Dear Mr. Stephenson:

I’ve been pretty vocal with my displeasure about your company in some pretty public forums of late. I thought I’d take a moment to tell you why, as well as offer a suggestion for fixing your problem.

Here’s the issue: I hire you to provide me with one product — the voice/data service on my iPhone. Your company is doing a terrible job with that. Nearly 50 percent of my calls drop. Some days, it’s more than 50 percent. My 3G connectivity for voice and data is spotty at best. In short, I’m not happy with your service, but because I signed a contract with you that seems to say you can do whatever you like and I just have to take it and continue to pay you, there’s really nothing I can do.

That said, I also realize the massive technological issues you face in running a nationwide wireless network. Boulder is probably tough — lots of hills, and it seems we’ve got a high penetration of iPhone users that take up lots of bandwidth. I get all that, and I’m willing to cut you a little slack. But you know what I expect from anyone I do business with?

The truth, Mr. Stephenson. I expect the truth.

I’ve personally been told a number of different stories by several of your customer service people. Three of them — sethbloom, ATTSusan and ATTJohnathon — have reached out to me on Twitter. The problem? They don’t have the information they need to help me. I want to know three things:

• Why has my voice service gotten so bad?
• What are you doing to fix it?
• When may I expect improvement?

Many of my friends and colleagues also have iPhones and are experiencing the same issues. We’ve been comparing notes. Here’s a sampling of what we’ve been told over the last few weeks by various members of your Customer Service group:

• The 850 overlay should fix everything, and I’m told it will be complete on Friday (that would be Friday, Sept. 4. If it happened, nothing got fixed).
• The service has been bad because we’re working on the system, but that will be done within a few days (that was early September).
• We understand there are problems, and we’re investigating them and hope to have things corrected within the next few weeks
  (so, you’ve not started?).
• Six towers are down in the Boulder area, and the rest are overloaded. We’re working on it. (Did they just tip over? All at once?)
• We don’t guarantee service in buildings (OK, but this person had no coverage in their front yard. For 911. Ouch).
• You might need a new SIM chip (Done. No difference).
• Are you turning your phone on and off at least once each day? That will make a difference (my phone usually goes off when I throw it against the wall after three or four drops in a row. And, no, that’s not the problem. I’m kidding about the wall — but not by much).
• We’re putting in a number of new towers and should be done within a couple of weeks (that was August. Again, if it happened…).
• And, my personal favorite: “You must not be having too much trouble, you talked for 18,000 minutes last month. ” “Do you mean 1,800?” I asked. “No, it says 18,000!” (I’ll let you do that math, Mr. Stephenson.)

I don’t think these are bad people. I simply think they’ve not been given the information they need to do their job. Think how different things might be for you if you’d have sent your Colorado Front Range customers a letter with our bill (credit where credit is due, you’re very good at sending those out) that said something like this (I made up the details, but you’ll get the idea):

Valued Customers:

The Boulder/Denver area needs more capacity to provide you with the kind of service we expect. We know this, and we’re working on it. Over the next three months, we will be adding five new cell towers in Boulder County and 10 in the Denver Metro area and we will be changing over to the new 850 spectrum. We’re completing these upgrades in stages, but we expect to have them all complete by Oct. 31. At that time, we’re confident the service quality will increase dramatically on both voice and data.

We know service issues are frustrating. To thank you for your patience as we upgrade, we’ve enclosed a $25 gift certificate good for any purchase at any AT&T Store or online. Again, thank you for being an AT&T customer.

It’s simple, really, Mr. Stephenson. I’m an adult, I know that cellular networks are big, complicated things, and sometimes they don’t work like they’re supposed to. That said, I do expect people that I pay to be honest with me. The iPhone voice/data plan is one of the most expensive available, but you’re treating me like I’m an annoyance instead of a customer. That’s why I’m angry.

If I worked for you, I’d be angry as well, Mr. Stephenson. Sue, Johnathan and Seth seem like good folks that really want to help, but someone in your organization isn’t giving them the information they need to get that done. It’s not doing your customers any good, and I have to believe it’s frustrating your employees. You’ll lose good people that way, Mr. Stephenson.

Until someone gives me some information, or until the problems improve dramatically, I plan to be an online thorn in your side. Maybe if enough of us let you know we’re not happy — publicly and often — we’ll be presented with more options than counting the days to the end of our contracts.

