Elisa Viihde puhelinmyynnistä

Otettuamme Saunalahden laajakaistayhteyden kotiimme olemme joutuneet merkillisen kytkymarkkinointikampanjan uhriksi. Se on niin häiritsevää, että olen alkanut jo vakavasti harkita operaattorin vaihtoa pelkästään yrityksen puhelinmyynnin takia. Ja se on jo paljon (yrittäjänä kun itse joudun puhelinmyynnin kohteeksi viikoittain, joskus jopa päivittäin, joten tottumusta on).

Taustatiedoksi miksi emme mieheni kanssa halua tilata Elisa Viihdettä kotiimme tarjoan (muiden puskaradiokokemusten lisäksi) tuoreen artikkelin Tietokone-lehdestä, jossa Elisa Viihde ja erityisesti sen digiboksi lytätään armoa antamatta:
http://blogit.tietokone.fi/ossi/2012/04/kokeilussa-elisa-viihde/

Tapahtumien kulku

Puhelin soi. Vastaan siihen, ja reipas puhelinmyyjä Elisalta vastaa. "Päivää, teillähän oli tämä Saunalahden laajakaista nopeus X, nyt olisi edullinen tarjous: mitä jos pidettäisiin nopeus ja laskettaisiin hintaa / nostettaisiin nopeutta ilman kuukausimaksun korotusta?" Hmm. Kuulostaa hyvältä. Siis ainakin ensimmäisen kerran kuultuna. Kokemuksesta osaan jo odottaa taikasanaa joka pian putkahtaakin myyjän huulilta "... ja laitettaisiin sitten samaan pakettiin Elisa Viihde".

Minä: "...mutta kun me emme halua Elisa Viihdettä".
Myyjä: "Tämä on kyllä ainutlaatuinen tarjous, joka ei toistu. Miksi ette halua Elisa Viihdettä?"
Minä: "Kun se ei toimi, tuttavaparilla on sellainen eivätkä he ole pystyneet tilaamaan elokuvia Elisa Viihde palvelun kautta, huolimatta toistuvista tukipyynnöistä Elisan suuntaan."
Myyjä: "Eihän se ole mahdollista. Kyllä se toimii, heidän vain pitää ottaa yhteys tekniseen tukeen"
Minä: "Ja kun sillä ei voi tallentaa kovalevylle maksukanavia, ja me nimenomaan tallennamme niitä. Ja tuoreessa Tietokoneessakin haukuttiin se teidän boksi ihan lyttyyn!"
Myyjä: "No...no mutta, eihän sitä tarvitse ottaa käyttöön"

Tässä vaiheessa en enää pysty olemaan loogisen analyyttinen ja laskemaan hyötysuhdetta siitä, että ottaisin mokoman toimimattoman purkin nurkkiini. Niin että saisin hintaa alemmas jos ottaisin huonon digiboksin nurkkaan pölyttymään? Tosi ekologista! Lyön myyjälle luurin korvaan.

Miksi alemyynti? Miksi juuri nyt?

Päätin pitää vanhan hinnan ja maksaa pelkästä elisaviihteettömyydestä lisähintaa. Samalla mietin Elisan aggressiivista markkinointikampanjaa: onkohan noista bokseista tullut Elisalle ympäristöjätettä? Tokihan se on kätevämpää postittaa boksi asiakkaalle, joka sitten maksaa kiltisti elektroniikkaromun käsittelymaksut. Vai onko käynnissä jokin minulle tuntematon kanava- ja leffapakettien markkinasegmenttikilpailu, jota Elisa yrittää voittaa pakkosyöttämällä omille (ja Saunalahden asiakkaille) Elisa Viihde paketteja käytännössä negatiivisella voitolla? 


Oli miten oli, minua alkaa jo ärsyttää jo pelkkä asiointi Saunalahden kanssa, sillä tuota Elisa Viihdettä pakkomyydään minulle joka käänteessä. Jopa silloin, kun haluan päivittää puhelinpakettini uuteen. Tästä syystä siirryin DNA Pro:n asiakkaaksi mobiililiittymissä. Koskahan koittaa päivä, jolloin laajakaistakin siirtyy meidän taloudessa Elisa Viihde vapaalle vyöhykkeelle?

