msalabs.com

But the story gets worse. While JetBlue said it was not responsible for finding sleeping accommodations, all the hotels Baker called were booked solid. JetBlue also informed Baker it was not going to book him on a different plane because it does not have inter-line agreements with other airlines.

The ending to this novella was pre-ordained: The only way out of town was going to be on Baker’s tab–and so he paid $977 to fly back via Detroit on Northwest and Delta.

“I wrote that when I was especially angry,” said Baker, still seething one week later when we spoke. “I’m still pretty postal about it.”

Here’s the Reader’s Digest version of what happened.

(Credit:
JetBlue)

By the way, Baker told me, he was “a huge JetBlue fanboy” before all this happened.

He also says one member of JetBlue’s PR team is charged specifically with “tracking blogs and online conversations” to respond in case of customer dissatisfaction.

I was less intrigued by JetBlue’s tin ear than by what happened next. We’re long past the era when companies could cavalierly screw over their customers without risking public humiliation, and Baker knew what to do next. See, there’s this thing called the Internet…

After getting nowhere fast with the customer complaint department on his demand for a full refund–”I got a reply back saying basically, “You’re out of luck”–Baker put the entire blow-by-blow on his blog.

Turns out that JetBlue was also interested in what he had to say. Three days after going public, Baker heard back from JetBlue, which had been tracking his blog posts.

In a filing with the FCC (PDF) earlier this year, Comcast claimed that bloggers constituted a sufficient check on bad behavior. (Touching, albeit self-serving in that Comcast was desperate at the time to keep regulators at bay.) More recently, The New York Times chronicled Comcast’s efforts to engage bloggers in hopes of burnishing its reputation. The cable company finished dead last in the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index.

“If we see what appears to be a big customer service problem, where we might not have followed through as we would like, we’ll definitely get the right people involved and doublecheck,” he said.

JetBlue offered him another $60 plus flight certificates worth $229. But no salted peanuts.

(Credit:
CNET News)

Maybe time to make a tweak?

Obviously, no longer.

“The filthy, lying, money-grubbing whores we call…the airline industry.”

Now that’s a headline.

Updated at 5:20 p.m. with comment from JetBlue

Bill Baker, a technology publicist from Connecticut, was not about to mince words after JetBlue left him stranded by canceling his return flight from Portland, Ore.

Michael Dell and his minions obviously grok the changing nature of communication in the Internet age, and Jarvis received a full refund from the company less than a week after going public on his blog. What with the parlous state of the U.S. airline industry, one would assume they understand that they risk far more than the cost of a refund by allowing public conversation about their practices to wind up on the wrong side of the blogosphere.

“I was completely up front with them the entire time when I spoke with JetBlue,” Baker said. “I told them that I’m going to make some noise about this… I’ve been in business for 10 years and If I screw up, I tell my client–if I expect to retain their business. I understand that you can’t be responsible for the weather, and I understand delays. But I told them it sounds as if (JetBlue) is selling a product that it can’t support.

JetBlue still hasn’t returned my calls to provide their side of the story (Note: JetBlue did get back to me after I posted this story. Their comment is below). But the incident reminded me of the lengthy hassle BuzzMachine blogger Jeff Jarvis encountered a few years ago after he attempted to get Dell to fix his malfunctioning computer. Jarvis was getting nowhere fast with the company’s customer service division, so out of frustration he published an open letter to Michael Dell with this devastating opening: “The bottom line is that a low-price coupon may have gotten me to buy a Dell, but your product was a lemon, and your customer service was appalling.”

Update: After posting this story, I heard back from Bryan Baldwin, JetBlue’s manager of corporate communications, who says the company plans to take “another look” at Baker’s claim.

On July 23, Baker’s red-eye to New York was twice delayed from its original midnight departure time. Then around 5 in the morning, JetBlue told waiting passengers that it had to cancel the flight because there was no crew to fly the plane. That announcement set off the invariable scramble at the service desk, where JetBlue offered either to refund the $229 return leg of Baker’s trip–along with a $100 voucher–or put him on the next available flight to New York three days later. To add insult to injury, Baker would have to go out on a midnight flight.

