Cruzio/The Internet Store Newsletter - Number 59, October 1, 2002
1. New Home Page October 7th
2. Cruzio's 4th Annual Small Business Fair
3. Cruzio's New Phone System
4. Welcome to Cruzio's New Customer Service Manager
5. Beware of Bogus Domain Renewals
6. Buddy Bucks
7. Feed the Hungry, We'll Waive Late Fees
8. About This Newsletter
9. How to Reach Cruzio (dial-in or tech support)
1. New Home Page October 7th
We've been working for many months on a new look for Cruzio's
home page,
http://www.cruzio.com
... and we're nearly done. The new site will appear on Monday,
October 7th, less than a week from now.
Cruzio has taken the best parts of the old site (the local focus,
handy links) and added a better graphical look and better
navigation so you can get to the support, customer service, and
other areas more easily. There's more content than ever to look at
and it's better organized. Plus, it's prettier. We'll continue
adding and improving as time goes by.
So when October 7th rolls around, prepare for a big change!
2. Cruzio's 4th Annual Small Business Fair
Imagine getting information about how to run your business in a
non-boring atmosphere, with lots of lively talk and questions.
That is unusual enough. But now add delicious snacks, a booklet
full of resources and helpful information, and the presence of
dozens of other people who are running small businesses (or thinking
about it ...) just like you. This is the Cruzio's annual Small
Business Fair. It's one of Cruzio's favorite events of the year.
Place: The Museum of Art and History, downtown Santa Cruz
Dates: Wed, Oct 9, "Growing Your Business"
Wed, Oct 16, "The Labor Game"
Wed, Oct 23, "Making Money Online"
Wed, Oct 30, "Exposing Your Art"
(These are the last 4 Wednesdays in October)
Time: 4:30 to 7:00 pm
For more information and to register, see
http://www.smallbusinessfair.com
Many of last year's events sold out, so it's a good idea to sign up
early!
This year, our panelists include Ann Morhauser from Annieglass,
Emily Reilly from Emily's Bakery, Linda Kennedy and Tony Gasparich
from West Marine, and many other local luminaries. They'll tell
you about their own experiences and give you ideas for your
business.
As always, the Small Business Fair isn't just a Cruzio effort. We
are working with other local businesses and nonprofits to present
the most interesting and informative evenings possible. Our sponsors
have provided everything from high-quality printing to on-the-spot
mailing services and much more. We are pleased to work in a town with
folks who pitch in and contribute such fine work. Many thanks to the
sponsors. See you at the Fair!
3. Cruzio's New Phone System
Cruzio outgrew our old telephone system and we recently bought
a new one. It has lots of neat features which we aren't yet using.
Right now we are mostly trying to get all the basic functions
working smoothly (has this happened to anyone else out there?
It's quite a process.) Please excuse us while we work out
the bugs.
Calls are coming in and getting answered just fine, for the
most part. The problems customers would experience are trouble
leaving a message during business hours and calls seeming to ring
longer before they are answered. We're working on it! In the
meantime, please know that we don't want to miss your calls or
questions, we are answering the phones and your call will be
answered. Also, email often works as well as a call: you can
always email support@cruzio.com for technical support issues
and office@cruzio.com for customer service issues as an alternative.
We hope to have the phone thing worked out soon. The company we
bought the system from said it would take "a few weeks to work
out the bugs" and it's been a few weeks already.
4. Welcome to Cruzio's New Customer Service Manager
Please welcome Brittany, our new Customer Service Manager. She'll
be guiding our staff toward ever-higher standards: customer
service is the very core of Cruzio's existence, so this is an
important job. Brittany came up through the Cruzio ranks from
Bookkeeping and then did a great job as Technical Support manager,
so she knows Cruzio inside and out. Welcome to your new job,
Brittany!
5. Beware of Bogus Domain Renewals
When you own a custom domain name (like "mycompany.com"), the
registration information is public knowledge. That means anyone
can look up your domain expiration date.
Registrars, even some of the big ones, are using this information
to send out bogus renewal notices to folks who are registered
with other companies. Their purpose is to trick people into
moving their registration from one company to another
("slamming.")
It doesn't hurt the domain to change your registration from
one company to another; one registrar seems as good as another,
so far as we've seen. But when your domain is slammed, it's
usually to a registrar which charges twice as much. Plus, we
hate to see this behavior rewarded.
To avoid getting slammed, check your domain registration and renew
it yourself. You can check registration information, including
what company you are registered with and your next due date,
at
http://www.cruzio.com/support/utilities/whois.html
Please call Cruzio Customer Service if you have any questions.
6. Buddy Bucks
We like to show our appreciation when you refer a customer to
Cruzio. If you send people our way, we'll credit your
Cruzio account $10 for every new customer you've referred.
Make sure your friends mention your name, email address, or
best of all your account number when they sign up.
7. Feed the Hungry, We'll Waive Late Fees
If you are late on a payment to Cruzio and incur a late fee,
you can bring at least 3 cans of food down to our office (903
Pacific Avenue, downtown Santa Cruz) and put them in our Second
Harvest food barrel. We'll waive the late fee.
8. About This Newsletter
Cruzio doesn't like to waste bandwidth with extra email, but we
sometimes have events and announcements that members 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.
9. 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).
56k: 459-9408
33.6 kbps and under: 459-6230
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:
support@cruzio.com ......for technical support
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, Martin, Georgette,
Tapati, Pedro, Brittany, Alec, Stephen, Paul, Gershom,
Phil, Jessi, Ben, Alice, Edgar, Alex, Michael, another
Kathy, Bhag, another Chris, Maria, Ezra, James, and
David (the grownups); Jake, Annika, and Carly (the kids)
The opening of a story by Annika, age seven (exactly as written):
"Once upon a time there was a dog who could pernounce the word
'vacabulary'! And 'February'! And she could pernounce them
right."
(Unfortunately, this was all Annika wrote, so we don't know
what adventures this talented dog had.)
