Archive for April, 2013

Griffin Industries renews my faith in service

Posted April 26, 2013 By tjflynn

Following up on my recent bad experience with an online company and the Griffin Survivor iPhone 4s case arriving damaged and without the belt clip, I set about to find a clip. What I found looked to be of dubious quality, not original and probably not worth the price of shipping.

So, I decided to use my friend Jeff Bass’ approach and buy at full retail. This seems to work for him.

During my thought process I remembered what I’d heard Jim Rohn say on a motivational recording, “things are not priced too high, you just don’t have enough money to buy them.” Mr. Rohn was making the point that the only way to get a raise is to make yourself more valuable to your employer. When you’re more important to your employer, you make more money, and those things that you thought were overpriced are now more affordable.

I went directly to Griffin, chose the orange soft stuff, the green hard stuff and the black belt clip. No kidding…those are sort of my company colors except the black clip which was limited by what might look okay with the blue case I bought from the brigands. During checkout, I was surprised to get a 15% off coupon for new online purchasers. There was serious hesitation on my part to take advantage of this discount given Jeff and Jim’s advice. Saving the 7 and a half bucks won me over, though and I scarfed up the discount like it was food in Tebow’s bowl. Tebow is my grandchildren’s “rescue hound” that is at a clumsy age where his legs and tail just won’t go where he aims them, and his only speed is “breakneck”.

The rest of my story continues with the sound track from Polyanna playing softly in the background on sunny-but-not-too-hot days until my Survivor Case arrived A DAY EARLY in perfect condition. As I opened the well-insulated box to find the object of my obsession lying there begging to be loved, I heard at least 3 different birds singing and two squirrels squeaking the sounds of joyous and playful squirrel laughter.

It’s funny how I value the orange-green pearl caressing and protecting the phone on my hip much more than I did the scruffy blue one that I had to shove in an undersized pocket or carry in my hand. Judging from the differences in the plastic cases, I now believe the first one was a knock off. A knock off, damaged, incomplete, arriving in a manilla envelope. Sputtooie on cheapies!

I’m going to InterNACHI’s website to take a continuing education course in the hopes of becoming more valuable so I can always afford to buy at full retail. Thank’s for the example, Jeff.

I’m playing with homonyms or homophones or something like that-trying to make a connection with the “N”s at the end of Griffin and Flynn. I think it’s going to take a little while to harden into something that I can write about. In the meanwhile, Griffin Industries get’s a proper USMC salute and tip of the ball cap for promising LESS than they provided. That kind of service gives me goosebumps.

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Petty Tyrants and Service

Posted April 26, 2013 By tjflynn

Several weeks ago, I contacted a local consultant to establish a relationship where I would recommend his company during the normal course of my inspections business. We connected well, his company was a member of the local Chamber of Commerce, and I was very comfortable when the time came to say, “I can coordinate the WDO inspection for you with a very experienced consultant, working for a substantial company. Their fee is just $75.00”.

From that point forward, it was as if I were in Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone.

For the sake of accurate and unbiased information, it’s best for me to list the things that happened next.

Wednesday
-I called the consultant’s office to schedule the inspection (as I had been instructed earlier. The lady on the other end of the phone, let’s call her “M”, asked me to call him directly to schedule.
-I called him to schedule the inspection and he told me that he could not schedule himself that I needed to call the office back.
-I called his office back and spoke to “M”. She transferred me to another lady, we’ll call her “D”, who told me that she’d email a form to be filled out, and schedule the consultant for 9:30 Friday morning.

Thursday
-I called the client for information to use on the form and was told that the transaction was amongst friends, there were no real estate agents, attorneys, etc involved-only a mortgage company. Her preference was to fill out the form the morning of the inspection and have it ready for the insector when he arrived at the inspection location.

Friday
-9:00 I arrived at the inspection, had the client fill our the form for the consultant and set about my work.
-10:00 The client told me that she had an appointment, needed to leave and asked me to check on the WDO consultant.
-10:10 I called the consultant’s office and talked to “D” who advised me in the most forceful way that I had not sent her the form so she had redirected the consultant. I replied that I had the form for him to hold when he got to the site. There were some lost minutes during this conversation where most of what I said was some derivation of “you are a hard company to give work to” and most of what she said was a derivation of “don’t try to drag me under the bus with you, we have rules and regulations.”
-10:20 Seeing no options, I left the inspection site for a local Five Guys restaurant where I could use the fax machine to send “D” the form. I confirmed receipt of the form with “D” and rescheduled the WDO for 1:00
-11:10 I got back to the site and restarted my building inspection.
-12:35 I noticed a missed call from “D” on my cell phone and returned the call to find out that she had again redirected the consultant because the form was not totally filled out. When I told her that the entire section on real estate agents was truly ‘not applicable’ because there were none involved in the transaction she rescheduled him for ‘as soon as he could get there”.
-2:00 he arrived. I paid him in cash, reminded him that the completed report should be emailed to me, and went on about my business after being at the site for 5 hours for a 3 hour inspection.

