I've always said that the two killer apps for the internet were shopping and porn. Those two items drove a lot of new internet technology. Porn is the reason you can see video clips on websites. Do you actually think that an entrenched bureaucracy like TV would acutally want to put their news clips on a website for people to see without commericals?
Anyways, I have been selling a lot of the stuff I had stored in the basement (for decades). I play fair, sell cheap and follow the rules. Only, and that is only, do I look for help when something is not covered by the online help. Ebay does follow the twisted ways of corporate America with respect to customer service. You know the drill--hire the cheapest labor and hope you get lucky. If I were to run a company, I'd rather know who was interfacing to my customers rather than hiring whoever I could get to take chicken feed.
I have a problem with leaving feedback. There is always more important things to do with my Ebay account that keep up with that. Besides, I'd rather find out what my customers say about what I sent them. I don't want to leave positive feedback then this idiot does nothing than complain when he gets the stuff. Fortunately that has not happened. You do get the odd anal orifice that insists on telling you how you are listing things wrong, how you are describing things wrong, and that THEY KNOW BETTER. I have a method of dealing with people like that. You nod and smile and walk away. DO NOT ENCOURAGE AN IDIOT!
To pick up the story, I, being a good Ebayer, decide to leave some feedback. The problem is, every time I leave multiple feedback, for more than one item/person, nothing gets saved. Everything I left feedback for is still on the list. WTF?! I try this over a period of several weeks and it still comes out the same. All I can do is leave feedback one at a time.
So I decide to go for help. Ebay is unique in their way of rationing Customer Service. First you have to click through the helps faqs until you reach a contact page. Now you can't just leave your question. That is not allowed. You have to select a canned question (and, of course, you know that virtually none fits my problem) and then they give you a phone number and a code. The code is good for about an hour, after that you have to go through the whole process again to get a new code. Just as an aside, does this sound like you are a valued customer that Ebay wants to help? If you answered 'yes', you need serious therapy, commit yourself immediately!
I get the phone number and my special code. I call. You know the drill--lots of menus and the entry of the code, all the while you are inundated with reminders that help is available quicker on the website! Just as an aside, does this sound like you are a valued customer that Ebay wants to help? If you answered 'yes', you need serious therapy, commit yourself immediately!
I finally get to the warning about monitored phone calls (for Quality!), then it clicks over to a busy signal. I try several times until my hour is up. Same busy signal. Just as an aside, does this sound like you are a valued customer that Ebay wants to help? If you answered 'yes', you need serious therapy, commit yourself immediately!
I relent and leave an email and the website promises me that they will be back to me within 48 hours. This part is at least true (for the first email that is....more to come). I made an unfortunate mistake when composing that email. I started by leaving a detailed account of my problem, then complained about the problem getting through on the phone.
Yes, you guess it. I got a email saying that they're sorry I had problems getting through on the phone after which they copied, directly from the website, the page on how to call into Ebay.
Not a word on feedback. Just as an aside, does this sound like you are a valued customer that Ebay wants to help? If you answered 'yes', you need serious therapy, commit yourself immediately!
I stayed calm, told them they should be ashamed of themselves that they did not even come close to addressing my issue and if they worked for me, I'd have fired them. Then I told them to go back and read my email.
This time it took 4 days to get a response. To be frank, I didn't expect to get any response. This time they told me they were sorry I was having problems with feedback and copied into their email the whole webpage on how feedback works. Just as an aside, does this sound like you are a valued customer that Ebay wants to help? If you answered 'yes', you need serious therapy, commit yourself immediately!
I had less restraint this time in reply. In gist, I told them they had better get to work answering my email because I wasn't going to go away. I was not going to get frustrated, that they would continue to hear from me.
This time it took a week to get a response. During that time I was seriously thinking of doing the serious detective work to get a phone number to reach somebody in charge. And, yes, they finally did look into my problem and answer my question satisfactorily.
Seriously, I laugh out loud every time I hear that canned voice telling me that my call is important to them. When you get the above kind of behavior, you realize you are not important and they just want you to go away. The sick thing about this is that if I pressed this issue about customer support, some poor email-answering slob will get fired for doing the exact process that some director or vice president has told them to do. It's those anal orifices that should be fired.
