New Hampshire Real Estate & Consumer Resources

Archive for June, 2006

Good customer service is something that seems to be in very short supply these days. I’ve always valued good customer service and I have a small group of favorite companies I like to do business with because I have had good experiences with them. It’s not a large list, but these companies have earned my business and I am very loyal to them.

On the other hand, there is also a small group of companies I will never do business with. AOL, or America Online as they are otherwise known, hold a prominent position within that group.

I cannot be certain, but I think I actually had an AOL account way back in the early days of getting online. It was probably around the time I had a CompuServe account (remember them?). I have been through so many service providers over the years that I cannot recall if my experience with AOL was a good one or a bad one.

What I am certain of is that I did not keep the account very long. If I had used it for any significant length of time, I would surely remember.

I guess my experience with AOL could not have been all that bad if I am not able to recall much about it, but that’s not important since it is the things I have heard since that time that earned them a spot on my ‘never do business with’ list.

Firstly and most importantly, anyone choosing to get online via AOL is not going to be on the ‘real’ internet as I understand it. AOL is, and always has been in the business of creating their own customized internet experience for their customers. Heck, that’s probably something they brag about!

The problem is that they are offering their customers what amounts to a ‘dumbed down’ version of the internet. Access to the internet is controlled with the software they provide, so you are essentially viewing the internet as AOL thinks you should see it and not as the internet really is.

Chief among their reasons for doing this is profit. No surprise there. The environment they provide their customers with makes it very easy for them to shove advertisements in their faces. Advertisements they are getting paid to show of course.

There has been a controversy or two through the years about whether or not AOL has at times filtered various elements of the internet to prevent their customers from accessing them. I have no idea whether or not that is true, but I know for a fact that it is something that could easily be done if a company like AOL had the inclination to do so.

But since the above issue is not based in any real fact that I am aware of, perhaps we should examine the issue of customer service. That’s something I do have some factual information about.

When I was working as a real estate agent I became known around the office as someone who knew a bit about computers. I spent a couple of decades doing that kind of work and was happy to help anyone around the real estate office who asked me.

One day one of the agents in the office came to ask me about AOL. She was an older woman and very pleasant, and like a lot of folks, was not terribly savvy when it came to computers. She described a problem she had been having while using her AOL service and hoped I would have a suggestion for her. Other than cancel AOL, that is!

Not being an AOL user myself, I really am not familiar with the inner workings of their software and told the other agent that I really didn’t know much about AOL at all. I asked her if she had called AOL for help and she told me she had called a number of times and they were not able to help her. The most recent time she had called they had basically told her that there was nothing they could do to help her.

I was a little surprised to hear that, although not having a very good opinion of AOL to begin with, I was not completely shocked. Still, it was a bit much to hear that they had told her that they were not able to help her. What kind of customer service is that? She was having a problem with their service and they tell her there is nothing they can do to help her? That’s ridiculous.

What prompted me to post this was a segment from the cable news channel MSNBC that someone posted on the internet. It’s about a guy that was forced to waste 21 minutes of his time trying to convince some jackass at AOL to cancel his account.

Once this stuff hits TV, is never fails to get the attention of the company in question and they quickly recruit one of their public relations minions to fire off a letter of apology. Sure, enough, AOL sent an apologetic letter to MSNBC so they could let everyone know how sorry they were and that they had fired the jackass in question.

The former AOL customer that was feature for the segment said he felt a little bit sorry about the jackass getting fired over the incident, but I sure wouldn’t. After the obnoxious behavior that guy demonstrated, he surely deserved to be fired.

I can’t help but suspect that he was probably doing exactly what AOL wanted him to do, but as we know under these circumstances, someone has to take the fall, and it’s usually the little guy at the bottom of the pay scale.

To see the MSNBC segment yourself, click here.

AOL got their start back in the days when the dial-up modem ruled supreme on the internet landscape and was the only way the vast majority of people could get on the internet. Although many folks are still left with only that choice, high-speed options like cable modems and DSL have been making a great deal of progress and offering more people a much improved internet experience.

Not wanted to be left behind during this revolution, AOL came up with an idea to get a piece of the high-speed pie as well. Although, they don’t directly supply the service that enables people to get online using a high-speed connection, they wisely partnered with some of the companies that actually do provide high-speed internet service and have given high-speed customers the opportunity to replace the experience of being on the internet with the experience AOL thinks you should have on the internet.

