Sunday, April 12, 2009

Personal Business Cards – Moo Printing Company

Buzz It

I decided I need some personal business cards for when I go out and meet other people. I have been just emailing them or using a web service called My Drop Card. Essentially you txt a number the email address you want your business info sent to and it then emails them. This would be fine and all for getting them the contact info via the email but it still leaves you with not having something to hand to the people your meeting.

So I decided to print up a small batch of cards for myself.

Moo.com is perfect for this solution. You can add the pictures you want and the text you need on the cards. They sell the cards in packs of 50 so you don’t have to have so many hanging around that you don’t need or no longer correct. Moo also has a Green Paper that is Eco friendly for those that are interested.

Moo-Card1Moo-Card2

This is my card that I designed on the website. I have cut out some of the info that is not needed publicized here. It was really simple. I paid with a credit card, but tried to pay with my PayPal account but ran into a error every time. So I just used PayPal’s Virtual Card Firefox plug in that creates a virtual CC for just this purpose.

So if your interested in getting some new cards, check out www.moo.com.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

BumpTop FTL - Poor Customer Support Techniques

Buzz It

btheader.bmp

I truly don’t remember when I applied to get a Beta Invite for the BumpTop desktop application, but I finally received the accepting email on April 7th.

I was very happy to try out this cool desktop app that claims to change the boring graveyard that is full of lost and forgotten files to something the suits your needs and style. I followed  the link provided to download the software and try it out. The web pages states to copy the beta code which will be asked for when installing the application. 5d06fcede1a28a057918b6bdae115ac4

I down load the application and go through the install process.

The application starts up and asks for the BumpTop Pro Key, the one that was listed in the webpage. 258a1301dce850a4f1315c05ef7f7ccf 

I enter the key and click OK only to get a message that the “Beta  invite codes are no longer supported.”

102cc5397b1a26ee03c3798db69a87c1

WHOA! FAIL! WTH??? I try the manual way and it takes me to another webpage that has me cut and paste a code to the entry box but it fails too.

I decided to email the company about this and see what is up. I sent off the email that same night stating the issue I was running into. I received a reply that was a little concerning on my part.

When a canned support ticket reply starts off with “Respect Yo,” you really need to ask “What the hell software did I install on my machine that this company responds this way?”

Two days later I receive a response in email from Mike Jurka of Bump Top. It states:

Hi,

We invited the last of our beta users shortly before launch, but then launched to the public; for users that didn’t open their email in time we could see how it’s confusing. Sorry about that.

The good news is that your beta invite code entitiles you to a discount! Just visit: http://bumptop.com/buy/ExistingUsersDiscount.php

Mike Jurka

WOW… so its not the fault of BumpTop’s that they sent out several Beta invites, but then decided to go launch publicly canceling out those Beta invites they just sent out. Then only to say that its the Beta users fault for not opening up their email in time?

WTF!

Well I guess the time it took from when I received the email for the invite (Tue, April 7th, 2009 at 12:26am) when I downloaded the software and went through the whole thing that I listed above to the time I emailed them at 10:58pm that night is enough time to Launch and invalidate my beta invite.

You can see the emails below with date and time stamps. I’ve even capture the header information for the original email for all you.

As for my thoughts on the actual software, I believe this is a pretty desktop overlay that makes working on the same old desktop more interesting, but until it can replace the Explorer of the Windows system and change how the way the applications look to match the rest of the desktop, its just another application that eats away memory and processor time that could be put towards running the many applications that you would be using. Eye candy, nothing more. I’ve removed it from machine.

cff6b142960fcbefbd9ad1d313a2b543

5f968d70cd9edcd8475543599d75cf16

1ad7d7e0ba5875cc5e99a1f7a6e6395f

9a82c8d07faedb19188262496c313bdb

f5c69d9615227612d78a6aef52182bb4