| MS Small Biz Sp...'s profileMicrosoft Certified Smal...PhotosBlogLists |  Tools  Help |
|
December 29 MyRebates411.com and Encore -Who, Where and Where is my rebate!
I picked up a Encore mini router this fall to toss in my bag as it is a router, an Access Point and a Wireless network card all in one which should have made for a nice little tech tool. The product itself is ok, a bit quirky but does what it says and for the price you can't beat it. Considering DLink sells the same device with their logo I figured it had to be somewhat workable. The price was great considering it had a $20 rebate offer making total cost at my door something like $25 however getting the rebate has been impossible. The rebate offer was being handled by a company called MyRebates411.com and I guess I should have done a bit of searching about them before buying as there is web page after web page of people complaining of no rebates, no responses, slow rebates and more when it comes to the company. I myself have written my state AG, the CA AG, the LA County BBB, Encore, MyRebates411 and the online store I purchased the product concerning my issues getting a $20 rebate. Well I did some digging as to who these guys are and by all appearances Encore and MyRebates411.com are related in some shape or form as well as a company called Sapphire Technology. In doing all the digging I came up with various contact info, registrations, BBB complaints and so forth so I thought I'd put everything in one place for any of you who happen to have a similar problem with these guys. I will say if you do have a rebate problem first step is to contact the place you purchased the product and let them know about the problem as they may just step up and handle it plus they need to be away that one of the vendors they are using is not honoring their promises. So anyway here ya go:
Reference Links: http://maximumpc.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=557583&sid=782851cd95c1fe4749900e64a9de52c3 http://www.labbb.org/BBBWeb/Forms/Business/CompanyReportPage_Expository.aspx?CompanyID=100041957 http://www.lavote.net/CLERK/FBN_Results.cfm http://www.encore-usa.com/index.php?function=contact&lang= http://kepler.ss.ca.gov/corpdata/ShowAllList?QueryCorpNumber=C1784337&printer=yes For reference just do your own Google: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=myrebates411+complaint Good Luck! December 21 How to Join a Windows Media Center PC to a Domain
If you have tried joining a Windows MCE PC to a domain you quickly found out you couldn't do it unless you did it during the actual OS load process. There has been a pretty lengthy "hack" for fixing this called the 'Banana Hack' which does work but as I said it's pretty lengthy. Here is a quicker 10 step process that has worked for me just fine.
On reboot you should be able to go through the normal Join Domain process however if you are on SBS and use the Connect Computer function you will probably find the system joins the domain but the client information is not migrated from the local account to the new domain account so you will have to do a manual migrate of that information. December 20 You cannot use the Windows SBS 2003 client deployment tools to join a Windows Vista-based computer to a Windows SBS network
SYMPTOMSYou try to use the Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 (Windows SBS) client deployment tools to join a Windows Vista-based computer to a Windows SBS network. However, when you click Connect to the network now on the Network Configuration Web page, you receive the following error message even though you are already logged on as a local administrator: The Small Business Server Networking Wizard was not installed. You may not be a member of the local Administrators security group on this computer or your Local Intranet security settings may be set to High. Click Connect to the network now to try again and click Yes when prompted. If the wizard fails to install, contact the person responsible for your network Also, when you click Connect to the Network, and then you enable the ActiveX control when you are prompted by the Internet Explorer information bar, a dialog box is displayed that contains the following message: Run the wizard to complete networking setup However, the wizard does not appear. December 13 Microsoft Exec Says He Would Buy a MacIn “a 2004 email from Jim Allchin to Steve Balmer and Bill Gates in which he says Microsoft had lost sight of what customers need and that he himself would buy a Mac, if he didn't work for Microsoft.” What’s happening in Iowa is very news worthy but more importantly the statements made by Allchin could easily be translated to how consultants and tech's run their own business. Have you lost sight of what the customer wants in your desire to upgrade them till eternity? Is it my way or the highway to your customers or do you listen then truly work with the customer to find a solution that fits their needs, not yours? Allchin goes one to say “I think our teams lost sight of … really understanding what the most important problems our customers face are.” Boy if that doesn’t ring a bell with statements I made to my former employer and for that matter a couple of them. It’s not about selling and installing the latest tech, pushing SBS because you’re an SBS shop, “we don’t support Win98 because MS doesn’t”, it’s about sitting down with your customer and finding out just what they need to run their business. You may have a standard install of SBS, XP and a Terminal Server but then you pick up a customer that has worked for years without such a setup and it works for them, they are happy, they are making money, do you move them to your “standard install” in the process causing them downtime, lost revenue as well as paying for your services which they really didn’t want or do you look at all the options (not that I’m picking on a certain SBSC that shall remain nameless)? I'm not going to get into the whole legal issues surrounding this case as you can read and make your own call on this or read any of the number of sites having a field day with this. The case is there for you to read about but when doing so don't just read it to see how Microsoft is doing in the case but read it to see how it may relate to the way you do business no matter if you are a Tech Shop or a roofer. Do you LISTEN to your customers? |
|
|
