“Conservative” politicians and billionaires keep touting corporate “efficiency”, but I keep finding case after case where they are efficient is inefficiently interacting with their customers. How many times have you received a satisfactory answer with your first call or email?
I dropped my Republic Bank accounts (including VISA) last year because they blamed Consumer Cellular for the errors I received trying to access my Republic account through my iPhone: both the app and the online account. Republic said the problem was with Consumer Cellular. Consumer Cellular said the problem was with the bank. Neither seemed really interested in pinpointing the problem.
My wife had no problem accessing Pioneer National Bank through her Consumer Cellular phone.
After I opened my Pioneer accounts, I transferred all my funds from Republic Bank to Pioneer. I wrote Republic to close all my accounts including my VISA account. I no longer receive monthly statements from Republic.
However, this week I received a notice of a statement from VISA for my Republic card. Oh, boy! Did I forget to notify somebody that automatic payments should no longer go to Republic VISA?
When I finally looked at the statement, it was to notify me of my renewal fee! $0.00!!
I did find a “Contact Us” button that allowed me to call this unneeded statement to somebody’s attention. I also stated that I had requested Republic Bank to close my VISA account.
Earlier in the week I received from AT&T “Exciting news - your wireless bill from AT&T is now on video.” Who is it exciting new? The producers of the video and the advertising department. It was just a bother to me. The email didn’t say whether the data for the video was to be charged to my account or was free. I didn’t bother to find out.
However, I did open up MyATT account, saw the current bill, and paid it, also asking that all future bills be automatically be billed to my credit card.
Imagine my surprise to receive an email today that my bill was ready! i double checked and the online balance was zero.
I tried to send a message to AT&T and found a page:
Contact Us
AT&T Support - quick & easy support is available 24/7.
I looked and looked for an email form, but I only found two choices: call an 800 number or Online Chat. I don’t want to wait for “the next available operator", and I don’t want to wait for the next chat person, type what I noticed, and “hang up”.
I wonder if AT&T uses one of the reputation services, and if so, will the service find this blog post and will AT&T act on it.
Don’t stay tuned! We may never know if AT&T even read this post.
I think it was the New York Times that had an article this past week that said most telecommunications companies really don’t want to solve your problems: just pass you from one person to another.
“Hello, Melvyn Magree. My name is ______ and I will be glad to assist you.” This is generally followed by some generalized gibberish that doesn’t even address the problem, like completely reset your device.
An exception that we’ve found is Apple if you have a device under an Apple Care warranty. My wife’s iPhone either wouldn’t come on at all or would only get up to 30% charge. A search of the Apple Support Community came up with over 23,000 topics on this problem. The only advice seems to be to hold the home and lock buttons together for quite a long time. For us and others, this did and did not work.
The 23,000 figure does not indicate an efficient corporation, especially when the number of users who have this problem could be ten or more times greater!!
Fortunately my wife’s IPhone was still under warranty. The Apple Care people walked us through a few steps, and it would work for a while. After a few calls, they sent us a new phone. Of course, we didn’t have a backup and had to manually enter phone addresses. I did manage to print a list from the old phone before we sent it back.
Oh! And we could never erase the old phone. It kept asking for a re-something passcode. It would never accept the phone passcode and we could find no workable answer in the Apple Support Community. We had to return the problem phone with only the assurance that Apple would erase the data.
How did we get into this mess? I remember when it was a big deal to have direct-dial long-distance.
Showing posts with label telecommunications. Show all posts
Showing posts with label telecommunications. Show all posts
Saturday, July 09, 2016
Saturday, November 14, 2015
More wireless cost available
I checked Verizon today and found a list of data plans and prices.
http://www.verizonwireless.com/landingpages/verizon-plan/
It doesn’t provide the detailed information that AT&T provides at http://www.att.com/att/planner/, but it does provide an overview.
With unlimited text and talk, Verizon offers a choice of “ice cream cone” sizes from 1GB at $30/month to 18GB at $100. The fine print reads "Plan cost per month plus $20/month/smartphone purchased on device payment. Taxes/fees apply.”
For more details, you have to call.
Too bad Verizon isn’t available in Brimson, Minnesota.
I wish I could claim credit for more wireless info being available, but I assume thousands of people have been complaining. Good corporations listen to their customers and prospective customers. I wouldn’t be surprised to soon find a website that provides all the info you need to make an informed decision.
http://www.verizonwireless.com/landingpages/verizon-plan/
It doesn’t provide the detailed information that AT&T provides at http://www.att.com/att/planner/, but it does provide an overview.
