Small token of appreciation... #welovebuffer

***To see all of my Buffer-related posts, click here*** 

Hey @buffer we use u for EVERYTHING we do, putting button on website was the LEAST we could do http://t.co/QLsv61FzhQ pic.twitter.com/o3hDeT5efz
— Suzanne B. (@suzanneisabella) August 8, 2013

To see how the button looks on our website, click HERE

Loving the "Canned responses" lab within gmail

OMG I am LOVING this new-to-me lab, "Canned responses". I didn't know that it existed and literally went in search of another email provider (I'm sorry, I feel guilty saying that but I wanna be honest) because I wanted to create/use different email signatures. Previously in gmail the only thing I could think of was to save "drafts" of commonly sent emails - and then copy/paste the msg into new email, each time. I ran across this gmail feature the other day while I was looking for a solution for my business - found this lab in an article here (woo-hoo! So excited, I even posted it on my blog) and enabled it in the internal email for my business within my Google Business apps. I was not aware that it exists within personal (non-business) email, though - and so I just opened up one of my personal gmail accounts to check - and it is! Woo-hoo!!! So excited. Thanks for creating this feature. I think that you should publicize it more - I know that I will do my part to let other people know about it!

In particular, one way that I am plannig to use it is in response to ads or in emailing potential customers. One business we have is a flooring company (858 Flooring - Serving MD, PA, VA, DE & WV) - when we reply to ads on Craigslist or send emails to possible clients for the first time, we want to include lots of information about the business (complete with links, etc) but these emails may be a bit different from one another, depending who is going to receive the email, whether it is a "cold inquiry" or more of a response to a particular type of ad. Anyway, the only way that we did this before was (as I mentioned) to keep saved "drafts" and use them as "templates" - when we wanted to use one, we would open it up and "copy" it, then "paste" it into a new email. Because I (office manager) made up this crude little system (lol) it made sense to me - and the owner of the company could even use it, once I showed him how to do it, a couple of times. (We both use the same work email account.) As you can imagine, though, I noticed the other day that one of our little "templates" in the "saved drafts" folder was gone - no doubt one of us accidentally opened it up and completed the address field and then hit "send", rather than copy/paste it into a new email message. What I am looking forward to about the "canned responses" feature is how easy it looks like it will be to use - it is literally a drop-down menu, followed by selecting one of the saved 'templates'. Love it.

The only similar feature I have seen is in Outlook, where it is possible to create/use/insert various email "signatures". I am embarassed to say that I went searching yesterday for some kind of similar online solution/alternative - some web-based email provider that would allow me to save/insert various email signatures. I checked out Outlook.com (super confusing - plus they don't offer that option, waste of my time to look and download emails from one of my accounts) and then I found a post about Windows Live Mail, which was going to be my next investigation. (I manage two businesses, ten email accounts, etc - I am slowly trying to come up with some way to centralize my email in one place - but to keep it all online so that I can access it from various computers - home, office, etc.) Needless to say, it is a process - but your "canned responses" lab is going to make it that much easier, for sure.

Thank you!

Suzanne
Suzanne Isabella Marketing

ps - On a side note, I have been committing to the Google suite of products - both at home and at work. It's tough sometimes (Google Chrome / Adobe Shockwave conflict, anyone???) but it's things like this pleasant surprise "Canned Responses" lab that make it easier :)

Gmail signatures - Google Apps Help

Gmail signatures - Google Apps Help

Awesome awesome awesome - this is exactly what I was looking for:

Review of Orkin treatment/service for summertime ants around our home (Baltimore County, MD)

-I like that you give us a schedule/calendar with dates circled for the next several months so that we can put them in our calendar and plan accordingly.

-I like that your prices seem fair and manageable.

-I like that your employee spent several hours going around the inside and outside of our home so that I felt that our concerns were receiving lots of attention and that our bug problem was being handled well.

-I was a little frustrated that we were given such a large window of time during which to expect the employee (on the second visit) - something like 8am - Noon (or 2pm?) - but I appreciated that when he was running behind schedule, he called to communicate with us and let us know.

-And finally, while it did take two or three weeks for the ant treatment to fully "kick in" (for us to see the full effects) - and in the meantime I was anxious, wondering if/when we would see a decrease in ants? - it went exactly as the employee said that it would: "It will take a few weeks, but after that amount of time, you should see a large decrease in the number of ants". Happy to say that after the first few weeks, the number of ants is down to something crazy like 10 per week!

