Ok, back to our tale of the trials and tribulations of seeing a once great company sink to the bottom, mainly due to the lack of knowledge/experience of those who got put ‘in charge’. When we spoke last I mentioned that I was involved with an effort that should have resulted in some HUGE brownie points for me and I sincerely believe that if NO-CS had not been so territorial and controlling, he would have seen the good I was doing and given me a raise for my dedication and ingenuity.
Here’s the story: think back to 2001, the internet was nowhere near as huge as it has become. There were a few forums, but again nothing like it is now. Well, a company call August Home created a woodworking forum called WoodNet and lots of woodworkers started hanging out there. I found out about it thru one of the engineers at Delta and he thought it would be a good idea for me to get on there and participate because many folks were Delta users. I was hesitant to put my name out there because that might open me up to direct emails and I really didn’t have time for that. BUT, I could see where I might become a ‘friendly face’ to those loyal Delta customers and that seemed to be a good thing to me. So, I created a ‘secret identity’ as Delta007. Yea, maybe not so secret, except that only one other person knew who I really was- that being my engineering buddy-I just felt it was better to stay un-ID’d. I started replying to posts a little at a time, mostly simple stuff like “Does anyone know how old this Delta machine is?” and they’d post a serial number. Well, I’d run the number and reply back with the model number and the year it was built. Boy, were these folks impressed! A few times someone would post a complaint that, if left alone would have really given Delta a black eye. How so, you ask? Because the ‘net was growing and a posted-complaint is like a signal for everyone to pile on and dog out the manufacturer. It’s not a pretty sight.
Anyway, this went along for a couple of years. I never made a big deal of my participation, I was always entirely Professional in my postings and VERY conscious that my words would be around forever. I became good friends with many of the members and they knew that they could count on me to be fair, candid and above all helpful. There is literally no telling how many Delta machines were bought simply because I was a member. People knew it and were highly appreciative. Well, that is, most people were… One day in 2004, I got called into NO-CS’s office and was asked, point-blank “Are you Delta007 on WoodNet?” Naturally, being the honest person that I am, I said “yes”… and the game was on…
Send your questions or comments to:
Toolsmartz@bellsouth.net and we’ll see what we can do to help you.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment