Categories
Uncategorized

Your questions: “What do you think about the Xbox 360 warranty extension?”

OK, I’m officially on vacation (I’m lousy at that) but the weekend has been ripe with questions since the press coverage and Peter Moore’s letter on Xbox.com.



“What do you think about the Xbox 360 warranty extension?”


If you missed it… see the Wall Street Journal coverage or the coverage on PC Magazine. And if you have seen the three flashing red lights of death, you have no doubt called into customer service to get help with your Xbox 360.


First off, IMHO, this is an example of how the Xbox group focuses on doing the right thing by customers. I have had it happen to one of our systems at home, and had a good experience to get the system exchanged (without noting my employer and pulling the “hey, I’m an employee” card). The announcement last Thursday to take a charge and extend the warranty period to three years (and to refund customers who previously paid for a related warranty repair) was a decision in the interest of the customer, IMHO. (All of this is IMHO, of course.)


Here’s what has been announced, from Peter’s messages: we’re providing a specific warranty coverage extension to three years for any console that displays the three-red-light error message. If you get that, we’ll repair the console, free of charge, including shipping, for three years from the purchase date. And if you already paid Xbox to get your unit fixed outside of the warranty period, Xbox will retroactively reimburse you if you had that problem and had paid to fix your box. There’s a good interview with Xbox’s Peter Moore by N’Gai Croal from Newsweek in which Peter said…



“Business is strong; we’re going to have a good E3, but to cut to the chase, there’s something we haven’t done so well, and that’s that the rate of repairs that have been coming in showing the three-flashing-red-lights error message has been, quite frankly, unacceptable to us. So we’ve decided to take some steps to take care of that.”


That’s a pretty plain approach to the topic.


To me, three years seems like a reasonable extension. I recall the only products I own with longer warranties are much ‘simpler’ products, such as the lifetime warranties on my computer memory and SD cards. My wife’s Dell laptop at home has a four year warranty but I paid for that extension, and the actuaries out there estimate that I’ll replace the computer with a new one before the warranty expires. Our cars have three and four year warranties. But I don’t know of another consumer electronic product with an out-of-the-box warranty longer than a year.


We have a couple of original Xboxes at home — one that the kids use and truly hammer — still running strong (knock on wood). My expectation is that the Xbox 360 should last as long as these old units given we use them for so much more (DVD playback and Media Center Extenders) and probably longer. Our TVs and ReplayTV DVRs are still going strong long after their initial one year warranties, with some units on their sixth year of life. (Disclaimer: the DVRs all have new, larger hard disc drives.) 


If you need help with an Xbox 360 hardware failure in the US, call 1-800-4MY-XBOX for customer support, or dial 425-635-7180. (See http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/contact for more details.)


More info:



Tags: , , customer support 


http://tinyurl.com/3r9awg

Categories
Uncategorized

Of interest: Sprint cancels contracts for excessive customer service calls, roaming

A few mentions in the news this weekend in the ways that Sprint addresses a few customer service issues, receiving letters from Sprint and customer service alerts.


Apparently, if you contact customer service too much, Sprint simply cancels your account.


No warnings.


No assumption that Sprint may be in error, or that some issues may take several calls to fix. What I particularly found irksome, the letters were signed “Sincerely, Sprint Nextel Corporation.” No one to call, to name associated with your account termination.


In once case, a letter was sent to a Sprint customer “to inform him that his account was being canceled due to excessive roaming charges,” according to CNET.


CNET also notes that “carriers including AT&T, Sprint and Verizon Wireless all reserve the right to cancel contracts if the majority of their service is used over a roaming network,” and that some (such as Verizon) canceled accounts when people used too much data bandwidth on the network.


The Washington Post reports in their article “Customer Service Hangs Up” that “If you want to get out of your cellphone contract, try calling the company a few hundred times.”


“Sprint Nextel is disconnecting service to about 1,000 subscribers who call customer service excessively… a tiny fraction of Sprint’s 53 million subscribers, and it’s the first time the Reston company has used the measure.



“The terminated subscribers called customer service an average of 25 times a month over the past six to 12 months, mostly complaining about billing or technical problems that Sprint was unable to resolve. Some called as many as 300 times a month, Singleton said. Customers did not have to pay a termination fee, and they were given until the end of July to find a new carrier.


