I thought I was dreaming.

After posting yesterday’s rant against Time Warner Cable’s (TWC) service “upgrade,” can you imagine how I reacted at 6:30 this morning when I turned on my TV and found that all my favorite functions–which I’d thought were obliterated by the upgrade–were back in action?

Time Warner Cable (spun off recently from Time Warner (TWX), which owns Time Inc., Fortune’s parent) responded to my complaining–I was sure of it. I suspected that Alex Dudley, the TWC PR man whom I quoted in yesterday’s Postcard, had become my personal cable repairman. My Dudley Do-Right.

“I did not do anything,” Dudley told me when I phoned him this morning. The return of my beloved DVR functions, he said, “is nothing but a coincidence.”

Dudley didn’t dispute yesterday’s claim that I—as well as others I surveyed–could, after the company’s Navigator “upgrade,” rewind a program a scant eight seconds. That annoying problem disappeared this morning: When I pressed “Replay,” Voila! I could rewind an entire hour-long show (as long as the DVR was tuned to that channel for the program’s entirety.)

“The software was fixed,” explained Dudley, while admitting he himself was guessing about this midnight magic. “When people are sleeping, we ping the boxes. I guess we did your neighborhood overnight.”

That’s kinda creepy. But I’m glad it’s fixed. Wonder what the cable fairy will ping tonight.

Time Warner Cable’s DVR “upgrade” is a downgrade.

If you’re a customer of America’s second-largest cable company, as I am, you  came home one day recently to find that the new “Navigator” DVR system has taken over your TV–and taken your TV viewing hostage.

You used to be able to watch a show live and–let’s say, you dashed to the kitchen and missed that touchdown pass–rewind and watch it in repeat.

Now you can’t do that. The “Replay” button takes you only eight seconds back.

You used to be able to come home at 9:20 pm on a Thursday–after a rough day at work, let’s say–and if your TV was already set to NBC, you pushed “Record” to capture 30 Rock in progress. That 30 Rock episode instantly popped into your library of recorded programs.

Now you can’t record those in-progress programs either.

And don’t get me started on “Start Over.” This is a new feature that Time Warner Cable–recently spun off from Time Warner (TWX), which owns Time Inc., Fortune’s parent–hyped leading up to the Navigator “upgrade.” Now, if you press the little “Start Over” button that pops on your screen during certain programs, the program starts over–and you have to watch that show then and there. The new Navigator is like a stern grade-school teacher: No rewinding or fast-forwarding allowed during “Start Over”!

I’m not the only customer who isn’t happy. After I advertised my angst on Facebook yesterday, one friend, Manhattan architect Eric Gartner, commented: “It’s really really bad, i agree!”

Gary Belis, a long-ago Fortune colleague, wrote: “Hate it, hate it, HATE IT! And don’t even get me started on trying to find my usual channels.”

“FiOs can’t get to Manhattan soon enuf,” he added, referring to Verizon’s (VZ) broadband Internet-phone-TV service.

Another comment came from Gilt Groupe CEO Susan Lyne, who once co-headed ABC Entertainment at Disney (DIS): “I called to complain that the upgrade had erased all my saved shows. The nice rep suggested I start over.”

I too called Time Warner Cable customer service to complain. The nice rep told me yesterday that they’ve been getting lots of complaints. “I’m so sorry,” he said, trying to console me by adding  that “sometimes a change in your equipment and in your personal life” is good.

Thank you. I needed that.

Time Warner Cable (TWC) spokesman Alex Dudley told me today that he wasn’t aware of the problems. (He’s a Connecticut resident and Cablevision (CVC) customer, he explained, so he hasn’t used the new Navigator system.) “If there’s any temporary pain, it’ll be worth it,” he said, noting that better program-search capabilities and other new functions are to come with the upgrade.

Fine, but really, I just want my rewind and fast-forward returned to me. As for the latter, Dudley says, programmers like Time Warner and the TV networks chose to block fast-forwarding, obviously to protect advertisers, “The networks and content owners would allow us to do “Start Over” only if fast-forward was disabled,” he says.

Ah yes, the consumer loses again.

by Jessica Shambora

If 2009 has a buzz word, it’s “transparency.”

