adamyntium

Category: business and consumers

  • Keypoint Credit Union and 24 Hour Fitness Customer Service FAILs

    I was carelessly logging into my Keypoint Credit Union account online today, and messed up three times.  BAM—with no prior notice at all, I was locked out of my account.

    What would most normal banks do under this circumstance?

    • Require me to answer additional questions that ideally only I would know before allowing me to try logging in again.
    • Or throw up a captcha.
    • Or, at worst, make me wait [x] minutes before allowing me to log in.

    Keypoint?  They make you call.  Here’s what I had to do when I phoned in:
    – Listen to a welcome announcement
    – Navigate through a phone tree
    – Enter in lots of data (social security info, phone numbers, home address, etc.)
    – Wait for an agent (thankfully not long).
    – Wait for the agent—I kidd you not—to put me on hold while he updated my records to show there was no change in my info.

    All in all, a bit over four minutes.  Hardly the end of the world, but a not-insignificant annoyance… particularly if I had been overseas, not near a phone, etc.

    So, the $100,000 FDIC Insured Question:  Why couldn’t I have simply been asked to Prove I’m Me… online?  Sheesh.

    *  *  *

    And now for something even sillier.

    I’ve been a member of 24 Hour Fitness for more nearly a decade.  I love my gym at work, but I enjoy being able to take fitness classes on the weekend and such.  So when I learned that 24 Hour Fitness was building a swankier gym literally around the corner from the existing somewhat-cramped gym, I was pretty excited.  Building, building… done!

    This past Sunday I admirably dragged myself out of bed, gym bag in tow… and here’s the entertaining (and somewhat baffling) conversation I had with the front desk staffer and the (apparent) manager who walked on over.

    ME:  Good morning [handed him my 24 Hour Fitness card]
    STAFFER:  Hi.  [Scans card.  Pauses, with confused look…]  Hmm, are you a member?
    ME:  Um, yes.  [pointed to card still in his hand, which also had my photo on the back of it].
    STAFFER:  But… but… hmm… your membership isn’t good here.
    ME:  Yeah, I have a Sport membership, not a Super Sport [rolling eyes invisibly], but I brought this 7 day trial pass. [I hand him the pass].  I’ve thought of upgrading.
    STAFFER:  Er… erg… hmm. [looks at paper, turns it over to the blank side, then back over to the unblank side and literally scratches head]
    MANAGER:  Hi, can I help you?  [Staffer mumbles confusedly, hands him paper; Manager looks at computer screen]
    STAFFER:  Oh, you’re in luck! [Yes, he seriously opened with this line with a straight face] You have a Sport membership, and this is a Super Sport gym, so you’re not eligible to work out here.  But I can have someone walk you around the corner—we have a Sport gym there for you!
    ME:  But I logged into my 24 Hour Fitness account online and printed out a trial pass for this gym.  Just wanted to try it out, maybe upgrade and…
    STAFFER:  [shaking head] No, no… sorry, that was last week.  Um, we had the open house last week.  It ended.  But here, let me have someone show you the other gym…
    ME:  Er, but what about the pass?
    STAFFER:  You’re a member, right?
    ME:  Yes [pointing to my membership card which was in the hand of a still-rather-confused staffer]
    STAFFER:  That’s the thing.  That pass [pointing to tiny print] is only good for non-members.
    ME:  So, for the past 4 months, you’ve had flyers up urging members to upgrade, but now we can’t check out the new…er, nevermind, I’ll just head over to the other gym.  Thanks!

    *  *  *

    I’m thinking about quitting my membership.  The classes aren’t even that great, and I’m embarrassed to be giving my money to a company that’s so consistently clueless.

  • Doing an expense report for work? Here are some tips

    I recently traveled to Brazil and Mexico for work.  That’s damn cool, I admit.  I’m lucky to have that opportunity, grateful to meet so many wonderful people on my journeys and see so many awesome sights.

    But, as with many things in life, there’s also a downside.  In this case, I am owed thousands of dollars in hotel, airfare, meal charges, etc., so—of course—I need to file an expense report.  And doing that in three different currencies is no fun, no fun at all.

