Hands0n
14th June 2008, 07:40 AM
Since obliquely returning to 3 I always had a sense of the inevitable, it had to happen again. This makes it "Strike Four" against 3's Indian Call Centre. With complete predictability they have fallen over themselves to fail the Customer (me) yet again. First allow me to give you the background.
It was on a cold but sunny 29th October 2007 that I found myself sipping a cup of piping hot coffee seated outside of the Coffee shop at the base of Millbank Tower in London Millbank by the Thames. David Cameron (PM in-waiting) strolled past with his entourage and smiled at me as I looked over to him. But my mind was on other things than politics. I had been invited by 3mobilebuzz.com and 3 to a surprise and secret 3 launch - but for what?, I did not know. You can read all about that in this thread (https://talk3g.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4651&highlight=skypephone).
As I sat there with my coffee I idly thought of my previous experiences with 3, how they'd developed as a company, their product and their services. I also recall assessing my overall feelings about 3 the company. They have varied from excitedly positive in the foundation days to completely disenfranchised after trying to resolve practical issues with their support services.
I did not have to wait to long to have my curiosity satisfied. Within a few hours, after watching presentations by Kevin Russel (3's MD), I was in receipt of a pair of 3 Skypephones courtesy of 3mobilebuzz.com, fully charged up, loaded with a more than generous top up to go get my teeth into the product.
The time since that day in October 2007 has seen me use the pair of 3 Skypephone aggressively initially, then less and finally to a point of infrequently. They are not my primary mobile phones. But they have been great to pop into a pocket or bag when going out as they are delightfully compact and unobtrusive - unlike my Nokia N95 or iPhone which are giants by comparison. I have always, as is usual for me, treated these handset like any other, with a great deal of respect. They are physically in mint condition.
So it was with some surprise several weeks ago that I found one of the pair showing "Service Unavailable" on the display. I initially suspected that 3 had disconnected the SIM through my lack of use (3 do this after 180 days if memory serves me well). But that was not the case, as the SIM worked in another 3 handset (an old LG U8110). In a short time I was able to correlate the fault to the specific handset which would not work with the other 3 SIM nor any other SIM (the handsets are sold unlocked). With some little apprehension I phoned 3's Call Centre and landed in Mumbai as expected. And at that point it all went wrong.
I am capable of being excruciatingly polite and patient even under extreme duress, it is what I do for a living, managing difficult and tense situations. I run a highly technical support team, know and understand the dynamics of supporting technology product much more complex than a mobile handset or mobile phone network even. In short, I am a seventh dan black belt at support. So, surely, calling 3's CS could not be much of a challenge? Wrong!
I was asked the predictable "security" questions, who was I, when was the last top up, what was the last call I made, where did I get the handset from? That last question was to be the undoing of the relationship all over again - Strike Four! I was completely unable to make the Indian Call Centre operator understand or accept that the 3 Skypephone handset had been presented to me at a meeting chaired by their own Managing Director Kevin Russel. "Yes, what is the name of the shop where you bought it from?" the agent asked repeatedly, obviously not able to progress beyond that part of his script. I persisted for about ten minutes explaining at length about the October launch presentation but it was futile. 3's Customer Service machine was having none of it. If I could not name a 3 dealer and produce a receipt when required then they would not countenance offering me warranty assistance with the handset. 3's Mumbai Call Centre's corporate intransigence (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/intransigence) has to be experienced to be believed, it is world class. If you want the model of how not to do things they are the global reference model.
And so, yet again, 3's Indian Customer Service did a job well done. They won, and the Customer lost out. I now face having to discard the 3 Skypephone (is it ROHS (http://www.rohs.gov.uk/) compliant?) that has given me a good service while it worked. But predictably, perhaps, the build quality of the little Chinese Amoi handset is not up to the rigours of less than normal use. If it can go wrong just sat there on charge for weeks on end, then what chance would it have in the real world of daily use?
Really, it matters not that much to me. These handsets were given to me by 3 to assess their product and services. I have now completed that duty of obligation. The 3 Skypephone is, as I said back in October, a delightful handset, attractive and functional, it sits well in the hand. But equally predictably, as I have often said before, do expect 3's Indian Call Centre to be a source of major frustration for when the simple things go wrong. If they cannot deal with a handset under warranty, regardless of where it was bought from - even after answering "security" questions that only I could know - then what chance does the ordinary Customer have? I have yet to witness another CS group so capable of snatching failure from the hands of success.
