Thursday, January 22, 2009 |
Comcast Cared
Last year a new Twitter account opened called @comcastcares and Frank, the leader of a new department inside Comcast, was working hard to improve the image of a company who has, quite possibly, one of the worst set of morals of mainstream companies. Frank really was making an impact and word quickly spread about this new department and people began to think there was hope. I posted a blog about some frustrations I had and a couple others about how Frank had helped me. Frank was able to get me on a promotion and gave me some options. One option he gave me was only 6 months long but he was excited to get me to try the high end plan so he said that after those 6 months were up he'd get me on another promotion.Somewhere in all of this I felt like Frank was the rebel that could really save the image of Comcast but that once his impact started to be known the company would step in with the "business types" and again show how the books are more important than customer satisfaction or company image. I hoped I was wrong - but I wasn't. My promotion ended last month and my bill skyrocketed. I contacted Frank and he told me to email his department which got me the response that someone would contact me the next day. When I was contacted I totally felt the same old Comcast feel. The person who called me didn't care about anything and the end result was I downgraded to the economy plan. I contacted Frank on Twitter and really received empty responses.... and it highly reminded me of a guy who did care but who had hands tied. Despite my emails to Frank, Frank's department, and another Comcast employee about how I was told that I could get another promotion after the 6 month one finished ended up with empty responses or absolutely no response at all. Here's where things get worse. Apparently with the economy package Comcast says streaming video may not work and, well, I've had some issues. The best part is that if you want to go one step above economy the price more than doubles. Oh but wait, it's cheaper if I subscribe to cable TV as well is what I'm told not only by Comcast but Frank as well. Oh, really? So I can get something I need cheaper by buying something I don't need or want. Where am I saving money here? This is certainly the work of "business types". To another level, you can also tell this is another attempt at Comcast killing innovation. Think about it - if you can now watch TV on the internet and don't need cable TV then Comcast loses revenue so the solution they have is to force you to pay them for TV anyway or to charge you more than double to have a plan that should support streaming video. I mean, really, why would you innovate and allow the customers to have what they want. Its certainly sad to watch Comcast grab their monopoly and do all that they can do to rape their customers and absolutely destroy any innovation. They are a very important part of why the United States, the founder of the internet, is one of the worst countries to be in for accessing the internet. Right now all we can hope for is the FCC to step in and make sure we have real competition and start holding Comcast responsible for their horrible practices. Labels: comcast, comcastcares, customer service, internet, isp, twitter (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Monday, August 04, 2008 |
How do you use Twitter?
How Do You Use Twitter? from biz stone on Vimeo. Labels: twitter (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Monday, June 02, 2008 |
Plurk = Twitter Killer?
Well, I think we all know 2 things.... The first is how much many of us love Twitter.... The second is how much we also hate twitter. If there is a list of unstable start ups somewhere then Twitter would have to be in the top 5. The amount of crashes the service goes through is just mind boggling.... And once upon a time Twitter actually cared about the users enough to at least keep them up to date on what was going on. Now? Well, not so much. I mean, hey, Twitter has enough users so why should they care if they piss someone off? We were ok with the growing pains because we all really felt that Twitter (the company) was really a part of Twitter (the network). They've certainly lost touch of that and as a result I think most of us are fed up. Not only is Twitter alienated from the users but the service is getting progressively worse. If things weren't bad enough we had the TOS fiasco which confirmed the fact that Twitter doesn't really care about us. We all love the concept of Twitter but I think that majority of us have had enough.A few months ago the internet brought us BrightKite which is an absolutely amazing tool and something that I absolutely love. Many people began calling this the "Twitter Killer" but I don't believe this is the case -- well, I at least hope not. BrightKite is incredible for local communication. It's an awesome way of connecting with people that are physically near you and a way of talking about things that are occuring where you are. All of your "notes" are placed on a page for the location that you are checked in at. The thing is that for this to be a twitter killer, it really needs to take the focus away from local and put it more on global and the problem with that is the more that starts to occur the less BrightKite is what it was intended to be. I love BrightKite. I use BrightKite. I want BrightKite to stay focused on what it does best -- and that's not global. But who's this? Plurk? I just found out about this less than a few hours ago and I'm already blown away by the interface. It is really sleek and thought out. Plurk is certainly a global communications system that does what Twitter does -- except with A LOT of additional features. In just the hour that I have been playing with it I really am excited about it. Right now there isn't any SMS/Mobile compatibility, however, their FAQ asks "How do I use Plurk from my mobile phone?" and the answer is "Give us 6 weeks and we'll tell ya" .... I'm anticipating this very much! So everyone, please add me at Plurk. You can add me at BrightKite as well..... oh, and I guess you can add me at Twitter too and keep up with what's going on with me there (provided the service is actually working). Plurk - bblboy54 BrightKite - bblboy54 Twitter - bblboy54 Labels: brightkite, messaging, plurk, twitter, web 2.0 (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Sunday, April 27, 2008 |
Twitter: Example of a failing race
First of all I want to say that this post is nothing negative towards Twitter as a service, company, or concept. I love Twitter and I still continue to embrace it (even if it is sometimes unreliable). What this post is about is how the human race continues to self-destruct because of a growing "logic" that is counter to what we are designed for.When I first started using Twitter it was only because I thought it would be a way of updating my clients to let them know which building I was in and whether I was able to take on extra projects that day. As for the concept of Twitter, I thought it was absolutely retarded. I had the reaction that pretty much everyone that hasn't tried Twitter has: "Why do I care that someone is eating a cheese sandwhich?" It wasn't until I set up my Twitter account that I realized the community was a breeding ground for very strong relationships because what everyone's tweets were was simply daily life. It was them in a very unfiltered way. Because of this you start to understand a lot more about people and you find ways to connect with them that you never would have in any other fashion. Sure there are blogs but the majority of blogs are passed through our internal editor (aka, IMO, the frontal lobe) and is dulled down and made to be exciting or made to hide true emotions. It wasn't until what happened with the Frozen Pea Fund that I fully realized the potential of what the community inside of Twitter held. A couple years ago everyone would have said it was crazy to want to tell the world that you are holding a bag of frozen peas against your breasts.... but now we see where the "stupid" little things make a huge difference when a single tweet, stating just that, launched a movement that has raised many of thousands of dollars for breast cancer research. But what happened? One of my tweets last night said "Starting to feel like I'm tweeting to the wall".... and I started thinking about that. Twitter used to be a place where I had a lot of encouragement when I was down. If I said something was bugging me, there were people that responded with advice or even just a simple "I'm thinking of you" but now I notice less and less replies to anything that I am saying. Interestingly enough, I start feeling this way around the same time that "Follow Spam" is becoming a heated topic. On top of that, it seems like the people that embraced Twitter for the community that it was are now more concerned about their "numbers" than about what is actually going on in people's lives. The concept of more followers is interpreted as cash value to so many people now and it's gone so far as someone selling their Twitter account on eBay. So now it appears that Twitter has progressed into a medium to make money while losing the concept of community and compassion that was what brought people to Twitter in the first place. I think its great that there are people who have Twitter accounts to broadcast news and I think its great when a person shares a story that really jumps out at them because these are all part of the community but where the community is starting to self-destruct is when the focus becomes getting more followers rather than recognizing the followers that you do have. More and more tweets are being consumed by "I'm almost at 500 followers and need 8 more" while 492 people now don't matter because they already are a follower. Of course once you have someone following you it's rude not to follow them and now it's also a sure sign of many spammers so you, in turn, have to follow the 500 people that are following you and, in doing so, you eliminate the ability to genuinely care about the people you follow simply because you are overloaded and don't have the time to care about the person that is eating the cheese sandwhich and we revert back to life before Twitter except that now we drive ourselves to post tweets and now it's another "task" that we have to do rather than something we want to do. The whole timeline of Twitter has displayed exactly why we, as humans, simply can't seem to be happy anymore. We focus on everything in ways that it can be turned into money, add stress to our lives, and lose any kind of compassion that we have on anyone else. Interestingly enough I think the reason why Twitter and just about any other social network gains such a following in the beginning is because our human emotions are so starved for interaction in this face paced world. Social networking allows us to interact with real humans while being "on the go" but the problem is that the world teaches us that the most important thing is to make money so we end up self-destructing any process that gives us that interaction by trying to monetize the most important thing to the human race: emotional stimulation. Once emotional stimulation is monetized it becomes a job rather than an enjoyment. In 1997 after Steve Jobs rejoined Apple Computer, he made an annoucement at his keynote that Apple Computer was joining forces with Microsoft. Steve, who has an almost cult-like following, was literally booed. Steve's response was "we have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose". Steve went on to say if someone wants to help them then that's great because they need all they help they can get. The reality of the human race is just that. We all truly do need all the help we can get. I don't care how much money you make or what you have -- you still need other people's help and they need yours. When those 492 people don't matter because you are trying to get a mere 8 more and you focus on those 8 people you are trading 492 people that could potentially be those that will help you in exchange for only 8. It's so true that everyone's focus is on acquiring more that they lose any consideration to what they do have and it creates a perpetual greed cycle which, sadly, is becomming just as true with regards to emotions and compassion than it is with money. Our society certainly is self-destructing and we're doing it because we turn our advancements into things that only set us back because the prize is always what is ahead and never what is already there. We're in a vicious cycle that is only gaining more and more force with each advancement and, while we are solving one or two problems with advancements, we are creating 5 more. The end result is that we display an image of advancement but in each person's lives we realize that it really is just that: nothing more than an image. Labels: ***, apple, companionship, psychology, social networking, society, twitter (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Thursday, April 17, 2008 |
Comcast vs Comcast?
