Robert Stinnett's Paper and Pencil

The picture says it all; a birthday greeting from Windows Live.

For the curious out there, I turned 35 today.  Only 32 more years until retirement!

Personally, I believe you are never too old to stop learning.  Currently I’m working on my MBA, and who knows what will be next on my list after I get that.  I just find education “exciting” and a great way to keep the brain active and firing on all cylinders.

Apart from the educational experience, there is also some other benefits of being a student – namely discounts and free offers.  Recently I came across Dreamspark by Microsoft and found out that as a student I could get access to products such as Visual Studio 2008 and Windows Server 2008 free of charge.  That certainly “sparked” my interest!

Microsoft has opened up its developer line of tools (SQL Server, Visual Studio, Windows Server and xna Game Studio) to both college and high school students with the hopes that they will be able to create the applications, web pages and games of tomorrow.  It’s a great program and I wish when I was a high school student back in 1990 we had a program such as this!  Of course, back then we were happy to just have our IBM XT machines with Turbo Pascal!

If you are a student, or know anyone who is, pass on this information to them.  Some of the best ideas, and “killer applications” of the past decade have come from students.  Even Microsoft was founded by a student, Bill Gates who left college to chase his dream. 

Where will your dreams take you?

The following is a comment I made  to a thread over on SK-YOU (Sears, Kmart & You) in response to a posting about Customer Service.  You can see the original thread here.

It's good to hear these stories and I hope that you see a common thread in all of them -- customer service.  Kmart and Sears needs to focus on this and not try to compete with Wal-Mart.  People will return and buy more when they feel they are appreciated.

Back in the 80s when Kmart was king my mom and I shopped at Kmart for most of the household goods.  Why?  Because you never had to wait 30 minutes to checkout, there were always people to help you and they had such a great variety.  Today it seems stores just plain don't care about the customer (especially Wal-Mart).

Let me tell you that about 2 years ago I purchased a 3 year battery from Wal-Mart that had a "3 year free replacement guarantee" on it.  My mechanic advised me that a cell in the battery had gone bad.  I went back to Wal-Mart to replace it and after waiting 10 minutes in line at customer service I was treated like I was robbing the store. "Well sir we just don't hand you a new one like that!" and I was told to haul it back to the sporting goods department where someone would check it out and then they would determine if I got a new one or not.

I lugged it back there and waited 20 minutes -- not an employee to be found.  I went to the fabric department -- nobody there.  Electronics?  Nope, nobody.  I finally drag this heavy battery back up front and standing right by the lady who told me to go back to sporting goods is the employee from sporting goods just gossiping.  I asked her why she sent me back there knowing good and well there was nobody to help me.  She looked at me like she could care less.  I finally told her, and the rest of them, that I was sick of it and immediately pulled out my cell phone and called the 1-800 Walmart line.  Well that was a waste. 

I finally gave up and the next day went to Sears.  I purchased a Diehard battery and couldn't be happier.  The auto guy putting the battery in said that the Wal-Mart battery was not the right battery to begin with for my car.  Imagine that.

Basically Wal-Mart sold me the wrong product and then wouldn't honor it's warranty or provide any type of customer service.  Sears on the other hand found the problem, addressed it and then made sure I was ready to go on my way.

CUSTOMER SERVICE -- that is what matters.

You know what – I’m fed up.  Fed up with what I call the Wal-Marting of America.  When you can’t walk into a store and find anything made in America anymore.  You would think it is a mortal sin to carry any product made in the USA.  It’s nothing but “Made in China” junk courtesy of the Wal-Mart family. 

About a month ago I decided during this economic mess that I was tired of seeing more and more American workers jobs being shipped overseas and these dedicated workers getting the boot.  I decided that I would buy American when I could, even if it cost more.  I kept thinking about what I read regarding Henry Ford’s $5 a day workday back in 1914.  Ford knew that in order for him to sell his cars he had to make sure that his employees would be able to afford them.  Today CEO’s and stockholders couldn’t give a care less about the workers – they ship their jobs overseas faster you can blink.  Then they complain because nobody is buying their junk – well how can they when nobody has a job?  You have to provide good jobs and a living wage to your workers so they can buy your goods – it’s simple economics.  Apparently nobody has told Wal-Mart this, though, as they believe in paying poverty wages with their workers living off government programs (which end up costing the taxpayers).  It’s pretty sad when Wal-Mart workers can’t afford the Chinese made junk Wal-Mart carries.

So my quest began, to buy American.  I knew I wouldn’t always be successful, but I was going to try to purchase American made every chance I could.  One of the first things I needed was some pens.  Nothing fancy, just plain ballpoint pens.  Surely Staples would have an American made pen – after all, they must carry hundreds of different selections of pens.  Oh how wrong I was…

I went to the Staples store in Columbia, MO over my lunch hour to find some pens.  Now let me state that the folks at the store are some of the nicest, customer-focused employees I know of.  Staples in general is a good company, and they do carry a number of items Made in America.  However, pens is not one of them.

For over 20 minutes I looked…and looked.. and looked.  Made in France, Made in China, Made in Japan, Made in Mexico.  I kid you not I probably found every country you can think of except America.  I finally gave up and checked out with some paper towels I bought there (made in the USA) and told the cashier of my woes.  She definitely understood where I was coming from and said she agreed with what I was trying to do.

As I drove back to work NPR was filled with more bad news – more layoffs, more companies begging for a government handout, etc.  Hearing that made me even more determined – if I couldn’t find American-made pens in the store I’d buy them online!  This is one fight I was going to give up.

When I got home this evening I started my search.  I pulled up Microsoft’ Live search and typed in “American Made Pens”.  I found a lot of sites that were selling patriotic pens (made in China) and a lot of places that imprinted pens in America, but the pens themselves were made in China.  That simply wasn’t acceptable.  Then I stumbled across a small site that wasn’t fancy at all, but delivered exactly what I wanted – 100% American Made Pens.  Minuteman Pen of New Jersey, which is a part of Rotary Pen – a small family owned company that has been in business since 1924.

Now here is the funny part – the American made pens that Minuteman was selling?  They were cheaper than the Chinese junk at Staples!  I couldn’t believe it!  I thought the reason we shipped so many jobs overseas was because it was cheaper to produce everything over there.  I guess that is another untruth told to us by CEO’s and Boards of Directors.  Imagine that.

I ended up ordering a little over $25 worth of pens and markers.  Even with shipping added in I think I still came out a dollar or three ahead.  Add to that the fact that I feel good I bought from an American company that produces the pens here in the USA.

Staples, why not devote a tiny bit of shelf space to Minuteman pens?  Would it kill you to offer ONE pen Made in America?