Right then... 3 month free CI-Board trial for ANY and EVERY isp.

DeVore

Sorry to take this into another new thread but I think this is important and might actually help users. I dont want any ISPs to miss it.

I'll give ANY ISP WHO PMs or MAILS me and agrees to the terms of the Commercial Interaction boards, 3 months free trial.

If at the end they havent seen the light of communicating on neutral ground with their customers:

a. I'll eat my hat

b. they can stop and they owe us nothing.


The only rules are that they abide by the Boards admin in charge and they agree not to sue us over any comments made in good faith by the users.

So, free market research. Come and get it.

DeV.

ozt9vdujny3srf

Fantastic idea DeVore but maybe its a bit unfair on Elara Systems and Komplett

dahamsta

Fantastic idea DeVore but maybe its a bit unfair on Elara Systems and Komplett

I hadn't thought of this, but he has a point. Perhaps a month would be a little fairer, and surely this will be long enough for the company to gauge how/whether it's going to work anyway.

Off-topic, but it would be a nice touch if this could be extended to everyone by the way, and it would probably be good for growth of the Commercial Interaction boards.

More off-topic, why Truckled and not "Truckle the"?

I'm off to check out the Elara board...

adam

ozt9vdujny3srf

Originally posted by dahamsta
Fantastic idea DeVore but maybe its a bit unfair on Elara Systems and Komplett

More off-topic, why Truckled and not "Truckle the"?

stupid vbulletin would let me have a bigger name

ah well :P

DeVore

Neither Komplett nor Elara are ISPs... so for other companies they are on a level playing field.

Anyway, I doubt any of the ISPs actually have the cajones to listen to what their customers have to say.

Its an interesting idea to extend it to all companies but if we did we'd give Komplett and Elara a credit note for the same timespan. They are, afterall the early adopters and I kinda like early adopters

DeV.

PhilipMarlowe

Don't "give" it away to anyone who wants one (general companies).... the fact that it's a paid-for service limits the clutter and sharpens the..... thing*

*(it's late and i CBA)

ozt9vdujny3srf

maybe e-mail the offer to someone in advertising/pr in eircom

an eircom CI board would be useful as a service for the boards user, as most of the country are connected to eircom as a telephone company and therefore the board would be useful for most of boards users, especially for IOFFL

MarVeL

Just a quick delurk. While I'd love to see an Eircom CI board I can't really ever see it happening. Firstly, there'd need to be some age verification before entry to the board was allowed just to protect the innocent from the animated discussion that would be sure to ensue. Secondly I can't see how they would benefit with out a total change in company attitudes and policies.

Be nice to see a biddy posting though :-D

DeVore

Originally posted by TruckledUncivil
maybe e-mail the offer to someone in advertising/pr in eircom

an eircom CI board would be useful as a service for the boards user, as most of the country are connected to eircom as a telephone company and therefore the board would be useful for most of boards users, especially for IOFFL

Trust me, that isnt necessary. To quote one Marketing Director of a telco I met IOFFL is "compulsory reading". There here already, they just dont think they could survive communication with their customers on neutral ground.

Consider that the old way of doing it was to have individual customers ring complaint phone lines and be combatted by the first line of defense, the support-droid who can just file-and-forget. The problem is that the customers are no longer talking to the companies, they are now talking to each other on sites like this and NTLHell and sites like ErrorCom and EircomTribunal are popping up and communicating the message that "you are not along with your anger".

The funny thing is that they could learn and benefit from such feedback (as UTV did) if they were just willing to take their heads out of the sand and realise that by ignoring the problems they are just going to go away.

As I've said before, the revolution will be webcast but it doesnt have to be bad news... its only bad news when you try and bury it...

DeV.

milltown

Much as I would like to see an Eircom board, it ain't going to happen. Unless it's to be a new recycle bin where all the anti Eircom posts are flung out.
1. Eircom have left it far too long to begin posting on Boards so there are far too many spleens out there waiting to be vented for it to be of any use as research of the market in general.
2. Any such Board would require a full time mod to keep the peeved in check, a task which I would imagine is beyond Boards.ie's resources at the moment (or have you guys got even cushier jobs than I imagine?)

