My Twitter Blog

What the Fog?

2009-11-12T06:15:00.000-06:00

Just woke up to see some major fog outside. Can't even see across the street!

Mom

2009-11-07T06:04:00.000-06:00

My mom has been down visiting with us for the last week or so. She is greatly enjoying the weather here in North Texas. Her and Jane went shopping yesterday and my mom purchased a new shirt. She wanted me to take her picture in her new shirt.

Mr. Felda

2009-11-04T07:57:00.000-06:00

Cutie-pa-tootie

2009-11-04T07:52:00.000-06:00

Icky

2009-11-04T07:48:00.000-06:00

Andy isn't sure if he likes putting his arm around his sister!!

New Dress

2009-11-03T07:45:00.000-06:00

Lindsey is showing off her new dress. She is wearing it to school today. She loves her new dress!

Texas Longhorns

2009-11-01T20:28:00.001-06:00

Trick or Treat?

2009-10-31T18:38:00.000-05:00

Ready to roll for a fun night of trick or treating! Lindsey on the left, Andy in the middle, and their friend, Emma on the right.

Fired!

2009-10-31T08:12:00.000-05:00

My mom is down to visit with us from Canada. Last night we decided to have a campfire in the back yard and roast some marshmellows. The kids (and mom!) had fun.

We also invited some friends to join us. Good times for all!

Misha

2009-10-25T09:14:00.001-05:00

Misha was watching me work from the top of a new piece of furniture I brought from Michigan. She likes being on the high ground.

Michigan to Texas, Again!

2009-10-23T07:50:00.000-05:00

After I finished up in Chicago I picked up a Penske truck and drove from Chicago to Kalamazoo, MI. The goal was to pick up a load of furniture from a storage unit and drive it back to Texas. I hired Two Men And A Truck to help me load. They were awesome. I've used them in the past for other jobs and I am always impressed by the quality of their work.

After we finished loading the truck I hit the road. The total trip was about 1000 miles, so my goal was to drive 500 that day and the balance the next day. This is the fourth time I have done this run and I remember each time how boring i55 south is. Miles of nothing.

I am always excited to see the arches in St. Louis. It means the end of i55 and the start of my westward trip to Oklahoma.

I arrived at my 500 mile mark and looked for the first hotel. Checked into a Red Roof Inn and then walked to a local resturant. Selected Aussie Jack's. The food was average at best, but the beer was good!

Arrived home the next day around 5 pm to a very excited family. Was able to get a good nights sleep. Today we unload the truck.

Chicago NDC Acceptance Testing

2009-10-20T19:25:00.000-05:00

On my way to Chicago to perform acceptance testing at one of our sites.

Arrived at the Merchandise Mart around 1:30 pm. Will jump right into the testing.

First test was a video conferencing session with a group back in Michigan. Testing went very well. System is functioning as expected.

Checked out the other technology in the space. All systems meet the acceptance criteria. Time to hit the road again!

Handy

2009-10-19T17:33:00.001-05:00

Andy is checking out some decorations on a local pizza shop window!

Self Conscious

2009-10-19T14:47:00.001-05:00

Does this curtain make me look fat?

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First Fish

2009-10-17T17:03:00.000-05:00

I took Andy and Lindsey fishing today with my neighbor and his grandson. The caught a BUNCH of small bluegill fish. The pics are of the first fish Andy and Lindsey have ever caught! They ended up catching over 20 fish collectively over about a 2 hours timeframe. Great spot for a little fishing fun!

The Supervisor

2009-10-17T09:19:00.000-05:00

We are in the process of renovating our living room. We appear to have a new supervisor to watch over us from the top of an 8' ladder. So far she has been fairly quiet and just let us do our work in peace. Not sure how she will react if we start to fall behind schedule or go over budget.

Reading

2009-10-14T14:57:00.000-05:00

Andy is starting to enjoy reading. We no longer have to fight when it is reading time. The challenge now is finding books he hasn't read yet! A good problem to have.

Ruff Life

2009-10-08T17:25:00.001-05:00

Yea, sign me up for some napping action.