Well, I guess that’s what having thousands of employees is good for–multitasking. I’m sure there are enough Microsoft online folks to simultaneously tell advertisers how strong its organic growth is while also talking to Yahoo to try to fix its obvious shortcomings.

REDMOND, Wash.–Republican strategist Cyrus Krohn wasn’t the only elephant in the room at Microsoft’s ad conference on Tuesday.

But with CEO Steve Ballmer dodging eggs in Europe and the heads of Microsoft’s online business all gathered here, I wonder who it is that’s doing the talking with Yahoo?

Indeed it was the other one–Yahoo–that loomed largest inside the walls of the Microsoft Conference Center. At least three Microsoft executives spoke about the company’s online business but none addressed discussions with the Internet pioneer.

Online video advertising service, Jivox, announced a video advertising platform affiliate program Tuesday. The new program will allow online publishers and marketing agencies to make a co-branded version of the company’s video ad service available to their advertisers or clients and market those across their sites. According to the company, its affiliate partners will receive a customer access page and a publisher portal to allow them to administer and manage their advertising campaigns. Its new platform will help clients create, place, and track video ads.

Google announced its “Doodle 4 Google 2009″ competition Tuesday. According to the company, all kindergarten through 12th grade U.S. students can design a Google logo based on the theme, “What I wish for the world.” Applications will be accepted until March 31 and the winner’s doodle will be displayed on Google’s homepage on May 21. The winner will receive a $15,000 college scholarship and a $25,000 technology grant for their school. Google will also award a school district $10,000 for the “greatest quality participation.” Student drawings will be evaluated by a panel of independent judges and Google employees.

Kabooza, an online backup service, raised $840,000 in a seed funding round that was led by Aggregate Media. According to the company, the funding will be used to increase its ability to maintain user’s data. Kabooza offers unlimited storage and a 25GB limit per month. The service costs $49.95 per year.

Video creation service, Animoto, announced Tuesday that in time for Valentine’s Day, users can send video love letters framed in the company’s heart-themed animated page. Users will also be able to combine images from the company’s new themed collections into their videos, which include Valentine’s Day, birthday, travel, nature, and scenes. Animoto’s Valentine’s greeting is free for a 30-second spot, but costs $3 for full-length videos.

Video advertising service, Mixpo, has raised $4 million in a round of funding that was led by Madrona Venture Group and Yaletown Venture Partners. According to the company’s executives, they will use the cash to expand their business with other firms and cover expenses over the short term.

Listen now:

New Microsoft ads directly target Apple

Are we finally seeing a truce called between software makers and security researchers? Security reporter Elinor Mills writes that although there is a long history of clashes between the two groups on the way software holes are reported, a few recent examples of cooperation between the two groups might be a sign of a more cooperative relationship.

How much for a Google Android phone?

Feds probe hack of Palin’s e-mail account

Download today’s podcast

Today’s stories:

The U.S. Secret Service is investigating the hack of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s personal e-mail account. TechCrunch is reporting that the HTC Dream, the first phone based on Google’s open-source operating system, will set early adopters back $200 (that’s with a two-year T-Mobile contract). Nearly a year after Yahoo killed off its music service in order to team up with RealNetworks’ Rhapsody, the fruits of that partnership are now coming to light. Yahoo has started offering full-length music tracks to its search results.

Study: Chrome reached nearly 2 million in U.S.

Congress eyes restrictions on exporting e-waste

Amazon tees up content delivery service

Those stories and more in today’s podcast.

Google and GE team up on clean-energy policy, tech

Nokia kiosks collect phones for recycling

Security researchers and vendors–a truce?

Google execs cheery about Silicon Valley economy

Yahoo adds full-length music tracks to search results

The software giant threatened to launch a proxy fight to unseat Yahoo’s board of directors, as well as take its case straight to Yahoo investors should no deal be reached in that period.

The opposition slate would move to unseat Yahoo’s 10 directors at the next annual shareholders meeting. Should Microsoft take such action and prevail, it’s likely the opposition slate would vote to remove Yahoo’s “poison pill,” which makes it prohibitively expensive to acquire the company. A poison pill floods the market with additional shares of a target company, should a hostile bidder acquire too many shares of a company’s stock.