They have been running a lot of commercial ads on TV for their high-speed offering and using the slogan: ‘Want a better internet? You belong at AOL.’ Well, I guess I don’t have to tell you that I think that is the biggest crock of crap I have ever heard regarding internet service. For my money, it should be: ‘Want a better internet? AOL is the last thing you need.’

All the various ‘services’ they talk about during their commercials like ‘spam blockers,’ ‘spyware blockers’ and ‘pop-up blockers’ are all available for free from most major internet service providers these days, and even if they are not offered free by your internet provider, I can show you of a free version of each of those programs that anyone can download from the internet for their own use. They are not hard to find, just search for them using one of the major search engines, like Google or Yahoo.

In my opinion, you are much better off with a ‘pure’ internet connection without imposing AOL’s idea of what the internet should look like on unsuspecting high-speed customers. AOL is purely and ‘add on’ for a high-speed connection and certainly is not something you need to get a high-speed internet connection.

In my experience, all the big internet companies are providing all the help and tools you need to get online and you don’t need to be shelling out money to AOL every month when all you need is the high-speed connection.

When all we had was dial-up, it could be argued that AOL provided a valuable service by connecting people to the internet. Even if it was all through the customized interface they provided. These days however, if you have high-speed internet service available in your area, I would consider AOL service completely useless and something that would actually detract from your online experience.

The tools needed to get you online sending e-mail and surfing the web are no more complicated than setting up AOL service on your PC. I’m sure AOL is not too happy to see these kinds of things getting easier and easier since they can no longer claim that their software is so much easier to use than the standard tools you can use to do everything you need to do on the internet.

Perhaps I should say that they should no longer claim that their software is so much easier, since I suppose they are free to make whatever claim they choose according to the amount of risk they are willing to accept.

I think getting online is moving beyond the need some people may have for services like AOL. My mother-in-law is a newly-minted internet user herself, and previous to that she really knew nothing about using the internet at all. A quick lesson or two from my wife and a new computer later, she is now happily sending e-mail and playing bingo on the web every day.

When more people understand that getting on the internet is not rocket science and high-speed internet reaches almost everyone who wants it, it might be hard for AOL to come up with a reason to exist. I’d like to think so anyway. At least it would put an end to those annoying television commercials.

[tags]aol, msnbc, video segment, cancel account[/tags]

The latest dirt bags sending a deceptive mailing to my house is an outfit going by the name of Sweepstakes Clearinghouse with an address of 1555 Regal Row, PO Box 569600, Dallas, Texas 75356-9931.

Notice the old trick they use by showing the ‘To The Order Of’ through the address window to make it look like a check is enclosed. That, combined with the ‘DEPARTMENT OF NOTIFICATIONS’ and the official-looking red info box to the right is obviously designed to make the recipient think that they are the winner of some sweepstakes. That is the way they get people to open something that is otherwise going to be judged (accurately) as junk mail and tossed in the trash.

The $400 vouchers they have so generously enclosed do their best to make the recipient believe they are getting a good deal on the merchandise they are trying to unload. In my opinion, however, the stuff they are selling is a bunch of low-quality, no-quality or hopelessly outdated merchandise. Let’s take a look.

As you can see, each item they are advertising has a price listed next to it in an effort to make potential buyers believe this stuff is actually worth that much. And, with your $400 voucher that you can use towards the purchase of each item, you can purchase each one of the items for the listed price minus $400. What a deal! Actually, I would be more accurate to say what a joke!

I know a little bit about digital video cameras and I have never heard of DVC brand. When one shops for something like a video camera or other electronic equipment, it’s pretty obvious that you want a well-known brand that has a reputation for quality. Brands like Sony, Canon, JVC and others that you are familiar with. The bottom line is that they are selling you a digital video camcorder/camera/MP3 player/whatever for $169 and that’s probably about what it is worth.

At least the stereo system has a name I recognize, although I certainly don’t think of RCA when I think about going out to buy high-quality stereo components myself. It may in fact be a decent system for the money. But again, that is the key. It’s probably worth the $179 they are selling it for. Not top-of-the-line by any stretch.