Anyone that has talked to me since I moved into my house knows that I have an ever growing hatred for Comcast and it's business practices. They have violated so many people on moral issues that its not even funny. My biggest problem with the company is that they put a ton of money into figuring out ways to keep traffic off their network (read: screw their customer) instead of using that money to actually build a network capable of supporting what the customer wants to do with the service that they are paying Comcast for. It doesn't make sense that you would work on finding ways to force someone to stay with you (monopolies, legal issues, etc) instead of actually creating a product that people want to stay with. This is why we are falling behind in internet access.So isn't this Comcast vs All and not Comcast vs Comcast? Well, it depends. Recently there is a new twitter account, @comcastcares, that has really been showing a different side of Comcast. What's so different? Well, the username that Frank Eliason (the owner of the account) picked is actually a true representation of him. He works for Comcast and he actually does care. My first interaction with him was less than a week ago and we debated for about an hour on Twitter about topics ranging from net neutrality to business practices, etc. Many did see me as outright attacking him but the truth was I really wanted to see how the response was handled... and I have to say I was VERY impressed. Frank responded as best he could to all of my comments and, as he should as an employee, he never once bashed what Comcast was doing but he was very understanding of the concerns that I was bringing up. That night I had a slightly new view of Comcast. A few days later I explained the customer service scenario I had when I called because my rate doubled and the CSR I spoke with literally told me to cancel my account and, when I asked for a manager, was told that no manager can speak with me but she assured me that the manager would say the exact same thing that she did. Frank was infuriated over the situation and said that he was going to pull up my account and look into the matter. Yesterday he got back to me and told me he was going to put me on a promotion of my choice and I selected a 16meg down and 2meg upstream connection for $24.95/mo for 6 months. Surprisingly my bandwidth test this morning is showing that I am getting the full 2meg upstream (which is actually more important to me than the downstream since I use remote access software) and I am getting 25 meg down. I'm impressed.... but I really am not going to comment until I see that speed sustained because I've noticed a lot of packet shaping in my bandwidth and I've seen connections during downloads start out super fast and then slow to almost unbearable before. But while Twitter is being used for good by Frank to help Comcast, it also is allowing consumers to share their experiences with Comcast and yesterday and today we were painted a picture of who Comcast is and, well, it's still the same old Comcast business practices that are consistently reminding customers of how horrible it is being trapped with a company and having no alternative. It's really sad when the only way to get any comfort from a company is to find a person that works for the company that is more excited about the product than the people who actually run the service. Business take such a focus on the financial aspects of their company that they are blinded from seeing what it's supposed to do to keep that product desirable. Fortunately, for now, we have Frank and his @comcastcares account on Twitter helping us out. What worries me is that he is single-handedly holding up a huge monster that's only desire is to crush people and I don't know how long he will be able to keep that up without the corporation actually getting behind him. Comcast should certainly take notice of Frank because he is literally the only good news that has come from Comcast in YEARS but, sadly, I'm more worried about the company attacking him eventually instead of embracing him. Either way, Frank, I appreciate what you have done and I hope that Comcast improves and that the company honors you for what you have been doing. With so many corporations grabbing twitter accounts in the interest of spamming people it is refreshing to see a corporate presence on Twitter that is actually a real live human being who is interested in helping. Kudos to you. Labels: comcast, comcastcares, customer service, internet, isp, twitter (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Wednesday, April 02, 2008 |
Another twitterer fights breast cancer
Just as an awareness post to my friends on twitter and who are part of the Frozen Pea Fund, another one of our community has been affected by cancer. There is a site that is selling pixels to raise money for Tricia and for the Frozen Pea Fund. Please check it out at http://4tricia.com/pixels-4-tricia and buy a pixel for you or your company. Read more information about it here.Labels: blogosphere, breast cancer, community, twitter (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Wednesday, March 19, 2008 |
Twitter in Plain English
Labels: twitter (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Wednesday, February 13, 2008 |
Icecapades on Blue Mountain
I don't think I can even begin to explain the experience that I just had. I think the best possibility of explaining it is to just post my twitter log:
Labels: ice, twitter, weather, wow (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Wednesday, January 09, 2008 |
Still need more "proof" about Twitter's impact?
