Sunday at Best Buy, it took two Best Buy employees and three AT&T employees to come to the conclusion that nothing could be done to add a cell phone for my daughter to our existing Family Talk Plan, because I had Combined Billing (land and wireless lines on the same bill), and the Combined Billing department was not open on Sunday.

Alison and I arrived back at Best Buy at 3:45 pm Monday, and started over. Really started over, because neither Best Buy employee we had dealt with on Sunday was there, and the person who was didn’t seem to pay attention to anything I said and so repeated all the same issues we had Sunday, instead of starting with the Combined Billing department. It appeared that I was more familiar with the web interface to AT&T than she was. After about 20 minutes on hold, she finally got through to a person at Combined Billing. They spent the next five minutes arguing over whose system made more things impossible, until I finally mentioned the concept from the day before of “unbundling” the billing so the line could be added. In the midst of this, we once again changed Best Buy employees, this time for the better.

With the Combined Billing rep on hold, she then contacted another AT&T rep as the multitude of false starts on this seemed to have scrambled their credit approval process. We were finally thinking that my daughter might have her phone AND be on time for work, when the contract appeared on the screen. Instead of being an additional line on the existing plan for $9.99, it was a whole new plan at $39.99. At this point I took Alison to work, and when I got back to the store 30 minutes later, the Best Buy rep was just hanging up with the AT&T rep and printing out the THIRD version of the contract. She also showed me the credits that had been applied to my account to correct the mistaken charges from the first two contracts.

So, over two days, we had four Best Buy Employees, seven AT&T employees, and the two of us. Thirteen!

Oh, and I still have to call Combined Billing back tomorrow and get the billing bundled again…

If you have a customer who already purchases most of your services on a regular basis, you’d want to make it as easy as possible for them to purchase more, right? And you would want them to be quoted the same price no matter who picked up the phone, correct? You certainly wouldn’t want your internal business processes to make it impossible to place another order, would you?

Not the wireless division of the New AT&T, formerly known as Cingular.

My daughter is 15, has had a part-time job for several months, and wanted her own cell phone (that she will be paying for) added to our our Family Plan. We checked the web site and then Alison said she wanted to go to a store and actually look at the phones before deciding on a model. Prices in the store were about $50 higher than online, but the stores would waive the $26 activation fee and offred a $20 rebate if you added a text message package, which Alison wanted. She was about ready to order a RAZR, when she found that the store only stocked them in black. So we decided we would order online from home.

First we made a stop at Best Buy to pick up a gift card for a family birthday party that evening. Best Buy was offering the RAZR FREE with 2 year contract, plus a $50 gift card by mail. The salesperson pointed Alison at the most recent RAZR model which had several additional features and was the color she wanted. Alas, they did not actually have any in stock.

The salesperson returned from the stock cabinet with a Samsung Sync phone with the same colors and features as the RAZR, with the added advantage of being of sturdier construction. I’ve had a Samsung phone for about a year and it has survived many drops with no adverse effects, while Alison has several friends who are on their second and even third RAZRs in that time.

I gave my phone account info to the salesperson, who started the “add a line” procedure on the AT&T web site. The procedure got stuck at step 3 of 6. After several phone calls to AT&T, the problem was determined to be that I had “combined billing”. My landlines, cell phones and DSL service are all on one bill. According to AT&T, I could not add a cell phone line without calling Combined Billing, having them “unbundle” the billing, add the line, and then redo the bundling. After calling that number and winding through a number of menus, the Best Buy salesperson was informed that the Combined Billing office was CLOSED on Sundays.

So we will have to go back to Best Buy on Monday or pay $50 more for the same phone online from AT&T. Or maybe take all 3 cell phones to Sprint and the land lines and internet sevice to Comcast.

Stay tuned…

The Sage MAS 90 & MAS 200 Sales Order module has been enhancing the reporting of Miscellaneous Code item sales in their recent versions. Miscellaneous codes are used for a variety of things, including special labor or service charges, non-stocked items, and fees.

In versions up to 4.05, the Miscellaneous Charge Maintenance program on the Sales Order Setup menu reported Sales, Cost and Gross Profit% for Current-period, YTD and Prior Year. The report option did not allow you to export the data to an excel spreadsheet.

Beginning in version 4.10, the same program has added “returns” figures, and allows you to view these figures by year (2006,2007,etc) and period. Of course, since version 4.10 didn’t arrive until 2006, figures for years prior to 2006 were consolidated into period 12 on the screen or report. You can select the year to review figures by period on the screen or a report. Click the Print icon, and check the Print History Information box for a report version of the information. This version allows you to export the data to an excel spreadsheet.

In version 4.20, another report was added called Miscellaneous Item History by Period. Where is it? Not on the Sales Order Setup menu, but on the new Common Information menu (below Library Master). See the Reports menu under Common Information. It’s the only report on that menu. Selection options for this report allow you to select which figures are printed. It also allows you to select only items with figures above, below, or within a range of units, dollars, gross profit amount, or gross profit %. Now you can export this selected data to an excel spreadsheet.

An Australian study has found that many laser printers emit high levels of small particles that can be harmful to human health, with the highest-emitting machines rivaling the small-particle pollution of cigarette smoke. Some printers are better than others, and even newer models are included. The study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, found that particle emissions varied enormously depending on make, model, and age of the printer, as well as the type and age of the toner cartridge. Newer cartridges emit more particles, as does printing graphic-heavy files. They give a list of printer models tested listing high, mid and non-emitting printers. If you have health concerns or you work in a small enclosed space with a laser printer, you should be aware of this. Try an internet search for “lungs” + “laser printer” and see various articles on this issue.