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I hate to complain, I really do. But, this past week I tried to use my TD Bank credit/debit card and I was told that the card was unable to be used.

“What?” I asked the woman at the hair salon. “That shouldn’t be. I have enough money in the account to cover a haircut!”

“Sorry,” she said. “You need to use another card.”

After paying for the haircut, I immediately called TD Bank. “We’re sorry but the wait time is more than expected,” a voice on the other end of the phone said.

I waited. And waited…. And waited….. About 20 minutes went by and no one got on the phone so I hung up.

The next day, I was in NYC and i figured I had a little time in between meetings to take care of my faulty card. I went to one bank by Blecker Street and Broadway. I waited for about 10 minutes and then a young man came over to me. “Can I help you?” he said.

“Yes, my card doesn’t work and I think I need a new one,” I told him.

“Sure, one moment,” he said and he checked my accounts and worked on the computer. To be honest, I don’t know what he was doing but it took an awfully long time! He went in the back and came back to me shaking his head.

“I’m sorry but our printer doesn’t work. You will have to go to another branch.”

At that point, I was five minutes late for my meeting and quickly left. After my meeting, I went to another bank in the Village to find that their printer was out too. How interesting was that?

Okay, one more shot, I thought. I headed to 14th Street and found a TD Bank there. I walked inside and was told to take a seat. I waited, and waited, and waited…. During my wait, a homeless man came into the bank and asked me for money; a women had a huge screaming fight with her significant other; and the woman sitting next to me on the bench was talking loudly to her daughter about her test results…. It was all too interesting…. After 45 minutes, a woman came out and asked if she could help me.

I told her that my card didn’t work and I needed another one. She said, “just one moment,” and left me still sitting in the reception area. She quickly came back and tried to give me $10 for a cab. “Our printer doesn’t work and here’s some cab money to get to 23rd street,” she said.

“But 23rd Street is so out of my way,” I told her. “I’ll miss my next appointment. Can’t I just order the card from you and you can mail to my house?”

“No, we don’t work that way,” she said. “It has to be done in a branch.”

“I think I’m going to tweet,” I told her. “And I’m going to look for another bank!”

This isn’t the first time I’ve had a problem with TD Bank and I’m sure it’s not the last. But, my goal now is to try to get out while I can and find another bank that really is convenient for me…. Any recommendations?

Image by خليفه المطاوعه ♥ via Flickr

Do you remember what happened to me last weekend when I was in Las Vegas? Well to recap, I got to my hotel at 10 pm (Vegas time, 1 am NY time) only to find that I didn’t have a room. The Renaissance Hotel in Las Vegas gave up my room reservation.

Yes, they booked me at the Embassy Suites. And yes, they did not charge me. And yes, they did give me $20 bucks for a taxi which was right around the corner. But, because I had just gotten “ripped off” from the airport to the hotel which should have cost me $12 which actually cost me $35, I was not getting in another cab in Vegas!

So, in a nutshell, I walked to the Embassy Suites through a really rough neighborhood. I ended up calling MGM Grand and staying there the rest of the trip because the Renaissance Hotel could not guarantee my reservation for the next few days….

Fast forward this week. Now, I’m in Syracuse. I decided to spend another night here before my meetings tomorrow morning in Rochester. I checked in reluctantly to the Renaissance Hotel in Syracuse. They were accommodating and sent me to a room on the 7th floor. I opened the door. It looked good. Nice, actually, it was very nice.

I went to the bathroom and found that the bathroom wasn’t clean. No one was in the room to clean the whole bathroom area.

I called downstairs. They sent me to the 5th floor to another room. When I opened the room and examined the bathroom, it was clean so I felt better.

But could you believe this? What an experience at the Renaissance Hotel…. Hopefully, if there is a next time, it will be a positive experience!

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Axe has 7% share of the men’s body wash category and it is the market leader. Old Spice is in second place with 6%. This category is ripe from leadership.

As an ad-rat and someone who admires Bartle Bogle Hegarty the Axe agency, I’ve watched with interest the Axe advertising phenomenon. But here’s the deal — 7% market share? Puh-lease.

Body wash isn’t even a new category anymore. An opportunity has been lost here.Unilever has to decide if it wants to own body gel or OWN body gel. If it’s the latter, it needs to step up and spend some dough. BBH has been doing a good job of getting Axe on the map, but they’ve been diddling around with fun, yet small targeted programs.

Lot’s of little stuff doesn’t compare with a big idea and a big spend.

Old Spice and Nivea should not even be in the picture. This category is ready to for a leader to emerge, but it needs some investment spending.

Unilever has to start throwing some serious body punches. All it’s been doing to date is tickling. Men don’t like to be ticked. Peace! Axe, unilever, bartle bogle hegarty, old spice, nivea, BBH, whatstheidea., whats the idea…

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Steve Poppe is the Managing Partner of “What’s the Idea?” a marketing consulting firm. Check out Steve’s blog at http://spoppe.livejournal.com or reach him via Twitter @spoppe.