Finally Ebay sent me a survey on how my call to customer service went. After I finished laughing, I filled out a survey of canned answers (nowhere to really tell them what happened) and gave them all zeros. Mainly because there was nothing lower than zero or greatly dissatisfied.
You would expect them to look into it and want to know what went wrong. Ha! I don't expect to hear from them. That wouldn't be in the vice president's process.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Saturday, July 4, 2009
True Tale of Printer Hell
I've mentioned a lot of the pitfalls that management blindly falls into, but below is a true tale of how supposedly 'good' management can fall all over themselves in doing just the opposite of taking care of the customer. This is what happened to me.
Once upon a time, I had a Lexmark Color Inkjet Printer. It had cost me over $250. It had a single cartridge for black and the three primary colors which was hideously expensive. I only used it when absolutely necessary and tried to balance to the color use so that each $60 went as far as possible.
One day, my son announced that he wanted a good (non-dot matrix) printer for his computer and asked for a laser for his birthday. Not being able to afford one at that time, I researched ink jet printers and found that Canon printers had the cheapest cartridges and, in fact, usually had one for each color. I bought him one and, after use, he was thrilled. The print quality was great, maintenance costs were very low. In fact, it was so good, I gave away the Lexmark and bought myself a Canon S750. This printer faithfully served me for over ten years. I could always rely on the print quality, I could use it a lot, since each cartridge was cheap, and the only software it installed was a driver which dutifully informed me of ink levels every time I printed. When I bought a wireless print server, it had no problem and still performed as if it were a dedicated printer.
Life was Good.
Good things don't last. Late last year, the dear S750 gave up the ghost. After over ten years of service, it didn't seem like a good idea just to fix it. Technology had moved on. There were new things. So I went to the nearby Staples to buy a printer. It seems like a good idea, they had a $30 credit if you bought a printer, all their fliers said so!
I was entranced by the HP D5460, it was more compact, had a cute little LCD display to keep you informed and even had slots for camera memory. How could I go wrong? Little did I know at the time.
First Staples reneged on the rebate. They happily pointed out that the excruciatingly small print on each flyer meant that the printer had to be of a certain price, bought during a certain phase of the moon, and bought only on a pluterday. But we all expect rebates to be fantasy.
On returning home with the printer, it first informed me that it couldn't load drivers with the printer on the network. It firmly insisted the printer be attached to the computer or it wouldn't install. So twice I had to lug the printer over to two different computers to install drivers. And what an install! 135 Megs later, I had all sorts of applications, including one that announced "Buy supplies from HP!" which couldn't be uninstalled without breaking the printer driver. I dealt with that later, however, installing the drivers this way now broke the print server software, which now had to be reinstalled, again on both computers. I did that and was thrilled that now everything worked! I printed a test page from each computer. Looking good.
The next time I printed, nothing happened. After I had printed two pages, the printer sensed that I now needed new cartridges and refused to print unless I went over and pushed the 'Ok' button, acknowledging that I understood that the printer was desperately out of ink!
It was then that I noticed a single page stuck into the printer docs that announced that the low ink indication really wasn't a low ink indication, but more of an indication that you should buy new carts and be ready. Such genius.
Well, printing seemed to be fine, but I went back to staples to buy ink, figuring just once won't be bad, I can then get more online later. Sticker Shock! Ink was now three times as expensive as the Canon. Even online it was 2X expensive.
Needless to say, despite the low ink warning, it did print fine for a long while afterwards.
I missed the ability to know what the ink levels were, just in case I was going to print pictures. There seemed to be an application, called the HP Solutions Center, which would tell me the ink levels. I did not install it at first, because I had experience with 'Solutions Centers' and knew that was the equivalent of 'Abandon hope all ye..."
And even this was not so easy. I put the CD in and the Solutions Center steadfastly refused to install because my drivers were now newer than on the ones on the disk. What a concept, refuse to install supplementary applications for any reason. I was positive that 'Buy Supplies from HP!' would still install.
I got the new 'version' and installed it and watched the noisy HP driver pop-ups which dutifully told me that the print levels were not available at this time. In fact, they never seemed to be available. Further, the Solutions center told me that my printer was not active and will I please turn it on. But it still printed.
