Stories from the Sales Frontlines

sterlingdog

@sb55 said:
My 27 year old daughter spent 3 years in Africa in the Peace Corps teaching English and Math. When she came home, she and 3 Peace Corps friends decided to go to the hipster capital of the world: Brooklyn, NY. I guess after living in a mud hut for 3 years it seemed like the next step?!? She landed a job as an administrative assistant at a non-profit for homeless and loves the work (and NYC). 2 years later she has decided to go back to grad school for an MSW. It's her choice and maybe she will never get rich, but she seems to have a passion. She thinks that she can swing the whole tab with Stafford loans since she can work while going to school. We are proud (and a little worried )

I don't know if this will help, but when I used to hire MSWs, we arranged with the federal government to have the Stafford loans forgiven in exchange for years of service to us. Each year the employee remained with us, a certain percentage of the loan was forgiven. It depends on the geographic area in which you work. Do have your daughter look into this when the time comes. Not to worry, your daughter sounds very independent and very intelligent. I know how proud of her you must be.

Richard

driver100

@ab348 said: He pronounces the name "Chicago" as "chi-CAR-go". Is this a Canadian thing or more common?

As far as I know any Canadian I know of would call it...Chicago....just like it is spelled. When I was younger I had a girlfriend who came from Minneapolis and she would say "warsh" instead of "wash", not sure where the extra "r' came from.

***If you go to Chicago go on the Architectural River Cruise, it is one of the best things you can do.

driver100

I got a Galaxy 10 today. It is amazing, but there is going to be a long learning curve getting used to it.
I know I googled some things and you can do it via voice. Press microphone, say OK Google, and say what is playing at shows in Bradenton...and it comes up on the screen. Lots to learn though how to use it....I am getting to old to keep learning new stuff all the time.

sterlingdog

@ab348 said:
Speaking of work life, as of today I am officially retired! 32 years with the Province (i.e. state) of Nova Scotia. Bit of a strange experience these last few weeks after I set my retirement date - I call it the long goodbye. Had to stretch it out a bit longer than I wanted to allow my replacement to overlap me for a couple of weeks. Got a bunch of lunches, dinners, etc. over that time, nice but not necessary. Would prefer to have departed more quickly in retrospect - you feel a bit like the walking dead as people start bypassing you, stop asking you things and generally learning to live without you. But all in all I have no regrets, and hope to adjust to a new life now. It will be nice not having to get up early every day, and to choose to do what I want to do.

Congratulations on your retirement! You are about to embark upon a new adventure in your life. You may be surprised about not getting up early. I find myself getting up only about an hour later than I did when I was working---sometimes even earlier. After doing nothing for a few weeks, it will get old. You'll need a plan---hobby, projects, community involvement, church work, travels, etc. You'll want to be involved in things but allow me to caution you. Learn how to say NO. People get the idea that because you are retired, you can take on any and all jobs. If that is true, you may as well go back to work. This is your chance to finally smell the roses. Enjoy life and your family. Best of luck.

Richard

driver100

@abacomike said:I think *driver is becoming the "gremlin" of linguistics - anything to "drive" us nuts!
houdini1 said:

"We all used to pronounce it Chicago until driver told us it was Chicargo. Now we all say Chicargo. It has become a real dilemna."

>

Hey, you can't blame that one on me....it was ab384 who started the Chicargo thing.

explorerx4

@sterlingdog‌ A/C doesn't use Freon anymore. For years, the A/C coolant has been R134.
Check your owner's manual. It might have the correct coolant listed. Then I'd complain about the charge.

robr2

Air conditioning systems can fail at any time without notice. Your home dealer may have done a cursory inspection but connecting gauges and measuring the coolant pressure would have cost you at minimum a 1/2 hour of service time.

All automotive a/c systems lose some refrigerant through the joints and connections. You won't feel it since the drop is so small. Since the system needed to be fully charged, there may be a large leak that needs to be fixed. As for the $159 - it sounds fair. 1/2 an hour to diagnose the failure, another 1/2 to charge the system and the cost of the refrigerant (2 lbs is average at about $20/lb.). Be happy it wasn't the condenser or compressor - you'd be talking $1K or so.

imidazol97

@sterlingdog said:
"dilemma". I was surprised to discover on the web that many people had been taught differently.