    Procrastinating this effort even further, I just wrote up a blog entry on my company’s internal blog system, but then I realized… heck, maybe others could benefit from my tips.  So without further ado, here they are 😀

    • Sweat the small stuff.  “Oh, it’s just a $4 coffee and energy bar!” er, it all adds up, trust me!  Keep track of this.  Along these lines, don’t forget to take into account (and expense) ATM surcharges, reasonable tips (which may not show up on your receipt), etc.
    • Put as much stuff as you can credit cards.  On the downside, this’ll likely result in an extra 1-3% fee when you are outside your home country, but… you’ll often get extra protections (such as lost luggage assistance, purchase protection, etc.) and as noted above you’ll have backup evidence of expenses in case any of your receipts are lost or stolen.  It also gives you an extra 30-6o days to cover the bills (and get your money back from your company!), which is especially important if you’re on a tight personal budget!
    • Write down a quick note after every expense, e.g., “Sat Sep 20 dinner, incl 2 colleagues, 1 partner $R152, on Amex.” Note the pertinent details here: the when, what event, who, how $much, and on what card (or “cash”).  Add this to an “Expenses” note in your Blackberry or iPhone, or on a handy notecard in your wallet, etc.  I can’t tell you how much I’m frustrated with myself for overlooking this to-do this trip; now I’m having to piece together, er, which was the dinner where I treated a friend (my expense) or took along a colleague (Google’s expense), etc. I’ll get it right, but it’ll take a lot of extra time.
    • File your expenses in a timely manner.  Wait too long and you might not even get your money! (there are actually tax laws about this!) But even waiting an “acceptable” amount of time… you forget stuff.  Some receipts may have gotten misplaced in the interim.  Don’t risk it.
    • Be smart about currency values.  If you’ve been somewhere that has a rapidly fluctuating currency, use reasonable conversion rates from the days you converted your native currency, using your credit card and ATM charges as a guide. Don’t just go on xe.com (admittedly a very cool currency exchange site) and plug in the single conversion number you see today; you could be substantially cheating your company or cheating yourself :-(.

    Hope these tips have been helpful 😀

  • A very quick found-money tip

    Earlier this week I spent about 45 seconds and got $134 for my effort.

    It went something like this:

    1. Phone rang.  Didn’t recognize number, and was going to let it go to voicemail, but for some reason I answered it.
    2. “Hi, may I speak with Adam?” [oh no… not a telemarketer!  I braced myself.]
    3. “This is Angela from [dental group], and I wanted to let you know it’s time for your teeth cleaning…”
    4. I explained that I had moved and was getting my teeth cleaned by another dentist.
    5. “Oh!  Well, there’s a $134 credit on your account.  Would you like me to send it to you?”
    6. Three days later, I found a check for $134 in my mailbox.

    Why am I sharing this story with you?  Well, you see, this got me to thinking.  Maybe there are other people who have changed dentists or banks or optometrists, that sort of thing.  And maybe they’re owed money, too.

    Perhaps it’s worth checking for a check, eh? 😀

    – A public service message from your local BLADAM

  • Airlines charging by the pound (including your personal weight); good idea?

    My friend Greg and I just had a fascinating and extensive discussion about the concept of airlines charging their customers by the weight of their bodies + luggage.

    The way we envisioned it, all airlines tickets would be composed of exactly two fees: a seat fee (fixed) and a weight fee (variable).  This is hardly our original idea; I’ve seen similar suggestions pondered on the web before.  But nonetheless, I thought it’d be interesting to reflect upon some implementation ideas as well as pros and cons.

    Implementation

    • Get estimates up front.
      Ask for estimated weight in airfare comparison sites and airline sites to avoid shock and extra processing work at the airport.

    • Get money up front.
      Collect money for seat fee plus weight fee upon booking.  Offer a refund for cases in which people overestimate their weight.  Levy strong surcharges (e.g., 25%) for those who significantly underestimate their weight.

    • Be discreet about each individual’s weight.
      Present a total of person-weight + luggage-weight, or even just a surcharge total.

    • Price the weight fee as a pound/kilogram per mile.
      This makes sense, since extra weight costs more on a long trip than a short trip.

    • Incorporate increases and decreases in fuel costs into the $/weight charge.
      Instead of levying a separate fuel surcharge, airlines could simply increase the $/weight charge on all their flights (e.g., from $1.20 per pound-mile to $1.42 per pound mile).

    • Avoid pissing off frequent flyers re: mileage points
      Grandfather in earlier ticket purchases, and for a limited time let people redeem the same number of points for the same class of flights as before.  After that, charge something like 15,000 miles for a round trip flight (instead of 25K) + weight fee, or 25,000 miles for a round trip flight inclusive of [x] pounds/kilograms.  Establish a ratio so that for the average or median flyer, they’ll get exactly the same $/point(mile) as before.