Washington Post: How Frozen Peas Started a MovementNot more than an hour ago, The Washinton Post put this story online that is running in tomorrow's Loudoun Extra. The situation with @susanreynolds and her struggle with breast cancer and The Frozen Pea Fund is now gaining huge media attention. I am extremely proud to be part of such an amazing community of people. The Frozen Pea Fund has now raised more than $7,000 to aid in The American Cancer Society's efforts to fight breast cancer. In addition to that money, there is now well over $1,000 raised for the husband of @ashPEAmama who now has to raise 2 children on his own after her tragic death yesterday. Can you imagine in less than a month a community of people, who share one thing in common (twitter users) and are misunderstood by many as to why they want to share so much of their lives to the public, have raised more than $8,000. These are just regular people -- people who care about their fellow "tweeters". Labels: ashpeamama, community, society, susanreynolds, twitter (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Tuesday, January 08, 2008 |
The world loses a tweeter (@ashPEAmama)
I am a strong believer that anything bad can bring at least some good. While it doesnt make the bad any easier, at least we can be happy for something good.This morning the Twitter community lost @ashPEAmama to a vehicle accident. I never got the chance to follow Ashley but I saw many of the people that I followed mention her name in a lot of thoughtful tweets. There obviously was more to her than "just another person". I wish that I would have had a chance to get to know her more but I'm sure she made her impact in the world where she was meant to. I still constantly hear people question the purpose of Twitter. People don't understand it and they really dont seem to want to understand it but, to me, Twitter is a strong community that pulls together in many different scenarios. Just last month we saw the birth of The Frozen Pea Fund which is a cause to raise money for breast cancer. The reference of this came from one of the most beloved tweeters in the D.C. area, @susanreynolds. Aside from these drastic stories that (rightfully) take the spotlight, the Twitter community is a source of encouragement for everyone's day to day life. There is constant joking around with friends (some that we know personally and some that we only know on Twitter) and mixed in with that joking is the serious conversations about politics, the world, technology, the weather..... and how everyone is feeling. Just a couple weeks ago my good friend @linuxchic's song had broken his nose. She received many tweets asking if he was ok. And appreciation rarely goes unnoticed. She has another good example of the twitter community on her blog about video games. If you think all of this isn't enough, there is the ever popular storey of @LAFD Los Angeles Fire Department who used Twitter to communicate information about the Wildfires and has continued using the technology for crisis management. My heart truly does go out to the family of @ashPEAmama and to those who became close with her on Twitter. There is always a reason that things happen and there are ways that we can honor Ashley and there are things that her life and death will be used as a testimony to others. I am, again, amazed at how the Twitter community genuinely cares about their followers. Labels: community, society, twitter (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Tuesday, December 18, 2007 |
Thank You, T-Mobile
I just received this email which does make me feel a lot better about the situation.Return-path: Envelope-to: @bibleboy.org Delivery-date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:47:57 -0500 Received: from mail by mojo.iad.bobkmertz.com with spam-scanned (Exim 4.54) id 1J4hTq-0004B0-70 for bob@bibleboy.org; Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:47:57 -0500 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.7 (2006-10-05) on mojo.iad.bobkmertz.com X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,UNPARSEABLE_RELAY autolearn=ham version=3.1.7 Received: from mail1.t-mobile.com ([206.29.162.141] helo=nxprdapirn01.t-mobile.com) by mojo.iad.bobkmertz.com with esmtps (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256) (Exim 4.54) id 1J4hTp-0004Ax-PQ for @bibleboy.org; Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:47:50 -0500 Received: from ([10.1.1.65]) by nxprdapirn01.t-mobile.com with ESMTP id 5502254.80783499; Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:47:26 -0800 Received: from WAPRDVSEBE05.t-mobile.com ([10.1.1.130]) by waprdmsims01.t-mobile.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:47:26 -0800 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.5 Content-class: urn:content-classes:message MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Subject: RE: T-Mobile/Twitter contradiction Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:47:25 -0800 Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <9E24A493-03F0-4117-9B99-950D8D6B4E0C@bibleboy.org> X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: Thread-Topic: T-Mobile/Twitter contradiction Thread-Index: AchBQkm4K5wJYqGPSsmBO+tvL5OnxQAY4C7A References: <9E24A493-03F0-4117-9B99-950D8D6B4E0C@bibleboy.org> From: "Media Relations" To: "Bob K Mertz" <@bibleboy.org> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 18 Dec 2007 18:47:26.0413 (UTC) FILETIME=[6F15B7D0:01C841A6] Bob, Apologies for the confusion. The initial information provided was simply misinformed. The information provided by T-Mobile yesterday is correct - The Twiiter issue over this past weekend was due to technical service issues between Twitter and T-Mobile that have since been resolved.=20 Regards, T-Mobile USA, Inc. Public Relations ---- Update ---- I later received this email which definately was a lot warmer than what I had been receiving from the president's office. From: MediaRelations@T-Mobile.com Subject: RE: T-Mobile/Twitter contradiction Date: December 18, 2007 4:37:43 PM EST To: bob@bibleboy.org Thanks, Bob. We certainly aren't trying to hide anything - we absolutely value our customers and do our best to do right by them. As is today's tech age, the misinformation spread like wildfire which contributed to the widespread rumors. We took proactive measures to follow up on all customer inquiries and media inquiries to ensure our customers had the appropriate information. Appreciate your note and happy holidays. T-Mobile USA, Inc. Public Relations Labels: sms, tmo-vs-twit, tmobile, twitter (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Can T-Mobile Apologize?