I think back in the old days of cursive handwriting someone just lost one of the humps off the second "m" and it was misspelled from then on. I have never heard anyone trying to pronounce the word "dil lem NA."

bwia

@driver100 said:
I got a Galaxy 10 today. It is amazing, but there is going to be a long learning curve getting used to it.
I know I googled some things and you can do it via voice. Press microphone, say OK Google, and say what is playing at shows in Bradenton...and it comes up on the screen. Lots to learn though how to use it....I am getting to old to keep learning new stuff all the time.

Congrats on the purchase of your new toy, the Galaxy Tablet 10.1. It is indeed a sophisticated piece of equipment but surprisingly the learning curve is not that steep. If you like playing video games and reading magazines you will love it, but not so much if it is primarily for reading books. The KNOOK and Kindle are better for that.

See you at The Google Play Apps Store soon.

oldfarmer50

@sterlingdog said:

I just had the old Lincoln recharged and tested for leaks and it cost $172. Kind of a rip off but I wanted to know how bad it was leaking. As it turns out, not bad.

Maybe your dealer gave you the full treatment in case there was a leak somewhere. Low r134 usually results from a leak.

It would also give them an excuse to do some expensive repair. Did they find a leak?

oldfarmer50

@imidazol97 said:

Cursive handwriting? What's that? It's not taught at my school any more.

stickguy

Richard, I agree with some others that the charge is reasonable. Labor rate at a dealer is probably $80-$100 at this point. So figure in the cost of the refrigerant, and tax, and you are looking at max 1.5hrs of labor. Easy to use that up, by the time they hook everything up, diagnose, test, then refill and retest. Maybe you could have shaved $20, or a little more at a local indy shop, but probably better to let the dealer do this.

stickguy

Farmer, yup, he will be working for IBM doing something at the nanotech facility. Seems like a booming operation. Also a growth industry up there (there is another big chip operation in Malta too). so hopefully he has growth opportunities in the area. Pretty excited about it, and even looking forward to moving up there. It was actually one of the areas he was interested in all along.

sterlingdog

@oldfarmer50 said:

Thanks Oldfarmer, Stickguy, Robr2, and Explorerx4. You calmed me down and made me feel better. I won't complain to the dealers, but will remain thankful that it wasn't anything worse. No, Oldfarmer, there no leaks. It actually said on the invoice that they had checked for leaks and that none were found. This is the first problem that I've encountered with the SRX in our five years of ownership. I can't believe that we've had the Caddy that long. Though I will be getting rid of the convertible soon, I have no plans to trade the SRX. It is just as beautiful as the day of purchase and still rides and performs like a dream. Thanks again guys.

Richard

Michaell

@stickguy said:
Farmer, yup, he will be working for IBM doing something at the nanotech facility. Seems like a booming operation. Also a growth industry up there (there is another big chip operation in Malta too). so hopefully he has growth opportunities in the area. Pretty excited about it, and even looking forward to moving up there. It was actually one of the areas he was interested in all along.

Congrats to your son! I know IBM is still hiring in some areas. I coordinate hiring for my group.

When he gets settled in, he can reach out to me via blue pages and I can give him the lay of the land.

sb55

@sterlingdog said:I don't know if this will help, but when I used to hire MSWs, we arranged with the federal government to have the Stafford loans forgiven in exchange for years of service to us. Each year the employee remained with us, a certain percentage of the loan was forgiven. It depends on the geographic area in which you work. Do have your daughter look into this when the time comes. Not to worry, your daughter sounds very independent and very intelligent. I know how proud of her you must be.

Richard

Thanks for the words of encouragement.

driver100

@bwia said:
See you at The Google Play Apps Store soon.

Thanks bwia. I am learning but I still have a long ways to go. It has some great features, comes on instantly, can do an email by just talking, etc......but it will take awhile to adjust.

I have a feeling I will use a desktop at home, but this is perfect for travelling. It is pretty compact, yet powerful. We got our first computer in about 2002, and it was $2800 and did very little. This little beast does everything and it is so small and powerful, for $400!

driver100

@sterlingdog said:To "add freon and recharge the system" it was $159!

Use the driver instant averaging system and the SRX has taken you a great distance over 5 years, at a cost of $32 a year. A/C units can need a recharge and as others more learned than I pointed out, the price seems reasonable for what they did.