With unlimited text and talk, Verizon offers a choice of “ice cream cone” sizes from 1GB at $30/month to 18GB at $100. The fine print reads "Plan cost per month plus $20/month/smartphone purchased on device payment. Taxes/fees apply.”
For more details, you have to call.
Too bad Verizon isn’t available in Brimson, Minnesota.
I wish I could claim credit for more wireless info being available, but I assume thousands of people have been complaining. Good corporations listen to their customers and prospective customers. I wouldn’t be surprised to soon find a website that provides all the info you need to make an informed decision.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Wireless cost info is available
Well, well! I take it back about telcom information being hard to find without calling.
I just found http://www.att.com/att/planner/. It gives you most of the info you need to determine your monthly cost. As usual, the taxes and other surcharges aren’t included. Estimate that at about 10%; this will vary month-to-month and by location.
I just found http://www.att.com/att/planner/. It gives you most of the info you need to determine your monthly cost. As usual, the taxes and other surcharges aren’t included. Estimate that at about 10%; this will vary month-to-month and by location.
Friday, March 07, 2014
Free market in telecommunications?
A free market does not exist in telecommnications.
Consider that a free market
– Has many buyers and sellers
– Both buyers and sellers are free to enter and leave the market
– Both buyers and sellers have all the information they need to make a decision
– All costs are covered in the transaction, that is, there are no externalities
Let’s start with the last because it has some relevance to current politics. What are the externalities of telecommunications? There are the overhead lines, the underground cables, and the radio waves zipping through our bodies. Most of us don’t seem to be concerned with the last; we’ve had radio, TV, and radar signals going through us for decades. The overhead lines are not very aesthetic but we put up with them. Similarly, the underground cables don’t seem to be a problem until one has to be dug up.
The externality that is raising the most discussion is the use of copper wires. However, this need is being reduced by the use of fiber optics and wireless communications.
The telecommunications market certainly has more sellers than it used to, some in competition with one another for the buyers’ business. Still, given that the buyers’ choices in any given area are limited to less than a dozen, the market is more of an oligopoly than a free market.
A few of us could go off all the nets and save a bundle of money. But most of us depend on telecommunications for communicating with friends, family, and emergency assistance. Few businesses would succeed without telephones and Internet access. They need it for marketing, sales, and customer support.
All the information you need to make a buy decision? Hah! You really have to dig around to get a detailed quote on what a particular package of services will really cost you. Ads are all over about Internet service for $19.95 for five years guaranteed. But do you know how much you’ll pay for installation, service fees, and taxes? Do you know how fast the service will be? Do you know how much faster service will cost? Even if you sign up for service, the customer service department can’t tell you how much service fees and taxes will be. Gosh, if the billing computers have this information, why don’t the customer service computers have this information?
About the only company that is upfront about the costs of services is Consumer Cellular. Its web page has the cost of the basic service, the cost of each upgrade, and you can do it all online. Like all others, they don’t have a calculator for service fee and taxes.
As with much of my writing, this examination was started by my own recent experience. I’ve wanted to have faster Internet speeds for some time, I wanted caller ID on our home phone because probably three-quarters of our incoming calls are junk calls, and I wanted better Internet access at our cabin. I thought our best arrangement would be to drop CenturyLink for phone and Internet at home, get a Home Base phone from Consumer Cellular, and get a portable modem from AT&T.
Well, the AT&T modem didn’t deliver much speed at our house and so I returned it. I use my Consumer Cellular iPhone to periodically check the AT&T speed. That speed has improved but is not consistent; sometimes it is way better than the CenturyLink DSL speed, sometimes it is worse.
What if I upgrade my DSL speed? How much does it cost? Well, the “free market” CenturyLink won’t tell me on their website. I am supposed to call for that info. Once upon a time in the days when we had Qwest, the website offered three different speeds with prices. When we got tired of 256kbps, we made a few clicks and we had faster speed in a day or two.
Finding the prices elsewhere is a bit of a chore. Over half the hits are for CenturyLink web pages or for CenturyLink reseller pages. I think on the second search page I found a site that gave detailed pricing (without taxes and fees, of course). It would cost us “$5.00” more to go from a nominal 7Mbps to 12, “$15.00” to 20, and “$25.00” to 40. My wife balked at even the upgrade to 12Mpbs because she thought things were fine.
As for the cost of getting caller ID, it is the same story. One cannot get just caller ID, but has to get a package of many unneeded features. Could I find the cost? Of course not! It’s a “free market” and companies are free to do as they please.
As I was reviewing the many pages that I had opened in my quest, I found one with a long list of entries complaining about CenturyLink service. Of course, those who are satisfied don’t post on such sites, but the number of instances of overbilling, not sending any statement, having a collection agency demand payment, of undelivered service, of repeated calls for non-functioning or poorly function service, and on and on. Do I even want to make even a small change in my service?
