Technology

Is the customer always right?

by Jay on January 11, 2012

Oooh…the age old question, is the customer always right?

Yes…if you want to stay in business

Recently I have been having a lot of trouble with my AT&T U-Verse services. For over a year, I have loved their service. It is more expensive than other local cable companies, but the service has been outstanding and the product very good.

But things change

One of the power cords on a DVR no longer functions. I know that it is just the power cord, because I used one from another unit and it turns on completely fine.

I contacted AT&T Uverse over the weekend and asked them to send me a new power cord. Simple, right? Wrong!

First, for some reason they can’t just replace the cord. They need to replace the entire DVR box. Economically, I don’t really understand the point of replacing the entire box, but what do I know?

So great. They can UPS a new box to me and it will only take two days. Fantastic!

Waiting…waiting…waiting

Box never arrives. Wait another day. No dice. I did an online chat with AT&T and had to speak to two different people before I was told that my box hadn’t shipped yet. Fantastic. Did they let me know not to expect it anytime soon? Nope!

At the end of this article, I will copy and past the transcript of my last chat session where I was told I may incur a $55 charge for a service call to correct issues that are occurring with the wiring.

My takeaway…

The customer is always correct if you would like to stay in business. Although little ol’ me isn’t going to put a huge conglomerate like AT&T out of business, this is a lesson for anyone in business.

More than likely, you small business thrives on the recommendations of others…which is free advertising people! Treat the consumers of your services like a king, and sit back and wait for their friends to sign up with you.

Treat them like crap at your own peril. I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments section.

Thanks,

ecd7f8fdd2f8c709b2b4f4fb9dd7fa55 Is the customer always right?

Chat Session:

Welcome Mr. Jason Rowsey.

System

Connecting to server. Please wait…

System

Connection with server established.

System

Technical Support Topic: U-verse Other

System

bg988x(Bob) has joined this session!

System

Connected with bg988x(Bob)

bg988x(Bob)

Thank you for contacting AT&T U-verse Member Support, my name is BOB (bg988x). I would like to verify that I have the right account information, could you please provide me the name on your U-Verse account?

You

jason rowsey

bg988x(Bob)

Thank you, let me pull up the account.

bg988x(Bob)

May I please have the zip code?

You

43054

bg988x(Bob)

Thank you.

You

i was supposed to receive a dvr last night but it never came

bg988x(Bob)

I am extremely sorry for the inconvenience this might have caused to you, rest assured I am here to assist you with this.

You

ok

bg988x(Bob)

Let me quickly review the information from my end.

You

ok

bg988x(Bob)

Thank you for your patience.

bg988x(Bob)

Jason I could see that the order has been stuck due to some reasons, I need to escalate the case to the next level of support .

bg988x(Bob)

Is that okay with you?

You

ok

bg988x(Bob)

Thank you.

bg988x(Bob)

To confirm that you are authorized on this account, could you please provide me your 4-digit pass code?

You

3033

bg988x(Bob)

Thank you.

bg988x(Bob)

Let me quickly document the case fore them.

You

ok

You

can you tell me what the issue is?

bg988x(Bob)

The next level of support will let you know.

bg988x(Bob)

They have the advanced tools to check the status.

You

ok

bg988x(Bob)

Thank you for your patience.

bg988x(Bob)

Shall I go ahead and transfer you now?

You

ok

bg988x(Bob)

Thank you.

System

You are being transferred to another queue. Please stand by…

System

bg988x(Bob) has left this session!

System

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563) has joined this session!

System

Connected with Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

Hello, I want to thank you for chatting AT&T U-verse Tier 2 Support from Arizona! My name is Lawrence, and my personal AT&T ID is lr7563. Please give me a minute to review the information regarding this chat session. While I am reviewing the chat session, may I please have your preferred email address?

You

.jayrowsey@gmail.com

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

Thank you for the email address and I will verify and update your account during this chat session.

You

ok

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

After looking over the chat session and the information you have provided, I understand that we are currently having an issue with receiving your replacement , would you say that is correct?

You

yes

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

Thank you for confirming! I want to let you know that I’m very sorry for the inconvenience this problem has caused you but you’ve reached the right person and I’d be very happy to help you.

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

I need to confirm you are authorized on this account. Can you provide either your four digit passcode, or answer the prescribed security question?

