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The Canadian Telco/ISP Rip-off Continues

What the hell is wrong with the ISP and mobile phone business in Canada?

Gone are the days when you could just buy a service. Now, everything you do is an attempt to reduce the service levels below useless, or ding you for "extras" (no one has the guts to charge extra yet for services like "phone rings when someone's calling you," but that day will come). It's all about getting maximum ARPU (average revenue per user).

This week, Tod Maffin got me to fiddle with a Bell cell phone, so he could record the experience for his technology column on CBC Radio. It was rather ironic that two geeks spent a good 10 minutes trying to figure out how to download a movie and watch it on the cell phone. Not only do they want to increase your spending, but they can't be bothered to make it easy for you to do that.

Today Techdirt has a good piece about Rogers throttling back its Internet speed for customers using torrents and other peer-to-peer downloading services. Their latest step is to reduce the speed of traffic that's encrypted.

What's wrong with this picture? One of the most common uses for encryption is e-mail, which should be the fastest thing in the pipeline, not the slowest.

Need more evidence there's something wrong with service in Canada? Here's Mark Evans:  Wireless Deals in Canada?; Wow! Signs of Competition in Canada; Less Regulation in Canada, Less Competition.  See also Boris Mann on prices higher than Mexico.

My very small act of defiance was to buy a smart phone that can access wireless LANs instead of tying me to buying all my bandwidth from the phone company. I had to buy a phone from Europe in order to pull that off, because the same phone distributed in North America has the wireless capability removed. (See Boris on his Nokia E61.)

What's wrong with this picture? I'm having trouble seeing what's right with this picture. We spend more to get less service, and valuable functions are disabled before they get to market.

Tags: telecoms, rogers, telus, bell, cell phones, mobile, wireless, throttling

Microsoft Lets Me Cancel XBox Live Subscription - Why Is that News?

Back when the XBox first came out, we bought one for Christmas, and I signed up for an XBox Live account soon after.

It was for my kid, so I really wasn't paying much attention when I listed birthday, and all the other personal information.  What a pain.  After that, every time I tried to edit the account, it would insist that I go through and confirm about 20 details in my account, including the credit card number I used.  Well, I don't know which credit card I used, and I can't find the bills for that month. Pardon me while I wait a year to see which credit card the renewal shows up on...

So when I tried to cancel the account, I anticipated an unpleasant experience.  Once again, the online service wouldn't authorize me as the account holder unless I answered every detail precisely correct (I set the account up four years ago).  If you get something wrong, it doesn't let you know which of the details is wrong.  Augh!

So I call the toll-free number, talk to the computer for a while, answering various questions, and finally I get through to a person.  A person who wants to assure me how easy it is to transfer the account to an XBox 360 (that's assuming I could get it to believe I'm the account holder).  I'm informed the account already automatically renewed itself, so I'm the proud owner of another year of Xbox Live! 

I explain I don't want to transfer the account, I want to cancel.  I have to explain that a couple of times, but finally the guy on the other end agrees to cancel the account.  And, surprise, he was able to get me a refund, that will be credited to my card.  Which is great, because it means I don't have to write a whiney post about how ripped off I feel.

It's all good for Microsoft.  Son Number One already received a subscription card for a year of Xbox Live on the Xbox 360, so it's not like they aren't making money from us.

What Does this Say about my Confidence in Customer Service?

So why do I feel it's noteworthy that a large company with millions of customers behaved decently, and refunded money for a subscription renewal I didn't want?

That says something about my low expectations.  It would not have surprised me at all if they had tried to make me eat the renewal fee, since I'd carelessly failed to notify them by the appropriate date, blah, blah, blah.

I've had almost universally positive experiences with customer service lately, yet I still get a sinking feeling every time I have to deal with someone.  They almost always make a half-hearted attempt to brush me off, in case I'm a pushover, or I really want to be convinced not to pursue the issue.  Otherwise, I always get the refund, or the exchange, or whatever I'm asking for.

Maybe I need to anticipate a positive experience.  Nah, then you can guarantee I'll end up in small claims court fighting for my money...

Tags: customer service, retail, expectations, employees, microsoft, xbox, refunds

The Tech Toy Revealed

Dave Traynor wants to know what the technology present is, mentioned in my last three posts.  For Christmas this year, I got a Nokia E61 smart phone, but as I alluded in the last three blog posts, the phone is somewhere between Toronto and here.  ETA is today, the first business day since the package was last sighted in Ontario.

I'm pretty pumped about this, partly because I'm into technology gadgets, and partly because I'm hoping it will reduce the amount of time I spend in front of a computer trying to recreate the ideas I had earlier in the day or week.