One large institutional investor is planning to call Yahoo’s independent directors and management on Monday.

Microsoft on Saturday issued an ultimatum to Yahoo, giving the Internet search pioneer three weeks to enter formal merger negotiations and conclude a deal.

“If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors for the Yahoo board,” Steve Ballmer, Microsoft chief executive, stated in his letter to Yahoo’s board of directors. “The substantial premium reflected in our initial proposal anticipated a friendly transaction with you. If we are forced to take an offer directly to your shareholders, that action will have an undesirable impact on the value of your company from our perspective which will be reflected in the terms of our proposal.”

Yahoo, meanwhile, is cognizant that Microsoft wants to get the deal done and past federal antitrust regulators, otherwise called the Department of Justice (DOJ), while President Bush is still in office, the source said.

“We could enter formal talks and they might increase the bid, or they might not,” the source said, noting opening their financial books to the software giant may make little difference. “Our books are already open. We’re going to report our earnings in a couple weeks.”

Ballmer, in his letter, indicated that Microsoft would ask Yahoo investors to tender their shares to the software giant, which would park them until it could get its opposition slate elected. While Microsoft would not be able to gain control of Yahoo by taking that measure, it will send a clear message to Yahoo if enough of the Internet company’s investors side with Microsoft. Basically, it would show Yahoo how successful Microsoft would be in getting its opposition slate of directors elected, when those investors are asked to vote on Yahoo’s new board.

Since its initial offer, executives from both companies met four weeks ago for the first time to discuss the merger and once again last week with no results of moving it into formal talks.

“We all think Microsoft should pay more for Yahoo and, if it is handled right, Microsoft will likely pay more,” said the major investor, who thought $34 to $35 per share is a good range.

And while this investor had a brief thought of banning together a group of major Yahoo investors to make a public statement in support of Microsoft’s bid, the institutional investor noted that there would be a number of filing hoops to go through with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He noted a more likely scenario will be for institutional investors to make individual statements.

And as a further cattle prod in getting a deal consummated, Microsoft threatened to lower its existing bid, citing how Yahoo’s value will be hurt if it needs to resort to such hostile means.

Ballmer’s letter is no slam dunk in driving Yahoo to formal talks. Yahoo, which already rejected Microsoft’s initial offer as too low and one that undervalues the company, is leery of entering formal talks without assurances Microsoft’s bid will be higher.

The investor previously advised Yahoo to move forward and fast in doing a deal with Microsoft, given the changes in January with a new administration in the White House and in the European Union. He also advised Yahoo’s management to ditch the idea of doing a roadshow with its three-year strategic plan, and instead spend the time getting a deal in place.

One former high-level antitrust attorney with the DOJ, who is now in private practice, said it usually takes six to eight months to move a deal through the DOJ. There is approximately eight months left before Bush’s term ends.

Yahoo’s board is expected to discuss Ballmer’s letter next week, as well as provide a briefing on how talks between the two companies went last week, one source said.

Yahoo should brace itself for an onslaught of investor wrath come Monday.

The investor added: “Microsoft has to do this deal. The paradigm is shifting away from their core business to the Internet. They’ve already spent billions of dollars but haven’t gotten it right. This is such a logical deal for them to do.”

“I’m not happy with how Yahoo has handled it. I think they’ve bungled it while Microsoft has played it pretty well,” the investor said. “I like that (Microsoft) has put a clock on this. I previously told Yahoo’s independent directors that if they didn’t move forward with this, I might support a new board.”

Meanwhile, another source noted back in early March that Microsoft has its opposition slate of directors for Yahoo all ready to go.

Microsoft initially offered an unsolicited buyout bid of $31 per share for Yahoo back on February 1.

Full coverage
Microsoft’s big bid for Yahoo Click here for the latest on the software giant’s attempt to buy the Net pioneer.

Updated at 6 p.m. PDT with comments from an institutional investor.

NEW YORK–A message to those of you thinking of hopping in line for the
iPhone 3G at the Fifth Avenue flagship store here: there are thunderstorms predicted. Please stay home and spend some time with your friends, families, and pets. You’re just going to get a sunburn and look silly.

