing to their rating. I came to the conclusion that this guy is a total rating Nazi and I started to wonder how many other people he bullied into better ratings. I looked at their amazon account again this company didn't have "hundreds" of 5 star reviews, they had 78. Which means he was lying about his customer base or they abused their customer contact information quite often to get people to remove their scores (I don't think you can go in a change them, you can only remove).
I am going to give the company a pass and not mention their name or the owner's name - in case I am off on my judgment about the situation, but I will oblige the owner's wish and never use them again. I am sending them a copy of the published link so maybe they will think twice about contacting customers who gave them good reviews. Not everything is perfect and nothing perfect stays that way forever. Tell me your thoughts about this situation readers - I am wrong to be pissed off about this guy contacting me with the tone he used or was he in the right?
[Tech Rant: iTunes]
Going to make this one quick. I hate iTunes. We are at version 9 and the software is just beginning to get syncing for the iPod device right. It seems like every time I open the program there is an update which takes 5-10 minutes to download and install. With so many updates - why does the software suck so bad? The program never syncs my songs correctly. Sometimes it works just fine, other times, it just sits there. With the implementation of genius, I finally signed out for the last time. I downloaded VLC player for my mp4 files and never looked back. I also I bought myself a cheap-ass Sansa that windows treats like an external hard drive, so all I have to do is drag and drop my songs into the device. Full control, no mess.
A few years ago I read about a Mozilla-based project called Songbird. Songbird has a iTunes-like interface and can manage iPods and other MP3 players. It runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux. The software has a built in web browser and will manage online music content like embedded mp3s and streaming services like Last.fm. The first versions were a little buggy, but with the 1.0 release - it featured easier interfaces and I finally feel comfortable recommending it to people. VLC is a much faster, smaller program that will play just about anything, so if you have an older PC - I'd recommend that, but if you just can't quit iTunes, give Songbird a try.
[Recipe of the Week: Potato Latkes]
Since this is the holiday season, I figured I would present this classic staple of Jewish cuisine. My father brought me a corned beef sandwich from Famous Deli in Philadelphia two weeks ago and the Latke comes as a side dish. So good.
INGREDIENTS
5 potatoes, grated
2 onions, grated
3 eggs
3 tablespoons breadcrumbs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Nutmeg (to taste)
Oil for frying
DIRECTIONS
1. Mix up the potatoes and onions
2. Get all the moisture out the mix (give it a good squeeze in a towel). Add the eggs, breadcrumbs and spices and mix again.
3. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Heap spoonfuls of the mix into the pan and pat them down to form pancakes.
4. Fry for 2 minutes, turn over and fry for another minute until golden.
5. Drain on paper towel
[DIY of the Week: Make your own Shaving Cream]
MATERIALS:
1/2 teaspoon of sunflower oil
1/4 cup of unscented glycerin soap
Double boiler
A cup or mug for the cream
DIRECTIONS:
You can follow the directions from Planet Green
[Video of the Week]
[Conclusion]
That's all I have for you. I hope you enjoyed my week of Wilco Haiku while I was off traveling for work. I am reading a lot of year-end/decade-end lists which is getting my brain churning for my Season's Greetings post. If you need to reach me, you can do so via email at: "blog at joeylombardi.com". As always, don't take shit from anybody.
Smell You Later,
~ Joey
Joey Lombardi | Create Your Badge
