When I first switched to Wachovia Bank, I was a happy camper.  I even blogged about it (here and here).

But that was before I’d encountered an ongoing, and doubtless lucrative scam that they run.  Just my opinion of course — freedom of speech & self-expression, not a libelous statement

Here’s the way it works.  If you deposit cash into your account after 2pm, it won’t clear until the next day.  Yes, cash.  What’s more, they have a nifty system that typically clears debits before it clears credits. Or at least, debits seem to clear at any time of the day whereas credits only clear at certain times.  The same applies to checks, but I guess that’s not quite as unreasonable - I can at least see a rationale there.

But wait, there’s more…

The bill pay system is pretty erratic and poorly linked to the checking account section of the website.  Once payments are scheduled in the billpay system you have no idea (or indication from their system) of when the cash will actually be deducted from your account.

Net effect: if your income and expenses are finely balanced, this double-whammy will guarantee that you routinely go overdrawn.  And as a freelance consultant, things often get stretched a little thin on the cashflow side of things.

Why don’t I have overdraft protection?  Because they won’t approve me for it.  They’ll happily clear $600+ in debits and charge me $400 or more for the privilege, but they won’t approve me for a $500 overdraft facility (and this was well before the current credit crunch).

I finally lost patience with this on a day that I happened to have some free time.  I’ve always found that making a public fuss in an allegedly customer friendly environment can be an effective way to resolve things.  On this occasion I went all the way to the branch manager.

Here’s a summary of the manager’s response:

1. It’s “the system”. You can deposit cash before 2pm at the counter or by 4pm at an ATM (!?) and it will clear the same day.  However, a large deposit (more than a few hundred) made at an ATM will have a hold placed on it until the deposit is verified.
2. I should consider opening a savings account to act as my overdraft facility (there’s a small flaw in the logic here, but I’ll let you point that out)

   and my personal favorite:

3. I should keep a written ledger as well as use their online service.

I can’t wait for Wells Fargo to roll out their systems and fix this…

Categories: Random Rants
1 Comment »

Yes, I’ve been awfully quiet on the blogging and bitching front lately.  I’ve been swamped with work, mostly in a good way.

My current gigs include biz dev work for Shoeboxed, marketing for F-Origin and technology scouting for Sony Ericsson. It’s an interesting and diverse group that certainly keeps my mental juices flowing.

But it’s also left me with little time for blogging… and that lack of time has been complemented by a lack of inclination too.

But like a toddler in a time-out, my urge to speak is getting the better of me.  So I’m back, and ready to blitch.

More soon!

Categories: Thoughts 'n Ideas
No Comments »

As ever, Paul Kedrosky has a way with words:

The trouble is with an over-levered financial system built on a house of cards comprised of under-collateralized toxic paper that was applauded all the way up by “housing is the American dream” nutters who couldn’t see that vast expansions in thinly-traded credit are a path to economic ruin. Focusing on the short-sellers will lead to completely wrong and counter-productive non-solutions to the current crisis.

This is certainly not my area of expertise, but I agree with Paul 100%.  If only he were in charge.

<sigh>

Categories: Random Rants
No Comments »

In my entire career as a low-budget blogger, I’ve only touched on politics once. Generally, it’s a topic I leave alone.  But in a recent post about his relationship with Apple, Brad Feld rather succinctly called out why he doesn’t support the republicans.  He did a nice job of articulating some key points that I agree with.  Shortly after reading that article, I heard a discussion on NPR analyzing the DNC event in Denver.  The panelists also made some interesting points, and the combination of the two got me thinking…

The Democrats are acting like a startup with a big idea.

You ask them “what’s it about?” and you get a hundred answers.  The economy, the war in Iraq, healthcare, education, welfare reform, George Bush, foreign policy… The list goes on.  When they remember they say “we’re new, this could be huge, it’s all about change.”  They know there’s a big opportunity and they’re chasing it hard.

But the Democrats are so sold on how they’re new, exciting and different that they are completely unable to deliver a compelling and simple value-proposition.

I swear it gives me flashbacks to my days of pitching disruptorMonkey and a number of the startups I’ve consulted with.

