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The Apprentice

20th April 2006 • Dave

I came to this pretty late, missing most of the first series. But the second series has me completely hooked. The Apprentice is a satisfying blend of reality TV featuring larger than life Characters, mixed with fascinating insights into some of the best and worst ways to conduct business.

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PlusNet’s announcement

14th April 2006 • Dave

The recent announcement from PlusNet posted here a few days ago concerned me
more than I originally thought. The more I think about this the more I find
PN’s announcement disturbing.

I was heartened that over 90 percent of respondents to my quick survey
seemed to also not welcome the introduction of 50p per minute technical
support. At time of writing 72 people have cast their vote. Thank you
everyone. Ok, the result was probably a forgone conclusion. But if premium
rate technical support is such a good idea for PlusNet’s customers, why then
are the results of my quick survey so overwhelming.

–PN wrote:
> We’re not afraid of change – in fact we embrace it.

As a leading Internet Service provider I would not expect anything less from
PN.

–PN wrote:
> We want the service you buy from us today to be a service you’ll want to >
buy from us in the future – it needs to be a service that’s just what you >
are looking for and one we can earn our living from.

Quite right. And as a customer I want PN to be able to continue to improve
their level of service. If customers do not feel their money is being well
spent, then we are welcome to spend it elsewhere. The reason so many
customers are joining rather than leaving PN, is owing to the quality of the
existing service.

PN signed up it’s one-hundred-thousandth customer last year. This means
that over-all PN’s support costs will have increased. However, revenue will
have increased proportionally. In fact the larger the customer base, often
the cost of support per customer as a proportion of revenue should go down
not up.

–PN wrote:
> We like to talk with you.

I have trouble swallowing this. I need to contact customer support maybe
once per month on average. PN discontinued email support some years ago.
My experience has been that queues on the phones are increasing, often staff
rush calls insisting that I visit the web site. (I have documented
elsewhere the problems some customers face with accessing the web site).
Occasionally staff are pulled off the phones to deal with questions received
via Contact Us, and the phones are left with just a skeleton staff. PlusNet
have never contacted me to ask whether or not I am satisfied with the
service. Often customers are told about policy changes rather than
consulted. So the idea that PN like to talk with me is ludicrous. The only
communication I get from PN is when PN want to sell me something, or bill me
for my Internet access. I have not seen much evidence that PN like to talk
with me.

–PN wrote:
> You may think we talk too much – enthusiastic people often do.

No I do not think PN talk too much. Unless the recent marketing campaigns
targeted at customerers email addresses is called talk? Most internet users
would call such unsolicited promotional email spam. The perception of
people who talk too much is that they do not think enough.

–PN wrote:
> In the future it looks like your Internet connection will deliver more >
than just the web pages you search for and the emails from your friends.

It already does. Audio, video, instant messaging, voice over IP, etc. BT
are even promising broadcast quality TV by the end of the year.

–PN wrote:
> Customer service and technical support are really important to us,

And Customer service and technical support are really important to us too,
your customers.

–PN wrote:
> we work hard to provide a service you’ll be happy to recommend.

And as an award winning multi-million pound company, so you should. I have
recommended PN and would be happy to continue to do so were it not for the
nature of PN’s recent money making schemes.

–PN wrote:
> When we talk to you, you tell us you like to be able to find the answers >
to your questions online and the first place you look is on our web site.

I have never told you that! As far as I am aware, the dozen or so other PN
customers who I know have never told you that either. I would also submit
that the 91 percent of people in my survey who are aposed the the premium
rate technical support have probably never told you that either. The people
who welcome the premium rate technical support either do not need to use it,
or cannot get the advice they need on the PN web site so are prepared to pay
50p per minute to get the answers to their questions. So I would be very
interested to learn more about this supposed constituency who like rummaging
through the PN portal for answers. Who are they?

–PN wrote:
> We believe if you can’t find an answer online and have to phone us we >
have failed.

So on the one hand you like to talk to me, but on the other hand if I need
to talk to you, you have failed? If I need to talk to PN, and PN are
friendly and helpful then PN have not failed. In fact I am more likely to
stay with PN if I feel I have had quality telephone support.

–PN wrote:
> In the future it’s likely you’ll be looking for help on things like >
combining your mobile phone with your home phone or how to get the TV >
channels you want working.