Saturday
-I had an appointment to deliver both reports (mine and the WDO) to the client at noon and had not received the WDO report, so I rescheduled for Monday with the client.

Monday
-9:30ish I emailed the WDO company (“D” and the inspector) letting them know that I had an appointment to hand deliver the reports at noon, because the client couldn’t print reports from her computer, and needed to leave my office by 11 to make that timeframe.
-11:00 I called “D” because she had not sent me the report and got a snotty attitude, but the report came in a few minutes.
…………………………………………………………………

Shame on me for not realizing that the infamous “form” was an integral part of their routine.
Shame on me for reacting badly to the inspector being redirected the first time.

Shame on “D” for allowing her tyrannical personality to influence her business decisions.
Shame on the WDO company for allowing a person with an ego larger than mine to be the only voice most people hear when dealing with them.

As one who has employed hundreds of people in the past, it’s easy for me to understand that people with “D”s personality make good employees because they get things done…by the book. On the other hand, they drive clients/customers away.

My common sense says that “D” could have maintained her standards and kept me as a customer, but chose not to when she decided to re-direct the inspector the very first time, without a courtesy call to me explaining the form’s importance to their system. Given our respective personalities, everything else that happened was inevitable.

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I Won’t Be Caught By These Brigands Again

Posted April 18, 2013 By tjflynn

Here’s the internet ad:

“Griffin Survivor Series Case for iPhone 4/4s/5
$14.95 USD was $49.99 USD
Griffin Survivor Series Heavy-Duty Protective Case for Apple iPhone 4/4s
Ridiculously over-engineered? Or the perfect case for your iPhone 4 no matter where you’re headed?
We think it’s a little bit of both.
Simply put, the Griffin Extreme Duty Case is the most protective case we’ve ever built.
Tested to meet or exceed US Department of Defense Standard 810F and UK Department of Defense Standard 00-35, Griffin’s Survivor Extreme-Duty Case is designed from the inside out to protect your iPhone from extreme conditions … dirt, sand, rain, shock, vibration and a host of other environmental factors.
Survivor is built on a shatter-resistant polycarbonate frame clad in rugged, shock absorbing silicone. A built-in screen protector seals your Multi-Touch display from the outside environment, with hinged plugs that seal the dock connector, headphone port, hold switch and volume controls. A detachable heavy-duty clip secures your iPhone to a belt or bag strap.
Survivor is independently tested and verified to meet or exceed environmental testing standards for blown rain, blown dust & grit, vibration, shock, temperature and humidity. You can view videos and test results online at www.griffintechnology.com/armored.
Retail Price: $49.99
Condition: Brand New
Compatibility: Apple iPhone 4/4s Models | All Service Providers
COMPLETE SET: INCLUDES FULL CASE AND BELT HOLSTER
CUSTOMER RATINGS: AVG SCORE: 4.7”

Copied (without the pretty pictures) right from the website.

Here’s my email to the company after I received part of what the ad says they’re selling”

To: wholesalefactoryshop.com
“I received this order today and AM NOT SATISFIED.
1. The soft case was damaged
2. There is no holster or belt clip
The add on your website clearly states that the “belt holster” is included. AND it’s included in the product photos.
I have attached photos of what I received.
I would appreciate it if you could send me a full replacement set and a postage paid envelope for shipping the damaged and incomplete case back.
2 attachments — P1010004.JPG 683K P1010005.JPG 1057K”

I sent the email on Feb 12 and the replacement set that I asked for was either not sent, or it was sent to another person who is afraid to damage his iphone, that ain’t me. Nor have I received a response from the horking blub slapdoodles at…well, I won’t even write their name again.

Faithful readers and lower human forms, not giving a redneck the whole thing in the pictures is sinful, but thinking that he cain’t read is worser than that. In fact, it’s more worser!

From personal experience, the Griffin Survivor Series Case is all that it’s hyped up to be. It cradles my new phone like my mama used to cradle me. It keeps my phone from getting sawdust and paint smells on it while it’s waiting on a set of blueprints for me to find it. It sheds water. It is the color of the sky, when looking over your bird-dog’s back at a quail hopping out of a butt-bumping feeding frenzy into flight, late in the evening on a sunny day. It’s soft. It’s substantial. It’s got flaps smart enough to hold themselves back when you take pictures and such.

But, fellow connoisseurs of passable service…it is too big to go in my shirt pocket. And, too big for the pockets on my Levis. And, too big for the several old holsters in my closet from my Treo and Blackberry days.

I ain’t holding my breath for the slapdoodles to get me my detachable heavy-duty clip. It’s been two months.

With no good things to say about the company in question, I suppose I’ll have to stop this post and look on Ebay for the key to my future Griffin-clad phone carrying.

Y’all got enough common sense of your own to stay away from these brigands, I believe.

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