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American Airlines to charge $8 for blankets

Travel | American Airlines to charge $8 for blankets | Seattle Times Newspaper.

The airline are “unbundling” their services so their published prices will be more appealing when you book through an online travel service. After they’ve caught you, they then hit you with numerous fees, such as for luggage and now blankets. Ryanair is proposing charging for toilet usage.

Should passengers who fend off future terrorists bill the airline for “security services”?

Posted in Bizz.

Portugal, Greece, Spain debt insurance costs rise

That means some believe PGS could default on their debt – but it does not mean they will:

The cost of insuring Spanish and Portuguese government debt against default via credit default swaps hit new records Monday, while the cost of insurance for Greek debt also rose

via Portugal, Greece, Spain default worries rise – MarketWatch.

Posted in Econ, Intl.

Surprise – a good customer experience with Verizon

This morning I had to address some issues with my  blind, elderly mother’s telephone bill. She gets landline phone service from Verizon.

One year ago when I tried to get a feature change – literally something that the local Verizon staff should never have added to her bill – after waiting on hold, twice, for more than 2 hours, I resorted to writing a letter to the CEO.  Drastic, but it resolved the problem. Couldn’t say much for their customer service though!

Much to my surprise – in a total call duration of 12 minutes this morning, the Verizon staff were courtesy and helpful, reversed a charge that had been mistakenly placed on her phone line and, in response to my questions, we identified other changes that will cut her monthly phone bill in half.

Good job Verizon!

Posted in Bizz.

Is Europe at high risk of another depression?

I have not closely followed the situation in Greece, Ireland and so on. Here ar some words from Prof. Simon Johnson regarding how Europe could unravel:

The financial markets know all this and last week sharpened their swords. As we move into this week, expect more selling pressure across a wide range of European assets.

As this pressure mounts, we’ll see cracks appear also in the private sector. Significant banks and large hedge funds have been selling insurance against default by European sovereigns. As countries lose creditworthiness – and, under sufficient pressure, very few government credit ratings will hold up – these financial institutions will need to come up with cash to post increasing amounts of collateral against their derivative obligations (yes, the same credit default swaps that triggered the collapse last time).

via Europe Risks Another Global Depression « The Baseline Scenario.

On the other hand, watching Bloomberg late last night there was mention that China and India look to see expanding economies this year. Perhaps their growth will help to pull up the rest of the world.

Posted in Econ, Intl.

States Look to Expand the Taxes on Services

The strategy of raising sales-tax rates, adopted by several states lately, appears to be running out of steam. The average state sales-tax rate rose 52% between 1970 and 2007, yet the total tax revenue as a share of consumption has rose just 13%, according to the Center on Budget

via States Look to Expand the Tax Net to Services – WSJ.com.

Posted in Econ, Policy.

Is Toyota’s lean manufacturing at fault?

Toyota stumbles but its kaizen cult endures | Reuters. Article also notes that Boeing has adopted the same methods on the -787, wondering if the lean manufacturing process of just in time outsourced deliveries is a factor. Ouch.

Also suggests that use common parts across multiple product lines becomes a single point of failure. One gas pedal times eight models converts a bad problem on one product line to a catastrophic problem when it effects nearly all product lines.

I think it is too early to judge.

Posted in Bizz.

3D Movie Theaters soon to be common place

JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised almost $700 million to equip the three biggest U.S. theater chains with digital screens and projectors that can show 3-D movies, according to a person with knowledge of the plan.

via JPMorgan Said to Raise Almost $700 Million for Digital Theaters – Bloomberg.com.

Initially, they are rolling out digital distribution and projection. 3D comes a bit later.

I attended the January 2010 Consumer Electronics Show. “3D” television and projection technology is moving out rapidly. For the home, it will actually be sort of 1/2 HD since half the bandwidth will be for the left eye and half for the right. (In another half decade, 3D using true HD will be available). Still, its pretty cool stuff.

Movie theaters hope that 3D can distinguish the movie theater experience from today’s home screen HDTV experience – and keep driving customers into theaters.

Posted in Finance, Tech.

Excessive Federal borrowing creates national security risk

The U.S. government this year will borrow one of every three dollars it spends, with many of those funds coming from foreign countries. That weakens America’s standing and its freedom to act; strengthens China and other world powers; puts long-term defense spending at risk; undermines the power of the American system as a model for developing countries; and reduces the aura of power that has been a great intangible asset for presidents for more than a century.

via deficit-balloons-into-national-security-threat: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance.

Posted in Econ, Policy.

Should Internet users be licensed?

Mundie [of Microsoft] and other experts have said there is a growing need to police the internet to clampdown on fraud, espionage and the spread of viruses.

He also called for a “driver’s license” for internet users.

“If you want to drive a car you have to have a license to say that you are capable of driving a car, the car has to pass a test to say it is fit to drive and you have to have insurance.”

via RawStory.

Elsewhere, Italy is likely to require that anyone who wishes to post any video online, anywhere, must be licensed by the government.