How likely? I only have a home phone to enable me to access ADSL. And to
find the cheapest calls I use the UK and International call checkers found
at:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com

Freeview, Sky and NTL are very well established TV platforms providing
myself and millions of others with the TV services we require. Yes it is
important for all companies to explore new markets, and I would be
interested to see what kind of video on-demand or IPTV services PN are able
to come up with. But these services should not be provided at the detriment
of existing customers.

My mobile phone is with an established cellular operator. I hope PN will
not waste customers money by attempting to break into this already crowded
and competitive market.

I and thousands of others want PN to firstly continue to be a quality ISP,
not a telco or TV provider. PN have been one of the higher echelon ISPs but
are in danger of loosing that status, if PN’s recent announcements are an
indicator of how PN view’s it’s future.

–PN wrote:
> we have decided to make a distinction between support questions. Crucial >
technical support questions like “Why can’t I get a connection?” are >
different to “How do I use CGI scripts on my website?”.

These types of questions are very different. Why are PN even dealing with
the “how to use CGI” questions anyway? I would not expect my electricity
provider to instruct me on the use of my appliances.

–PN wrote:
> In an ideal world you’ll find the answer you’re looking for on our >
website easily
> – but it’s far from an ideal world. So the next best thing is to send us >
an online message – we still see this as a failure of our site, but at >
least you haven’t had to call.

At least? You really do not want to talk to customers do you. 🙂

–PN wrote:
> The service we provide will allow you to do lots of different things – if
> you know how to use it.

That is right. And the reality is that most people who are online really
have very limited knowledge of how to get the most out of their Internet
Service. But instead of investing customer subscriptions in quality
affordable technical support, PN appear to be cashing in.

–PN wrote:
> we are setting up a consultancy phone line where the web site information
> can be discussed if necessary. We plan to charge 50p per minute to cover >
the cost of training our team and providing this service.

And so there it is, an admission. PN@s staff are not trained to provide
technical support. In order to train them, customers will be forced to
stump up 50p per minute. Thanks for that PN.

–PN wrote:
> We believe it will only be a worthwhile service if the people on the end >
of the phone know what they are talking about; there is nothing worse > >
than ringing somewhere for help only to discover you know more than the >
person at the other end.

Well that pretty much sums it up.

–PN wrote:
> We also believe you will look at our web site for your answers before >
calling our 50p per minute consultancy line.

Absolutely. 50p per minute is certainly one way to reduce the amount of
people PN talk to.

–PN wrote:
> We don’t want to make money from your phone calls – we want to provide >
answers online and keep our cost as low as possible.

I disagree. This statement seems more than just a little bit disingenuous.
PN are a company in a competitive market who’s primary objective above all
others is to make money.

PN want to make money from your phone calls – PN want to provide > answers
online keeping cost ass low as possible.

–PN wrote:
> If you can spend a little time looking over the information now, it might
> save you time and stress in the future.

Should that not be, Save PN time and stress and money in the future? In
other words RTFM and do not call PN if you need help.

I have been a loyal customer for over 6 years. I am not going to be forced
into making any rushed decisions. I will watch developments with interest.
However, I am recommending that PN customers think about shopping around.
Your existing deal may not necessarily be the best one out there.

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Reckon you have a long commute to work? – Register

13th April 2006 • Dave

Heh my commute is a piece of cake with me usually allowing about 20 mins, and I still manage to get in half an hour early. Would not be in this guy’s shoes for all the tea in China.

I’ve always wondered actually, all the tea in China, is that all the tea in the country china, or all the tea in china cups and teapots and the like?

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Mini DAB Radio/MP3 Player this Summer

13th April 2006 • Dave

Hmm, nice. I guess I better mention this in my letter to Santa this year. Although it seems odd that it has taken so long for anyone to release a mini DAB radio/mp3 player. Imho the future of DAB is in portables. How long before DAB makes an appearance on mobile phones? Not soon enough for me.

For home listening give me Freeview or Digital Satellite every time. Last I heard the DAB bit rates were still shockingly low with audio quality being sacrificed in favour of a larger number of services. But this little baby or something similar could quite easily find a home in an over-night travel bag.

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Wiggle it!

