I decided to take things into my own hands, as I usually do, and I sent a letter to the manufacturer of the markers. It appears as though they couldn’t care less how badly they smell, as long as they produce “maximum satisfaction” when erasing. Now, I don’t know what sort of person only rates a marker based on its erasability, or what person only asked the focus group to rate its “erasability” and not anything else, but the ENTIRE experience of using the marker should be factored into the “satisfaction”. I’ll tell you this; I will not be investing in Egan if their thought process is so convoluted.

Here is the e-mail chain:

To Egan Visual and Teamboard Inc.
October 10, 2008

To Whom it May Concern:

During our meetings, when your markers are used, it becomes apparent that the markers smell very badly. Can anything be done about this?

To Ed
October 15, 2008

Hi Ed,

Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done about the smell of the markers. Low odor markers will not produce maximum satisfaction with the ability to erase a marker board. The only option to guarantee the boards will clean is to use a high quality solvent based marker such as ours.

I’m sorry I can’t be more help!
Kind regards,
Jodi Blaber
Egan Visual and Teamboard Inc.

To Egan Visual and Teamboard Inc.
October 15, 2008

Jodi,

I understand that the low odor markers may not erase as well as the full odor, but from my experience, the low odor markers (such as Expo’s) ability to erase is perfectly acceptable. Yes, the board must be cleaned with a cleaner every once and a while, but that is also acceptable. The high odor markers may erase better, but the smell is completely unacceptable and intolerable for normal use in low ventilation conference rooms.

In terms of consumption, which is the business that you appear to be in with markers, you would want the user to use the markers as much as passable. If the markers smell badly enough that several people during meetings make comments about the smell of the markers, and the nausea that ensues after their use is so incredibly bad, the amount of use your markers see will be minimal compared to other brands.

So in terms of consumer satisfaction (low odor trumps erase ability) and business model (user consumption) I recommend that your company begin designing and marketing low odor markers. Would you want to participate in meetings where your companies markers are used during the entire meeting?

To Ed
October 16 2008

Hi Ed,

Thank you for your feedback. I am sorry for your experience with the markers. I am unable to comment on the level of ventilation in your board room. I will let you know that we do not typically receive complaints on our markers. I do know that we receive many complaints from customers using low-odor markers as erase ability suffers and frequency of cleaning increases. I am glad you have success using the low-odor markers.

I will pass your comments on to our Marketing department who keeps track of customer input for product design and improvement. We appreciate customer feedback at Egan and take it into great consideration.

Regards,
Jodi Blaber
Egan Visual and Teamboard Inc.

I have been staying at the SpringHill Suites in Norfolk the past few weeks, and I must say, I am impressed.  The first few weeks in Norfolk VA I stayed at the TownePlace Suites, and I was not that happy about the cleanliness and quality of their hotel for the price I was paying.  I have the SAME rate at the SpringHill Suites as I did at the TownePlace Suites.  I tried to negotiate with the owner of the first hotel to get a better rate, but after 3 attempts, they never contacted me back.  So I gave up.  If you are ever in Norfolk VA looking for a hotel, I highly recommend the SpringHill Suites at 6350 Newtown road.

I have a few updates on things that I would like to share…

I am off of the Jacksonville rollout and back in Chicago for good! That makes me happy that I am back in Chicago.

I still do not know where I will be when the project at work ends at the end of the month, but I am working on things. And my managers have assured me that I will have a job and that why will keep me busy with something before I take a final position.

I am looking for a gym now that I am in Chicago. I went gym shopping the other day and had some interesting experiences. The first place I went to (Fitness Formula Clubs), the salesman had his fly unzipped. The second place was just a sales location for a new gym opening up soon (Lakeview Athletic Club) and the sales women did not even acknowledge me for 20 minutes. She was helping other customers, but I would expect her to say “hi, I will be with you as soon as I can” or something like that. The third place (Sweat Shop), was the smallest, and least desirable place, but had the kindest, most professional salesman.

I think I will be signing up for FFC because soon my company will give me a subsidized membership, and its the middle of the prices between the three clubs as it stands; $70 a month. We’ll see how it goes. I hate contracts.

I just got my bike tire fixed. Someone had hit it in the parking garage in my building. The bike originally cost me $65 (was 50% off at Wal-Mart) and the front tire cost $70 to replace! Yikes. Must be a good tire, or a really crappy bike! Or both!

On Sunday I went to the beach with some coworkers and had a lot of fun, got a bit tan, and enjoyed the day off… Until I had to go to work at 6:00PM and stay till 6:00 AM. How fun does that sound?

Sorry about the lack of updates lately, things should pick up once Jacksonville is rolled out, and I am back in Chicago for good!

