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Archive for the ‘Baby Booomers’ Category

To be fair, Michael from Home Depot’s customer care department contacted me within minutes of my blog posting explaining my recent adventure. Another customer care rep, Stephanie from the corporate office, has been working to try and resolve the situation but her efforts to connect me with the regional Home Depot people here in the Saratoga area have not yet been successful. I appreciate her efforts but I wanted to share some of the comments I received to my initial posting:

Peter wrote: “When I renovated my home in Rockville years ago, I bought the appliances and most stuff from Lowe’s. However, since Lowe’s was farther away, I opted to hire a contractor recommended by Home Depot (after buying some more things from them). Home Depot is the worst. The Lowe’s contractor finally straightened out what the Home Depot contractor did wrong/failed to do. One of the best examples? I asked the Home Depot supplied electrician to connect a dimmer switch to the chandelier in my dining room. They did, and it didn’t dim the chandelier, but rather caused the lights to go off and on in a bizarre pattern, with some bulbs popping like in a bad movie, smoke to issue from the chandelier, and the circuit breaker to blow. Guess they didn’t teach the Home Depot ‘partner’ what ‘ground’ and ‘hot’ mean in electrician school… apparently, I was lucky not to have lost the whole house to an inferno...”

Lynn wrote: “I have been on a mission for quite some time to let everyone know NOT to hire people whom Home Depot employs(or suggests)as subcontractors. I have yet to see one job completed by any of these subs that has come up to the standards of most LICENSED, INSURED contractors.The best thing you can do in the future is NOT hire anyone from a home store like that until you have properly checked out their credentials and/or referrals, as you would do with anyone working in a trade. It sounds to me like your plumbers might not be properly insured, as they should have had NO problem in correcting THEIR mistake. As for Home Cheapo…keep on them too, especially to report the plumbers as ‘Sub’ standard in their quality of work .”

Jeff wrote: “Been there done that with Home Depot. We use Lowe’s now (in our experience, much better customer service). Like you, we bought an expensive product from Home Depot and they farmed out the installation. When things did not go right (which, of course, they didn’t), Home Depot would not take any responsibility. And neither would the contractor. It was not a fun situation. We have not had a similar scenario with Lowe’s”

The adventure continues….

Addendum added on 9/17/09:

Home Depot has connected me with their insurance company and I’ve been asked to provide estimates for the project so that we can resolve this matter. I can’t say they I envy the customer service reps
their jobs but at least dealing with them has been a positive experience.

On July 27th, I purchased a water heater at the Home Depot in Saratoga who subcontracted with a Glens Falls plumbing company, Goldentouch Plumbin & Heating to do the installation. Due to negligence on the part of the installers, which they readily admit, our laundry room was flooded soaking the wallboard on several walls and some of the carpeting in the adjoining family room.

Goldentouch arranged for a restoration company to come in and do some emergency work using industrial dehumidifiers and removing the damaged wallboard. But the plumber balked at paying for phase two of the project: replacing and repainting the wallboard which had been removed, reattaching the wall and door moldings, cleaning the mud off the laundry room floor which had been tracked in the by the restoration team and cleaning the carpet which was dirty from muddy shoes and soggy boxes of books that had been stored in a laundry closet. Instead, Goldentouch opted to replace the wallboard themselves but refused to take any responsibility for the rest of the cleanup.



I complained to Home Depot who contacted Goldentouch about the problem. Goldentouch accused me of trying to take advantage of them. I explained that I just wanted to have my laundry and family rooms restored to the conditions that they had been in prior to the installation of the water heater. Goldentouch’s attitude was that they were the victims and I was the victimizer. They inferred that it was suspicious that I didn’t want to simply make a claim with my insurance company. I explained that it didn’t make sense for my homeowner’s insurance policy to pay for their mistake. I was told that Goldentouch planned to turn the situation over to their attorney.

I returned to Home Depot to recap the latest developments. The customer service rep informed me that it wasn’t a Home Depot problem and that I would need to resolve the issue myself with Goldentouch. I disagreed and suggested that it was, indeed, Home Depot’s problem since they had sold me the water heater and hired the installer. I was told that the district manager would then contact me about the problem. That was a week ago. I’ve heard from no one since.

