June 2006
You are currently browsing the articles from United By Yucca written in the month of June 2006.
My email to O2.
Hi - question was going to be:
Are you aware that your site is without a doubt one of the most difficult to use, buggy and annoying sites on the web - entirely unfit for purpose, especially when you consider the size of O2 and the money spent on advertising?
Every time I am unlucky enough to have to use the site to retrieve my online bill, I get an alert box telling me that my browser is out of date and that you recommend I get an upgrade. For your information, my browser is V1.5.0.4 Firefox (the latest version) – which had a 20% market share at the end of last year in Europe.
However I then spent 5 minutes trying to find this form and almost forgot my questions.
Sequence is as follows –
1 – click on ‘contact O2′
2 – enter in mobile number and click ‘go’ – BTW this is not explained. The contact O2 link still appears at the bottom of the page, clicking it just reloads the page. No explanation why.
3 – Locate the ‘Contact Us’ link in the ‘General Help’ list. Not the ‘Contact O2’ link below this list that pushes you back to the previous page.
4 – Select ‘Email us’ from the list on this new page.
5 – read the 6 paragraphs of information entitled “How to email us” and then click the ‘Contact Us’ link at the bottom – but not the ‘Contact O2’ link 1cm below the ‘Contact Us’ link.
6 – hooray – the email form!
Having found this form I now want to know, why does O2 need my postcode and date of birth to answer this email? The details are mandatory – do you only answer emails for people in specific areas or born under specific star signs? I am a Pisces. Does this qualify?
The subject check box is interesting and a little scary. Two options:
1 – Email us and
2 – Other
Is that like ‘The Others’ in Lost (Channel 4). I think I’ll chose ‘email us’ as I don’t want to be kidnapped by badly dressed pirate types.
I bet you’re going to tell me that a new site is being designed as I write this, and I can expect to enjoy the new O2 online experience, ala Web2.0 very soon.
Can’t wait. I really can’t.
Count them up - 6 pointless pages just to send an email. How difficult can it be to have a ‘Contact Us’ button that just links to either an email address or an email form. Anyone would think they don’t want to hear from me.
You too can have O2 related fun at: http://www.o2.co.uk and while you’re there, check out the page title: O2: The leading mobile phone site on the Web. We’re all doomed. Again.
Written by exmonkey on June 19th, 2006 with 3 comments.
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Well, is he?
He kind of looks a bit like Satan, Prince of Darkness, Beelzebub, Lucifer, The Fallen, Accuser of our brethren, Father of lies, The Spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, Angel of the bottomless pit Esq.
It’s in his eyes. He wants me to do bad things.
Worship him
Written by exmonkey on June 16th, 2006 with 5 comments.
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Today I have been on the phone (on and off) for around 2 hours trying to sort out a mortgage with Northern Rock.
I actually already have a mortgage with the people - so you’d think it would be fairly straight forward.
Now I understand why they may need to speak to my accountant to get information about my company - when you are a director of a small business, nothing to do with personal finances is ever simple - so I’m not really complaining about their need for information (although, it’s pretty bloody obvious what I earn, so I don’t understand why they want so much detail… hey ho). No, what I am literally sitting here in a state of boiling frustration is their call centre.
Every time I phone in, I have to answer the same set of questions from an automated voice recognition system. Based on my answers, it then routes my call to an operator who then asks me exactly the same questions (except this time in a northern accent). This operator then passes me on to the home-mover team.
The home-mover team person asks me the same set of questions again. Then asks what he can do for me. At this point I ask to speak to the last person I spoke to (I always write their names down now).
The last person I spoke to is now gone. I will never speak to this person again. I will, however, have to explain at some length, the story so far - this takes about 5 minutes. At the end of the story the new call centre person assures me that they will sort it out, call me back etc etc. They never do. What I wonder is, do they have some kind of giant call centre droid dispenser, like some kind of huge pez machine, popping out new call centre droids ad infinitum?
All this made me think back to the days pre-call centers. Things seem complicated back then. You had to actually visit the shop or branch that provided the service and deal with a person. They would sit there with you until it was all sorted out.