Kelley and I have been experimenting with chosen presents lately.  We still get each other surprises, but often big purchases that are a bit of a luxury get wrapped into Christmas, birthday or anniversary. 

Does knowing what's coming spoil the fun?  Not really, because it's precisely the thing I wanted.  There's still plenty of room for surprise and delight in our lives.

Now, to get writing our annual Christmas e-mail, that often goes out in January...

Previous posts: Christmas Present Takes a Genealogical Tour; If a  Present Is Still in Truck, It's not Really Present, Is It?,  Christmas Shipping Saga: The Maps

Christmas Present Shipping Saga: The Maps

Chapter 3:

Eric Explores an Alternate Universe, Where You Move Away from Something in Order to Get Closer to it

I'm still hung up on the item being shipped from Bloomington Illinois that is struggling to find me.  I had no idea where this particular Bloomington was, so I consulted Google Maps.

Here's how Google thinks my package should have travelled:

In this universe, Chicago or Minneapolis would be the hub for the courier company, and the parcel would go north to Winnipeg.

Maybe in the days when trains were the dominant form of transportation this would make sense, but we all know that Toronto is the centre of Canada, and packages going to Canada are much more likely to be destined for a thin strip of land adjacent to the U.S. border somewhere between London and Montreal.

So the courier company's view of the trip looks like this:

In this universe, items headed for Canada get sorted at a few central hubs and are distributed from there.

As a customer, this neither surprises me nor particularly disappoints me.  If this thing absolutely had to be here for Christmas, I would have paid the 100% markup on shipping.

Previous posts:  Christmas Present Takes a Genealogical Tour; If a  Present Is Still in Truck, It's not Really Present, Is It?

Christmas Present Takes a Genealogical Tour

The bad news - the present that was supposed to be here for Christmas was shipped to the greater Toronto area, where it's been languishing for two days.

The good news - it's very close to my great-grandmother's birthplace of Stouffville, Ontario.

Minnie March grew up in the Whitchurch-Stouffville area, and ended up moving to Saskatchewan with her new husband David Curtis.  They ran a dry goods store in Wolseley, then moved to Findlater, southeast of Regina, where he was badly injured while working in a grain elevator.

They ended up living at 2039 Retallack Street in Regina, about seven blocks from our house.

If the package takes a short detour on the way to Regina (and why not, it's already gone far enough from here), it can swing by where the old family farm was.

The map on the right shows a red star where my package was at 3:37 this morning.

Merry Christmas to the March family relations in and from Stouffville.  I've never visited, but I'm not dead yet, so you never know.

The package will eventually go through Wolseley, which was a little different when Elsie was born there in 1903.  For one thing, it was still part of the Northwest Territories then.  Saskatchewan didn't become a province for another two years.

Here's a shot of the grain elevators in early Wolseley.  My grandparents briefly ran their store in a triangular brick building that's now a credit union branch.

My mom sometimes talks about her aunt Susan, who married into the Banbury family in Wolseley. Susan's husband Robert was related to Edwin Banbury, a co-founder of Beaver Lumber.

I've got a few March family photos from the turn of the last century on Flickr.

Thanks to the University of Saskatchewan archives for the photo.

If a Present Is Still in a Truck, It's not Really Present, Is It?

Every year there's something in transit for Christmas.

 

This year it's a big ticket electronics item, ordered from a "Canadian" website.

 

The package shipped December 19, and thanks to online tracking, I'm able to watch it wend its way east.  Should I mention to UPS that I live in Western Canada?

 

The package originated in Illinois, which is not in Canada.  This would have been good information to know before I ordered.  Does this mean I'll get dinged for import duties?

Fortunately, Illinois is only a few states and an international border away from Saskatchewan. 

Watching UPS track my package into Michigan and then Ontario doesn't fill me with confidence.  It's heading east!

 

The last tracking point was Windsor.  That's a good sign, I think.  At first it looked like it would end up in Toronto for sortation, but if it was headed for Toronto it would have got there long ago.  I guess UPS popped it on a truck heading to western Canada.  Either that, or it's still sitting in customs.  Life was easier when you couldn't track the progress.  You just had to pray to the postal gods.

If I knew it had to cross borders to get here I would have paid extra for faster shipping.  Just because there's a Canadian flag on the web page, doesn't mean the company has its warehouses in the country.

I'm pretty sure UPS doesn't deliver on weekends in Regina, so if it's not here by Friday afternoon, I doubt we'll get it for Christmas.  One of the presents in the house is going to be represented by a print-out from an online catalogue.

If you see a UPS truck heading west on the Trans Canada Highway, let me know!

