NYC for NYE!!!!!

I got tickets, I got ALL the tickets I wanted! My day just went from crap to bliss. $1,000 in tickets later and life is good. We'll be in NYC Dec. 26 - 31 for a 5 night run with the Disco Biscuits. Of course it didn't happen as the customer service rep told me yesterday but who cares?

Can't end this entry without a note about Apollo. He likes to drink my beer, eat my mac and cheese, climb inside the dryer, and play with my iced tea. He was obviously raised by his mommy.

My cat

likes to sleep in a desk drawer! LOL

Customer Service Experience

Today I discovered there will be a presale of tickets for the Disco Biscuits five nights December run in NYC for Amex card holders only. Woo hoo, I’m an Amex card holder! Good news, right? WRONG! Since I’ve never used this Ticketmaster/American Express service before I decided to find out ahead of time how to use the service.

These are the steps I took to find out what to do.

1. Checked the Ticketmaster.com Help section – found out I needed a special password and suggested I sign up for Amex Ticket Access e-mail.
2. Signed up for American Express’s Ticket Access e-mail – no e-mail confirmation sent to me.
3. Checked Amex’s americanexpress.com/entertainment site – found no Disco Biscuits listing.
4. Called Amex Membership Rewards – was on hold for about 20 min. – representative unable to get a hold of Gold Card Events. (Found out I have 29,000+ points to spend!)
   Was transferred to another customer service representative who quickly transferred me to Interactive Services.
5. Interactive Services told me to call Ticketmaster.
6. Got Ticketmaster contact us numbers from the Web site.
7. Called Ticketmaster in my state (VA), got a live person quickly – was told I’d need to call the state where the event would be held.
8. Called Ticketmaster NYC and got an automated service – hung up after going through 3 options of the menu.
9. Called Ticketmaster NYC and selected option 2 “check on the status of an order” – was able to get a live person.
10. Customer service rep was able to tell me that tomorrow, when the tkts go on pre-sale, new options will appear on the event page for Amex card holders. She said the password would either be the Amex customer service number on the back of my card, or my card number.
11. 45 min. later I got the answer I needed – what a way to spend a lunch hour!

08.08.08

Action Items for 08.08.08

• Work
• Buy "Because you're hard core" tkt for Biscuits
• Pick up kitty
• Fly to LFT (via Atlanta)
• Watch the Olympics

What does a company need to do to ensure success with a remote workforce?

One of my favorite corporate communicators, Shel Holtz, "works at the intersection of communication and technology" and is asking about remote workforces on LinkedIn.

What does a company need to do to ensure success with a remote workforce? I'm working on a blog post in response to a number of posts promoting digital nomads, remote workforces, telecommuting, etc. I agree in general, but worry that none of these posts talk about the work a company needs to do up front to ensure they can succeed. If you work remotely for a company, what have they done well and not so well? If you have experience, expertise, or a background on the topic, what steps do companies need to follow to make sure the model succeeds?

You can view the answers on LinkedIn.

I'm ready to move here

See pictures of four wheelin'

Happy Independence Day

And what a fun Independence Day weekend it is turning out to be. See pictures.

Get a video tour of our home away from home

Rain every afternoon

Wicked thunder and lightening every afternoon. Awesome!

I laughed so hard!

As I'm sitting here working and typing the sun is streaming in the window and my watch is catching the light and creating light dots on the wall. Apollo plays with the dots for a half-an-hour. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard! It was truly a funny thing to behold and took no effort on my part. :-)