The Digital Amusement Park Photo Download is finally here

I just got back from my vacation, which included a trip to Hershey Park.

And I experienced an idea whose time has finally come: the ability to purchase the digital copy of the photos that those roller coaster cameras take. The parks have been taking these photos digitally for a while; I am THRILLED to see that I can now buy it. The pricing was great. I could have paid $15 for a print (that I would have bent almost immediately) or $14 for a digital download and a keychain with the image on it. It's not a good option for people who are not technically savyy, but makes a world of sense for those of us who used computers a lot.  I've downloaded my copy, and I'll be sending it to Snapfish to make prints for my folks, soon.  W00t!

Time to trade in the Robot ... if only I could figure out how

When I'm not pondering consumerism, I work in the WWW (Wonderful World of Web) Industry. When you're in the Internet Biz, you subscribe to hundreds of lists. It's just what you do.

One I subscribe to is a list sponsored by Anne Holland, called Which Test Won? It's all about comparing web sites or HTML emails to figure out which is the more compelling message in creating 'conversions' of customers.

A few weeks ago, an A/B test popped up comparing two versions of the iRobot website. As an industry professional, I was supposed to be gaining knowledge about the user perception of a popup modal window (is it good data to be read, or close it as fast as possible because it is a junky ad) but what I took away from this one was, "WOW! You can trade in an old Roomba for a discount on a new one? HOT!"  (Hopefully, trading up to a new iRobot won't have the same dire consequences as trading up a robot in I, Robot, did. Heh.)

The problem with my Roomba is that my son loves it. He has loved it since he could crawl, and as a toddler he still loves it. And as any parent knows, it is never good for any electronic product to be loved by a child. That typically means being loved TO DEATH. If only my son hadn't ripped off the top sensor, at least it would be able to limp back to its station to charge itself, but the poor thing can't even do that.  In short, my Roomba has seen much better days.

So, I went to the iRobot site, looking for info on this grand deal. Nothing. So I linked to the consumer site.Nothing. I linked to parts, service, deals, promotions. Nothing. I could NOT find any mention of this program, and I even knew I was looking for it!

So, I figured I'd contact them. I linked to email customer care. But the form required I put in my serial number of my current one. (i.e., You can't contact their customer care if you are a potential customer; you must already be a customer.) Too much effort.   So I linked to the 'Call us' section: the only hours they are open are the prime hours I am at work. Sigh.

So, if this grand deal still exists, I doubt that many folks are going to take advantage of it. Hopefully, they'll realize this and start to promote it all the time with the same modal popup as they used in their test. Otherwise, I don't see this program succeeding.

I don't suppose anyone out there has successfully done this and has a tale to tell?

Everyone needs a new TV by Feb 2009, huh?

Years ago, when I first heard about the government mandated shift to high definition, my first thought was "Yeah, right. This is going to be an exercise in permanent postponement" Shockingly, I have been correct in this assessment. Yet again, the mandatory transition from analog to digital television broadcasting has been postponed, from February 17 to June 12, 2009.

The part of this whole ordeal that is surprising is how little Media attention this has garnered over the past months.

• Why haven't there been complaints regarding the vast government sponsorship of the electronics industry? In particular the companies manufacturing these converter boxes?
• Where is the social commentary? The poor and the elderly are clearly impacted by this transition. Heck, I imagine that some people don't even know it is going to happen, honestly, and they'll just be very surprised one day when their TV stops working
• Have I somehow missed the environmental uproar? Given that most affluent consumers are simply going to trash their old TVs -- for no other reason than this mandated change -- and get new ones? And thousands of perfectly good TVs are going to end up in our dumps?
• Is there not one investigative journalist who thought it would be interesting to compare the lobbying effort that helped to pass this mandate with the combined forces that made marijuana illegal (thus boosting the tobacco, cotton, and wood pulp industries in the process) and the Great American Streetcar scandal (where established urban streetcar systems were dismantled by the american automotive industry, in order to sell more automobiles. )

Not one journalist thinks any of these topics are worth investigating? I guess not. I suppose this is because they've all been too busy covering the more important stories, like the ever-growing family size of Brad and Angelina.