At this point, I can’t give high marks for customer service to either Home Depot or Goldentouch Plumbing & Heating in Glens Falls.

A couple of weeks ago, New York Times writer Stuart Elliot had a column about the significance of the side-by-side bathtubs in Cialis ads. Here’s an insight from a person who does research in the field of semiotics:

“…those bathtubs…represent female sex organs.”

Hmmm.

Is there a Georgia O’Keefe reference here?

You can read the rest of the reader’s perspective here:

http://tinyurl.com/StuartElliot

If you watched the Triple Crown races this year, you may remember the story about a nice older gentleman who bred a filly and named her after his granddaughter, Rachel Alexandra. He later sold the horse to billionaire Jess Jackson, of Kendall-Jackson Wines fame, who is a controversial figure in the horse racing industry because he believes that the way horses have been bred over the past decade have led to more injuries.

Calvin Borel, who became America’s jockey after riding Street Sense to victory in the 2007 Kentucky Derby, is her jockey.

(Rachel & Calvin at Saratoga Race Course)

http://tinyurl.com/nx8oks

Just when I’m getting ready to get into a summer frame of mind, it’s all over.

So, this afternoon while the sun was shining, the sky was blue and the temperature hovered near 80, I took some time off to spend an hour at one of my favorite spots in Saratoga Springs, Victoria Pool in Spa State Park and as I listened to Toby Keith warming up in the distance for tonight’s show at Saratoga Performing Arts Center said farewell to Summer 2009.

And I don’t feel guilty!

Ever wonder “Why the bathtubs?” in those Cialis ads? New York Times advertising expert, Stuart Elliot offers this explanation:

“The tubs are symbols of relaxing, taking your time, not hurrying, in that a bath is more relaxing than a shower. They reflected that from the start, Cialis advertising was warmer and gentler than ads for Viagra — more feminine, as it were. Other cues included a color scheme of yellow and pastel green and the name, pronounced ‘See-Alice.’

The differences are meant to underline a basic difference between Cialis and its rivals: while Viagra and Levitra provide a four-hour window during which a man can get and keep an erection, Cialis opens that window to 36 hours.

The continuous presence of women in Cialis ads is a subtle signal that the drug can help them set the pace with their partners, in contrast to the primarily male-driven imagery for Levitra and Viagra. For that reason, Europeans have called Cialis ‘le weekend’ drug. “

See more about advertising at http://tinyurl.com/nmecnl

Whether you’re out of work, putting in extra hours to keep your job, dealing with financial issues, taking care of an elderly parent, or just trying to cope with information overload, it’s difficult to escape the negative physical and psychological effects of stress.

Natalie Angier wrote this article in last week’s New York Times about how your brain can actually reinforce your tendency towards self-defeating behaviors and how you can reverse the damage: http://tinyurl.com/stress-loop

In the July issue of Scientific American, Karen Schrock talks about how music can help your physical and emotional well-being: http://tinyurl.com/l64rrp

Have you had any real-life experiences that either prove or disprove these notions?

How do your peers, supervisors, employees, friends, and family members see you? What do they think are your strengths, weaknesses and most valuable skills? What is your personal brand? Does their assessment correlate with yours?

If you’re like me, it’s probably a lot easier for you to develop a strong sense about the value that other people bring to the table but your self-evaluation is a little fuzzy.

The folks at Reach Branding Consulting (www.reachcc.com) offer a FREE analysis tool named 360 Reach(tm) which allows people who know you to anonymously provide feedback and help provide focus. Over the past month, I took advantage of it and I thought you might find the results instructive.

I felt pretty good that the response rate for my personal 360 Reach assessment tool was 10% higher than the average response rate of all people who have used the tool so I’m grateful to everyone who took the time to participate and to share their opinions with me. Here’s a summary of the assessments of my personal brand by colleagues, peers, managers/supervisors, employees, friends: (71% of those who participated were colleagues & peers, 12% of those who participated were either former managers/supervisors or employees):

My Top 5 Brand Personas:

1. Expert
2. Rock (reliable; I do what I say I will)
3. Truth-Teller (honest, trustworthy)
4. Structurer (organized, methodical)
5. Visionary (I see the Big Picture)

My Top 5 Leadership Competencies:

