Work from Home With a Real Job!

   Let me start off by saying that I am not promising to make you rich or that you will make thousands by sending a few emails or placing some links.  No those are scams.  Anything that seems to good to be true likely is.  Think about it if they were real wouldn't everyone be doing it?

   No, this is not a get rich quick scheme and it's probably not what you would expect from a work from home experience.  But it is a real honest work that you can do from your own home.   I have been working from home   for over a year now and I love it!  As a home based customer service rep I was able to cut my communte down from an hour to the time it takes me to walk downstairs and turn on my computer.  

  Yes I get to work in my jammies and slippers but no unfortunatly not something you can do with a baby in your lap or a toddler who needs constant supervision.  It does require a non ancient computer, a land line with unlimited long distance, and either cable or dsl internet .   You also will need two headsets one for your phone and a usb headset for you computer.  You have to be somewhat comfortable with the internet and beable to manipulate multiple windows at one time.  If you have a customer service background this is perfect for you!

  

 is partnered with many large corporations in the US and now in canada too.  As a customer care professional you serve one of their clients taking inbound calls.    You are typically on the phone taking calls your entire shift.   You are paid per hour not per call and you typically have a set schedule every week.  

While you are working from home you are not on your own you are provided with access to a support team that can help you.  The company  encourages open communication and beleives that if you come to work you should be free to have fun doing it.   From virtual social gatherings, to friendly competitions, to nightly countdowns to end of shift we are encouraged to get to know our team mates and our support staff. 

  

 provides a top of the line training program that teaches you not only the clients policies and systems but best practices and helps you utilize all of your resources. 

    If you would like more information check out

and feel free to email me

I am an employee of Alpine Access these are my personal views from my experience  and do not represent the company.

Leag Frog LeapPad Explorer Review

   (Let me preface that this review is my own personal opinion.  I did not recieve any product or reimbursement from the companies listed in exchage for my review.)

 I am excited at anything that I think will make my gadgets look less exciting to my five year old.   The Leap Pad Explorer caught my eye with the downloadable apps and the more sophisticated look than the Leapster toys.

   The LeapPad Explorer is available at most stores for $99.00 new.  This is a lot of money for me to spend on a toy, and not something that I would spend without being able to try it out and see if it would hold my son's interest for more than a day.    Luckily I discovered ToyConomy , a toy rental company, through my fave shopping deal site Jasmere.   I was able to try a new service and a new product for a very discounted price.  Through Jasmere I purchased 2 $50 Toyconomy vouchers for $20 each.  So With a total of $100 credit to try our Toyconomy I signed up for their membership program which gets me
half off all rental fees, free shipping both ways, and a free Scout tote to use as long as I am a member. 
  With the membership I only pay $17.50 a month to rent the LeapPad Explorer.  I also rented a Leapster 2 so that I can compare the two and see if there is a huge advandtage for the price of the LeapPad Explorer. 

   Toyconomy ships fast, and as soon as I got the toys I hooked them up to my computer and I was able to download the free games that come just like purchasing the LeapPad Explorer new.   For the price of the toy new it is disappointing the limit of the free apps it comes with, you get Pet Pad (a virtual pet for your child.  The child earns rewards through games and can purchases treats and supplies for their pet), Art Studio, Story Studio, and one app out of a very small selection of your choice.  You do not get to choose from all of the available apps.  Additional apps range from $7.50 for a story or video , $10 for games , $20.00 for character ultra ebooks.

     The Leapster 2 came with one free game to download and I also rented an additional game from Toyconomy.   Leapster 2 works with the orginal leapster games which you can usually find for under $20 at most stores.

       Once my son got ahold of the Leapster Explorer he wouldn't put it down, he liked the games but quickly became bored with the limited games available and I was not yet convinced enough to invest more money into downloading additional games if I was not going to purchase a unit.   However he loves the camera and the video camera feature and that enough kept him busy for several hours in the car.   
     However I do not see him getting as much use out of the more educational features which I can keep track of though the LeapFrog Connect portal

Leap Frog Connect Learning Path

       I like that I can see how much time he is spending on each game and how much educational value he is getting out of  the toy.
   As I said I tried the Leap Pad Explorer out for my 5 year old, however my other children 7-11 also enjoyed playing with it.   I love the feature that you can connect the toy to the computer and directly share pictures to Facebook as well as easily save the photos and videos to the computer. 

(my son's self pic from the LeapPad Explorer, excuse messy face we were on car ride)

  For the price I would like to see it have wireless hotspot capability so we can download apps or share pics on the go.   I would also like to see a lower price point on popular character games, and see more games available through the app center. 

   For the rental price I paid it is a great value to try it out for a month.  However I think we will be returning it and giving some other toys a try.  Other than the camera and video camera feature I did not see a huge advanatage for the Leap Pad Explorer to justify spending  $100 on it, however for a family vacation or an extended car trip it is definetly worth the rental price from Toyconomy!

For more information on the Leap Pad Explorer check out Leap Frog's Website http://www.leapfrog.com/leappad/index.html#&s=true

Learn more about ToyConomy and their toy rental program at
http://www.toyconomy.com/

and save money and try new web retailers at Jasmere
http://shopjasmere.com/jamiewagers

$10 Amazon giveaway!!!

  Simply like Momezine Daily Deals on Amazon and post on our wall your favorite Amazon deal (can be a current, or a previous deal you took advantage of) and then come back and comment here that you did and be entered to win a $10 electronic amazon gift code!  Hurry this giveaway will end at 8:!5 am Central Friday Sept 16th! 

