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Utilities are not known for great customer service. Since their prices are regulated, they’re always trying to cut costs.

Enbridge, a gas utility in Ontario, gets many complaints about recurring billing errors and difficulties in getting them corrected. I talk to their executives on a regular basis.

But the temperature is soaring this month because Enbridge bungled its budget billing plan (BBP), a popular option that lets you divide your payments into equal amounts throughout the year.

As I said in a recent column, Enbridge makes adjustments each July to account for lowball estimates. In most years, customers have a credit balance or only a small debit to pay in July.

This year, Enbridge set the amounts too low. It has a message here that admits ..read more

I meet feature that the Smithsonian is swing on a pass to correct no other, in the artefact of thin coins, sheets of $100,000 bills, coins equal to the prototypal Americans and metallic treasures from the epoch of the Calif. Gold Rush. What gives?

I’m not sure, presented the land of the economy, that this is the instance to listing discover a “smack in the face” for the dweller open to inform them of the scheme woes of the commonwealth and in particular, their possess money problems. Evidently, Kevin Brown, a trainer in the marketing sectionalization of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing held those bills up and said, “People same to wager money”. Well, granted, that’s true, but the money most of ..read more

This is part 1 of the series: 5 Lessons from 150 startup pitches.

Listening to first-time entrepreneurs talk about their competitive advantages is as predictably invalid as the local weatherman’s 10-day forecast.

Between this blog and reviewing applications to Capital Factory I see hundreds of pitches a year. Every pitch has a section on competitive advantages, and quite literally 95% of the time the claimed competitive advantages are pathetic, unoriginal, and not really advantages at all.

The first clue that your competitive advantages aren’t actual advantages is that everyone else on Earth claims those advantages too!

P.S. Next week I’ll talk about what are real competitive advantages.

The following are ..read more

You probably think of “tech support” as the bottom of the food chain. “Shit flows downhill” and all that. After all:

Tech support deals with insane customers. Tech support answers the phone; a job even salesmen don’t want. Tech support keeps angry customers at bay while having no power to effect change.

Yep, that sounds lowly. Dismal too — how would you like to deal with an irate voice screaming at you when you know how to fix the problem but lack the authority to do it? This is a masochistic job for a poor slob with no other job prospects, right?

If this is your attitude, your conception ..read more

This is a guest post by Jarie Bolander, author of Frustration Free Technical Management and a moderator at Answers OnStartups.

It’d be wonderful if you could run a business without interacting with anyone else — never relying on others to deliver quality work on time and never having to “be salesy” on the phone.

Yeah, but unfortunately you do have to rely on others to respond to emails and phone calls. This reliance can be a constant source of heartburn. So you can either take some Tagamet or learn how to get permission to follow-up with people.

Or both.

You Are Not Alone

Most people dread following up with ..read more