So I did what I thought that HP provided for....I call Tech Support. After negotiating 3 voice response systems, I was finally connected to A___ at the 7-Eleven, opps, I mean India. She would be very happy to help me and would I like her to fix it by remotely accessing my computer? Sure, what the hell. After much entry of information, name, assisting tech and the 10 digit case number which I would eventually memorize (8026646878, yes it will haunt me), the application, which happened to be VNC, hung as on 'Starting session'. This was because I was trying to use Firefox and could I please use IE. That didn't improve the situation, in fact, it continued to look identical. The hang occurred three more times in succession including a fourth time when my Indian 'friend's' computer hung also. Of course then followed an intense session of trying to figure out what was wrong with MY computer. My cache was cleared so many times, you could see yourself in the shine. A___ seemed to love to do the same things over and over again, hoping something different would happen. Finally she ascertained it was because I was using IE8 and would I please go and download IE7 and install it. After an hour of this, I decided I had had enough, told her so and hung up.
But it's not over....
HP send me an email, asking me about my support experience. Hmm, is there something lower than zero...then I came to the question: If you need to contact HP Support again, how would I do it, with all the usual suspects: email, website, phone, etc. Unwisely they added a choice called 'other' where I could fill it in. I typed in that I would buy another manufacturer's printer. Clever for me, but a bad idea because...
The next night at the same time, A___ called me back. She had the problem solved! (At least hers). Surprise, surprise, suddenly we could connect and she had control of my computer. In IE8. Sigh, at least she was consistent, she still had the idea that doing things 4 or 5 times in a row was some kind of charm. Luckily I have another computer, so I walked away and played my games while she played hers. Some of what she did was repeatedly try to reinstall the Solutions center and clean the cache, etc. Finally she announced that the firewall was causing a problem. Even though it has been turned off since I installed XP. She spend another 20 minutes opening up ports in the disabled firewall, since that was so boring to her, she began to chat me up. Really, wow, now I've got a date in India.
Finally she announced that all I had to do was reboot and it was all fixed. And...would I mind talking to her supervisor. At least he spoke English with less of an accent. He proceeded to tell me that A___ was his best tech (I had to bite my tongue to keep from telling him I felt sorry for him) and thank you for being so patient. At that point the system came up and to no surprise, the situation remained the same. The moment I told him it still didn't work, he vanished faster than any metaphor I can think of. My dear friend A___ was back and telling me that there was something in my print server that was blocking the messages and I should talk to them. AND she would be sure to call me at the same time tomorrow. I was beginning to realize the power of threats.
Linksys' support site was brilliant and to the point: They support bi-directional communications to the printer, however, most printer software does not support networking.
A___ never called back. I guess we are officially estranged.
Don't try to count the number of stupid management tricks, you'll lose count quickly....
Once upon a time, I had a Lexmark Color Inkjet Printer. It had cost me over $250. It had a single cartridge for black and the three primary colors which was hideously expensive. I only used it when absolutely necessary and tried to balance to the color use so that each $60 went as far as possible.
One day, my son announced that he wanted a good (non-dot matrix) printer for his computer and asked for a laser for his birthday. Not being able to afford one at that time, I researched ink jet printers and found that Canon printers had the cheapest cartridges and, in fact, usually had one for each color. I bought him one and, after use, he was thrilled. The print quality was great, maintenance costs were very low. In fact, it was so good, I gave away the Lexmark and bought myself a Canon S750. This printer faithfully served me for over ten years. I could always rely on the print quality, I could use it a lot, since each cartridge was cheap, and the only software it installed was a driver which dutifully informed me of ink levels every time I printed. When I bought a wireless print server, it had no problem and still performed as if it were a dedicated printer.
Life was Good.
Good things don't last. Late last year, the dear S750 gave up the ghost. After over ten years of service, it didn't seem like a good idea just to fix it. Technology had moved on. There were new things. So I went to the nearby Staples to buy a printer. It seems like a good idea, they had a $30 credit if you bought a printer, all their fliers said so!
I was entranced by the HP D5460, it was more compact, had a cute little LCD display to keep you informed and even had slots for camera memory. How could I go wrong? Little did I know at the time.
First Staples reneged on the rebate. They happily pointed out that the excruciatingly small print on each flyer meant that the printer had to be of a certain price, bought during a certain phase of the moon, and bought only on a pluterday. But we all expect rebates to be fantasy.