Sincerely,

Doyle Albee
President
Metzger Associates
Boulder, Colorado

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Posted by Lisa Greim

The phone rang at 9 a.m. Saturday. It was my high school friend Michael, calling from Switzerland to ask me to interpret a dream.

“My Aunt Lucy used to call and tell people she dreamed about them, and she usually got it right and that was odd, because she was kind of a hermit,” he said. “So I have to honor that.”

"Marie Antoinette en chemise," Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, 1783 (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Here’s the dream: “You had written an article and posted it on Facebook, and you were very proud of it,” he said. “I don’t remember what the article was about, but the title was ‘Let Them Eat Op-Eds.’”

Long pause. “What does that mean?”

It meant that Michael’s subconscious had just written me a great head for a blog post. But I thought about it a little bit and here’s what I came up with.

In 2009, we have no shortage of opinions to draw from, found on blogs, TV comedy shows, talk radio, interview programs and in print. But verifiable facts are thin on the ground, and a discouraging percentage of Americans seem unable to tell one from the other.

This lack of reading comprehension is being exploited by everybody from the banner ads that say “You’ve Just Won a Laptop!” to the people who claim that the proposed public health insurance option will cover illegal immigrants but not taxpaying American citizens.

You can look it up. Everybody knows it’s true.

Everybody also knows that the French Queen, Marie Antoinette, famously said of peasants who were rioting for bread, “Let them eat cake!” (In French: “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.”) Except that there’s no record of Marie Antoinette ever saying that. And brioche is not cake, it’s pastry.

Marie Antoinette’s biographer, Lady Antonia Fraser, has found no evidence she said “Let them eat cake” or anything like it. Fraser speculates that Marie-Thérèse, wife of Louis XIV, may have said ‘Que ne mangent-ils de la croûte de pâté?’ (‘Why don’t they eat pastry?”) more than 100 years earlier.

The probable source of the phrase was philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In his 12-volume autobiography, Rousseau attributes the quote to an unnamed grande princesse. But Rousseau published his Confessions a year before 14-year-old Maria Antonia arrived from Austria to marry the Dauphin Louis Auguste. Two biographers, Leo Damrosch and Paul Johnson, point out that Rousseau’s memory is not to be trusted. He was neither a journalist nor a historian, and mentally ill besides.

But the Jacobins loved him, so it’s likely that some propagandist combined Rousseau’s anecdote with the general hatred of the monarchy, spiced it up with details of the Queen’s lavish lifestyle and published the story in broadsides known as libelles (from the Latin for “little book,” but, ahem).

“Let them eat cake” lives on because it was catchy, not because it was true.

See how boring that was? I had to look stuff up, take notes, translate French and Latin, and put in all the italics and accent marks. I also had to remember what I learned in three semesters of European history and from actually reading Fraser’s book[i].

It’s so much more fun to repeat what you heard on the bus this morning, and when challenged, smile and say, “Everybody knows the other side lies. I know the REAL TRUTH.”

If they don’t have facts, let them eat op-eds. When they finally notice the difference, it will be too late.

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I’ve been following the hot and getting hotter debate over whether or not Facebook should remove and/or disallow groups and “fan pages.” The particular ones in question have names like “Holocaust: A Series of Lies,” “Based on the facts? There was no Holocaust,” and “The Holocaust is a Holohoax.” Michael Arrington at TechCrunch has weighed in. So did ABC News and The New York Times.

Here’s the Time’s coverage:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/holocaust-deniers-gather-on-facebook/

Despite having grown up in the rarified air of the lovely Boulder, and despite having proudly and without hesitation voted for Obama, I am not your typical left wing Democrat. I am actually for WAY LESS government. Does that make me a Republican?? God forbid.

What it does make me, I suppose, is a Civil Libertarian. I don’t believe that the government or anyone should tell us what we can and cannot believe. Obviously, hate crimes, hate speech and out-and-out illegal behavior should be punished and the government should and does indeed legislate against it. Discrimination of any kind is never okay.

But, having an opinion or a point of view, and even having thoughts or feelings that fall somewhere on the not-so-nice to full-out hateful discrimination scale, is not illegal. The Facebook debate is not about legislation. It’s about providing a public forum…for any and all…and as such shouldn’t it be a place where ideas, even controversial…and even stupid…ideas, can be expressed?

