Virgin Mobile – the saga continues

Coming up on two weeks. Still no working phone.. Cassie from the complaints department called me and asked me to call her back, but conveniently left out her phone number. So I called – entered the digits and got sent to collections. I immediately asked to be sent to customer services – got a guy who, after explaining my situation put me on hold and came back and siad he has fixed everything…. I don’t believe him – buy hey I’ll give it a shot…

I have asked him to get hold of Cassie and get her to call me back… I specifically asked that she leave a call back number. Lets see where it goes this time…….

Virgin Mobile – it gets worse…

This time after 7 days of waiting for a resolution – and no working phone, I called back…. After the rigmarole of entering numbers and getting through to collections (in french) and then getting put on hold again, entering numbers and passed to Billing. I am told now that they cannot clear the account until the bill is processed. Once again they will enable the phone, but at 7am tomorrow it will automatically get turned off.

After going into details of the account it appears that the phone has no internet, yet they we billing me a $30 per meg and my son somehow used 9 meg… So I opened a new case with the complaints department… They will get back to me in 3-5 days…. Business Days…

virgin mobile – by far the worst customer service experience of my life….

Called Virgin mobile because my sons phone stopped working, emergency calls only…..Let me back up to the beginning when I purchased a pay as you go plan with unlimited text, 100 minutes of voice and “free” bbm. What they did not explain was that with bbm on the data browsing is enabled over the 3g. When we got our first bill and it was over the original agree to $25 I called Virgin mobile Customer Care and got into it with them regarding what I thought was a misrepresentation of the plan that I was sold. They agreed, reversed the charges and I asked to speak to a supervisor regarding this misrepresentation. We also agreed that until this could to straighted out they would disable the 3g access on the phone so that we would not get anymore unexpected charges. bbm will not work either, but that was not what I ought the plan for anyway, it was just a freebie, at least that’s what they want you to think.

I never received a call back from the supervisor.

That all happened back on January 27th. Fast forward to today (March 15th) when my son lets me know that his phone isn’t working. I call Virgin Mobile again and go through the long process of entering phone numbers and passwords ,waiting on hold and then verbal repeating the same once I finally get through. I explained the situation and was then told they would transfer me the the right department. “What is the right department” I ask. “this is Accounts Receivable, I will transfer you to customer care”. As it turns out, my credit limit of well over $200 was reached and they wanted a payment. So they transfer me to customer care and while on hold I am required to enter the cell number and password once again. After some god awful amount of time I reach a Customer Service rep, who asks for the cell number and password once again. I explain again, this time with a little more frustration in my voice.

This time I ask for the reps name and a ticket number… This seemed to be a confusing concept to the rep… “we don’t have a ticket number”… Why would they, that would allow them to track this issue!!!!! The rep agrees to enable the phone again and lets me know that they will create a ticket number when it goes to the billing department to dispute the charges and he asks me to hold while they create this ticket. I have already been on the phone for 45 minutes and ask them to call me back with the ticket number once it is created.

I get a call with a ticket number about 1/2 hour later…

At 7:30pm that  night the phone stops working…. Here we go again.. called Virgin mobile, entered phone numbers, entered passwords, repeated those steps when I got through – transferred me to customer care  because they sent me to billing again….What a joke……

This time I’m angry.. I repeat the story for the 4th time today… This time I am told, Billing will take between 3-5 days to get back to me. They will enable the phone again but only until 7am and if I need the phone I can call back in the morning…. I almost lost it………Poor guy on the phone got an earful. Told him I wont be calling and I expect a call back from them. I don’t expect a call based on what I have experienced so far.

Lets see where it goes from here…..

TV/Video Content in Canada

I keep running into this issue and it is really beginning to piss me off…. Why is content always blocked in Canada.

To access HBO GO℠, you must reside within the fifty states of the United States of America.

HULU – Sorry, currently our video library can only be watched from within the United States

I gave up on Netflix because not only was the content crap (compared the the US equiv.), but due to our Bandwidth Cap’s Netflix started to compress the stream – making HD content lool like standard def – or even worse.

I ask – is it our Government? The CRTC? the Cable/Sat companies? Why am I getting punished for living in Canada? It’s cold up here and we need the content more than anybody….

I know I can use proxies and a whole bunch of other evasive techniques to bypass these restrictions, but really who are they protecting? Lets get on with it – this is the new era of TV, stop trying to force feed us traditional Cable and Satellite.

I want and will pay for it. I just want to be able to watch what I want when I want.