Example of bad customer service (Finnish operator)

We have (or HAD) Sonera laajakaista, ADSL internet connection, at home, for several years. As I'm working partially from home, and have my own company, the internet connection is crucial for my work. One day the connection just stopped working. I had a weird feeling: when was the last time I paid my ADSL bill...? So I found myself stupefied after studying for a while and finding out that the company had not sent me invoices after October 2010!

How can this happen? Well, as an entrepreneur I get around dozen or couple dozens of invoices per month, so I just didn't notice one invoice missing from the lot. Also, Sonera has successfully sent me their bills using the e-invoice system via my e-bank, so I just received them, accepted the payment in my e-bank and that was it. Maybe because of this new SEPA system, their own invoicing system had gone array. I phoned the invoicing department, and the astonished customer service had to conclude that there were no invoicing methods attached to my internet contract: no snail mail (post), email or e-invoice whatsoever.

Well, that's not the whole story. I agreed to pay my remaining invoices (without the delay part) and the very next week decided to end my agreement with Sonera and get another internet provider (with better invoicing systems). But getting the message thru turned out to be a pain in the butt, so to say. First of all, Sonera's customer service phone number simply sucks. They have "voice command" interface, that doesn't work at all. You can switch to numeric keypad interface, where you have to make approximally 3 number selections before you are forwarded to a living customer service person. If the phone number is crowded, the automatic recorded voice says "all our customer services are occupied, please try again later" and just hungs up on me!!! No chance for queuing even if I wanted to!

Then, I tried ending the agreement by sending feedback from their website. Yes, they even have a web form for ending your agreement. However, sending the form does not return any, not even automatic, response to the email address I had to provide, that their customer service has actually received my form data. I think in Finland that is actually illegal not to respond to customer feedback sent via web site form...?

I just pity the poor Sonera phone sails person that tries to phone me after this. I already sent official reclamation about their customer service and invoicing department, but I'm so pissed off that anyone trying to sell me anything related that company may face the consequences months afterwards...

Janstock: example of bad use of mailing lists!

On a pretty Tuesday afternoon I start getting emails with a subject "Please remove me from this mailing list"... several ones in a minute!

It seems that a Finnish company called Janstock, selling IT stuff, has advised its mailing list recipients to reply to an address that actually sends email back to the whole mailing list recipients (instead of just removing the sender from the list)!

In addition, the original spam they sent to the list had 10 attachments and was the size of over 100 kb!

I wonder would I buy something from an "IT-company" that makes basic mistakes like this ones?
http://www.janstock.fi/

Apple: Rotten Apple(s)

I'd never thought to see this day, but it has come: I'm having a bad Out-of-box user experience with Macintosh!

Somehow, maybe because I'm an artist and a cat lover, I've switched to Apple after many early years in the Windows PC world. Until today, I've had no regrets.

However, the day has become that I'm willing to become regretful... or at least very angry at Apple. A bit less than three years ago, I was blinded by my Mac Book Pro out-of-box experience: take my laptop out of the stylish cardboard box, plug it in to network and whoosh - I was up and running in the wonderful world of Apple Macintosh. I was in paradise - however, the paradise had its snake called "Promise for good user experience". I became accustomed to ease of use!

Now, having attained a brand new Mac Book Pro, I automatically believed Apple's promises... and the disappointment was inevitable!

Case 1: Out-of-box experience

Promise: "All you need to start working with your brand new Mac"

Reality: I buy expensive (almost three thousand euros!) laptop, and in the package what do I find: laptop plus the AC cable. Nothing else! Halloo Apple? don't you know that people still use non-apple LCD displays or even have to go to customer and connect their laptops to data projectors or external displays? There is no direct DVI-input in the new Mac Book Pro (as in the old one used to have), only this pitiful Apple's own tiny input that accepts only Apple's own display connector. And you'll have to buy the VGA-connector (25 euros) and DVI-connector (around 20 euros) separately!

