State of the Union

This country is in the worst shape I've seen in my lifetime. Our government spies on us without due process. Our government lies to us about the basis for war, and engages in foreign conflicts we cannot win, at the cost of dear lives (on both sides) and the finances of our country. Our government protects big business and pet financial interests at the expense of the average citizen. Our government spends billions of tax dollars in the name of economic relief without even the pretense of appropriate oversight. Our political process is so broken that partisanship is the rule that guides behavior ignoring the best interests of the country as a whole. Political candidates routinely make promises to get elected, and then renege on those commitments as soon as they are elected. Our government creates the TSA, which is governed by the same constraints as the KGB in the former Soviet Union. Our government attempts to stifle freedom of the press, and calls it a battle against terrorism.

It's not by the people, for the people anymore. And they don't care if we know it.

State Of Life

What is our state of life...as in "state of the union", or "state of mind"? Is it about what we think, what others think, or what God thinks? We often tie our dreams to some yardstick we apply to ourselves, in those moments of reflection when we measure our accomplishments and failures. Persons of faith would say it's about God's judgement, while mystics and agnostics would find comfort in other mechanisms for examining our soul's net worth.

When Vision Meets Reality

I’m involved in the Open Source community. This week the official openSUSE Forums went live. I’ve been working on making this vision become a reality since January 2007, over 16 months. It’s not been easy.

I’ve learned a few things, not all of them for the first time, but during the project they all felt brand new. :)

• I’ve learned that working with volunteers to accomplish anything with due dates will make you crazy.

• I’ve learned that working with people you’ve never met to accomplish a shared goal gives one an amazing sense of accomplishment.

• I’ve learned that vision and perseverance trump resistance to change and skepticism.

• I’ve learned that if you lead, and people don’t understand your vision, folks will hate you.

• I’ve learned that commitment means different things to different people.

• I’ve learned that doing something, and not caring about who gets credit enables success.

• I’ve learned that if you don’t do something, folks will criticize you.

• I’ve learned that if you do something folks will criticize you.

• I’ve learned that criticism fades away when you succeed.

• I’ve learned you can bridge language, distance, and time to make new friends.

• I’ve learned who my friends are.

• I’ve learned that when you reach the goal, none of the shit matters.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen.

Do You Even Know What Customer Service Means?

I’m amazed at what some companies call customer service. It’s like they think it’s the customer’s responsibility to figure things out, and that even the lamest excuse for an attempt at communication satisfies their obligation.

I recently heard about a company, Fast Icon, that was doing custom caricatures (www.fasticon.com). You send in a photograph, and they work with you to create a custom avatar. The price seemed reasonable, and the samples looked very nice, so on March 11, 2008 I paid $29 USD via 2Checkout.com, and received a reciept via email from 2Checkout.

I rather expected something from Fast Icon indicating what our next steps should be, but after waiting a day, on March 13th I sent this email (with attached picture) to the email address listed on their web site for picture submission.

I've attached the photo as indicated on the web site.
2Checkout.com Order Number xxxxxxxxx

On March 17th, I sent this follow up email.

I purchased a custom caricature icon last week (March 11th) and submitted a picture (March 13th). I've received no confirmation of receipt or status. What's up with my order?

Sales Receipt: xxxxxxxxxx

Thanks,

Keith

After my picture submission and query about my order I received...nothing. No response whatsoever. Checking their web site indicated everything was up and running. I then submitted a query via their web form on their site again asking about the status of my order (because of the medium used, I have no copy of that communication). At the very least I was looking for an acknowledgement of receipt.

On March 28th, I sent this email. I had received no communication ever from Fast Icon. The only communication I’d received was the order confirmation from 2Checkout.

I've sent two previous emails (not including the one where I submitted a picture) requesting status of my order placed March 11th. I've gotten zero response. I intend to relate my negative customer experience, and the theft of my purchase price on my public discussion board. Just Google for it.

Keith

Well, well, well...after threatening to go public, on March 29th I received this email from Fast Icon (the very first response, and only communication, period, to date)

Dear Mr. Kastorff,

We placed a public note in our site last week informing all our customers about the reason of the delay and lack of the communication.
Besides, we sent emails through the 2checkout with the same information, saying that the orders would be long more than the programmed. In that same email, we asked if the customer wanted to wait, or to receive immediate refund.

We wants to render a quality service, however we had a work overload and that caused the delay.
Now we went up the price of the caricatures, to be able to hire more artists and to accomplish all the orders that we received.

But, like you it demonstrated total dissatisfaction with our service, (and I understand you, due to the delay) I'm your refund payment so that you can seek another company that makes that service for you.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Best Regards,

Dirceu Veiga
www.fasticon.com

I looked on their site for any announcement regarding a delay; I found nothing. I never received any communication from 2Checkout explaining the delay and allowing me to choose between a refund or a delay in processing. Since I’ve received two emails from 2Checkout, based on the observed behavior of Fast Icon, I don’t believe they ever sent anything regarding my order. Even if one believes they tried, it’s quite odd I would get 2 emails (the original purchase receipt, and the refund notice -- see below) from 2Checkout just fine, and not receive a supposed third.

When I checked their site for the supposed “public note” I saw that they had doubled the price for the custom caricature from the original $29 to $59.

On the same day, I sent this email in response.

Sir,

As I stated, I received no emails, either directly from fasticon.com or from 2checkout. This is the very first communication I've received, and I get it after I express my intent to relate my customer experience publicly. On top of that, you decide to refund my original purchase cost without offering me a choice between receiving what I ordered at the originally published price or getting a refund. You call that "quality service"? I don't think it even gets close.

Now that you've raised your prices, it is essentially refusing to do work I paid you for unless I pay you more. Here in the United States, that's grounds for a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

Since I ordered your product at the originally published price, what I want is for you to fulfill your obligation as a business, and provide me with the product you promised, at the quality you promised. I'm not aware of anyone else doing this sort of work, are you?

I fully understand a situation where unexpected product demand causes production issues. I do not understand why any company who even pretends to care about its customers would then display the lack of communication you have, raise prices, and then refuse to deliver the agreed upon product by refunding purchase cost without any prior dialog with the customer.

I also do not see any "public note in our site". Where is it? This is bad customer service in the worst way.

Keith

Later that day, I received an email from 2Checkout indicating they were refunding my purchase price.

I’ll let you decide if this is the kind of company you want to give your business.

When the Messenger Wants to Be More Important Than the Message

There is a tremendous amount of support for the GPL throughout the open source community, myself included. The way in which the GPL is evangelized and often advocated, however, can be quite irritating. At least I'm looking for objective commentary and dialog on the GPL, based on the facts. Mention of 2 or 3 software packages moving to GPL 3 isn't a rousing statement of approval from the development community. In fact, it's exactly the opposite. Aside from Samba, a lot of folks have never heard of or used the packages which have received press on their move to GPL 3. When Gnome or KDE, or OpenOffice take up the GPL 3, I'll be impressed. GPL 3 moved in a direction a lot of folks wished it hadn't.

I certainly much prefer the legal and moral position of GPL 2. GPL 3 moved from something I believed was in everyone's best interest (GPL 2) to something that was (IMO) created in the Free Software Foundation's best interests. But for some reason, a number of folks aren't willing to allow for the option of supporting the GPL (in some version), and not supporting Richard Stallman's (and by connection, the FSF) agenda. They insist that anyone who speaks out against the quasi-religious approach of the FSF doesn't support the ideals of open source software. They ridicule any statement that doesn't support that agenda, and pretend they hold the moral and intellectual high ground. That is a twisted sort of propaganda, and I stand against it.