I really know little or nothing about watches and luggage, so at the risk of repeating myself, those items are probably worth what you would pay for them also. I guess it is up to each consumer to decide if a cheap diamond watch is worth $169 or cheesy luggage is worth $179. I surely know what my answer is and I bet you can guess.

Now computers are another matter entirely and something I do happen to know a little bit about. Firstly, both those systems they are selling are hopelessly outdated. I have a 400-MHz PC around here that was current technology about seven or so years ago when I bought it. To be listing these systems with price tags of $699 and $679 is so ridiculous, I could nearly fall out of my chair laughing over it.

I cannot believe any retailer still has stuff like this hanging around collecting dust. The 128 MB of memory they list for both systems is a laughable amount of memory and useless for running anything better than the Windows-95 or Windows-98 they are supplying with them. I can hardly believe they are still selling systems with Windows-98, to say nothing of Windows-95!

For those who may not know what the 98 or 95 in the names Windows-98 and Windows-95 stand for, well, yes, you guessed it. The year 1998 and 1995. A 11-year-old operating system and an 8-year-old operating system. Can these people be serious?

If you have heard stories of Windows computers crashing and getting hung up all the time, these are the old, outdated operating systems that are likely being talked about. Microsoft’s current operating system of choice is Windows-XP which has been around for a number of years and is light-years ahead of Windows-98 or Windows-95!

And don’t assume you can buy one of these cheap systems and load Windows-XP on it yourself. The 128 MB of memory would be a show-stopper for Windows-XP and even if you were able to add more memory to these systems, a 300-MHz or 400-MHz system will run as slow as molasses with Windows-XP installed.

To advertise these systems with ‘National Reference Retail’ prices like these is pure fantasy. Perhaps they are referring to the prices of systems like this about six or seven years ago and just forgot to mention that.

The 15-inch monitor for the desktop and 12-inch screen on the laptop are nothing to get excited about either. Make sure you have your reading glasses or perhaps a magnifying glass handy when you sit down to work on one of these cinematic beauties! And those hard drives! My, my, whatever will you do with all that disk space? Good luck locating a disk drive you can buy new that is less than 20GB these days!

Most of the software included in their $500+ Software Package is stuff I have never heard of and it’s a pretty safe bet that it is just a bunch of old software that is no longer being sold. It’s highly unlikely that it is worth $500 these days, but perhaps this stuff was somehow lost in the mail for six or seven years and only made its way to my mailbox today. That certainly would explain a lot!

To make the deal even sweeter, the fine print reveals that the laptop is ‘remanufactured.’ For heaven’s sake, if it’s one thing I would avoid like the plague, it would be a remanufactured laptop! I would not even buy a current model that was remanufactured due to the quirky nature of laptops compared to desktop systems. To buy a remanufactured model from an era when laptops where even less reliable and more quirky than current models would be insanity.

Heck, I have a Toshiba laptop I bought brand-new almost 2 years ago that died on me about 6 months ago. After the warranty period, of course! Since I will not attempt to work on a laptop myself, it has been sitting around until I feel that I need it bad enough to get it fixed. I fix all my desktop systems myself very easily, but with the tiny closely-packed insides of a laptop, I will not even attempt it.

Laptops have come a long way in recent years but I still believe desktop systems are a lot more reliable. My advice is that unless you really need a PC that is portable, stay away from the laptops and stick with a desktop system. I’m sure there are differing opinions out there and I speak only from my own experience.

Getting back to the utterly ridiculous prices they have endowed these two geriatric systems with, let’s take a look at what you can get for your money these days and end up with brand-new, brand-name current computer systems.

With the enclosed vouchers, you can get the desktop system for $299 and the laptop for $279.

For comparison, consider that you can get a brand-new and current-technology desktop system with the following specifications: Celeron D 2.53-GHx Processor, 256 MB memory, 80 GB hard drive, 17-inch monitor and Windows XP installed for $299.

You’re likely to pay around $400 for a low-end current laptop, but the extra $121 will be well worth it to have a new system with a current operating system like Windows XP installed on it that will run a lot faster than the antique featured in this mail-order miracle.

