Blyk frustrated me; in return for receiving adverts matched to my preferences, and and every other user received 217 texts and 43 minutes per month. No data. No data AT ALL. The regular readers of Blykwatch will know I complained a lot about the lack of some kind of inclusive data along with competitive data rates ‘out of bundle’.

Well, to my delight this evening I received a SMS from Blyk;

You asked, Blyk listened. Blyk will be changing to a free monthly refill of £15 for you to use however you like.

*Fantastic* a company that listened to what the users want! Of course, having ‘a balance’ means you can use it on voice, sms, mms and data. The quid pro quo is immediately a lot more credible in my eyes.

However it comes at a price. At the same time prices on Blyk will now increase with call charges rising to 24p a minute from 15p. That’s STEEP. However text messages fall from 10p to 8p.

Now while this is fantastic for me — I can use my balance just on calls, or data — since I use Blyk as my secondary sim, for those using Blyk as a primary operator of choice, they’re now getting a bit of a raw deal.

The old system gave every user £28.15 credit (which made up the 217 texts/43 minutes). So if you’re used to using 217 texts and 43 minutes each month, that will NOW cost you £27.68.

But now, you’re only getting £15 ‘credit’ as thanks for receiving ads. If you wanted to maintain that same level of minutes/texts, you’d need to spunk out £12.68 extra per month.

That is a 46% percent decrease in credit and in return you get flexibility. I think the 46% is rather expensive for the value that flexibility brings. I understand that for a flexible plan you would expect to lose some credit ie 10 – 20% but certainly NOT 46%.

To me this suggests Blyk simply do not understand their user base. If you use the credit all on minutes you are better off than before the changes, however if you are a SMS user you lose out big style. Blyk is a MVNO only available for those who are aged between 16 and 24, users in this bracket (which I am part of) Text, MSN and Facebook each other. They are prolific texters, not callers.

As soon as I got the message concerning these changes I did a search on twitter to see if anyone had said anything (Ewan if you are reading this twitter IS useful).

Here’s what I sent out to my followers:

“You asked, Blyk listened”: 43 min 217 txt -> £15 +data,mms possibility.43min 217 txt=27.68.Cost of flex: 46% for mms, data. More flexible?

I received many responses — I don’t want to list them all so here’s a good summary one:

Am annoyed Blyk has decided to give £15 credit per month instead of free calls and minutes. It’s basically a guise for giving less.

I also jumped onto the forums, and I realised that Blyk had not sent this message in one go but had done a phased roll out, as a result the forums were very active on this topic. The main bulk were contained in two topics one was ‘bring back the old Blyk’ with 150 replies and a petition as well with 104 posts.

Not only that there are also two online petitions on sites on the internet:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?217_43
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/no-blyk-bo.html

The first has 92 names, the second has 99 names.

Checking the posts on the forum the first post on the change was on the 15th January at 4pm, so in less than 5 days this has been the response. I have been a user of Blyk for more than a year and a half and have never seen so much response on the forums. I think it clearly shows the opinion of the Blyk members.

I dropped an email to both Jonathan MacDonald and Alistair Crane (both part of the team who set up Blyk) to hear get their views on the changes.

“Businesses change their offerings. All of them. Blyk know more about what people want than all other mobile networks, in my opinion. I hope that that opinions about an offering change don’t cloud, remove or replace the fact that, for the first time ever, a media channel was built upon conversation rather than broadcast. We can and should have an opinion and it is more common for negativity to out-shine the positive. It is the way of the world sadly.”  Jonathan MacDonald

Fair point, but how much conversation was going on when they changed the game plan?

Let’s hear from Alistair:

“In January Blyk launched a comprehensive content portal and will be marketing the service heavily to members based on their profile information. By giving users monetary value to spend on whatever they want Blyk will drive content consumption, offer members an additional free service and most importantly, create increased inventory and another avenue for advertisers to access the profiled member base through traditional WAP formats (banners, text links etc.) as well as more creative pre-rolls, interstitials and ad funded content experiences (games, wall papers, ringtones).

Members will place a MASSIVE amount of value around flexibility and will love the fact that they can now access facebook, maps, email etc. using their free allowance. 

User created MMS will still probably stay low but is a good option to add to the mix.” Alistair Crane

I also got some words from fellow Blyk User and MIR Contributor Samanatha

“When I first heard about this, I’ll admit I was excited and happy. And then the reality of Blyk’s inability to comprehend the needs and desires of their customers finally sank in again. I don’t like moaning, and in fact I’m pleased they’ve finally realised that listening to their members is the right way to go about their business; but when there’s such a loss being made by each individual member, questions have to be raised.”
 

Blyk my final words to you are these, your idea is fantastic and it will work well however you tell me you listen BUT do you really?

Do you *really* understand your member base?

- – - – -

A word from the Editor: Hi there, Ewan here. When you go live and tell your customers that it’s all about the conversation, that you’re listening, that you care, it’s good news. If you mean it. But then I suspect it’s a lot larger to wield the happy stick when you’re running a mobile operator. But… if you’ve asked your users for feedback — and they give you feedback, it gets rather challenging when, for whatever logistical reasons, you can’t necessarily deliver.

Over the months we’ve delivered some rather inspiring commentary on Blyk — chiefly from Ricky, the author of today’s post, and more recently from Samantha. Both are exactly in Blyk’s target range. Both are considered, smart, intelligent individuals, misled by the Blyk concept.

We stopped the BlykWatch coverage a while ago because it began to turn into a broken record. Despite the readers from all across the world — I reckon that a good 20-30,000 tuned in regularly for BlykWatch — when we were continually publishing news about forum posts not being replied to and lax or bored customer service, I thought that was it. Time’s up. It’s an operator. Their job is to deliver as many eyeball conversions as possible for their advertisers. It is not to ‘listen’ to their users and it is most certainly not to react to what users want unless there’s a direct profit. There is nothing whatsoever wrong with this as a business practice. The disconnect is the users — such as Ricky and Samantha and a lot more besides — getting far too passionate about the service. At one point I think I said to Ricky to go and get a T-Mobile account and stop worrying about Blyk. That’s difficult when you feel passionately engaged by the company and when the company simply does not reflect that back. I’m sure Jonathan MacDonald — in his Every Single One Of Us guise — will have something to say about that. It ain’t good. But it makes cash. The Blyk customer is the advertiser. The user is the gateway to cash for Blyk.

Now, here’s is a viewpoint that I doubt will be received well by Ricky, Samantha and the array of Blyk fans they’ve spoken to about the news: It’s free so you have no rights and your opinion doesn’t count. Despite what the marketing tells you.

