I just tried to change my plan back from 500 txt messages/month to 250, like I had before. When I upgraded, because I was going over, I was specifically told I could go back to the 250/month (and this wasn’t very long ago). Now I’m told I can’t.

I’m extremely frustrated with Verizon’s policy of raising prices and giving new customers better deals and incentives than us long-time loyal customers. Everyone knows that technology only gets cheaper, yet Verizon insists on raising its prices, rather than follow that trend. More and more I feel that Verizon’s business model encourages us long time customers (I was with Verizon on my parents plan for years before getting the one I have now) to pack up and go to Sprint or an innovative new option like Republic Wireless, for truly unlimited everything, and prices that don’t keep increasing.

If it were just me who felt this way, or even a handful of customers, it wouldn’t be a big deal to Verizon, but as was recently shown when you tried to start charging us for paying our bill online, there’s a huge portion of your customer base that cares. On top of it Seth Godin, recognized as perhaps the world’s foremost expert in marketing has specifically used Verizon as a bad example the very issues I’m talking about. You can see his articles here: How You Should Treat Your Best Customers and here: Learning From Frustration

Unhappy customers does not lead to increased profits. Please reconsider and start taking care of us long-time customers. Oh, and please top putting garbage apps on all your Android phones!

Then I sent this message to Republic Wireless, who’s innovative approach is finally encouraging the well-known technology trend of “always smaller and cheaper” that somehow doesn’t seem to apply to Verizon and AT&T:

I assume you’ve already thought of this, but just wanted to send a message, in case you hadn’t, or wondered if there were people out there who would love this option:

If you could create a Republic Wireless app that could be installed on any rooted Android device to provide the hybrid calling, then we could bring any Sprint-compatible device to Republic. I don’t know if this is possible from a technical standpoint. But I would assume that with root access, it should be possible. If I could buy a Galaxy Nexus (even for $600 or whatever they cost) and switch to Republic, then only need to root the phone (very easy with that particular one) and install your app, but still be able to get updates directly from Google, etc, I’d do it in a heartbeat. In fact, I’d start saving money right now to come up with $1200 to get one for my wife and one for myself and we’d switch immediately. Now maybe 4G throws a wrench in things, or maybe what I suggest isn’t that easy, but if you can do it, I’d highly recommend it. There’s a lot of people like myself who have WiFi access most of the time, and HATE the ever increasing costs (what ever happened to technology always getting smaller and cheaper?) of regular mobile service. We appreciate what you’re doing, but aren’t quite ready to flock to you because of the limited phone offerings. But open that up, and flock we will!

Sometimes you just have to voice your opinion to make your self feel better. But if lots of others do the same, Verizon will start listening, in the same way the US Congress listened regarding SOPA & PIPA, BofA & Wells Fargo heard us regarding debit card fees, Netflix didn’t split their DVD & streaming options into separate services because the cries were so loud, and even Verizon dug the wax out of their ears for a moment when we told them how upset we were about their new fees to pay online. If that happens, then it won’t be just to make yourself feel better.

UPDATE: a few days later a Verizon guy called and basically just went through the list of issues I mentioned in my message above. But instead of trying to really understand my concerns, he just spouted out “the company line” and then moved to the next item. I didn’t want to waste time with somebody who obviously didn’t want to really understand to pass on my concerns, so I didn’t push back or argue, I just let it go to get the call over with, politely.

He made several completely false statements such as “we have not increased our prices on anything.” Perhaps the per-text price hasn’t changed. But If I used to pay $5 for the less-than 250 texts that I use, and I now pay $10 for those same texts, that’s an increase! Also, data plans: for any customers who are grandfathered, they get “UNLIMITED” data for $30/month. Any new customers only get 2GB of data for the same $30/month. That’s a price increase no matter how you look at it. Here’s hoping Republic Wireless or somebody comes out with a real game-changer that starts up some real competition and humbles the big carriers and forces them to start truly competing (same with handset manufacturers).

All you do is put in the email address and click the “Verify” button. If the email address exists, you’ll get “Result: OK.” If it doesn’t, you’ll get “Result: Bad.”

Another Method

If you think you know the email address, try Googling it. I found the address I was looking for, right next to the person’s name, in a PDF that was the top result on Google for that email address. That makes things much easier and more sure that its going to the correct person.

