By David Sims
[email protected]
The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music
is “No More Looking Back” by The Kinks, one of this great band’s finest songs:
“Today customers are
being introduced to the new Sprint,” says Len Lauer, Sprint’s
chief operating officer.
Company officials are saying the “new Sprint” is opening for
business “under a new brand,” where the “resounding answer” to “virtually all”
customer questions will be “Yes, you can.” They promise a greater number and
diversity of devices and the extent and breadth of applications and content,
along with “new, compelling pricing plans.”
Get ready for an “aggressive” market-saturating ad campaign where “Sprint will
be hard to miss in September and into the fourth quarter,” as they’ll be busy convincing
you that “the new Sprint will make digital life simple, instant, enriching and
productive.”
Sprint’s also promising to drive true revenue through
meaningful and relevant content directly to the wireless device, part of “aggressive
position in maximizing its sponsorship assets,” such as its deals with NASCAR
and the NFL.
Highlights of their go-to-market offers include:
Sprint Fair & Flexible. A plan that includes nationwide roaming and allows
customers to use their phones as much as they want with no huge overages, as the
plans “adjust automatically to meet a customer’s usage month to month.”
Sprint Free Incoming. Free incoming calls anytime, from anywhere on the Sprint
PCS Network or Nextel National Network.
Sprint Mobile to Mobile Calling. Unlimited minutes for just $5 a month for
customers on the Sprint PCS Network and the Nextel National Network.
The Ability to Turn Back Time. With a new plan, the customer can choose when their
nights begin: at 6, 7 or 9 p.m. All plans include unlimited night and weekend
minutes starting at 9 p.m., but for $5 more the unlimited clock starts at 7
p.m., and for just $10 more it can start at 6 p.m.
No word on whether morning can actually start later, a
feature First CoffeeSM would gladly pay almost any price for.
…
Customer service outsourcers Sitel Corporation are announcing a multi-year contract with Belgian
cable TV, Internet and telephony company Telenet. Sitel will manage a “substantial
part” of their customer contacts.
The three-year deal, according to Sitel officials, further
underscores their success in “building long term partnership with major brands”
on the all-important Belgian market.
Under the terms of the deal Sitel reps at their facility in Brussels
will handle Telenet invoicing and “administration related inbound contacts.”
…
That didn’t last long.
On Tuesday Apple
announced a 30-day, money-back guarantee
on the Mac mini and select accessories via its online store, saying the
promotion would last until Halloween. But last night, “without a single word of
explanation,” according to Caesar Fisher at Ars Technica,
“the deal is gone. Kaput.”
Calls to Apple’s PR types, Fisher reports, have not been
returned, except for one guy at Apple’s telephone sales center who told him the
deal was “pulled” and they would not comment on such matters. It was yanked so
abruptly that sales help at the Apple Store in Cambridge were “surprised to
hear that the deal was off.”
If you’re like First CoffeeSM, you’re learning
about the promotion’s existence through its obituary. As Fisher says, “If Apple
was out for a buzzkill, I guess you could call this a success.”
No explanation has, as of yet, been given by Apple for the
bizarre volte face.
…
Network Computing Architects Inc. and IP
PBX company ShoreTel,
Inc. are announcing ShoreTel
6, the sixth generation of its distributed IP PBX voice product.
ShoreTel’s marketing it with a new Office Anywhere feature, which supports
mobile users irrespective of their location and the device they are using at
the moment. It has also delivered two new telephone devices, a low-end IP phone
and a 24-button programmable button box for operators and assistants.
Basically, the marketing pitch goes, with Office Anywhere, you’ll only need one
phone number to reach someone, no matter where he is. Plus, according to a
company-furnished testimonial, “ShoreTel 6 also solves a big problem we have in
distributing software upgrades because end users don’t have administrative
privileges.”
What’s nice is that the SIP interface in ShoreTel 6 allows
users to expand their phone system beyond what ShoreTel offers, such as using a
conference phone or integrating with other phone systems.
…
Speaking of SIP-enabled VoIP phones (smooth transition,
huh?) Bios is
reporting this morning that the wonderfully-named Funkwerk
Enterprise Communications has announced that “it is shipping the new elmeg IP290 SIP Voice-over-IP telephone.”
It’s designed for “entry-level users
wanting a ‘professional solution’ to switch to VoIP quickly and simply, without
losing quality of service or features.”
The elmeg IP290 has two Ethernet ports, company officials say, for network and
PC, and can be connected directly to an Ethernet network. Evidently there’s a “growing
number” of UK SIP service providers so you have options when it comes to
sending and receiving calls from other VoIP, digital or analog phones or connecting
to other SIP compatible hardware and software.
…
Ever since First CoffeeSM tried to buy a CD from
Amazon.com seller Caiman.com, and got royally… well, not
treated well, he realized that here we have a textbook example of how a company should not treat customers.
Turns out it wasn’t exactly an isolated case. More than a
few readers have written in with their
own horror stories of Caiman.com’s terrible customer service. Yesterday “Brian”
left a message on First CoffeeSM:
I wish I had seen this
page before ordering from Caiman, because I’m in the same boat as all of you. I’ve
been extremely patient in my matter, but I placed the order on 7/22/05, it
shipped on 7/27/05, but I have yet to receive anything.
After I e-mailed them
over a dozen times they finally just claimed that the order was lost in the
mail, and that they would replace it if I waited 21 business days (that’s
actually an Amazon policy). Well, 21 days later it never arrived, so I e-mailed
them and asked them to replace my order...no response. So I e-mailed them
again...no response.
I plan on canceling my
order through Amazon using their customer service policy, hopefully they will
stop using Caiman on their marketplace. I’m not sure what one person’s review
of the company can do, so I urge any of you who haven’t reviewed Caiman to do
so an Amazon.com. They are not an honest business, they are rude, and I sure as
hell am not giving them my damn money.
It’s one things to write about customer service, as First
CoffeeSM does, it’s another thing to try to put these principles
into practice. First CoffeeSM isn’t exactly flirting with megablogs Instapundit or Little Green Footballs’ number
of hits, so the fact that so many readers of this blog have had miserable experiences
with Caiman.com should suggest to Amazon.com the appropriate action to protect
its brand.
If read off-site hit http://blog.tmcnet.com/telecom-crm/
for the fully-linked version. First CoffeeSM accepts no sponsored
content.