The consensus is that we got into this mess because a lot of people didn’t know what they were signing up for: adjustable rate mortgages, arcane investment vehicles, credit cards with hidden fees. People didn’t know because the products were too complicated to understand. Or they weren’t transparent. Or both.

We’ve written about this here on Postcards: Sallie Krawcheck, ex-Citigroup (C) and now the boss of Bank of America’s (BAC) global wealth and investment management arm, rails against this racket of making financial products too complicated. (“If you can make them complex enough, then it’s difficult to copy them,” she says, explaining big business’s motivation). She calls for greater simplicity and transparency to level the playing field for consumers and investors.

The Internet can help level the playing field too. Last week, I met with the Peter Pham, the CEO of BillShrink.com, a Redwood City, Calif.-based start-up that aims to bring transparency to all your hard-to-figure-out bills. Research shows that 80% of people overpay for credit-card and cell-phone services. BillShrink claims to have found savings of $225 million for the site’s 650,000 U.S. visitors in July.

Pham, who was an early employee and head of biz dev at Photobucket, a photo sharing site that News Corp. (NWSA) acquired in 2007, explains the appeal: “The idea is that you don’t have to ask yourself when you get your bill, ‘Am I getting ripped off?’”

Compare mobile phone plans at BillShrink.com

BillShrink, which raised $8 million from Bessemer Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures, started chasing the problem last year, focusing first on cell phone bills. You might have seen T-Mobile (DT) spokeswoman Catherine Zeta-Jones on TV, offering wireless customers “mobile makeovers.” Those makeovers come courtesy of BillShrink.

Using algorithms that monitor more than 10 million wireless plan combinations, BillShrink analyzes your phone bill to tell you which plan and phone give you the best value. BillShrink provides the service to you for free. The company gets a commission for its referrals–which, CEO Pham vows, are unbiased.

If you try BillShrink, you’ll get all kinds of data about your cell-phone behavior. For example, I learned that 72% of my minutes are spent calling the same five numbers. (You lucky people know who you are.) I also learned that I talk most often at 8pm (when I’m walking home from the subway after work).

After it offers this analysis, BillShrink gives you a list of cell-phone plans and shows you how much you’ll save by switching, taking into account the cost of breaking your contract with your current carrier. It turned out that based on my habits, T-Mobile does have the best plan for me. But as soon as I used the filters to tell BillShrink that I have an iPhone and am therefore married to AT&T (T), I got word that I was already on the best plan.

Eager to tap new markets, Pham has expanded BillShrink into tracking more than 200 credit cards, to make sure you’re not getting taken advantage of there. The BillShrink site has a “Credit Card Bill of Rights” that reflects new credit card legislation (some went into effect last week) and tells you if your cards are complying.

A “gas station” comparison tool is in beta. Next up: Savings & CDs. BillShrink won’t stop trying to help you until you understand exactly what you’re signing up for. Making the right choices from there is all up to you.

“It could well be that we are witnesses to the birth of yet another Apple ecosystem.”

– Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett in the New York Times Wednesday. After the bell, Apple (AAPL) reported a 15% jump in second-quarter net income to $1.21 billion. Sales of the iPhone surged 123% over the last quarter, with 3.79 million units sold.

“The iPhone has quieted any skeptics who thought this was a one-time event and for only the Apple enthusiasts,” Moffett said. “The iPhone App Store is creating a self-sustaining competitive advantage for Apple.” The iPhone’s success offset a 3% drop in Macintosh computer sales–the first decline in five years. The stock was up 3% in after-hours trading to $125.08.

Meanwhile AT&T (T), the iPhone’s exclusive U.S. carrier, announced a 9.7% profit decline. But that beat expectations, and the stock rise slightly. –Jessica Shambora

It was, to steal a Malcolm Gladwell term, a “tipping point” in my outlook on the cratering economy. I call it my “That Girl” moment.

It was the fourth Monday in November last year. I was at a Thanksgiving party at the home of Cathie Black, the president of Hearst Magazines. Marlo Thomas was there, too. “Saks is selling shoes for 75% off. It’s incredible!” TV’s onetime Ann Marie was crowing, as a band of high-powered women—into shopping as well as business–crowded around her to hear details.