The only opinion Blyk want to know is whether you liked the Coca Cola or the Pepsi MMS ad better. If it’s a service level you want — you’re much better off demanding service from a traditional offer and wielding your own cash in return, rather than your data/opinions.

Swapping around the credit structure perhaps indicates at a challenge with the Blyk model. According to a BBC stat, there are about 7 million 16-24 year olds in the UK.

200,000 of which have got a Blyk sim card. Or, let’s be generous — let’s call it 300,000. I don’t know the current stats. No one from Blyk has contacted me with an update for years. So let’s work on the basis of 300k ‘penetration’.

Let’s now get real.

Ricky — one of the world’s most passionate Blyk users doesn’t actually use them as his primary account. He uses T-Mobile. So let’s strip a load out.

Let’s assume 300k sim cards activated. Let’s assume 20% converted to become regular Blyk users? I dunno if this is accurate. Let’s keep with it.

20% is 60,000 regular Blyk users.

How many of them are PRIMARY Blyk users — i.e it’s their ONLY mobile operator? That’s a difficult stat. Let’s say…. another 20%? Let’s be kind?

So 12,000 regular, primary users.

Assume 1% of them can be arsed to care about their ‘billing structure’.

Text them and tell them the credit structure is changing and about 100 of them hit the forums complaining. That sounds about right. Now, once again, these stats could be hugely incorrect and I’m happy for us to be corrected by Blyk.

But if they’re anywhere accurate, they’d explain why the company isn’t necessarily screaming about it’s successes and why it may well become necessary for them to shift around the credit structure to reduce their costs by 40-odd percent.

The value with Blyk is surely in the concept. The concept that — all things being equal — the brands are LOVING the ROI. They’re actually getting returns on their investment. Measurable and high percentages. Just, not with millions of teenagers. So I think the concept of Blyk is a success. Whether the MVNO will prove to be so? Well I don’t know. Let’s keep watching and wish them all godspeed.

(And swap to T-Mobile, Samantha.)

from newmediaage

Ad-funded MVNO Blyk is rolling out a portal in January to direct its 16-24-year-old audience to relevant content.

The mobile operator, which offers free SMS and voice calls, will launch the On Blyk portal with content from providers such as Heat magazine.

Sean Gregory, UK CEO of Blyk, said the move was a response to demand from its 200,000 subscribers.

“We’re launching to provide a unique web experience to put our members directly in touch with the content they want,” he said.

As one of those 200,000 subscribers this will work only on the basis that the portal is free to browse and explore!I look forward to seeing this being rolled out in January!

It started off promisingly — and it really did give us a brilliant insight into how the service was working.

Now, though… apart from complaining about the lack of data or the odd weird advert — or having a dig at their (sometimes variable) customer service, we’ve lost patience.

I was talking to Ricky a while ago and he was feeling like a bit of a broken record. In fact, it was getting difficult for Ricky to do much — in some weeks, it would have been quicker for him to do a cut+paste and replace the dates.

There’s limited value in Blyk. I think that’s my one-line summary. It’s a great concept but there’s a few issues. Firstly, Ricky — one of their biggest fans — still infuriates me (on a reasonably low level) by refusing to use them as his primary network supplier. He uses T-Mobile. And happily uses up his free balance on Blyk when he can. But he deals with T-Mobile. When he wants to be contacted, Ricky gives his T-Mobile number.

Samantha, our summer intern, used/uses Blyk as her primary number. But I can’t see that lasting. The fact there’s no support for unlimited or half-unlimited or some sort of decent data pricing is going to nail Blyk.

They’ll say no. Their research explains that most 16-24 year olds want free calls and texts.

That worked last year.

But when those teenagers and students are being told on every street corner (I’m talking adverts) that they should be checking their Facebook on their mobile by the likes of the mighty Vodafone — with 18 million customers in the UK… there’s going to be limited value in Blyk as it stands.

I really like the ROI they can deliver to advertisers. That’s going to keep some revenue coming in.

But will Blyk ever reach 5 million customers? No. Will they ever get to 1 million? Yes, with a bit of manipulation of the statistics. Dig deep and work out exactly how many customers are actually connected and using the Blyk service as their primary means of communication… and how many will continue to do so when they ‘grow up’ and can afford a contact and demand a swanky handset?

Some will continue to use the service. It’ll carry on I’m sure.

But I think the excitement and the future is limited.

The moment I heard Jonathan MacDonald had quit them, well then. That was it for me. He’s now telling the Soho and Madison Avenue types (via Ogilvy) how to handle mobile advertising. Jonathan’s a smart cookie. I suspect he’s feeling the same way about Blyk as we are here at MIR.

We’re not hostile to Blyk. We’re just over it, now. Good luck to them!

But there’s no more BlykWatches coming.

They could set the marketplace alight if they made it free. Entirely free. Fair use policy. Cut off the folk who get ridiculous but let the normobs use them at no cost. Free would stop Ricky from using T-Mobile. That’ll get attention and a degree of loyalty.

(Ricky’s going to be doing some other stuff for us.)

Ricky catches us up on a couple week’s worth of Blyk

—

Firstly this week’s edition covers the last two weeks of my Blyk usage. Last time I blogged about Blyk I was not impressed, thing were starting to bore me. Well it seems the chaps at Blyk have decided to pull their socks up, they are now offering an incentive to users to top up (could it be that everyone is not using Blyk as their main handset but more as a spare handset? This is something that myself and Ewan have suspected for a long time, however there is no data available to prove this.) The incentive is if you top up by £5 they will reward you with an extra 150 text messages free of charge, this in my opinion is fantastic so for topping up by £5 you get 367 free texts and 43 free minutes and the £5 to spend as you wish. I believe this is the best value you can get by topping up £5 and beats all the other UK networks on their Pay as You offerings, of course you do have to accept that you can receive up to 6 adverts per a day. There are some things that still annoy me about the service, I still do not understand why they have to fix the number of free texts and minutes I believe they would be more successful if they assigned a free amount of credit a month and let the end user choose how they wish to spend it. The other major gripe is data, Blyk are still yet to offer any free inclusive data at all or even a bolt on for data in my opinion this is something its competitors are doing much better (i.e. T-Mobile who offer unlimited data (FUP) for £1 a day). As more and more users switch to all singing and dancing handsets without inclusive or cheap data I suspect people will simply not use the extra services these handsets offer.

In other news, Blyk has launched a new service with recruitment agencies to enable them to contact the Blyk members directly about jobs. Chris Bennett, commercial director of Blyk UK said: “Blyk and its offerings are determined by member feedback and demands. Members want to hear more from recruiters who can help them land their first job — making the recruitment sector now a key vertical for Blyk. Check out the full article here, personally as I graduate next year I think this could potentially be a fantastic new service.

