Good try, ScanCafe, but... not quite

When my father passed away, my stepmother sent me six boxes full of 35mm slides.  The majority of the photos were from my childhood, and while not all have significant sentimental value, I figured it would be nice to look through them.

First, I went on eBay and purchased a used slide projector.  Great idea.  It was inexpensive, arrived in just a few days, and it worked quite well.  But a few impediments quickly became apparent.  Number one, I don't have a projection screen.  Two, setting up a projector, hanging a sheet (that was the quickest solution), darkening the room and then getting the presentation going took a long time.  Third, the kids just didn't want to sit through the lengthy process of going through a bunch of slides one at a time at my pace.  Finally, even I didn't enjoy needing to go through dozens of slides to find the one or two I really liked.

So next, I read up on ways to get slides scanned.  Scanning them myself was quickly ruled out.  I would have to buy special scanning equipment, and it became apparent from my online research that quality could be an issue.  Most important, I simply don't have time to babysit a slide scanner and do the necessary edits and adjustments.  Offshore scanning services were the way to go, and a few companies seemed like they had consistently good reviews, with one of them -- ScanCafe -- standing out as the clear best value.

The ScanCafe website makes it very easy to set up your order and even creates a mailing label for you.  When you create the order, you tell them how many slides you think you have (I had nearly 5,000), how many slide trays they are in (for me, it was around 25), and then they calculate an estimated cost.  After you enter some info and they bill your credit card for 1/2 of the estimated price, the mailing label can be printed and you're good to go.

Click to read more ...

Dell's Web Site Survey Just 5 Minutes (Yeah, Right)

I was waiting for some clients to join a conference call this afternoon and decided to check out a couple of options for replacing my home PC.  It's nearly six years old now, and its fan is about as noisy as I can imagine tolerating.  It takes forever to render videos, and it can't even really show full screen video while running anything else.  So I made my way to the Dell web site, looking to learn a little about the newest hardware.

Click to read more ...

An unfortunate experience with a rental car return

I happened to sit next to a senior executive from Hertz on a plane not too long ago. He told me, with some pride, that Hertz had adopted Net Promoter scores as an important success metric. That might be true. But my recent experience returning a Hertz car, filling out their Net Promoter survey, and attempting to resolve a billing error demonstrates just how far the company has to go.

Nothing special

My rental experience in Philadelphia was quite unremarkable in most ways. The car was ready for me when I arrived. It was fairly clean. It ran well. In short, it was fine.

As usual, I stopped at a gas station on the way to the airport to top off the tank. It cost me about $7.00, as usual, to fill up. It was raining as I pulled into the rental return area, and in between swipes of the windshield wipers, I scanned the parking lot for the return agent carrying a portable device to check in my car. While I wasn't rushed to get to my flight, I hadn't left myself excessive time to check in and go through security.

It was mid-day, and I was currently the only customer returning a car, as far as I could see. There was no return agent in sight. Hoping they would emerge, I got out of my car and began unloading my luggage from the trunk. Still no agent in sight, but now I was getting wet in the rain. So I didn't wait all that long before jotting down the gas and mileage on my contract, and traipsing over to the service counter inside.

Rising frustration

I found a long counter with perhaps ten spots for agents. Two were manned. There were three people in line ahead of me, all beginning their rentals. I scanned for a way to get my receipt from one of those automated kiosks, but couldn't locate one in the lobby. So I waited my turn.

"I'm returning a car," I said, as I handed over my contract with the mileage and gas level.

The agent did not make eye contact. "I'll have to get someone to check the car," she said, and quickly picked up a walkie-talkie.

"I wrote down the mileage and the gas," I replied.

I started to feel frustration and angerWithout responding to me, she said something into the radio and waited, looking at the device as if it might register a response on its own. She waited a little longer, hand on one hip, head cocked, staring at the radio. Then she repeated her request. Still no answer.

Abruptly, she put down the walkie-talkie and disappeared into an office behind the desk somewhere. I was left standing there. I hypothesized she had gone to get a supervisor or, perhaps, to call someone on the phone. Minutes passed. I surveyed the lobby. No one had entered the building since

Click to read more ...