1 winner will be randomy selected using http://andrew.hedges.name/experiments/random/

Share with your friends and watch Momezine Daily Deals for the hottest Amazon deals available!

Congrats to Divya your gc is on it's way!

Update to Customer service post

Earlier this week I highlighted the reasoning why we want to stop and think before responding to a customer, or really anyone in our life who has a negative comment towards us:

I want to thank this buisness owner for her insight and her candidness in response to the situation we previously discussed.

http://lepapierstudio.com/blog/2011/09/online-negativity-and-ways-to-overcome-it.html

How much is Good Customer service worth?

   I have been in customer service for over a decade (wow now I feeel old).  I will stay with a company solely because of great customer service, even if their prices are higher, and I am more likely to make an impulse purchase for a company with great customer service.
   Some of my customer service favorites are... Sears..Best policies ever!  One pet peeve is items scanning at the wrong price, catch it at Sears you get the item for free or $5 off which ever it less.  Plus their Kidvantage club, kids wear out clothes just exchange them.  I have boys who go through jeans like mad, so of course this was a great deal..one problem, they never seem to wear through Sears jeans, I guess that's why they can stand by their claim!
   Another is Verizon my wireless carrier, they have helped me lower my plan to something that works for me, not just their advertised plans. 
  But poor customer service is just plain wrong, and an email that I saw posted on Facebook this week really shocked me. Before we get into the email let me show you some stats on the effects of poor customer service:
 CRM Daily posted an example and I really can't explain it better:
http://www.crm-daily.com/story.xhtml?story_id=021000E9CMW9

Now here is some importat information,  sometimes buisnesses feel it is not worth their time in working with a difficult customer, so they would rather sever their ties.  Okay they think one less customer complaining is a good thing.
   But do companies take into affect that that one customer will tell on average 10 people about their bad experience, those 10 people will share with 10 more..and so on.  Now we live in an age of social media to that 10 could easily be 100, and the numbers continue to grow. 

I really want this owner to think of that as I read her twitter posts I was shocked at a complete lack of control on the owner's part:

First the twitter comments

Um yes, talking negativly about a customer in a public forum is not good business practice.  And while not honoring the voucher is something within your practices let's look at your response to the customer:

" just noticed that all your past purchases with us were at deep discounts, which makes me think that is only why you were shopping with us.


Unfortunately, we are no longer offering those deep discounts so you are right, there is no reason for you to come back.
Thanks for making that clear for us to understand!
Le Papier Studio"    This was an actual email sent by the owner of thie website. 

 Even if the orginal email to the company was rude and demanding, which I haven't seen the email, but from the discussion I have seen I don't think it was, this is simply a poor response.

Here is a suggestion for a better response.  "Hi, I am sorry that you are disappointed that we are unable to honor the voucher. Per the terms of the policy the voucher was to have been redeemed before the expiration date or the value is surrendered.  I see that you have been a valued customer and I am sorry for any inconvience this may cause."

  I don't think the latter response took anymore time to craft then the original response, and while the customer may not have been fully satisfied, adding insult to an already disgruntled customer can lead to losing other loyal customer as well as potential new customers.

Now let's look at some additional twitter comments from the owner, that are again in a public forum:
http://twitter.com/#!/lepapierstudio

 Tell me what is the best and worst customer service you have recieved??

An update, the owner did send an apology to the customer, unfortunatly the damage had already been done.  Hopefully it will be a learning lesson. And here is a quote to end on that sums it all up!

MomEzine: Back to school, how do you help your kids with their "Style?"

MomEzine: Back to school, how do you help your kids with their "Style?"

Back to school, how do you help your kids with their "Style?"

     I love my daughter's creativity. Megan is 9 and full of spirit, and sometimes attitude, she can make just about anything out of nothing. Give her the smallest piece of cloth and she has a dress for her puppy, her room is full of her “art”. When it comes to her wardrobe I try to just accept her creativity and let her go with it.... However when does it get to the point where you should intervene. Now obviously even at age seven sometimes she picks out some outfits that are inappropriate and I have to put my foot down, but sometimes it is just a matter of what she picks out just looks strange and doesn't match. A neighbor we don't really talk to gave us a ton of clothes for her (unfortunately just a week after I spent a fortune on her new summer wardrobe), I wonder sometimes if she gave us the clothes because she thinks that what Megan chooses to wear is all we have for her. When in fact I have a full closet of clothes with the tags on that will be donated because she refuses to wear them.


      We go to a great school where a large portion of the families are on the mid-upper middle class side and I don't want Megan shunned because she dresses different. At the same time I do not want to suppress her creativity.

     When kids are in preschool we embrace their creative outfits, we find it cute and adorable, but once they start school, you want them to form a style within the “norms”. I never thought I would come to the point where I would embrace school uniforms! I envy the parents who no longer have to have the battle over what their children will wear. Let the schools be the bad guys! Now I am not saying that kids need to be dressed like robots all the time, but I have to agree that uniforms gives kids one less distraction while they are in school.

     Unfortunately uniforms are not predicted in the foreseeable future so as we get ready to start the school year I find myself secretly weeding my daughters closet whenever she isn’t home. = She still happens to find the most ill fitting, non matching, and just jumbled outfits she can put together. She is the only girl in our family and has 5 brothers and a tomboy for a mom, so I understand she has no role model, but how can I help her style while encouraging her creativity? Do you have a child whose sense of style is in their own little world???

“I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and jcpenney blogging program, for a gift card worth $50. For more information on how you can participate, click here.”