On returning home with the printer, it first informed me that it couldn't load drivers with the printer on the network. It firmly insisted the printer be attached to the computer or it wouldn't install. So twice I had to lug the printer over to two different computers to install drivers. And what an install! 135 Megs later, I had all sorts of applications, including one that announced "Buy supplies from HP!" which couldn't be uninstalled without breaking the printer driver. I dealt with that later, however, installing the drivers this way now broke the print server software, which now had to be reinstalled, again on both computers. I did that and was thrilled that now everything worked! I printed a test page from each computer. Looking good.
The next time I printed, nothing happened. After I had printed two pages, the printer sensed that I now needed new cartridges and refused to print unless I went over and pushed the 'Ok' button, acknowledging that I understood that the printer was desperately out of ink!
It was then that I noticed a single page stuck into the printer docs that announced that the low ink indication really wasn't a low ink indication, but more of an indication that you should buy new carts and be ready. Such genius.
Well, printing seemed to be fine, but I went back to staples to buy ink, figuring just once won't be bad, I can then get more online later. Sticker Shock! Ink was now three times as expensive as the Canon. Even online it was 2X expensive.
Needless to say, despite the low ink warning, it did print fine for a long while afterwards.
I missed the ability to know what the ink levels were, just in case I was going to print pictures. There seemed to be an application, called the HP Solutions Center, which would tell me the ink levels. I did not install it at first, because I had experience with 'Solutions Centers' and knew that was the equivalent of 'Abandon hope all ye..."
And even this was not so easy. I put the CD in and the Solutions Center steadfastly refused to install because my drivers were now newer than on the ones on the disk. What a concept, refuse to install supplementary applications for any reason. I was positive that 'Buy Supplies from HP!' would still install.
I got the new 'version' and installed it and watched the noisy HP driver pop-ups which dutifully told me that the print levels were not available at this time. In fact, they never seemed to be available. Further, the Solutions center told me that my printer was not active and will I please turn it on. But it still printed.
So I did what I thought that HP provided for....I call Tech Support. After negotiating 3 voice response systems, I was finally connected to A___ at the 7-Eleven, opps, I mean India. She would be very happy to help me and would I like her to fix it by remotely accessing my computer? Sure, what the hell. After much entry of information, name, assisting tech and the 10 digit case number which I would eventually memorize (8026646878, yes it will haunt me), the application, which happened to be VNC, hung as on 'Starting session'. This was because I was trying to use Firefox and could I please use IE. That didn't improve the situation, in fact, it continued to look identical. The hang occurred three more times in succession including a fourth time when my Indian 'friend's' computer hung also. Of course then followed an intense session of trying to figure out what was wrong with MY computer. My cache was cleared so many times, you could see yourself in the shine. A___ seemed to love to do the same things over and over again, hoping something different would happen. Finally she ascertained it was because I was using IE8 and would I please go and download IE7 and install it. After an hour of this, I decided I had had enough, told her so and hung up.
But it's not over....
HP send me an email, asking me about my support experience. Hmm, is there something lower than zero...then I came to the question: If you need to contact HP Support again, how would I do it, with all the usual suspects: email, website, phone, etc. Unwisely they added a choice called 'other' where I could fill it in. I typed in that I would buy another manufacturer's printer. Clever for me, but a bad idea because...
The next night at the same time, A___ called me back. She had the problem solved! (At least hers). Surprise, surprise, suddenly we could connect and she had control of my computer. In IE8. Sigh, at least she was consistent, she still had the idea that doing things 4 or 5 times in a row was some kind of charm. Luckily I have another computer, so I walked away and played my games while she played hers. Some of what she did was repeatedly try to reinstall the Solutions center and clean the cache, etc. Finally she announced that the firewall was causing a problem. Even though it has been turned off since I installed XP. She spend another 20 minutes opening up ports in the disabled firewall, since that was so boring to her, she began to chat me up. Really, wow, now I've got a date in India.
