When I moved into this house, I made an appointment with Rogers (up here in Canada) to come and do an install at the house. As is their advertised policy they gave me a "three hour window" and said they would be there. I took the day off work. I sat here. They didn't show. Three hours after the window and still no cable installer.
I called them. Politely. They said they were coming.
An hour later I called them again, slightly irritated. They said they were coming.
A half hour later I called them and let loose the damnation of hell. In ten minutes the area supervisor was in my driveway with "presents" under his arm. A digital box for upstairs and a new (faster) cable modem for half price (and the service for the same price I was paying). For about a month I was singing their praises.
Mid last year they had a promotion where current satellite customers could trade in their equipment and get a free PVR. I've been a customer of theirs for ten years or more. I don't have a freaking PVR. I called them up and explained that when I switched "this" house it had been from satellite to cable and because of my long-standing account with them I would appreciate it they would even give me a DISCOUNT on a PVR. I was basically told to sit on it and rotate.
Last month I noticed my speed increased and my bandwidth cap increased. I thought "YAY!" Then a month later I get a letter from them in the mail telling me that if I wanted to KEEP the new speed and the new bandwidth cap I would have to pay them more money otherwise they would happily revert me to what I had before for the same price. But the KICKER is that they billed this price increase as the result of an increase in expenses. So if it costs more to operate my service, why can you still afford to give me the SAME service I had for the SAME price if I choose to go back?
Up here in Ontario it's either Rogers or Bell. And as far as I'm concerned they're both a pack of untrustworthy a*******.
I remember years upon years upon years ago when I was in my senior year in high school and the student administrator of their QNX-based network, the teachers in my district were approaching a pay-deducted computer purchase plan, and my teacher was planning a lecture on "What to look for" in a prospective computer.
The session was closed-door but there was a window in the door and I was pretty good at reading lips. I remember with fondness watching him pull an acetate off his desk, whip it up onto the overhead, and write OS/2 in the largest possible letters he could fit on the 8.5 x 11" sheet. For a good hour he went on and on and on and on about how OS/2 was going to rule the world and outlined the recommended specifications for running OS/2 on a PC. I believe this was at the dawn of the 80286 era if memory serves.
I still e-mail him a few times a year. And I still bug him about it. He's a great guy and one of the most brilliant minds in computer science I have ever met. But he got sucked in by OS/2 huge.
I'm serious.
I was one of the first people to buy a 5gb Rio Carbon when they came out. A few months later, a firmware upgrade came down to the pipe "to make the unit compliant with French laws regarding volume". It made the Carbon so quiet it was almost useless.
My point is simply that although Apple made the volume switch, it's your own bloody finger that operates it, and it's not Apple's fault that this idiot doesn't have a brain.
It's a question of keeping up with the Joneses. Staples in Canada has been doing the online rebate thing for more than a year. People love it, because in their minds it doesn't cost them anything and they don't have to go to the post office to mail in the receipt or to buy a stamp.
I totally understand that Rob is not mad at Blizzard, he's just upset at the way things were handled. I had a similar experience happen to me a few years ago on EQ that caused me to quit too, even though in recent days I've been thinking of going back.
I decided to start a guild. I went through the process, picked the name, formed the group of chartering members, and suddenly discovered that everybody hated the guild name which I had not consulted on anyone with. My fault. I disbanded the guild and basically went and had a pity party for a few weeks and got picked up by another guild.
A month or two later, at the behest of a close friend, I decided to take another stab at it. I consulted with a bunch of friends on a name, and we came up with something everybody agreed on. I went through the process again. I was told that there was a infrastructure-induced limit of one guild *ever* per account. I was told if I ever wanted to make another guild, I would have to purchase another account. I complained vehemently, but I was basically told to talk to the hand.
Three days later, I got an e-mail from EQ telling me that my guild had been approved and I needed to contact a GM in-game to get my tag. I figured they'd changed their mind or listened to the logic of my arguments. I went in-game and even *asked* the GM what the situation was and his response was basically "Somebody approved you, don't ask questions", so I took the tag and ran. I recruited about 20 base members, and everyone - including myself - was happy.
The next day I logged in and found that my guild tag had reverted to the EARLIER tag. I/petition'ed and screamed for almost three days straight. I loudly and defiantly accused them of being liars - since they had GIVEN me the second tag after they'd told me before it wasn't even POSSIBLE - and asked for some compromise on the issue.