1. Relating (meeting/connecting with colleagues, employees, customers; build trust & respect)
2. Expressing (clear & consistent 2-way communication)
3. Inspiring (nuturing, empowering, developing others)
4. Visioning (developing & executing strategy)
5. Developing (personal development, growing professionally; staying fresh, adopting new & relevant habits)

All the people who participated in this survey were also asked to describe my strengths and weaknesses in their own words. Here’s what the had to say:

My Strengths (verbatims):

-Ability to manage
-Ability to cover chaos with calm
-Being methodical
-Business knowledge
-Community-mindedness
-Forward thinking
-Intelligence (2 mentions)
-Seeing the big picture, managing any situation, always has a goal in mind
-Speaking
-Vast knowledge & experience
-Wisdom
-Analyzing (2 mentions)
-Caring professional and encouraging to others
-Experience (2 mentions)
-Market knowledge
-Imagining what needs to be done and getting the job done
-Knowledge
-Knowledge of industry
-Likeability
-Media smart
-Problem solving
-Strategic planning

My Weaknesses (verbatims):

-Being methodical
-Difficulty selling himself
-Occasionally opinionated
-Probably overqualified for a lot of available jobs in the area
-Talking over people who are already talking
-Too nice
-Delegating
-Irritating people
-Making quick decisions
-Not following through
-Organization
-People skills
-Speed of learning or change
-Stubborn
-Too fast to respond. Needs to listen more.
-Too formal.

Being human, I immediately focused on the weaknesses and felt a little hurt or dismayed by some of the comments but I’m still grateful for the honest evaluations. It’s also interesting to see how some people perceive me as having weaknesses in certain areas while others see me as having strengths in the same areas.

You might want to try this yourself. The initial analysis is free although you can get more granular by upgrading with paid options. Find the 360 Reach Personal Branding Analysis at www.reachcc.com

I’m one of those Boomer males who took a long time to marry and settle down. Consequently, my perspective and level of appreciation for the blessings I’ve had tend to be different than they would for a younger man.

The day 15 years ago when our daughter was born was the day I really learned the meaning of the word “commitment”.

I just put her on a flight to Denver and I have to admit that my emotions were a mixture of pride and trepidation; proud that she has the intelligence and maturity to travel on her own and to navigate the obstacles of BWI, Denver International and LAX; anxious for her safety and her ever-increasing loss of innocence.

I’m old enough to remember when people actually dressed up to travel by plane like they did for church when they used to go to church. My first flight occurred when I was in my mid-20s. Our daughter’s when she was just an infant.

So, as I watched the Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 leave the tarmac and climb into the cloudless blue summer sky, my eyes felt moist and I said a little prayer, “Bon voyage. Come home safe.”

My First Video Podcast

Last weekend, I was one of more than 300 people who attended Podcamp Boston 4 at the University of Massachusetts campus near the John F. Kennedy Library along Dorchester Bay.

The original Podcamps were specifically focused on the creation of audio and video podcasts but these events have evolved to encompass a wider range of new media tools. For a Baby Boomer
like me, all this youthful energy, intelligence and enthusiasm can be daunting but I also find this collection of people sharing their insights and knowledge to be inspiring and invigorating.

Of course,like any even of this type, Podcamp Boston had it’s share of interesting characters…

And there was some nice scenery, too…

One of the challenges I heard presented over the weekend was to describe your purpose in two “tweets” or less. If you’re new to Twitter, a “tweet” consists of 140 characters including the spaces between words. Here’s what I came up with:

Buzz4Boomers’ goal is to help Baby Boomer adults adapt to today’s rapid changes in information flow and media options by sharing the knowledge and insights I learn from people I meet in new media and experiences I encounter.

By my count, that’s 230 characters, 50 under the maximum allotted 280 tweets.

One piece of advice which I heard frequently at Podcamp Boston was that the most important thing a person can do when they’re planning to create a podcast is to just do it. So I decided to take their advice and create my first video podcast using my Flip Ultra camcorder. You can tell that my camera work needs a lot more practice but in the New Media spirit of “authenticity”, here’s the first Buzz4Boomers video podcast:

http://buzz4boomers.blip.tv/

Well, the way I see it things can only improve.