Monthly Archives: June 2011

Analogy for Life

“I am in the driver’s seat in a car floating down rapids.  My power-steering is useless, not that it matters much when the car is upside down.”

This was from a conversation I had with a friend of mine and it’s strange: while one shouldn’t give away control completely, allowing for a feeling of resignation of going along with the current makes it possible to peacefully observe things that were once volatile and nerve-wracking…

At least until your proverbial car runs violently against a big enough boulder.  Then either your Zen is busted again or perhaps life is perpetual motion.

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RollerBlade–an Amazing Company with Amazing Service

MyRollerBladeBlades

What you see on the left are my Rollerblade Quantum L2 rollerblades that were given to me by my parents a rather long time ago.   So long, in fact, that I used to blade in them down 9th Ave in Manhattan occasionally latching on to taxis…  good times…

Anyway, this is not a story to brag of past exploits or encourage dangerous behavior.  This is a story of a company with absolutely awesome customer service: Rollerblade.  So, a while ago, while still in NY, a buckle broke on one of my beloved skates.  Below is a video the break.

My broken buckle

So first, erroneously thinking my skates are K2, I shoot K2 support an email.  Their service was good – a quick reply that this is not their skate and that I should reach out to Rollerblade support.  I did, and a nice guy by name of Will Meyer quickly responded asking me to send pictures.  So far so good…  Then he offered to send me a buckle.  That’s nice.  But the buckles on these are clipped on (can’t unscrew), so then he offered me to mail the skate so that they can fix the buckle…  That’s even nicer.  For free…  We are getting dangerously close to awesome.  So I go and mail in the skate and then I ask if I can buy new wheels while they are fixing the skate – mine (you can see them in the first picture) are really worn out.  To which I get a reply that I can.  And then I get the skate back with a “don’t worry about it, the wheels are on us email” along with a new buckle, a new set of wheels on the old skate and a new set of wheels for the new skate AND they paid the return shipping.  Full-tilt awesome.

I was shocked.  They were nice, they took care of me, I felt appreciated as a customer and, assuming they stay a company that is this cool, I will remain a life-long fan.

So, if any of you are looking for new rollerblades, I highly suggest Rollerblade.  This is a company that builds a relationship of mutual appreciation with its customers…  or at least with this customer.  And I may only be a single data point, but that’s all I need Smile

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Filed under Accolades, Business, Reviews, Stuff I Use, Support Cases

Tool: Soluto–optimize your PC

Just installed http://www.soluto.com/ – a tool that helps optimize performance of your PC.  So far I really like it.  Would recommend.

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Verizon Update–Switch to Google Voice Complete

Switch to Google Voice complete – Verizon gave me a new number (and a new phone to boot) and allowed me to get a new number to replace the existing one without charging me the cancellation fee.  So far I am really liking Google Voice and Francine’s doomsday scenarios have yet to materialize.  Ha.

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Filed under Business, Stuff I Use