I just watched the movie Fast Food Nation and am now watching 20/20. During the movie there were two injuries caused by someone turning a machine on somehow while it was being cleaned. 20/20 showed someone else getting hurt while in a machine. Someone bumped the on button while the other was in it. In both of these cases the machine was turned on while someone in it or on it, and it reminded me of the company I work for.

At USG, none of these accidents would have occurred due to our “Lock Out” procedures. If someone is working on a machine they have to put a lock on the power source, a lock which only they have the key for. That way, there is no way for a machine to be turned on without the person working on it engaging the power.

I am proud to work for a company that keeps safety at such high of a priority.

My phone is on a corporate account with the company I work for. I am responsible for paying the bill. The bill is sent to my home address. I changed my billing to be online only, so I don’t have to get the bill at home, and I can print it whenever I need to do an expense report.

Cingular charged my AMEX card on the 23rd of December. The online account manger (which business accounts shouldn’t have access to) says:

Your bill is not available for display. If this is your first bill, it will be displayed approximately ten days after the end of your first billing cycle.

Well, it has been two billing cycles since the charge. I called on the 15th of January and requested a new paper bill. They said it would take 5 to 10 business days. As of the 27th (9 business days, if you don’t count MLK day or Saturdays) I have not received it. I will be gone for two weeks while I am in Texas, so if I get it Monday, it does me no good.

Amex requires you to pay your bill in Full, and they give you 60 days. By the time I get back, get the bill, go back to Texas, submit my expense report, and have the company pay AMEX, the charge will be 60 days old.

So if I can’t get a Cingular bill, to submit with my expense report, to have the AMEX bill paid, I will get charged late fees, which I am responsible for. I have no other option than to dispute the charge.

It all goes back to the fact that I opted to receive my bills electronically; to save trees, stamps, shipping energy, etc.. If business customers can’t receive bills electronically (according to internal company policy), they shouldn’t have the option to do electronic billing.

I asked them to send me a bill, Next Day Air, to Texas so I could submit my expense report. They said they don’t have the ability to. They also don’t have the ability to email me my bill in PDF form. And this is supposed to be a high tech company. How is this for a vision?

Vision

To be the most highly regarded wireless company in the world, with a driving focus around best-in-class sales and service.

I guess it’s a vision because they will never get their. HAHA.

Values

Customers: We value our customers and treat them with respect, providing friendly, courteous, knowledgeable and prompt service at all touch points. We seek and are driven by our customers’ feedback.

If you ask me; that should not be a value if they don’t adhere to it.

Enough about Cingular.

They said that they overbooked 14 rooms. I thought I could just say I was a Gold Member, but that didn’t cut it. It turns out all of the rooms were booked and full. They said there was a confidential conference. I was able to talk the manager in to giving me a “free hotel stay” worth of reward points, and they said it would be 10,000 points, as long as I agreed to stay at a different hotel that night. I gave in because I felt bad for the manager. Marriotts are usually franchised and somehow the corporate sales department oversold the rooms to “60 people”. They said that the local system was not synchronized with the corporate system.

Once I got to the other hotel, I found out what the “confidential conference was. It turns out “President” Bush was in town helping a fellow GOP member raise funds. (I don’t think the American tax payers should be footing the bill for the “President” to travel somewhere to help raise funds, but that is another story) So I guess there was a whole bunch of press at the Marriott Residence Inn or something. At that point I knew it was not an accident the hotel was overbooked. I am sure someone got a pretty penny to book all the press people.

When I got to my room I checked what 10,000 points would get me. It would only get me a free night at a category 2 hotel like a Fairfield Inn. That is not what I agreed to. The hotel that overbooked me is a category 3 hotel, the least i should get is 15,000 points for that. I would rather have 25,000 for a category 5 hotel because they made a very frequent stayer leave the hotel for one night.

I think next week I am going to get some more points out of those people, and probably call the corporate customer service about this. It is not right to do this, no-matter what idiot wants to book a room

For the past month or so I have been making barcodes for USG! There are many barcode standards, but one of the most popular is “3 of 9” what ever that stands for. USG uses it, so I thought I would try scanning my friend’s Gold’s Gym membership card and see if it would be readable by a scanner at USG. Sure enough it did! I had my membership number saved on my computer in a document I made to cancel my membership, so I used that, added the asterisks in the front at back (part of the barcode standard) and printed it out in the 3 of 9 barcode font USG gave me.

This morning I scanned my printed barcode when I got to the gym, and it worked like a charm! Saved me $10! Let’s hope I don’t get caught using my fake barcode. Knowing the silly way companies like to make profit for selling replacement IDs, I am sure Gold’s Gym would not like me using my home made one. I don’t know what they could say to make me buy one; the only thing on the card is a barcode and Gold’s Gym logo.