Well, this needs expounding. T-Mobile does not want my business with one phone line. They do not want my business on one cell account – apparently, I made the Extended Roamer List. T-Mobile offered a plan, that I subscribed too, that allowed free roaming.

I’ve enjoyed being a customer of T-Mobile. They had good coverage and their customer service was always good. Until now.

So my question is, at what point should a company fire a customer? Here’s how I figure things could have gone. If I was becoming too costly as a customer, why not give me a ring or send me a letter/email, saying so? T-Mobile, you could have contacted me with this:

Dear Mr. Kingman:

Your cell use of our system has recently incurred other network charges for roaming in excess of our threshold on this plan. We’d like to present two options:

Option 1 – you can remain a T-Mobile customer by paying $XX to cover the increased costs we’ve incurred due to your roaming over the past sixty days.

Option 2 – we can discontinue our relationship and allow you to take your number and exit the agreement without penalties.

Instead, I got a letter from T-Mobile that they were firing me. No recourse available. I called – they said there was no option to remain a customer. I argued – they said there was no option to remain a customer. They gave me an email to an ombudsman – it bounced.

When companies talk the talk of wanting to build a lifetime relationship, and then don’t walk the talk, in my humble opinion – that’s bad policy. I’m trying to understand this, T-Mobile, and so far, none of your Customer Service Reps, even those in the Extended Roamer “No Fly” List Department, have been able to explain the rationale.

In any event, AT&T just got a new relationship. And, their coverage includes my home.

After spending a half hour being told by the Extreme Roamer Department at T-Mobile that I will not be able to remove myself from a list they have – where they will discontinue providing service to me in mid-November, he gave me an email. I wrote what I thought was a nice letter, stating how I believe I do not belong on the T-Mobile “Extreme Roamer” No-Fly list and emailed it. Guess what? That email address is unknown. It figures.

Here is the content of the letter I wrote to T-Mobile. I’d like opinions from the #CustServ community about this experience, if you don’t mind.

Dear T-Mobile:

Yesterday I received at my Oregon mailing address a letter stating that my cell number (503) XXX-XXXX had been placed for disconnection and no more service by TMobile. I called Customer Service several times and just now got off the phone with the Extreme Roamer department. They state the decision is final.

FACTS

1. I have been very satisfied as a T Mobile customer for ~ 18 months. In all respects.

2. I had to relocate to Portland Maine this summer. Consequent, I spent five weeks in August in central NH as I looked for residence in Portland Maine. I was apparently on the Cellular One towers during this time. I also spent a week near Lewiston/Auburn Maine in Sept, where apparently I was not on a TMobile network. My residence since last week is in your network.

3. Over the last 18 months, 16.5 months of my usage has been on TMobile networks. The Extreme Roamer CSR told me that your engineers did a system wide scan for ERs and that tests were of random lengths, from two weeks to a month, over the past five months.

4. I was never contacted by TMobile to inquire of why I was not on your network during those five weeks.

As a business professional, this policy does not make sense, from both fiscal and customer loyalty perspectives. Wouldn’t it be a better initiative to contact those about to be placed on the Extreme Roamer “No Fly List” prior to making a final decision with no recourse, to save happy customers?

Here is what I wish for.. to remain a brand loyalist and happy TMobile customer with this number. Please contact me immediately so we can find a solution together.

Best,

Jeffrey Kingman

There’s a ton of dialogue going on right now about what this means for society. Have we truly lost privacy?

That’s not the focus of this post though. I’ve been intrigued by digital ethnography the past couple years – the study of human behavior in social business, specifically. We’ve changed as a specie. Tech has brought this change upon us and it is moving fast.

I wonder if there is a terminal velocity to this change, or, as the CERN researchers last week revealed in their possible discovery that matter can move faster than light, if there is no terminal change velocity in how tech will change human behavior?

It all fascinates me. As a fine dining chef, I was conditioned to plying craft fourteen, sometimes eighteen hours a day. That conditioning is quite useful now, because ~ ~

I’m Jeff, and I’m addicted to social business.

I was new in being a managing Chef then and the next year found myself up in New Hampshire. I spent fourteen years, most of them in NH and Maine; mostly as Executive Chef of independent casual fine-dining operations.

While there is a lot of great culinary art around the country, in northern New England the weekend prime rib is still “King” on many good restaurant menus. Over those fourteen years, I ate a significant share of prime rib from many restaurants.

As a Chef, I have never really believed in keeping recipes secret. I’ve always felt that openly sharing good recipes pushed the growth of the industry. Having said that, I kept two recipes close to the chest: my versions of Venison Osso Bucco and my Prime Rib. So here’s my gift to anyone who wishes for it. It’s my favorite way to roast a prime rib.