Now let’s look at what the Blyk has been sending me over the last two weeks.

Monday 4th August

A fashion forecast mms, detailing the weather and suggesting clothes to wear during the week. I also received a MMS from DJ Logan, telling me his hot tune for this week within the MMS was a preview of one of the tracks. Today was also refill day for me so I received 217 texts and 43 Minutes.

Tuesday 5th August

I received a SMS asking who I think you should be evicted from big brother, I did not reply big brother does not interest me at all. I also got an SMS asking if I wanted a sports update of either the football, tennis or the F1. I again decline their offer.

Wednesday 6th August

A SMS from good old STA offering student discount on BA flights at STA travel the message contained a mobile link (still stuck behind Blyk’s walled internet garden). However I have had my holiday for this year so not much use!

Thursday 7th August

I received a SMS from Blyk asking if I wanted an exclusive Blyk ringtone, I replied however it was shockingly bad so I deleted it.

Friday 8th August

Last week, I said I was sick of lottery adverts I thought it must be impossible for them to run another campaign. Well I was completely off the mark they can, The National Lottery has launched a free online game and as a Blyk member I get exclusive FREE screensavers and wallpapers. Yawn! How rubbish! How is going to make me want to play the lottery? If I have already ignored the last 15 campaigns from the lottery. Blyk also sent me an MMS informing me that I invited a friend to Blyk in the next three weeks they would give me £10 free credit.

Saturday 9th August

A SMS giving me an opportunity to win 10 CDs, all I had to do was ask a question to a member of The Strokes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Strokes). The top 10 questions will be posed to the band member and published on the Blyk Blog. I also received a SMS giving me the opportunity to receive a mini review of three films currently in the cinema.

Sunday 10th August

Today I received a SMS giving me the opportunity to receive a free ring tone from Peggy Sue and the Pictures, after the last shocking ringtone I decided to decline Blyk’s very kind offer .

Monday 11h August

Another fashion forecast MMS and another MMS from DJ Logan with his top 5 however this week the sample clip comes from Wiley’s new song. I also received a SMS from Blyk music telling me they had a new artist on their books called Little Jackie and if I wanted I could receive a free wallpaper, you can guess my response LOL.

Tuesday 12th August

A profiling SMS from Blyk asking what events I had been watching on the Olympics, I replied with the swimming and I received a reply back telling me to watch out for more updates on the on Blyk soon. I also received a MMS which contained all the latest information on what is going on in the Big Brother house, at the bottom of the MMS was a link to more info and that it was free of charge. All the link does is open a page and says all content after this page is chargeable this really annoys me what is the point in putting the free link in? Why not just link directly warning users it is not free of charge!

Wednesday 13th August

A message asking how I heard about the NatWest Student Account, another profiling question clearly NatWest is trying to find out the most effective way of communicating with its target audience. I then received another profiling SMS asking this time how I would open my student bank account (eg online, in store or on the phone). Finally the last message was informing me that I could receive a free student rail card for opening a NatWest bank account and a free phone number that I could ring to apply.

Friday 15th August

A received a SMS from some band asking if I wanted a free wallpaper, I simply did not reply. I then received a profiling SMS from Blyk asking how the UK’s recession was affecting me the options were not really, yes a bit and yes a lot. It will be very interesting to see the results when Blyk decide to publish the results on its blog.

Firstly I would like to correct my last Blykwatch post. I mentioned that Blyk did not provide PAC codes, I have now found out they do so apologies for my error there.

I returned back to the UK on the 25th of July and after recovering from my jet lag I looked at my Blyk sim and thought right let’s see if we can get this up and running again. I was dreading it especially after speaking to Samantha who is STILL having a lot of problems (she will be blogging more about her problems soon) , and last time I came back from being abroad it took nearly a week to get it sorted. However it worked yes first time I received all my settings and their test MMS.
Happy Days!

Saturday 26th July
A SMS message today STA travel advertising holidays from £99 and a mobile link as well, however I just came back from my holiday. I also received a MMS brand message from pot noodle which contained a video clip of their advert and a mobile site with the option to download more videos and ringtones. Finally I received a SMS question from Blyk about you-tube and the sort of clips I liked to watch (eg funny, sports, music), and they responded by telling me I can check out Blyk animation on YouTube. Do they think I am 8? In fact I think they are that good you all should take a look.

Monday 28th July
The usual fashion forecast came in the form of an MMS. I received a SMS from a Dj Logan Sam’s (I had to Google him as well), the SMS asked if I wanted to know his top ten, I replied and received a MMS which had his top5 and a sample of a hot new grime tune. Hmm this would have been great if I knew who the DJ had been, but Blyk know that I live nowhere near London.

Tuesday 29th July
An SMS asking what sport I would like to be updated on, I replied football and received a SMS update. Cool in my opinion. I also received a SMS asking if I wanted a free ringtone from Casso Blax , not my sort of music however there was a link to a mobile site to download the free ringtone.

Wednesday 30th July
A SMS from Blyk giving me the opportunity to win a competition and the prize was to be in Lemar’s new dance video. I did not enter as they were shooting the video in Clapham. However a good competition in my view.

Thursday 31st July
I received a SMS asking what I thought about the pot noodle averts I received on Saturday. In my opinion they should have sent this out a few hours after they sent out the advert not a few days later.

Friday 1st August
An SMS from total film asking if I wanted a mini review of certain films and they gave the option of three, I did not reply as the new batman film was not an option and this is then next film I am planning on seeing in the cinema. I also received a SMS asking if I wanted to see the new WKD advert that will be shown in the cinemas, this messages started off alright fella, now I did not like this simply because this is how some of my friends would start their SMS messages to me. It was probably done so the message was not seen as an advert, however I feel that it’s clear its advert so why try and pretend it’s not. I did however respond and viewed the advert.

That is a review of all the messages I received. As the title of the post suggests I am getting a bit board, I think that there needs to be something more from this service. I mean for example let’s take a look at the cinema review question, why was I firstly restricted to three films they had chosen? Why could I not reply batman and they send me a review, and then maybe ask if I wanted to know the times it was playing at my local cinema?

