I’m trying LicketyShip out (just turned on publicly this morning). Unfortunately the first thing I wanted (some more Avery business card holders for binders) aren’t available from LicketyShip. But my friends who’ve tried the service say that it works great and gets stuff to your office in a few hours. I wrote about them a while back, but they are using shipping services and couriers to get stuff to you in less than a day.

I imagine one day I’ll be able to jump on a service like this, say “I’m heading to San Jose airport at 1 p.m.” and have it tell me if there’s a package waiting nearby that I could pick up and make some money. Anyway, nice UI.

One thing is that it starts up an IM if you have a problem. So far no human has answered. That’s not good. I’d love to see a webcam of who’s answering customer service questions so I would know if he or she is on break or not. It says they are online…

Frank Shaw, who is Vice President of Waggener Edstrom (Microsoft’s main PR firm), asks an interesting question: “If “Diggnation” were on a national cable or broadcast feed, would 250k viewers be seen as success or the road to to cancellation? You decide….“

Here’s a question I have. If you have a new technology product or service to launch, would you rather launch it on Diggnation or on the front of the business page of, say, USA Today?

By the way, Frank is one of those gatekeepers who can get you in front of Microsoft executives. It’ll be really interesting to see if Diggnation is ever broadcast from BillG’s office. Imagine Kevin Rose drinking beer with Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. If that ever happens I’ll know the world has really gotten loopy.

Congrats to PodTech competitors Podshow, who just got $15 million in a second round of VC financing, John Furrier learned. Can’t wait to see Adam Curry and team at the Podcast and Portable Media Expo (I’ll be traveling down there this afternoon, drop me a line if you wanna get together. My cell phone is always on my blog — over there on the right side. No, down lower.)

Looks like things are going to get even more interesting in the new media world.

UPDATE: more info on this story over on TechMeme.

Whenever I look into a new product or idea or service I do a Google search on “company name” and “sucks.” Or “product name” and “sucks.” Replace “sucks” with “problem” or “bad customer service” and try again.

Here’s an example of a company that’s losing tons of potential customers: Dreamhost. It also is an example of how the word-of-mouth network works. Jeremiah Owyang works at Hitachi Data Systems. I’ve gotten to know him and know he’s a pretty level-headed guy. Doesn’t link to the latest fad or hot post from Digg. Does his homework, etc etc.

Anyway, he came to a presentation I gave to a few people this morning. Afterward he came up and explained how Dreamhost was screwing a friend of his and is totally non-responsive. He wrote it up on his blog.

If you’re considering hosting services I’d recommend you read this post about Dreamhost first. Pretty bad customer service.