Case 2: promise of easy change from old to new

Promise: "Easily migrate your software, key chains and other user data from your own computer to new using Migration Assistant"

Reality: I give up after three hours of different combinations with WLAN, Firewire and other setups to connect my old laptop's Migration Assistant with my new laptop's Migration Assistant. (Migration Assistant is a software designed for easy migration for data from old to new computer). I surf various forums for answers, but finding information is really difficult. Finally I bump into one lengthy explanation by a forum user how Mac OS Tiger's Migration Assistant is incompatible with Mac OS Snow Leopard Migration Assistant. A minor detail that Apple's support sites and manuals have "forgotten" to mention. Doh! Of-course: who idiot would have a operating system that is ,hey, like three years old? No-one! (except me, who found it just handy to use all her design software without having to update to Leopard). And hey, if you just happen to find exactly similar looking software for data transport from your old and new laptop (with exactly the same name), how can you come up with an idea to suppose they would work together fluently?

Case 3: promise for compatibility (for Apple devices)

Promise: "You can use all your Apple devices fluently and they are always compatible with each other"

Reality: Buy a new laptop. Every time you'll get different kind of adapters and plugs and every time the connectors are on the different side of the device than last time. In my new Mac Book Pro AC adapter, display adapter and Firewire cable plugs are different than in my almost three-year old Mac Book Pro. Not a chance to be ecological and use those old, still functional adapters and cables from my old computer! See also Case 2 about easy migration.

Case 4: promise to be PC friendly

Promise: "Macintosh will always work with Windows world, although Windows doesn't support Macintosh"

Reality: Nah. You are Apple user, you use Apple devices. For example, I bought this Time Capsule external hard drive. It promises to backup my laptop automatically, and I can even access it via network from another location or laptop if I need to! I can use it with Windows too. Well, Apple support does not mention that you cannot use Time Capsule wirelesly unless you set it as your wireless network base. I tried to use it with my existing (Windows-compatible) wlan modem. No way. A lengthy call to not-so-Finnish-speaking Apple care person revealed, after about hour's work of trying to set up my Time Capsule, that I just cannot use it under another local wireless network modem. Its Apple Time Capsule wlan modem or nothing at all, baby! It doesn't matter that my home admin uses Windows ("You can install Airport Utility for Windows too") or that our existing wlan modem has been setup and paired already successfully with our Wii, PC, my two Macintoshes, Playstation and my mobile phone. What the heck to use some old scrumpy PC modem, when you can change into brand new Time Capsule!

Oh, I start feeling all nostalgic. Have to say, "this taking my new Mac into use" -experience doesn't differ so much from my old Windows set up experiences. It just costs more money...

PS3: No Blu-ray Playback, No Customer Support

During Christmas I got some Blu-ray discs just to find out that this PS3 refuses to play them, just shoots me with an error code of 800299AE. This might indicate a faulty unit.

The PS3 support in Finland has been outsourced to a third party and contacting them is practically impossible.

I have called the number Sony gave me for three days in a row, but no one is answering the phone. Just for completeness, the calling times :)

• Wed 30th Dec. 2009 at 12:22
• Thu 31st Dec. 2009 at 14:47
• Mon 4th. Jan. 2010 at 17:41
• Mon 4th. Jan. 2010 at 18:28 (an answering machine, see below)

The funny part is that Sony gave different office hours (12:00 - 18:00) than those that are printed on a game manual (18:00 - 24:00). However, if you call them after 6 p.m., there is an answering machine telling you that the office hours are 12:00-18:00 :I

I also sent them mail, but there was no response (1 full working day this far; written on Tue 5th Jan, 18:30).

Edit: I finally went to the retailer on Tue 5th January and they sent the unit for service. This would take 1-2 weeks. I really hope they don't mess up with the games and the game saves as you really can't contact their support.

