RickyCadden.com

When Customer Service Isn’t

// October 24th, 2011 // 3 Comments » // stupid

There was a story circulating the Internet last week about a little girl at an Apple store. It seems this little 10-year-old girl saved every penny she could for nearly a year so that she could buy herself an Apple iPod touch, which she desperately wanted. All good so far – I’m all in favor of teaching the younger generations the importance of saving and paying cash, especially for gadgets.

The story gets weird then, when the little girl and her mom arrived at an Apple Store at 10:30 am, and were greeted by Apple employees who told them the store would be closing from 11a-2p and that they could not shop at the moment. The story goes that the mom put up a fight but they were turned away anyways, until the ‘heroic’ Apple store manager chased them down and was willing to make a ‘special exception’ to allow her to purchase her new toy.

The story is making the rounds as some sort of a big deal for the Apple store, how the manager went out of his way to help this ‘poor little girl’ and how it’s the experience of the Apple store, blah blah blah. Not so fast, let’s recap those details, shall we?

1. The girl and her mom arrived at 10:30a

2. They were told that the store was closing from 11a-2p and they could not shop.

I’m not sure what reality distortion field others live in, but I grew up knowing that 10:30a comes shortly BEFORE 11a, which means the mom and daughter had a full 30 minutes to shop before the store’s scheduled closing. The girl didn’t need to wander the store – she had known exactly what she wanted to buy for like, 9 months.

Maybe I’m missing something but the whole thing sounds silly to me. Also, is the Apple store the only place to get an iPod touch these days? I’m pretty sure I know of at least one retailer with over 4,000 stores that carries them and DOESN’T close randomly for 3 hours in the middle of the day. As we lead up to the U.S. holiday season, I’m fairly certain we’ll see more ‘customer service’ stories pop up here and there.

Apple Ping Is Barely Half-Baked

// September 8th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Social Networks, stupid

After fighting it since the announcement, curiosity got the best of me and I turned on Ping in the new iTunes v10. I only did so after confirming that there is an easy way to turn it off, so I figure I don’t have anything to lose. After trying to use Nokia’s various Ovi services for a few years, I firmly believed that no one could release a service that was as half-baked as those, until I tried Ping.

In case you’re not technically inclined (but somehow reading my blog), Ping is billed as a social community built around music. I’ve used something similar – called Last.FM – for years. It’s really quite brilliant – you simply listen to music as you normally would, and automatically share your listening habits with your friends. They can see what you’re listening to, you can see what they’re listening to, and you can each comment on each others’ stuff. If you listen to a ton of music like I do, it’s really quite brilliant, and definitely helps me find new music when I want to.

So….Ping, then. Getting started is pretty easy – you login with your Apple iTunes account, setup a super-basic profile, including a photo, your location, a short description of yourself, and then you choose 3 of your favorite genres to start things off. Shortly thereafter, you’re taken to the recommendations screen, which for me, looked like this:

So, there are 2 major things wrong with this screen:

1. Nothing in my library indicates that I should follow 50 Cent, Daddy Yankee, or Lloyd Banks. I’ve never even heard of the latter two. Out of the 1,586 artists in my iTunes library, Ping only found 37 to recommend?

2. The only ways I see to connect with my friends are by searching for them by name or by inviting them via email.

So, I have fully established contact lists on Twitter, Facebook, and Google, at the least. I’ve spent a while building these, curating these along the years. Regardless, Apple hasn’t offered me the ability to search these contact lists for other people I may know using Ping. This would be forgivable if there was an easy ‘share my profile with my friends’ link that I could post to Facebook or Twitter – no such luck.

There is a dedicated link to my Ping profile that I can share with others – mine’s here – but I had to dig around a bit for it. I can assure you my parents wouldn’t have found it, nor would most of my ‘normob’ friends – the ones interested in Ping.

Another one of the major ‘features’ of Ping is the ability to follow your favorite artist, to see what they’re up to. I can’t really think of a good reason I would want to do this, but for the sake of the experience, I’m following a few of my favorites. How do I find my favorite artists? The same way I don’t find my friends, apparently – searching one-by-one. Amazingly, Apple hasn’t built a way for me to let iTunes analyze my library to see which of my 1,586 artists have the most playcounts and then see if they’re on Ping yet.