Protection for all those Christmas Gadget Gifts

Whenever I lose something, I kick myself for not doing a better job of labelling it, so the finder can return it, if they're so inclined.

So an offer by Trackitback to sell me five of their lost-and-found return stickers for a total of $20 was too good to resist.  (No one in the family needs to know in advance which of their presents will have a free return sticker on it.)

The sticker I put on my digital camera last year doesn't guarantee it will get returned, but it makes it easier for someone to be a good samaritan if they find the camera.  I also added a cash reward, so if someone does return the camera, they'll get about 10% of the value of the camera as thanks.

And here's the best part.  Trackitback has a dirt cheap shipping price for people who aren't in a hurry to get their stickers.  Plus, they billed my credit card in Canadian dollars, saving me the currency conversion fee I get charged when I pay in US dollars.

A no-brainer for a Canadian company to let its customers pay in their own currency?  You'd think so, but there are plenty of companies that don't give you the option.

I have no idea when the Stocking Stuffer Special ends, but there's a $30 5-pack also available.  Even at the regular $10 per sticker price, Trackitbacks are worth it, if they save you replacing even one electronic gadget in your arsenal.

And yes, I do believe there a lot of people out there who would return a lost camera or laptop if they found it.  Just check out the overflowing lost and found boxes in stores, schools and other public places if you don't believe me.

Trackitback is franchised in most English speaking countries, plus Portugal and Mexico.  Items found in any country in the world will be returned, if the finder contacts Trackitback.

I'm an Angry Customer. Deal with Me

Note to every employee of every company I deal with:

My anger is not personal.  If I am pissed off, there's usually a good reason, and often that reason relates to a product or service you've sold me.

I may be lying to you, for one reason or another.  I may misrepresent your company's promises to me.  I may let other factors get the better of me and behave badly.

For these things, I apologize.

Now, let's talk about how you behave...

I don't care what your company policy is, unless you indicate you've heard what my problem is.

I don't care whose fault it is, but I'm willing to listen if you show you're listening to me.

I don't care why you can't help me.  I want to know who can help me.

I'm assuming you're working from a script and will try to thwart me.  I hope you prove me wrong.

I do care about your company, or I wouldn't be bringing this problem to your attention.

Seth Godin has some good tips for employees. It's not rocket science. It's manners and being human.

Update:  John Andrews has a great response on his blog, suggesting I haven't even begun to act like an angry customer.  He says I'm just a miffed customer...

Tags: service, retail, behavior, anger, rage, sethgodin, business, communications, manners

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Design Flaw as Brand Experience

The first time I started our Xbox I couldn't believe the incredibly noisy start-up sound that emanated from the TV speakers.

Obviously, the design team never tried to catch a quick video game at 2 a.m., while everyone else is asleep.

It's designed to draw attention to the fact that you're about to play games instead of:

• > sleeping
• > doing chores
• > working, or
• > monitoring the reactor core.

Thanks, Microsoft, for such an annoying experience that I will always associate with your product.

Now, the company is planning to hard-code a start-up sound into the long-delayed Windows Vista operating system. Now even the geeks won't be able to disable that Windows trill, as they boot their laptops during a conference, meeting, phone call, symphony recoding session, or whatever.

On Scoble's blog, the decision is described as part of the Vista "brand experience."

Some design decisions are so anti-customer, it's hard to describe the stupidity behind them.

Tags: microsoft, mistakes, sound, branding, stupidity

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Big Surprise: People Who Share Tunes also Pay for Music

A Canadian Recording Industry Association report tells us what common sense has told us all along - people who take the time to download and share music files are also likely to buy music. Copyright lawyer and e-freedom advocate Michael Geist analyses the report. Unlike other research reports mentioned by CRIA, this one includes full details about the questions asked, and the answers received.  It paints a much more balanced picture than the usual fear-mongering stats claiming musicians will never make money again.

Says Geist:

"In summary, CRIA's own research now concludes that P2P downloading constitutes less than one-third of the music on downloaders' computers, that P2P users frequently try music on P2P services before they buy, that the largest P2P downloader demographic is also the largest music buying demographic, and that reduced purchasing has little to do with the availability of music on P2P services.  I've argued many of these same things, but now you don't have to take my word for it; you can take it from the record labels themselves."

What the report doesn't mention is that many music fans have been actively boycotting music companies for years because of their failure to embrace online distribution of music. I suspect if the music companies had been in the vanguard  (instead of being dragged kicking and screaming into online music distribution), their sales would have stayed steady or increased, despite file sharing.

Tags: CRIA, music, filesharing, downloading, sales, research

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