July 8, 2008 by Dan Siegel.

For three years, I have used eFax service as my virtual fax service, without a hitch. Until yesterday. That’s when a law firm tried three times to fax me an 11 page settlement agreement. Only the cover page went through twice, and a third time 2 pages went through. I then tried to send a fax from my computer, to no avail. So I called tech support (NOT a toll free number by the way) and was transferred to an Indian woman who sent a one page fax, which went through and insisted my problem did not exist.

Today, I tested the fax service again. I tried to send faxes from my office fax machine, my computer and from home. None went through. I called tech support again, and they continue to insist that the service is working and, presumably, it’s just a coincidence that nobody can send me a fax except “Lloyd” from India. I even showed him the three faxes from yesterday and he insisted that even though the cover page said 11 pages were sent (and there was an error page attached to each page) that the senders really only tried to send 1 page.

Now, they are claiming that they are doing “troubleshooting” but the rep refuses to answer the request to speak to a supervisor, refuses to answer any of my questions and is clearly exasperated with my very obvious frustration. The bottom line — if eFax won’t work for you, they won’t care and won’t do anything outside of what the manual tells the automatons to say/do.  And, adding insult to injury, my now 30 minute call isn’t to a toll free number.

 More soon. But, please God, it won’t be by fax. And, of course, this is why I strongly request that everyone stop using faxes and scan and email instead.

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May 8, 2008 by Dan Siegel.

If you think Robocalls are annoying, just buy a Nuance product. They make Omnipage and other products (some are very good), but once you buy something from them, they leach onto you. They email you, they call you, they email you, they call you, and I have found it nearly impossible to stop them. Outlook regularly considers their emails (after all, they are ALWAYS having a sale!) to be junk/spam, but they just won’t stop. Perhaps other customers enjoy being solicited all the time. I don’t. And their tactics make me less likely to buy their products.

 And, by the way, why does the Configure Scan installation dialogue seem to always appear days, weeks, months, and seemingly years after you install one of their products. Even the installation files seem to repeat themselves.

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April 5, 2008 by Dan Siegel.

It’s not quite bait and switch, but it’s close. When I switched from a Pitney Bowes meter to a Hasler one, the salesperson - Lena Krones of ITS Mailing Services - trumpeted the lower cost, about $6.00 or $7.00 per month. So I swithced. Little did I realize that I would have the problems chronicled in my post last December. But the story gets better.

Postal rates are going up. I received a letter from Hasler inviting me to order what I needed to prepare for the new rates. Lo and behold, the cost of this software update is $85.00, or more than I saved per month when I switched meters. Pitney Bowes isn’t cheap, but the company never charged for rate increase updates; all I did was download some free software updates.

Of course, I called Lena when I discovered this. She was in a meeting (she has implored me to call her whenever I had a problem or question, but she hasn’t returned my call- or she hasn’t left any messages for me at my office. So I called Hasler. They of course said they hadn’t received my emailed complaint in December but offered to provide this software update for free. But future ones would cost ????. In other words, I’m off the hook until the next rate increase.

At least with Pitney Bowes, I paid a lot upfront. I’d rather do things that way than find out later that I will be nickeled and dimed to death. My contract with Hasler is up for renewal in September. I’m going to fax this post to Lena so that they know I won’t be renewing. I’d much prefer know what I’m getting into up front, rather than being surprised.

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March 27, 2008 by Dan Siegel.

My son is scouting for engineering schools, and came across www.engineeringedu.com. He also discovered its jokes page. Apropos my earlier blog today, the site (http://www.engineeringedu.com/jokes.html) features, among others, this little ditty:

New Lyrics to Beatles Song - “Yesterday”

Yesterday,
All those backups seemed a waste of pay.
Now my database has gone away.
Oh I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly,
There’s not half the files there used to be.
And there’s a milestone hanging over me.
The system crashed, so suddenly.

I pushed something wrong,
What it was, I could not say.
Now all my data’s gone,
And I long for yesterday-ay-ay-ay.

Yesterday,
the need for back-ups seemed so far away.
I knew my data was all here to stay,
Now I believe in yesterday.

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March 27, 2008 by Dan Siegel.

I always say, “Never train on live data” because if something happens, it’s a “problem,” to say the least. Today I failed to abide by my own words. Guess what, something happened. The database with 98,542 records shrunk a bit — to 6 records. So did my stomach.

Having never seen this before, I called Tech Support. The rep hadn’t seen it either. He put me on hold and found out a couple of the other reps had heard of this. What did it mean? That the database had crashed and I needed to restore it from a backup. And, of course, the firm didn’t think there was a backup! Fortunately, I found a copy of the database file, and all was well. Of course, I strongly recommended that the firm backup the data — and when I return for more training, we’ll use my training databases.

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March 20, 2008 by Dan Siegel.