You

3033

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

That is correct, thank you for confirming the security of the account.

You

ok

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

I am checking status on your receiver now

You

ok

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

The DVR is ready to be shipped but it has not been shipped yet. I apologize about this inconvenience

You

ok.

You

should i expect it next week sometime?

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

Possibly by the end the week

You

great, thanks. please note in my account that I don’t like being told it will be here one day, and then waiting, and no one notifying me that they decided not to send it yet. the quite possibly will end to me cancelling service

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

I will

You

goodbye

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

Before I let you go I just want to ask if all of your TV receivers are working properly, are all of your computers and devices able to connect to the internet, and are all your phones working okay?

You

no. the dvr in my bedroom is now freezing for a second every 20 seconds or so.

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

I am running wiring tests now

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

I ran some wiring tests and I do see problems with the coax wiring. We would need a technician out to address this problem

You

ok

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

My goal is to fully restore your service which will require a technician to come out. I want to schedule a time that works best and is convenient for you. At the end of this chat, I will e-mail you an appointment reminder with a link to check status of your appointment.

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

I can dispatch a technician to your location to repair your issue. If the problem is NOT within the AT&T Network or any equipment covered by an AT&T maintenance or Inside/Home Wiring Plan, you may incur a $55 trip charge. Additional charges for any required inside wiring may apply and will be discussed by the technician prior to doing any work. Do I have your authorization to dispatch a technician?

You

I don’t think so. I will call my cable company and set up service through them.

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

You wouldn’t be charged for visit. The test results show we did not set this up properly

You

No thank you. I’ve pretty much had it with AT&T at this point. Customer service is terrible

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

I apologize if I have personally upset you. That is not my intention

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

Do you have any further questions or concerns about your Uverse services then?

You

It isn’t you, it is your company

You

Can I receive an email transcript of this chat?

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

I apologize however I cannot send transcripts over email. There is a copy function in the chat window which will allow you to copy the text then paste it into notepad

You

Fine, good night

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

If there is nothing else today, I would like to thank you for choosing AT&T! We value you as a Member of the AT&T family and hope you have a great and wonderful day! The chat window will remain open until you close it.

System

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563) has left this session!

System

The session has ended!

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Fundraising via facebook

by Jay on December 21, 2011

Many of us out there are involved with various non-profit groups that work to make the lives better of some sector of society. Personally, I work with a fantastic group called Friends of the Shelter. When you are involved in this type of work, it is imperative that you use every tool available to meet, and hopefully exceed, your fundraising goals.

So what should I do?

Facebook is a great tool to engage your community of supporters. There are two very important points to remember when using this social media platform for your non-profit group.

You need to consistently work to grow your fan page. There needs to be a compelling reason for Joe Blow to “like” your page. You might considering offering a new fan something in exchange for liking your page. This could be additional content, a free ebook download. This is limited only by your imagination.
Once you get that person to click the almighty “LIKE” button, you need to keep her/him engaged. It is of the utmost importance that you interact with your community on facebook. Post updates, but even more importantly RESPOND to comments. Your fans need to know that this is an active page and that someone actually cares what they think. Having 1,000 fans isn’t going to matter if they feel disconnected from you and your group.

Now what?

Once you have gotten your target audience to like the page AND you have gotten them engaged on the facebook page, the next step is to take their hard earned money!

Should we be using social media in the classroom?

by Jay on December 12, 2011

Yes!

Thanks for reading. Ok, a bit of sarcasm.

Old school vs New school

If you haven’t been around this blog very much, or happen to be new to the site, thanks for stopping by! Other than writing about social media and all things interwebz, my “real job” is being an educator in the Columbus, Ohio area.

If you take a look around a typical high school, you will begin to notice a couple of things. Sometimes students look like they are dressed to hit the hottest new club and you would likely also realize that there is a great span in the ages of the faculty.

Do the old foggies hate all of this new technology?

Yes and no. In this imagined high school, you will likely notice that the older teachers sometimes stick to their tried and true methods of delivering content. Am I talking slates with chalk? Nope. Although it does feel like that sometimes. What I am really talking about is teaching from a textbook. Using overhead transparencies as their new technology. And the biggest…

Fighting social media tools in school

Just because we have been doing things a certain way for a long time, does not mean that we cannot evolve. Wake up…time to get over the cell phone battle. We aren’t winning.