Memo to Kevin Russel and Adam Davis (Head of Marketing Product Management) - great product, rubbish support. You really need to get the latter fixed or all of your truly excellent efforts in turning 3 around will be utterly futile.
It was on a cold but sunny 29th October 2007 that I found myself sipping a cup of piping hot coffee seated outside of the Coffee shop at the base of Millbank Tower in London Millbank by the Thames. David Cameron (PM in-waiting) strolled past with his entourage and smiled at me as I looked over to him. But my mind was on other things than politics. I had been invited by 3mobilebuzz.com and 3 to a surprise and secret 3 launch - but for what?, I did not know. You can read all about that in this thread (https://talk3g.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4651&highlight=skypephone).
As I sat there with my coffee I idly thought of my previous experiences with 3, how they'd developed as a company, their product and their services. I also recall assessing my overall feelings about 3 the company. They have varied from excitedly positive in the foundation days to completely disenfranchised after trying to resolve practical issues with their support services.
I did not have to wait to long to have my curiosity satisfied. Within a few hours, after watching presentations by Kevin Russel (3's MD), I was in receipt of a pair of 3 Skypephones courtesy of 3mobilebuzz.com, fully charged up, loaded with a more than generous top up to go get my teeth into the product.
The time since that day in October 2007 has seen me use the pair of 3 Skypephone aggressively initially, then less and finally to a point of infrequently. They are not my primary mobile phones. But they have been great to pop into a pocket or bag when going out as they are delightfully compact and unobtrusive - unlike my Nokia N95 or iPhone which are giants by comparison. I have always, as is usual for me, treated these handset like any other, with a great deal of respect. They are physically in mint condition.
So it was with some surprise several weeks ago that I found one of the pair showing "Service Unavailable" on the display. I initially suspected that 3 had disconnected the SIM through my lack of use (3 do this after 180 days if memory serves me well). But that was not the case, as the SIM worked in another 3 handset (an old LG U8110). In a short time I was able to correlate the fault to the specific handset which would not work with the other 3 SIM nor any other SIM (the handsets are sold unlocked). With some little apprehension I phoned 3's Call Centre and landed in Mumbai as expected. And at that point it all went wrong.
I am capable of being excruciatingly polite and patient even under extreme duress, it is what I do for a living, managing difficult and tense situations. I run a highly technical support team, know and understand the dynamics of supporting technology product much more complex than a mobile handset or mobile phone network even. In short, I am a seventh dan black belt at support. So, surely, calling 3's CS could not be much of a challenge? Wrong!
I was asked the predictable "security" questions, who was I, when was the last top up, what was the last call I made, where did I get the handset from? That last question was to be the undoing of the relationship all over again - Strike Four! I was completely unable to make the Indian Call Centre operator understand or accept that the 3 Skypephone handset had been presented to me at a meeting chaired by their own Managing Director Kevin Russel. "Yes, what is the name of the shop where you bought it from?" the agent asked repeatedly, obviously not able to progress beyond that part of his script. I persisted for about ten minutes explaining at length about the October launch presentation but it was futile. 3's Customer Service machine was having none of it. If I could not name a 3 dealer and produce a receipt when required then they would not countenance offering me warranty assistance with the handset. 3's Mumbai Call Centre's corporate intransigence (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/intransigence) has to be experienced to be believed, it is world class. If you want the model of how not to do things they are the global reference model.
And so, yet again, 3's Indian Customer Service did a job well done. They won, and the Customer lost out. I now face having to discard the 3 Skypephone (is it ROHS (http://www.rohs.gov.uk/) compliant?) that has given me a good service while it worked. But predictably, perhaps, the build quality of the little Chinese Amoi handset is not up to the rigours of less than normal use. If it can go wrong just sat there on charge for weeks on end, then what chance would it have in the real world of daily use?
Really, it matters not that much to me. These handsets were given to me by 3 to assess their product and services. I have now completed that duty of obligation. The 3 Skypephone is, as I said back in October, a delightful handset, attractive and functional, it sits well in the hand. But equally predictably, as I have often said before, do expect 3's Indian Call Centre to be a source of major frustration for when the simple things go wrong. If they cannot deal with a handset under warranty, regardless of where it was bought from - even after answering "security" questions that only I could know - then what chance does the ordinary Customer have? I have yet to witness another CS group so capable of snatching failure from the hands of success.
Memo to Kevin Russel and Adam Davis (Head of Marketing Product Management) - great product, rubbish support. You really need to get the latter fixed or all of your truly excellent efforts in turning 3 around will be utterly futile.