Posted in Tech.

Goldman Sachs would have failed if not for the taxpayer bailing them out

The public record is clear – Goldman Sachs would have failed in September 2008, were it not for the support provided by the government. The fact that some of this support did not involve direct use of taxpayer money speaks to the ingenuity of the people involved, but it should not distract us from the substance. Goldman Sachs was failing and it was saved.

Why is this so hard for Goldman to admit?

via Goldman Sachs And The Republicans « The Baseline Scenario.

Posted in Econ, Subsidy.

How EU problems with debt in Greece, etc, could impact the U.S.

Prof. Simon Johnson of MIT has thoughts on how the debt problems of Greece and other EU countries could cause problems for other countries, including the U.S. : Is Tim Geithner Paying Attention To the Global Economy? – The Baseline Scenario.

Posted in Econ, Intl.

Carbon trade contracts collapse to near zero

Source:  ChicagoClimateExchange (co-owned by Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management, Goldman Sachs and others):

Europe, which already has laws mandating carbon scarcity is also seeing a sharp drop off.

What happened? The Ecologist blames Copenhagen but …

The UK, Indian and Russian media are having a field day the past 3 weeks, as new revelations are published daily. But you won’t read about this in the U.S. media which has a total news blackout on this topic… why?

Posted in Econ, Other.

Geez – states getting desparate for revenue

South Carolina now requires that all terrorists who advocate over throw of the U.S. government must register with the government and pay a $5 filing fee (Really). Geez, economic times are tough.

via InfiniteUnknown.

Posted in Humor, Policy.

Improving customer service with information systems

In my new business, we are building some electronic circuits and I needed to set up a small lab bench rather than trying to shoe horn my circuit boards, DVM, oscilloscope probes and so forth on a tiny work area next to my computer.

I visited Lowe’s which had on display exactly what I needed – perfect size and features and a very good price. Except they were sold out, and it was a clearance item. I asked if I could buy the display model but the display model belonged to the supplier, not Lowe’s. However, he checked if any other nearby Lowe’s had any left in stock. We walked about 70 feet over to a computer and he quickly checked the inventory and alas, everyone was sold out.

Anyway, good use of modern information technology tools, including the wireless phone or two-way radio (don’t remember which) to fetch the sales guy.

I then traveled to a couple of other stores that did not have any products meeting my needs,. I eventually ended up at Sears.

At Sears, they had a unit that would work fine for me.  To find out if they had these available, I had to talk to a sales person. After a lengthy delay, a sales person said he would check their inventory. I mistakenly thought he would walk 25 feet to the computer display and check inventory – but no, he had to walk all the way to the warehouse to check, and then come back to me. Time: 8 minutes. And … they were out of stock.

While waiting, I found another product that would also work and, fortunately for me, was on sale.  But to check, the sales guy had to again walk all the way back to the warehouse. Again.

I was quite surprised that Sears has not applied common information technology to improve this checking on inventory. This wasted valuable time of customers and sales staff.

Fortunately, this item was in stock, at a great price too. But I’d have to pay now and pick it up at merchandise pickup. They said I would have to park in the merchandise pick up lot too.  Too bad – all the spaces were taken. Not only were they taken, as I parked elsewhere and watched, all of the merchandise pickup spaces were being used by customers who had been shopping inside the store – and not pickup warehouse merchandise at all. Not entirely Sears’ problem but they may want to think about putting a generic store entrance next to the close-in parking of their merchandise pick up!

I scanned my receipt and read the sign that said they strive to achieve warehouse deliveries in less than 5 minutes. Their computer display even shows how long I’ve been waiting …. and waiting … and waiting … as the 5 minute ticker goes by…

Oops. They missed that by quite a bit. They did give a $5 off coupon good on any future purchase.

Clearly, this Sears store has a few things to work on …. but as an institution they did not seem to be using information systems at the point of customer service. They seem to be in the dark ages on this. Customers will go elsewhere to competitors operating more efficiently. I do hope that Sears addresses this – its a decent store with good products.

Lowe’s – I’d rank as “very good” in terms of how they used wireless communications to find staff and the computer to quickly answer questions.

Sears – I’d rank as “poor” in that regard. They can do much better!

The Apple iPad could be a great tool in the retail space. Connected wirelessly and no need for a keyboard, it would be the perfect tool for sales people to have to quickly check inventory, availability and pricing. (Hint: Sears!)

Update Feb 8th:  After I filled out their online customer service survey, Sears called me back this morning to say they were escalating my comments up the chain. They were sincerely apologetic. I told them I wasn’t upset – but rather amused by the situation – and they appreciated that my interest is in helping them spot problems that needs fixing.  I may be hearing later from the store manager.

Posted in Bizz, Sales, Tech.

Why the Global Debt Time Bomb is about go nuclear

Our debt time bomb is ready to go ka-boom Paul B. Farrell – MarketWatch.

Posted in Econ.

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