Thankfully, 2 of my proposals were accepted and I’ll be presenting. I don’t have all the details as far as scheduling, etc. yet, but you can find me on the “Schedule” of the official RootsTech website. Here’s the info on my presentations as it appears there:

Awesome Family Websites: Record Your Living Family History
Connect with living family while sharing memories of those who have passed on. This presentation will briefly cover how to build or buy your own, easy-to-use, private family website. Then it will explore the experiences of several extended families to show just how effective these websites can be in connecting your family. Throughout, you’ll be shown how to effectively use and manage a powerful family website, as well as how to use it to privately share family history stories, data, and more.

The Powers of Evernote: photos, URL’s, censuses, geo-location, and stories
Evernote is an excellent central location for all genealogy research. Store photos of gravestones, record a page with a picture, save web content with a click, record audio, outline blog posts, and geo-tag locations. We’ll cover the basics of using Evernote Desktop, Android/iOS mobile apps, Web, and Web Clipper.

If you register through the end of Nov. you get discounted pricing. So head over to RootsTech.org and sign up now!

Also you can check out more info on the family websites I provide to people on my company’s website. Or by watching this video:

I also wanted one other thing that made the final difference: separation between personal and business. Email takes up way to much of my day and is often a distraction. But unfortunately, I can’t just close my email for most of the day like many experts such as Tim Ferriss recommend, because too much of my work is done inside my inbox or pulling information from client emails to put on their website, into designs, etc. So what I needed was a separate Gmail account for business. Getting personal and business email in the same inbox was very ineffective and distracting.

So here’s how to do it:

The trick is a little program called Gmail Backup. It’s fairly easy to use: you just go to your Gmail settings and turn on IMAP under “Forwarding and POP/IMAP.” Then install this little program and run it. Input your Gmail login info, followed by selecting the folder where you’d like all your email saved. Then select dates (I looked up the oldest email in my account and put that as the “Since date”). Finally, click “Backup.” It may take several hours (mine did) to download all the emails, attachments, etc. from your account, but once it does, you just repeat the process: enable IMAP, input login credentials, etc, but this time for your new Google Apps account. And click the “Restore” button at the end instead. Now all that data you downloaded, will be backed-up to your new Google Apps account.

On the Gmail Backup site, it says that there is an issue and that it will not retrieve nested or sub-labels from Gmail properly. I didn’t find this to be an issue. I think that upgrades to Gmail on Google’s end have eliminated this issue because sub labels are treated with a “-” instead of a “/” nowadays. So the label “business” with a sub-label (or nested label) of “invoices” used to look like “business/invoices”, but now is “business-invoices.” Thus eliminating Gmail Backup’s issue.

Here’s the tricky part: eliminating biz email from your personal Gmail, and personal email from your business Google Apps email. I had been having all email that came to my business email, labeled under a “business” label using a filter in Gmail. So in my personal, it was fairly easy: just select the label, and click “Delete.” Another route is to run a filter based on the business email. I used that tactic in the biz account: filtering all email sent or received by my personal email address(es). I quickly ran though some of that to ensure nothing I wanted in my biz account would be deleted, then gave it all a label like “delete.” Then I simply checked the checkbox button to select everything in that label, followed by clicking the link that said something like “Select all 3,356 conversations in ‘Delete’” and clicked the Delete button.

That was it: no business in my personal, and no personal in my business. In the intervening weeks I can say it’s been far more effective and many times less distracting. Plus with Google’s easy “account switching” feature I can still switch easily enough if needed, I’m just not distracted by personal emails all day when I’m trying to work.

Now I’m not always pleased with Verizon Wireless, and they really need realize that a data plan is a data plan. If someone pays $30/month for 2GB of data, they shouldn’t have to pay another $20/month to get tethering & another 2GB. 2GB is 2GB, you should be able to use it however you wish! However, in this case Netflix should take a page from Verizon’s book. When Verizon switched to these new limited data plans, they let all those of us who had unlimited data for $30/month, keep our unlimited at the same price. And we can continue to keep it, for the forseable future, in spite of upgrades, etc.