    Benefits / pros

    • Greater fairness in charges
      People who are light-weight (in body and/or luggage) will no longer subsidize those whose bulk costs the airlines appreciably more in fuel expenses.

    • Greater incentive to pack light
      This in turn may reduce luggage handling costs (fewer people and machines and conveyor belts needed) and decrease luggage delivery delays.  It’s also likely to reduce the cramping of overhead space in planes.

    • Possible extra push for people to lose weight
      Especially those folks who are both obese and frequent travelers will be incentivized to lose weight.  This will contribute to their health, and also the comfort of those flying next to them.

    • Potential optimization in seating
      Particularly if airlines request both person-weight and luggage-weight estimates from passengers, they could theoretically optimize seating for safety, fuel efficiency, and comfort (e.g., not placing too large people next to each other).

    • A potentially big revenue boost in Q4 for airlines
      Given the carriage of Thanksgiving food and Christmas gifts, airlines could see a nice bump in their income in November and December.

    Disadvantages / cons

    • A huge outcry from privacy advocates
      People might be loathe to tell airlines how much they weight, and would likely be equally horrified at having to step on scales in front of others at the airport.

    • Uncertainty of final ticket price
      Many people—especially those barely scraping enough cash together for a family vacation—might be frustrated by the uncertainty of airfare prices and/or stunned and dismayed by weight overage fees levied at the airport.

    • Greater inefficiencies at the airport
      The last thing we all want is MORE delays at the airport.  Imagine the extra time required to weight every single passenger and assess extra charges (or issue refunds)… particularly to those without credit cards (yes, I know it’s hard to imagine, but there are apparently people who pay cash or write checks even for things like airfare!).

    • Claims of discrimination and unfairness
      I bet we all have at least one friend who is quite obese… perhaps even obese and financially challenged.  I can imagine that many of these folks would simply be unable to afford flying to visit family and friends with the imposition of weight fees.

    • A potential mess online
      Ultimately, it doesn’t seem that it’d be so outlandish for airfare comparison sites and airline sites to ask for folks’ weight and—using airline-provided $/weight numbers—provide total estimated costs for each flight fare inquiry.  But at least initially, there’d likely be a lot of confusion and havoc.

    *  *  *

    Are weight-surcharges a good idea?  Do you think the airlines would be able to successfully implement them?  And have I forgotten any key pros or cons?

    I’d love to hear your thoughts on this 😀

  • Tipping online — Stupid or brilliant or both?

    Have you heard about TipJoy and the still-very-small phenomena of tipping (real money) on the web?

    It’s quite fascinating, in my opinion, and I certainly have very mixed feelings on this issue.

    PLUSES:

    • I admire how the founder gets “out there” to talk about his service… but not only about his service. 
    • I think there’s a true need to reward outstanding authors/contributors on the web with real money, and I think tipping is better than huge ad clutter / massively off-topic ads.
    • In particular, I love the idea of tipping in the context of supporting artists and art online.  Give me great MP3s, and then give me a culture in which MANY of us offer tips… even $2-7/album, which’d be WAY more than the artist would normally get via CDs or iTunes, etc.
    • TipJoy is pretty easy to use.
    • The fees seem reasonable.

    MINUSES:

    • I hate tipping as an institution overall, at least in the “real” world.  Hate hate hate it!  Why shouldn’t people just be paid a decent living wage? By extension, then, one could argue… why shouldn’t bloggers and artists online just be able to charge an honest fee for their work?  The answer, of course, is that too many of us are freetards, if you’ll forgive the nickname I’ve stolen from Fake Steve Jobs.  We expect, no, we DEMAND content / entertainment / information for free.  Frankly, that in itself seems horribly messed up, but I digress.
    • TipJoy, and indeed, tipping on the web on the whole hasn’t gotten anywhere near the—no pun intended—tipping point.  People aren’t gonna tip unless they see many other people tipping.  So it makes me feel, sheesh, does my 10cent tip mean anything at all?  The fact that TipJoy now offers tippers the option to broadcast their donations is a step in the right direction (Friendfeed does this as well), but it’s nonetheless a small step.
    • It’s still not seamless.  With TipJoy—one of the more fluid / well-set-up services, IMHO—you still have to sign up for an account, fund the account… and to fund it, you still have to use (at least for now) the evil PayPal.  Blech 🙁

    *  *  *

    Don’t just read, do!  Give it a try 😀
    Clicking the button at the bottom of this post will establish for you sort of an “IOU” of, well, 20 cents (TipJoy will, I believe, ask you to pay up via PayPal when you’ve tipped a total of $5 around the web).