Be thankful the car has performed in "sterling" fashion since you bought it.

driver100

@imidazol97 said:I think back in the old days of cursive handwriting someone just lost one of the humps off the second "m" and it was misspelled from then on. I have never heard anyone trying to pronounce the word "dil lem NA."

That would actually be one of the better explanations. A teacher wrote it and one m looked like an "n". People who spell the word dilemna though make the n silent, but in there minds they think of the word as dilemNa. Since no one here admits to spelling the word with an "n", I think the problem must have started in England, or a colony...maybe it isn't a problem in the USA. But, if you look up "dilemma vs dilemna" you will see lots of articles on the subject.

abacomike

@driver100 said:

"That would actually be one of the better explanations. A teacher wrote it and one m looked like an "n"."

I still say you are a conspirator who wants to have the spelling of "dilemma" changed to "dilemna" through unending and constant harassment of us on this posting site.

I've come across people like you who refuse to give up! It's perpetual and repetitious - and you'll get your way - you always do! Just another troublemaker, that's all!

snakeweasel

@driver100 said:
I don't think any company could be very successful if the bean counters are in charge....you can always hire good bean counters and they will do their job pretty much the same. You can't always find great engineers, designers, workmanship etc., those are the qualities that will make a great product.

Here is the thing, you can build the greatest product in the world and people can beat down your door to buy it but if you don't make a profit your company goes under and there is no product to build. As an old boss of mine told me, "If marketing and product development had their way we would be selling a product for $25 that costs us $100 to make".

snakeweasel

@graphicguy said:
That's $50K. Let's say the additional engineering and testing cost another $250K. Or, $300K as the magic number. Is that worth 13 lives?

Unless a company is producing a product that is intended to save lives (such as medical equipment) no company is going to be discussing how much is a life worth. To do so would be an admission that your product can and does kill people.

It basically comes down to "We can sell the product for X dollars so we have to get the costs of making the product below X dollars or we don't make the product."

snakeweasel

@graphicguy said:
That's $50K. Let's say the additional engineering and testing cost another $250K. Or, $300K as the magic number. Is that worth 13 lives?

Unless a company is producing a product that is intended to save lives (such as medical equipment) no company is going to be discussing how much is a life worth. To do so would be an admission that your product can and does kill people.

It basically comes down to "We can sell the product for X dollars so we have to get the costs of making the product below X dollars or we don't make the product."

abacomike

@snakeweasel‌ said:

OK snake, we get the point!!! 3 posts - hmmm, identical - hmmm.

snakeweasel

@imidazol97 said:
So today we have companies run by hugely overpaid top folks who feel they are indispensable to the company's operation and future. However they also are often covered by extreme parachute payouts if they are severed from the company.

These same folks complain if the worker bees unionize to get a quarter more per hour. They usually will fight against raising pay--the company just can't afford it is their mantra.

OK lets look at this, GM CEO Barra earns 1.6 million a year plus she is eligible for incentive pay, bonuses and other awards. All in all she could come up with 14 Million in total compensation.

Now GM has 68,500 employees in the U.S. if all of these employees received a 25 cent increase in salary it would amount to 35.6 million in salary alone (presuming everyone worked 40 hour weeks with no overtime). Add to that payroll taxes, unemployment insurance and workers comp insurance you likely have 4 to 6 million more in expenses.

Take the total compensation of Barra (if she gets the full 14 million) and disperse it among the U.S. employees everyone would only get a 10 cent an hour raise.

snakeweasel

@imidazol97 said:
And then the old department store in downtown Pisgah asks for money to help rennovate, expand, to try to compete. But they are hamstrung by the high costs of the UAW union folk working at Pisgah's department store. The state is happy to help Walmart find new, cheap employees, but isn't willing to help reverse the noose in labor costs on Mr. Goldman's downtown Pisgah store with higher labor costs, higher merchandise wholesale costs, higher heating/cooling costs.

The reason the government is willing to help Wally World is that Wally World has to buy land, land that is likely owned by a politician or a friend of his/hers that is being sold to Wally World at a nice profit.

bwia

@snakeweasel said:
GM CEO Barra earns 1.6 million a year plus she is eligible for incentive pay, bonuses and other awards. All in all she could come up with 14 Million in total compensation.

