Good Service is Alive at Netflix!

Everyone is talking about how customer service is horrible wherever you look these days and it pretty much is - just look at my recent experiences with airlines and credit cards, others have problems with moving companies and don't even bring up the topic of hospitals around me. Well, it turns out there's a shining ray of hope. Last weekend I had a a good customer service experience and from an American company no less. That company is Netflix.

Yes, Netflix, that company that sends you DVDs in the mail. We find their service is great value for money and while we have been members for over 5 years, with the exception of one lost disc and one broken disc we've never had any service issues. In each of those rare cases, the problem was rectified with a brief and painless visit to the Netflix website.

Well, last weekend I ran into a little bit of a problem getting an instant movie stream to work on my laptop (the company let's you watch their online movie collection, free of charge, as part of your regular subscription). I called the company's customer service number to ask for some help, fully expecting the horrible customer service experience we have all come to expect from American companies. No such thing. The experience was positively awesome.

First of all, finding the customer service number was a breeze. The website also told me the expected wait time (under 1 minute). I called the number expecting a crappy voice menu that would take forever to navigate through. Again, no such thing. A human picked up within seconds, with no sign of a voice menu. How unexpected and how wonderful! But wait, there's so much more!

The customer service agent on the other end of the line had an American accent! Wow. Americans working a customer service line? The conversation was pleasant, the customer agent helpful, they answered all my questions and even provided some answers to questions I didn't ask. At one point my Internet router was acting up and I wasn't getting an Internet connection, so I asked the agent if I could call back in a few minutes. She proceeded to explain that they were there 24x7... not 8 to 5 EST, not work days, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. An American company... can you believe it?

After my Internet service got back online I called Netflix' service line again, and again was answered in a matter of seconds by a live American human, who proceeded to make quick work of my problem, while at the same time not reading from ANY script (or at least not seeming to read from any script). He was intelligent, informed and pleasant.

Well it looks like there is still hope for customer service in America. Netflix: I was already a fan, but now I am a bigger one. You have made a loyal customer happy and more loyal. Hey look, you even got this free advertising post from a cynical ol' blogger like me...

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One Line Answers to Personal Finance Questions

Every once in a while I go through the search terms that people use to get to Money and Such. Most are typical personal finance terms such as 401K or investing in stocks, but some are really good questions while others are truly bizarre. When the mood strikes - and it just did - I like to take some of these search terms and give one line answers in response. Not all the answers below are what you would call serious. Hopefully you can figure out which ones are which...

Here goes:

"Do you pay money for old furniture?" - Some people pay LOTS of money, especially if the furniture is REALLY old. They call them "antiques"... go figure.

"How safe is the stock market?" - It's not, but it's probably your best shot at a decent return over the long term (as in DECADES).

"Why is money worst?" - Sprechen ze english?

"When is the best time to quit a job?" - Tuesdays after tea time are generally considered appropriate. Wednesdays between 2 AM and 4 AM are generally frowned upon.

"Should executive salaries be capped?" - No, executive salaries should not be capped. Only populist law makers consider this a smart move.

"Saving is bad" - Definitely. In Bizarro world! Oh, hold on, are we talking about endangered species here?

"My assistant is making more money than me. How can I make more?" - Seriously? I would say you have a good case for asking for a raise...

"Is this a good time to re-balance my 401k?" - There's no such thing as a good or bad time, just be sure you re-balance according to a predefined schedule and don't time the market.

"Is the iPhone worth the monthly bill?" - HELL YA! It's the best phone I ever had.

"How much should I waste in rent?" - As little as possible...

"Sentence to ask for raise" - "Could I have more money, please?"

"Can money buy happiness?" - Some people think so.

"Do I need an automatic re-balance in my 401K?" - you don't need it, you can re-balance manually, but automatic is nicer. It's the memory thing, you see.

"Working in a law firm sucks" - Oh, yes it does. From experience. I also find that working in a law firm tends to put you in contact with a lot of difficult people.

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A Few Thoughts About Health Care Reform

Here are a few random thoughts about health care reform:

First, we absolutely require health care reform. This is not a nice to have, it's not about a long term wish list, we absolutely must have health care reform. It's the smart economic move. It's also a moral imperative.

Now let me tell you something about public health care. There's a lot of fear mongering going on these days about how bad public health care and "rationing" are. I would like to call bulls*** on that. The system we have in the US today can hardly be called a system. It's complex and it is unjust, but perhaps worst of all it's wasteful. Our system forces us to resort to all kinds of strategies for saving some money on medicines and treatment while ensuring that billions go to waste on needless administrative costs. Have you received a bill from a hospital recently? You are practically expected to haggle, much like you are in a rug store or a used car dealership.

