myShoggoth

Dan Shapiro » Startup dudes: Cut the sexist crap

Last week I was speaking on what would have otherwise been a terrific panel.  It was Frank Artale from Ignition, Tom Duterme from Groupon M&A, Andy Sack from Lighter Capital & Founder’s Co-op, and me talking about funding & exiting.  The only thing that spoiled it was yet another guy in the tech scene putting forth yet another objectifying/patronizing treatment of someone with two X chromosomes.

via www.danshapiro.com

Courtesy of @bindr, a good writeup on the kind of crap that happens far too often in the startup community.

Guys - we're adults now, start acting like it. No, this isn't everyone acting this way, but those who don't need to call the few who do on it.

Berkeley for startups: Perfect or brain drain in action? | Berkeleyside

A year ago, then-UC Berkeley visiting professor and startup guru Vivek Wadhwa stood before an audience at Berkeley’s Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse and said Berkeley was a natural location for tech startups — given a few “easy fixes”.

via www.berkeleyside.com

The East Side is not as strong as it should be in terms of startups, I completely agree with @wadhwa. This is a panel to try to address it.

If you care about startups and live on the East Side, be there. I've got my ticket already.

Why French Parents Are Superior by Pamela Druckerman - WSJ.com

When my daughter was 18 months old, my husband and I decided to take her on a little summer holiday. We picked a coastal town that's a few hours by train from Paris, where we were living (I'm American, he's British), and booked a hotel room with a crib. Bean, as we call her, was our only child at this point, so forgive us for thinking: How hard could it be?

via online.wsj.com

This book sounds very interesting, both the article and video are worth checking out. It agrees with most of what we know/do, with the possible exception of letting the newborn cry at a few weeks old. That doesn't make any sense to me, seems better to wait until they are post-grub stage (3+ months) before trying to teaching patience.

I'm experimenting with using my blog and its social media sharing features as a replacement for the RSS sharing features I had in Google Reader. Blog is at http://myshoggoth.com/ .

http://www.amazingsuperpowers.com/2011/10/play-a-game/

Convertible Note Caps at VCHub.com

Plus, of course, some nice bug fixes, like being able to look at examples without having to log in.

Details at: http://lrn.vc/L.

Warrants and Convertible Debt added to Scenarios: New Release!

Details are all here.

This is a good release for us, a very nice combo of adding more functionality to our key feature (Scenarios, which allow you to model different financing possibilities and see exactly what would happen) and lots of bug fixes.

Delta Postscript

Presented to you without commentary.

Dear Mr. Boardman,

RE: Case Number 3552612 

Thank you for contacting our Director of  Customer Care, Toby Broberg, regarding your experiencing when attempting to travel to Italy with us, and out partner, Alitalia. On behalf of Ms. Broberg, please accept our sincere apologies that you were unable to travel as planned.

As you were advised by Ms. Reid, it is the responsibility of the traveler to insure that your travel documents meet the requirements for traveling to your destination. Nevertheless, please be assured that we are sensitive to your experience, and have noted your suggestions for continuous improvement.

With regard to your ticket, our records indicate that your ticket has been refunded in full.

I hope I have been able to resolve any concerns you have about our service. Your business is important to us and given the opportunity of serving you in the future, I am confident Delta will not only meet but exceed your expectations.

Sincerely,

Lindsay Jackson

Coordinator, Customer Care

Delta Air Lines

 

 

Alitalia Update #7: Alitalia does the right thing!

I really didn't expect this, particularly from Alitalia at this point, but as a response to my fed up email to Delta which I copied Alitalia on, they have stepped up to do the right thing, albeit a couple months late.

Dear Mr. Boardman:

Allow me to clarify that it is the sole responsibility of the passenger to travel with proper documentation. However I realize that you feel strongly about this issue and we do not want this unpleasant experience to be your last impression of our service. Therefore I will make an exception to authorize a full refund of your ticket. Note that a $20.00 handling fee applies and will be debited to your credit card.

Thank you.

