Here is Craig Fergusen’s take on why everything sucks which I include in part to arm you with some laughter induced endorphins to help you through any pain caused by the tale of my miserable customer support experience.
After finding out that the pictures I send from my phone, cost 50 cents each, I started to look for an alternative way to get them to my computer. I started to follow the directions in the Motorola Razr 3 motomanual, but got bubkis.
I called T-Mobile, my carrier, to get the handy dandy automated voice that asked me what I want. I answered “Technical Support”, but it was too late to avoid the IVR vortex of failed expectations. “So you have problems with your network, tell me more about your problem so I can get you to the right person, does the problem happen everywhere or just in some places?” Are you kidding me? Where did these assumptions came from? I figured it would get me to a person faster if I said “everywhere”, and I did – “Connecting to Sales” was the next thing I heard. I guess only sales folks can resolve really serious problems. It would be funny if it was not sooooooo pathetic. I did get a live guy who said that I needed to get “Mobile Tools” from Motorola, that it should have come loaded on the phone, but would be a free update.
My first instinct was to look online for a download and “get er dun” myself, but I thought it would be better to get a kosher copy and not to risk a virus. I normally avoid the joys of calling for support for some of the following reasons, however my memories of past experiences did not kick in until it was too late.
So, I called Motorola, and I got a rep who was “Englishly challenged”, (for starters). He said I needed second tier support and he would connect me. As I was by my computer at the time, I simultaneously opened a chat window on Motorola’s support page, the window told me I was # 6 in line and the estimated wait would be 1 min. 9 sec. After about 15 min of holding Mr.Tier One gets back on the line to tell me that they have a lot of calls and maybe I would want to call back. I asked him if he pulled my call out of the queue to tell me that – “Yes” was his answer, I realized that in addition to his language proficiency he also had some intellectual challenges, or perhaps lack of basic training.
I only had 6 sec more to wait for help on chat so all was not lost. A full 25 min later than the estimated, I got “Denise C” asking how she could help me. I told her what I needed and she disappeared for 5 min, after an “r u there?” and a “Hellloooooooo” she comes back and apologizes for the delay. I ask her what IS the delay and she tells me she is chatting with 7 people at once, and She sent me several broken links. This agony goes on for a full 22 min and then she sends me a link that works, but that will cost me 49.99 for software that was supposed to be on my phone to start with, or a free update, according to both T-Mobile and Mr. Tier One. That is a full hour of my life I will never get back.
I was pretty happy with my Razr till this point, but given the pitiful support I experienced with a problem that is not a critical one, my next phone will likely be from another manufacturer. T-mobile, while they had some laughable breakdowns in their VRU interface, once I got a person, I got my questions answered.
Who wants to play; “How many breakdowns there were in this unfortunate Customer experience?”
First off, T-Mobile:. Why have voice recognition software if it does not, well, recognize voices? When I said “technical support” , it heard Network problems, after which it connected me to Sales? Nothing about it worked correctly.This was a turn off and a frustrating beginning that cast a shadow on interactions to come.
Mototola Support, Mr. Tier One: He did tell me it would be a while till tier 2 could take my call, nonetheless, he felt compelled to take my call out of the queue to suggest I call back when they are not so busy. This was probably well intended, but idiotic and made me angry. I could have decided that for myself or, hung on till they answered. He only made matters worse.
The “Chat” function on Motorola’s Support page told me I was # 6 in the queue and the expected wait was one min. 9 sec. That is not bloody likely, is it? It was over 26 min till I got Denise C. and another 5 min before I got any response from her besides “sorry for the delay”.
She sent me several broken links before getting me one that worked, and that one wanted to extract 49.99 from me for software that was suppose to be loaded on my phone as a part of original purchase.
This experience drew heavily from the “bank of goodwill” that I had for Motorola and my all over phone satisfaction. I consider the support a manufacturer provides a critical factor in making purchases. I can not be sure if it was Mr. Tier One or Denise C which gave me the incorrect info regarding the Mobile Tools being a free update, or $49.99. In either case Motorola needs to train support staff better.