“The bottom line is that we were not able to resolve their issues,” Singleton said. “We wanted to allow them to find another option that would make them happier.”


As ZDnet News reports, customer service calls can cut into the carrier’s profits, costing companies $2 to $3 on average per minute for customer support, according to Roger Entner, a senior vice president at IAG Research. Doing the math, that means if you call your carrier on average once amonth for a 10-15 minute call, the carrier’s profit for that month may be eaten up in customer service calls. That’s about the length of time it took me to call into my carrier last month with a service issue.


OK, so how about a warning and perhaps even an investigation to understand why customers are calling excessively? That would be a good place to start. Basic people and behaviour skills certainly play a part in good customer service, and taking the time to triage the problem may help you solve other similar issues. 


But this seems not to be the case. ZDnet blogs on IP telephony has a link to post on SprintUsers.com, “citing an internal memo said to be for Sprint phone customer service types who are faced with overly frequent (90 or above in last six months) callers to customer service who have been notified of cancellation and are calling to appeal…”



“Employee Actions Include:
1. Do not engage the customer in non-Sprint related conversation – simply confirm the information that the customer was sent
2. Do not attempt to save these customers
3. Do not transfer these customers to Account Services (Retention) to be saved
4. Do not reactivate the cancelled accounts for the customers
5. Do not establish a new account for these customers


“Inform the customer to call the specific toll-free number that was given in the letter and attempt to end the call as quickly as possible. If during normal business hours, cold transfer the customer to the number immediately (877-527-8405).”


…and this post from a worker at Sprint, noting that “retail store employees are instructed to put the hammer down when ticked off customers come in and rant…”



“I’m a Sprint rep at a retail store, it’s bad enough that we get yelled at by customers when customer care screws up now will get yelled at for getting the customers account cancel. When we called up to help fix the customers problem (which the customer attempts to fix by calling customer care before hand and getting transfered many times) we get transfered another 5 times before someone fixes the problem.”


Ow.


One thing I’ve learned at home is that a warning usually helps my kids check their actions. If I tell them that they are going down a path that will lose them a favourite activity, they tend to course correct. (OK, not always.)


Sure, customer service can be abused just as anything, especially services that are perceived as free. 300 times a month? That sounds excessive to me: I don’t think that I call any nunmber that many times a month. 

Categories
Uncategorized

Reminder: Daylight Saving Time ‘Fall Back’ later in the States… and New Zealand this year

Keep in mind that the Daylight Saving Time ‘fall back’ is later this year by one week, in the US and Canada on November 4th, rather than on the last Sunday in October. For more on this, check out the Microsoft DST 2007 Support site. Geekzone NZ notes that the government in New Zealand “announced in April that the period of daylight saving in the country was being extended to 27 weeks.”



“From this year, daylight saving will start on the last Sunday in September and end on the first Sunday in April the following year. Accordingly, the next period of daylight saving will start on Sunday 30 September 2007 (when 2:00am becomes 3:00am) and end on Sunday 6 April 2008 (when 3:00am becomes 2:00am).”


“Deputy Secretary Keith Manch says IT providers will want to test their systems with the required changes before daylight saving commences on 30 September.”


That’s a small window of opportunity to update products, systems and services, ‘though not as short of a window as Western Australia provided late last year (about a two week warning).


A personal note for those in government: IMHO, if you are considering changing the observance of DST or Summer Time in your country, figure on at least a year (perhaps even two) to ensure that not only vendors but those IT professionals impacted by the changes have enough time to make the appropriate decisions.

Microsoft New Zealand has a website up to provide information and links to updates on the upcoming changes to DST in New Zealand at http://www.microsoft.co.nz/timezone. “IT managers and users are invited to check this website regularly.”


And if you thought that Daylight Saving Time and parsing the various time zones around the world was hard, here’s an interesting note from Cathi on the time is observed in East Africa…



“In Swahili time, the day begins with sunrise so one o’clock in the morning is actually OUR 7 a.m. This difference in time system makes it very hard for the children to understand the English system, a system used throughout the world including in business.”