Won’t my students just text, tweet, and play on facebook while I am trying to teach?

Yes. But guess what? They already are! Although this is a generalization, younger teachers try to push the limits of antiquated school rules to get students excited and engaged in learning.

Let’s not fight it any longer. Why not embrace this technology? If your students like to tweet, why not tweet them content?

My proposal…

I think a lot about how to harness this interest in constant interaction that our students have and to develop ways to manipulate that interest by tying it to content.

Let me be the first to admit that I don’t have all of the answers. So why are you reading this? Because I have dabbled with various platforms and try to keep up with the technology.

How can I get started?

Just as quickly as social media tools reinvent themselves for the business world, so too do they in education. Developers across the globe are busy creating newer and better ways that we can engage our kids.

A few tools to get you started

Twitter – It is not new, but it is in a constant state of improvement. There are many potential uses for twitter, and our youth seems to have fallen in love. You will find more and more students tweeting and time goes on. Some ideas to use the platform:

a. Use it to tweet homework assignments

b. Take the classroom discussion out of the classroom and into real life

c. Disperse interesting articles and other web items related to your content area

d. Questions and answers, writing stories

Social Bookmarking – Diigo is my favorite in this area. It allows users to keep a set of bookmarks, arranged by tags, that can be accessed anywhere that there is an internet connection. One of the really cool features is the ability to share your bookmarks, and to highlight content on a web page so students know what you think is the meat of the content.
Moodle – As a content management system, Moodle is revolutionizing the way that teachers are able to deliver information to their students. Many of you might be familiar with Blackboard from college courses that you have taken. With Moodle, you are able to post assignements, do online assessments, post videos and lecture notes and powerpoints, have an online gradebook, etc. You can do lots more and I suggest you check it out. Not only is it a great tool, but you will be using a system that they will already be familiar with when they enter their freshman year in college.

My takeaway…

Choose one social media tool and spend time learning it well. Ask colleagues for help that might also use this platform. But you really will learn more by playing…trial and error.

Check back later this week for a few other tools available to educators. Are you using anything like this in your classroom? Please leave a comment and let me know.

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Ready to shop?

by Jay on November 28, 2011

Happy Cyber Monday!

Can I really finish my Christmas shopping without leaving my bed?

Yes, you can! If you missed the Black Friday sales, which really you shouldn’t have…they seemed to start right after dinner on Thanksgiving, then you are just in time for Cyber Monday.

Should I be spending money online?

If you are anything like me, you hate to stand in lines at the big box stores and have to put the guy next to you into some kind of choke hold because he is purchasing two X-Box 360 and now there are none left. I mean, come on, he was being selfish, right? Your kid wants one too!

I am lazy AND a little anti-social

If there is a way for me to avoid a crowd of people that are just a little too happy to be spending hundreds of dollars this holiday season, I’m game. If I can do this all from the comfort of my own bed, even better.

Security

As always, you should be a little weary of using your debit or credit cards online. After all, there is always a chance that the numbers could get stolen. Use your common sense, and make sure that if you are going to shop your little hearts out today, that you do so at stores that have secure sites.

The take away

I’ll be avoiding the stores for the most parts and will partake a little of the online fun. If you find sites that offer free-shipping, than what’s the harm? How about you? Do you prefer the in-store experience or do you prefer getting this all done while still in pajamas?

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You should opt-in

by Jay on November 9, 2011

Are opt-in forms on a personal blog important? Or do you just find them annoying? I have to say that I answer yes to both questions. You probably have noticed that when you visit my blog, you are greeted with this cute lime green pop-up window that implores you to sign up for my email list. It’s cute, right?

Jay…those forms are sooo irritating!

I agree that they certainly can be annoying. The great thing is that if you don’t want to see it, there is a little X in the corner that will get rid of it.

I’m really not trying to bother my readers on this site. Really mom…I’m not!

Why then?

Personally, I have tried to research this topic a little online and have asked other bloggers that have higher readership levels that I do at this point. Most think that it is a good idea.

And I agree. If you like my blog, I hope that you wouldn’t mind receiving an email so that I can interact with you that way as well. Most of the time that email will contain a link to my newest posts that I think you are sure to find interesting.

Most of the time on this blog, I write posts that I hope are informative to you all and that you might glean useful information to use on your own blogs.

It makes me extremely happy to get a notification that someone has signed up to receive my posts and messages in their inbox. I appreciate all of you.