As I milled about the party—among women on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women list, publishing executives and New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg–one magazine exec told me that her company had readjusted budgets five times in a matter of months: Down. Down. Down. Down. Down.

I didn’t realize then how seriously that evening would foreshadow this terrible downturn we’re now in. But here we are. This week, Saks (SKS) reported a $98.7 million loss and a 15.3% drop in same-store sales in the fourth quarter; in January, its per-store sales fell 23.7%, the biggest decline among major retailers. Deep discounts helped Saks clean out inventory. But the outlook is troublesome. How will Saks wean its customers off these outrageous discounts–especially next year, when affluent Americans pay higher taxes under President Obama’s just-announced budget plan?

It was a grim week for retailers all around. Heavy markdowns weighed on Sears’ (SHLD) profits , as net income for the recent quarter declined 55% to $190 million. Investors who believed in hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert have seen Sears stock fall from $193 in 2007 to $38. (I was never a Sears investor, but I was a Lampert believer. See my 2006 profile.)

Home Depot (HD) reported poor results and lowered earnings guidance. But the world’s biggest home-improvement retailer showed impressive discipline with cost and inventory control. Better than rival Lowe’s (LOW), where management has been too optimistic about an economic turnaround. Credit Suisse analyst Gary Balter said this week that he wishes Lowe’s management “would treat the glass as half empty rather than half full.”

In light of Saks’ and Sears’ reliance on discounting, it’s worth noting that Home Depot’s “everyday low prices” pay off particularly in difficult times. This consistent pricing is more efficient than discounting items for short sales spurts. And it helps control inventories. I remember talking with Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, Home Depot’s founders, about this years ago. When they started the retailer, they swore by this approach and said they were following the rule of Wal-Mart (WMT) founder Sam Walton. Now, of course, we see Wal-Mart beating every other retailer. (Click here to read my Fortune colleague Suzanne Kapner’s story about new Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke.)

I can’t end this week without returning to Cathie Black’s party, where her fellow Hearst execs, as well as everyone else, were hoping for a speedy recovery. Hearst announced this week that it will shut down the San Francisco Chronicle if it doesn’t find a buyer. Amazing and sad to see all these big-city newspapers folding!

But there is hope. Check out this story about e-readers by my Fortune collegue Michael Copeland. He interviews Hearst digital boss Ken Bronfin about a new electronic reading device expected this year. Bronfin happens to be the chairman of E Ink, which provides the technology for the Amazon (AMZN) Kindle and Sony’s e-reading device. I went to college with Bronfin. We both worked on the daily newspaper at the University of Virginia. He was the Cavalier Daily’s photography editor. I was co-editor of features.

That was 1981. Who could have imagined then what we’d be seeing today? Much of it bad. But some good and exciting things too. Keep the hope!

This was a week for fallen heroes and flailing leaders.

On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner disappointed with too few details on the new bank bailout.

On Wednesday the bank CEOs got flogged in Washington – one more indignity after schlepping there on the Delta Shuttle or Amtrak’s Acela.

President Obama scored with the $789 billion stimulus bill. But it emerged, after plenty of compromise, leaner than most economists had hoped for. Obama’s honeymoon is short – and now another nominee for Commerce Secretary is out.

And look at our sports legends. Or not. A-Rod admits he took steroids when he played for the Texas Rangers. After Michael Phelps blows his hero status with a bong. Did you catch the news about Lance Armstrong? Five months after the seven-time Tour de France champ agreed that he would return to cycling and submit to a strict anti-doping program, he reneged on the commitment to the custom regime. This galvanized skeptics who have suspected his purity for a long while.

And in business, a slew of companies went bankrupt or edged towards collapse. Most prominently, Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft (MSFT) with Bill Gates 34 years ago, announced that Charter Communications (CHTR), where he’s chairman and the largest voting shareholder, will file for Chapter 11 by April 1 in order to restructure its $21 billion long-term debt load.