Effect of Biases on Project Selection

2009-10-06T06:33:00.003-05:00

By Thomas Kennedy, PMP

Organizations execute corporate strategies through projects. All have a limited amount of funding available and must choose the projects that best meet their objectives. Organizations use project selection processes to compare projects. The intent is to select the projects that provide the best value, as measured through the selection criteria. If project selection teams are able to evaluate objectively potential projects, the organization will be able to select the projects that best meet the selection criteria. However, Lefley (2006) believes that biases of selection team members may influence project selection.

Lefley set out to evaluate the selection of an information technology project for the UK-based Association of International Accountants (AIA). His intent was to investigate empirically whether the bias of the project champion influenced project selection. The project champion in this case was the person who proposed the project and his department would have benefited directly from a successful implementation.

The AIA uses a three-component model to attempt to convert opinions and views into actual judgmental values or numbers: financial, risk and strategic fit. The project champion along provides the financial data. However, all members of the project selection team provide input into the risk and strategic fit components. Therefore, Lefley decided to compare the results in these two areas to see if he could identify any biases.

In the risk area, each team must determine a score for risk probability and risk impact. The team develops a collective group of risks and then individually scores each risk. Lefley then calculated the mean probability score for the project champion, the highest team member and the mean value for the remaining team members. In all mean risk measurements, the project champion had the lowest mean.

In the strategic fit area, each team member must evaluate the project against a list of weighted strategic benefits provided by the organization's management team. The evaluation creates a strategic fit index for each team member. The team provides its judgmental values after each round of three discussions. Lefley calculated the mean index score for the project champion, the lowest team member and the mean value for the remaining team members. In all mean strategic fit index measurements, the project champion had the highest mean.

The results showed that the project champion felt the risks for this project were lower than the rest of the members of the selection team. In addition, the project champion felt that the strategic fit was higher than the rest of the members of the selection team. Lower risk and higher strategic fit will make the project appear more attractive than other projects. If the project champion scores were influenced by his biases toward the project, selection of this project might not be in the best interest of the organization.

Lefley realizes that further study must occur to understand fully the relationship between project champion biases and project selection. However, he believes that the biases of selection team members may influence project selection. In addition, through the development of an evaluation model like defined in this study, organizations can identify the biases early in the process and improve its project selection process.

References

Lefley, F. (2006). Can a Project Champion Bias Project Selection? Management Research News , 29 (4), 10.

Too Wet

2009-10-05T10:27:00.000-05:00

I am out trail riding this morning. The trails are too wet for the bike, so I have dropped off the trail and am now riding some of the dirt roads near the trail.

The pic is of Lake Grapevine along one of the dirt roads.

Lindsey Lost a Tooth!

2009-10-04T19:45:00.000-05:00

Lindsey is pretty excited. She lost another tooth. This one she worked at and worked at until the tooth finally came out. She is very excited that the tooth fairy will come tonight. She said she hopes the tooth fairy brings her 100 bucks. Yea, that's not gonna happen!

The Video Professor FINALLY Refunded My Money!

2009-10-04T10:03:00.001-05:00

Well, it has been a long road attempting to get my money back from the Video Professor. For a history, see my previous posts. I ended up sending an email to ceo@videoprofessor.com and calling their main office number and leaving a message for John W. Scherer, the CEO of Video Professor. I received an email response (not sure if it was really from John) and a phone call from the head of their public relations department, Brian. Once again, they were very professional and pleasant to work with. Brian apologized for the problems I had encountered and told me that he would make sure I received my refund within the next few days.

I checked my bank account yesterday and sure enough, there was a credit from Video Professor for the full amount that they charged me... $189.95. Brian also said that he would refund the shipping charges, but I haven't seen that yet. But I am not worried about the shipping charges. I had expected to pay the charges and I am OK with paying them.