We have laws in this country against hate speech. And, certainly the water is murky at best surrounding these Facebook groups. Facebook will remove groups that express hatred towards individuals and groups that are sponsored by recognized terrorist organizations. However, as the company’s spokesman said, it does not take down groups that speak out against countries, political entities or ideas. Facebook has taken down several of the more-outwardly scary Holocaust denial groups. Only three anti-Holocaust/anti Semitic groups remain. Are these “fans” just “communing” or, as some could argue, does their very existence constitute hate speech? I am not sure. And, certainly I have to ask myself, “isn’t ‘only three’ three too many?”  Like I said, murky.

This “live and let live” attitude, though, comes with a price. If we’re going to truly embrace the freedoms of speech and self expression our Constitution guarantees, then we also have to man-up and honestly, and often uncomfortably at times, live along side people that we whole heartedly disagree with. People who make our fists clench and the hair on our necks bristle; people that repulse us, make us angry or scared or sick to our stomachs.

But, where’s the line? It’s easy enough to side with my better angels and just chalk it up to personal choices (and perhaps a brain cell deficiency) when dealing with politics or religion or war or even flag burning or wearing a motorcycle helmet…or any number of things. I’m as judgmental as the next person, believe me.

But, how deep are my Civil Libertarian leanings when it comes to something as repugnant as anti-Semitism or racism? As Voltaire said, “I disapprove of what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Can I (should I?) honor that belief as I read about these whack jobs on Facebook? How can I?
I truly believe that if someone wants to be a complete ass and think that the Holocaust was concocted by a bunch of Hollywood set designers and actors then they should just go right ahead. (I didn’t say I didn’t have an opinion about these groups, did I?!) Do I want it in my face, so to speak, on Facebook? Not really, thank you very much.

I am appalled by these “fan” pages (the sick irony of that classification alone makes my ick radar go off). I want them taken down. My heart and my head say they shouldn’t be allowed to post such vital on such a public forum as Facebook. Afterall, “Holohoax,” and its despicable kin, aren’t the same as some of other Facebook fan pages, like “Cheeseburgers,” “70’s Sitcoms,” “Coffee” or “Sleep” (full-disclosure:  I am a proud, card-carrying member of all of these). And, they are also different from joining a “Fans of John McCain” group.

But, in the end, I want no part of censoring anyone and their right to express, commune, befriend, and gather with others like themselves.  They should be able to speak their minds, believe what they want to believe. Even in public where I, someone who vehemently disagrees with them, can hear it if I were to listen.

The slippery slope is real. And, it’s VERY slippery and scary.

I am a member of a “Pro Gay Marriage” fan page on Facebook. As far as I know, no one has asked for it to be taken down. TechCrunch, ABC and The New York Times haven’t said a word. No one is up in arms and protesting. And, yet, I can’t think of too many topics today that are more emotionally and politically divisive than gay rights.

So, what to do? I guess I have to take my own Civil Libertarian advice: if I don’t like or approve of a TV show, a book, a religion, a person, a group of people with a certain political agenda, I can walk away. I can choose not to participate. Not in a huffy, belligerent way. Just in a “you go your way and I’ll go mine,” kind of way. I am empowered. It is, in fact, my obligation, as person who lives on a planet with billions of people and billions of ideas and beliefs and values different than my own, to do so.

I don’t envy Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. The company’s decision to allow these groups is a tough one, but despite my personal feelings, I actually agree with the position Facebook has taken. There isn’t a right or wrong answer or a solution that isn’t fraught. And, that too, is the essence of what it means to live in freedom.

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A new study published in PR Week magazine shows that “startup companies that engage in PR campaigns are 30 percent more successful in getting funding within one to three months than those that don’t, according to results from a survey conducted by BIGfrontier Communications Group in Chicago.”

Sounds like a good investment.

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Last week Lauren Preston and I staffed Metzger’s table at the JobGobble hosted by Andrew Hudson. My first thought? Terror. For nearly two hours, Lauren and I spoke to more than a hundred plus people about Metzger and the job market. I left thankful for my job, but after reflecting upon it, wanted to share some thoughts about standing out in a very crowded market.

Know Your Companies Inside and Out
What shocked me most was how many people weren’t familiar with the companies they were speaking with (ours included). While the majority of people we spoke with weren’t public relations professionals, the lack of knowledge among professionals was frustrating. Attendees who wanted to stand out could have researched all the companies they knew who were attending, asking specific questions related to their culture and company besides “Hey, Are you hiring?” It would have stood out if anyone had been that prepared. Most came with a cursory knowledge of the companies, which is understandable, but standing out wouldn’t have been hard to do with a little research.

