[thelist] This ISP has got the idea!!
Seb Barre
sebastien at oven.com
Wed Oct 18 11:37:45 CDT 2000
At 08:06 AM 10/18/2000 -0800, you wrote:
>The right idea about what? Being assholes? Screw that! I don't pay people to
>give me the Nietzschian sink or swim shit. It's one thing to offer discount
>access with no tech support (Is $10 really that cheap? One of our local
>telcos runs an ISP that offers a $10 account if you get your long distance
>through the telco.), but there's no reason to be abusive about it. I think
>that's just completely uncalled for. And warning somebody in advance that
>you don't offer support doesn't give you the latitude to be a raging
>dickhead in your letter back.
>
>It doesn't seem to me that that kind of business plan is going to get them
>rich. Maybe that's not what they're after, and caveat emptor and all that,
>but geez...what bunch of horse crap...
Here's an opinion from the other side of the fence. I worked for an ISP
for three years, first as the ONLY sales and tech support guy (we were
small) and then as an internal resource developer, but still regularly
exposed to tech support issues and training etc..
ALOT of people rushed into this Internet Thing(tm) way too quickly and
without thinking about it. They rush out, buy a 3000$ computer and give
you their credit card number to get onto the Internet because everyone is
telling them to do it, yet they can barely find the power button on their
machine, let alone understand that the modem uses the phone line to connect
to the Internet, or how a browser works. Many of them expected us to give
them tech support for their whole computer, or TEACH them how to use the
Internet once they signed up. How do you think I felt when a guy who just
signed up for a year of unlimited service calls up and says "Ok, I got your
software installed, now what do I do?". Ugh. Then imagine me explaining
to him that you connect to the net and start browsing or using email and he
says "Ok how do I do all that stuff?". Then he got mad when I politely
suggested that he take a course or buy a book. HE should figure this stuff
out? No way.. WE should be holding his hand all the way and guide him
throughout the entire Internet.. yep.. that's what we should do.
I've heard customers say things that would make you cry, and I've had to
listen to countless customers bitch at me because THEY didn't do their
research, and they expected everything to just work perfectly the first
time without any involvement or research by them. One guy thought we were
giving him the computer to get on the Internet too! Yeah for 12$/month you
get a computer with that. Hell why don't we pay for your phone line
too? And of course he asked this AFTER he signed up for an account. I
often wondered how these people survived to be adults. While I agree that
the Flex site seems a bit rough, it's probably because otherwise people
won't listen, and will sign up anyways, and then he/they will have to deal
with these ignorant fools who refuse to be responsible for themselves and
understand what they're getting into before they sign up.
I would bet anything that these guys either a) ran a normal ISP before or
b) worked at a normal ISP before, and have just been disgruntled and jaded
by the hordes of people that are rushing to the Internet like lemmings to a
cliff.. Like ANYTHING else in life, everyone is personally responsible for
knowing what they are getting into and understanding their
responsibilities. YEAH RIGHT. Nice in theory, doesn't happen in practice.
And yes, I am VERY jaded about all this, having lived through it for 3
years and seen the amount of ignorance that is out there, and the scary
trend towards less personal responsibility (hell, my lawyer will take care
of anything I didn't think of when the shit hits the fan, right?). Sure,
there were customers who admitted they knew nothing, and we even had
customers cancel when they realized they weren't ready to go online and
needed more knowledge first, but they were the minuscule minority, and most
customers just got pissed off at us and yelled at us when they couldn't
figure stuff out.
And before you rant back at me, we had KICKASS tech support, and we were
way more friendly and supportive of our customers than most other ISPs, but
there are limits to what you can do for someone when they just don't know
enough about the computer itself, let alone the Internet. FlexNet doesn't
offer any tech support, and I think they're doing the right thing by being
really blunt about it.
Blah. that's my rant. I loved that FlexNet place, I think they are
offering a good service, and they're doing themselves a favour by being
that abrasive, mainly because the clientele they're after will appreciate
the attitude, not be revolted by it. It's all about pandering to your
target market.
--- -- -
Seb Barre - sebastien at oven.com
OVEN Digital Toronto
Work: 416-595-9750 x 222
Mobile: 416-254-5078
http://www.oven.com/
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