"Talk to the hand" was essentially the response. I left.
I'm with Rob. I don't mind them having rules. But they need to ADVERTISE the rules (especially when they change so often), they need to ADHERE to the rules, there needs to be UNIFORMITY in enforcement, and this whole "I'm sorry, I can't help you/pass the buck" attitude has got to go. It's not just Blizzard. It's all the other massive operators as well. I've hopped from game that I love, to game that I love, to game that I love, to game that I love only to leave each time because the customer service absolutely sucked.
And that's what this thread is about. Customer service.
After reading all of these comments about Nextel and Sprint I have to wonder if ANYBODY with a cell phone in the US is happy with their service. And let's not even talk about Cingular's new slogan. A guy I know on IRC recently got a job with Cingular. The catch-line lately has been "Hey Ted? Whatcha been up to? Busy raising the bar, I'll bet."
He still doesn't get it. That's what makes it so beautiful.
To an extent although this is considered "funny", it's the truth. The mindset of e-mail is presentation, hence why e-mail clients have spell checkers. IM clients as a whole do not. People usually speak proper English in e-mail and that's why I think most teens prefer IM. It's "commonly accepted" to use stupid mind-numbing abbreviations like "c u later" and crap like this in IM where it might not be smiled upon so much in e-mail where copies of it are likely to be archived and come back to haunt you when you've gotten to a point where you've actually learned how to speak English.
I totally agree with the original poster that IM is going to be the downfall of society - because it has encouraged a generation to develop their own "language" whose sole purpose is to express every message in the fewest possible number of keystrokes.
I coulda sworn I was in the "library" *ahem* reading our local weekly ad paper and saw that Bell World up here in Canada was offering a Samsung camcorder phone. Wouldn't this be the same one? They also said it was a Bell exclusive and that they were the first ones to get it.
Slashdot Mirror
When I moved into this house, I made an appointment with Rogers (up here in Canada) to come and do an install at the house. As is their advertised policy they gave me a "three hour window" and said they would be there. I took the day off work. I sat here. They didn't show. Three hours after the window and still no cable installer.
I called them. Politely. They said they were coming.
An hour later I called them again, slightly irritated. They said they were coming.
A half hour later I called them and let loose the damnation of hell. In ten minutes the area supervisor was in my driveway with "presents" under his arm. A digital box for upstairs and a new (faster) cable modem for half price (and the service for the same price I was paying). For about a month I was singing their praises.
Mid last year they had a promotion where current satellite customers could trade in their equipment and get a free PVR. I've been a customer of theirs for ten years or more. I don't have a freaking PVR. I called them up and explained that when I switched "this" house it had been from satellite to cable and because of my long-standing account with them I would appreciate it they would even give me a DISCOUNT on a PVR. I was basically told to sit on it and rotate.
Last month I noticed my speed increased and my bandwidth cap increased. I thought "YAY!" Then a month later I get a letter from them in the mail telling me that if I wanted to KEEP the new speed and the new bandwidth cap I would have to pay them more money otherwise they would happily revert me to what I had before for the same price. But the KICKER is that they billed this price increase as the result of an increase in expenses. So if it costs more to operate my service, why can you still afford to give me the SAME service I had for the SAME price if I choose to go back?
Up here in Ontario it's either Rogers or Bell. And as far as I'm concerned they're both a pack of untrustworthy a*******.
I remember years upon years upon years ago when I was in my senior year in high school and the student administrator of their QNX-based network, the teachers in my district were approaching a pay-deducted computer purchase plan, and my teacher was planning a lecture on "What to look for" in a prospective computer.
The session was closed-door but there was a window in the door and I was pretty good at reading lips. I remember with fondness watching him pull an acetate off his desk, whip it up onto the overhead, and write OS/2 in the largest possible letters he could fit on the 8.5 x 11" sheet. For a good hour he went on and on and on and on about how OS/2 was going to rule the world and outlined the recommended specifications for running OS/2 on a PC. I believe this was at the dawn of the 80286 era if memory serves.
I still e-mail him a few times a year. And I still bug him about it. He's a great guy and one of the most brilliant minds in computer science I have ever met. But he got sucked in by OS/2 huge.