Professionalism Matters (and is Remembered)
One attendee remembered me from my last agency as she had organized a visit from a professional group from her university. You know what I remembered? How the group was unapologetically an hour and a half late. Agencies aren’t open houses. That said, I would never write off anyone for a mistake made in college. Certainly, I made my fair share of mistakes at job fairs including telling one company that I was impressed with their mentoring program. Problem was I was talking about one of their rival’s mentoring programs. One candidate insisted on speaking to me during Mayor Hickenlooper’s speech even though I was clearly trying to listen, which made both of us seem unprofessional. One candidate asked if we had any open positions currently and when we said we didn’t she just walked away. Essentially, she walked away from any chance of us hiring her now, and in the future.

Follow Up is Critical
By the end of the night, both Lauren and I had run out of business cards. I was a little nervous about being deluged with e-mails, but a week later only four people have followed up with me. In public relations and probably any other industry, follow up is critical. Those who did follow up with me did a phenomenal job by helping me remember the specific things we talked about, or giving me some information on how I would remember them. After meeting more than a hundred people, this piece is critical as names tend to blur. Three of the candidates asked for informational interviews, which is one of the best ways to build networks. Agencies, especially in Denver, don’t do blanket hiring the way other big companies do. Smart agencies keep talent in the pipeline, so they’re prepared to move quickly if new business comes through.

I know it must have been frustrating that the majority of companies at the JobsGobble didn’t have any open positions, yet that will change week to week, especially for agencies. Meeting with them before they’re hiring will give you the competitive edge. Once you meet with them, continue to follow up on a regular basis. A recent informational interviewee before the JobGobble set the bar – she was knowledgeable about Metzger, asked my recommendation on who else to meet with in the Denver community AND followed up with them in 24 hours. She also sent me a thank you note within 24 hours, kept in touch with me and even sent me a note to let me know she got a job from a lead I sent.

Job Karma and Networking
If you’re lucky enough to be employed right now, this is a good time to practice job karma. Kristy Bassuener taught me this term when I was starting out in the industry as helping fellow professionals out . Take time to meet with qualified candidates, help them increase their network and let them know if you have freelancing  work available. I am still grateful for all of the people who willingly met with me when I started out my career and have stayed in touch with many of them. Not only is it a great way to keep talent in the pipeline, but it’s a good way to increase your professional network.

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The headline is one of my favorite quotes, although it seems that there’s plenty of dispute over where it came from. Nevertheless, I think it was meant to be a positive thing to say to someone. At least I take it that way. Typically on this blog, I’d follow a headline like that with my new favorite piece of software, or new gadget, or praise for whatever Apple is up to today. I love that progress, and I love to follow it here.

Today, I’d like to talk about some different progress.

To be clear, this is not political endorsement of any kind. I really don’t see what I’m about to write as even political. Please take this as simply observation of what I believe to a society moving forward.

One of my most vivid memories of childhood was the rage I witnessed one night from my father, a normally level-headed guy (yes, this apple fell far from that tree!). He had just quit the local Elks Club, which is a big deal in a small midwestern town in the 1960s. He quit because the members refused to extend an invitation to join to a well-respected member of our community — a career police officer and the father of seven. He happened to be our neighbor, and I went through school with three of his kids. I had a crush on the older sister that babysat for me sometimes. They were my friends.

That family also happened to be Hispanic.

Other than that night, I don’t remember my father swearing or raising his voice often, if ever. He did that night. And to the best of my knowledge, he never stepped foot in that club again. He kept saying to my mother, “This man potentially risks his life for our security every day, and these narrow-minded bigots won’t let him eat dinner with them on a Friday night.”

He was right on every count.

Fast forward 40 years, and my son is eligible to vote for president for the first time. I was fascinated by the diversity of the choices he was presented with. There were plenty of white men, but the last three standing were a white man, a woman and a black man. To be clear, nothing should be determined because someone is or isn’t white, or black or female. However, it seems we’ve at least started to turn the corner to welcome the best and brightest from all of our society’s members to both participate and lead.

