Marsden is Here

I am attempting to top up my T-Stick using your online service. It says quite clearly at http://www.telecom.co.nz/mobile/yourmobile/topup "Top up your XT Prepaid Mobile or T-Stick online" (with fuel-gauge graphic adjacent) and "Top Up Now" on the button below

Clicking the button takes me to a page where i can enter my credit card details - so far so good. However completing this page does not allow me to top up my T-Stick online. Instead the instructions tell me to call my mobile phone and follow the top-up procedure using the displayed voucher number.

Of course this will add the credit to my mobile phone, not to the T-Stick! The specific wording of the instructions implies that there is an option for selecting a different phone number somewhere in the menus but I have been unable to find it. Instead I had to press "3" for PROBLEMS (which is almost funny) and your help-desk was able to apply the voucher number - and tell me this was the -usual- process for "topping up online".

However 3 escalations later they were still -unable- to tell me
a) why the website - and their scripts - insist that it is possible to "Top Up Online" when it is not.
b) who was responsible for this situation
c) who is going to be responsible for fixing this situation

And by fixing this situation I do not mean changing the website to make it explicit that you can not in fact top up online. I mean actually adding the functionality that will let me and all your other T-Stick and similar users add credit to our devices directly from your website. We should not have to have access to a -phone- to top up our -mobile internet-. We should not have to -spend time waiting on the phone- until we reach the front of the queue for your call center!

(For all I know the functionality is already there, and just the links are wrong. How easy would that be to fix?)

Yes there are other mobile internet providers in NZ. I reluctantly chose Telecom because on the rare occasions I need mobile broadband you have the best coverage. I'm sorry the rest of your support structure does not match up.

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Quite appropriately, the stereo is playing the following from the CrüxShadows right now
once we have a promise
twice we have a curse
three times is impossible
and four times even worse
once we have an accident
twice we have a fault
three times is delinquent
and four times is the fall

Just got a call from TelstraClear to organise the cable TV disconnection (which will happen Monday morning) and upping the internet plan (which will happen at midnight tonight). Wonder if going from 4Mb/s to 20Mb/s is going to make a noticeable difference to my day-to-day online activities.

+1 TC

Some recent research* indicates that people typically consider changing banks to be a much more difficult process than it really is.

*The title of this article is "Survey shows why customers change banks" - the article then focuses only on why they don't change banks. #fail NZ Herald.

"Interestingly, people's perceptions were that the financial cost of switching banks was high when in fact it is not, because the new bank often waives fees or contributes to legal costs to get new customers," she said.

People also had an "ingrained" perception that there was considerable hassle involved in changing banks.

Despite my ever-growing contempt for ANZ Bank's institutional incompetence I remain with them for two reasons

- I don't want to have to deal with the legal required to transfer the mortgage. Once more, when I close it off will be sufficient thank you. The end is on the horizon. Also being self-employed I probably won't be able to replicate the current nifty arrangement, made when I was on a reliable salary.

- I have an irrational and perverse attachment to my savings account number, which is an old Post Office Savings Bank number I've had most of my life (my parents opened the original account). There can't be that many of them left and I'm sure it grates on the ANZ systems to have to cope with it. For this reason I'm probably actually going to hold on this account for my EFTPOS/cash needs as long as I possibly can even after moving my heavy-duty banking elsewhere :->

The researcher actually suggests

Among her recommendations for banks to consider was the possibility of account number portability, as was now required for cellphone service providers.

I don't think this is a bad idea, just a bloody impractical one unless you're rebuilding the banking sector from the ground up. Ask anyone for Telecom/Vodaphone/et. al. who has had to deal with the integration of number-portability into those systems, and the chaos ensuing from not being able to tell if someone is your customer just by looking at their number.

My TelstraClear bill this month came with a glossy flyer bearing this little header. The first paragraph advised that the fee for late payment is being increased. The rest of the flyer attempted to use this as leverage in extorting the recipient to sign up for bill payment by credit-card or direct debit.

If there was a viable alternative I'd be thinking about changing something, but it wouldn't be my method of payment. I have a very strong aversion to letting someone else take arbitrary amounts of money from my bank account, and if I'm going to have a question about my bill it's going to be before the corporate gets it's hands on any of my money, not after.

I don't mind that they're changing their T&C, but they could have just sent a letter (or an email). I'm not sure what ticks me off about this leaflet more:

The casual and impersonal insinuation that I might not pay my bills on time / be able to manage my money
- by extension (as I am a fairy unremarkable customer with a good payment history) that they don't trust any of their customers to pay on time - and what does that say about TCs company culture / relationship with it's customers?

The fact that they are trying to change my behaviour through the use of threat and intimidation
- subtext of the flyer is "ooo, if you don't pay your bill on time we might have to send the collectors after you, we wouldn't want that would we, better change to this other way of paying".

Compare this to Meridian Energy's way of encouraging people to pay on time - where TC is using the stick they use the carrot. That 10% discount (disregarding for the moment the fact that their prices are doubtless lifted to compensate) makes you feel good about getting in early, rather than making you feel threatened by not getting in on time.

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Apropos of energy companies, Powershop is offering discounted power at the weekends, if you happen to live in Christchurch/Central Canterbury and have a Smart Meter installed.

It's claimed to be the "the first smart-meter product in New Zealand".