But now that the Campaign is over, and Obamessiah is in office, and the Pitts aren't quite ready to have another baby, we are finally starting to see a few stories on this topic. Will the transition ever happen? Maybe. Personally, I've got my coupons in hand and I'll be going to get my boxes, soon. Do I need the coupons? No. Can I pay for the boxes myself? Of course I can, just like most folks who have requested these coupons. But I guess this topic isn't interesting to reporters, either. Oh look ... is that Britney over there? Quick! There's news to be told!

Chronicles of the New Giant: Scan It!

The Giant Food Store near me unveiled self-scanning this week ... a concept they are calling Scan It! When I say 'self-scanning', I don't mean self check-out. I mean you have a hand-held scanner and you scan items as you add them to your cart.

I've had a lot of people ask me about my experience with this new technology, including my peeps over at the Food Marketing Institute, so here is the full, objective scoop on how it works as well as my highly subjective opinion of it.

How it Works

1. Walk into Giant and right up to a huge wall of self-scanners, manufactured by Motorola. They are all locked into place in slots on this wall.
2. Scan your Giant Bonus Card, which unlocks one of the scanners. It flashes to let you know which one is yours.
3. Pick up your scanner and also some bags if you want to bag your groceries (or you can of course bring your own bags
4. Scan packaged goods by simply holding down on the scan button and scanning the UPC code. Place in bag in your cart.
   
5. Scan produce by inputting the PLU code into an electronic scale, weighing the item, printing a bar code, and then scanning the code. Place in bag in your cart.
6. If you make a mistake, click the Remove button and rescan the item to remove it and then place it back on the shelf.
7. When done, go to any aisle to check out
8. Scan a final UPC code to 'close' the electronic cart.
   
9. Scan your bonus card again, choose a payment method, pay and go.
   

My 2-Cents on this whole process

• Produce is a challenge. It takes a decent amount of concentration to work those scales, get the bar code, stick it to something, and scan it.
  
• Bagging as you go sounds easy, but it isn't. The stores aren't laid out from heaviest items to lightest items, so it is hard. If I was going to do this a lot, I might just bring boxes with me, as they won't flop over in the carts.
  
• It is very hard to juggle holding the scanner in one hand and pushing the cart with the other hand. If you happen to have a 10-month old baby in the cart who keeps dropping his pacifier, it all triples in difficulty. They need to add some type of 'holster' to the side of the carts to hold the scanner.
  
• Self-scanning ads more time in the store, so it is absolutely critical that there be a pay-off at checkout. i.e. All of us trying the scanners thought there would be a dedicated check-out aisle where we just would pay and go. NO, THERE WAS NOT. After spending all that extra time to scan and bag in the aisles, we had to wait in line behind people slowly scanning their own groceries and bagging at checkout.
  

This last bullet is the key for me. Without dedicated checkout lanes, there is absolutely no motivation for me to self-scan. None. It will always be faster to toss a few things in a basket and go to a self-checkout line than go through the process of unlocking a scanner, scanning each item, then waiting in line, again. I asked one of the cashiers when they'd be creating dedicated Scan-It lanes for those using the hand-held scanners and the answer was NEVER. So when will I 'Scan-It' again? NEVER.

Nothing like a puzzle game ...

Anyone at all involved in the gaming industry knows that Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 came out last week.

Here's the issue: there were a lot of problems with the install. My husband is one of many who got a defective serial key that was 19 digits rather than 20. Many sites, including the official C&C help site, had this "helpful" advice:

There is currently a work around that may allow you to bypass this issue. Since you have the first 19 characters of the code already, you can basically try "guessing" the last character. To do this, simply enter your existing code, and then for the last character, try the letters A-Z, and then the numbers 0-9. You should eventually get the right combination, and be able to play the game.

Wow, that sounds both fun and easy, doesn't it? Just the way I want to spend my time after spending $49 for a game.

The issue, however, was that the game was coded to abort install if you failed to enter the correct serial number after 3 tries. After spending 30 mins of aborts and re-installs, my hubby was pretty angry.

So, my husband tried to follow the second set of advice,

In order to get a replacement code, please click the "Contact Us" link on the left side of the page, and attach an image of your code to the incident.

If you do not have access to a digital camera or scanner, you can fax us a copy of the back of your instruction booklet, along with a copy of your receipt, to (512)-949-4994. Please include with your fax your First and Last name as well as your incident number.

If you would like, once you have created your incident, you can also contact us by phone using the number found on page 28 of your manual.

Note: If you decide to contact us by phone, please include the incident number that you created for this issue.

But, that didn't actually work, either. When he called EA, they insisted that you did everything online and they wouldn't talk to him about the serial number. So, he ended up spending 3 hours starting the install over and over, again and again, until he guessed the correct number. What an AWESOME opening puzzle for the game!

We'd be holding a pretty serious grudge against them at this point if it weren't for the stellar performance of Tim Curry as the Russian Commander, Premier Cherdenko. Hail, Comrade! [If you're a Tim Curry fan, you can see him in this re-mix Red Alert 3 video, along with George Takei.]

One combined, online Wish List? Wow!

I have been suffering lately from having multiple wish-lists/registries on various sites. Then, my friend Janna showed me Kaboodle, and its ability to let you make one big wish list, made up of products from multiple websites.

She shared her wishlist with me, and I thought ... This is great!
I could set up a list like this, and combine items from Amazon, with items from Babies-R-us, with a giftcard from GlamourMom with a bag from Mapleleaf Leather. Amazing.

I wonder if there are other combined wishlist tools out there? I'm sure there are; I just haven't seen them. What a hot idea!

Wireless 'Service'

The phrase Wireless Customer Service strikes me as an oxymoron. In fact, just putting those three words together in one sentence is stretching it. Has anyone EVER had good customer service from a wireless communications provider? Choosing a wireless provider is indeed a case of choosing the proverbial Best of the Worst. Why is this?

This quote from an AT&T Wireless representative -- after AT&T Wireless was crowned as one of the cell phone service providers with the most complaints -- probably sums it up:

"the number of complaints we received is so small that it's almost not measurable in terms of the size of our customer base"

It's pure numbers and volume. If you have enough customers, who cares if you lose a few ... thousand. The PhoneDog.com site provides some decent overviews and reviews of the major carriers, but there are many other sites to be found if you want to read such things.

Here are a few experiences of my own to add to the fray:

- AT&T Wireless, when bought by Cingular Wireless a few years ago, added text messaging to almost everyones accounts. Four people in my office were hit by this, including me. When we called to question the additional $5/month, we were told "Well, Cingular gave everyone text free for a month, and then started charging for it if you didn't cancel the service within 30 days." Of course, none of us were actually told about this exciting promotion, but I guess that doesn't matter in the big picture. I bet they made a lot of extra money that month. Someone got a nice, big bonus out of that idea.

- Another exciting facet of the AT&T Wireless/Cingular merger was the change of the website and online bill-paying. I was a former AT&T Wireless customer. For about a year, nothing changed. Then the site began to change. And each month, paying the bill took another click. First, there was one redirect, then two, then a page confirming you used to be AT&T, then another redirect, then another. Finally, about 6 months ago, I had been forwarded/redirected over 20 times, and still couldn't pay my bill. So, I simply switched to Verizon Wireless.

- Moving my number from AT&T Wireless to Verizon Wireless took no less than three hours. Big hugs to my husband who sat on the phone through that ordeal. However, I do have to give Verizon credit; the service people were very pleasant.

- Now, fast forward to this month. We get a note from Verizon that we are in collections for an unpaid bill. This is fascinating to us, as our account is showing a zero balance. So, we call. And the first rep sees a zero balance, and the second, and the third, and the fourth, and the fifth, and the sixth. Almost two hours later, we finally reach someone who believes that they figured out the issue -- which went back to the whole switching numbers ordeal -- and "thinks they can fix it".

Well, we've got the nice lady's name and customer service ID number, so if the Collection Agency sends one of their thugs after us, we'll be ready.

Come on, Wireless Providers. With all that money and technology, can't these things be just a little bit smoother?