I have owned Dell computers for at least 15 years, and have 8 current Dell PCs, laptops and servers, and have never had a problem with technical support, even when I have been shuttled to India. Although my tech support calls are rare, I have always received knowledgeable service, until this morning. When I called, I was connected with Rakesh Prabhakaran, the poster child for why people hate foreign support. I had to repeat everything two or (mostly) three times, and when he finally “resolved” my issue, all he really did was disable the problem (a malfunctioning floppy drive) not solve it — and this took nearly 30 minutes. When I asked for his name, and the case number, the line went dead. Argh! Fortunately, I called back and, roughly another 30 minutes later, the problem was resolved by another Indian tech who at least seemed to understand English. When he was done, he forwarded me to his supervisor, and I explained my earlier nightmare. I still like Dell, and find their products to be consistently reliable, but all it takes is one Rakesh Prabhakaran to make you yearn for tech support that actually speaks and understand the customer.

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February 21, 2008 by Dan Siegel.

I recently traveled to Los Angeles to give my presentation, “How to Do 90 Minutes of Work in 60,” in conjunction with the meeting of the National Association of Bar Executives and the American Bar Association Midyear Meeting. The presentation went well, but I learned some lessons on my way to LA. Among them: Bring a paper clip and a book.

Before I boarded the plane, I turned on my Kindle, Amazon’s really neat (but expensive)  book reader, audiobook reader, music player, etc. It gave me a black screen and was dead. I removed the battery and reinstalled — still the black screen. Then I realized the Kindle had a reset spot — all I needed was a paper clip. Just try asking for a paper clip at an airport. The workers look at you with astonishment. They don’t have them. My God, I got the impression that they thought I would try to stab the flight crew with a paper clip (now there’s a picture)!

So I boarded the flight, booted up my laptop and worked for about 90 minutes until the battery went to sleep (I didn’t have an airline power adapter — I bought one in LA for the return flight). At that point, all I had was a dead Kindle. No books, no magazines, no nothing. It was not the most fun three hours I had ever spent.

We arrived in LA and I called Kindle support. Amazon has dedicated support for the device. They were very nice and, once I procured a paper clip, verified that the screen (which was still black) was broken even though the device was still receiving a signal from Amazon. They ordered a replacement and assured me I would go to the head of the queue and receive the new one in about a week.

Of course, in the meantime I purchased a book and a puzzle magazine (plus the iGo airline power adapter — at the Rodeo Drive Radio Shack, no less) and had plenty to do on the flight home. The replacement Kindle did come about a week later, as promised.

What did I learn? Don’t rely exclusively on technology for airline entertainment. Also, Amazon’s Kindle support was excellent, even if they could not replace the Kindle overnight. And lastly, when you travel, bring a book AND a paper clip.

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January 13, 2008 by Dan Siegel.

My father was a gentle man who understood people. He had an ability to immediately sense who was good, who was trouble, and who to “be careful” with. And he always encouraged me to follow my instincts. He was right, and I only wish I had followed his advice a little more closely recently. I’ve instead learned two lessons, both people- and business-related.

First, if you’ve had prior dealings with someone and they weren’t positive, don’t have more. An attorney came to me for some technological services. I had been involved in a case with him a few years ago; his client was reprehensible, but so were some of his actions. He convinced me at our meeting that what happened then was an isolated incident. My gut said no, but I still took the job. Guess what? My gut was correct, and he acted no differently with me now compared with his conduct years ago. I have terminated our relationship — quickly.

Second, follow your instincts, not the clients. Another client came to me for technology consulting. This person was adamant about the person’s tech skills, and I made training recommendations based upon that representation, rather than my experience. When the person didn’t learn everything as quickly as my underestimate, I became a villain. Bottom line — if you know something should take X hours, and a client insists that he or she can do it in less, continue to estimate based upon what has been historically correct, not what the clent says. If you complete the project or training early, great. You’ll be thrilled and so will the client. On the other, if you don’t meet the expectations you set based on the client’s representation, you lose, and you lose a client. And if the client is particularly vocal, you lose even more.

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January 13, 2008 by Dan Siegel.

The date for “What You Didn’t Learn in Law School,” the second Managing Partner Development Institute, LLC conference, has been chnaged to April 11 and 12, 2008, at the same location (and same schedule) in Pittsburgh. My partners and I made the change in response to requests from attendees who were concerned about the weather (and football) in Pittsburgh in January. This conference, with a host of guest speakers, (including Robert W. Denney, president of Robert Denney Associates, one of the first law firm management consulting firms in the United States; Martha Hess, business development manager, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, PC, and Corinne Cook, market research manager at PNC), promises to be terrific follow-up to our inauagural conference. Mark the date.

We’ve also extended the early bird registration deadline. Space is limited. I hope you can attend.

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January 3, 2008 by Dan Siegel.

Remember, it’s not if, but when in terms of hard drive crashes. My new Dell computer is an ideal example - new, high tech, etc. And the hard drive died in less than 2 months. Dell immediately shipped a replacement. Fortunately, I use Retrospect for daily complete backups. Once the replacement hard drive was in place, I merely re-installed Retrospect and restored my entire system. It took about 3 hours to recreate the index of files, and about an hour to restore my system. But every program, every document and setting were there, as if I just turned the computer on from the day before. I sighed a huge sigh of relief. So, if you aren’t backing up daily — and with the cheap cost of online backups and/or external hard drives, you should be — you are merely waiting for the crash. It may not happen today, but someday…

 In other words, back up everything all the time. I couldn’t be happier I did.

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