Edit2: the PS3 support finally contacted me on Thu 7th January. It seems that all my data will be lost. According to them, I should have:

• backed up all the data
  
• de-activated the console (i.e., disconnect PS3 from PlayStation Network)
• removed all the users (!) from PS3

before sending the unit to them.

Now, I do not consider myself computer-illiterate, but this is getting a bit ridiculous. This is a games console, not a f*cking server.

If Blu-ray drive is faulty, why are they destroying the data on the hard drive? Maybe I'm too PC-oriented here, but I still don't see the point. This is a classical case of buyer beware.

PS3: Want a Hassle-Free Gaming Experience? Then Don't Fall for PS3.

Today's blog deals with experiences on PS3 Slim that I bought in November.

We were stupid enough to believe that the fun we had with PS2 and Wii would continue on PS3.

These previous-generation consoles had ready-made, easy-to-use, hassle-free content and peripherals. I believe the main reason for this is that the content producers can't rely on content being "updateable", so it had to be "ready" and thoroughly tested when shipped.

We wanted to continue these nice experiences with an updated platform to see what our new Bravia telly could do. I noticed a bargain on PS3 Slim + 5 games in November and went for it.

Functionality / ease of use: no game disks within the bundle. 5 games, but no disks in the box. What a fun and joy:

1. configure PS3 to work with your WLAN
2. download all these games from Playstation network in one session, which was to last for 10 hours (yes, all games had to be downloaded in one session)
   
3. a couple of hours more to download and install updates to content that was just downloaded.

My ADSL connection of 8/1 Mbps might not be up to date, but in most of Finland this is the practical maximum.

I bet some families had a nice Christmas evening with children yelling when the games can be played :)

Another great "benefit" of this approach: you can't sell the games when you're done with them.

Peripheral issues:

• charging wireless controllers is awkward. They have internal batteries and must be plugged to the USB port to charge. On top of that, you must keep PS3 on to charge them. Not very energy-efficient. Compare this to Wii, which allows you to use normal AA-sized chargeable batteries. Back to the drawing board!
  

Other issues:

• privacy concerns with Playstation Network as your data can be transferred globally
  
• Sacred 2 / Fallen Angel has an issue with trading between characters; sometimes it works, sometimes not
  

Functionality: What, no Blu-ray playback? During Christmas I got some Blu-ray discs just to find out that this PS3 refuses to play them, just shoots me an error code 800299AE. This might indicate a faulty unit.

Now I'm trying to contact the Finnish PS3 support to make them acknowledge there is a problem.

I have called the number Sony gave me for 3 days in a row, but no one is answering the phone on the hours that were given. Let's see if I get any response on e-mail.

There is very little on this on the Internet and Sony's Finnish customer support has proved less-than-adequate, so I feel being left alone here. Anyone fancy a bargain? :)

Lessons learned on PS3:

• there is inadequate support and user community [at least not in English or German] , so you can't "help yourself" out of problems
  
• you can't rely on error- and hassle-free performance any more, so:

Alternative solution #1: Get a Wii!

• if you want that "put the disk in and start playing right away" -experience, you can still achieve that with Wii. However, it is only 480p/576p, so you need to give up the graphics.
  
• On the bright side, the games are suitable for the whole family and the various controllers available give you an unmatched gaming experience.
  

It is fair enough to say that I have no experience on Xbox 360, so I can't recommend it.

Alternative solution #2: Get another PC!

• if you still want awesome graphics, you would be better off by buying a(nother) mid-range PC, setting up a LAN and playing PC games with your family
• also, PC games have free content and editors widely available, so you don't have to sign in to some vendor-controlled network to buy more content to games
• it is likely that the time spent on configuring the PC would be needed anyway with PS3 and, with hand-picked components from vendors with good reputation, you are less likely to have "issues" suddenly appearing out of nowhere. If something fails, that can be replaced with off-the-shelf products.
  
• flawless Blu-ray playback can also be obtained with a BD Drive and you can buy a DVI<->HDMI-cable to connect the PC to your TV.