Blyk are heavily promoting a lot of new and upcoming bands, which is great you know they send you free ringtones and competitions and all that. I think there music promotions are a success with me, I may not like their music but I still read and listen what they send me. One band Blyk promoted is now in the charts Alphabeat (I think Ewan saw them at the Blyk birthday party), I remember wow I actually heard about them from Blyk! That’s pretty cool! It’s the other things that are boring there is a lot of repetition, if I see another advert from t3 or the national lottery I think I will scream. The one product advert that in my opinion that has been the best so far was the Lucozade one, I think they sent a SMS initially about sports drinks, then they showed an advert then they sent a voucher for some money off. It’s great I think Domino’s have done something very similar.

I would defiantly like to see the introduction of stopping certain brands sending you adverts but I can also imagine this would never happen as the brands are funding the free calls and texts.
So come on Blyk send me some more exciting campaigns please!

On other Blyk news it seems they are advertising very aggressively on social network site and applications. I was speaking to Samantha today on MSN and we both said how we had seen lots of adverts on facebook and MSN messenger, in fact whilst I was writing about this I was speaking to James Whatley and a Blyk advert popped up. Below is a screenshot!

Blykwatch will be back again next week and as usual any comments or questions, please post below or feel free to email me ricky@smstextnews.com

Above is a photo of where I will be spending a week of my holiday however it’s not all relaxation , I will be looking how the mobile markets are over there and how normobs are using their phones, so standby for a blog post about that when I get back if I have anything interesting to report!

Ok enough about where I am spending my holiday, time to look at the issue at hand Blyk.

Two weeks ago I reported that I would tell you about roaming on Blyk as I saw a post on the forum that said Blyk have some roaming partners very soon. I got excited, ok sad I know but I did so a scribbled an email to member care and got a response. It seems like Blyk have had to push back plans for roaming partners therefore guess what Nada nothing I can’t use my Blyk sim outside the UK. Even Tesco Mobile have bloody roaming, surely it’s not hard for MVNO’s to have roaming partners as they just use the same one as their host network. So a dropped them another email, about call divert (if I can’t roam surely I can divert my calls to my primary handset), yeah you guessed it they don’t support it, along with Premium SMS messages, Delivery Reports, the option to turn off voicemail and PAC codes (you can see why Blyk has lots of members, you can’t leave them with your own number). It just really frustrates me as Blyk has been about nearly a year and yet we don’t have all the basic features of a pay as you go provider, yet there are announcing that they are expanding. Hellooo we in the UK have massive problems and not many features and yet they think they can expand. Good luck to them I say, they will need it!

All the stuff above I can live with JUST, if I had a decent service, which currently Blyk Members are still not receiving. The regularly readers will know over the past month we have had to endure the multiple messages saga and now the current issue is to with settings and receiving MMS messages from Blyk (Communication Error). Luckily my issues since my last post have been pretty much resolved and things are work normally yet on the forum you the same issues keep coming up and up. I generally believe member care has no idea how to resolve the issues and it’s quite worrying. Over the past week one Blyk member was told by member care to go online to look at the forums for answer, another member who had issues receiving settings was told to put the sim in another location outside their current post code (roughly about 1 mile away) and wait 4 hours for the settings to come through. What a complete joke, I can’t believe customer care at a mobile operator are suggesting such things. It seems that Blyk are taking a holiday in regards to the forums as well as their staff response is very low over the past week and members are stuck helping each other to get their service working again.

All very worrying don’t you think? I have no idea what’s going on at customer care at Blyk, however whatever it is they need to sort it out quickly before they start losing customers. I have said it before and I will say it again when Blyk works, it is a really good service but it’s all these little issues all the time that annoy and ultimately stop me switching my primary handset to them.
Now let’s look at the brand messages I have been receiving;

Saturday 28th June

MMS brand message advertising for Pure Urban Essentials 2008, looks like a wicked album it is on a must to buy, at the bottom of the message was to enter a draw to win a Sony Ericsson w890i. Which I entered of course!

Sunday 29th June

A sms advertising the film AdultHood, now this contained a mobile link. The mini site had reviews, synopsis trailers and ringtones to download as well. WICKED, this is what I have been talking about for month’s mobile content I can browse and download what I want instead of being sent information by MMS. I love it a great feature of Blyk. Imagine me chatting with a mate saying what shall we see at the cinema, instead of both saying don’t know, I can say look, whip out my phone and show him the trailer and the review!

Monday 30th June

A fashion forecast mms, detailing the weather and suggesting clothes to wear during the week. I also received a sms advertising a new single from The Long Blonds and giving me a web link where I can buy the song for 50p. Finally I received a MMS with a short video clip from Ironik, who and I quote from the MMS ‘The UK’s hottest new urban artist’, they also tell me I can get the track on itunes or buy it in the shops and a link to his myspace. I kind of liked the song from the clip so I may YouTube to see what the whole thing is like. In fact here is the link. I kind of like it, however I will wait for the comments that say otherwise.

Tuesday 1st July

A usual MMS from t3 talking about High Definition to terrestrial, nothing new I find t3 messages quite boring now. I also received a MMS big brother update.

Friday 4th July

A sms asking if I won last week on the lottery, I hardly think if I won I would respond to Blyk ad’s however I did reply with no and I was sent a MMS telling me I would receive £1 off!

Saturday 5th July
A sms from STA informing me out BA student fares with a mobile link; however it seems the link is not compatible with my phone and it just says unsupported content. Oh well!

That’s all for this week! The next scheduled edition of BlykWatch is not until Monday 4th August, however with Blyk you know when the next edition will come.

My account is now on Pause and I am officially on Holiday!

—

So who had 7 days before Blyk screwed up for me again?! The dreaded communication’s error is back again! This time everything I have tried (Sim reset, Phone reset and even putting the sim in another phone) and I still get this stupid error! If you want to know more about it read about in my blog posts.

I am really stuck as to what the problem is, I am about 99% sure its not my phone because firstly it has been working fine receiving brand messages and then all of a sudden it just stops! The phone works fine on T-Mobile UK. I know on my previous posts someone suggested is reflash the handset! Firstly I looked into doing that last time and had no success, but I don’t see why I should have to! This problem is relatively common on the forums, so I am sure it is an issue with Blyk!

I am going to now email customer care and see what there response is!

Ahh the joy’s of Blyk sometime I just want to throw my phone at a brick wall it’s that annoying!!

Just logged onto the forums and there are about 10 posts about this issue! Seems to be Blyk specific!

—

Response from Blyk Member Care

Hi Ricky,

The Blyk Technical Team is currently working on the GPRS issue and testing is taking place to find a resolution.

A time scale has not been given for this to be resolved, however Blyk are striving to rectify this as quickly as possible.

Sorry for the inconvenience caused.

Regards,

Greg
Blyk Member Care

—

Yes!! I can honestly say that after about 5 weeks of problems, they all seem to be fixed! Touch Wood!

