So I’ve been throwing this idea around in my head in regards to my Google Reader and how long it takes me to get through each day. I have 219 subscriptions in my reader covering topics from SEO and Social Media to Graphics Design and Writing. The idea I had was having my peers, Twitter followers, and readers pick my Google Reader subscriptions.

The idea itself still excites me and I think it could be awesome if executed properly, but the execution is what I’m having trouble with. How do I filter out blogs people are just throwing at me to get a link on my blog? How do I choose the maximum number of blogs I want to have? I still want to keep a diverse list of blogs on my favorite subjects, but I want to cut it down to the best of the best. Finally how can I get my peers, followers, and readers to chime in on it? Do list off all 219 blogs and let people pick through them or do I have people suggest their favorite blogs and take the top picked blogs out of the bunch?

So this is where I need your help. Is my idea completely insane or do you think it could be executed if done correctly? I’d love to hear your feedback and ideas and if I use your idea I’ll be sure to give you some love if/when the project comes full circle.

After nearly 6 months of battling with Verizon Wireless to upgrade my cell phone, I am a proud new owner of a Blackberry Storm.  Sadly, none of it is thanks to the customer service of Verizon Wireless.

Readers and Twitter followers will recall Verizon Wirelesses’ terrible customer service and my plan to cancel service with Verizon Wireless from a while back, but after researching other carriers and phone options I was hesitant to do so.  After the last incident with Verizon I decided to take to their support forums.  There I left a brief synopsis of what had happened and left links to the two blog posts I had written about the terrible service I had received.  Within 24 hours of posting in the forums I was contacted.

After being contacted I had my faith in Verizon Wireless somewhat restored.  Obviously they are terrible at monitoring their social media mentions since I put out a number of help cries both on Twitter and on my blog and not a single person took the time to contact me, but at least after a combined effort and leaving a message on their forums I felt that they were finally listening to my outcry.

The representative that contacted me asked for some additional information, some of it I felt was a bit ridiculous because they should have had it on file, but since I was hoping to finally get somewhere with the company I obliged.  In the e-mail I was told my information and concerns were going to be passed on to their local support representative.  Sadly, that was the last I heard from Verizon Wireless.  I have yet to receive another e-mail or even a phone call from the company or their support people.

So how did I wind up with a Blackberry Storm?  Last week my wife received a VIP promotional offer in the mail which offered the Blackberry Storm for $49.95 along with a buy one get one option, and let’s be honest I would be stupid to pass up on such an amazing offer.

So alas we head down to our local Verizon Wireless store and scored us some new phones.  The process took forever and the salesman we dealt with was pretty much clueless and tried to charge us full price for the second phone, but after explaining to him the offer, which he had right in front of him, and help from a manager we got the phones at the right price.

What I’ve Learned

Through this experience I’ve learned a few things.  First Verizon Wirelesses’ customer service has gotten terrible over the last year both in store and obviously through its main support division.  Second I learned that no matter how terrible your customer service is sometimes if your product is good enough and trusted people will look past the poor support for the right price.

The key in what I just said is for the right price; had Verizon not offered the VIP promotion I had fully intended on switching to AT&T for an iPhone in August when my contract was up.  Verizon Wireless has severely tarnished their image in my eyes and my trust in their customer service is nonexistent at this point.

What Businesses Can Learn from This

In this economy people are willing to bend a little more if the price is just right.  I did in this situation because I was desperate, and Verizon was able to retain my contract with them even though they have treated me terribly over the last six months.  If you’re a business that wants to sieze the day and take advantage of this, now is a better time than ever.  However, it’s important to realize that the economy won’t be like this forever and once that time comes if your service sucks even the right price won’t be enough to keep even your most loyal of customers. If my financial situation was better than it was at the current time I would have broke my contract with Verizon Wireless and switched to AT&T immediately.  In fact I debated it on more than one occasion; I just wasn’t in a place financially to do it.

The key in hard economic times is trying even harder to wow your customers.  The happier you make them now the more they will be willing to throw money at your product or brand when things are financially sound.

Those of you who have been following the blog or my twitter account for a while know that I have had a number of issues with my previous hosting company ThinkHost; first with an extensive downtime, followed by slowness issues. Issues that continued for the year I had them hosting this blog. After the first of the year, when I knew my hosting contract would be up, I decided to look into the ending of my contract. At the time they advised it would be up in April; they also mentioned that it would be an auto renewal unless I cancelled before the renewal date. I unfortunately forgot that part; a mistake that wound up costing me a ton of time, frustration and money.

See where ThinkHost, like many companies, gets you is in the TOS. ThinkHost automatically renews their services; there is no way around it. You can’t opt out of it, you can’t stop it, they just suck the money from your account every six months and that’s that. In addition you are required to cancel BEFORE that auto renewal date and for the account to be cancelled, “…it must be paid in full at the time of cancellation.” Meaning that if you are invoiced the full 6 months of hosting, on the first of the month and you call in on the second you technically are responsible for 6 months or hosting at that point whether you like it or not.

I sadly fell for this. I knew the renewal date was nearing, but I had forgotten when and on June 2 I received a notice that my invoice had declined. When I realized they had attempted to bill me I immediately e-mailed ThinkHost and let them know that I wished to cancel. They quickly responded and told me that I couldn’t cancel until I paid my invoice of $87.75, which would pay for hosting for the next six months.

I immediately called their 24 hour support hotline to speak with a representative. The gentleman I spoke with was nice enough, but didn’t sound very confident in what he was telling me and actually told me that I shouldn’t have been invoiced if I was planning to cancel, but that he had to submit my ticket to a supervisor and that they would e-mail me back.

An hour later I received an e-mail from his supervisor advising that, “We bill our clients on the first day of each month. If you wish to cancel the account then you have to cancel it before that day.” Again they prompted me to pay them $87.75 for six more months of service. I responded explaining that I didn’t authorize the payment and didn’t want six more months of their services. Long story short? Their TOS had me by the balls:

You agree to pay ThinkHost, Inc. appropriate payment for the services received from ThinkHost, Inc. in advance of the time period during which such services are provided. You agree to provide ThinkHost, Inc. with current billing and contact information, and you authorize ThinkHost, Inc. to bill all accounts and related charges to the credit card on file. You further understand that until and unless you notify ThinkHost, Inc. of your desire to cancel any or all services received, and you complete the cancellation process, those services will be billed on a recurring basis.

There was some back and forth where they demanded I pay the $87.75 because regardless of the fact I didn’t want their service or plan to use their service any longer the TOS bound me to the payment. In the end another supervisor was kind enough to cut me a break and only charged me the $27 for the last month of hosting, which I was fine with considering the situation. But there is a HUGE lesson to be learned here. KNOW YOUR TERMS OF SERVICE! In fact I’m going to go read my new HostGator TOS right now. I know at times it seems intimidating because of the legal mumbo jumbo, but in all honesty knowing your commitments and obligations are extremely important. If ThinkHost wanted to be complete a-holes they could have told me to suck it up and pay them what I owed them and I’d be SOL, but fortunately they didn’t do that.

I will say however that from a customer service standpoint it shouldn’t have taken this much back and forth to come to a compromise. When they knew I wanted to cancel and didn’t wish to continue their services they should have offered the $27 settlement at that time. In the end I would suggest steering clear of ThinkHost, the service I have received over the last year with them has been less than satisfactory both in hosting and in customer care. I do however appreciate the support representatives that finally compromised with me following my error.