Greetings! Well as you can see I’ve been the cobbler with no shoes here. Time to eat my own cooking and post breaking news, tips, rants and accolades on a regular basis.

First up  - Accolades!

Let me start by saying Starbucks rocks – at least Lori, the effusive manager in the New City location, does. She listened patiently to my story, took action, gave me recommendations and urged me to contact her if I encountered any problems getting a refund (it’s a long story, suffice to say my daughter was overcharged for a discontinued item in a NYC store in a rather unusual way). This is kind of spectacular service produces raving fans, and Lori, God bless her, earns first place in the Accolades column this week.

Next up for minor kudos – Costco. Minor cause they are not making sure stuff is handled properly in the first place (i.e. “the system” needs to be fixed.) Here’s what happened… I added 2 of my kids onto my account. Seems “the system” automatically bills the yearly rate for all listed users upon renewal, even if some were added on a couple months before the renewal date. The Customer Service rep who handled my initial call neglected to tell me that my yearly contract would be up in a couple months. So basically I paid 40 bucks for 2 months, and then they billed me another 40 bucks 2 months later. The first Customer Service person I called to address this snafu said “I’m sorry, this is our policy.” Never say that to me, just patch me through to your Supervisor. The affable Supervisor did not need any arm twisting, sobbing or ranting to agree that I was right (boy do I love those words!) Anyway, spit-spot, he took care of refunding me the money I had originally plunked down to add my kids, and that was that. Moral of story grasshoppers – never accept the “policy” excuse, place nicely and go to the top when the first person can’t (or won’t) help you.

Now for exciting Conference news…

I recently covered the TWTRCON Conference in NYC and heartily recommend you get your buns to the San Francisco program in November. The New York program featured excellent speakers (@Martha Stewart was the main keynote) along with folks from Google, Starbucks, JetBlue, Mashable, Foursquare, Whole Foods, Pepsico, etc. The day featured great content from terrific panelists (including Laura Fitton aka @Pistachio) who provide incredible case studies and tons of practical advice on all things Twitter!

San Francisco is also the hotspot for the upcoming Search Engine Strategies Conference, held in tandem with Connected Marketing Week from August 16-20 at the Moscone West. Can’t wait to hear the latest news on emerging technology and best practices from a stellar roster of speakers, including: Jeffrey Hayzlett, VP of Eastman Kodak (maker of my favorite “Flip” style camera – the Zi8!), BJ Fogg, Director of Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University, Lisa Buyer, President & CEO of The Buyer Group, Andrew Chang, Marketing Manager, LinkedIn, Eleanor Hong, Lead Editor, SEO ABCNews.com. This venue is attended by marketing and PR leaders and CEO’s from around the world – so the networking is also excellent. If you’re not able to make this one, try get to one of the next Conferences, which will be held in Hong Kong in September and Chicago in October.