Thursday, June 29, 2006

Allergies aren't the only reason to use TISSUES - Watch this!

I shared this video on my Blog for Adoptive Parent Support at www.everythingforadoption.com and felt I should share it with you also.
It is a wonderful video of Parental Love. Get your tissues out.

Marathon Dad (click!)

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Allergic to Housework?

As the mother of 4 boys, I have to admit most of them seem to have the same affliction. They are allergic to housework. I barely mention the word, 'clean', and immediate moaning sounds begin. It is a painful thing to watch. It is even more painful to see what their idea of 'clean' actually is.
Now, I do have one daughter...but at age 12 she is either being compulsively clean, like cleaning out her closet or she moves into the 'slob' mode and lives with a continual pile of clothes on her bedroom floor.
As someone who is aware that many airborne allergies are stemmed from DUST, it is my opinion that maybe 'piles' and 'stuff' need to be picked up and possibly put somewhere to avoid the DUST issue.
However, having 5 children all at various stages of stubborness (or some call 'development') I have to either get into the 'nagging mode' or just learn to close their bedroom doors more often.
Sigh.....
Yeh...tomorrow our cleaning gal comes (only twice a month) and I will see my house as a house again for at least a few days or so!

Monday, June 19, 2006

Allergic to Outside?

I told my 6 yr. old to stop playing his Nintendo and go outside to get some fresh air.
His comment came back, "But, Mom! You told me that our air purifier is just like fresh mountain air!"
Ok! Why is it that kids have such selective hearing? I don't think he ever hears me talk about the benefits of a clean bedroom. LOL....

Saturday, June 10, 2006

How Important is Customer Service?

Well, I learned a very important lesson these past two weeks. If you don't have Customer Service in your business than your business will be suffering. I learned this in a very difficult way.
2 weeks ago I learned that several friends had switched their phone carriers to Vonage and were proud of the savings they were going to have. Without checking into Vonage any further, I made the switch. SBC had been a nightmare to switch to 5 years earlier with them messing up my account multiple times and in multiple ways. Since they had so many hidden fees I felt I would like Vonage without the hidden fees. BIG mistake!!!
As soon as the boxes were added to my computer and phone lines I lost the internet. This took about 4 days to repair. It was a Norton issue who apparently went crazy with this new system attached to the computer. Worse than that, our phone lines did not work properly. One day no incoming calls, next day no dial tone. My only means of talking with customer service was to use my cell phone...which did not work well in my house.
And here is the topic at hand....Customer Service! Now the friends who liked Vonage never had to deal with their customer service department like I did for the next 2 weeks. It was common to dial the number and get the message that your call would be answered in 25-30 min. I waited....and waited....and waited.... Then the customer service rep would answer and it was very obvious that English was not their first language. Most were courteous but after waiting 30 min. I then had to give all my info, address, phone, etc. Then we discussed the problem where I was given a few options to try to fix the phone. It never worked and I was passed onto someone else. Then I began all over again.....wait 30 min....give detailed info on account...explain problem....passed onto someone else.
Days went by....weeks went by....NO phone service! I decided to go with another carrier to get my phone lines operational. I cancelled the Vonage service....and they took my phone numbers. So when the new company tried to set up my phones they could not use my original phone numbers. I had to re-join Vonage to get my numbers back. I spent many hours....actually most of the day for several days to find out how I could get my numbers back. I FINALLY found people on both ends...new carrier & at Vonage who understood what I was trying to do....and are currently working on getting my original numbers back in place
However, this will take several more weeks.
My plan to save more money undoubtly cost me hundreds of dollars and HUGE blocks of time.
I would never go back to Vonage no matter what special deals they offered me because I know when I have a problem I will have to deal with incompetent customer service.
Lesson learned....
Customer Service is the lifeline to a good business.