I will be looking at the adverts I received over the past week later on, however first a few items I picked up from the Blyk Blogs.

The first is that Blyk has announced its sponsorship of the D&AD New Blood 2008 Awards and an 18-month relationship with the D&AD 2009 Student Award programme. Full details can be read here!
The most interesting point I wanted to bring to your attention was the fact there were sponsoring the D&AD 2009 Student Award programme. It great to hear that Blyk are supporting schemes that are promoting talent from its target market.
The second is from the Blyk UK Blog and this is about questions Blyk poses to its members! Below are the results from some of the questions Blyk Members (including myself) have been answering over the past month.

42% of you think the prospect of a Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse collaboration would be any good

45% of you aged 18 and over voted in the recent local elections

Kiss FM is your radio station of choice

One fifth of you told us you don’t revise for exams

34% of you would prefer to spend a bank holiday weekend in bed, ahead of going shopping 31% or going to a music festival 23%

Levis is clearly your favourite Jeans brand, popular with 56% of you, second with just 6% was Armani

90% of you worry that your skin doesn’t look so good

Dubai is your favourite holiday destination, New York was second

Nearly half of you get your music from friends just 19% of you get your music from high street stores

The stuff is gold dust to Blyk’s advertiser’s or potential advertisers! It paints an interesting picture of a typical Blyk user I think!

Blyk is also asking for people to send in suggestions of questions it can pose to its members.
What would you like to ask?

We’d also like you to suggest some questions that you would like Blyk members to answer. Just create a question with some possible answers (like how Blyk creates them) and chances are we’ll send it out. We’re selecting 5 of our favourites every month. Email your suggestions with your name, where you live, your age and your mobile number to ask.blyk@blyk.com.

This is something I will be doing; however I do not think Blyk will send out messages to its members asking if they think the Blyk service is unreliable! J Ha Ha!

Now let’s look at the messages I have received over the past week! In all honesty nothing that interesting, just quite a few of Blyk’s profiling questions were posed.

Monday 16th June
A SMS profiling question asking Do you like the ads on the social networks you use? My response I don’t really care, Blyk’s response Blyk tries to send you messages from the brands you like.

Tuesday 17th June

A MMS promoting B-LIVE (http://www.bacardi.com/#/uk/en-gb/bacardispirit/) an event from Bacardi and the opportunity to hear a sample from 3 of the dj’s from the event! I received a short mp3 clip back in an MMS but also free mobile web link! Although it was still within Blyk’s walled web garden, it was actually at least a proper mobile web site.

Thursday 19th June
A SMS from Blyk thanking me for inviting a friend to Blyk and although I did not win the concert tickets in the USA, a DVD will be sent out! Wicked last week a CD(which was actually quite good), this week a DVD.

Saturday 21st June

A SMS Question asking if I went to the National Graduate Recruitment Exhibition, something I requested more details about in an advert a few weeks ago! My response was No, BLYK’s response was; Not to worry lots of advice and answers can still be found online at gradjobs.co.uk! A web link, a shame no mobile version at all.

I also received a SMS from Bacardi.com asking me to reply with my email (I did hopefully they won’t SPAM me to death), so they can send me the latest info about music news, events and video’s! This is a new method of advertising and something I have not seen from Blyk before.

Sunday 22nd June

Firstly a SMS question asking if it was right to kick Alexandra out of the Big Brother House, as I don’t watch Big Brother I did not reply.

Secondly I received the same profiling SMS that I got on Monday 16th June! Hardly a big issue in comparison to the problems we have had recently, however still mildly annoying!

That’s it really for this week, next week in particular I will be looking at roaming with Blyk and of course I will be reviewing the adverts I receive over the following week!

Once again Ricky fills us in with the comings and goings of Blyk

—

Blyk SMS Servers are currently down!

Let’s look at the issue of multiple messages, I can now tell you that this issue seems to be resolved for the time being. Over the last month I and the other member’s have had to endure this issue. If you check out last week’s podcast , Ewan talked to some people he knew and they thought they could solve the problems in about 20 minutes. 20 minutes and we have had to put a month with it, really bad customer service in my view.

The second issue of some messages not being delivered is still an issue! With no delivery reports and the messages being taken from your monthly allowance, there is no way to know if a message is delivered. Blyk SMS servers having being playing up over the last month, but I don’t think Blyk have realised the amount of damage it is doing to the reputation of its company. Yes they give me 217 free messages a month, but it’s no good if there service is not reliable, I would rather pay and be guaranteed that messages are being delivered. This is something I have raised on the forums, however the Blyk team are quick to tell me that this is the only service in the UK that gives free minutes and texts we no requirement to top up! Hmm I don’t think they quite understand the true issue! I mean look at 3 UK, they were looked upon as a joke for years and known for its bad reliability and issues, it has taken a lot of time and money to get them where they are today with a good reputation.

The third issue is about the dreaded communication error which is being received by some members when receiving MMS brand messages. If you read last week’s issue you will see the problems I had, which meant that I had to put my Blyk sim in a spare phone. Firstly thanks to all the advice I received on how to fix the problem, I did a full rest and did a sim reset and it worked! So for me it seems the issue is resolved, however I see regular posts on the forum with the same issue with all brads of phones. I have a feeling that this might be a major issue for Blyk, but as its not directly affecting me there is little more I can say about it, but it seems that the problems are not fixed for everyone.

The final issue that affected all Blyk Members was on Saturday 14th of June, where Blyk’s SMS Server was down for 24 hours. Firstly when trying to send a message I received the error message failed, fair enough understandable, but about 6pm on Saturday messages started to say sent as normal. However although they were saying sent they were not delivering, it was like this for another 15 hours! You can imagine the forum was full of posts asking why their texts were not being delivered. Now to be fair there were Blyk customer service reps answering posts until about 11pm, however all they were saying was that their sms server was having issues. No estimated time of being fixed or what was actually wrong with them. I even said to the customer support team they should close their SMSC whilst it was being fixed so people knew there were problems, because it would give an error message when trying to send a message. For the members who do not use the forum, they would have had no idea last night there messages were not being delivered. I think it’s very bad customer service! I discussed this with a Blyk member who replies Samantha occasionally on Blyk Watch posts! She told me that she had no idea about the SMS problems yesterday, but more interestingly in occurred last Monday as well!

I am writing this on Sunday 15th of June, and although the service was seemed to be fixed this morning, it again seems to be the case that messages are not being delivered again! It’s so annoying it’s like going to KFC and them having no chicken!

As you have read this week edition I am sure you have picked up my biggest issue customer service, I really wish that Blyk was more honest with its members so when they have issues its members know about them, and they are resolved as quickly as possible not over a month later!