(Credit:
Caroline McCarthy/CNET News.com)

Some people say they’re doing it for the “experience.” Well, if your idea of “experience” is sitting on your butt for five days, subsisting on hot dogs and salted pretzels, more power to you. There are plenty of other “experiences” to be had in New York that could be uncovered in about ten seconds of Web searching, all of which are much less sedentary and much less sunburn-y.

News.com Poll Apple’s latest and greatest
Will you buy an iPhone 3G?

Then the folly of it all was added to even more when Apple slashed $200 off the price of the iPhone just more than two months after it hit stores, meaning that everyone who’d waited in line to buy one looked a tad overeager. And dare I say that after the tech press jumped all over the pre-launch hullaballoo of Sony’s
PlayStation 3, Nintendo’s
Wii, the video game Halo 3, and Apple’s own Leopard software, the whole “wait in line for a gadget for days on end” thing has just gotten tacky.

Remember last year’s snaking line? The funny thing is that no one left the Apple Store that night without a phone. Apple’s retail process was impressively streamlined, so that if you showed up right after the phone debuted, you’d still have gotten one an hour or so later. Multiday line-waiters were matched within hours by people who smelled much fresher than they did.

Can’t name many, right? That’s the thing. Last year, it was quirky ad agency Anomaly that walked away from the iPhone launch with good press by waiting there to support Keep A Child Alive; this year, it’s more or less already established that Waiting for Apples will be the one people remember, if any. Last year, marketers flooded the iPhone line to hand out T-shirts, stickers, snacks, and anything that might get some visibility; the atmosphere got so clogged that single brands and causes quickly got jumbled in the chaos. That kind of PR-soaked atmosphere just isn’t that efficient for promotion.

Waiting for Apples' iPhone 3G encampment. Large tupperware container is full of worms.

Plus, a scrappy half-dozen activists who call themselves Waiting for Apples are going to get all the positive press. They’re hoping to set a Guinness World Record as well as spread the buzz about sustainable agriculture, and are waiting in line with a solar-power generator, a bunch of yoga mats, a compost bin full of hungry worms, a soundtrack of the Talking Heads’ More Songs About Buildings And Food, and an adorable six-month-old–don’t worry, she’s only there for a few hours a day, has plenty of shade, and will stay home if it’s rainy or sweltering.

Yes, I’ll be one of the first in line.
Yes, but I’m going to avoid the launch rush.
No, I’m not interested.

Others are doing it for the publicity, either for personal gain, to collect donations for charity, or to promote some kind of cause celebre. But answer this for me, without any Googling: which charities were represented by people waiting in line for the iPhone last year?

And, gadget freaks, if you’re just waiting there to get the iPhone and play with it for months on end, just keep in mind that the original iPhone had no shortage issues until the new version was in the works and Apple stopped making Version 1.0. Also keep in mind that you’re waiting in line for five days for a pricey consumer device that will likely be outdated within a year.

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They might have also soaked up the last bit of novelty associated with waiting in line for a shiny new gadget for days, if only because nobody thought to bring live worms to a product launch before. Anybody else, well, let’s just say I can’t guarantee I’ll be so nice to you. Waiting in line for the iPhone is officially as pass? as, “Dude! You’re getting a Dell!”

Come on. Wall-E would so disapprove.

commentary

It’s a capable device (ARM9 533MHz processor with a 3D accelerator, 64MB of RAM, 1GB of built-in NAND flash memory, etc.), with a capable community: unlike many open-source projects, the Wiz has a built-in developer audience that loves to play games and hence may turn its attention to creating games for the Wiz, as well as updating its Linux-based firmware to improve the Wiz.

I don’t think there’s much of a mainstream future for the Wiz, a new open-source gaming unit from GamePark Holdings, but that may be the point:

Will it go mainstream? Almost certainly not. But perhaps the Wiz will point the way for Nintendo and other gaming manufacturers to improve the transparency and malleability of their own devices to make innovation more of a community effort. Probably not, but it’s possible.