12th April 2006 • Dave

This time two weeks ago my large leather 3-seater couch was stuck on one end in the tiny hallway of my flat in Preston, while two friends, my uncle and I stood around scratching our heads trying to figure out how to get it unstuck. Perfect planning prevents pathetic performance, or something. At that time I had absolutely no idea what I would be thinking or feeling by mid April. I was taking a risk, making a lot of sacrifices, quite literally moving into the unknown. Would the upheaval of relocation and changing job all be worth it? Well a couple of weeks in maybe it’s too early to say. But my initial feeling is that yes it really has all been worth it.

I have had a pretty busy time the last few weeks. It’s amazing how many entities one needs to contact when relocating and changing job: bank, credit card company, gas water and electricity suppliers, landline and mobile phone companies, internet service provider, satellite TV provider, library service, van hire, previous employer, new employer, local council, doctor, e-tailors, not to mention sorting out somewhere to live etc. This can be made doubly challenging if one does not really know anyone in the area where one is moving to. I have moved probably 20 times in my life, and maybe half a dozen times as an adult, so you would think I would be used to moving by now. But moving can be massively disruptive, and usually it is irreversible. Once you have moved you have moved and that is that. You can move again, but there is usually no moving back. My ticket to Worcester was definitely one way. And while I hope to return to Preston some day, it will not be for a while.

I feel very good about my move. I am more confident, positive, happier, comfortable, organised, and enthusiastic. I am sure some of that is the novelty of the new environment and a certain amount of entropy will take it’s course. But even accounting for the novelty of change, this move feels and tastes right. My new flat is tremendous, and I am embracing my new routine. I am full of the joys of spring, and operation Worcester is bang on track.

If you ever get stuck with a large leather 3-seater couch in a tiny hallway, the secret is wiggle it a bit. It worked for me.

All the best and happy Easter to those who enjoy such things. As someone wrote to me in a text the other day.

“I’m not expecting as much as a fun-sized Mars bar!” But my local has a live band on over the weekend so will probably go and take a listen. Well it would be rude not to.

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My PlusNet poll

11th April 2006 • Dave

This is really for existing PlusNet customers. Even if you disagree and think 50P per minute is a good thing, I am very interested in your thoughts.

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PlusNet is devolving

11th April 2006 • Dave

PlusNet’s core business is providing access to the Internet. This is what they have done very well for 6 or 7 years, and it is the reason why the customer base is expanding. Many PlusNet customers have no interest in purchasing anything other than internet service from PlusNet, and my £21 per month is intended for internet service and support only.

Judging from a recent message sent to PlusNet customers this is not an arrangement which works for PlusNet any more. A complete copy of the email is included below.

As a blind customer quality affordable telephone technical support from my ISP is very important to me. I find the PlusNet web site very confusing and difficult to navigate and cannot rely on it for answers to technical support questions. As far as I am aware PlusNet have not conducted any Web Accessibility and usability Evaluation or testing.

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=www.plus.net

PlusNet’s recent discontinuation of binary News Groups on their News servers, and more concerted efforts of late to enforce an Acceptable Usage Policy with traffic shaping at peak times all seemed like sensible business strategies. But the introduction of 50P per minute tech support, and a recent trend toward PlusNet spamming it’s customers with thinly disguised promotional messages dressed up as newsletters, have got this customer surfing over to ADSLGuide.org.uk to find another ISP.

If this is not the thin end of the wedge then I do not know what is. The following is simply a nice way of saying PlusNet are introducing premium rate telephone technical support, just like all those other tacky Pay As You Go internet service providers. PlusNet’s customer base is expanding massively and presumably PlusNet is not giving away internet service, so where is all the money going? And why is it not going into customer support.

It seems apparent that in an effort to offer the widest range of services via the widest range of platforms, many companies are scrambling toward diversification with pound signs in their eyes, whilst neglecting their core constituents who put them in business in the first place.

Vote with your wallet.
________________________________
From: PlusNet Customer Support
Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 6:23 PM
To: PlusNet Customers
Subject: PlusNet is evolving

PlusNet is evolving – in an evolving world.

We are different.

We’re not afraid of change – in fact we embrace it.

We want the service you buy from us today to be a service you’ll want to buy from us in the future – it needs to be a service that’s just what you are looking for and one we can earn our living from.

