Cruzio Newsletter - Number 77, July 20, 2004
1. ShopSite Brown Bag Thurs, July 22 -- Free!
2. New Billing System: Settling Down
3. Continuing With a Low Price for Cruzio DSL
4. Switching to a Low Price for Cruzio DSL
5. Cruzio Sponsoring Shakespeare SC, Cabrillo Music Festival
& Santa Cruz Night Out
6. Cruzio Phones: Ailing This Month
7. Buddy Bucks
8. Help the Hungry, Avoid Late Fees
9. About This Newsletter
10. How to Reach Cruzio (dial-in or tech support)
1. ShopSite Brown Bag Thurs, July 22 -- Free!
Thurs, July 22nd, noon-1:30 pm, 903 Pacific Avenue
Shopping habits have changed. Many people now do a lot of their
shopping online, and local businesses can take part. Cruzio is
holding a free workshop on ShopSite, our easy-to-use shopping cart
program, in plenty of time to get ready for Christmas. (We get
last minute orders every December, but really it's better to
start early.)
ShopSite is the most popular online store program for small- to
medium-size businesses and it's easy to learn and use. You can
even integrate a store into your existing site.
Cruzio's multi-talented Marketing Director, Kathy Bisbee, will
lead the workshop -- giving an overview, showing you important
features, and answering questions. It's a great opportunity to
get started or to learn more about what your online store can do.
We've added features in the past year which make the stores
even more powerful.
This is something local businesses should really take advantage
of. And Web consultants may want to take a look as well; many
shopowners hire outside consultants for this work.
All are welcome, and it's free. To register, please go to
http://www.cruzio.com/brownbag/
or call us at 459-6301. Register early, this is a popular event!
2. New Billing System: Settling Down
There is always someone working hard over here at Cruzio upgrading
this or improving that. Lately our attention has been taken up with
our new billing system, and a year's worth of preparation has given
way to months of adapting, learning, auditing, and tweaking.
Our billing system, in place for about a month and a half,
is settling in to a fairly stable and predictable state. Bill
amounts and dates are generally correct, which is after all the
main point of a billing system. Many thanks to our fearless CTO
Chris for masterminding the changeover so well.
We are still adapting the new system to our needs. We're still
working out how the bills can be made more readable. We're still
combing through the accounts every day looking for idiosyncrasies,
and learning the unique qualities (!) of this new program.
We very rarely find incorrect charges, but we sometimes find strange
ideas on, say, what is "due" vs. "overdue." Be assured that
we are carefully watching. If you see something you feel is
incorrect, please let us know by writing to office@cruzio.com.
Some automatic credit card customers (and there are a lot of you)
have been surprised to receive an invoice a few weeks before the
account's due date. Your card won't be charged until the actual
due date; we're just letting you know ahead of time what the
charge will be, which is a good thing. Really. This is new, so
we've had a lot of calls about it, but it's actually a feature,
not a bug, as programmers say.
We're also coping with the added security of the new system, which
requires exactly correct billing addresses. We must ask members
to be more attentive about updating information when moving or
making other payment-related changes. We've already had to make
hundreds of calls to customers to update their addresses -- we've
updated 600 of the 700 addresses which had discrepancies ignored
by our old system over the years. Thanks so much to those of you
who helped.
3. Continuing with a Low Price for Cruzio DSL
If your year of low-price Cruzio DSL is ending, you will have
an opportunity to sign up again for another year at your current
speed or at the new, higher-speed DSL 3.0. Cruzio will send you an
email with the Web address when you are reaching the end of the term,
or you can contact us (email office@cruzio.com) and we'll direct
you to the right spot. We appreciate your business!
4. Switching to a Low Price for Cruzio DSL
If you are paying the higher monthly price for DSL and would
like to get the lower price for a yearly contract, or move to
the special yearly price on a higher speed, please ask our
Customer Service department about it. Normally it's very simple.
Just email office@cruzio.com for details.