    What do you think?
    Anyway, even more than your donations, I look forward to hearing your thoughts about not only TipJoy, but also the idea of tipping on the web.  Do you think it will ever become popular?  If so, what will need to happen in order to make it an oft-used part of the web economy?

  • Dear PayPal – Please shrivel up and die

    I like paying for things with a credit card.  It’s typically pretty fast (especially with those merchants that don’t require a signature for
    <$25 purchases). It's secure. And I earn travel rewards for every dollar I spend. So when it comes to the occasional purchase online that I can only buy via PayPal I cringe. Why? Because PayPal really really really doesn’t want me to pay with a credit card, and they’ll harrass me about this during every checkout, creating a user-hostile experience each and every time I use their dog-forsaken service. A friend recently lamented that it took eight clicks for them to buy something on PayPal.  That sounds about right.  You see, PayPal defaults users to paying from their bank account… so we have to search for a tiny “more funding options” link and then select the credit card, then be subjected to a long whiny please “Are you absolutely positively sure that you don’t want to pay from your bank account?  It’s really a better option yadda yadda yadda…” followed by a charmingly shifting yes/no set of buttons.

    Look, PayPal, I want to pay by credit card.  I’ve told you this more than a dozen times.  I’ve also read/skimmed/ignored your stupid please-don’t-pay-by-credit-card notice more than a dozen times.  And, by the way, I’m well aware that you already pass on extra associated charges to your merchants when buyers pay by credit card.

    So SOD OFF!  Either let me set “pay by credit card” in my preferences somewhere, or leave me the frack alone.

    In the meantime, I’m hoping you go out of business, to be replaced by a company that doesn’t repeatedly spit on its users.

    ADDENDUM / DISCLAIMERS:
    – I work for Google, which offers a somewhat-competing service called Google Checkout. I use and like that service, but am not part of the Checkout team.
    – My anger towards PayPal may seem heavy given the seemingly light-transgression described above.  But it’s just the last straw.  PayPal has a history of thumbing its corporate nose at its users, and I’ve had the displeasure of using PayPal for many years as a buyer and seller on ebay.

  • Paradox of choice

    I’m not a crazy athlete, but I like working out at the gym and also dancing a few times a week.

    Finding good dance shoes wasn’t so hard for me.  I got personal recommendations from some of my lindy hopping friends, and was also delighted that the friendly folks at dancestore.com were happy to offer personalized suggestions over the phone.  For the record (and now from personal experience), I recommend that all lindy hoppers get this dance sneaker; it makes turning and spinning a breeze.

    But I’m having a much harder time finding good cross-training and running shoes.  I’ve had good luck with New Balance shoes in the past, but it’s hard to find a good selection of ‘em locally in my size, so I decided to go online.  Sure enough, via Amazon.com or Zappos and undoubtedly countless other sites, I have a choice of zillions of shoes.  And that would be okay if there was some help filtering… but there’s not! 😮

    Yes, you can do a search and narrow down by technology, but you end up having to do sets of half a dozen clicks repeatedly to decipher the meaning of brandspeak features (NBZip, Abzorb, etc.), and then lots of clicking back and so on.

    I want one of the following:
    – A nice wizard that asks me what I want to do with the shoes (running, walking, activities that require lateral stability like kickboxing, etc.), lets me specify a price range, style type, etc., and then recommends a set of shoes for me.
    – A comprehensive table (in HTML, Flash, PDF, I don’t care) that shows a list of shoes, approximate street prices, features, target activity, etc.

    Because right now, let me tell you, I’m tempted to say $#!* it and just stick with my current trusty shoes and go do something more fun like, oh, floss my teeth or relabel my matchbook collection or lock myself in a closet with Vanna White night after night after night.  In other words, New Balance, NO SALE FOR YOU.