Finally she announced that all I had to do was reboot and it was all fixed. And...would I mind talking to her supervisor. At least he spoke English with less of an accent. He proceeded to tell me that A___ was his best tech (I had to bite my tongue to keep from telling him I felt sorry for him) and thank you for being so patient. At that point the system came up and to no surprise, the situation remained the same. The moment I told him it still didn't work, he vanished faster than any metaphor I can think of. My dear friend A___ was back and telling me that there was something in my print server that was blocking the messages and I should talk to them. AND she would be sure to call me at the same time tomorrow. I was beginning to realize the power of threats.
Linksys' support site was brilliant and to the point: They support bi-directional communications to the printer, however, most printer software does not support networking.
A___ never called back. I guess we are officially estranged.
Don't try to count the number of stupid management tricks, you'll lose count quickly....
Saturday, February 21, 2009
It's all in the Management
As management goes, so goes the company. If the management of a company or a division is just there killing time until the next promotion, you're best off looking for a job elsewhere.
Management has always talked about commitment, however, if you are only doing things so that you will quickly get another promotion, ascend to corporate, then you are lacking commitment. In the end a company is not just the management or the workers, it's the way everyone works together. I hesitate to say teamwork because that word has been over-used and bent all out of recognition. "Teamwork," said one manager. "Is a lot of people doing what I say."
Oh, it sounds like a joke, but too many managers feel that way.
Just this week I got a taste of what different kinds of management will do to companies. If you haven't noticed, if you call a company and experience bad customer service, rest assured that management is to blame. When management lacks commitment, so does everyone else. Oh, you do have those one or two individuals that will not want to work, but in general, most people, most workers want to do a good job. They and we just get frustrated when we get no help from management. Remember that a manager only exists to provide what's necessary for the workers to do their job.
I'm not going to pull punches with this story, no Company A and Company B. I'm giving the names.
For a long time I have been frustrated with AT&T. We used to have our local & long distance telephone service (land line) with them and DSL internet. Let's face it, AT&T charges a lot for a single telephone line. Then you start adding services like voice mail and caller ID, which have since become indispensible, and you have a large bill. Back in the heyday of dial-up internet, I had 3 phone lines in the house....and a whopping bill. Since I've cut back to one line, I've always been trying to get the best deal to keep my expenses in line. Everytime I called AT&T, they have graciously offered a new deal. The problem was, everytime I changed my service, the next month my bill was sky-high. Like clockwork I'd call and be told that they were sorry, but the correct codes were not entered for me. Note that every time my bill went higher, not lower. Then, a month or two later, my bill would suddenly jump up. Upon calling, I'd be told, oh, sorry, a particular program or discount expired, but we have a new deal. And, you called it, we'd go through the whole fiasco again. In general, I'd be calling AT&T customer service about over-billing at least 3 to 4 times a year. Do you think that's good customer service?
To my mind because I was constantly being over-charged, it had to be something that was mandated by some manager. Think about the profit if the person doesn't call! Plus, even if we have to refund the money after a few months, think of all the interest on that money! From purely a bean-counter mentality, it's a great strategy.
And, let me not forget, that even when I requested AT&T to email me when the discount or calling plan expired (which they said they do ALL THE TIME!), I have never, never received notice except in the next bill.
Contrast this to Cox Communications (at least in my area). I had them for cable TV just as long as I had AT&T (well, SBC & SNET going back ages, same difference), however, in the last 20 years I had to call their customer service maybe once. I honestly don't remember.
Hang with me, we're getting to the point here.
I finally went with Cox Digital Telephone, which meant that I had to go with digital TV also (that was not a choice I was going to fight ;-). I called Cox on Monday, picked up a cable box that afternoon and was watching HBO a couple of hours later. The phone was installed on Friday. Since my phone number was ported, I lost DSL. To AT&T's credit, they did waive the change of phone number fee (or so they said, I haven't gotten the bill yet...here we go again), but that was the highlight. I called on Friday and was told that the largest phone company in America would have to send a service technician out to install the new number. I had a choice: I could either get a guy in on Weds between the hours of 8am to 6 pm (!) or I could wait to Thursday and then he'd be there sometime between 8am and 12 noon. Such a deal. I did not mention that when I had the Cox appointment for the phone, the appointment was for 10:30 to 12:30. Much better.
Now comes more fun. When I had set the appointment with AT&T, they told me that my DSL service would be restored by 8 pm that night. In other words, I was lied to. When I called soon after the phone guy left, I was told, oh, no, you're scheduled for activation tomorrow. I got a little upset.