I’m not going to give up on Ping just yet – I’ll give it a fair chance, but the first impression is pretty pathetic. It definitely feels half-baked, which is odd for Apple. I’m definitely going to keep using Last.FM – the service is too valuable for me to pretend Ping can replace it. Have you tried Ping on iTunes? What are your thoughts?

How To Piss Off Your Paying Customers, By GMAC Financing

// January 12th, 2010 // No Comments » // stupid

In December 2006, I purchased a 2006 GMC Sierra pickup truck, financed through GMAC Financing on a SmartBuy. The SmartBuy was an awesome setup where you paid smaller payments, like a lease, but own the vehicle, like a purchase. At the end of your term, you had several options, including paying the final ‘balloon payment’, refinancing it, returning the vehicle with a small ‘disposal’ fee, etc. They don’t offer this any longer, unfortunately.

My term expired this December,  and after receiving the proper paperwork in the mail, outlining my options, I called GMAC Financing on January 7th and spoke with Francis to refinance the final payment, as I decided I might as well keep the truck and pay it off instead of trading in. When I called in, I was told they would mark my account as ‘renewal pending’ and send out the paperwork with the new refinance details, which I would need to sign and return. Great.

Since January 7th, I have received 7 automated phone calls and 1 live phone call from GMAC Financing, stating that my account is past-due the amount of my balloon payment, and that I would need to pay this immediately. I called in yesterday, January 11th, and spoke with Frederick. I told him I had received a few phone calls stating I was past-due, and that I wanted to verify that the renewal process had been initiated, and that I was not *actually* past-due, or in danger of being sent to collections or marks on my credit report. Frederick verified my conversation with Francis a few days earlier, and stated the paperwork had been mailed out on the 11th, and should arrive within 3-5 business days. He also verified that there was a note on my account saying I was not past-due, but had initiated the renewal process and was awaiting paperwork.

Since speaking with Frederick yesterday around 3p, I have received an additional 3 automated calls and 1 live call from GMAC Financing, still stating that I was past due. While I know this to not be true, it’s extremely annoying to continually be called on this matter. I definitely went off on the girl this morning, and asked her to verify there was a note on my account saying that I had initiated the renewal and was awaiting their paperwork to complete that. She confirmed this, after which I asked why I was continually being harassed, then? She had no answer.

Dear GMAC – you guys are already struggling enough, along with the entire automobile industry. I’m a paying customer, have been for 4 years, and am willing to pay you, on time, every time, for an additional few years, rather than using my bank or another financial institution. Given your current market situation, it’s probably in your best interest NOT to continually harass me and piss me off. I’ve rarely seen worse customer service than this, and will now immediately be comparing your loan terms to those of my bank.

The Truth Behind The Nokia Booklet 3G Pricing

// October 14th, 2009 // 11 Comments » // stupid, toys

I’ll admit, it’s tough to understand the concept of a netbook, for some. I mean, it’s *almost* the regular cost of a low-end notebook, but it’s smaller, and tends to be less capable in terms of processing power and that sort of thing. However, there’s tons of inaccuracies floating around out there, specifically in regards to the pricing setup for Nokia’s Booklet 3G, which was detailed yesterday. Tony Bradley, on Yahoo! Tech News, spews forth some complete nonsense in his diatribe about why the Nokia Booklet 3G has ‘hidden costs’. Let’s break his article (which you can read in full here) down a bit:

That subsidized price comes with some strings that affect the total cost of ownership though. The $299 price tag is based on a 2-year wireless service commitment with a mandatory data plan requirement. So, $299 isn’t just $299. It is $299 plus $60 a month for two years which brings the total cost up to over $1700.

But wait, there’s more! The data plan you get for $60 a month has a limit of 5Gb of bandwidth per month. Even moderate netbook users could easily surpass the bandwidth cap and end up hit with steep overage charges that add even more hidden costs and increase the total cost of ownership for the Booklet 3G.