Elizabeth Santella

Manager

Awesome. It does make me feel better about the idea of doing business with them, and getting a full refund on both tickets was a huge relief. I did wait a few days before writing this post just to see the refund in my credit card activity list Just In Case. It has come through, so now I feel good about saying Alitalia Did The Right Thing.

I'm still pretty wary about Delta, however, and having them as an alliance partner will make it challenging for me to schedule a trip when I'm avoid flying Delta, but we'll see how that works out.

Delta Update #3 (Alitalia Update #6): Fin?

I'm not sure if it is coincidence or if my email prompted their reply (I suspect the latter) but I got a response.

Executive summary: Not our fault.

I'll quote my reply first and then their email after.

RE: Case Number 3552612

While I agree that the policies of the State Department are beyond your control, there are many things that are completely within your control that make this episode a terrible customer experience, and there are actions within your control that would make it better.

It is unacceptable that the way that you told me about this requirement was when I showed up at the ticket counter to get my boarding pass. There are other airlines that prompt international buyers for their passport expiration dates when they are buying the tickets specifically to avoid this issue. As I mentioned in my summary of the situation, if I had known about the requirement I would have easily renewed my passport because we did so at that time for my partner.

How do I know that other airlines prompt their customers this way? Because when I tell people about this story, which I do often, the only way that people know about this passport expiration requirement is when someone they know has been bitten by it. One couple had bought tickets on Air Canada (if I remember right) and had been prompted for the expiration date, they didn't know the reason why until they heard my story.

If the State Department changes their requirements and you know I can't fly don't let me get to the damn airport before letting me know. If you don't know if I can fly don't sell me the tickets, but if you do, let me know when you know about the change. You took a bad situation and made it more traumatic and upsetting for no good reason. There was no reason for me to pack or go to the airport.

I'm copying Alitalia on this because a lot of this is their fault, they are the ones who sold me the tickets and didn't give me sufficient information. However, as partner airlines if you have these requirements you need to pass them on to your partners because the customer experience is the whole thing, not just what you do on your label.

Which gets us to fixing the situation. No one really tried to help me, the customer, fix this. The Alitalia rep wanted to charge me more than twice what I had already spent on the tickets just to have an equivalent trip next year (above what I've already spent). And this was after two or three hours on the phone trying to figure out what the options were. This was not helping, this was kicking me while I was down. It was terrible and infuriating and made an upsetting situation even worse.

All my "customer service" experience with both of your airlines is you defending your actions and explaining why none of this is your fault.

I don't care. I don't know why you think I do.

You are not powerless pawns in this story, you are the ones who know and in many cases make the rules, you are the ones who took thousands of dollars from me in exchange for a trip to Italy so I could spend even more money once I got there.

Then, due to your inability to think of what your customer needs rather than what you want, I was denied the ability to take that vacation and simultaneously told that you'd keep that money, too, since all of this was all my fault and if I knew all the rules I would have known that. Passive aggressive at best.

And when I say "you", please keep in mind I'm taking about the airline as a whole, I don't blame individual customer reps for this. They're doing their jobs, but their ability to fix problems is severely limited by the airlines' rules on what they can do. Alitalia and Delta clearly think of the customer service departments as necessary cost centers, not the core of their businesses like Zappos. I think it is telling that while I was at the ticket counter dealing with this at the airport the next guy in line was also furious with Delta and having a horrible experience.

The best solution, the one that would have made me instantly feel better about having given my business to Alitalia (and by extension, Delta) would have been either a refund or a full credit. Yes, it is not your fault, yes my passport should have been more current, but if you had just refunded or made it easy for me to use that credit towards a future trip on your airline(s) all would have been good and I would feel fine spending money with you in the future.

This, by the way, is how my experiences with Southwest have always been, and why I fly with them whenever possible.

Instead, not only do I not want to risk doing business with either airline in the future, I want to warn everyone I know not to do so, either. This is my second bad experience in a row with Delta, where something that should have been no big deal in a business sense is instead a big deal because of stupid policies that are customer hostile.

So, despite what you claim below, my business is obviously not important to you, not at all. Can you imagine doing business in the future with a company that treated you like this? The marginal cost of taking actions that would help this situation (refund or dollar-for-dollar credit) would be tiny, but the policy is to clearly not do anything that you don't absolutely have to, no matter what.