"Sir, it takes more than just flipping a switch."
"How much more than flipping a switch?"
"It takes much more than just flipping a switch."
"How much more than flipping a switch?"
"It takes much more than just flipping a switch."
"Wow we're getting somewhere really fast here!"
My sarcasm was not appreciated.
The next day, by the time I got home from work, the DSL modem was happy, but my browser would only take me to an AT&T page that told me I had a problem with my High-speed Internet. Lovely.
It seemed that my DSL had not been reconnected, I had a whole new account! Stupidly I let the AT&T service person (on the phone) walk me through the re-registration. Luckily I got my email address back (and, according to the tech, this wasn't a given). Being eager to get this sh*t over with I stupidly followed her directions. These directions included an unnecessary step that no technician would ever have you do unless you have router problems--she had me hit the reset button on the router. Although I did have internet access now, I did not realize until after the phone was cold that my wireless print server was no longer in contact. To make the story short, not only was the security on my wireless router set back to 'none', but it also reset the password to default.
As you can see, we have one company that agressively pushes technology and makes it easier for the customer, while another is hanging onto old, obsolete technology and making it difficult for the customer. In one case the management is involved and committed, in the other, they won't do anything but count the number of their vacation homes.
Management has always talked about commitment, however, if you are only doing things so that you will quickly get another promotion, ascend to corporate, then you are lacking commitment. In the end a company is not just the management or the workers, it's the way everyone works together. I hesitate to say teamwork because that word has been over-used and bent all out of recognition. "Teamwork," said one manager. "Is a lot of people doing what I say."
Oh, it sounds like a joke, but too many managers feel that way.
Just this week I got a taste of what different kinds of management will do to companies. If you haven't noticed, if you call a company and experience bad customer service, rest assured that management is to blame. When management lacks commitment, so does everyone else. Oh, you do have those one or two individuals that will not want to work, but in general, most people, most workers want to do a good job. They and we just get frustrated when we get no help from management. Remember that a manager only exists to provide what's necessary for the workers to do their job.
I'm not going to pull punches with this story, no Company A and Company B. I'm giving the names.
For a long time I have been frustrated with AT&T. We used to have our local & long distance telephone service (land line) with them and DSL internet. Let's face it, AT&T charges a lot for a single telephone line. Then you start adding services like voice mail and caller ID, which have since become indispensible, and you have a large bill. Back in the heyday of dial-up internet, I had 3 phone lines in the house....and a whopping bill. Since I've cut back to one line, I've always been trying to get the best deal to keep my expenses in line. Everytime I called AT&T, they have graciously offered a new deal. The problem was, everytime I changed my service, the next month my bill was sky-high. Like clockwork I'd call and be told that they were sorry, but the correct codes were not entered for me. Note that every time my bill went higher, not lower. Then, a month or two later, my bill would suddenly jump up. Upon calling, I'd be told, oh, sorry, a particular program or discount expired, but we have a new deal. And, you called it, we'd go through the whole fiasco again. In general, I'd be calling AT&T customer service about over-billing at least 3 to 4 times a year. Do you think that's good customer service?
To my mind because I was constantly being over-charged, it had to be something that was mandated by some manager. Think about the profit if the person doesn't call! Plus, even if we have to refund the money after a few months, think of all the interest on that money! From purely a bean-counter mentality, it's a great strategy.
And, let me not forget, that even when I requested AT&T to email me when the discount or calling plan expired (which they said they do ALL THE TIME!), I have never, never received notice except in the next bill.
Contrast this to Cox Communications (at least in my area). I had them for cable TV just as long as I had AT&T (well, SBC & SNET going back ages, same difference), however, in the last 20 years I had to call their customer service maybe once. I honestly don't remember.
Hang with me, we're getting to the point here.