Ok, so, he’s got the pricing right – $299 with a 2-year contract on AT&T at their $60/mo Laptop Connect package, which has a 5GB monthly limit. For starters, something that Tony *doesn’t* point out is that currently, across all four of the major carriers (Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint), if you want a monthly data package to get your laptop (netbook or not) online, it’s going to cost you $60/mo and has a 5GB monthly limit (update: T-Mobile’s is only $50, but still has the 5GB limit). Tony makes it seem as though the Booklet’s monthly plan is device-specific – it’s not. It’s the industry standard for connecting anything that’s not a phone or PDA to the internet via 3G. It’s the same plan you would get with a USB dongle, the MiFi, or any of the other embedded-3G netbooks that the various carriers offer.

Let’s continue, because Mr. Bradley has some other information quite incorrect, as well.

To be fair, all netbooks are little more than glorified calculators without some sort of wireless network service. But, just keeping things within AT&T, I could buy an un-subsidized Acer Aspire One netbook and get DSL service from AT&T for $19.95 a month without the bandwidth limit. Granted, I would have to spring for the $40 to add a wireless router to my network, but the total cost for the netbook and Internet access over the same two years is about half the cost of the Booklet 3G contract (not including charges for going over the data limit).

You can forego the AT&T subsidy and purchase the Nokia Booklet 3G outright for $599 without the contract. That brings the total cost over two years down significantly, but the device is still almost double the cost of comparable devices.

This part actually has two main points, so I’ll take them on separately:

The Acer Aspire One netbook that Mr. Bradley mentions is *not* comparable to the Nokia Booklet 3G. For starters, there are several different models of that netbook, each with varying display sizes (8.9″-11.6″) and storage capacities. We’ll use the 10.1″ model, since size-wise, that’s the closest to the Booklet 3G.

The Acer is powered by the Intel N270 Atom processor at 1.6GHz, while the Nokia is powered by the newer Intel Z530 Atom processor, also at 1.6GHz. Both computers have 1GB of RAM. That is roughly where the similarities stop. The Acer, admittedly, has a 160GB hard drive, while the Nokia only has a 120GB, so there’s one for the Acer.

However, the Nokia quickly overtakes the Acer in nearly every other category. The Nokia has WiFi b/g/n, whereas the Acer only has b/g, and the Nokia comes with Bluetooth built-in and a GPS receiver integrated into the machine. The Nokia’s display, while still 10.1″, has a resolution of 1280×720, while the Acer maxes out at 1024×600. The Nokia Booklet 3G has an HDMI-out port, while the Acer only has a VGA output.

Case in point – the Nokia Booklet 3G has quite a few features that the current crop of netbooks don’t have. You can’t compare the Booklet 3G to an Acer Aspire One (or an EeePC, for that matter), as that’s similar to comparing the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic to the Nokia N97 – sure they’re both touchscreen smartphones, but with a number of important differences.

Second, and worse yet, Tony says he could buy the Acer and get the $20 AT&T home DSL plan and get a similar experience to the Booklet 3G with AT&T’s data plan. Part of the draw of netbooks is that their size and weight and battery life make them *much* better for portable computing – NOT having to be within range of an outlet to get work done. Buying a netbook and using it with a home DSL line completely defeats the entire purpose.

My favorite part of Tony’s…..article……is the next to last paragraph:

The Nokia Booklet 3G faces an identity crisis. It has the price tag of a high-end netbook– eclipsing the price of much more powerful notebook computers– with the features of a middle-of-the-road netbook device. The subsidized cost may lure in some users who want the prestige or are willing to pay twice as much over time in order to spend less today, but compared with other netbook and notebook alternatives the Booklet 3G is just not a good value.

So, given the direct comparison of the Booklet 3G’s features – newer, faster, more energy-efficient processor, higher resolution display, bigger battery, more features (WiFi n, Bluetooth, GPS, etc), and sleeker design against the Acer Aspire One that he mentions, Tony somehow sees it as a ‘middle of the road’ netbook. I’d be interested to have an example of a ‘high-end’ netbook – which Tony says is how the Nokia Booklet 3G is priced as.

Basically, no matter what netbook you purchase today, if you want 3G access for it, you’re going to be paying *someone* an additional $60/mo, and you’re going to have a 5GB monthly limit, regardless of which carrier or netbook or notebook it’s on. Given that, the $299 pricetag of the Booklet 3G doesn’t seem so bad.