    Major brands, listen up.  In this world of an increasingly crazy amount of choices, you need to do the following if you want to remain competitive:
    – Make your content FINDABLE by people and search engines.
    – Make it ACCESSIBLE so, for instance, I can look up stats on your shoes on my phone when I’m at the local sports store with too-busy or ignorant salesfolks.
    – Make the info DIGESTIBLE so I can learn what I need to know and make informed decisions
    – Make the damn thing EASY TO BUY, but I’m guessing you’ve heard that enough times already from other frustrated bloggers.
    – Offer outstanding SUPPORT post-sale.
    – Give me ONGOING INFO but only when and how I want it (customized e-mail newsletters that I can easily unsubscribe from, RSS feeds, etc.)

    *  *  *

    In the meantime, if anyone knows of a good athletic shoe guide or chart and such, let me know :-D.

    Oh, and watch this video on The Paradox of Choice.  I had the pleasure of hearing this fellow at a Google TechTalk; Professor Schwartz is an engaging speaker and absolutely spot-on in his commentary.

    (it’s even close captioned!)

  • An example of (usually) effective communications

    I recently joined an interesting little aggregator / life-streaming sort of service called FriendFeed.  I’m finding both the service and the customer service to be admirable.  Here’s a recent set of comments on their support list from one of the founders:

    That is a very good point […] this was unintended […] This was a bad decision, and we will undo it promptly today.  Thanks for bringing this to our attention.


    And then soon after:

    This issue has been fixed and pushed [live to production]

    This, typically along with other communications from the company, contains several core components of what I feel is (typically) effective customer service communications.  The note…

    – Thanks the user for the feedback.
    – Acknowledges the problem.
    – Expresses regret.
    – Specifies action that will be taken.
    – Confirms the action, reiterates the appreciation, and closes the loop.

    Or, more succinctly, here’s an often-good cycle for similar situations:  Thank, Acknowledge, Apologize, Promise, Provide closure.

    So why don’t more companies communicate in this way?

    • As companies grow, particularly into mass markets, their users may not be reasonable or respectful.  This makes it harder to diagnose and communicate.
    • Also as companies grow, this type and tone of support becomes less doable.  Personal responses from those who are actually doing the coding certainly doesn’t scale, and responses from intermediaries may end up being little more than canned responses.
    • Acknowledging a mistake can—especially in the charmingly litigious culture of America—lead to additional liability from shareholders, angry/greedy customers, etc.
    • Sometimes the problem and/or the next steps are not inherently clear.  Saying, “We’re not yet sure if this is a problem, and are not sure if/when we can change the behavior” is likely not to play well in Peoria.

    So given an “ideal” and the challenges listed above, what might be some good common ground for customer-service-oriented communications?

    • Acknowledge receipt of the message.  
    • Manage expectations (don’t promise a response if you can’t deliver).
    • If you have automated, non-1:1 support offerings, make them effective and delighting rather than cold and cumbersome.
    • Remember that, for a wide swath of your users, English is not their mother tongue.  
    • In correspondence, use your name.  Even a first name is a start.  
    • Empower your users to help each other.  Don’t just put a forum, cultivate a community.  And give love to your superusers!

    What are your thoughts on customer-service communications?  What do you love?  What do you hate?  What are some companies that are doing it right?

    P.S.—A little welcome-back note for myself.  I’ve been working on a really comprehensive and reasonably “deep” article to post here or on my upcoming wiki, but haven’t found the time to put it all together.  So I’ve kept putting off resurrecting my blog, hesitating to post something too fluffy or flippant or insufficiently deep, yadda yadda yadda.  That’s not very blogger like, is it?  Not everything can be a masterpiece.  And I’m sick of my micro-blogging efforts being used as a substitute for chatting with you loyal readers here, even if the conversation’s gonna be a bit more on the bite-sized level.

    P.P.S.—You can find me as “ThatAdamGuy” on FriendFeed. 😀

  • Second Life doesn’t want me as a member

    A while back, I tried Second Life and wrote about it.

    Many months went by, and—after getting a new graphics card—I figured, hey, why not try Second Life again?

    I actually remembered my old SL name though wasn’t sure of the password.  Guessed a couple of times, wasn’t able to log in, so I clicked on the Forgot Password link.  Ah ha… I knew the answer to that secret question, got a link to reset my password, and figured I was all good to go.

    Except that I still couldn’t log in.  I waited a few hours and tried again, but still no-go.

    This, indeed, was just the beginning of my ridiculous adventure.

    As any responsible consumer would do, I scoured the SL wiki and help docs.  Nothing pertaining to my situation.