I received another email from T-Mobile. This time I'm not even entitled to have the name of the person it came from.Return-path: Envelope-to: @bibleboy.org Delivery-date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 09:08:00 -0500 Received: from mail by mojo.iad.bobkmertz.com with spam-scanned (Exim 4.54) id 1J4d6t-0000yv-D7 for bob@bibleboy.org; Tue, 18 Dec 2007 09:08:00 -0500 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.7 (2006-10-05) on mojo.iad.bobkmertz.com X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.2 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,HTML_30_40, HTML_MESSAGE,UNPARSEABLE_RELAY,URI_NOVOWEL autolearn=no version=3.1.7 Received: from mail2.t-mobile.com ([206.29.162.144] helo=nxprdapirn04.t-mobile.com) by mojo.iad.bobkmertz.com with esmtps (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256) (Exim 4.54) id 1J4d6t-0000ys-06 for @bibleboy.org; Tue, 18 Dec 2007 09:07:51 -0500 Received: from ([10.1.1.27]) by nxprdapirn04.t-mobile.com with ESMTP id 5502115.66632999; Tue, 18 Dec 2007 06:07:41 -0800 Received: from NXPRDVSMBX02.t-mobile.com ([10.133.32.33]) by WAPRDMSIMS05.t-mobile.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Tue, 18 Dec 2007 06:07:41 -0800 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.5 Content-class: urn:content-classes:message MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C8417F.5A8DDE22" Disposition-Notification-To: "Executive Response (ECR)" Subject: RE: ***Ban No. 498717587- Assigned to Marianne - Twitterr***Confirmation Request Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 06:07:40 -0800 Message-ID: In-Reply-To: X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: Thread-Topic: ***Ban No. 498717587- Assigned to Marianne - Twitterr***Confirmation Request Thread-Index: AchA+8trGvRuXqhNShKzpk5KN0SungAg4McA References: From: "Executive Response (ECR)" To: "Bob K Mertz" <@bibleboy.org> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 18 Dec 2007 14:07:41.0530 (UTC) FILETIME=[5A83D3A0:01C8417F] This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------_=_NextPart_001_01C8417F.5A8DDE22 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable We have since verified that this was a rumor. Please see the second email that was sent to you yesterday. Thank you,=20 ________________________________ From: Bob K Mertz [mailto:@bibleboy.org]=20 Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 3:26 PM To: Executive Response (ECR) Subject: Re: ***Ban No. 498717587- Assigned to Marianne - Twitterr***Confirmation Request Marianne,=20 Could you please explain to me why you previously emailed me that T-Mobile was blocking the Twitter service? The following email is signed with your very name. I can not understand this. To me this is an annoying example of a company that was once highly focused on their customers and good business practices losing touch with what matters. Minus the possibility that T-Mobile gave kick backs to many, including Twitter (which I highly doubt because Twitter has shown lots of responsibility and, therefore, have my trust), the "rumors" that T-Mobile was blocking Twitter were actually started inside of T-Mobile and were spread not only via Customer Service but also via the Office of the President. Up until now, everytime I contacted T-Mobile with an issue, they went out of their way to apologize for any inconveince that I at experienced. Now that we come to this issue of a huge failure of communication on T-Mobile's part that affected hundreds (maybe thousands) of customers and their response is to cleverly word emails to conceal the truth. While some emails infer that they made a mistake, they show absolutely no remorse for giving such blatantly incorrect information. The majority of T-Mobile's customers are not with T-Mobile because they have the best coverage but because they have the best customer service and could always trust what they were told by the company. Going forward I have to now question the reliability of the information that T-Mobile provides to me because if, in a matter as trival as this, you can't get their honest response and apology then when the matter becomes an issue much larger you certainly will not be able to rely on the answer they give you. Another huge issue in this is a display of capability. While this issue is not "Net Neutrality" per se, there was a blatant display of "we can keep you from doing what you want because it's our network" attitude which is, in fact, a violation of the spirit of neutrality. Coming from a company that has signed on with Google's Android to provide "Open Platforms", the attitude is very conflicting. While it may be true that T-Mobile did not filter SMS messages to Twitter, the executive office displayed their lack of concern of preserving customers' ability to access the information they want. I have personally loved T-Mobile up until now and I have stood up for them many times because I beleived in them as a company. I've requested information from T-Mobile multiple times to give them an opportunity to apologize because I want to continue to believe in the company but T-Mobile is unwilling to give me, or any other customer, that sense of security and that hurts. This is the type of attitude that I would expect from AT&T or Verizon but not the #4 carrier that is trying their best to gain their customers' support. I, for one, and very dissapointed in T-Mobile and, while this may not make me cancel my contract, it certainly will make me consider what I do when my contract is up. Labels: net neutrality, sms, tmo-vs-twit, tmobile, twitter (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Monday, December 17, 2007 |
OMG, come on T-Mobile
Ok, so I wanted to turn this back into a personal blog but I just can not pass up posting this. I have received an email from the same persona at T-Mobile that told me Twitter was being blocked. In her email.... well, I'll just let you read:Return-path: Envelope-to: @bibleboy.org Delivery-date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:49:27 -0500 Received: from mail by mojo.iad.bobkmertz.com with spam-scanned (Exim 4.54) id 1J3IP9-00065R-1n for bob@bibleboy.org; Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:49:27 -0500 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.7 (2006-10-05) on mojo.iad.bobkmertz.com X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.5 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_50,HTML_40_50, HTML_MESSAGE,UNPARSEABLE_RELAY autolearn=unavailable version=3.1.7 Received: from mail1.t-mobile.com ([206.29.162.142] helo=nxprdapirn02.t-mobile.com) by mojo.iad.bobkmertz.com with esmtps (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256) (Exim 4.54) id 1J3IP8-00065O-PF for @bibleboy.org; Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:49:11 -0500 Received: from ([10.1.1.66]) by nxprdapirn02.t-mobile.com with ESMTP id 5502347.80485432; Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:49:07 -0800 Received: from NXPRDVSMBX02.t-mobile.com ([10.133.32.33]) by waprdmsims02.t-mobile.