5. Cruzio Sponsoring Shakespeare SC, Cabrillo Music Festival
& Santa Cruz Night Out
Cruzio owners and employees live and work in Santa Cruz County,
and our customers are largely based here, too. So we are thrilled
to be sponsors of community events from Aromas to Boulder Creek*.
In the next month or two Cruzio is supporting some wonderful
events:
Shakespeare Santa Cruz, schedule online
http://www.shakespearesantacruz.org
The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, August 1-15, 2004
http://www.cabrillomusic.org
Santa Cruz Night Out, three Tuesdays, 8/12, 8/19, & 8/26, 5:00-8:00 pm
http://www.santacruznightout.org/
(*We need a Woody Guthrie-type song to describe the borders of Santa
Cruz County. Any ideas?)
6. Cruzio Phones: Ailing This Month
If you've called us and found the phone system to be a little weird
this month, you are not alone. Our voice mail's central processor slowed,
sputtered, and finally died in late June. It took us a few days to
figure it out and replace the thing, and we're still working toward
recovering all the spiffy voice mail functions we usually have. As we
reinstall the system, we will be adding a larger voice mail tree for
Spanish-speaking customers, so it will be even better than before.
7. Buddy Bucks
You earn Buddy Bucks when you recommend Cruzio to a friend,
family member, colleague, or even someone you barely know. If the
new customer gives us your email address, registration number, or
full name when signing up, Cruzio will give you $10 credit on
your account. No limit to the amount you can earn.
Remember, Cruzio dialup is now available nationwide -- does your
great aunt in Milwaukee bemoan the lack of a decent Internet Provider?
Does your bookie in Las Vegas wish for a connection like yours?
Sign 'em up.
8. Help the Hungry, Avoid Late Fees
If you're late on a payment to Cruzio, turn it into a donation
to hungry folks in our community. We will waive your late
fee if you bring 3 cans into our office for our Second Harvest
Food Bin barrel anytime, all year 'round. Learn more about this
charity at
http://www.thefoodbank.org
9. About This Newsletter
Cruzio doesn't like to waste bandwidth with extra email, but we sometimes
have events and announcements that users need to know about. This seems
like the most efficient way to let people know what's happening. Hope
it's helpful. Please email support@cruzio.com with any comments or questions.
By the way, we would love to have a regular, predictable schedule
for this newsletter...but we simply do not send it unless there is real
news enclosed. Thus the haphazard datelines.
10. How to Reach Cruzio (dial-in or tech support)
To reach the Cruzio Information Center, for online technical and
sales information:
http://www.cruzio.com/support
To dial in to Cruzio, set your software to dial one of the numbers
below (note: we've expanded and joined modem pools, so you may be
using another number. If so, don't worry, it still works just fine).
Dialup: 459-9408
Nationwide Dialup: Look up local number on our Web page:
http://www.flexpop.net/hub.php3?c=Locations&p=Numsearch
or call Cruzio toll free, 1.800.303.3302
To call Cruzio:
459-6301............Use this number to check Cruzio's system status,
pay your Cruzio bill, find out more about our hours and location,
or to reach someone in customer service and technical support.
To send email to Cruzio, use one of these addresses:
office@cruzio.com .......for billing and ordering information
Cruzio's location:
903 Pacific Avenue, Suite 101, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Cruzio's hours:
Sales hours: 10am-6pm, Monday through Friday; 10 am - 2 pm Saturday
Technical support: 10-6 pm, Monday through Friday, 10am - 2pm Saturday
System monitoring, including customer-alerted emergencies, 24 hours
per day, 365 days per year (leap years, 366 days)
Thanks very much from Cruzio:
Chris, Peggy, Julianne, Kathy, Mark, Tapati, Alec, Stephen,
Paul, Gershom, Jessi, Michael, another Chris, Maria, James,
Juana, Krissie, Nikkie, Mike, Mario, Don, Bruce, Edgar,
Brian, and Jhonee'; Eric (our fabulous intern);
Jake, Annika, and Carly (the kids)
Carly, age 7, jumping up and down in the swimming pool: "Look,
Mommy, isn't this unusual?"