T-Mobile Customer Service has pretty good reputation, but not because it is good, but because it is less pathetic than that of their competitors. And while I would have probably waited to upgrade my phone till it started to show signs of age, I am planning on choosing a new phone tomorrow. It will most likely NOT be a Motorola.
In my previous post, I wrote about the positive side of social networking. Before moving to the Bad and the Ugly, let me first acknowledge what is now being called Iran’s Twitter Revolution. Iran rang down the “Iron Curtain” shortly after the hotly protested election and it’s subsequent demonstrations, riots and violence. They blocked telephone and internet communications and told the press to stay away. Innumerable reports, photos and videos are now being sent worldwide thanks to the unstoppable desire of Iranians for the world to know what is happening there and the technology that makes this possible.
Iran is a highly computer-literate society with a large number of bloggers and hackers The hackers in particular were active in helping keep channels open as the regime blocked them, and they spread the word about functioning proxy portals. Hackers also reportedly took down Mr. Ahmadinejad’s Web site in an act of cyber disobedience.
From the Washington Times
You gotta love a hacker..
Sedef Onder puts it well in her article:
“Simply put, it helped bring truth to power. In a more compelling and impactful way than it’s ever done before.”
This is Social Networking in perhaps it’s most expansive and benevolent applications to date.
Now for the darker side. How exactly does Facebook “do the math” and come to the conclusion that a photo of a woman breastfeeding her baby and showing some nipple needs to be censored, but hate groups, including, but not limited to holocaust denying Jew haters (there are also Muslim, Indian and Black hate groups) are welcome to “socialize” in the global parlor that they host?
There is a debate raging, lately, about whether or not Facebook should block holocaust-denial groups from using its platform. Surprisingly, Facebook, both as a company and as a collection of individual employees with their own opinion, have taken the courageous position that free speech should be respected on Facebook, whether or not they approve of it.
Michael Arrington of TechCrunch has taken the opposite and equally brave view: holocaust deniers are hateful scum, whose constant subtext is that someone should finish the job of exterminating all the people they consider to be Jewish, and so they should be removed forcibly from Facebook. There’s been a lot of emotion in the responses to his articles, and, to an extent, that’s not really surprising. The topic is sensitive and people hold passionate views on either side.
As a private company, Facebook is not beholdent to any legislation or Constitutional laws on what it deems acceptable on their site. Had they not chosen to censor anyone they could argue that their policy was absolutely no censoring of anything.
Ezra Callahan’s statement below makes no sense, how is hosting a environment for haters “Confronting it head on?”
The first statement came from Ezra Callahan, currently on the PR team, who wrote “You do not combat ignorance by trying to cover up that ignorance exists. You confront it head on. Facebook will do the world no good by trying to become its thought police.”
… To see this kind of hateful content with a Facebook logo sitting right next to it makes me embarrassed to be a member. Apparently, most Facebook employees are far from embarrassed. Those willing to speak out are uniformly in favor of keeping the content.
I also think Mr. Callahan got it wrong, using the word ignorant. This implies some sort of victimhood in which they were deprived of critical information to make better choices, and if they had, it they would. I do not buy that for a moment. Perhaps it will take an exodus of users and advertisers for them to change their position.
Vodafone, Tesco, American Airlines and Domino’s Pizza have pulled advertising. If it goes on much longer individuals who feel strongly will pack up as well.
Social Networking also hosts it’s share of sexual predators, scam artists and people posing as peers when they have an ulterior motive. It is really no different than other “places” people meet in this way and the same precautions apply.
Personal information can get into the hands of those you don’t want it to, including prospective employers. Savvy recruiters and HR folk now have a good “Google” at candidates and are often able to find personal info that makes them a less attractive hire. So maybe it is not a good idea to share things that may compromise you, even though it will give your friends great laugh.
All sorts of unsolicited weirdos can follow you on Twitter. The good news is that it takes only a moment to check out your followers, just a single push of the “block” button removes them from your life, ahh, if it were only that easy with some people in the “real” world!
So, is Social Networking Good, Bad, or Ugly?
Yes!
It is rather like your car. In it you can drive to a concert, a class, the wilderness, pick up and deliver things of value , give someone a ride, get to work, etc. Or, you can become a nuisance by taking up to much space. You can also drive into a crowd, or wrap it around a tree causing great harm to yourself and others.