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:49:07 -0800 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.5 Content-class: urn:content-classes:message MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C83E9B.272A7312" Disposition-Notification-To: "Executive Response (ECR)" Subject: T-Mobile and Twitter Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:49:07 -0800 Message-ID: X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: Thread-Topic: T-Mobile and Twitter Thread-Index: Acg+mybHtAT+bY+0SHGZezoY/aYtBQ== From: "Executive Response (ECR)" To: <@bibleboy.org> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 14 Dec 2007 21:49:07.0741 (UTC) FILETIME=[27215CD0:01C83E9B] This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------_=_NextPart_001_01C83E9B.272A7312 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Mr. Mertz: Twitter users are welcome to stay connected through T-Mobile service. Rumors that T-Mobile blocks the service are false. T-Mobile confirmed with Twitter that there was a technical issue between the two companies’ systems that temporarily prevented some customers from utilizing the service this past weekend. That issue has since been resolved and the companies are working to prevent such incidents from re-occurring. Should you have any further questions regarding this matter, please feel free to contact Customer Care at 800-937-8997. Thank you. Marianne Maestas, Executive Customer Relations Specialist, Office of the President, ! T! ! ! Mobile! stick together My God.... it was one thing to hear two different departments contradicting themselves but now THE SAME PERSON?. I really don't think I need to comment anymore Labels: duh, sms, tmo-vs-twit, tmobile, twitter (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Final Thoughts on T-Mobile
With light of the posts that have been coming out today, I have to agree with most of them in the stressing that this is not a Net Neutrality issue. As a fellow blogger, I am asking that everyone take into consideration that this is my personal blog. Understand that I post things here for my friends to know whats up with me and this included the issues that I was having with T-Mobile. I did not post any of the initial posts with the intent that it would go as far as it has and, as such, I posted without serious investigation to the laws that govern SMS. I will admit that I incorrectly placed SMS into a "network" category rather than a "phone" category that it should have been in. While I agree that if T-Mobile was filtering Twitter SMS (which they were not) it would be in violation of the spirit of net neutrality, it is not an official or legal part of the debate. This entire situation has shown many good things and many bad things. One thing that is a concern of mine was that many blogs and news site posted links to my blog and ran with it without even contacting me to confirm any information. It's actually just fine that the blogs didn't do that but the news sites, well, it's a little more of a concern. In fact, in this situation I think it went completely in the opposite direction. Almost all of the personal blogs that reported what I had posted actually confirmed the issue themselves. Even over at the Buzz Out Loud forum there was confirmation from another reader that he had received the same message. The issue, going forward, is not about net neutrality but about customer service and executive offices quoting things that were blatantly incorrect. It is now a very well known fact that the issue between T-Mobile and Twitter were, in fact, of a technical nature but this does not relieve T-Mobile of responsibility of the press that they are receiving and, in my opinion, the longer they go without making a statement, the more bad press they deserve. The fact remains that I sent an email to the executive office expressing my concern that T-Mobile was filtering Twitter, which I was told by a CSR at T-Mobile. The response to that email in a very harsh tone and, as we know now, full of incorrect information. I reported what had happened to me and, as fellow bloggers, it is your responsibility to fact check and confirm whether this is true or false. There are numerous people that did just that and there were many people that didn't. Before I turn this personal blog back into just that, I want to give my final thoughts. First of all, mistakes are common in the blogosphere but facts are something that can be confirmed. The issue of filtering twitter may not be a part of net neutrality but the fact is the content of the email that I received. Secondly, it's be confirmed that the issue was of a technical nature and that has been resolved. The thing that has not been resolved is why T-Mobile responded in the way that they did. While I sit here asking bloggers to check their facts, I am reporting on a company that didn't do that and, for this reason, I feel that T-Mobile owes their customers an explanation of the situation. T-Mobile has always been an incredible company in my eyes. Their concern for customer service has always been one of the greatest assets to the company and, as AlternaGeek reported, an amazing company for embracing new technologies. They continue to be my favorite mobile carrier. Some might say that can't be true because of the things I posted but the fact is the opposite is true. I want T-Mobile to address this issue because I don't want them to fall into the same category as the larger mobile providers that don't care about their customers. I believe that if a company is truly concerned about their customers they will investigate the things their own employees relayed and they will offer an explanation to their customers. If they stay silent then, to me, it would appear they really don't care what their customers think. Just remember that if someone is wrong about one thing it does not mean they are automatically wrong about everything and this also means that if a company makes a mistake it doesnt make them the worst company in the world. Happy Twittering! :) This will be the last post that I make to my blog related to this issue unless I would hear additional communication from T-Mobile. Everyone is still more than welcome to contact me at tmo-vs-twit@blog.bibleboy.org or to leave comments on this blog. I am a personal blogger and it's been a fun few days but I need to go back to my roots which are real life and not the New York Times Labels: blogosphere, net neutrality, sms, tmo-vs-twit, tmobile, twitter (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
A blogger attacks the blogosphere?