We like to talk with you. You may think we talk too much – enthusiastic people often do.

In the future it looks like your Internet connection will deliver more than just the web pages you search for and the emails from your friends. No one can predict the future, but it doesn’t stop us trying – here at PlusNet we believe our customers will combine their Internet, telephone, mobile phone, TV, film watching and more things than we have room for here.

We’re getting ready for that day – we want to continue to deliver you a reliable service and be here to help you make sense of the changing technology. It probably won’t be easy and we will make mistakes along the way.

One of the changes we are going to make is to the way we provide you with support. Customer service and technical support are really important to us, a large number of our new customers come recommended from our existing customers – so we work hard to provide a service you’ll be happy to recommend.

We like to think we do a good job; the readers of PC Advisor seem to agree, they recently voted PlusNet No. 1 for customer service in their 2006 poll and we’ve always won awards for our technical support.

When we talk to you, you tell us you like to be able to find the answers to your questions online and the first place you look is on our web site. We receive great feedback on our help information and will continue to work hard to keep it bang up to date.

We believe if you can’t find an answer online and have to phone us we have failed.

In the future it’s likely you’ll be looking for help on things like combining your mobile phone with your home phone or how to get the TV channels you want working. So to maintain our high standard, we have decided to make a distinction between support questions.

Crucial technical support questions like “Why can’t I get a connection?” are different to “How do I use CGI scripts on my website?”.

These crucial support questions will always be a priority and more often than not this is when you will have to phone us. It would be difficult to find the answer to “why can’t I get a connection?” on our web site if you can’t get online at all. You can ring us 24/7 at a lo-call (0845) rate. If we have a problem delivering your service we don’t expect you to pay for it to be fixed.

For less crucial questions our web site will provide the answer to all the common questions, and some more obscure ones too. We plan to launch help pages on subjects like Wi-Fi wireless technology – set to become ‘the’ way we connect our bits of tech kit together at home. The great thing about web sites and online communication is they can evolve as the technology evolves. The opinions of our ‘experts’ can be read by thousands of people. It’s not just one way though – if you have ever visited our forums you’ll know there are thousands more opinions and conversations to be had.

In an ideal world you’ll find the answer you’re looking for on our website easily – but it’s far from an ideal world. So the next best thing is to send us an online message – we still see this as a failure of our site, but at least you haven’t had to call.

We’re quite proud of our online messaging service; if you’ve got a question you just go to our site, type it in, press send, and we’ll reply. The great thing about this service is you have a record of the conversation and can take a look at it at anytime. Some questions that turn out to be something like a BT line fault will always take time to sort out, whereas other questions are answered in around 20 minutes.

Whilst our web site will probably be the most convenient way to get help, we realise many people (particularly those new to the Internet) may have questions not directly-related to technical difficulties. The service we provide will allow you to do lots of different things – if you know how to use it.

That’s why we are setting up a consultancy phone line where the web site information can be discussed if necessary. We plan to charge 50p per minute to cover the cost of training our team and providing this service. We believe it will only be a worthwhile service if the people on the end of the phone know what they are talking about; there is nothing worse than ringing somewhere for help only to discover you know more than the person at the other end. By charging for this service we can keep on investing in quality people and make sure they are constantly given training to keep them in step with the technology changes that are just around the corner.

We also believe you will look at our web site for your answers before calling our 50p per minute consultancy line. If this happens we can continue to provide a low cost service that evolves with new technology. We don’t want to make money from your phone calls – we want to provide answers online and keep our cost as low as possible.

Over the next week or so we will be sending you details of how to get hold of our help and advice. We intend to make it clear where to look for the answers to your questions. If you can spend a little time looking over the information now, it might save you time and stress in the future.

Kind regards

The PlusNet team

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N91 Review – AllAboutSymbian.com

10th April 2006 • Dave

Just realised I hadn’t posted any N91 goodness for a while when I stumbled across this recent review. This seems pretty balanced. Still no word from Code Factory or Nuance re getting this baby talking though.

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Royle family is back for Xmas special!

9th April 2006 • Dave

Nice one!!! I can’t wait! Just a tiny bit scared it’ll go the same way as Only Fools with endless xmas specials for the next 20 years. Keeping everything crossed that it’ll all be ok.

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