My name is Dylan and I am a Telkom subscriber… “Hi Dylan”. This is along the same line as my previous post as it involves the fact that we have very limited alternatives in the Telecommunications field. Recently I tried to make an international call to Ireland but was faced with some difficulty in the process. My first reaction naturally was to phone the Telkom “helpline”. Simple enough right, not so. Tell me, do you know what the Telkom helpline number is? Is it 1023? Is it 10111? Is it 123suckmyballs456? No, it isn’t any of these. In fact if you wish to make an international call you have to dial 0903# (obviously).
When you actively seek out and make contact with a company because you want to engage in business it surely stands to reason that being as helpful as possible is the correct course of action to follow in order to make that sale. So after calling 0903# and explaining my problem to the person on the other end he instructed the following, “You must dial this number: 00353 65 6828963,” to which I responded, “I did dial that number” to which he replied with a complete lack of authority, “...oh...” end of conversation.
When you are in business to make money it takes a special kind of arsehole to not want to do business. I’m not blaming the operator on the other end of the phone, I’m blaming his employer, every board member and every share holder who commit their time and lack of effort to a well below substandard enterprise. Step forth NeoTel, I cannot wait to throw my money at you.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Comrades Up in Arms
I recently had the misfortune of having to renew my driver’s license at one of our fine traffic establishments. Now anyone who has had to go through this ordeal will understand that this is not the most ideal way to spend a Saturday morning. Upon entry to the Greenpoint facility the first thing you’ll notice is a substantial lack of design or anything that makes the interior even remotely human. Indeed this is what the V&A Waterfront would look like if South Africa was a communist state, however I suspect that the V&A may not smell quite as much like the blend of 1000 post chicken curry flatulence (I’m open to correction).
The license renewal procedure requires that you have your eyes tested, a simple test whereby one has to identify the position of the marked block on a chart, up, down, left right or centre. The elderly gentleman in front of me in the two hour queue really struggled with this concept, remember theoretically if you are 100% blind you have a 20% of getting the answer correct. After what must have been more than 30 attempts without success a simple logic acid test would dictate that this man is not qualified to operate his toaster let alone a motor vehicle. He passed and is on our roads today.
Post “eye-test” you need to have your finger prints retaken, as it is a little known fact that finger prints change on a 5 yearly basis when your license expires. This comment was lost on the stone faced individual who totally failed to see the humour. Fair enough I guess, if my job was to take the finger prints of frustrated consumers all the live long day I’d also struggle to crack a smile.
The final stop is to cough up the cash for this morning of fun but not a moment sooner than the one and half hour queue will allow you. Once your wallet is about R250 lighter you are told that after one short month your license may or may not be ready for collection, where I’m sure another inordinate queue will be involved. It apparently is physically impossible to mail a 5x8 cm piece of plastic, cannot be done.
My point and yes there is one, is that this type of purchase is a 100% grudge purchase. If our friends at the Traffic Department injected just few simple changes (maybe a plant or two) it would be a much better place, but they won’t. There is no alternative for us, no other premium brand, option or competition to inspire them to do better. This is a prime example of what our lives would be like without brands. So be grateful for our capitalism with all it’s faults because to the Traffic Department but for the grace of God go we all.
The license renewal procedure requires that you have your eyes tested, a simple test whereby one has to identify the position of the marked block on a chart, up, down, left right or centre. The elderly gentleman in front of me in the two hour queue really struggled with this concept, remember theoretically if you are 100% blind you have a 20% of getting the answer correct. After what must have been more than 30 attempts without success a simple logic acid test would dictate that this man is not qualified to operate his toaster let alone a motor vehicle. He passed and is on our roads today.
Post “eye-test” you need to have your finger prints retaken, as it is a little known fact that finger prints change on a 5 yearly basis when your license expires. This comment was lost on the stone faced individual who totally failed to see the humour. Fair enough I guess, if my job was to take the finger prints of frustrated consumers all the live long day I’d also struggle to crack a smile.
The final stop is to cough up the cash for this morning of fun but not a moment sooner than the one and half hour queue will allow you. Once your wallet is about R250 lighter you are told that after one short month your license may or may not be ready for collection, where I’m sure another inordinate queue will be involved. It apparently is physically impossible to mail a 5x8 cm piece of plastic, cannot be done.
My point and yes there is one, is that this type of purchase is a 100% grudge purchase. If our friends at the Traffic Department injected just few simple changes (maybe a plant or two) it would be a much better place, but they won’t. There is no alternative for us, no other premium brand, option or competition to inspire them to do better. This is a prime example of what our lives would be like without brands. So be grateful for our capitalism with all it’s faults because to the Traffic Department but for the grace of God go we all.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Welcome to my blog
Hi all
Welcome to my blog! I’ve been threatening to do this for a while now and I finally have… so much for the easy part. Now the challenge remains to keep it updated and relevant. The big delay in doing this was the usual composition of excuses, “I don’t know. Who really cares? What should I write about? I don’t have time… blah blah blah lame blah”. So after realising that I was starting to sound very much like people who are generally not very good at life, I decided to go ahead and do it anyway.
I’ve been back and forth with deciding on what content to post and to be honest I’m still not 100% sure. I’m leaning towards commentary on the general field of marketing communication, after all that is what I’m passionate about. You will of course have to keep in mind that everything will be my personal opinion, one that I am willing to change if presented with sound reasoning. With some luck this will give rise to a bit of debate.
So that’s it for now, this is hopefully the first post of many. If not at least I’ll live forever in the form of this one post… provided somebody, somewhere, over some oil crisis doesn’t break the Internet *hold thumbs*.
Dylan
Welcome to my blog! I’ve been threatening to do this for a while now and I finally have… so much for the easy part. Now the challenge remains to keep it updated and relevant. The big delay in doing this was the usual composition of excuses, “I don’t know. Who really cares? What should I write about? I don’t have time… blah blah blah lame blah”. So after realising that I was starting to sound very much like people who are generally not very good at life, I decided to go ahead and do it anyway.
I’ve been back and forth with deciding on what content to post and to be honest I’m still not 100% sure. I’m leaning towards commentary on the general field of marketing communication, after all that is what I’m passionate about. You will of course have to keep in mind that everything will be my personal opinion, one that I am willing to change if presented with sound reasoning. With some luck this will give rise to a bit of debate.
So that’s it for now, this is hopefully the first post of many. If not at least I’ll live forever in the form of this one post… provided somebody, somewhere, over some oil crisis doesn’t break the Internet *hold thumbs*.
Dylan
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