My final set of changes for telecommunications was to have my Consumer Cellular iPhone become a hotspot (no charge, done in about 15 minutes) and upgrade to the max of 2GB of traffic. That should allow us to use our iPads at the cabin to read the newspapers. Or even write this column at our cabin and send it before the deadline. When it gets warm enough for my wife to want to go there again.
Consider that a free market
– Has many buyers and sellers
– Both buyers and sellers are free to enter and leave the market
– Both buyers and sellers have all the information they need to make a decision
– All costs are covered in the transaction, that is, there are no externalities
Let’s start with the last because it has some relevance to current politics. What are the externalities of telecommunications? There are the overhead lines, the underground cables, and the radio waves zipping through our bodies. Most of us don’t seem to be concerned with the last; we’ve had radio, TV, and radar signals going through us for decades. The overhead lines are not very aesthetic but we put up with them. Similarly, the underground cables don’t seem to be a problem until one has to be dug up.
The externality that is raising the most discussion is the use of copper wires. However, this need is being reduced by the use of fiber optics and wireless communications.
The telecommunications market certainly has more sellers than it used to, some in competition with one another for the buyers’ business. Still, given that the buyers’ choices in any given area are limited to less than a dozen, the market is more of an oligopoly than a free market.
A few of us could go off all the nets and save a bundle of money. But most of us depend on telecommunications for communicating with friends, family, and emergency assistance. Few businesses would succeed without telephones and Internet access. They need it for marketing, sales, and customer support.
All the information you need to make a buy decision? Hah! You really have to dig around to get a detailed quote on what a particular package of services will really cost you. Ads are all over about Internet service for $19.95 for five years guaranteed. But do you know how much you’ll pay for installation, service fees, and taxes? Do you know how fast the service will be? Do you know how much faster service will cost? Even if you sign up for service, the customer service department can’t tell you how much service fees and taxes will be. Gosh, if the billing computers have this information, why don’t the customer service computers have this information?
About the only company that is upfront about the costs of services is Consumer Cellular. Its web page has the cost of the basic service, the cost of each upgrade, and you can do it all online. Like all others, they don’t have a calculator for service fee and taxes.
As with much of my writing, this examination was started by my own recent experience. I’ve wanted to have faster Internet speeds for some time, I wanted caller ID on our home phone because probably three-quarters of our incoming calls are junk calls, and I wanted better Internet access at our cabin. I thought our best arrangement would be to drop CenturyLink for phone and Internet at home, get a Home Base phone from Consumer Cellular, and get a portable modem from AT&T.
Well, the AT&T modem didn’t deliver much speed at our house and so I returned it. I use my Consumer Cellular iPhone to periodically check the AT&T speed. That speed has improved but is not consistent; sometimes it is way better than the CenturyLink DSL speed, sometimes it is worse.
What if I upgrade my DSL speed? How much does it cost? Well, the “free market” CenturyLink won’t tell me on their website. I am supposed to call for that info. Once upon a time in the days when we had Qwest, the website offered three different speeds with prices. When we got tired of 256kbps, we made a few clicks and we had faster speed in a day or two.
Finding the prices elsewhere is a bit of a chore. Over half the hits are for CenturyLink web pages or for CenturyLink reseller pages. I think on the second search page I found a site that gave detailed pricing (without taxes and fees, of course). It would cost us “$5.00” more to go from a nominal 7Mbps to 12, “$15.00” to 20, and “$25.00” to 40. My wife balked at even the upgrade to 12Mpbs because she thought things were fine.
As for the cost of getting caller ID, it is the same story. One cannot get just caller ID, but has to get a package of many unneeded features. Could I find the cost? Of course not! It’s a “free market” and companies are free to do as they please.
As I was reviewing the many pages that I had opened in my quest, I found one with a long list of entries complaining about CenturyLink service. Of course, those who are satisfied don’t post on such sites, but the number of instances of overbilling, not sending any statement, having a collection agency demand payment, of undelivered service, of repeated calls for non-functioning or poorly function service, and on and on. Do I even want to make even a small change in my service?
My final set of changes for telecommunications was to have my Consumer Cellular iPhone become a hotspot (no charge, done in about 15 minutes) and upgrade to the max of 2GB of traffic. That should allow us to use our iPads at the cabin to read the newspapers. Or even write this column at our cabin and send it before the deadline. When it gets warm enough for my wife to want to go there again.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Taxes - burden or cost of civilization
My latest published letter is "Taxes aren't big in world of financial burdens". See
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/196096/
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/196096/
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