Dani 3.0

If you’ve visited my site lately, you may have noticed a new addition to the right sidebar – a Send a Card Now graphic is now residing under my cute little Twitter bird.

That, my friends, will take you to an introduction to my new business.

I first found out about the SendOutCards service when I served as an alternate for my husband at his BNI group. After hearing the 45-second presentation that the SendOutCards rep gave (ironically, also an alternate that day), I chased her into the parking after the meeting to tell her that was the most brilliant thing I had ever heard of.

So what did she say? Basically that I could send real greeting cards from my computer. Cards that I designed with my own photos, logos, graphics, etc., or I could use one of their over 17,000 stock cards. I could import my contacts and send cards immediately, or schedule them. And I could even add gifts (brownies!!) or gift cards. If I liked someone else’s design, I could ask them to share it (something I’ve taken advantage of a lot!) And even customized, it was less than I would spend for a Hallmark card. I immediately thought of the possibilities – what this would mean to not only people wanting to keep in touch with loved ones and friends, but of business people that wanted to maintain and deepen relationships with their clients. And what this could mean for me, one of those people who fell into both categories.

I liked the idea of finally remembering my nieces and nephews’ birthdays. (I have 13 of them so keeping track of them is difficult.) The system will remind me ahead of time that a birthday is coming up, or if I’m really enterprising, I can go in and schedule a card with a gift card for all of them.

I also liked the idea of being able to reach out to someone on a whim, and let them know I was thinking of them. (I mean, really, how many times a week do you think, “I should call my mom.”? Or send someone a birthday, sympathy, or congratulations card. All the time, right? I know I do. But even if I actually remember to go and buy the card and stamps, half the time I forget to send the darned thing.)

I checked it out. I found out that not only could I use the product, but that I could make money by letting other people know about it. I would have done that for free – after all, it’s what I do on this blog, right? Let you all know about cool software, websites and gadgets. But making money off of a recommendation is always nice.

After about three months of due diligence that included attending one of the Treat ‘Em Right seminars, I was satisfied that this business opportunity was legitimate. By then I had also used the system to send out cards and I was impressed with the software (although there’s always room for improvement. You know me – no software is ever perfect.) I had also viewed tens of cards, and received quite a few, so I could vouch for the quality of the cards and the speed in which they were sent (within 24 hours of being created.)

So why did I take so long to apply for a license to represent SendOutCards? I was very cognizant of the fact that I have worked hard to get, and maintain, a good reputation. If I was going to associate my name with a product or company, I would have to be assured of a first-class experience for myself, for my customers, and for the team of distributors that I plan on building. There were many things that assured me along the way – from the excellent customer service to the fact that there’s no obligation to either distributors or customers. Anytime you want to quit, you can. From the website. (I can’t even do that with my Ancestry account. I have to call someone if I don’t want to continue. That really chaps my hide.)

Anyway, if you’re interested in knowing more and you have 3 1/2 minutes, click the envelope to watch the video. I’m a big believer in trying before you buy, so after watching the video, send a couple of free cards by clicking the Send a Free Card button.

It’s really free, there are no strings attached, nobody will spam you (although I will follow up with you) and it gives you a chance to try the system and send a customized card as well as a stock card. Most importantly, though, it lets you surprise someone with an unexpected greeting card. And it’s free, which is good, because you can’t put a price tag on that.

Back in August, our family needed two laptops. It was a complicated affair, involving two different vendors (one of which was Amazon), and then a laptop swap among family members. Lots of details, complicated by the fact that both vendors sent me defective units that had to be replaced.

After dealing with all the back and forth, wiping one of the new laptops that had already been partially set up, processing the returns, setting up the new computers, and wiping and setting up my existing laptop, there was a lot to oversee on this end.

So it wasn’t until the next month that we noticed something odd. Amazon had refunded our $399 for the defective laptop but never debited us for the new one. So being honest folks, we contacted Amazon to let them know – and then had to argue with them to convince them to take their money back. The conversation was a bit difficult as it was obvious that English wasn’t the first language of the customer service rep, but eventually, logic prevailed and the cs rep agreed to have billing call us.

So imagine my chagrin when I awoke this morning, less than 24 hours later, to find my account overdrawn because Amazon had charged my account.

So no, I’m not happy. I was happy for them to get their money – why else would I have contacted them? – but I wanted to speak to someone first to confirm that they in fact hadn’t received payment before funding my account with the money.

Contacting them to point out the error was the right thing to do, and I don’t regret it, but I sure would like to see them do the right thing and cover my overage fees for what, in my mind, was an unauthorized transaction.