That's all? The average CEO of a Fortune 500 makes about 287 times the wages of an average factory worker. I am betting the targets for earning these incentives must very low, otherwise Barra is grossly underpaid.

imidazol97

@snakeweasel said:
U.S. employees everyone would only get a 10 cent an hour raise.

And how many overpaid management folks are there within GM or within many/most American companies? And how much is your 68,500 off from the total number of hourly paid employees?

Take the summation of all the extra pay from all the entitled management folk and distribute it only to the new employees on the 1/2 pay rate. I believe the senior employees have done very well for themselves at the full rate and indeed with having kept that for themselves and not having lost it when the administration divided up the spoils in the bankruptcy.

Or better yet, let's put that money into better interiors and exteriors to replace the quality that the beancounters with their MBA's took out to compensate for the spending for overpaid executives and managers pushing paper along with the highly overpaid workers still getting their full salaries which almost match some of the overpaid executive folks.

I still haven't had anyone come up with the solution for GM to have saved themselves through the development of the competitors who got the aid of the various political entities giving them help through the decades while the local department store was hurting...

snakeweasel

@js06gv said:
You bring up a good point about "technology." It used to be that if you upgraded every 3-5 years or so, you'd get some new stuff but nothing earth shattering. Nowadays, 3-5 years is a lifetime when it comes to additional safety features, electronics etc. The manufacturers know this and have done a damn good job of getting "the hook" in us to have the latest and greatest.

That begs the question. How much safer are todays cars over a 3 year old car? Granted a 2014 car is a lot safer than a 1975 car but is it that much safer than a 2011 car? I would say that it isn't. Cars a very safe these days and improvements are on a small scale.

As for other electronics and such there is a difference between "want" and "need".

stickguy

times do change. Remember when the local department stores were evil because they put the poor mom and pop mercantile type of stores out of business?

snakeweasel

@abacomike said:
bwia said:

"What makes some plans appear to look cheaper, is all in the marketing. And I have to agree."

When I was with ATT this past December, I paid $92.00 a month for 450 anytime minutes, 300 Meg's of data, and unlimited texting.

With T-Mobile, I pay $62.00 a month for unlimited calling, unlimited data and unlimited texting.

I don't understand how the ATT guy can say all the mobile carriers are about the same price.

Because the AT&T you are being billed the cost of the phone in your monthly bill. With T-Mobile you are being billed only for the service and they tack on the price of the phone in 24 installments on your bill, either that or pay $8-900 up front for the phone. So with T-mobile it's $60/month for the service and another $30/month for the phone making it up there with AT&T in price.

Oh and that no termination fee thing? If you are paying installments on the phone and you terminate your plan you have to come up with the rest of the money that you owe on the phone.

I looked into T-mobile and after seeing that I would need a new phone (mine won't work on T-Mobiles network) and how much everything would cost I stayed with Verizon as it is only costing me less that $2/month more for two phones.

snakeweasel

@bwia said:
graphicguy and Driver, I am not an economist (but I play one on TV ) nonetheless I believe you messed up your economic jargon. I think the economic theory is "the law of diminishing marginal utility."

Nope it is the "Law of diminishing returns". If I am reading their posts right they are describing paying more but getting less with each additional dollar spent. In short if I but a $30K car over a $20K car I will get a lot more for my additional $10K. However if I bought a $40K car over a $30K car I won't get as much more car for the extra $10K than I did when I bought the $30K car over the $20K car.

The law of diminishing marginal utility states that the more you use something the less enjoyment you get out of it per unit used. In short if I eat a quart of ice cream I get far more enjoyment out of the first spoonful than I would get out of the last spoonful.

snakeweasel

@ab348 said:
Speaking of work life, as of today I am officially retired!

Congrats, enjoy your new life.

driver100

@abacomike said:
driver100 said:

"That would actually be one of the better explanations. A teacher wrote it and one m looked like an "n"."

I still say you are a conspirator who wants to have the spelling of "dilemma" changed to "dilemna"

OK, since it is causing such a dilemna for some people I won't mention it again.

driver100

@snakeweasel said:"If marketing and product development had their way we would be selling a product for $25 that costs us $100 to make".

Your boss was right but you also won't make a profit if you offer an inferior item at the same price, as the competition.

driver100

I just noticed when I was driving the Passant and I had an FM station on, not only does it name the artist and the song....but, there is a picture of the album cover on the media screen. Not sure if that is something new or if I just hadn't noticed it before.

driver100

@snakeweasel said:r? Granted a 2014 car is a lot safer than a 1975 car but is it that much safer than a 2011 car?