So now I have finally received my refund from the Video Professor. Yes, I am happy about that. HOWEVER, the situation begs to answer one question. If Brian was able to get the money back in my account in 3 days, why does it take 20-30 business days for the customer service reps to do it? Yes, I understand that Brian has more power and authority than the front line customer service reps. But the fact that he can technically do it means that they can technically do it also, which means that the Video Professor is making a conscious business decision to withhold your money for a month or more longer than is necessary. I think this sucks. I still think the promotional methods of the Video Professor are deceptive (I no longer think the Video Professor is a scam). I think they hide behind the Better Business Bureau with their fine print. I think they could be more honest on the front end instead of tricking you into getting something you didn't ask for or want (a 10-day trial of one of the lessons). There is nothing illegal about what they are doing, but again I do believe their approach is very deceptive.

So what's left? Well, I received my refund. However, as I mentioned a few posts back, I would like an apology from John W. Scherer. I haven't received my apology from John yet. Yes, Brian (the PR guy) apologized. But he is paid to apologize for stuff like this. I want an apology from the guy that said he would send me the lessons for free--John W. Scherer. In his email to me he said he was traveling extensively for the next 10 days. However, Brian said he was in the conference room next to his office. So I still think the there are some integrity problem with John W. Scherer.

Video Professor Refund Is Coming???

2009-10-01T12:24:00.001-05:00

Well, I am very quickly changing my view of the Video Professor (although at this point they still have not refunded my money). As I have explained previously, I had a very bad experience with an online order from the Video Professor. As I dug into it further I found hundreds of posts on the internet from people that have experienced the same thing. However, the more I speak with people at the Video Professor, the more I am convinced that it is not their intention to scam people. But I still feel they are using deceptive marketing techniques to sucker people into signing up for something that is different than what they expect.

Again, as I mentioned previously, I realize now that I did not take the time to read the fine print on the Video Professor website. If I had read it I would have understood that they send you three lessons and that only two of them are free. If you keep the third lesson they bill you the full cost of $189.95. That is what happened to me. I didn't ask them to send me a lesson to evaluate. I asked them to send me the free lesson that John promotes on his television commercials. Again, this is deceptive marketing. Yes, they will quickly point out the find print on their website that explains how it works. But that isn't good enough. They have clearly decided to promote free products without clearly communicating the catch. That is smart marketing tactics or deceptive marketing tactics, depending on which side of the fence you are on.

Here's the fine print from their website...

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: ANY TWO of the three computer tutorial CD-ROMs are yours free without further obligation, PERIOD. Take 10 days to decide if you want to keep the complete set of CDs. After your 10-day free trial, if you decide to keep the complete set, we'll conveniently bill your credit card just $189.95. Or simply call our customer care number at 1-800-519-4110 if you decide to return any one of the lessons. You will be charged nothing more and get to keep two computer learning CD-ROMS! You can also return everything within 10 days and receive a full Shipping and Processing refund upon your request. Click here to learn more about this offer.

I think it is pretty darn clear. Problem is, people don't read the fine print. They choose to use fine print to communicate the message instead of just simply telling you up front. John should simply say what it is. The problem with that is that if he explains clearly how it works, fewer people will order. That will cost him money. That is a business decision.

I received a call today from Brian in the Public Relations department. Brian was very nice. He had a copy of the email that I had sent to John. I am still not clear if John actually reads the emails or if he has someone do that for him. Regardless, Brian called me directly to talk through the problem. He assured me that he would take care of the problem and that I would see a refund within a few days. He is also going to refund the shipping charges that I originally paid. It is a shame that I had to go through all of this. I am sure Brian and others at the Video Professor have better things to do than to talk with people like me who don't read the fine print. But I appreciate that they took the time to call me and to talk through it. I will appreciate it even more when they actually refund my money!!!

Discussions with John W. Scherer (Video Professor)

2009-09-30T10:39:00.001-05:00

As I have written previously, I had a very negative experience with Video Professor. I decided to write a letter to John W. Scherer, CEO of the Video Professor, in the hopes that he would listen to the problems I had and do something about it. I was surprised to actually get a response. I can not say for sure that it was actually Mr. Scherer that responded, but I did get a response. See the discussions below...