Of course, you could still tether your phone to any netbook (Booklet 3G included) for cheaper (though not exactly within the Terms and Conditions of your cellular service), but assuming you use the correct plan (which the majority of consumers will do), you’re still going to be facing a similar monthly bill. Saying the Booklet 3G costs $1700+ while other netbooks are similar and *much* cheaper is simply not factual – not for the same experience.

**To be clear, I’m in no way saying that I think $60/mo for 5GB of 3G access is a fair price, nor a good deal. I’m only stating the facts based on pricing and plans currently available from the major carriers. My overall point is that saying the Booklet 3G is overpriced because it comes with a $60/mo limited 2-year contract is absurd – you’ll pay the same monthly price for 3G on a computer (netbook or notebook) whether you get the Booklet 3G subsidized or not.

Disclaimer: I own an Asus 1000HE EeePC and tether it to my cell phone when necessary. I paid $425 for it.

I’m Bored With Dumb Electronics

// September 30th, 2009 // No Comments » // stupid, technology

In a conversation with my friend Jason Harris yesterday, we were chatting about why I’m bored with cell phones. It’s the same reason I’m bored with my laptop and my coffee maker – they’re all dumb electronics. They all sit dormant, inactive, until I input something. Then, activities happen based on my input, after which the device again waits for my input. I’m tired of telling electronics what to do. I want controlled AI.

Most of the things that I do with my electronics are predictable, with few variables. When I boot up my laptop, if I have a WiFi signal, I usually immediately launch Digsby, MediaMonkey, Firefox, and Seesmic Desktop. If I don’t have a WiFi signal, clearly at least 3 of those applications are useless, and I wouldn’t need them launched. Unfortunately, there currently isn’t any software (that I’m aware of) that lets me create conditional boot sequences, triggered by the presence of WiFi, or anything else, for that matter. I would also like my computer to know when I’m traveling (using GPS, perhaps?) and to not download *any* updates automatically while I’m traveling. Again, unfortunately, no can do.

My coffee maker annoys me more. It is, without question, one of the more mundane electronic devices that I own. Every day, I take out yesterday’s filter and grounds and put in a new filter and 2 scoops of grounds. I then dump out whatever coffee remains from yesterday, refill the pot, and pour that into the reservoir of the coffee maker, and then put it on ‘scheduled’ mode, which I’ve set to start brewing at 6am, so my coffee is fresh and hot when I wake up. No part of that is variable, it’s a very precise process that happens daily. There’s no real reason it shouldn’t be automated for me, technologically speaking.

Another household appliance that I’m *really* waiting to see get smarter is my refrigerator. If all my food had RFID chips in the label, my fridge could keep track of when I bought and used my food. It could tell me, for instance, that my milk is set to expire in 3 days, and I had better use it. It could tell me that I have leftovers rotting in tupperware in the back of my fridge for the past 3 weeks, and all manner of other really helpful information. This was done as a hack job back in 2007 – why isn’t it on the market in 2009?

This brings me to my phone. Of course, my mobile phone usage is much more variable, and would need to adapt to me in various ways. However, there are things that it could do for me, quite easily. Since I use a Symbian-powered smartphone (currently the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic) and sync with Google and GooSync for contacts and calendar, I’d like for those synchronizations to happen automatically, over the air.

The built-in GPS navigation should be improved, as well. When I’m traveling, I’d like to not only easily look up nearby gas stations, but I’d like the software to only look ahead down the freeway – NOT in a circular radius, as I”m incredibly unlikely to drive more than ~2 miles off the freeway just to get gas. I would also like some automation in terms of various minute settings. I’d like for the screen brightness to automatically dim as nightfall comes – not only would this save battery life, but it would also make my phone less blinding when I use it at night.

Location is one thing that I really would like to see my phone use in a more intelligent way. I’d like it to know that I’m at church, and automatically silence the ringer, or even perhaps stop checking email until I get out to the parking lot.

Technology is supposed to enrich and enable our real lives, and there are so many ways it could do so automatically that I would love to see.