That means I am guaranteed that if I do business with you in the future I'm going to have another bad experience, because that's the way you've designed it. Delta has horrible customer service because that's the corporate culture, I have no doubt that the VP of Customer Care is primarily rewarded based on how well she keeps costs down.

Keep in mind that this started on May 14th (actually it started when I bought the tickets, but we went over that above), I sent my first email about it on May 17th, and we are now at July 8th before you say "not our fault, nothing that can be done".

-- Andrew

Here is the email that was a response to:

July 8, 2011

RE: Case Number 3552612

Dear Mr. Boardman

Our office is in receipt of your correspondence from our Sky Team
partner, Alitalia, regarding your and your travel companions' travel
from San Francisco.  On behalf of everyone at Delta Air Lines, I
sincerely apologize for the inconvenience that you encountered when you
were not allowed to board your flight as planned.

Mr. Boardman, I am truly sorry for the delay in our response and for the
discrepancies you encountered with your international documentation.
Unfortunately, due to constant changes made by the U. S. State
Department, passport and visa requirements can vary from day to day.
However, feedback like yours is important to us and will help in the
future to improve our overall customer experience.  Please know I will
be sharing your comments with our Airport Customer Service leadership
team in San Francisco for internal follow up.

Further, I understand your concern with having been advised that you
were unable to travel due to the expiration date on your passenger.  I
apologize that our agent advised you that the passport must be valid six
months beyond the period of stay.  Due to the expiration date was at or
less than 90 days, the kiosk gave you the message that you were
referring to.  Please know that, per the U.S. State Department website,
when traveling to Italy, the passport must be valid for at least three
months beyond the period of stay.  You may view this information on
their website.  http://www.travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1146.html#entry_requirements

For future reference, our web site provides some International Travel
Information.  However, passengers are responsible for complying with the
laws and obtaining the necessary documents required for entry into
another country (including Canada and Mexico) prior to their day of
travel.  Travelers should check with the U.S. State Department at
www.travel.state.gov for information regarding the international
documentation necessary for their travel.

If a passenger travels without proper documents, the passenger may be
denied entry into that country and the airline may be fined.  Our
Contract of Carriage governs the terms and conditions of every ticket
and states the following (Rule 45).

1) Each passenger desiring transportation across any international
boundary will be responsible for obtaining all necessary travel
documents and for complying with all government travel requirements. The
passenger must present all exit, entry and other documents required by
the laws, and, unless applicable laws provide otherwise, shall indemnify
the carrier for any loss, damage, or expense suffered or incurred by
such carrier by reason of such passenger's failure to do so. Carrier is
not liable to the passenger for loss or expense due to the passenger's
failure to comply with this provision. Carrier reserves the right to
refuse carriage to any passenger who has not complied with applicable
laws, regulations, orders, demands, or requirements or whose documents
are not complete. No carrier shall be liable for any aid or information
given by any agent or employee of such carrier to any passenger in
connection with obtaining such documents or complying with such laws,
whether given orally or in writing or otherwise.

2) Subject to applicable laws and regulations, the passenger agrees to
pay the applicable fare whenever carrier, on government order, is
required to return a passenger to his point of origin or elsewhere due
to the passenger's inadmissibility into or deportation from a country,
whether of transit or of destination. The fare applicable will be the
fare that would have been applicable had the original ticket designated
the revised destination on the new ticket. Any difference between the
fare so applicable and the fare paid by the passenger will be collected
from or refunded to the passenger as the case may be. Carrier may apply
to the payment of such fares any funds paid by the passenger to carrier
for unused carriage, or any funds of the passenger in the possession of
carrier. The fare collected for carriage to the point of refusal or
deportation will not be refunded by the carrier, unless the law of such
country requires that such fare be refunded.

I hope this explanation provides a clearer understanding of our
policies.  Again, I apologize for the problems you encountered.  Your
business is important to us and given the opportunity of serving you in
the future, I am confident Delta will not only meet but exceed your
expectations.

Sincerely,

Mandisa Reid
Coordinator, Customer Care
Delta Air Lines