Mobility Frustrations

So here I am a couple of days after christmas relaxing on my couch checking google+ updates, email and the like on my asus transformer with the new keyboard. With the keyboard attached this is pretty much a laptop. So why when I go to a youtube video i get s stupid message tht says “this video is not available on mobile”. Isn’t everyone on mobile most of the time anyway? I have the same problem When I stream youtube videos to my TV. Whats worse, is you get to see that a video exists, but it is not until you attempt to access it that it tells you “NO, you are not worthy as you are on a mobile device.”

I sure hope I don’t get a message when I go to publish this that says, Sorry, you may only publish a  blog on a real computer…

Uncontrolled Network Growth

When companies find themselves growing faster than they had planned their network grows with them. Keeping up with the day-to-day tasks of running an organization that is growing obviously requires focus and dedication and the network almost always gets left behind.  I don’t mean left behind from a Bandwidth or Capacity standpoint, as those things must keep up with the business, what I mean by left behind is the planning, maintenance and overall architecture standpoint.

The result can be overwhelming: Where does one start? Do you rip it all out and start fresh? Do you employ a phased approach? What Vendor do you go with? Do you need to hire a Consultant or Project Manager?

When I come into these situations I must be  careful not to insult the person or people who let it get to this stage, after all they were just responding to the needs of the business. So, where does one start……

I have found that if the organization focused on anything it was the server infrastructure and the network infrastructure is nothing more than a number of BIG BOX store items from various manufacturers.

So, I start with this Foundation and based on the business goals segment the network to allow for Stability, Security and Scalability. Spend a few dollars on this infrastructure and you will save yourself a ton of time and effort in the long run. Employ a logical distribution of servers, services and there tasks across different VLAN’s. Think about some of the longer term goals  like VoIP… Maybe putting in PoE switches now is the right thing to do even if VoIP isn’t in your immediate plans. Think about the industry you’re in and if it hasn’t already developed some form of compliance requirement, will it in the future? Build your network as if you are a bank. Built your network based on best practices.

You will find that once this foundation is in place, the task to add, remove or change any aspect of your network becomes just a task and not some unattainable goal.

Document and monitor your network!!!!!! Purchase a maintenance contract on your equipment (it’s call insurance)… And Finally – if you’re not a network professional give us a call to help you design, build and maintain your network because it is what we do for a living…

Finger-Pointing

One of the most annoying attributes of any solution or integration is when the vendors or suppliers start the finger-pointing process. Some are quick and I mean very quick to point the finger at the other guy, and maybe for good reason. Maybe they ran into that particular issue so many times and it is always the other guys fault.

I find,  mostly with carriers and I won’t name names, that the way in which they finger point is the most annoying. In a recent case, half way through my explanation of the issue the technician interrupted me and told me the problem was with the vendor’s equipment. Did he think he was talking to a moron? Does he really talk to that many morons? I was quick to set him straight, but the finger-pointing continued soon after….

So, I will fast forward to a  call by one of our staff to the vendor to report back that the carrier has indicated it is a problem with the vendor’s equipment. The Vendor listened a little longer than the carrier but the ultimate answer was the finger point back to the carrier.

I have been in this business long enough to know that the only solution to this is the following:

1. Call the carrier.

2. Call the Vendor.

3. Conference them together.

4. Say the following: ‘I neither provide the equipment or the circuit, you two on the other hand do provide the equipment and the circuit. So I don’t really care whose problem this is as long as it is fixed, so lets stop finger-pointing and work together to get to the bottom of this. ‘

I wish I could say that all the two become great friends and happily fix your (their) issue – well they don’t, but be strong…With your help they will get to the bottom of it eventually.

the Right People

Yes, it has been a while since my last post, but as we all know the end of summer is always a busy time. And does it matter anyway? How many bloggers are there out there and why would one read this blog over another? I can’t imagine anyone, other than maybe my Dad, actually thinking ‘ I wonder what Heath wrote about today?’….

The reason I bring this up is a book I read lately called “Made to Stick” that attempts to explain what ingredients are needed to make a point, argument or statement stick in the minds of others. I found the information in this book to be absolutely amazing and was really impressed with not just the ideas but the entire structure of the book.

I received a call this morning from yet another “telemarketer” or was it? It could have been a sales guy who got my name from some list and thought he would give it a go…. “Hi Heath, I just wanted to reach out and…” at this point I have to either listen to the entire spiel before saying no thank you or interrupt and say no thank you.

My first question to the telemarketer – Would you rather I cut you off before saying no thank you, or should I let you go on and on before I say no thank you?

My second question  – how many NO’s do I need to say before you will give up?

Third – If I say I am not interested, but you may call me back in a couple of months, do you put that in your prospect list as a 50% or more interest?

I think the effectiveness of Telemarketing is mostly based around the timing as was proved just a couple of weeks ago when I received a unsolitited call and at that moment I need that service – what a bonus, for both me and the caller.