Over the last week, it has really made me think who are Blyk’s customers? The obvious answer is of course its advertisers and members, but the way Blyk treats its members it feels like the advertisers are the most important to them. As long as there campaigns are successful, which they are trust me Blyk are getting impressive results it seems like the attitude is F*** the members. Although I am not paying for the minutes and calls on Blyk, I am indirectly by receiving and responding to the adverts. I think BLYK need to have a long hard think about the impression it is leaving on its members. Blyk does not advertise on television or radio, its key advertising method is us the members, something I think they seem to have forgotten.

I posed the following question to Samantha (a Blyk User); who do you think are Blyk customers? Advertisers or members?
Her response is below;
Well, the advertisers are the customers, we the members are consumers. The difference between the two? Well, the advertisers get paid to be listened to; they know straight off from the start that when they pay for their advertising through Blyk they will have the response they paid for. They know that they won’t have to wait for someone on a forum to respond to their concerns, and more importantly, they know because they have the money they are far more powerful than the Blyk CEO’s.
Whereas there is you and me, the average Blyk user. I don’t pay for the service, why should I? It’s advertised as a free Mobile Network, and that is exactly what it is. However, because of that, although I’m constantly told that “Blyk appreciates the positive criticism”, that really they know they have me. No matter how much I dislike the service, am I really going to go back and pay five pounds a month on Virgin Mobile, when I can have it all for free?
I’m the consumer, because I feed off of the freebies, which I’m guessing (and I hate generalisations such as this), but the Blyk target audience also love freebies.
Therefore, in short, the advertisers are the customers.

I know this week edition is very negative about Blyk, so therefore I will end on a positive point. I received a free album from Blyk on Saturday 15th June from The Envy Corps! Fantastic, how many of you out there have received an album from your mobile operator!? None, I bet unless you are on BLYK of course! I have enclosed a picture below!

All Blyk members who entered a competition were sent out a copy of the album, fantastic! I don’t remember entering a competition however it may have just been responding to one of their adverts! Either way I am extremely happy!

Blyk the innovation is there, now just don’t forget you are a mobile operator as well!

Blykwatch will resume hopefully normally next week! With info about the adverts I have received!

For the regular readers of this column you will know the format is generally I discuss anything I want to and then move on to explain and describe my interactions with the adverts BLYK send me. However this week I will not be able to cover the adverts for the last 14 days, this is due to more problems on BLYK and me going on a short holiday.

Firstly let’s look at the current multiple SMS problem; we are on 29 days and counting….. There is nothing I can further add about this problem that has not been covered by previous editions. All I ask anyone from BLYK reading this column, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE sort this issue out ASAP!!!!

Now let’s move onto some NEW problems. Until Friday 30th May, I had no problems receiving BLYK MMS messages and then all of the sudden I received an error message Communication Error, this occurred when the MMS tried to be downloaded. I thought to myself ok no problem there must be an issue with my settings, no problem I did a full system reset and tried to get the settings resent to my phone. As part of receiving the settings BLYK also send you a welcome MMS, and yet again I had the same problem. So I went online sent customer care an email and on the forum, and was informed that there was intermittent problems with Sony Ericsson phones and downloading MMS message. Great another problem to the current list those BLYK members have to endure.

Since I was flying out to Prague and Vienna the next day, I decided to put my account into pause. This is where you stop receiving brand messages, and you can’t use your free balance and simply turns your account in essence into a normal pay as you go orange sim, with once exception with crap roaming. Currently Blyk users can only use their phone in Spain, and brand messages are not sent when abroad and you cannot use your free balance. Hold on exciting news, BLYK have added more countries to their list France, Italy, USA, Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal and the best bit you must have credit on your phone. Can you sense the sarcasm? I know Blyk is small and new but surely they can use Orange’s roaming partners? I understand the bit about no brand messages and no free balance, but that your account must have credit is ridiculous and surely against Blyk’s free model. As a result I could not take my phone abroad and receive SMS messages from my friends. Luckily BLYK is not my main line, therefore this did affect me directly however for those who use BLYK as their only number, surely this will affect them.

Since returning back to the UK on Friday, I again tried to reset up BLYK on my phone to no avail, in fact BLYK’s system tried to send me settings over and over again. I am sure this is linked to the multiple text problems, mentioned at the start of this post. Still on my k550i, I cannot set up BLYK; however I now have it working on a spare k750i and my account is unpaused and receiving MMS messages again. If I was an advertiser with BLYK I would be worried, as it seems there is an issue with some Sony Ericsson phone and the ability to receive MMS brand messages.

Finally BLYK has another SMS issue on it’s hands, it seems on the last few days that a problem has manifested itself that messages are coming out of people’s free balance and are not be receiving at all and with no delivery reports no one knows what has got through at all.

Oh dear it’s not good news really for BLYK especially as SMS is the main communication method for Blyk’s target audience and it is very worrying that things are taking such a long time to get fixed. I thought I would publish some comments that have appeared on the Blyk forum of how some of the members are feeling about the current problems.

I have been “testing” Blyk since January…thankfully its not my main number! I never felt the service was reliable enough to make Blyk my main number. Im just growing weary of the failed texts..pity, the Blyk idea is a good one, let down by poor technology.

I know the service is free, and I did consider to change over but at the moment I’m testing and as far as I can tell its not the best.

I think ive been patient…for 6 months! When the service works its great…but it just isnt reliable! Im sick of random texts never being delivered..and I have no way to know which ones make it and which ones dont!! Arghh!!. Please, please just tell me…are delivery reports EVER going to happen…and you cant say “youre looking into it!”. If they are unlikly to ever be part of the Blyk service id rather know now and maybe I can move on.

In direct response to the above quotes here is a response from member care

I am sorry that you are angry about this,
With delivery reports, they will not work at the moment and it is something we are looking into. I know that’s not what you wanted to hear but its what’s happening. For the moment though they will not work and probably wont for some time. I’m not saying that they will never be on Blyk but for the moment they wont.
Our tech team are working extremely hard at the moment to fix any issues and personally i am impressed at how hard they are working.
Remember this is the Only service in the UK that gives you free texts and calls with no contract and that Blyk has only been running since September. Now as our Member numbers increase errors that were not around before are now showing. As with anything, new trial and error are a big part of things.
All i can ask is that you show some more of that amazing patients again and wait until these errors are sorted.

I have to agree the model works; it just needs to be backed up by reliable network service, something we just are not getting at the moment.
As you can see things are happening with BLYK very quickly and as a result this column will become weekly, so I can keep you updated with what’s going on with BLYK!

