GoodBuyGuys Blog

American Express announced today of their intention to reduce their work force by 10%, shedding 7000 jobs over the next year.  It’s rarely good to hear about job cuts, and the current downturn in our economy is impacting everybody.

Still, a company as unresponsive and unconcerned about their merchant members as Amex probably needs to trim way back. After all, their 2007 profits were only $3.7 billion!

Maybe those whose jobs survive will show a little more interest in providing good customer service.

You may not be aware that when you place an order at goodbuyguys.com and pay with your American Express card, Amex takes almost 3% of the transaction off the top before they pay the merchant you made the purchase from.  This is a fee they earn in addition to any interest you may pay in carrying a balance from month to month.

While the merchant does get fairly quick payment (4-5 days), the impact of losing a 3% fee has a serious effect on what you pay.  It has to be reflected in the price.

If you have a rewards card that gives you a cash rebate, that rebate comes from the merchant, not from Amex.  Again, if the credit card company is going to give you money back, the merchant you made  your purchase from must factor that rebate into the price of what you purchase.

In exchange for these fees (American Express merchant fees are higher than both Mastercard and Visa) AMEX consistently makes things as complicated as they possibly can for the merchant, making their fee structure almost impossible to interpret.

If you challenge a charge on your card (even if it is valid) AMEX can charge the merchant as much as $20.00 in something called a “chargeback” fee for the merchant to prove the charge is valid, even if they have done nothing wrong.

American Express’s new initiative to cut employee jobs is intended to save the company $1.8 billion dollars in costs in 2009.

Think any of that savings will be passed on to the merchants that keep the company alive?  Don’t count on it!

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Enterainment 1 extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and quality speaker cables.

A recent article in Science News reveals an amazing tape fact.  The simple act of unwinding a roll of tape generates X-Rays.  Not just a few random rays-enough to actually expose a piece of dental x-ray film!

Scientists at UCLA were able to build a simple tape unrolling machine that generated enough X-ray bursts to actually image one of the technicians’ finger bones on an dental photographic plate.

This phenomenon is not completely understood nor is apparent that there is any commercial application for such technology.  A charge is generated when the tape is peeled off the roll.  Sudden jerking of the tape seems to cause electrons in the tape to give off energy in the form of protons.  A slight glow is even generated.

Next time your flashlight batteries go dead, maybe you just need to unwind (really quickly) a roll of duct tape.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Enterainment 1 extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and quality speaker cables. You can occasionally also count on us for some fairly useless, if interesting, information!

There are lots of very exciting things happening in the development of new lighting technologies.  The desire to save energy and use fewer natural resources in lighting manufacturing means that big changes are right around the corner.

General Electric is developing LED lighting technology that makes use of organic compounds that are incorporated into light emitting diodes or OLEDs.  This technology still has lots of problems to solve, but it actually works in the lab.

Sheets of plastic film containing OLEDs  emit a blue-white glow when an electric current is applied.  Because these sheets are flexible, it may be possible someday to  have your wallpaper or ceiling also be your light source.

The OLED panels provide a diffuse lighting source that doesn’t need lamp shades or frosting like a conventional tungsten filament light bulb.  GE and Siemens are already working with manufacturers of devices like cell phones and televisions, even though the cost is still far too great to be practical.  That, no doubt, will surely change.

Meanwhile, anybody who has watched their electrical meter spin at dizzying speeds when all the lights are on, has better days to look forward to.

Want to know more?  Click here!

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Enterainment 1 extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and quality speaker cables.

This blog seems to continually find its way back customer service issues, and I guess that it really is a passion of mine.  Unfortunately, most of my postings address negative customer service issues, but I really enjoy having such a positive experience that it demands to be acknowledged.

I recently had to return my daughter’s digital camera, an Olympus FE230, for service.  She has  become quite a good photographer and was concerned that her camera suddenly seemed to only take”out of focus” photos.

She located Olympus’s online site for customer service and repairs and we shipped the camera off to an Olympus service center.  I’ve been through this sort of thing before, and I was prepared for the usual fist fight-slow or no service, warranty claim denied, six week wait, etc.

I shipped the camera on Monday.  Today is Thursday and she has the camera back in her hands.  That’s right!  In less than 72  the camera had gotten to the service center, been repaired, and returned to us.  They had even made sure that the memory card she mistakenly left in the camera was returned.

In an age when consumer electronics have become disposable items, its great to find a company that stands behind its products and understands how to build customer loyalty.

I’m guessing that there will be something from Olympus under our Christmas tree.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Enterainment 1 extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and quality speaker cables.  Need customer service?  Ask for Jeff Harrison by name! (that’s me)

I recently came across an interesting article in Stage Directions magazine and it leads to a discussion that we need to be a part of.

The article, by Mike Lawler, features Gideon Banner of the Green Theatre Initiative .  It is one that anybody involved in using or selling expendables to the theatre industry needs to pay attention to.

To date, the green theatre movement has primarily focused on infrastructure and on conservation.  Its great that new theatre facilities building is taking into consideration concepts like solar lighting, water conversation, and environmentally sustainable construction techniques.  Unfortunately, it takes generations for these sorts of changes to work their way through the system.  Theatre buildings last for decades, and quite often they are not able to easily be upgraded in an environmentally responsible way, even if funding is available.

More immediate results can be realized from simple conservation techniques.  Upgrading lighting fixtures to LED technology, using more efficient sound system components and addressing wasteful uses of energy and water are something that every theatre facility can address every day.

My concern, honestly, is how this green movement will impact our own business.  It is regrettable that the nature of expendables means that a lot of what we sell will end up in the landfill at the end of the show.  You can’t reuse tape, and rechargeable battery technology has not reached the point where sound techs are willing to trust them in wireless microphones.

We are always on the lookout for reusable solutions for cable management and we are working with Sanyo on their Eneloop rechargeable battery line in hopes of offering this product to our customers who buy batteries for wireless mics.

We are anxious to be part of the dialog and I welcome your comments.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Enterainment 1 extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and quality speaker cables.