Valentia

I like the idea Dev but in the whole scheme of things boards users (active ones especially) are such a small part of these ppls business they probably feel that it is a niche group that has very little effect on the other hundreds and thousands of their customers.

They probably see boards as a light form of amusement that passes a few minutes of their busy day but know that the vast majority of their customers, including those that use their ISP facility, know very little and care less about the internet. Once they get their e-mails they're happy.

Things are changing but very slowly and they will only communicate when they believe it is absolutely necessary.

Anyway off to bed with ye all, the big march starts at 2.pm. Cyall at Parnell Sq.

MarVeL

I like the idea Dev but in the whole scheme of things boards users (active ones especially) are such a small part of these ppls business they probably feel that it is a niche group that has very little effect on the other hundreds and thousands of their customers.

That may well be the way they think but I'm not sure that it is true. I personally know of several people who read this board who would be in positions to advise on purchases of telecoms, both residential and commercial. Probably there are many other posters (and readers like I usually am) who are in similar positions. These are the sort of people that the telecoms and ISPs should be trying to keep on the good side of, particularily as the industry seems to be, finally, changing in many ways.

I don't think they will though as they probably are not set up at present to interact in any meaningful way with any customer of less than multinational size. To do so would require a fairly senior level person who could at least bring issues quickly with the decision makers (if not actually make decisions themselves). So far I haven't seen any of this from the larger ISPs or telecoms companies, with the notable exception of UTV who seem to be doing fairly well out of their interaction here.

It would be fun though if we could persuade Phillip in, if only to see what sort of response he'd have to some of the questions

seamus

Originally posted by MarVeL
I don't think they will though as they probably are not set up at present to interact in any meaningful way with any customer of less than multinational size. To do so would require a fairly senior level person who could at least bring issues quickly with the decision makers (if not actually make decisions themselves). So far I haven't seen any of this from the larger ISPs or telecoms companies, with the notable exception of UTV who seem to be doing fairly well out of their interaction here.
It would be fun though if we could persuade Phillip in, if only to see what sort of response he'd have to some of the questions

It's highly unlikely Eircom would ever consider interacting here - because of what you've said here, and also because it can do very little good for them, and they know it. Every excuse they came up with, every little white lie they attempted to propagate would be instantly rubbished with the stacks and stack of paper and web evidence held by members on the board here.
They have a bigger prescence than IOFFL and a much easier means of propagating their 'opinions', through advertising and Tony O Reilly's happy media circle. The longer they can avoid having to listen to us, or having to directly face our evidence, the longer they can maintain their stubborn, bloated, low-tech monopoly. Don't get me wrong, I'd love if they did sign up to interact, but the damage it would cause to their PR machine would be irrepairable.
More importantly would be OLO's interacting here. Then they could find out what *we* want, not just what they can get. Once they know what we want, they can use this as ammo to extract more, and efficient services from eircom, and hopefully start to bring their monopoly to an end. IMO, regardless of past history, all the OLO's may be redeemed by interacting here (properly), unlike eircom who can never be redeemed in the eyes of IOFFL's membership (IMO).

We have survived by hiding from them, by running from them. But they are the gatekeepers. They are guarding all the doors. They are holding all the keys, which means that sooner or later, someone is going to have to fight them.

Thought that quite apt about here

DeVore

I like it seamus!

But I think you underestimate the fear in Eircom.

If they truely thought that only 5% of their customers were disgruntled, why then are they putting a vast amount of cash into an operation to get them to come back... I mean, wouldnt they be happy that the trouble makers were leaving?

Instead they have letter campaigns and door to door visits, thats *expensive*.

Anyway I think a better Matrix quote for IOFFL would be:

I 'm going to hang up this phone, and then I 'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I 'm going to show them a world without you.

DeV.