Saturday Night Lightly Smoked Prime Rib

Ingredients

• One good sized bone-in prime rib of beef (preferably from Silvies Valley Ranch, available from Nicky USA)
• Fresh garlic, minced
• Black pepper, coarsely crushed
• Sea Salt (truffled, preferably from Secret Stash Salts)
• Fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• Olive Oil (not virgin)
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Angostura Bitters
• A-1 Sauce
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Fresh Horseradish, minced
• Bay Leaves

Equipment & Other

• Plastic Wrap
• Aluminum Foil
• Two 2-Inch Deep Roasting Pans
• Wire Grate (fits inside the roasting pan)
• Four old ramekins
• Cutting Board
• Chef Knife
• Small mixing bowl
• Wood Chips for Smoking
• Some long skewers

Preparing this recipe will take 24 to 72 hours and involves a wet-rub marinade; the longer you let the beef marinade, the better the flavor becomes. For a great presentation, I’ve frenched the bones, but this isn’t necessary for an “oooh” display.

1. Prepare all the mise en place using the cutting board and knife. Combine the garlic, rosemary, pepper, horseradish and salt in the mixing bowl. Reserve the onion, carrot, celery and bay leaf for the cooking process on the day of service.

2. Add the vinegar, olive oil, Worcestershire, A-1 Sauce and Bitters to the mixing bowl and combine well. The mixture should have the consistency of a wet mud. Rub the rib thoroughly with the rub, working it into the folds and crevices. Wrap the rib tightly with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for up to 72 hours or longer, although in a pinch you can let it marinade for six hours before proceeding.

3. On the roasting day, pre-soak the woodchips for about thirty minutes in water and then drain. Lightly pan-spray the inside of one roasting pan. Put the four ramekins (these are risers/supports) equi-distant inside the roasting pan. Place the woodchips in and around the risers. Place the wire rack on the risers. Unwrap and put the roast on the wire rack and insert the skewers into the top of the roast. Cover the roasting pan with aluminum foil as a tent, slit a few holes in the highest point (to allow smoke to escape slowly).

4. Over the most minimal flame possible, put the roasting/smoking pan. Let the smoking process begin and after about thirty minutes start maintaining an eye on the process. You want to bring the internal temperature of the rib to about 60 degrees F.

5. Just prior to the rib reaching 60 F – lightly pan-spray the other roasting pan and pre-heat an oven to 375 degrees F. Put the mirepoix of onion, carrot, celery and bay leaf in this pan. When the rib reaches 60 F, remove the rib on it’s wire rack from the smoking pan and place it directly on the mirepoix. Transfer this second roasting pan with rib to the hot oven.

6. Finish the roast in the hot oven to your desired doneness. Remember that the rib will continue cooking after you remove it from a hot oven, so I always pulled it when it reached 110F – to get that rare center.

7. Let the roast rest, in the pan for about ten to fifteen minutes after pulling it from the oven. If you like, you can pull the rib on its wire rack away from the mirepoix and use the mirepoix as a flavoring ingredient for a sauce.

After years of serving this to the traditional and fine residents of New Hampshire and Maine, I learned that flash-grilled steaks, cut from the leftover roast, are simply awesome. The smoked flavor mellows further when steaks are flash-grilled.

I like to serve this with fresh or pickled horseradish, fluffy mashed potatoes and maple-roasted carrots and parsnips.

Cheers!

I spent twenty years in professional kitchens of all types, from the old Ritz Carlton Boston, to the Hyatt in Bellevue Washington to a diversity of independents and chains across the USA. I was first exposed (and had it beaten into me) to the term Mise En Place by Chef Dave Strouts C.W.C. and (then) A.C.F. (American Culinary Federation) chapter president of Chefs de Cuisine Society of Oregon.

I’m going to posit a proposition that mise en place is useful in social media agencies. Basically, it means everything has its regular place in your toolkit, all your prep for the day is ready and you’re locked and loaded – ready to take on the shift.

How do you plan your day in social media? Do you suffer from ADHD and hop, skip and bump around from item to item? Or, do you implement a mise en place attitude and carefully and logistically work your strategies and tactics?

And, like in pro kitchens, good tunes make a day go well…

Restaurateurs ~ imagine this…

Chris Brogan walks into your restaurant. Now, Chris isn’t a bad looking fella, but if you aren’t passionate about social media, you probably won’t recognize him. It’s his first time at your spot.

Now imagine that a camera above the host stand scans the faces of people coming through the front door. The camera is tied into your point of sale system. The scan of Chris Brogan’s face is compared (ala NCIS style) against publicly available photos on social networks and services like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Klout.