Lots of improvements in a period of two or three years. Rear view cameras, lane change warnings, two car ahead warning, automatic braking, off Centre front collision protection, better headlights, just to name a few.

roadburner

@driver100 said:
Rear view cameras, lane change warnings, two car ahead warning, automatic braking, off Centre front collision protection, better headlights, just to name a few.

Yep, these are the salad days for incompetent/moronic drivers...

cdnpinhead

@driver100 said:
. . .I won't mention it again.

Fat chance.

imidazol97

Four GM models get IIHS top safety ranking.
http://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2014/May/0530-front-end-safety.html

Actually 8 models were top rated according to an NBC report. Stated that was more than any other car company.

js06gv

@snakeweasel said:

I wasn't referring as much to airbags and such as I was to the more widespread availability of sonar cruise, rear sensors, cameras and blind spot systems. These are becoming commonplace even on economy-class cars these days.

driver100

@roadburner said:
Yep, these are the salad days for incompetent/moronic drivers...

The way I see it, I need all the protection I can get against incompetent/moronic drivers.

driver100

@driver100 said: . . .I won't mention it again.

@cdnpinhead said:
Fat chance.

I am deciding whether I should say the word again or disappoint you by not saying it.

driver100

@imidazol97 said:
Four GM models get IIHS top safety ranking.

Actually 8 models were top rated according to an NBC report. Stated that was more than any other car company.

But they are the left wing network which isn't fair and balanced and is anti-GM!

sterlingdog

@cdnpinhead said:
Fat chance.

LOL! Amen to that!

dino001

@imidazol97 said:
Four GM models get IIHS top safety ranking.

Actually 8 models were top rated according to an NBC report. Stated that was more than any other car company.

What percentage of actual models, or better sold units, does it make? I would expect that if company markets largest number of models, it should have close to largest number of recommended ones.

snakeweasel

@houdini1 said:
We all used to pronounce it Chicago until driver told us it was Chicargo. Now we all say Chicargo. It has become a real dilemna. Or is that dilenema?

Born and raised in Chicago and I only hear it two ways "Chicago" and "The City".

snakeweasel

@driver100 said:
***If you go to Chicago go on the Architectural River Cruise, it is one of the best things you can do.

I'll second that, if you can get one that also goes out on the lake. They also have kayak tours and walking tours that will show you the architectural wonders of the city.

snakeweasel

@abacomike said:
snakeweasel‌ said:

OK snake, we get the point!!! 3 posts - hmmm, identical - hmmm.

Oops sorry for the identical posts, not sure how that happened. Maybe I hit the post button twice.

What a dilem....oh sorry forget about that.

graphicguy

@imidazol97 said:
Four GM models get IIHS top safety ranking.
http://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2014/May/0530-front-end-safety.html

Actually 8 models were top rated according to an NBC report. Stated that was more than any other car company.

Well...that's great. If you're in a crash, you may be OK. But, where GM falls down....badly.....is desiging, engineering and testing things like....oh....say ignition switches. You know...simple stuff....stuff you and I assume should just work corectly.

It always confounds me that these sorts of corporate failures seem to happen to GM more than anyone else (honorable mention goes to Toyota for that).

Overall, cars are infinitely safer than they were even a scant 10 years ago. And, don't forget the industry as a whole went kicking and screaming to adopt things like airbags. Let's not confuse the issues that have come to light, however.

I've always raised an eyebrow when I hear about these types of seemingly mundane parts and pieces....(GM ignition switches, Toyota floor mats, etc). If time to design, test and produce pieces are short sheeted, what other areas of these cars have suffered similar shortcomings?

Being in the tech industry, it doesn't go unnoticed by me that the design, testing, manufacturing tools have advanced. It doesn't take as long to do a design, or manufacture a part. With CAD (computer aided design), CAM (computer aided manufacturing), FEA (finitie element analysis....used to test the failure points), the days of the enginners sweating over slide rules and blue prints are long gone.

These tools should make parts and pieces better, not worse. And, they can be used to speed design and production.

This all points to a fundamental failure of a car maker's goals, not their profitability. That is, unless the car maker's goal is to make something as cheaply as they can, and potential deaths caused be damned.