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Thomas Kennedy, PMP <thomaskennedypmp@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 7:12 PM
Subject: Help for Video Professor
To: ceo@videoprofessor.com

Hi John,

I would like to speak with you about a negative experience I had with the Video Professor. However, you appear to have an army of people around you keeping you from hearing the truth. If you would like to improve your customer experience, please contact me for a quick 5 minute chat. Thank you.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ceo <ceo@videoprofessor.com>
Date: Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 8:51 AM
Subject: Re: Help for Video Professor
To: ThomasKennedyPMP@gmail.com

I'm traveling on business quite extensively the next 10 days but if you'd care to share details via e-mail about your experience, be assured it will be read and addressed as needed.

Should the "army" have somehow made any errors in dealing with you as a customer, I will find out about it.

Thanks for getting a hold of me.

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Thomas Kennedy, PMP <thomaskennedypmp@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 10:23 AM
Subject: Re: Help for Video Professor
To: ceo <ceo@videoprofessor.com>

Hi John,

Thank you for the response. I hope you will understand if I don't hold much faith that this is actually you responding or that this will do any good. But I will respond with the details and hope and pray that the small investment in time will have a positive impact.

First, my story.

My wife has been disabled due to an accident. She wanted to find a home based business to try to keep her busy and maybe make a little extra money. We have seen your commercials on TV for some time now. We thought the eBay idea was a potential opportunity. So we went online and purchased your "free" eBay lesson.

We were shocked to be billed $189.95 a few days after we received the CD.I immediately called Video Professor and asked why we were billed. They explained that the CD was a 10 day trial and that unless we called or returned the CD's within the 10 days they would bill us the full purchase price. I explained that I did not realize that and asked how I could return the CD's for a refund. The customer service rep gave me an RA# and told me that I would receive a refund with 20-30 business days from when they received the product back. I felt better. Obviously I had misunderstood the offer but I was relieved that I would receive a refund. By the way, the customer service rep was very nice and very professional. I shipped the product back to Video Professor that same day via 2-day Fedex.

Next I went back to your website to try to understand how I misunderstood the terms. I found the link that explains how it works. It is very clear in the fine print that I would need to purchase the software if not returned within 10 days. However, for whatever reason, I never read the fine print when I was ordering. Nothing in the ordering process drew my attention to the trial nature of the offer other than the normal stuff that everyone includes on their websites and nobody (except for lawyers and those that have been screwed in the past) actually read. Back to this issue later.

I called about three weeks later to find out a status on my refund. The customer service person (who again was very nice and professional) told me that I was only 10 days into the wait time and that I had to wait 20-30 days to get my money back. So again I waited.

I called again yesterday. Once again the customer service rep was very nice. However, this time he told me that something had gone wrong with my return and that I should have received it by now. He said the only thing he could do is to enter another request and that I should receive my money in another 10-15 business days. Well, I lost it. I got really upset and started yelling at him. I am totally embarrassed as to how I treated him on the phone. My response was totally unprofessional and unacceptable If you are able to find out who it was that I spoke with, please apologize for me. He is just doing his job. It isn't his fault that I am having this negative experience with Video Professor.

Anyway, I asked to speak with his boss and he put a lady on the phone. She was also very nice and professional (do you see a trend here?!!!). However, she is part of the "army" I referred to that is well trained to keep customers away from people who can solve problems. I asked her to put someone on the phone that could help me. She said there wasn't anyone that could help, that the only thing she could do is to approve the escalated request. I asked to speak with her manager and she said that her manager did not speak with customers over the phone. I asked for the address of her managers location so I could meet with him/her in person but she would not tell me where I could meet with him. She advised that I contact the Corporate office. I said OK and asked for the phone number but she would not give it to me. Basically she was a waste of my time and she was unable to do anything to solve my problem.

So I hung up with her and started to do some research. I was blown away to find hundreds of posts on the internet about people experiencing the exact same thing as I was going through. I went from thinking that this was something that I had messed up by not reading the fine print to thinking that this is a very well thought out business model intended to deceive people and to make it so difficult to get your money back that you just give up.

Still pissed off and unbelievably frustrated, I ended up having to call the Fraud Protection line at Chase Bank. As soon as I mentioned Video Professor they immediately refunded my money in full including the interest that I would have earned. They knew exactly who the Video Professor was. How sad is that? Just by mentioning the Video Professor to a Fraud Protection line they refund your money. If I were you, that would crush me.

