Friday 7 August 2015

Common Examples of RMA Policy

In modernity, most RMA requests are completed through the Internet, so having the ability to process RMAs has become reviews a crucial aspect of the tech world. Upon receiving the initial request, the representative, aided by the help of reverse logistics technology, needs to begin gathering information about the product. This information may include date of sale, order, and delivery, thechannel through which the product was obtained, the method of payment, how many items need to be returned, and the reasons for the return. With the right technology, and with responsive design so the web-based revlog technology works on all devices, it could be as simple as hitting the easy button for a logistics manager. This could spur a competitive advantage with automatic return authorization. All the logistics manager has to do is send their part number and serial number and the technology automatically approves the return so they don't to touch the return until it hits their dock. 

Relationship Between Supplier and Channel

When an item is returned without defects, it may be used for multiple purposes. For example, it may be sent off to an outlet center as it becomes obsolescent, remanufactured to recover the value, restocked in the store, sent to another center in stock rotations, or exchanged following an order error.

Product Quality

This aspect of information gathering focuses on quality of the item for the return. For example, was the item defective; will it need repackaging if opened; was it missing parts; or does it not fit into the consumer’s needs?

Customer Accommodation

Customer accommodations refer to how the Return Merchandise Authorization policy seeks to make the consumer whole again. This may include offering an exchange for a similar product, exchanging the item for the correct product, or as part of a warranty replacement.
After gathering information, an RMA policy should move into the second phase of RMA: validation of information.

Validating Information

Information may consider invalid or valid for a number of reasons. The return request may be outside of the refund and exchange window. However, you must also consider if the cost of denying the return will cause permanent harm to the buyer-seller relationship. For example, a return of $100 on a single item easily outweighs the cost of losing $10,000 worth of orders. To help keep things simple, follow the following steps.
1.       Verify the terms of the return contract.
2.      Verify the existence of the purchase order.
3.      Verify the identity of the person returning the item.
4.      Verify the purchase price of the item, especially since items may have been on-sale when purchased.
5.      Did the buyer receive any additional discounts on other merchandise as part of a promotion?
6.      Should the consumer receive the Return Merchandise Authorization approval as part of guaranteeing customer satisfaction?
Next, an RMA policy will need to have a chain of events for reviewing the following:
·         Warranty policy.
·         Buyer-Seller contract.
·         Policy for customer service.
·         Specification of RMA Type: Exchange, Refund, or Repair.
·         User Expectations for the item.
·         Product repairs.
Additionally, the Return Merchandise Authorization policy needs to take into account how the buyer-seller relationship may change due to the return, how will the return affect marketing strategy, does the item have additional use in the product lifecycle, and how can such a return influence continued business with the consumer. Upon analysis of all these factors and following these processes, the merchant may grant, or deny, the return merchandise authorization.

Thursday 6 August 2015

New therapy to help addicts put memories of meth use behind them

The pitch for TapHeaven might sound a little familiar. Co-founder and CEO Chris Hoyt said his technology delivers truly automated ad-buying.
What makes TapHeaven more than just another ad startup that talks a big game about its technology? Well, it says it’s actually delivering big results with its first dozen pilot partners — many reviews them, Hoyt said, have seen their user acquisition costs fall by 50 percent.
He added that some of those advertisers have already switched to using TapHeaven exclusively; dropping their other demand-side platforms (those are the ad-buying platforms that allow them to work with multiple ad exchanges and data providers).
The technology out there was very weak,” he said. “There’s so much wasted ad spend through the human-based processes that are rampant in our industry.”
TapHeaven is backed by startup studio ventureLab and it’s officially launching its Sonar Intelligence product today.
Given a lack of prior experience in advertising, Hoyt and his co-founders Jeremy Jones and Brian Krebs (pictured above) might not be the most obvious candidates to build a serious ad-tech company, but Hoyt pointed to Krebs’ background in enterprise technology, and he said that they developed TapHeaven by working closely with one of the top companies in mobile gaming. (Krebs said he can’t disclose the name of that company or of TapHeaven’s other advertisers.)
“Having that customer guide you — they’re using our competitors, they know what the weaknesses are and they know what the technology is capable of,” he said.
He added that the big request was to directly connect the advertiser’s performance data to TapHeaven’s algorithms, so the ad-buying is guided by an accurate measure of a
customer’s value. More broadly, Hoyt said TapHeaven isn’t just “a black box” for advertisers, but instead allows them to add their own guidelines to the process.
Through a new study, the same researchers have now identified an approach they say can selectively target actin in the brain of animals, without posing a danger to the rest of the body. It involves a molecular motor called nonmuscle myosin II (NMII) that supports memory formation. The team found by using a compound called blebbistatin, which inhibits NMII, they were able to affect the long-term storage of drug-associated memories.
More specifically, the team found that treating meth-addicted animals with a single injection of blebbistatin, meth-associated memories were disrupted and it blocked relapse for at least 30 days. Importantly, the drug was found to exclusively affect drug-associated memories and still left the animals capable of forming new ones.


