Categories
cellular technology

Verizon Wireless Data Plan

For just $50/month I now have the ability to log on to all messengers and see all web sites I have a need to from any place with native Verizon network. However, whenever it says “Extended Network” it means – oops, you’re out of luck. Last (Memorial) weekend we rented a house in Poconos. Phone reception (Verizon) was excellent, Sprint was okay, for T-Mobile we had to get out of house (apparently wood blocks the signal). One little exception – the carrier required 1 to be dialed before are code (most carriers in NYC don’t). However, *777 – access number for Verizon data – didn’t work at all, so I was stuck with plain old and painfully slow dial-up via POTS line.

Categories
annoyances outsourcing

Thank you, Joel!

Thank you! Thank you, Joel! I am much younger then you, I am much less experienced in ways of business, but finally I’ve found another business owner saying same thing I was saying since same 2001…

If you’ve ever had to outsource a critical business function, you realize that outsourcing is hell. Without direct control over customer service, you’re going to get nightmarishly bad customer service — the kind people write about in their weblogs when they tried to get someone, anyone, from some phone company to do even the most basic thing. If you outsource fulfillment, and your fulfillment partner has a different idea about what constitutes prompt delivery, your customers are not going to be happy, and there’s nothing you can do about it, because it took 3 months to find a fulfillment partner in the first place, and in fact, you won’t even know that your customers are unhappy, because they can’t talk to you, because you’ve set up an outsourced customer service center with the explicit aim of not listening to your own customers.

That’s why both the 866 number and main company phone number are tied to my line. If there’s a problem – I must know about it first. Hopefully we’ll never be big enough to loose customers, especially – due to bad customer service.

Categories
personal technology web

Flash presentation, doctors web site

Replaced dull image with a cute flash movie on http://integrative-health.us – Dr. Isyanov and Behavioral Services Center web site. Since the web site is targeted to people audience, not search engines, we decided to loose certain features, considered “A MUST” today, for a better people experience. After all, most of people would be referred to web site personally or via business cards, site is merely a point of reference, not point of sale.

Oh, and with all the hysteria around “Da Vinci Code” I couldn’t help but use “Vitruvian Man” on the site. Been to the movie, there’s absolutely nothing to be hysterical about. Even “National Treasure” is a better movie. Protesters should stop whining about the movie and do something useful, like community service – would make more sense.

Cheers.