This really isn't totally related to the T-Mobile/Twitter issues but it appeared on the Twitter Blog related to my post(s) about T-Mobile. This really isn't an attack at anyone specifically but I'm just curious what people think about the situation and how people feel the Blogosphere works. There certainly is always the possibility of a blogger knowing what they are talking about and not knowing what they are talking about but, in my opinion, the blogosphere is the collective group of bloggers that back up and confirm each other. If every story on the internet right now about T-Mobile/Twitter was just a 100% copy of my blog, then this would be a completely different story. What happened is I seemingly posted to my blog first and people refered to it as the first story but numerous posts about this situation were related to people receiving the same email I received or, at the very least, the same response from customer service. There was even a post of someone claiming that a T-Mobile rep actually google'd my site and gave that email as their official response. Some confirmations occured on the Buzz Out Loud Forums while a good central point of confirmation after confirmation occured over at Satisfaction where Biz Stone himself said T-Mobile was blocking Twitter.What does everyone think? I'm really curious to hear what the overall thoughts of this entire incident is. Please leave your comments below or email me at tmo-vs-twit@blog.bibleboy.org Labels: blogosphere, net neutrality, sms, tmo-vs-twit, tmobile, twitter (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Sunday, December 16, 2007 |
T-Mobile and Twitter - Not quite there, but trying
Its been a long 48 hours or so and it looks like we are on our way to a resolution but we're not there yet.For the past 30-45 mins, I have been having issues with not only sending tweets but with receiving them as well. It appears that I'm not the only one that is still having issues. I think that there is enough information coming from Twitter's official channels to not worry about policy at T-Mobile for blocking Twitter but there definately are still some kinks that are being worked out. It also appears that I am not alone in thinking that T-Mobile needs to make a statement regarding the events of the last few days. If there was policy made to block Twitter and then it was retracted, they need to own up to it and if there wasn't then they need to answer for their executive offices telling many subscribers incorrect information (this is quite different than a CSR giving false information). In either case, they really need to explain why people in the executive offices were responding to customer in very harsh emails and almost in a threatening nature. If you havent read the response I received from T-Mobile, please click the tmo-vs-twit tag below and find that email. In any case, it is really awesome to see people pull together and stand up for something that is right and I am honored to have been able to bring this information to you and be part of this community. No matter what part T-Mobile was wrong in, it is important that consumers stop rolling over and playing dead... when that happens, we'll start gaining ground in technology advancements. Again, you are welcome to contact me at tmo-vs-twit@blog.bibleboy.org with any information that you have or anything that you would like to share. Please also feel free to follow me on Twitter. For now, I'm going to watch the ice fall around me and pray I dont lose power :) Labels: net neutrality, sms, tmo-vs-twit, tmobile, twitter (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Saturday, December 15, 2007 |
T-Mobile and Twitter, Friends Again?
Update 07:41pm EST: I can confirm that I can now send some SMS messages to Twitter. Whether political or technical, the issue is going in the right direction. I still really am hoping for a statement from T-Mobile regarding what happened and, if the issue wasn't political, why the president's office was indicating (in harsh emails) that it was blocking Twitter.Update: AlternaGeek reports "All is Well" Update 12/17/07 08:15am EST: It certainly seems that everything is now ok. With Monday morning arriving there are no more (visible) complaints of anyone still having issues. It will be interesting to see how T-Mobile handles the PR nightmare they created for themselves. Here a few links of sites reporting the incident after resolution: WAP Review Mashable Well folks, it looks like Twitter and T-Mobile may be friends again. A statement from a Twitter rep indicates the issue is technical and not political. Personally, I am not sure that I totally believe that this was never a political issue. While I understand that it's a common occurence for CSRs to give incorrect information to customers, this is of a different magnitude. Many people have e-mails from T-Mobile's President's office that not only state they are intentionally blocking Twitter but followed up with threats of the $200 early termination fee. These emails are on top of many people who were specifically told this by numerous different T-Mobile CSRs. The important thing that matters is that the situation be rectified but the issue that will still remain is why T-Mobile responded in the ways that they did to their customers. It has a funny taste in my mouth -- the taste that someone felt the pressure and reversed a previous decission but didn't want to admit that they made a mistake. The problem isn't solved at this time so it does remain to be seen but solved or not, T-Mobile certainly needs to send an apology to their customers for the ill-worded E-Mails that were sent out from the president's office. Labels: sms, tmo-vs-twit, tmobile, twitter (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Friday, December 14, 2007 | |
T-Mobile vs. Twitter (Links and ongoing updates) 12/15@2038
Last Update: 12/15/07 @ 8:38PM EasternBiz Stone has now officially announced that T-Mobile has shut Twitter off for good. First, the important information. We need everyone to contact T-Mobile and explain to them the negative impact they have made in these last few days. Their customer service number is 800-937-8997 and you can email the President's office at rdotson@t-mobile.com. It is very important that we voice our opinion in this matter.