Bingo! A match! All of a sudden the host, and you, know that some guy with a huge online community has just been seated in your restaurant. Would this information be of instant value to your bottom line?

We’re already there with the technology. How long will it be before a service like this is unveiled at the National Restaurant Show? What are the advantages and disadvantages to restaurant operators? What are the ethical considerations?

In addition, the economic turbulence of the last years is seemingly in constant presence on the horizon.. the violent weather of economic chaos.

Long hot windless days interspersed with violent summer storms…

In sailing – this is called the doldrums.

The Volvo Ocean Race yachts are marvels of modern engineering, but, alas, they share a common flaw. They have to have wind. Granted, wind isn’t normally in short supply on the open ocean—until you hit the doldrums.

For centuries mariners have feared this equatorial region for its tendency toward sailor-stopping calms. The first leg of the race runs right through it, and what happens there could conceivably determine the victor.

“It’s incredibly frustrating. It’s the worst thing,” says Kevin Shoebridge, captain for the Tyco team, a competitor in the 2001-02 race, of being stymied by dead wind in the doldrums.

The region is also prone to violent weather shifts, and Shoebridge says he’s seen calm winds turn to 30-knot gales in a matter of minutes. At other times he’s sailed through without noticing a thing.

Over the last few years as I’ve worked for myself, founded and worked hard to grow Chalkboarder, I’ve noticed this in our negotiations. Things slow down. It can be frustrating to experience, when there is energy on our end to make things happen.

As a result, I’ve worked this hazard into our yearly calender of expectations. We anticipate that July into August will take increased effort.

What about your business? Do you experience the doldrums at this time of year?

I am highly motivated by creativity and logistics. I love planning and executing big broad-vision projects, with a Virgo-eye to details. I enjoy that “edge” that happens in making big things happen.

One of the things I’ve learned about myself over the past ten years is how much I distaste factory-like repetitive work. It’s probably the reason I moved culinary jobs so often over the years. I’d learn a restaurant’s in-and-outs, push for high-creativity in all areas, and when the operation couldn’t see the value of “pushing the envelope”, I’d become restless.

If I were young again, and contemplating joining the military, I’d go special teams. It is diversity of experience and knowledge gain that fuels my soul. I’ve come to realize that this dismisses a large percentage of the personal relationship opportunity – but I’m very ok with that. I’m very ok with being true to self.

I don’t really care for the nuance perceptions of the label Renaissance man; I’d rather, if label were to be applied, be called a Internationally Savvy Creative.

What about you? Are you afraid of static living?

Partly this frugality comes from growing up in Montana and partly from living fourteen years in northern New England.

But it also has something to do with my version of nomadicism.

Whenever I hit the road, the back of my mentality remembers the nomadics throughout human history. Even today nomads – and refugees, and the very poor – travel pretty hardcore comparative to what media and most of US society believes is normal.

Last summer, after People Report Summer Camp in Dallas, I decided to take Greyhound back to Portland Oregon. It was smelly, slightly dangerous (at least until Colorado) and uncomfortable. But, I met some very interesting folks that I still keep in touch with – a ranching grandma, a college student heading into foreign affairs and a railroad locomotive engineer.

Since Spring 2009, I’ve taken eight long-distance (multi-night) trips in coach on Amtrak. Out of 800 hours of rail travel, I’ve shared the seat next to me maybe 40 hours.

I’ve slept at least four nights on the granite floor of Boston South Station in the last 2.5 years waiting for a bus to leave in the next seven hours.

I get a kick out of traveling uncomfortably. It reminds me of the reality of millions of humans today.

By the way, when I travel with a lady friend, I like traveling in comfort, unless we’ve mutually decided to “rough” it.

Tonight I’m parked in a Motel 6 on the coast of New Hampshire. There’s a bed, table, desk, chairs, television, shower and air conditioning.

It ain’t bad. Oh and fyi – Dennys still makes a good burger.

This weekend, chilling out in New Hampshire, I watched Al Pacino‘s Scarface for the first time in years.

I had forgotten how well Al Pacino does a Cuban refugee in this movie. While most people online seem to think the best scene is at the end, when Tony Montana bursts out of his plush drug-lord office madly doped and screaming about his “little toy”, I have a different scene that is my favorite.

Go back to the beginning of the movie, when he’s just off the boat. Watch Tony getting questioned by Immigration. Watch him later when he’s a dishwasher, cutting his first drug deal.

While I don’t condone the selfish message, I do respect this thing. I respect the naked determination and self confidence, that that rare someone who has nothing will occasionally exhibit.

The determination message is what shines through for me.