I was born and raised in Israel, a state which offers a public health care system and in which each and every individual has health insurance. The health care in that country is no worse than the health care we get here. In fact, in many respects the health care system and the service to individuals is far superior to our experience in this country. I recently went back to visit my old homeland and had a first hand experience with the health care system. Comparing that experience to a previous visit to the emergency room in one of the top hospitals in the US, the service and quality of care we got abroad was superior. Hands down.

Last week I watched Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman being interviewed by Charlie Rose on PBS. Here's an interesting statistic: according to Krugman about 60% of dollars spent on health care in this country are already spent by the government, between Medicare, Medicaid and the VA. Think about that the next time health care lobbyists try to sell you horror stories about how the country will go to the dogs if we adopt a public health care model.

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Starting Your Career: Big vs. Small Companies

I work in a start-up, employing about 50 people in all, and have tended to work for smaller companies throughout my career. In spite of my own entrepreneurial tendencies and inclination to work in smaller companies, I believe that most people would probably be better off starting their careers in a larger organization before taking the small company route. So before you sit down to write a resume and send it to potential employers, take quick stock of my reasons below:

Training - to be frank, in a small company people expect you to pull your own weight from day one. Small organizations have very little inclination or resources to train employees for their roles or to invest in their professional development. Hey, it's not a good thing, it's simply reality. Small organizations are too busy surviving. In every small organization I ever worked, I felt like I was riding a bullet train, with work continuing around the clock and even on weekends. Training? Forget about it.

By contrast, large organizations are more inclined to take the long view and spend more on employee training and professional growth. They hold employee orientations, send team members to professional training seminars and often appoint more experienced employees to mentor new ones. The environment of a large organization tends to be more nurturing and tolerant of newer employees and their potential early stumbles.

Experience - you have to give it large organizations, they have perfected many practices that small organizations can only dream of. In everything from quality control, to manufacturing practices to analytics and beyond, large organizations have the edge on their small brethren. For someone starting their career, a good foundation in best practices is critical. Such a foundation would serve you well if you ever decided to move to a smaller organization to which you could bring these skills. Having such a solid foundation would be equally useful if you decide to start your own business.

Depth vs. Breadth - one of the reasons I like working for a small organization is that I get a lot of variety in my work. My core job is business development, but I also do a great deal of strategy & marketing. If I want to get involved in a new area, it's very easy for me to pick a project and get started. However, I believe that for someone starting their career, building a deep foundation of functional expertise is the way to go. Working for a small organization one tends to become a jack of all trades, while in a large organization where responsibilities are more carefully defined you get to become a master of one functional area. Diversification is excellent, but in my opinion it should come a bit further down the road. Also be aware that in a small organization you may be the only person with your job description. If you are just starting out and you are the only marketing or purchasing guy on staff, who will you learn from? How will you grow your skills except for through trial and error?

Having said all this, under current economic conditions most people can't be picky about which job they take. If you get an offer, be grateful and take it. Forget about small or large. If you're unemployed, you might want to take a look at this survival guide.

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Mail Fraud - a Colleague Foils an Attempt

All those scams that you read about online apparently actually happen to some people. Yeah, we all get those Nigerian scam e-mails, but I don't often come across folks that have first hand experience of attempted mail fraud. Well, last week my office manager (let's call her Helen) told me about the following dilemma:

She has been selling some baseball cards on eBay in recent months (I don't know if this is a temporary shtick or a real side business, apparently everyone has a side business these days, except for me), and one of her buyers sent her a cashier's check as payment for his purchases. The check was for a total of $1,200 while the purchase price was under $200. The purchaser asked Helen to cash the check, keep the full purchase price, plus a fee for inconvenience and to send the rest to a person he designated. This was accompanied by an elaborate apology and by a seemingly rational explanation about why this was necessary.

Most of you probably recognize this as a well known scam. The short version of it is this: the seller cashes the check, which appears to clear, and sends the extra money to the designated party. After a few days the seller's bank discovers that the check is fraudulent and claims the money back from the seller. The seller has a crappy day and learns to be more suspicious of strangers.

Helen, being a smart individual, figured that something was wrong here, but was trying to understand what that was exactly. She was also trying to decide what to do next. Here is what Craig's List suggests you do to avoid getting scammed and to report attempted fraud. Needless to say, that the cashier's check was never cashed and a formal complaint was filed with eBay (where it was promptly sucked into a black hole, probably never to be heard from again).

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