March Issue of Profit Well Worth Price

While walking past the International News stand over at the Atrium on Bay a business magazine caught my eye. The headline “inside the fabulous NEW INTERNET” screamed typical business magazine tries to be hip and with it. The “21 ESSENTIAL WEB TOOLS: What every entrepreneur should use” will probably make IT and PR departments worry. But then I looked inside and discovered a darn good issue.

Highlights include...

• A pair of study summaries that tell managers to let sales people talk AND what the academics say your project feedback should be if you want them to succeed.
• Things businesses can learn but probably won't unless they mentioned the Oscars.
  
• Sales management “sins” and some suggestions to get them on the path toward redemption.
• A feel good corp article on GoodLife Fitness that gives you a hint at where they are going next.
• Transparency and why it's not garbage for your business from the trash man, founder and CEO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK .
  
• Rick Spence claiming to have been part of the problem with past federal government policy planning proposals and now wanting to avoid the sausage. Still his call for HELP makes sense.
  
• A profile on Michael McDerment's baby FreshBooks which has been getting some solid reviews from businesses using it to take some of the tedium out of billing.
• How to get better rates for your corps cell phone fleet (and no it's not just about using number portability to jump ship on March 14th) and stop the bleeding.
• A column from Jeff Dennis who some might think is on Sherlock Holmes' 20% solution.
• Reader questions with 74 year old high school dropout, Member of the Order of Canada and Executive Chairman of the fine menswear company Harry Rosen.
  
• Things every board, business owner and employee need to know about insurance for the working wounded, disability and succession planning to ensure you getting hit by a bus doesn't kill your business.
• Five boxing exercises to get you in fighting shape.
  

Even the darn inserts are by my judgment over 70% useful (a real rarity these days in Canadian publishing). The Scotiabank scenario is real food for thought and the nuggets of cost control and outsourcing tips could keep many a firm from a nasty surprise. Any national firm thinking of exporting should not miss the free Canadian Exporting for Dummies book offer from the Feds or their solid informational insert.

Well worth a multiple of $4.50+Tax but lets not tell Rogers.

Glyphius 2007 So Far A Failure to Deliver

On February 1, 2007 I used Mr. James D. Brausch's order link to purchase Glyphius 2007 during his 24 hour special promotional offer. My payment was sent to and received by the PayPal account “Target Blaster”. Later my Visa statement indicated the payment for my purchase had occurred.

I waited for the software to arrive or any indication via email my order had been shipped, but nothing came. On the night of Wednesday, February 21 at 6:52 pm I sent an email to Mr. Brausch at the email address provided in my PayPal receipt requesting that he please confirm my order was indeed shipped. As of tonight still no response and Glyphius 2007 has not yet arrived.

A reader of this blog suggested that I look at the reseller page for Glyphius 2007. There I found the same Target Blaster PayPal account link. The very same account I dealt with that had the non responsive email address. Could resellers also encounter the same issues I did? Those links are for many times the number of products I ordered. Would they get any better service than I received?

As the days have now become weeks and we are almost into a new month since I purchased Glyphius 2007, I am considering contacting PayPal if not Visa for a charge back refund. Don't get me wrong I still want to get the product I paid for. The thing is with a complete failure to communicate one has to wonder why so far Glyphius 2007 has failed to be delivered.

Still waiting for Glyphius 2007

My order for Glyphius 2007 was placed during James D. Brausch's introductory special on February 1, 2007. As of February 21st I have not received the product that was promised, advertised and paid for. While the hope it will get here soon remains, even people in the UK report getting theirs. Here I am in Toronto, Canada right across the border from the fine state of New York. UPDATE: Kunaki the original manufacturer and fulfiller of the Glyphius 2007 package selling had nothing to do with my orders delay. They kindly took the time to explain that while they may have manufactured the product for Mr. Brausch's special they verified that he did not use them to fulfill my order. They indicated that the shipping and PayPal payment links on Mr. Brausch's page were done by someone else and not Kunaki. A big thanks goes out to them for helping narrow down where this delay is.

Now lots of things can delay a shipment. For instance inclement weather and border security delays added 2-3 days to a book order I received from Pittsburgh. That order went by USPS ground and took seven working days.

Last night I tried to contact Mr. Brausch about the status of my order via the email provided in my PayPal Receipt for my Glyphius 2007 purchase. Over twenty four hours later, there has been no response acknowledging whether he even knows if the software has been shipped. Upon further investigation there appears to be no viable route for customer support queries. This isn't just some attempt to pester him either, it's one of the most common support requests as Mr. Brausch himself noted back in October of 2006 while getting ready to release his customer support software.

I am still anxious to use Glyphius 2007. By almost all accounts I have read (one person complained that the tutorial videos do not work for her under the Firefox but in all fairness the specifications do state Internet Explorer is what's required) it is an excellent piece of software. Still until I receive it and spend time with it I cannot make a review of it.

The author often triumphantly writes about the 2% of the population that deviate from the norm. On February 9th he ranted about a bank teller ignoring his wife when she said they owned their home outright and instead tried to get her to refinance a non existent mortgage. The teller didn't listen to the customer and turned a deaf ear her way. Now it seems James Brausch is doing the same to me and perhaps others.

Just yesterday he chastised the people who among other things sought “a tracking number” [and/or] “to get support for a supported product ...” and used the only visible email address point of contact he provided on his site, against his intended wishes. This email address was recently established and announced for a cruise promoted where one could lunch with Mr. Brausch. He called these off topic emails SPAM of the intentional kind.

Like the bank teller, it seems he cannot recognize that there is a valid and rational desire on the part of his customers. Perhaps that's what happens when you isolate yourself from your critics via turning off your blog comments and raising the barrier so only the elite that publish blogs and can offer trackbacks.

While I hope that this is an isolated incident, only time and the response of the author or lack thereof will tell. I will keep you updated.