—

Thanks Ricky! Remember Blykwatch is going to be published weekly, so stay tuned!

The biggest issue is the multiple texts problem — texts are being duplicated multiple times — and it’s driving him and the other users nuts. I did promise Ricky that we’d stick a day counter on the site if the problems weren’t fixed after 21 days.

Well it seems that it’s, what, 28 days now? Something like that. We’ll see what he’s got to report shortly and go from there.

Ricky, our BlykWatch correspondent, came across this rather smart o2 viral challenge for students. 40 multiple choice questions that you have to answer as soon as possible. Get as many points as you can for your Uni and win a bucketload of iTunes and National Express vouchers.

Here’s the a pic of chap doing the competition intro:

Check the Facebook profile here.

Ricky is back with his Blykwatch…and he thinks a little C.P.R. is necessary.
—

Lifeguard needed to save BLYK

Firstly contrary to what both Ewan and James Whatley promised on the podcast there will be no pictures of me in Speedos and running on the beach. If that’s what you are into check out this YouTube link.

Joking aside, let’s look at the last two weeks of using BLYK. For those of you who are regular readers and listeners will know that over the last 2 weeks, there was an extra blog post about the current SMS issues and the issues has been raised on the last two podcasts. The problem is all SMS sent through the BLYK network and brand messages received from BLYK repeat up to 5 times, the worst bit these can be spaced hours apart. The result is you receive lots of annoying messages throughout the day below is an example with SMS conversation with my friends who is on BLYK.

The 1streply was received 19:40 the same message was then delivered 4 more times at 19:55, 20:05, 20:20 and 22:30. During this time I also received some of his other replies duplicated and triplicated, in the end I actually gave up and just rang him. He also told me that similar thing was happening with my replies and he was confused by what was going on.

The same happens with SMS brand messages eg I received one message at 19:48, it was then delivered 3 more times at 19:49 and then at 20:04 and then 21:31.

As you can imagine utter confusion, when I get a SMS on my BLYK phone I wonder if it is going to be something new or just an echo of a message I have already received. This issue has been going for 14 DAYS, 14 DAYS and to be completely honest if BLYK was main line (luckily it isn’t I have a T-Mobile contract), I would have said BYE BYE BLYK and left. The reason is reliability firstly I think my friends would be extremely annoyed if my messages repeated themselves for two weeks (I think two or three days they would understand the situation , but 14 days and still counting is not). The other thing as a university student (and many of BLYK’s members are) who lives away from home I need my network to be reliable, as it’s the only way people can reach me by phone, if BLYK can not sort an issue like this quickly what would they do if I could not make calls, would it take them 14 days to fix that as well?

I may come across as being quite critical at the current issues, especially as I have never topped up my BLYK phone since I got it in November 2007, however I feel the issues I have raised are very important to me and the other BLYK members. The forums are covered in posts asking about the multiple text problem and some members concerned they are paying for each multiple text however although the customer care forum team responds quickly assuring members they are not being charged multiple times they still have no date when the problem will be fixed.

I did however receive a call from customer care and they left me a voicemail on Friday 23rd May, which I expect was due to the extra blog post that was published on here the day before. The voicemail asked if clarify some of the issues I have been having, however I was not carrying my BLYK phone so was unable to speak with them.

I just hope BLYK can sort this out sooner rather then later; otherwise the threat of losing customers may be very real.

Now its time to look at the brand messages, I have received over the last two weeks.

Monday 12th April 2008

I received a fashion forecast MMS, this is basically outlining the weather for the following week and some suggestions of what types of clothes to wear, pretty handy as a weather report for the upcoming week. I received a SMS from a member of customer care telling me that the new survey we discussed was online, for more details about the data survey check out last weeks blykwatch.
I also received a MMS telling me the band The Futureheads had joined BLYK music and I could receive a free wallpaper for my phone.

Wednesday 14th April 2008

A profiling SMS asking how I played the national lottery, online, instore or on my mobile. I replied saying in store and I received a reply back saying online is much better as you can’t lose the ticket and it saves trees. There was also a web link with an exclusive offer for one free play at www.lottofreetoken.co.uk.

Thursday 15th April 2008

Firstly a SMS asking if I had bought The Kooks new album (The Kooks have signed up with BLYK music). I replied back with a no and I received a SMS telling me I can buy it in shops and I can listen to some tracks on their MySpace (www.myspace.com/thekooks). I also received a SMS whether I listened to Radio 1 during their coverage of their big weekend (more details click here). I replied No and I was sent a web link where I could look at the highlights, Wicked!!!
I also received a MMS from t3 telling me to have a look at the universe at the following link www.worldwidetelescope.org. Looks like a very nice bit of software similar to Google Earth but for the universe!

Friday 16th April 2008

A MMS advert from the lottery telling me about the same offer as before however they also gave the estimated jackpot for tonight Euro Millions Draw!

Saturday 17th April 2008

A SMS advert from the lottery, telling me the estimated jackpot for tonight, they also asked if I wanted more updates from the lottery, I did not reply I think I have had enough lottery updates for the time being. I also received a SMS from STA travel telling me their sale was now on!

Saturday 17th April 2008

A SMS advert from the lottery, telling me the estimated jackpot for tonight, they also asked if I wanted more updates from the lottery, I did not reply I think I have had enough lottery updates for the time being. I also received a SMS from STA travel telling me their sale was now on!

Sunday 18th April 2008

A SMS from BLYK and STA Travel offering a competition to win a lonely plant guide, all I had to was reply with a dream travel destination to win one! I love competitions like this from BLYK that are free to enter and all you have to do is just reply back!

Monday 19th April 2008

I received another fashion forecast for the upcoming week in a MMS. I also received a MMS from the Futurheads, telling me their album release date and a sound clip!

Thursday 22nd April 2008

A profiling SMS asking how I top up after using my free balance, I did not reply. I also received a MMS from Toddla T, telling me the release date of his new single, a link to his MySpace and also a small sound clip!

Saturday 24th April 2008

I received two adverts sent by MMS today; one was from WKD and the other from COORS. I also was given the opportunity to send feedback by SMS about the adverts.

Sunday 25th April 2008

Today I was sent a brain challenge via MMS. It was a mathematical question regarding dice and I was given the option of three answers, I answered incorrectly however they sent me a reply and the correct way to get the answer. Kind of cool, however there was no brand associated so was kind of an odd message to receive.

That’s covers the last two weeks on using BLYK, as usual if you have any question please feel free to post them below, or free to email Ewan, who will pass them on to me.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled SMS Text News reading for this special Blykwatch from Ricky….