I finally went with Cox Digital Telephone, which meant that I had to go with digital TV also (that was not a choice I was going to fight ;-). I called Cox on Monday, picked up a cable box that afternoon and was watching HBO a couple of hours later. The phone was installed on Friday. Since my phone number was ported, I lost DSL. To AT&T's credit, they did waive the change of phone number fee (or so they said, I haven't gotten the bill yet...here we go again), but that was the highlight. I called on Friday and was told that the largest phone company in America would have to send a service technician out to install the new number. I had a choice: I could either get a guy in on Weds between the hours of 8am to 6 pm (!) or I could wait to Thursday and then he'd be there sometime between 8am and 12 noon. Such a deal. I did not mention that when I had the Cox appointment for the phone, the appointment was for 10:30 to 12:30. Much better.
Now comes more fun. When I had set the appointment with AT&T, they told me that my DSL service would be restored by 8 pm that night. In other words, I was lied to. When I called soon after the phone guy left, I was told, oh, no, you're scheduled for activation tomorrow. I got a little upset.
"Sir, it takes more than just flipping a switch."
"How much more than flipping a switch?"
"It takes much more than just flipping a switch."
"How much more than flipping a switch?"
"It takes much more than just flipping a switch."
"Wow we're getting somewhere really fast here!"
My sarcasm was not appreciated.
The next day, by the time I got home from work, the DSL modem was happy, but my browser would only take me to an AT&T page that told me I had a problem with my High-speed Internet. Lovely.
It seemed that my DSL had not been reconnected, I had a whole new account! Stupidly I let the AT&T service person (on the phone) walk me through the re-registration. Luckily I got my email address back (and, according to the tech, this wasn't a given). Being eager to get this sh*t over with I stupidly followed her directions. These directions included an unnecessary step that no technician would ever have you do unless you have router problems--she had me hit the reset button on the router. Although I did have internet access now, I did not realize until after the phone was cold that my wireless print server was no longer in contact. To make the story short, not only was the security on my wireless router set back to 'none', but it also reset the password to default.
As you can see, we have one company that agressively pushes technology and makes it easier for the customer, while another is hanging onto old, obsolete technology and making it difficult for the customer. In one case the management is involved and committed, in the other, they won't do anything but count the number of their vacation homes.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
"Let's See What Happens"
There is another management 'policy' that seems to be making the rounds, especially during times of downturn. I call it the 'Let's see what happens' policy.
Have you ever seen a company, that upon losing a senior manager, did not immediately have a replacement ready to step in? Very few. Very, very few. To me this is the proper way to do things. When you are about to lose an employee, you are about to lose valuable experience, doesn't it make sense to hire someone before they leave and get that experience transferred (to an extent)? Apparently not, as workers leave, more and more companies are not replacing working personnel (or should I say 'working resources'?). The operative policy is to do nothing, but if you've read this blog at all, you realize that is the normal operating procedure for management--do nothing.
Think about it! It saves management from laying off a person!
Of course, the hidden problem (well, not hidden to the workers, only to management) is that something does not get done. Usually this will not be apparent immediately as other workers scramble to fill the gap. These days there is never any extra capacity so something will not get done. The consequences are usually weeks to months in the future.
At my current job, we recently lost our best final test technician. We are left with 2 final test technicians, one undergoing serious health problems and the other is just plain useless. When the production manager was asked when the departed was going to be replaced, he remarked that he is going to 'monitor the situation'. The sad thing is that we are one of the industries that is not undergoing a downturn.
Will they ever learn?
Have you ever seen a company, that upon losing a senior manager, did not immediately have a replacement ready to step in? Very few. Very, very few. To me this is the proper way to do things. When you are about to lose an employee, you are about to lose valuable experience, doesn't it make sense to hire someone before they leave and get that experience transferred (to an extent)? Apparently not, as workers leave, more and more companies are not replacing working personnel (or should I say 'working resources'?). The operative policy is to do nothing, but if you've read this blog at all, you realize that is the normal operating procedure for management--do nothing.
Think about it! It saves management from laying off a person!
Of course, the hidden problem (well, not hidden to the workers, only to management) is that something does not get done. Usually this will not be apparent immediately as other workers scramble to fill the gap. These days there is never any extra capacity so something will not get done. The consequences are usually weeks to months in the future.
At my current job, we recently lost our best final test technician. We are left with 2 final test technicians, one undergoing serious health problems and the other is just plain useless. When the production manager was asked when the departed was going to be replaced, he remarked that he is going to 'monitor the situation'. The sad thing is that we are one of the industries that is not undergoing a downturn.
Will they ever learn?
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