…[T]he question of whether or not the device can truly challenge the Nintendo DS and the
PlayStation Portable is liable to arise when discussing the advent of any mainstream open-source portable. While the Wiz may never be able to capture the mass market in a significant way, the attractive device could become a hit amongst savvy gamers: the flexibility of the device is extraordinary, and making use of homebrew doesn’t require time-consuming firmware hacking that could irreversibly damage the device.

Since the model was launched four months ago, more than 50 brands have used the network, including Microsoft, Comcast, and Disney, VideoEgg said.

Founded in 2005, the 100-person company has yet to turn a profit. CEO Matt Sanchez told CNET News in April that the company had no plans for staffing cuts and would just “refocus” some employees.

The new features, as described Wednesday by VideoEgg, are:

“The ad experience is ripe for innovation,” Troy Young, VideoEgg’s chief marketing officer, said a statement. “We need to replace the banner with portable media experiences that leverage the power of video, feeds, maps, and localization. We can get consumers to engage–we just have to make online advertising more interesting.”

• Live: Use real-time RSS feeds to continually update the ad experience
• Local: Deliver ZIP code-specific messaging
• Rich: Easily deploy and track a rich multi-video ad experience to increase user interactivity
• Shop: Bring the browser to the user, merchandising multiple items in a single real-time ad experience
• Share: Viral capabilities help spread the message through virtually any communication or social channel

VideoEgg was the subject of shutdown speculation in April after the San Francisco-based company announced that it would stop hosting videos uploaded to the site by the public and to scale back hosting services on the VideoEgg Publishing Platform.

As reports surface that Google is struggling to make money off YouTube, Web video advertising company VideoEgg announced the launch of five new kinds of video ads it hopes will be more engaging to users.

VideoEgg said the new features are designed to increase viewer engagement. The ads are served up for free, and advertisers are charged only if viewers engage with the ads. The pricing model is called cost-per-engagement, as opposed to the number of views or clicks an ad receives.

The announcement comes on the heels of revelations that YouTube has been plagued with inefficiencies in its ad-sales department. YouTube will generate about $200 million from ad sales this year, short of Google’s expectations, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

It’s just a question of whether the project can evolve from Georgia Tech into a broad, industrywide effort to improve Xen’s security. Given that Xen started as a Cambridge University project and ultimately gained support from Intel, Red Hat, and others, perhaps the odds are in XenAccess’ favor. We’ll see.

commentary

Could Xen benefit from enhanced security? Of course, just as VMware does. VMsafe enables third-party security vendors to check security of virtual machines at the hypervisor level, scanning incoming and outgoing traffic to get excellent visibility into the virtual machine, and thereby to protect it. Adding this to Xen would be a big win.

Hatched at Georgia Tech in 2007, the project hasn’t been moving very fast, but perhaps its time has come? That depends on the importance of VMsafe, to some extent. As for VMsafe:

VMware VMsafe is a new security technology for virtualized environments that can help to protect your virtual infrastructure in ways previously not possible with physical machines.

VMsafe provides a unique capability for virtualized environments through an application program interface (API)-sharing program that enables select partners to develop security products for VMware environments. The result is an open approach to security that provides customers with the most secure platform on which they can virtualize their business-critical applications.

I just came across this post by Rich Miller, pointing to the XenAccess, a potentially valuable open-source project that aims to bring VMsafe-esque capabilities to the Xen project.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. MobiComp, which is based in Braga, Portugal, will become part of Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business division.

“People expect their phones to deliver the best experiences from PCs and the Web right to their pockets,” Todd Peters, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for its Mobile Communications Business, said in a release Thursday. “Investing in the right solutions from companies like MobiComp will extend the capabilities of Windows Mobile and Windows Live to help us provide the most innovative and seamless way to stay connected.”

Microsoft announced Thursday it has made plans to acquire MobiComp, a mobile-data company founded in 2000

MobiComp has developed an array of products: MobileKeeper Backup & Restore, MobileKeeper Sharing & Communities, and Active mTicker. They’re used by companies to back up data stored on mobile phones, submit content from mobile phones to social networks like Facebook, and access news and other mobile media.

The acquisition will be used to bolster a number of services on the Windows Mobile smartphone platform as well as the Windows Live Web services division.