Slutmonkey57b

Customer Interaction:

Eircon doesn't have customers: It has people it steals from to service O'Reilly's Debt mountain. The whole principle of the board doesn't apply to them.

If they had any interest in improving their customer service they'd have shown an interest by now.

Thieving Gipsy B@stards.

PiE

Some of the OLO's might take up the offer if they've any sense but Eircom? If they wanted to interact with customers, they easily have the resources to set up their own messageboard, a messageboard that they can control. So why let themselves in for a bashing here?

DeVore

Noone will go to a message board controlled by the company. After the first deletion (justified or not!) they will lose credibility completely. Then its a "cover up"... and thats worse then nothing at all...

Look at Komplett and Elara... they get dogs abuse when things go wrong but their reps also get praise a lot more commonly then you might think! I'd say 2/3rds of posts on Komplett are positive.
The remaining third Patman *turns into* positive threads by acting on the problem in a reasonable and MEANINGFUL manner.

Remember UTV getting kudos for tackling the problems? They turned an anrgy, beligerent, disbelieving, jaded group into rabid supporters.

DeV.

PiE

It's different with eircom though, they've got so many problems and complaints they'd need to set up a whole new department to deal with them. I can't see them sending in their Managing Director (or someone with as much power), like UTV did. If we got anyone to represent them, it'd be a biddy and well... it'd be just like ringing up the freefone number and wasting your breath.

Komplett & Elara are smaller than eircom and they rely on positive word of mouth to expand their sales as they don't have an advertising budget the size of a small country's GNP, like eircom do.

Not saying eircom shouldnt come here, I just think they wouldn't have a chance of pleasing any of us. And lets face it, if you were eircom, you wouldn't wanna come here publicly either :]

DeVore

I agree pie.... but what do they do then?

they have a big mountain to climb ... are they just going to say "ah feck it, I'm off for a beer". ie: just let it all go and fade and die?
Cos thats what going to happen piecemeal unless someone in there has an epiphany!

Bit by bit they are being dismantled and it NEEDS someone with both balls and lateral thinking to pull it back from the brink imho.

DeV.

Gordon

What a great idea, it's a way for Hairycom to potentially make more money and for customers to be happy. But even if it isn't Warecom - someone else will reap the rewards.

ozt9vdujny3srf

see thats the thing, i don't think ne1 qould care about eircom makin sh*tloads of cash if they offered a gr8 service that reflected their dominent market position

SkepticOne

Originally posted by DeVore
they have a big mountain to climb ... are they just going to say "ah feck it, I'm off for a beer". ie: just let it all go and fade and die?
Cos thats what going to happen piecemeal unless someone in there has an epiphany!

Eircom don't have a mountain to climb; they own the mountain!

That said, I would just love for Eircom to take out an official commercial board on boards.ie. I think they are too clever though.

<edit: of course it would be Eircom.net not Eircom that would be doing it. You would not be able to bring up issues relating to broadband because that would be a matter for their parent company >

yellum

Originally posted by Slutmonkey57b


Eircon doesn't have customers:

Thats pretty much true.

How about setting up a Board anyway like on of those consumer boards in the UK where people whined about all aspects of NTL's service. Was NTHell the one NTL purchased later on ? Can such a thing be done without getting your ass sued ?

Raskolnikov

Barring Eircon, I think the consumer interaction board for ISP's would be a great idea. I'd love to see UTV and to a lesser extent EsatBT get something though, since they've both actually tried to offer the Irish consumer a far superior product than Eircon ever did. If Eircon did get a board i know i'd just end up spamming it and get banned.

DeVore

The mountain Eircom have to climb is the PR mountain.

Lots of people really really dislike Eircom.... that was fine when they could say "pffff so what... whatcha gonna do? not use the phone?" ... they cant do that any more.

DeV.

MarVeL

I thought that was the gist of big Phil's statement earlier on. "people don't have to use Eircom". We'll all be just doing like he told us to :-D

Love to see him questioned by the board if/when they lose a good percentage of customers :-)