Then the first telephone call centers started appearing. At first they seemed great. You could get your bank balance over the phone or pay for things with credit cards. Then, over time, things shifted. Now we are at the point where you HAVE to go through a call centre. In fact you have to go through an automated system before you ever get to the call centre. In some cases (BT are the best for this) you go through the automated system, only to be told at the end that you need to re-dial using another number.
Companies are not set up to deal with the inevitable complaints and frustration. There is never anyone to complain to, and if there is a person to listen to your woes, they will dutifully make notes, apologise and placate and do nothing.
Companies measure ‘customer satisfaction’ on numbers like - lost calls - people giving up whilst on hold and complaints - foolish people (like me) who get so wound up they ask to speak to a manager. Who doesn’t exist by the way.
We have lost something. In the beginning it looked like we had gained more choice. We had new way of interacting with our service providers and shops. In reality, however, our love affair with conducting our lives by telephone has led to a huge decrease in almost every large company’s ability to keep it’s customers happy.
We are in the thrall of the call centre. There is practically no other way of dealing with our banks, telephone suppliers, electricity and gas suppliers - even Domino’s Pizza has outsourced. Efforts by (for example) banks to differentiate themselves from the herd at best consist of quicker and more efficient call handling and at worst boil down to a choice of British (good - we are told) or Indian (bad - apparently) call centers.
I wish I could end this rant with a simple solution. There is one of course - close the call centers and concentrate on providing local, people centered service. I doubt this will happen - we’ve gone to far now.
To provide some contrast, and to end on a high… I went into a bank today. I asked the customer service person if she could provide a printout of a specific statement for an account I closed over a year and a half ago. She was more than happy to help and I left 5 minutes later with a print out of the information I needed. There’s probably some kind of moral here.
Written by exmonkey on June 14th, 2006 with 5 comments.
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…nanny and inventor of the atom bomb.
*Murphy said this.
Written by exmonkey on June 14th, 2006 with no comments.
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view from my office
How do you know it’s summer in London? - The rain’s warm.
New Cross
Written by exmonkey on June 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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Today marks a new low for my cycle ride to work.
Whilst cycling up toward London Bridge, I stopped at the lights just before the tube station. As is normal, some guy on a mountain bike wearing a white climbers’ helmet overtook me and jumped the lights.
A couple of seconds later the lights changed and I set off, quickly catching him up. At this point he cut across one lane and in front of me, almost making contact.
I remonstrated, and he started shouting at me saying I shouldn’t undertake. I don’t even know how to answer that.
Excellent - unfortunately I lost him in traffic (behind me) before I was able to get a picture. I also wanted to ask him if he was new to cycling.
For the first time I actually felt sorry for car drivers - this kind of cyclist just makes everyone hate us, and with good reason.
Written by exmonkey on June 12th, 2006 with 3 comments.
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Reading my weekly fix of glossy lefty liberal magazine (Guardian Weekend magazine), what should I see but a write up on Hither Green, with a nice big picture of my road.
It seems that Hither Green is the new hot place to buy - so why is it that everyone seems to be moving out?
Anyway, it will be interesting to see if a write up in the Guardian has any effect on house prices.
Written by exmonkey on June 11th, 2006 with 3 comments.
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This is one of the ones that didn’t get caught by the ‘risk it all for cheese’ europeans we see so many of on those bab-babybel commercials.
Please send £5 to -
Too Cheap to film an advert for the UK market,
PO Box 555
Belgium
- and stop this ever happening again.
Thank you.
Written by exmonkey on June 11th, 2006 with no comments.
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This bloke ran me into the pavement on the the Old Kent Road.
When I caught up with him, he just shoke his head at me, the agressively overtook me again.
Amusingly he then tried to take my picture, while he was driving the coach.
Written by exmonkey on June 6th, 2006 with 7 comments.
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In all things, balance. This cream is the antidote to all the ‘friendly bacteria’ available in handy little child friendly bottles.
I’m rather hoping that they don’t go out of their way to introduce harmful bateria into their dairy products. It would seem like a very short sighted marketing policy.
If there are no posts on Yucca in the next few days, assume the worst.
Written by exmonkey on June 4th, 2006 with 2 comments.
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