First time ever getting a service for bugs in our home, very happy/satisfied with having chose Orkin. Thanks!

ps - The branch that has been helping us is Baltimore #307

Contacts (finally) retrieved/restored to BB Bold 9930 using Reincubate's Blackberry Backup Extractor ($25) - but no thanks to BB #byebyeblackberryhelloandroid #laststraw

***For the entire thread/issue (from start to resolution), click here***

Date: Wed, Jul 3, 2013 at 10:10 AM
Subject: BlackBerry Backup Extractor 1.0.7.0 feedback message
To: support@reincubate.com

Wow. Thanks so much for your service. I updated to BB 7.1 Bundle 2705 and somehow lost 2,500 of my 3,000 contacts in the process. (I had never used BB Protect or BBM.) I did have a recent backup file I'd created with BB Desktop Manager but for whatever reason (corrupted, could not access) I could not use it to restore them onto my phone, myself. I used your service to extract my contacts and used links that you provided in order to upload them into Outlook and then import them back onto my phone. I am exhausted from this weeklong experience - and very frustrated with BB, overall, right now - but really grateful for your service. Thank you!

ps - Other things that I (unsuccessfully) tried: BB website, contacting BB customer service, BB community forums, community forums for other non-BB websites, etc

***For the entire thread/issue (from start to resolution), click here***

Correspondence with Blackberry-knowledgeable-but-not-officially-Blackberry website/blog/support guy

***For the entire thread/issue (from start to resolution), click here***

From: John
Date: Tue, Jul 2, 2013 at 12:43 PM
Subject: Re: Contacts lost after installing OS 7.1.0.991 Bundle 2705 to my Blackberry Bold 9930
To: Suzanne

I agree for once with BlackBerry somewhat. I haven't run into your issue before. Its so weird that you have a full backup and you can see the contacts are in fact saved but it's only placing a small amount of them back onto your device. Now BlackBerry should try to help instead of sending you to the carrier because we all know those people know less then anyone and will just say it's a BlackBerry issue. Hopefully this restore corrects everything cuz I hate to recommend a security wipe to anyone. 

Good luck,

John

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From: Suzanne B. Sent: Tuesday, July 2, 2013 9:26 AM To: John Subject: Re: Contacts lost after installing OS 7.1.0.991 Bundle 2705 to my Blackberry Bold 9930

Can I please tell you that I am frustrated with Blackberry? I tweeted them, they tweeted back "Please follow us on Twitter so that we can DM you with help" - I did that, let them know that I was following them and then they sent me a DM "Your problem sounds complicated, please get in touch with your network provider". I'm done with BB as soon as I am able to upgrade according to my Verizon plan without having to pay a fee for changing devices.

Ok, thanks for letting me vent. I'll keep you posted - currently trying to restore one last time before I resort to the wipe.

Thanks again,

Suzanne

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On Tue, Jul 2, 2013 at 12:21 PM, John wrote:

Hi,

Sorry to hear you are still having issues. Hopefully the security wipe help. You should just need to go into your device setting, then to security and privacy, then you should see a section for security wipe. Once in that area you just need to type in "BlackBerry" in the section and it will take over. Please remember the wipe can take some time so just let it runs it course. Let me know how things work out. 

Thanks,

John. 

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From: Suzanne B. Sent: Tuesday, July 2, 2013 9:03 AM To: John Subject: Re: Contacts lost after installing OS 7.1.0.991 Bundle 2705 to my Blackberry Bold 9930

Hey John,

Thanks again for your help. I have tried a couple more things with no success and am now considering doing a security wipe. Could you remind me how to do that? (I have a complete backup that I will be able to restore from, once I have done the security wipe.)

Thanks,

Suzanne

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On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 6:55 PM, John wrote:

Hi,

The BlackBerry desktop manager should have backed them up and the restore feature should place everything back on the 9930 as it was before. The only thing I ever had to do was place passwords in after a upgrade. I have no where near the amount of contacts on my device as you but could it just be the device is still indexing all the contacts onto the device? I know when I move my sdcard my music takes a hour or so before they all show as being on the card. The only other place I can think of them being backed up is maybe through one of your email accounts? I have a outlook that all my contacts are backed up thru. I have slowly gotten out of the habit of BlackBerry products restoring things the way they should. Just so you know BlackBerry Protect is the app (should be preloaded on your device) that if you lost your phone can kinda tell you the location it's at. Inside the app though is another way to backup things which is just another way to make sure if BlackBerry desktop manager fails you will be safe. If all else fails maybe do a security wipe and a fresh restore? Just make sure you do have a complete backup still available to restore from. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------

From: Suzanne Sent: Friday, June 28, 2013 3:32 PM Subject: Re: Contacts lost after installing OS 7.1.0.991 Bundle 2705 to my Blackberry Bold 9930

John,

Thanks for the quick response. I checked out that "restore" button, as well - the address book portion was highlit in gray (indicating that it was a read-only file and could not be restored?) and also the number of contacts there is 600. It was when I did the same thing (went back a few days to the last backup performed before I updated to the new bundle) that I found the backup file that included all 3000 contacts - but even then, I was unable to selectively restore just the address book of that file and so I tried restoring the whole file. I am beginning to think that maybe restoring using a backup file does not restore the contacts/address book? So what I have now is my Bold updated to the state that it was two days ago (prior to upgrade and missing 2 days' worth of emails/messages/texts) and with 1/5 of the contacts, lol.