One other titan who once had the golden touch, Mel Karmazin, is fighting to save his company: debt-ridden Sirius XM Radio (SIRI). Karmazin is the empire-builder who founded Infinity Broadcasting, sold it to CBS (CBS), and became Sumner Redstone’s No. 2 at Viacom (VIAB) – until they clashed and he left the company. Late last year, when I talked to Karmazin for a profile of former Viacom CEO Tom Freston, he seemed jaunty and confident. He noted, in fact, that he had smartly sold a portion of his Viacom holdings while he was working for Redstone. “That was one of the reasons that Sumner hated me,” Karmazin said. “He asked me, ‘Why aren’t you loyal? Why aren’t you keeping the stock?’ Then when I left, I sold the rest at $37.”

Viacom shares now trade at $17. Too bad Karmazin shoveled his millions into Sirius, which has sputtered from $3 to 10 cents over the past year. Karmazin holds 8.5 million shares of Sirius XM, according to recent SEC filings. If he doesn’t secure a buyer or partner to inject the needed capital, Sirius could file for bankruptcy as early as Tuesday.

Let’s get through this Friday the 13th. And have a good weekend.

“I felt it was the right thing to do. We are a company that expects the highest performance and accountability, and that starts at the top.”

- AT&T (ATT) CEO Randall L. Stephenson, in a memo to employees about forgoing his 2008 bonus. Here’s a boss who (unlike the Wall Street honchos) didn’t have to give it up. In fact, Stephenson’s decision distinguishes him as a very different kind of leader than Ed Whitacre, his predecessor. Click here for more on that from my Fortune colleague, Stephanie Mehta.

by Stephanie Mehta

Pattie Sellers recently blogged about good and bad corporate behavior.  Here’s another example to add to the “good form” category: AT&T chief Randall L. Stephenson is forgoing his 2008 bonus.

“I asked the board not to pay me a bonus for 2008, and they approved that request,” Stephenson wrote in a memo to employees. “Given the economic environment, the workforce reductions, and our earnings outlook for 2009, I felt it was the right thing to do. We are a company that expects the highest performance and accountability, and that starts at the top.”

AT&T in late January reported a 24% decline in fourth-quarter net income. The Dallas-based communications company managed to eke out a 2.4% gain in revenue to more than $31 billion.

The decision to give up his bonus is the latest example of how Stephenson, 48, differs from Ed Whitacre, his predecessor. Whitacre, who handed the reins to Stephenson in 2007, famously didn’t use a computer at work, and he tended to be a man of few words. Stephenson is an avid technology user, and he’s a lot more talkative than Whitacre.

Whitacre also unwittingly became a symbol of excessive CEO pay. Business writer Roger Lowenstein detailed Whitacre’s pay in a scathing 2002 article in the New York Times Magazine entitled “Heads I Win, Tails I Win.” The upshot of the article: Whitacre was a perfectly competent manager whose pay package – then valued at about $82 million – didn’t reflect his performance as CEO.

Whitacre didn’t particularly like being held up as a poster boy for CEO pay, but he didn’t much change his ways, either. He continued to collect hefty paychecks despite criticism from shareholder advocacy groups. And he made headlines again in 2007 when the watchdogs at the Corporate Library pegged his retirement package at $158 million.

In Stephenson’s memo to employees (in which he also disclosed that management and officers would not receive increases to their 2009 base salaries), he didn’t say what his 2008 bonus would have been. According to the Wall Street Journal, the bonus typically makes up about a quarter of Stephenson’s total comp – which last year included a $4.5 million bonus.

Happy Friday! At least we have an auto bailout — some reassurance to end another rough week.

As I’ve monitored the page views on Postcards (way up this week!), I’ve noticed a pattern: lots of interest in good news and lessons in leadership — maybe because this is so hard to come by these days. Thursday’s post on Execution dispensed management advice from successful CEOs like IBM’s (IBM) Sam Palmisano and Verizon’s (VZ) Ivan Seidenberg. Another that struck a chord: Tuesday’s post about the second coming of JetBlue (JBLU) founder David Neeleman — or make that the fourth coming, given that his new airline, Azul, in Brazil is his fourth startup. Not bad for a guy who got bounced at both JetBlue and Southwest (LUV).

