Andy spent way more time on the phone with Blackberry support folks at T-Mobile and RIM than I would’ve ever allowed. By the second hour of runaround, I myself would’ve showed up at the retail store and demanded an immediate resolution to my problem or a cancellation of my contract credited for the value of my wasted time dealing with these morons. I’m not a fan of Ralphe “one-suit” Nader, but I do share his propensity for coralling consumer anger.
This is a fundamental problem of 1.0 carriers: they think the lock-in approach absolves them of having to provide real customer service, and the fact is: most consumers don’t realize it can be done any better. But not me and old Darth Nader.
So, is there somebody out there DOING it better? Perhaps not yet. Well, I did go to the Apple store yesterday becuse the spontaneously-off-turning Macbook I’d just received back from repair (at Steve’s expense) was now refusing to boot, instead showing me a buttugly LCD full of vertical white lines. So I took it in. And you know what, ten minutes later I walked out of there with a working machine. End of story. And I was treated like I knew what I was talking about by people (the “geniusses”) who likewise actually knew what they were talking about. Incidentally, I was so pleased with the service, I purchased new pink nano iPod for my wife as an early birthday present.
Do you think Apple would’ve been selling me that iPod if the service hadn’t been there 100%? Doubtful.
Obviously, telecom customer service is different. Every time I walk into the Verizon store and ask about one promotion or another, the conversation always ends up with me being asked to sign a two-year contract and applying my equipment rebate to the contract because my crappy LG phone “isn’t old enough” for me to take the rebate on the new Windows Mobile device I want. (I also don’t want to pay $700 for the thing, so, as you probably guessed, the local Verizon store still hasn’t sold me the device I want.)Â *Sigh*. Maybe that iPhone won’t be vaporware after all. Not sure if I can hold out until MWSF in January to replace this craptacular LG.
Not to mention the $35 car charger price tag and the slew of know-nothings that seem to staff the entire telecom 1.0 industry’s rank and file.
So what’s the solution?
To me, separating the apps from the access is how you achieve customer satisfaction and value pricing. (Right now what we have isn’t value pricing, because instead of being based on consumer perception of value, like gasoline, it’s based on the amount of money the carriers need to earn back from their heavy 1.0 investments.)Â In my mind, the CDMA/GPRS/3G/4G/EVDO cloud should be nothing more than ‘just another access network’, and the application providers involved (RIM, RebTel, Jajah, all these other guys) should be competing with each other. The access is the commodity and the apps are the value prop. So why was my buddy Andy stuck on the phone with a commodity person when he could’ve gotten the value prop person immediately and had his problem solved in 10 minutes?
The reason I spent the time is I knew the RIM folks could solve the issue. The problem was T-Mobile’s “process” of escalation. It didn’t matter that I asked up front to talk to RIM.
The issue is T-Mobile’s non-customer service.
Smile…
If Bill Gates had a dime for every time a Windows box crashed…
…Oh, wait a minute, he already does.
…
Awesome website…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]……
Cool sites…
[...]we came across a cool site that you might enjoy. Take a look if you want[...]……
Sources…
[...]check below, are some totally unrelated websites to ours, however, they are most trustworthy sources that we use[...]……
Web Developement and Web Marketing…
[...]while the places we link to below are completely unrelated to ours, we think they are worth a look, so have a look[...]…
Automotive News and Reviews…
[...]just below, are some cool pages[...]…
Check this out…
[...] that is the end of this article. Here you’ll find some sites that we think you’ll appreciate, just click the links over[...]……
Links…
[...]Sites of interest we have a link to[...]……
Informative and precise…
Its hard to find informative and precise information but here I found…
Read was interesting, stay in touch……
[...]please visit the sites we follow, including this one, as it represents our picks from the web[...]……
Recent Blogroll Additions……
[...]usually posts some very interesting stuff like this. If you’re new to this site[...]……
Websites you should visit…
[...]below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit[...]……
Check this out…
[...] that is the end of this article. Here you’ll find some sites that we think you’ll appreciate, just click the links over[...]……
Awesome website…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]……
Recommeneded websites…
[...]Here are some of the sites we recommend for our visitors[...]……
Awesome website…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]……
Websites we think you should visit…
[...]although websites we backlink to below are considerably not related to ours, we feel they are actually worth a go through, so have a look[...]……
Sources…
[...]check below, are some totally unrelated websites to ours, however, they are most trustworthy sources that we use[...]……
You should check this out…
[...] Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a few unrelated data, nevertheless really worth taking a look, whoa did one learn about Mid East has got more problerms as well [...]……
Sites we Like……
[...] Every once in a while we choose blogs that we read. Listed below are the latest sites that we choose [...]……
Great website…
[...]we like to honor many other internet sites on the web, even if they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Under are some webpages worth checking out[...]……
Online Article……
[...]The information mentioned in the article are some of the best available [...]……
Recommeneded websites…
[...]Here are some of the sites we recommend for our visitors[...]……
Visitor recommendations…
[...]one of our visitors recently recommended the following website[...]……
Recent Blogroll Additions……
[...]usually posts some very interesting stuff like this. If you’re new to this site[...]……
Awesome website…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]……
Websites you should visit…
[...]below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit[...]……
Recent Blogroll Additions……
[...]usually posts some very interesting stuff like this. If you’re new to this site[...]……
Visitor recommendations…
[...]one of our visitors recently recommended the following website[...]……
Related……
[...]just beneath, are numerous totally not related sites to ours, however, they are surely worth going over[...]……
You should check this out…
[...] Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a few unrelated data, nevertheless really worth taking a look, whoa did one learn about Mid East has got more problerms as well [...]……
Websites worth visiting…
[...]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[...]……
Sites we Like……
[...] Every once in a while we choose blogs that we read. Listed below are the latest sites that we choose [...]……
Read was interesting, stay in touch……
[...]please visit the sites we follow, including this one, as it represents our picks from the web[...]……
Check this out…
[...] that is the end of this article. Here you’ll find some sites that we think you’ll appreciate, just click the links over[...]……
Websites worth visiting…
[...]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[...]……
Related……
[...]just beneath, are numerous totally not related sites to ours, however, they are surely worth going over[...]……
Read was interesting, stay in touch……
[...]please visit the sites we follow, including this one, as it represents our picks from the web[...]……
Websites worth visiting…
[...]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[...]……
Superb website…
[...]always a big fan of linking to bloggers that I love but don’t get a lot of link love from[...]……
Sites we Like……
[...] Every once in a while we choose blogs that we read. Listed below are the latest sites that we choose [...]……
Related……
[...]just beneath, are numerous totally not related sites to ours, however, they are surely worth going over[...]……
Awesome website…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]……
Great website…
[...]we like to honor many other internet sites on the web, even if they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Under are some webpages worth checking out[...]……
Cool sites…
[...]we came across a cool site that you might enjoy. Take a look if you want[...]……
Awesome website…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]……
Recommeneded websites…
[...]Here are some of the sites we recommend for our visitors[...]……
Websites worth visiting…
[...]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[...]……
Check this out…
[...] that is the end of this article. Here you’ll find some sites that we think you’ll appreciate, just click the links over[...]……