It's time to let the damn thing die.
I'm serious. I was one of the first people to buy a 5gb Rio Carbon when they came out. A few months later, a firmware upgrade came down to the pipe "to make the unit compliant with French laws regarding volume". It made the Carbon so quiet it was almost useless. My point is simply that although Apple made the volume switch, it's your own bloody finger that operates it, and it's not Apple's fault that this idiot doesn't have a brain.
It's a question of keeping up with the Joneses. Staples in Canada has been doing the online rebate thing for more than a year. People love it, because in their minds it doesn't cost them anything and they don't have to go to the post office to mail in the receipt or to buy a stamp.
I totally understand that Rob is not mad at Blizzard, he's just upset at the way things were handled. I had a similar experience happen to me a few years ago on EQ that caused me to quit too, even though in recent days I've been thinking of going back.
/petition'ed and screamed for almost three days straight. I loudly and defiantly accused them of being liars - since they had GIVEN me the second tag after they'd told me before it wasn't even POSSIBLE - and asked for some compromise on the issue.
I decided to start a guild. I went through the process, picked the name, formed the group of chartering members, and suddenly discovered that everybody hated the guild name which I had not consulted on anyone with. My fault. I disbanded the guild and basically went and had a pity party for a few weeks and got picked up by another guild.
A month or two later, at the behest of a close friend, I decided to take another stab at it. I consulted with a bunch of friends on a name, and we came up with something everybody agreed on. I went through the process again. I was told that there was a infrastructure-induced limit of one guild *ever* per account. I was told if I ever wanted to make another guild, I would have to purchase another account. I complained vehemently, but I was basically told to talk to the hand.
Three days later, I got an e-mail from EQ telling me that my guild had been approved and I needed to contact a GM in-game to get my tag. I figured they'd changed their mind or listened to the logic of my arguments. I went in-game and even *asked* the GM what the situation was and his response was basically "Somebody approved you, don't ask questions", so I took the tag and ran. I recruited about 20 base members, and everyone - including myself - was happy.
The next day I logged in and found that my guild tag had reverted to the EARLIER tag. I
"Talk to the hand" was essentially the response. I left.
I'm with Rob. I don't mind them having rules. But they need to ADVERTISE the rules (especially when they change so often), they need to ADHERE to the rules, there needs to be UNIFORMITY in enforcement, and this whole "I'm sorry, I can't help you/pass the buck" attitude has got to go. It's not just Blizzard. It's all the other massive operators as well. I've hopped from game that I love, to game that I love, to game that I love, to game that I love only to leave each time because the customer service absolutely sucked.
And that's what this thread is about. Customer service.
It's obviously a low impact worm. It invaded the CNN network and Miles O'Brien is still on the air.
We all know NASA has those shiny new x-something-or-other orbiters hidden at Kennedy anyway. It has to be true. Jerry Bruckheimer told us so.
Erotic literature? When I saw "gloved hand" I thought it was the transcript from the Michael Jackson trial.
After reading all of these comments about Nextel and Sprint I have to wonder if ANYBODY with a cell phone in the US is happy with their service. And let's not even talk about Cingular's new slogan. A guy I know on IRC recently got a job with Cingular. The catch-line lately has been "Hey Ted? Whatcha been up to? Busy raising the bar, I'll bet." He still doesn't get it. That's what makes it so beautiful.
To an extent although this is considered "funny", it's the truth. The mindset of e-mail is presentation, hence why e-mail clients have spell checkers. IM clients as a whole do not. People usually speak proper English in e-mail and that's why I think most teens prefer IM. It's "commonly accepted" to use stupid mind-numbing abbreviations like "c u later" and crap like this in IM where it might not be smiled upon so much in e-mail where copies of it are likely to be archived and come back to haunt you when you've gotten to a point where you've actually learned how to speak English.
I totally agree with the original poster that IM is going to be the downfall of society - because it has encouraged a generation to develop their own "language" whose sole purpose is to express every message in the fewest possible number of keystrokes.
I coulda sworn I was in the "library" *ahem* reading our local weekly ad paper and saw that Bell World up here in Canada was offering a Samsung camcorder phone. Wouldn't this be the same one? They also said it was a Bell exclusive and that they were the first ones to get it.