End to End Networks have struggled with the whole getting the message out for quite some time. We have always relied on “word of mouth” and it has served us well for many many years. But we need to get the message out that we are better than the rest, that we have been doing this for a long time, that we have long-lasting relationships with our customers, vendors and suppliers…. Breaking it down into what makes us the best – All I ever come up with is that we the RIGHT PEOPLE………………………………………………….

Where is my robot?

Does anyone remember the hype around ATM? “ATM to the Desktop” was what some touted as being the next big thing. This was in the days of Statistical Multiplexers, X.25 Pads and SNA. The future is always uncertain and many predictions are way off as we saw with ATM – still in the core and a good technology, but “ATM to the desktop” seems like a silly concept looking back. Remember all the sci-fi movies and TV shows of the 1970′s – video phones….. We have the technology and barring some conference rooms and web cams it really has not taken off. I do see a shift though and soon enough we may all be using some form of video calling on a daily basis.

I have been reading articles lately where “futurist’s” predict what the future will bring us…. First of all, what a cool job to have. Most people would forget what you predicted 25 years ago anyway, so you don’t really have to be right. Some of them speak of Transporting Technology and while I love the concept I think we are still a long way from that one. I am a little more interested in the very near future, like 5 years from now and I am picturing (almost hoping) for technology that will remove our ties to the keyboard and the traditional monitor. The touch screen technology that most of us use now on our smart phones is that first step towards this. There have also been some great advances in voice recognition technology that has also moved us closer to this reality.

What is next is unknown, but here is my hope. Three dimensional gesture based technology, much like a hologram, that will allow you to use both voice and hand gestures to manipulate data that appears to be in the air. Am I crazy? I think not, but the recent advances in 3D and in what I have seen in the tracking systems of the new gaming consoles make me believe this is not just some crazy idea, but something that has the possibility of becoming reality.

Next on my list has also had some success on a small-scale and that is Power over the Air, and while I love this idea it scares me to death. Wouldn’t it be great never to have to plug-in a battery operated device again. Or the ability to power up an Access Point via the signal it receives from a controller over the air. Can you use it if you have a pacemaker?? Would it interfere with someone with a weak heart? Would there be long term side effects?

Car’s that drive themselves…… While I love the act of driving, I hate the traffic and the constant maneuvering that needs to be done in the City. I’d love to be able to sit back and watch a show while my car takes me to work, or have a beer while stuck in a traffic jam… But I bet that traffic jams would become a thing of the past, as the artificial drivers would not be vying for position or cutting off others. There would be no more last-minute lanes changes and presumably if the technology is sound, no more accidents.

Where is my robot? By now I thought I would have had one… At least one anyway, to take out the garbage, make dinner, clean the garage and all that hum drum daily stuff we have to deal with. I have seen the robot vacuum, but that is too one dimensional for me. It would have to take out the garbage also if I were to invest. Maybe it’s a good thing though, because soon after we get them, they take over and rule the world for a while.

Here is one idea that is not really something that requires any new technology or development, but would require the cooperation of all  involved. STANDARDS…………. I’m talking about everything from Phone Chargers and Power Supply Connectors to Audio Visual Connectors and Monitor Cables. Every time a new model of a device is released it has a new connector and a new power supply with a different power rating….. WHY??? This drives me crazy. USB was a good attempt for standardization but the other end of the USB is always different…. Come on people, get it together.

Whatever the future brings, I hope at least one of my predictions come true.

Do SMB’s really care about Green Data Centers?

I receive email after email, read white papers, forums and articles that all talk to “Green IT” and ”The Green Data Center”. But who really cares? In my experience, it is only the VERY large organizations that pay any attention to this. That is not to say that Virtualization and Consolidation is not done in the Small and Medium Business world, of course it is, but not for the purposes of becoming greener. Becoming Greener is a by-product of Virtualization, not the reason to do it.

So why do so many articles spend so much time (and words) talking about Green IT? Does it really make that much of an impact? I have heard and read some outrageous statistics about the impact of IT on the environment, but really – lets talk about what IT has already saved in the environment.

1. The paperless office has never really come to reality, but guaranteed we use less paper than we use to.

2. Webinars and the Teleconference – how many trips has that saved us?

3. Video Conferencing is still in its early days but just think of the carbon savings with less business travel.

4. The smart phone evolution will also have an impact as we move away from credit cards and debit cards and start using these devices for transactions at the grocery store…We’re  not there yet but it’s comming….

5. Modeling – Before computers if you wanted to test an engine, or a new car design, you had to build it first. With simulation and modeling technology just think of how many failed prototypes were never built.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not against the Green movement, I just think that some people have to put it in perspective and look at the benefits of IT on the planet. So far I think there have been more positive benefits to the environment than the negative ones.