If the computers are any indication of the quality and value of the other products, this is not any kind of ‘deal’ in any way, shape or form. The $400 voucher idea is just intended to make people believe they are getting something for nothing when nothing could be further from the truth.

[tags]sweepstakes clearinghouse, vouchers[/tags]

There were two customers that were more instrumental than any others in my decision to quit the real estate business.

I was on ‘up time’ duty one morning in the office when one of the veteran agents approached me and asked me if I’d like to take over a customer for her. Apparently, with all the other business this other agent was dealing with at the time, she totally forgot that she had this customer flying in from Texas that day to do some intensive house-hunting. Ooooops!

Appreciating the chance to pick up some business I agreed to take care of this customer for her and I was provided with the customer’s information. I immediately attempted to call her on the phone but was only able to get her answering machine. It was quite possible that she had left for the airport already and I would have to try her on her cell phone later on to let her know about the change in plans.

As leads go, this was a pretty good one. There seemed to be little doubt this customer and her family would be leaving Texas to settle somewhere in our general vicinity. Her husband had a new job lined up and was ready to make the move.

When I was finally able to reach the customer on her cell phone later that day, she had already arrived in Boston and was in her rental car on the way to the hotel.

She was not too happy when she found out that she had been suddenly handed over to a new agent that she had never heard of or talked to. I managed to smooth things over with her and convince her that I would be able to provide her with all the assistance she needed.

By the time she showed up at the office the next morning, she seemed to have forgotten all about the fact that she was ticked off at the other agent for handing her over to me. She seemed like a nice, reasonable woman and I was under the impression that she would be pleasant to work with.

Accompanying her was her friend from New York who also seemed quite pleasant.

I had scoured the MLS listings the night before and lined up a bunch of homes and parcels of land to show her, so with listings in hand, we hit the road. We piled into my car and headed over to a nearby town to check out a few parcels. This particular town is notorious for being very rural and having many dirt road. After a number of miles on dusty dirt roads to check out these isolated parcels of land, she seemed to lose any interest she had in that particular town.

She had also expressed a particular interest in my home town which was a very good thing for me. Being a new agent, I was not terribly familiar with most of the towns we usually did business in. My adopted home town was a little outside our usual territory but it certainly was not unheard of to close a few deals there every year.

Being quite confident in my knowledge of my own area gave me a little extra measure of confidence, which was very welcome since it was a rather nerve-wracking experience at first. I had not been out with many customers and still feeling like I did not know what the hell I was doing contributed a great deal to my anxiety.

It was not long before I started feeling pretty comfortable with my new customer and her friend. They were pretty down-to-earth people and seemed genuinely nice, so it was easy to relax after a little small talk.

We drove around the area for a number of hours looking at homes and talking about the area. Although we were probably out for about five hours or so, it seemed like an eternity to me. Although it was nice to be able to relax a bit and get a better feel for what the job was all about, I can’t say that it was a fun or enjoyable experience for me.

At the end of the day’s searching, there were three homes that she seemed to have a real interest in. One a nicely-kept split-level that was located in the town that bordered the town where the real estate office was located and the other two where right here in my home town. The first was an old, large house located in a historic area of town that was at least 150 years old. Kind of interesting to visit, but I decided that I would never want a house this ‘historic’ of my very own.

The second was an immaculate contemporary style house not 5 minutes from my own home. When I say immaculate, I really mean it. Although this house was about 4 or 5 years old, you would have easily believed that this place was brand-new. The owners kept it absolutely spotless and very nicely furnished. It was also set on a very private lot on a quiet road. Now this was the kind of house I could get serious about if I happened to be in the market for a new place.

I knew that my customer was pretty impressed with this place and she seemed quite anxious to learn all that she could about it. Unfortunately, the listing agent ‘ despite being an old pro who was very well-known in the area ‘ had neglected to leave any information beyond the standard listing sheet at the house.

My customer had a lot of questions about the house I could not answer because the listing agent did not take the time or invest a little effort in creating a nice little packet of information to display on the property. Fortunately, the listing agent’s office was about 2 minutes up the road and I was able to call her on my cell phone and get her to agree to provide me with the information my customer wanted right away.

When we parted company for the day, my customer and I agreed to meet again the next afternoon at the first home we looked at which was the one located closer to the real estate office. Her husband was flying in from Texas the next day and would accompany her to look over the three homes she had selected as her ‘finalists.’