I am just trying to think of another place that my phone/software might have backed them up - no, I did not try Protect (not sure that I've heard of it?) and am kicking myself for not regularly using Backup Assistant, ugh.

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On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 6:24 PM, John wrote:

Hi Suzanne,

Did you by chance ever use BlackBerry Protect to backup things? Just to try to help I fired up my 9930 and connected it to BlackBerry desktop manager. If you have your device connected to your system in the upper left corner click on "device" then go to restore. From there make sure the backup you want to restore is highlighted then look down you should see "select device data and settings" click that and the first one is your address book. Does it show the number of contacts that you should have?

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From: Suzanne Sent: Friday, June 28, 2013 3:19 PM Subject: Contacts lost after installing OS 7.1.0.991 Bundle 2705 to my Blackberry Bold 9930

Hey John,

I found your blog entry in a web search and am hoping that you might be able to help me. I updated my Blackberry Bold 9930 to the OS 7.1.0.991 Bundle 2705, earlier this week (on my desktop, using Blackberry Desktop software). I thought that everything was going well; but at the end of the install/upgrade, this message appeared:

          Your BlackBerry! Device Software is updated and you can safely disconnect your device.

          Warmings were encountered during the loading process:

          Application data could not be restored to the device. The backup data file has been saved to (file name/location within my computer) You can use the Desktop Software Backup/Restore tool to restore this information.

I looked at the screen of my phone and could see that the background on my screen had not been restored, for example, and so I went ahead and used the backup/restore tool (along with the file mentioned) to restore that info. Upon completion, my screen looked the way that it had before and so I assumed it to be a good indication that the upgrade/installation had gone fairly smoothly. The problem that I ran across, however, once I exited the desktop software and disconnected my phone from my computer, is that only a fraction of the contacts on my phone are still in place. (I had approx 3,000 - I now have 600? Looks to me like maybe only the recent contacts were restored?)

Getting all of my contacts back/restored is more important to me than having the OS 7.1.0.991 Bundle 2705 installed and so I went back to the most recent backup file that the Desktop Software had created from my phone and stored on my computer (an hour or so before having updated/installed the 7.1.0.991 Bundle 27050) - and I went ahead and restored my phone with that, hoping that my contacts would be restored. (I did not do a wipe of my phone or anything like that.) No such luck.

I am wondering if you have any suggestions of where I might be able to find/locate all of my contacts and/or how I might get them back? I never used Backup Assistant on my phone (as I had assumed that my contacts were part of what my Desktop Software was backing up, each time) - and I also do not use BBM and so I do not know whether that function of my phone could be helpful or not.

I am a bit at a loss. I've been using Blackberry devices (old-school pager-type, Pearl, Curve, Bold, etc) for 11 years now but am feeling frustrated and losing patience. I consider myself relatively tech-savvy but am losing patience with the brand.

Thanks,

suzanne

***For the entire thread/issue (from start to resolution), click here***

Walgreens website (Balance Rewards, credit for lost points, etc)

Wow. Awesome. I picked up a prescription at Walgreens, yesterday, and realized/remembered as I was driving away that I had forgotten to give the pharmacist/cashier my Balance Points card. I made a mental note to myself to log onto my profile later with my receipt in hand and get credit for the points.

And so I just did that – and it was super easy! I logged on (website allows me to select option to remembers my log-in ID, super-helpful, love that in this day and age when I have 4 million log-in IDs/passwords for every website on the web) and immediately saw a link on the screen for “Credit for missing points »” – I don’t have to dig around the site, I don’t have to go to “Frequently Asked Questions”, I don’t have to submit some confidential message to customer service through the website, I don’t have to call in and/or use an automated system, I don’t have to look up an email address for customer service and then log onto my email in a separate browser and then wait 48 hours for a response, etc etc etc.

A smaller window pops up, asking me how I would like to look up my missing points – and offers me three different options. I select “Store Receipt” and it has two simple boxes to complete, along with a “Submit” button underneath. It has a picture of a sample receipt next to these boxes along with the information on the sample receipt clearly/simply circled so that I can understand where on my own receipt I should look for this information to complete the two boxes.

I enter a 20-digit code from my receipt but it is not necessary for me to enter the “dashes” between every set of four digits. When I submit the information, it does not say “Error – you need to go back and re-enter your number with dashes entered between the numbers. The system accepts my 20-digit number as I enter it, without dashes. (You laugh but it is these small-but-simple things that contribute to the simplicity/user-friendliness of a site and make the user either want to return to a website – or not.

The best part of the whole transaction was when I hit “submit”, the system quickly identified my missing points in the system and credited them to my account immediately. One of the first screens had let me know that it may take some time for my missing points to be credited to my account – and so it was a pleasant surprise to see my balance increase immediately/automatically.

I appreciate the simplicity of your website – how easy it is to use (I use it a few times a week – between uploading/ordering photos, logging onto Balance Rewards, checking out weekly circular/ad, looking at “Steps” program, etc). I just wanted to write this all down and let you know.

Thanks so much,

Suzanne