Back to the NPR show.  One of the panelists was talking about Obama’s tax policy versus McCain’s and pointing out that Obama’s was fairly similar to what Bill Clinton did when he was in office while McCain’s was largely a continuation of Bush’s program.  Okay, so what?  The guy went on to say that under Clinton ~22M new jobs were created.  Under Bush, it was ~5M (one of the lowest rates of job growth under any President).

Ay caramba!  Now that’s a value proposition.

Obama:  “My plan is a lot like Bill Clinton’s.  His plan generated 22M new jobs over 8 years.  The Bush plan you’ve had for the past 8 years generated 75% fewer jobs.  Under McCain, you’ll get more of the same. If you want 15M fewer new jobs in 8 years, vote for McCain.”

Yes, there are many more features and benefits that they can talk about, but like any good startup, they need to get focused and deliver a value prop that’s compelling for the vast majority of their audience.

I think that one is a good one — it would work on me.  Maybe there are others.  But they sure need a mentor who can get them to that point of clarity. And like a startup, they need to do it before time runs out.

Categories: Random Rants
No Comments »

Marketing is the voice for your products.  It’s the tool for creating conversation with everyone you need to talk to, from prospective customers to existing customers, partners, investors and everyone else.

Just like any conversation, there are things you should and shouldn’t do.  When talking to someone, you wouldn’t normally poke them in the eye, act like a crazy person or insult their intelligence. And generally it’s not wise to do that with your marketing either.

But as someone way smarter than me once pointed out, no matter where you are of what kind of conversation you are having, there are three frequently overlooked components.

1.    What you mean
2.    What you say
3.    What people actually hear

You’d be shocked at how utterly disconnected #3 can be from where you started.

For example (all inspired by personal experience)…

1.    You mean:  “Everyone needs to pull together and get this done”
2.    You say:  “The project’s behind.  We need to get back on track”
3.    They hear: “You’re not pulling your weight – I’m doing everything and YOU are slacking off”.

1.    You mean: “The product will ship sometime between May and June 2009”
2.    You say:  “The product will ship in Q2, 2009”
3.    They hear: “The product will ship in April, 2009”

1.    You mean: “This product will make your life way easier and do all kinds of things to simplify your life”
2.    You say: “Our extensive suite of Business Intelligence tools will provide insight into your KPIs (key performance indicators) and improve operational efficiency within your organization”
3.    They hear: “This tool is expensive and may or may not help your business”

What you mean to say is seemingly the easiest – you know you, right?  So when you start to craft a marketing message, think about what you are really trying to say and write it all down. For example:

We really believe this product is great for you and we want you to buy it.  It has a ton of features that will really make your life simpler and easier.

What you say is much trickier because at that point you are no longer talking to yourself.  When you’re talking to any kind of customer, they will have their own view of the world and a matching vocabulary.

For example, one of my clients makes a tool related to expense tracking.  In their messaging they talked about simplifying expense reports.  Seems obvious and intuitive, right?  However, their typical customer is the owner of a very small business.  That’s not someone who thinks about expense reports – for them it’s simply book-keeping.  Expense reports are really the domain of bigger companies.  The net result was that the typical customer read the messaging and heard “our tool is for bigger companies and you can’t afford it”.

Now the difference between “expense tracking” and “expense report” is extremely small.  But in the mind of the customer it’s the difference between “sounds good” and “not for me”.

Another company I recently talked to makes a financial modeling tool.  It’s pretty simple and of great value to their customers.  It quickly and easily shows strengths and weaknesses of the business while allowing for some simple “What if?” scenarios e.g. what if I hire one more admin, or one more partner.

The tool is promoted as a financial modeling tool for small medical practices.  Sounds good, except that most small medical practices probably don’t think they need financial modeling.  However, they’d probably get a much better response if they promoted it as a simple tool that provides feedback on employee and partner performance while making it easy to explore the cost and rewards of adding extra staff or partners.

So the next time you’re talking to a customer, partner or investor, take a moment to explore what you mean, what you say and what you think they’ll hear.  And it’s always good to ask them what they heard so you can check that you hit the mark…

Categories: Thoughts 'n Ideas
No Comments »