Monday’s post, Jamie Dimon: No bonuses for you!, drew more traffic than any other since we launched Postcards in June, except one. That most popular post happened to be The Great Depression, as I remember, which sounds like a downer but isn’t. It’s a charming and inspiring reminiscence by my 91-year-old Uncle Walt Stoiber in Ohio.

As for the Dimon post, it drew loads of comments — some negative (“Dimon should stop sending jobs offshore,” wrote Giuseppe Ciaccia, a laid-off employee in New York) but generally positive, like this one from a reader called “working hard” from Newark, Delaware: “Jamie and his team…deserve to be rewarded, but that can come at a later time.” The post also drew speculation about the identity of two former Citigroup (C) execs who followed Dimon to Bank One in 2000 and refused bonuses when that company was in trouble. Among the guesses: Heidi Miller, Bill Campbell, Charlie Scharf , Mike Cavanaugh, Jim Boshart, Steve Black, Frank Bisignano. All those execs followed Dimon to JPMorgan Chase (JPM), where he’s now CEO. My good sources tell me that, actually, the two execs were Charlie Scharf and Jim Boshart. While Boshart retired from JPMorgan Chase in 2004, Scharf is a prime player, as head of retail banking. He, by the way, was Dimon’s assistant straight out of college in 1987, when Dimon and Weill were running Commercial Credit, pre-Citi.

In this era of Bernie Madoff and greed galore, it’s good to hear about people who put a company’s interest above their own. As Dimon said at the Yale CEO Summit last week, “Business is more Shakespearean than MBA.” That’s right, in business as in life, the bad guys get their comeuppance. The good suffer, but usually they win in the end. Keep the faith!

I’ll say it again: Execution! It’s always been the No. 1 reason why CEOs fail, as my colleague Geoff Colvin and management guru Ram Charan have preached over the past decade. But particularly right now, as growth is so hard to come by and countless bosses are blowing it, there’s a rising appreciation of this most critical thing.

At least among the really smart bosses. I noticed it at last week’s Yale CEO Summit, where the discussions were off the record — but I got approval to share a few highlights with you. In a breakout session, Boeing chief Jim McNerney said, “Figuring out where you’re going to go — that’s easy. It’s necessary but not sufficient. Execution is the thing.” McNerney. “Most people would choose an idea 70% as good that can be executed over an idea that’s 100%. Every time. And it’s important to ask, who is going to execute with you?”

Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg agreed. “We put every strategic idea through the execution lens,” he said during the small-group discussion. “If you can’t show us how you’re going to do something, you get booed by the room.”

Speaking of getting booed, an IBM VP of corporate strategy, Anil Menon, detailed the rigors of pitching a plan to IBM chief executive Sam Palmisano: “What if I approve it right now?” Palmisano asked Menon upon hearing one such proposal. “What will you start doing different on Monday morning?” Menon recalled Pamisano drilling him this way: “What resources do you recommend I move? Who will move those resources from what to what segment? How much where? Who will be accountable for the actions implied in this strategy?”

“I’ll have to get back to you,” Menon told Palmisano.

“OK, then it’s a bullshit strategy,” replied the IBM chief.

Classic Palmisano, says Menon, who was ejected from the CEO’s private conference room. “It was a coaching moment that Sam used on me,” he says. “By the way, what he did with me, I see him doing it all the time in the strategy team when different strategies are brought forward.”

Is it any wonder that IBM (IBM) is one of the best-performing stocks on the Dow year to date? (And isn’t it stunning that an 18% share-price decline is “best-performing”?) Verizon (VZ) shares are significantly beating the Dow too. Meanwhile, a downdraft from plane delays and union problems has sunk Boeing (BA) 55%, but investors seem to be keeping the faith in McNerney, who earned his chops at Procter & Gamble (PG), General Electric (GE), and 3M.

By the way, it wasn’t lost on anybody at last week’s CEO Summit that one other boss who swung by to accept the “Legend in Leadership Award,” JPMorgan Chase (JPM) chief Jamie Dimon, happens to be a maniac on details. Dimon got lauded for that. And as I wrote in Jamie Dimon: No bonuses for you!, he’s the standout survivor in banking.