I’m reminded of the outstanding work Lucy Sanders is doing at the National Center for Women & Information Technology. In a nutshell (and, Lucy, I hope I get this right!), Lucy’s group is encouraging girls and young women to study subjects that can prepare them for careers in technology. We’re facing a labor shortage in many key 21st century industries that could be addressed by getting the other half of our population (read: women) to enter these fields in great numbers. It’s not affirmative action, it’s common sense.

That’s what I’ve enjoyed the most about this campaign (well, this and the ads — NOT!). We saw so many faces from so many segments of our society — yes, our society — we’ve not seen at this level before. I truly hope that no one votes or doesn’t vote for anyone because of gender, sexual preference, race or any other category. But at the end of the day, the larger our talent pool, the more talent we’ll find. And that’s a very, very good thing.

On Tuesday, America will not — in my humble opinion — choose between the white man and the black man, although many will still see it that way. But when I think of my son, who followed more candidates from more segments of our society than ever before in his very first election, this is now normal to him and his generation. And it should be normal. We need to cast the widest possible net to find the best and the brightest, wherever they might be.

So cast your vote for the next president, if you haven’t already. No matter who wins, we make history by electing a first — woman or minority. By the time my son’s kids vote, I hope we’ve crossed all the firsts and are simply electing the best and brightest person we can find.

Throughout this campaign, I’ve remembered what my father taught me that night 40 years ago, when he didn’t even know I was listening, and I wish he was here to see this. I don’t know who he would vote for, and it doesn’t matter.

He’d simply be pleased with the choices.

Vote, please. Add to mine or cancel it out. I don’t care. Just vote.

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I’m concerned on another level: a lack of critical examination of the many “facts” posted online.

A generation ago, our news came from sources that tended to have more than one person looking at the facts. All but the very smallest media outlets had writers who were checked by editors, editors who were checked by other editors and, in some cases, editors who were checked by management or attorneys or others. Today, technology has made it simple to publish or broadcast just about anything. In the eyes of far too many, that story is suddenly “fact.”

As an example, I’ve received more virus warnings over the years from well-meaning friends via email than I can count. I also remember an email I received several times that stated with absolute certainty the U.S. government was going to start taxing email to make up for the lost revenue of postage stamps. How about the one in which Bill Gates was going to personally pay you for every email you forwarded? Harmless stupidity, really, but too often, that’s about the same low level of critical thinking that goes into what we read on blogs, online or even in the mainstream media.

To be clear, the media establishment is far from perfect. It was the blogosphere that caught Dan Rather’s sloppy reporting. In the end, that’s the dilemma — who should we believe?

Personally, I hope the community will become self-healing. If someone gets a fact wrong — whether you’re a random blogger or the New York Times — your mistake will be outed by others. In the meantime, critical thinking and the outlook that any article, regardless of the source, is a data point and not the gospel, could very well be the most important skills we can develop and teach.

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1. Gas prices have increased, on average, less than one percent annually since 1981.

2. At current prices, major oil companies earn between 10 and 13 cents per gallon — less than the profit margin in beverages, chemicals, electical equipment and computers.

3. Drivers in Europe today pay more than $8/gallon for gas.

4. Crude oil prices are set by the forces of supply and demand on the world market, which fluctuates hourly.

5. Although oil producing countries acting through OPEC prop up the market price of crude by limiting production, those countries are not subject to U.S. antitrust laws.

6. Oil companies currently spend billions — $15 billion by Exxon alone — to explore and expand production.

7. Colorado regulators recently sued Safeway for selling gas “too cheaply.”

8. A “windfall profits” tax on oil companies would increase the total cost of producing a gallon of gas, a cost that would ultimately be reflected at the pump — in effect, the economic equivalent of a gas tax on the consumer.

9. Politicians are increasing the price of gas by imposing gas taxes of up to 68 cents per gallon.

10. The current price of gasoline in the U.S. is too low to discourage consumption and cut greenhouse gas emissions. Last year U.S. gas consumption actually increased.

Again, this is not my field of expertise, so these facts may in fact not be (facts, that is), and I’d welcome debate. I do, however, find them interesting and worth considering and discussing. Thanks to Robert Hardaway, a professor in DU’s Strum College of Law Environmental and Natural Resources Program, for publishing these in the most recent Univeristy of Denver Magazine.

[digg=http://digg.com/business_finance/Little_Known_Facts_About_Gas_Prices]

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Seems to us that great service pays off. Crappy service will get you in the end. This just proves it.

Are you providing outstanding service to your clients every day? If not, how long before it catches up?

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