As far as my money is concerned, the problem has now been solved. However, I feel like I was deceived by the Video Professor and I feel like I was lied to about the refund process. Based on the posts that I have read on the internet, I am not along. Hundreds (if not thousands) of people have experienced the same thing. As I mentioned earlier, this would lead people to believe that this is a business strategy as opposed to a mistake made in my situation. Everywhere I look now I see you spoken of negatively. Your reputation is not that of someone who provides world class training but instead that of a scam artist. Your integrity is questioned and your company is tarnished. I do not know how you feel about that, but if the Video Professor were my company, I would be FURIOUS.

Now, what you might think is that you have clearly outlined your policies and that your company is following defined procedures and that you are not breaking any laws. That might be so. Good for you! But that isn't the view from the street (as described above). When I originally wrote to you I said I had some suggestions for improving the customer experience. Here they are.

My Recommendations

Make The 10-day Trial Clear. By reading the complaints about the Video Professor it is clear that many people are not taking the time to read your fine print. As a business owner you might think you have done your part by providing the fine print and that it is the customer's fault if they don't take the time to read it.WRONG. If there is a problem with communication between you and the customer, it is ALWAYS your fault. The person who is sending the communication (you) is responsible for making sure that the person receiving the communication understands it the way that you intended it. Every time that does not happen it is YOUR fault, not the customer's fault. How would I solve this problem? Change all your communication to promote the 10 day trial. Right now your marketing techniques get people to sign up because of the promise of something free. That is deceptive marketing. You are failing as a communicator. You might be succeeding as a business person by getting people to sign up that might not otherwise call or go online and order your product, but you are achieving your success through deception, not through clearly communicating what you have to offer and allowing people to make an informed decision.

Refund Money Within 3 Days. I was told by your people that it takes 20-30 business days to process the refund. We both know this is bull. This is clearly a business decision that allows you to hold on to people's money and earn interest from them. If you are trying to take the position that it takes that long for your internal staff to do what they need to do to process the return, fire the manager of that area. That is pure incompetence. If you are taking the position that it takes that long for the banks / credit card companies to process the return, that is also false and you know it. This is a conscience decision to keep people's money and drag it out as long as you possibly can so you can make a little interest. Or maybe it is a cash flow problem. Maybe you are running your company off of the money that you are withholding from people and that you can't actually stay afloat if you returned money when people asked for it. Regardless of the reason, you need to fix this. When someone calls and requests a refund, process the request within 3 business days. In most cases the money will show up in the person's account within a week of the request. If that had of been my experience I would have had a totally different perception of the Video Professor. I would have realized that I screwed up by not understanding the terms that the Video Professor was a stand-up company and took care of me as a customer. I might have even returned as a customer and purchased a product.

Apologize. That's right. Admit that you made a mistake and that you are correcting it. Admitting when you did something wrong is one of the most important traits of a leader. Help your customers understand that integrity and trust are important to you as an individual and to your organization, that you aren't about scamming people to get their money, that you are about helping people and developing long-term quality relationships with your customers. Is this a PR problem? NO... you already have the PR problem--you are viewed as a scam artist that uses deceptive marketing techniques to steal people's money. You fix the PR problem by admitting the problem AND fixing it. You have the authority and the ability to make a difference with your organization. Instead of choosing to stay with the current deceptive marketing techniques, choose the high road. Does that mean you won't get as many orders. Probably. But I would select integrity and reputation over the almighty dollar any day, all day, every day. There is no dollar amount that is worth trading for my integrity or reputation.

OK. That is my story and my recommendations. I am expecting you to write this off as just another person who doesn't get it or to have one of your army read this and "take care of it." I am not expecting anything to change. If you did actually read this yourself, I thank you for taking the time. I hope and pray you will take action. You have a great opportunity here to do what is right. It is your choice whether to capture it.

Not Very Efficient

2009-09-29T20:12:00.000-05:00

Came across this in a parking lot in LA. The painter was not very efficient!