My final thoughts…

If you have a blog and you want to build your subscriber base, give these forms a try. After all, we write so that others may enjoy what we have to say or find something useful that they may implement in their own social media world. There are many services that you can use to get started. Below are a few of the top services:

Aweber

Mail Chimp

IContact

I have personally tried these three. There are other great services for email marketing out there. I used mail chimp for a while and very much liked the easy user interface…and the monkey is cute. I ended up going with aweber though. Although it has a user interface that is a bit less friendly and there is perhaps a higher learning curve, I feel like in the long-run it will offer me the most opportunities.

So what do you think?

I’d love to hear what you think about these forms and your experiences with any of these services.

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Schools should be rocking social media

by Jay on October 9, 2011

It should not be a surprise to anyone that our teens always stay connected. According to the Pew Research Center, 83% of adults in the United States have some type of cellular device, be it a smart phone or a traditional cell phone. As an educator, I contend that the number of teens with cell phones is not much less. In fact, parents often buy their children cell phones so that they can be in constant contact.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the amount of time teens are spending online is increasing rapidly.

Today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week). And because they spend so much of that time ‘media multitasking’ (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7½ hours.

In other words, teens are spending more hours staying connected than there parents are spending at work each week.

One trend that I have personally noticed among students this year is the proliferation of twitter amongst their peer groups. As recently as last year, it was common for students to say things like, “I don’t like twitter. It’s boring. I use facebook.”

Boy have things changed. Twitter is quickly becoming the new facebook for our youth. They crave the constant feedback that a service like twitter provides.

This should really come as no surprise. As late as last year, MSNBC reported that teens were sending approximately 3, 339 text messages each month.

In the mind of a teen, twitter is the ultimate group text messaging service. They post what they once would via text to a friend, but with twitter they send it out to a mass audience and receive instant feedback in the form of replies or retweets.

As most of us know, schools have traditionally been the last to jump on the new bandwagon. Not only do they typically not embrace new technologies, they often attempt to impede their usage. Most still try hard to confiscate cell phones and are still fighting the battle to not let students wear hats in school. Now that’s a silly and antiquated rule.

It is my contention that schools should be embracing these various platforms of social media and utilizing them, at least for communication purposes.

With so many of our youth on sites like facebook and twitter, why not use these tools to communicate with our students concerning announcements, reminders of games, or information on the upcoming school play? So many teens have smart phones that this would be a much more effective means to communicate such information than by simply reading the school announcements every morning.

I believe wholeheartedly that it is time for schools to move into the 21st century and prepare our students for the tools and technologies that they must master to be successful in this new world.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Please leave a comment.

Next post…how to use social media as a tool in the classroom.

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Email help needed

by Jay on September 5, 2011

Typically I am a man that is quite decisive when it comes to most areas of my life. I generally know what I want, and when I want it.

But that is so not the case when it comes to my email account(s).

Of course being a social media nut-job, I want to try everything and be one of the first to do so.

So what’s the deal?

That’s a great question! I have the following email accounts:

Gmail
Yahoo Mail (plus)
MobileMe
Zoho
Live
One through my university (Go OU!)
And surely there are others…

Why is it so hard to chose?

Each email platform has a lot to offer. I love the fact that gmail has such a fantastic search feature, and the ability to archive. But, my account got hacked twice by the Chinese. I also enjoy all of their integrations with their apps.

Yahoo Plus certainly has a lot of great features, one of the most important being unlimited storage. I tend to like the idea of folders as well, rather than labels. Believe it or not, I get more spam in my gmail account than my yahoo.

MobileMe…well I’m a Mac guy…enough said! I think having an email addy that ends in me.com is pretty awesome.

I need help!

Which email platform do you like best and use most consistently?

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HP: I hate your products!

by Jay on August 14, 2010

I have been trying for days to install a printer to my wireless network. I’ve got a HP Photosmart C4795 and would like to network it to my AT&T U-Verse. I’ve got a HP lap top so you would think that this should be a breeze, wouldn’t you? WRONG! I am no novice when it comes to all things electronic but this is driving me crazy! I’ve even resorted to a chat with the HP customer support group and half-way through the chat, the HP representative disappeared and I had no way to reconnect with him. This is getting ready to be thrown out the bedroom window. I think my days of buying HP products are over.