Much to my surprise, they met me right on time at the first house the next afternoon. I expected them to be late since I knew she had to pick her husband up at the airport in Boston and then drive over an hour to meet me at the house. Airline schedules and city traffic are well known for creating significant delays.

Fortunately, the husband seemed like a pretty decent guy and he seemed like he would be an easy person to deal with. All I needed was some real jackass to deal with on one of my first real estate deals, so it was a great relief to discover that I was dealing with a couple that seemed quite reasonable and pleasant to work with.

The first house really didn’t impress the husband very much and the she seemed just as happy as he was to leave it behind and set off for our next destination.

He seemed genuinely interested in the historic place. Being the kind of guy that likes ‘handy man’ projects, his wife expected him to have an interest in a place like this and it appeared to me that she was correct.

We explored pretty much every nook and cranny of the old place and the large attached barn. We even walked a few hundred feet out into the woods behind the place (dodging swampy areas and swatting mosquitoes) to see how far the property extended.

After our historic tour, we set out for the next and final house ‘ the immaculate contemporary that was very near to my own house.

Since we were a little early, we arrived to find that the current residents were still home. The usual procedure is for the listing agent to advise the owners to leave the house during the showing to avoid making the customers uncomfortable.

I went to the door and explained the situation and they told me they would be happy to leave a little early so we could go through the house. They also seemed like very nice people and even ended up meeting my customers and talking with them a little bit. It all seemed to be going too well.

Once the owners had left we gave the house and property a thorough going-over and I became even more convinced that they would be making an offer on the house.

They spent considerable time inside the house talking about which of their kids would get which bedroom and even taking some pictures with a digital camera and talking about knocking out a wall or two. If these were not signs that they were seriously interested in this house, I could not imagine what would be.

In my mind, this was practically a done deal.

There were still a few unanswered questions regarding the other two properties that they seemed to lack interest in, but they still expressed interest in getting those questions answered, so I took the time to make the phone calls and get the answers that they wanted.

I knew they were staying in the area for a few more days and I expected to be sitting in the office with them in a day or two writing up an offer. They told me they would be in touch sometime in the next day or two to let me know where things stood.

After two days, I began to wonder if something had gone wrong. I did not hear from them and wondered if I should make the effort to call them. Being the type of person who does not like to be too pushy (mostly because I hate people being pushy to me), I decided to wait another day or two and see if they get in touch with me.

That weekend, our real estate office was having their annual flea market. At this point I can’t recall which charitable organization it is that benefits from this event, but I’m sure it was a good cause so I agreed to show up and help move stuff around and do whatever else needed to be done for the event.

Some of the other agents who knew I was working with the couple from Texas asked me how it was going. I had expressed my confidence about a deal to some of the other agents, so I guess they were expecting to hear some good news.

A few hours into the flea market festivities, I was told that I had a phone call in the office.

Sure enough, it was my customers from Texas and they had some news for me.

It was the husband and he was on a cell phone. It sounded to me like they were in the car driving around at the time. I suspected they were on their way to the airport for their flight back to Texas.

He thanked me for all the assistance and informed me that they had decided that they wanted to settle in Massachusetts instead of New Hampshire and as a result, would no longer require my services.

He was as nice as someone could be when delivering that kind of message, but still it felt a bit like a slap in the face.

Make no mistake, I knew that was the nature of the business going into it and if I had been enjoying the job, I likely would have stuck with it. This new development, coupled with my growing dislike for the job was all I needed to make up my mind that this was not something I wanted to spend more of my time on.

Fortunately, other business ventures were beginning to show promise for me at the time and that made it even easier to walk away from my fledgling real estate career.

Within a couple of weeks I had made my decision to quit and informed the office manager of my intentions. She said she had never seen anyone so happy about quitting before and she even seemed a little entertained by it.

I left on very good terms and still think highly of the majority of people who work in that office.

Since I left, I have not had a single moment of regret. Thinking back on the experience, I am amazed that I was able to stick with it as long as I did, since it was truly a job I disliked a great deal.

As I have pointed out here in the past, it just wasn’t the right job for me, and I don’t miss it even a little.

[tags]real estate career[/tags]