June 2006 Archives

I live for these kinds of customer service stories. I learned this just today from my friend Lisa who lives in Austin, Texas.

The set-up: Lisa's brother used to live with her in house in Austin. When they decided to get DirecTV for the household, the account was put under the name/account info of her brother Dan. To make a long story short, when Dan moved out, Lisa decided to get the account switched over to her own name.

The verdict: Agents at DirecTV told Lisa firmly that they couldn't do this. It was against policy...no account switching was allowed, she would have to start from the beginning and apply for an account herself, linked to her social security number, credit, address, etc. Finally realizing the idiocy of the situation and realizing she would never get the agent to see reason, she said, "Fine".

The result: She is currently waiting at home for DirecTV to come to her home, REMOVE THE CURRENT EQUIPMENT AND REPLACE IT WITH IDENTICAL EQUIPMENT for her "new account."

The cherry on top? As a "new customer," she will get one month free of DirecTV.

Telecom companies are truly their own worst enemies.

TES

If you ever doubted the value of the Internet for being a busybody when it comes to your neighbors, doubt no more.

Web site Zillow.com keeps tracks of estimated home values all over the U.S. You can see what your house is worth as compared to your neighbors. Not only that, you can drill down and find out what your neighbors paid for their houses and when, exactly how big their houses are, and how the houses have lost or gained value in the past years.

The sobering part is...they can do this to you, as well. I guess deep down, we're all curtain-twitching Gladys Kravitzes.

TES

I just spotted this article about the fate of Lewis the Cat, the "psycho kitty" of Fairfield, Connecticut: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13441225/

It seems that Lewis has been given house arrest and his human (everyone who has cats knows that cats own you...not the other way around) has been given probation.

This has not a thing to do with call centers, CRM or IP telephony, but I feel the need to weigh in on it since Fairfield is both my childhood home town and my university alma mater.

I also heard the Talking Heads song "Psycho Killer" on the radio during my morning drive today, and MSNBC's branding of Lewis as "Psycho Kitty" has merged with the song in my head in an aggravating way.

Psycho-Kitty...qu'est ce que c'est?

TES

If you're thinking that what you need to get you motivated is a personal trainer, but don't relish putting yourself into spandex in front of a set of washboard abs, you now have a choice: you can get yourself a virtual personal trainer via Podcast.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/19/technology/19ecom.html?ex=1150862400&en=468d9d4b8d610bf0&ei=5087%0A

Wake me up when the day comes when technology allows us to "virtually" do the exercise and see the results without having to actually do the exercise.

TES

In response to my article of earlier this week entitled "Egypt Aspires To An Offshore Outsourcing Crown," I had an e-mail from Adel Radwan from Xceed, Egypt's largest call center outsourcing provider. Adel pointed out to me that in addition to being the largest call center services provider in Egypt, the company is the first to become COPC certified and offers services in 8 languages. Thanks for your response, Adel.

TES

If you're an adult who feels disadvantaged over the fact that teenagers know more than you about technology, here's a story to make you feel over-the-hill.

It turns out, teenagers are now downloading a ring tone for their phones for incoming calls and text messages that is pitched too high for most adults to hear. If you've ever been near one of those devices that people install in their gardens to keeps critters from digging, you'll know that most adults over 30 cannot perceive the sound due to age-related hearing degradation, but most young people in their teens and early to mid 20s can hear acutely, even painfully. Some shopping malls today even project the sound in places they don't want teen mall rats to congregate.

It seems the young people have found a way to use the sound to their advantage to hear when text messages come in during class.

Touche.

TES

Media sources today reveal that the theft of a laptop from a U.S. government employee's house last month may have compromised the personal information of not only veterans since 1975, but as much as 80 percent of active duty military personnel, which leads to concerns about not only identity theft, but the safety and security of those military service people. (Why would anyone with a brain store that much sensitive data on a single laptop that could not only be stolen, but left on a train, a taxi or the counter of a coffee shop by a single employee???)

MSNBC states that, "Montgomery County police released a description yesterday of the stolen laptop and its external hard drive because they said it may have been purchased by someone who does not realize the value of its content. 'It could have shown up at a yard sale or a secondhand store,' police spokeswoman Lucille Baur said. 'This is a time of the year when parents may be buying computers for kids going to college in the fall.'

Great. The security of the U.S. armed forces lies in the hopes of a lucky break at a tag sale.

TES