Tuesday 4 August 2015

Tips for Using Social Media to Boost SEO

The problem is that Square's servers don't verify the device's transaction count. That means that card details can be recorded and then used at a later time without the company necessarily noticing something strange is happening reviews.
It's not a straightforward hack to carry out, nor is it particularly easy to use after the event: for its part, Square point out that a hacked Reader won't work with the official app, and even then each malicious swipe can only be handled once before it disappears into the ether. But that doesn't stop an enterprising yet nefarious retailer from using the vulnerability to acquire your card details.
Perhaps the best advice is to always pay attention to the kind of app being used to carry out the transaction, if you can. If the official app is being used, you're almost certainly in the clear; if the app looks like a piece of third-party software, you shouldn't hand over your card.
You’re probably heard some version of these statements before: social media and SEO go hand in hand. Social media can boost your SEO. A better social presence makes for better rankings. 
But what’s often missing is the part that comes after these statements: how?
Let’s start with the basics.
What is SEO and why should you care?
SEO is the process by which your website climbs up the rankings in the search engine, and refers to anything that helps your site appear on that first Google page. There are several strategies and techniques by which one can boost search rankings, but a solid social media presence is among the most important. The more robust your social media presence, the easier it will be for your potential customers to find you.
Shared content helps link-building
External inbound links are crucial to making search engines recognize you as a valuable online source, and one way to get people to link back to you is to make your content super shareable. Work on producing valuable content that people will want to share on their social networks. Start by sharing it on a regular schedule via your social profiles, and make sure to be a good community member by sharing other influencer content in return.
Follower count matters
And in tandem with the previous two points, a solid social following matters. Not only do followers help you with sharing your content and link-building, but the number of followers matters when Google is determining your algorithmic authority. What’s more, fake or purchased followers don’t help you, as Google can now measure the quality of your followers. And while you won’t soon be garnering the 3 million followers of, say, Coca-Cola, you don’t have to squander your potential with 100 followers either. Slowly but surely, good social media practices (like useful content, customer engagement, tweet chat participation, consistent scheduling, and frequent sharing) will build your follower base.
  Social channels are the new Google
All of this goes to say that, as social media becomes a more integrated presence in our mobile-driven, always-connected lives, more and more users will go directly to social to find what they want. Users now go straight to YouTube to find a how-to video, or straight to the Instagram search function to find trending fashion photos. If you build a social presence on these platforms, you’ll ensure that potential customers can find you no matter what search engine they’re using.
Local Business and Community Building

Last but certainly not least, if you’re a business looking for some local action, social media can be a key traffic builder. Local businesses with major community engagement will pop up closer to the top of that search list, so make sure you’re interacting with your community. How? A few methods come to mind: If you attend or host a local event, take pictures, post them to your account, and tag people. Offer discounts and incentives for local business. Make sure you thank your local customers (a simple personalized “thanks for shopping with us” goes a surprisingly long way). In addition to all this, build trust with other local businesses--share each other’s content and work off referrals. A good local business is like a good neighbor: friendly, available, and willing to lend you a cup of sugar.

Sunday 2 August 2015

Inside the Macworld Vault: A hidden collection of vintage Macs

Indian telecom operators said they are committed to work with the government on tackling the problem of call drops and are keen to undertake the joint exercise with the Telecom Enforcement, Resource and Monitoring (TERM) cells to address the reviews issue.

"At the outset, we would like to submit that all our member operators are committed to work the DoT (Department of Telecom) and are keen to undertake the joint exercise with the TERM cell to address the issue of the call drops," said the Cellular Operators' Association of India and the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India in a joint letter to the DoT. A copy of the letter dated July 30 which is available with IANS.

The DoT wrote a letter to the service providers on July 17 asking them to submit report on call drop issue by July 31.
Though the various speed runs, creative exploits, and super-creative challenges (including cooperative runs and blindfold runs) have been fun to watch over the past week, the crux of Summer Games Done Quick really centers on its fundraising efforts. The gaming marathon officially hit its donation goal of one million dollars on its final day of streaming, and ended up reaching a total of $1,232,747.90/Rs 7.88 crore (thanks to 28,474 donations). The average donation sat at just around $43/Rs 2,750, and the largest donation topped $21K/Rs 13.42 lakh—not bad at all.
"You have helped change the world. Keep helping others," continued Games Done Quick on Twitter.
As for the games, it's hard to narrow down to what we'd consider highlights, given that just about every game played during the seven days had something interested about it as a result of the focus on speed (or other crazy challenges).
But if you’re upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or 8.1, be aware that one feature won’t be available any more in the new version. Microsoft said earlier this year that Windows Media Center was dead, and indeed, there’s no direct replacement for it in Windows 10.
However, those who used to have Media Center will get a free Windows DVD Player app – although if you ever perform a clean install of Windows 10, you’ll lose the free app, and will have to buy it instead. And considering the new app offers only a small subset of Media Center’s features, we wouldn’t be surprised if some users consider it to be more trouble than it’s worth.
Oh, right, the Macalope and others. How silly. What a crazy thing to say and then say again as if to draw further attention to it. The Macalope regrets over-emphasizing the point that this was entirely knowable before the fact.
Disclaimer: He does not actually regret over-emphasizing that point.
Here’s where it takes a turn, though. Because despite what you might have read in the papers, history didn’t end last year. While Apple continues to sell iPhones like they’re whatever the Chinese equivalent of hot cakes is, Xiaomi’s fortunes are not assured, either.