Categories
Uncategorized

Of interest: Project Kesho brings teachers to East Africa

First off, enjoy what some are saying is the luckiest day of the year…



Project Kesho is a non-profit organization founded by our son’s elementary school teacher, Cathi, and her husband, Ian. It’s “dedicated to improving the tomorrows of East African communities through the education of today’s children.” This group of young adults is spending time on the ground in Iringa, Tanzania, East Africa this summer to help improve access to quality education and improve the lives of children halfway around the world from sunny Washington. This summer, they are joined in Africa by anothegr teacher from our son’s school, Amie.


I’m cleaning the garage this weekend while our kids slip and slide after a week at the beach, and these young teachers are spending the summer doing some real good.


The group has set up a blog to provide updates on their activities in the region, at…


http://www.projectkesho.blogspot.com/



“Project Kesho is focusing its programming efforts during 2007 on one small community located in Iringa, Tanzania. Iringa is located in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. It is the political, economic, and cultural hub of this region of Tanzania. The town is located along the Tanzam Highway, which stretches from the capital city of Dar es Salaam, along the coast of the Indian Ocean, and all the way through Tanzania to the country of Zambia. (This highway eventually continues all the way to South Africa.)”


Live EarthSo, take a look at the good work Project Kesho is doing when you take a break from the vide feeds from Live Earth…


Categories
Uncategorized

Wireless Internet connections using the AT&T Cingular 8525 as a modem

OK, here we are on a lovely, sunny afternoon at the coast, after a very busy afternoon, and my wife asks if she can use the Internet on our laptop. Well, no broadband connection at our friend’s house, and scanning the available networks, I found that no one locally here at the beach has an open, always on wireless connections to the ‘net. Unless you count the Cyber Cafe with a low-strength WiFi connection for just (gasp) $12 an hour.


No problem: fire up the mobile phone as a USB modem, connecting to the wireless Internet.


Now, it’s not as straightforward as simply plugging a phone to the PC via a USB cable or discovery via BlueTooth, but not too difficult as you just have to install a driver and follow some simple instructions. And if you have an Internet connection on your phone, you can download the driver files and transfer them to your PC via the sync cable.


(Modem… a scary concept. I had someone ask me recently at the office if they really needed a modem installed on their new PC, and after a quick thought I answered “no, save the slot.” I think the last time I used a modem was four years ago… maybe five. I remember using 300 baud modems from home with dial telephone handset to initiate the connection. Now that’s scary.)


But with a mobile phone, you may have available (depending on your wireless plan) a digital modem connection at the ready. In our case, we have the Cingular 8525 with the AT&T all-you-can-eat wireless Internet plan for one low price. Thanks to Pocket PC Central, there is a quick tutorial with links to use the Cingular 8525 as a USB modem with your Windows computer



  1. Install the right driver before connecting your phone to your PC withthe USB cable. You’ll install either the Cingular / AT&T 8525 Modem Driver (Windows XP) or Cingular / AT&T 8525 Modem Driver (Windows Vista). 

  2. Enable Wireless Modem Mode on your phone, by selecting “Programs” from the Start Menu, and then clicking on “Wireless Modem.”

  3. Connect the phone to your PC as a modem

  4. Configure the Modem: on Windows XP, through the “Network Connections” in the Control Panel, or “Phone and Modem Options” in Vista. In order to “dial” the modem and access the network, you use the a phone number *99# (on the Cingular service).

  5. On the Cingular/AT&T network, you use the username WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM and password: CINGULAR1 (note the caps).

As PPC notes… “The speed of your connection to the Internet with the Cingular 8525 will vary depending on your signal strength, the type of network Cingular Wireless has in your area, etc. You’ll also need a data plan from Cingular in order to use the handset as a dial-up modem when connecting to the Cingular (now AT&T) wireless data network. If you want to dial into another ISP, you can follow the same method shown above, but when the time comes to enter the connection name, username, password, etc., enter the settings provided by your ISP.  


Otherwise, fairly straight forward. A note to the VIsta time (hint hint): it would be nice if Windows Vista included a reference to using a PocketPC or Smartphone as a wireless modem in the online help.


Have a nice weekend.