Advice from Life

Wordpress Test

2008-01-01T05:55:00.000-08:00

As of right now, the "Advice from Life"/writtenlife blog is on the Blogger servers. But, we'll have a duplicate (sort of) on the Wordpress servers. I want to try out their blogging service, so possibly in the near future, this blog will be switched over to Wordpress. This also goes for the Funknowledge Blog, but there is nothing yet of that on Wordpress. Check it out at http://writtenlife.wordpress.com/. Please leave some comments, suggestions, or questions so we can improve! Thanks!

Happy New Year!

2007-12-31T18:03:00.000-08:00

Hello Readers! Welcome (almost) to 2008! As we approach the new year everyone should take time to reflect over his/her achievements in 2007. Here I will explain what the Funknowledge Network has accomplished.

First I must say that we have expanded (and "pruned") our network quite a bit. First there is the new "Advice from Life" blog. Even though I have only recently started this blog, I think it will come out to be very successful like the Funknowledge Blog. Any comments or suggestions are welcome about this new blog!

Next, the Funknowledge Blog has 50 (including this one) posts over 2007! Now we have a total of 64 posts! We have discussed about many topics including the iPhone, Windows Vista, Zelda and Linux.

Other additions: the new and improved Funknowledge Website, hosted by Weebly. Here, if you don't know already, is a database (although I need to update it) of various topics from the Funknowledge Blog, and eventually, the "Advice from Life" blog.

Recently, the Funknowledge Network has switched over to FeedBurner for all feed-related things. I really like it so far and it has been of great help in increasing publicity and ease of feed use. Also, we added many features like the "Readers Online" counter, a search engine, a flash based reader map, and polls to the Funknowledge blog (and the "Advice from Life" blog).

Some removals have been the unsuccessful Funknowledge Wiki and other various website tests (Googlepage site and the Awardspace site). One quick note: all of these exist but updates have been discontinued (that is why they are hyperlinked on this post).

So, CES is coming up very soon. I'll be getting updates from Cnet.com. I really look forward to what is going to be showcased in Las Vegas. Check the Funknowledge Blog often (or subscribe to our feed/mailing list) to read about it!

I hope you all had a great year in 2007, and I'll see (type to you) next year! Enjoy 2008!

NOTE: This post is also over on the Funknowledge blog and on the Funknowledge Website.

Customer Service: Returns

2007-12-28T12:12:00.001-08:00

This event which occurred yesterday was where this whole new blog idea came from. I wanted others to realize what daily difficulties can cause and ways to help or learn from it.

Yesterday, I was at the mall returning a product which after normal use and such, did not work/act as I expected. I won't mention exact details, as that is not the point of this blog, but to explain about the essence of the experience. This part of the product broke off even though I had not treated it poorly. This product has very poor quality, I thought, but I got this from a relatively good store with great products. I recently had also purchased another item from this store and parts of it didn't stay on. I became frustrated and brought these to the store and wanted to return these or at least get a replacement. In most stores this is a very simple process even without a receipt or proof of purchase. But at this store it was a totally different story. Another guy in front of me has a different product to return, but had the same experience. Neither of us were able to return because we couldn't prove we had actually purchased them. I asked for a replacement so I could continue using it but they explained that it was "policy" that they couldn't do anything without proof that we bought it. Now this is reasonable, but most stores don't have this policy making returns simple. I think that they want to make it as hard as possible so they can keep the money. Not only did this make me annoyed but made me not want to buy from that store again. When a store has good service whether it is helping you find the right product to being able to easily return products, it makes the customer want to return to the store for future purposes.

Another thing that bothered me was that the store's more expensive products seemed to be of better quality than their more inexpensive products. This also is unfair. A store should give as much quality attention to a cheaper product as to a more pricey product. It is all about customer satisfaction. If customers have a bad experience with their products no matter how much it cost, they will be unhappy about it. Many stores lose customers this way. Companies like Dell, I think are relatively good at the whole "customer satisfaction" thing. That is one of the reasons, I buy computers from them. If there is something wrong, I bring up a chat with them, and most of the time in a few minutes they are asking me for an address to send replacement parts or a shipment box or they are able to fix it.

I hope this first post will help you understand the importance of "customer satisfaction". Just for reference this is a post under the "business" category. Anything under this category will help you if your future goal is to be an entrepreneur. Good Luck!

Welcome to the Advice from Life Blog!

2007-12-28T09:32:00.001-08:00

This is a new blog from the Funknowledge Network! Here I, Kevin Johnson, will post tips and events that I believe will help the readers of this blog to make their life better. These may be from what I read, see, experience or anything else I come up with. All posts will be categorized. These may be things like Business, General, Education, and Tech. I also encourage you to read our other blog: The Funknowledge Blog. This is a blog about random technology topics. I hope what I post here will help you journey through life. Anyone who wants to may sign up for our mailing list to the right or subscribe to our feed with FeedBurner. Also note that as this blog just started, that I may change things quickly around. Enjoy!