A couple of months ago, while I was on Twitter, a tweet came up looking for a festive recipe for leg of lamb. I responded with my favorite lamb recipe, the tweeter loved it and decided to serve it for Easter Dinner. Wow! Think about that for a moment. It is one thing to chose a recipe from a cookbook (we assume it’s writer is somehow bona fide and has “kitchen cred”), but I was a total stranger, unknown commodity. Perhaps she is a good enough cook to know that those ingredients went well with the lamb and how to make adjustments if needed. Still I felt warm and fuzzy that she chose my recipe for a special occasion like that.
I was hanging out on Twitter in the same “Foodie sphere”where she hangs out. We tend to give people advance credit from the “Bank of Goodwill”, when they have certain things, interests, passions in common.
There is a woman who Tweets recipes in 140 character Tweets, and they are good! @cookbook. Very inventive. It’s like culinary Haiku.
More and more people are meeting and marrying those they met in online dating services.
According to the survey of more than 10,000 people who married in the U.S. during an 18-month period from 2006 to 2007, 19% met online, compared with 17% who met at work and 17% who met through friends.
I know of business introductions and contacts made on Twitter, and the like between people who have never met, but based on their commonality of interest and positive feelings, that stem from the “content” of their Tweets and exchanges, they are willing to go to bat for. This, of course is not unique to Twitterverse. In fact, it is exactly how it happens in “normal” (i.e. non Internet) informal social interactions. However it usually takes a little longer to identify what we have in common there.
It reminds me of experiences I have had while traveling (cruising, as it is called, amongst us cruisers) via our sailboat, Felicia777 from San Francisco to Cartagena, Columbia. We had just anchored in Coco Banderas,
a magical, reef protected, 2 Island anchorage. There was only one other boat there. This was unusual as it is a very popular anchorage. We did the usual thing, which is to hop in the dinghy (small inflatable used to go ashore, diving etc.) to “sniff around”.
We recognized the other boat’s name as we had heard it on the radio, sometimes conducting the “net” which is an appointed time and frequency on the SSB radio, for those sailors, travelling in the general area to connect and share information. Most often it is howdeedoos, weather, buy/sell etc. We had also heard about them from friends or ours, we went over to say hi,
Now there is subtle, unspoken etiquette that you learn as you go. There is the wave that says, “Hey there!” If they do not move other than that, it is understood that they are just politely saying Hi, and you keep moving. More common is the wave accompanied by them walking over to the side of the boat and reaching, to take your line to yap, and find out who you are, where you have been, and on and on. This often winds up in “Happy Hour” on one of your boats, as it did in this case.
This was the day before Passover, and they were great company so, what the hey? They joined us the next night for Seder and we all had a fantastic time. This was a perfect storm of social networking in that as fellow Cruisers, we are already “in the same boat” so to speak. We also knew some of the same people and fancied the same anchorage. Then there was dinner the next night at their boat. Walks and laundry done by the water well on the island the next day. We realized we had spent, in our 4 days at Coco Banderas, more time with these people we just met, than with any of our land friends of decades, in a year back in the “real world”.
Maybe we need new friends!
I have seen cruisers go to enormous lengths to help each other out, be they friend or total stranger. The combination of a badly written instruction manual and my Husband’s sometimes heavy hand resulted in a boat mishap (to put it mildly). Word got around the anchorage (same anchorage, different visit) and another John came to help. He left 8 hours later, streaked with oil and sweat but it was fixed. Wow! Who DOES that?
That is the bright side of social networking. There is a darker side to it also. But I am feeling too warm and fuzzy from recalling all this to go there right now. That will me my next post.
Here is my Zen thought on Social Networking. It works so well online because, our hashtags, blogs, groups and pages it make our commonalities easily visible. What would happen if we tried more often, in the “real world”, to look for and see/find commonalities/network connections where we normally wouldn’t?
I am not saying have coffee with a Jihadi or ignore obvious signs. But that we would do well to expand the concept. Being a snarky New Yorker this will be a challenge for me but I am making it my homework for one week.
Any predictions on what conclusions I may arrive to?
A blog about experiences, curiosity and the never-ending search for ways to do better things better