Please let me know if you have any other links or any additional information and I will be happy to update this information. For a complete list of my posts related to this issue, please go to http://blog.bibleboy.org/labels/tmo-vs-twit.html. You can email me at tmo-vs-twit@blog.bibleboy.org Hope to see you on Twitter from T-Mobile sometime soon! :) Labels: net neutrality, sms, tmo-vs-twit, tmobile, twitter (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved | |
Response From T-Mobile
Update: To follow all of my posts related to the T-Mobile/Twitter issues, please click here.From: ExecutiveResponse@T-Mobile.com Subject: T-Mobile and Twitter Date: December 14, 2007 4:49:07 PM EST To: -----@bibleboy.org Return-Path: Envelope-To: -----@bibleboy.org Delivery-Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:49:27 -0500 Received: from mail by * with spam-scanned (Exim 4.54) id 1J3IP9-00065R-1n for -----@bibleboy.org; Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:49:27 -0500 Received: from mail1.t-mobile.com ([206.29.162.142] helo=nxprdapirn02.t-mobile.com) by * with esmtps (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256) (Exim 4.54) id 1J3IP8-00065O-PF for bob@bibleboy.org; Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:49:11 -0500 Received: from ([10.1.1.66]) by nxprdapirn02.t-mobile.com with ESMTP id 5502347.80485432; Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:49:07 -0800 Received: from NXPRDVSMBX02.t-mobile.com ([10.133.32.33]) by waprdmsims02.t-mobile.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:49:07 -0800 Dear Mr. Mertz: My name is Marianne Maestas and I am with the Executive Customer Relations department of T-Mobile. I am contacting you on behalf of Mr. Robert Dotson in regards to the email that you sent him yesterday evening. In your email, you express concerns, as you are not able to use your service for Twitter. As you have been advised, Twitter is not an authorized third-party service provider, and therefore you are not able to utilize service from this provide any longer. You indicate your feeling that this is a violation of the Net Neutrality. T-Mobile would like to bring to your attention that the Terms and Conditions of service, to which you agreed at activation, indicate "... some Services are not available on third-party networks or while roaming. We may impose credit, usage, or other limits to Service, cancel or suspend Service, or block certain types of calls, messages, or sessions (such as international, 900, or 976 calls) at our discretion." Therefore, T-Mobile is not in violation of any agreement by not providing service to Twitter. T-Mobile regrets any inconvenience, however please note that if you remain under contract and choose to cancel service, you will be responsible for the $200 early termination fee that would be assessed to the account at cancellation. Should you have any further questions, please feel free to contact Customer Care at 800-937-8997. Thank you, Marianne Maestas, Executive Customer Relations Specialist, Office of the President, Labels: net neutrality, tmo-vs-twit, tmobile, twitter (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Thursday, December 13, 2007 | ||
T-Mobile violates Net Neutrality? (Blocks Twitter)
Update: Apparently the email address for the customer service executive is rdotson@t-mobile.com and not rbotson like I first posted.Update 12/14 @ 3:34pm: Twitter has confirmed that there is an issue on the satisfaction page (link below) but they don't indicate what the problem is. No one that I have been in contact with has heard anything from T-Mobile other than what we were told by customer service (that they are blocking twitter and/or they don't support short code) Update 12/14 @ 4:58pm: I have received this response from T-Mobile. Very Upsetting Update: To follow all of my posts related to the T-Mobile/Twitter issues, please click here For the last few days I have been unable to send SMS messages to the Twitter service from my T-Mobile cell phone. This evening I decided that enough was enough and I called T-Mobile. I spoke with 3 different reps and would not let up until I got an answer for why this was no longer working. Finally I spoke with someone in Customer Relations and she felt strongly enough about this that she got a tech on the phone. After waiting for the tech to research the issue they came back with a response (and the rep I was spoeaking with was as outraged as I was). Their official response was that T-Mobile does not support third party messaging services and the reason why I am all of a sudden unable to send messages to the Twitter service is because their system "caught up to the bug." I specifically asked if this meant I should expect to never be able to send to Twitter again and the answer was yes. I explained to the rep about Net Neutrality and, to be honest, she had been outraged from the start. She completely agreed with me that this was an example of T-Mobile picking and choosing who you can and can't use with your T-Mobile SMS. I also explained that I paid for unlimited SMS messaging and not selective unlimited SMS messaging. She, again, agreed. The rep and I collectively agreed that this matter needed to be heard and she opened a "Voice Forum" request with the ID of 0623630. For reference to the people reading this, the rep that I talked to had the ID of 3828493. One thing that I do want to request is that if anyone calls in to speak with someone or emails customer service, please do not speak negatively towards the rep that I spoke with. She was extremely helpful and very instrumental in getting the ball rolling. Also, if you want somewhere to send an email, please use rdotson@t-mobile.com. It would be really great if we get a lot of people to write in or call in and explain the issues with their decission and how we object to any move that a company makes towards chosing what we can and can't do with a service we pay for. Hope to see you on Twitter from T-Mobile soon! :) Labels: net neutrality, sms, t-mobile, tmo-vs-twit, twitter (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
(C)2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved
BibleBoy's Blog by Bob K Mertz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