    Ah ha!  A forum!  I’ll go on there and look for info, perhaps even post a plea.  But, of course, I wasn’t allowed to even read the forum without logging in… and since I couldn’t log in (duh!), well, no forum for me.

    So at this point, it was clear that I had done all I could on my end and it was time for me to e-mail support.  No e-mail address (understandable), but I saw there was a way to file a ticket for help.  Just sign in and… aaaaaaaaaagh!

    Persistent bugger that I am, I actually registered a SECOND Second Life account (does that make it a Third Life?  Nevermind), just so I could file a ticket, asking for my first account to be unlocked or whatever.  It was a pain-in-the-ass process (no, I do NOT want to decorate another avatar!), but I finally managed to log in and fill out a help ticket.

    Three days later (in fairness, it was over the long weekend), I got a response:

    Greetings,

    Thank you for contacting Second Life customer relations. In order to assist you with your request, I will need some more information about the [account-name] account.?

    [secret question removed] (the security question you selected)

    When you have verified this information, I will be able to reset your password so you can log in.

    Regards,
    Rowan Linden

    *  *  *

    YAY!  This was clearly the home stretch!  All I had to do was reply back with my answer and… oh, wait a minute: “THIS IS AN AUTOMATED RESPONSE, PLEASE DO NOT DIRECTLY REPLY TO THIS EMAIL.”  In all caps, no less. 

    I clicked on the link to update the ticket, which—surprise surprise—brought me to a login screen.  Which, for whatever reason, I was not able to login with my Third Life credentials, so I had no way of replying to the customer service person.

    But lo and behold, what’s this?  A 1-800 number on the login page!  Dog had mercy on my soul… and I dialed the digits eagerly.  Yep, “Welcome to Second Life…”

    “…Please note that we have discontinued phone support.  Please go to http://www.secondlife.com…”

    I give up.  I really don’t need any more distractions in my First Life anyway.

  • Would "Required Donation" work?

    I am an avid fan—and financial supporter—of KQED, the Bay Area’s public radio station.  And once again, I’ve been massively annoyed by the most recent (and seemingly monthly) pledge drive.

    A few thoughts have sprung up into my head:

    • Damn, this sucks.
    • I already donated; why do I have to continue to listen to this?!
    • Wouldn’t it be awesome if somehow those people who donated got to hear actual programming, not the pledge drives?
    • I hope those regular listeners who can afford to donate but haven’t end up with a flock of bloated pigeons presenting a large splattery “gift” on their cars.  Daily.

    As I continued to think about this situation—independent of the actual technical constraints associated with limiting the broadcast to only paying members—I felt a bit guilty… recognizing that not everyone could afford to be a member at even the basic $40-a-year level.

    But what if…

    What if KQED—again, ignoring the technical constraints—could somehow be made to be broadcast only to members… but people could become members for as little as a penny a year.

    That’s right.  In order to become a member and hear the broadcast, you’d have to do this every year:
    – Fill out a form (online or on paper)
    – Pay something.  Anything.  Even a penny.

    Perhaps the station could propose membership tiers or a “suggested” donation; how about, for instance, 1/10th of 1% (1/1000th) of your household’s pre-tax annual income.  Single folks making $80,000 a year, for instance, would pay $80/year—or less than 22 cents a day.

    Or maybe the station’d just leave payment completely up to each individual’s discretion, like this coffee shop in Seattle. (incidentally, I’m pretty sure I thought of this “required donation” idea before I read about Terra Bite, but no doubt it placed a reminder in my head :-P)

    *  *  *

    While this idea is technically infeasible for standard over-the-air broadcasts, I’m wondering if it has ever been tried for software or Web site tools or content libraries.  Oh, sure, I’ve seen lots of “donationware” (“Please… if you use this, consider donating something”).  But I have never seen any service or product require a payment but not require a specific amount.

    My questions for you:

    1. Have you ever seen this tried?  If so, did you actually pay for the service or product? 
    2. Do you think the implementation of this idea by people or companies would result in them making more money or less… compared to either A) Giving away the product, but requesting a donation   and   B) Charging a fixed amount?
    3. Think of your favorite content-based Web site (besides this one)… a blog, an online zine, etc.  If they required payment (with even a penny qualifying), would you become a member?  Why or why not?
    4. Think of a favorite software program or online tool that you currently do not pay for.  Would you pay for it under this sort of “donation required” plan?  Why or why not?