That’s what Netflix should have done: “going forward any new clients will need to choose from these new plans, but all you faithful customers who’ve made Netflix one of the great consumer media providers and a hugely successful company, you can just keep the great prices we’ve been giving you.”

The lesson: as Seth Godin pointed, out show your best customers you appreciate them. They’re 1) much cheaper to keep as customers by doing something like this, than spending tons of marketing dollars to get new customers, and 2) do a lot of marketing for you by telling everyone how much they love you, if you treat them right.

So I gotta say, I love Google+ (aka Google Plus)! It’s got a clean, simple interface, with several “modules” or modes you can go into. Between these you have essentially all the features of Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, & Skype. It’s easy to use, is similar enough to Facebook and others that anyone can start using it quickly, and it doesn’t have all the stupid games, apps, etc. that plague Facebook. Plus, the Android App is awesome, and backs up my photos and videos to the cloud, for FREE, permanently, and automatically. Apple’s new iCloud (or MobleMe 2.0) service doesn’t do that. It will back stuff up to the cloud, but only temporarily, etc. Google has essentially made photo and video backup to the cloud, FREE and automatic.

Another great feature is “circles” which allows you to select which “circles” your friends, co-workers, family, acquaintances, etc. fall into. Then when you share status updates, links, and even photos or photo albums, it’s easy to share with only the circles you want to be able to see that info. It’s much easier, and more safe than Facebook. Plus there’s a “following” circle where you can follow famous people and such that you don’t know (and are unlikely to “Friend” you on Facebook), just like on Twitter.

The “hangout” feature allows you to chat, audio call, video conference, and watch YouTube videos together in a dedicated space. It’s great for remotely talking to friends, business meetings and more.

If you’re not on Google+, you need to try it out, and follow/friend me!

The only problem was the stock stereo in our 2000 Camry doesn’t have and auxiliary input, nor does the tape player work correctly for using a tape adapter. Since it was just going to be me and the boy the whole trip, I decided I had to have a stereo with aux-in. Here’s how I did it for less than $45:

1. Find someone selling a stereo like this deal I found on KSL, on a site like craigslist.org or KSL classifieds. Make sure to use the search options to find an older listing that’s been on there a while. This gives you more bargaining power.
2. Make an offer, or ask what they’ll take. In this case just asked if he’d sell just the stereo (because I didn’t need new speakers), and if so, how much? He responded $20. Done!
3. Meet, get the new stereo and see what comes with it. Hopefully it includes some kind of adapter for the wiring, with a bunch of loose ends. This seller ended up throwing in the speakers too, since he didn’t want them (now I’ve got to get rid of some brand-new speakers, let me know if you’re interested).
4. Go to Target, and buy an install kit for your vehicle ($19-pre tax). Yes! I said Target, not Best Buy. I bought one at best buy first and it a) did not have wiring adapters, etc, b) cost more. I returned it when I found the awesome one at Target. It included install parts and wiring for many foreign-made cars of the years surrounding our vehicle. They had the same kits for US-made vehicles, too.
5. Install the stereo. You can find instructions online of how to take out existing stereos. Then from there you’ll just want to take the 2 sets of wire adapters (one that connects to the back of the stereo, and one that connects to the vehicle’s wiring) and join all the wires, which are color coded. Finally, follow the instructions included in the install kit for how to mount the new stereo (with probably a little pocket beneath it to fill the extra space) into your vehicle, plugging the now, joined wire adapters into the back of the new stereo and the vehicle.

It took me about 2 hours to install, but that’s because about half the time my 15-month-old boy was in the backseat crawling around, grabbing parts and tools from me, and trying to climb over the console into the front seat to “help.” I’ve already spent over 12 hours driving in the past week, and the new setup hooked up to my Droid X Android phone just great. I’ve listened to a couple audiobooks: Outliers by Malcom Gladwell (excellent) and Tree of Sacrament by Nick Galieti (also excellent) as well as a lot of music via Google Music Beta.

NOTE: If you get static in the audio when the device is connected to the aux-in and charging via the cigarette lighter plug, it’s called a “looping ground” issue. I have yet to fix this on mine, but will post an update when I do. I’m fairly certain from my research that merely connecting the ground (usually the black wire) from the stereo to the ground on the cigarette lighter, will fix it.