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BLYK network problems, 7 days later STILL NOT FIXED!!

I was not due to report for another 7 days however I feel the need to write an update with what is going on with their SMS problems. I first reported the problems on last week’s BLYK WATCH however over 7 days later the problem is still not fixed.

The problem is that every SMS I send and every SMS brand message I receive off BLYK I receive multiple times (maximum of 5 times). It is the most ANNOYING ANNOYING (sorry J) thing in the world and what’s worse is that they all don’t deliver at the same time but spaced out; it makes txt conversations very confusing to understand. Ok so we know BLYK is new (7 months old) and has only recently hit 100,000 members so it’s a very small fish compared to other MVNO’s in the UK like Virgin. However 7 days (and still waiting) to fix this problem is really not acceptable, if BLYK was my primary number (which it isn’t thank god) I would be pretty very annoyed. I have posted on the forum and sent an email to member care, you are going to love their responses

Hi,

Thank you for the information given, this will be passed onto the Technical Team so they can investigate this for you.

As soon as Blyk Member Care have some more information regarding this issue, we will contact you.

Regards,

Blyk Member Care

BLYK’s email response is above

As soon as Blyk have some more information regarding multiple texts. A notification will be given.

Is the response on the forums, what an absolute joke no apology no nothing, it was only a few weeks ago I reported how much I loved BLYK here well to be honest my opinion is changing.

BLYK had problems at the start of February, they sorted those problems out within 24 hours, so this time why is it taking so long!

I suggested then, they have a service status on the BLYK website, and I suggested it again in the forums over the last week, their response was they have a monthly newsletter where they publish information about scheduled maintenance. Well the current problems are NOT in the newsletter I received last week, so to be honest I view that as a waste of time!

BLYK needs to get off its arse and sort this problem out NOW, before people request their PAC code (they cannot do that as BLYK do not have the facility to offer PAC codes) jump to a Pay as you Go provider that can provide a reliable service!

Ricky’s back again with his Blykwatch update…

—

Hola readers
Well this edition was probably going to be pretty boring, a simple update of what messages I received and that’s about it. However, today (Sunday 11th May) has made this edition an interesting one.

Firstly let’s tackle the network problems, currently BLYK’s SMS servers are not working correctly and is sending multiple copies of each text messaging sent, but it is also sending multiple copies of brand messages, very very annoying! I picked this problem up in the forum, as you know BLYK is not my main number so as a result I very rarely send SMS with the service, however I just sent a test to myself and I have received it a total of four times so far. I know BLYK is new and problems are bound to occur, however I recommend they have a service status page on their homepage or to let people know by email or SMS so they know there are issues. So far there has been no date given to when this problem will be fixed. BLYK are achieving great results in terms of response to ads, however for it to be a real success they need to sort out this issue ASAP if there are problem with the network people will not be as keen to sign up if BLYK is known as being unreliable.

The second big thing is that BLYK may be taking the issue of data quite seriously. For the regular readers of this mini blog you will know I regularly rant about data all the time, for those of you who read the main blog as well will know that the founders of BLYK do not believe that their target audience wants mobile internet! Personally and also many members of the forum, disagree with this and there are large amount of threads asking for some data allowance or competitive bundles. As a result of this I created a poll asking if they would like data as part of their allowance and what they would use it for, the poll has been up for a few days however today I received a phone call from a member of BLYK staff who moderates the forum called Kyle. We know that staff at BLYK read what I write in this column but also we know in the past they have been very quick to sort out any problems, so the call was no surprise. Kyle was very supportive of the poll and said it was a great thing, however pointed out that I did not ask whether members would be willing to lower their text amount or call allowance. I agreed with him that the survey was flawed however I handed over the account so he can see the responses I had received so far! He has also agreed to set up a new poll that would be more accurate. He told me to leave this in his hands and he would get a new poll up in the next few days. It’s great to hear that BLYK are actually listening to its members, usually the response on the forum is that the suggestion will be passed on to head office.

Are BLYK looking at this more seriously because I write this column? The answer is probably yes, however at least the issue of data is now on their radar! I hope in the future I will have good news to report!

No Messages until the 28th April 2008

Monday 28th April 2008

A sms brand messages advertising the TV show Celebrity Rehab on Fiver, there was also a mobile internet link with ability to download a trailer for free! Happy Days, much better then giving me a mobile link that I cannot click on as I have no credit! (Something they have done in the past!! )

Tuesday 29th April 2008

An MMS brand message from a band called The Envy Corps, with a small sound clip! A sms from t3 wanting to know if I wanted to read a review about GTA 4! Of course I replied back and I received a mini review off t3 in a MMS!

Wednesday 30th April 2008

I received a MMS money saving tip, telling me if i had some of student loan left or if I had an interest free overdraft then to put this into an interesting building account and I can make money! There was no company associated with this message and I found it odd why BLYK would recommend its users to do this!

Thursday 1st April 2008

A SMS from BLYK letting me know the competition they are running to win a trip to the USA to see a band is being extended! Pretty cool, I defiantly made sure some of my mates used their invite codes!

Friday 2nd April 2008

I got a sms telling where I can download the new Coldplay track for free from their website (www.coldplay.com) and the release date of the new album!

Monday 5th April 2008

I got an MMS fashion forecast telling me what I should wear and the expected weather of the upcoming week, I also got a sound clip from the band Parka’s upcoming album!

Tuesday 6th April 2008

A SMS from t3 asking how much I paid if I bought In Rainbows by Radiohead for, and I received a MMS back from t3 telling me the average price paid £287, it also promoted Coldplay’s new free song from their new album!

Wednesday 7th April 2008

Refill Day! 43 Minutes, 217 Texts and 5 new invites to invite my friends to BLYK! I also received a profiling SMS from BLYK asking if I used the BLYK website? I replied yes and I was sent another question on how it could be improved! I replied back saying the forums the forums are really badly designed, but also BLYK site does not like Firefox and as a result I have to use IE!

Thursday 8th April 2008

A MMS from STA Travel, this week offering me a trip to South America for 439GBP and I also was sent a discount code that gave me 20 GBP off when I spent over 150 GBP. They also sent me an 0871 number which I can ring for free with my BLYK balance (COOL) and a standard web link! (NOT COOL! Why not a mobile link BLYK)

Saturday 10th April 2008

A MMS from The National Lottery, telling me to open an account online and I will get 5GBP credit, they even sent a free mobile link with it! Great I was thinking over the mobile site pretty much tells me the same as the MMS they sent me, so to do anything I would have to go to a computer to sign up! RUBBISH!

Sunday 11th April 2008

I got a MMS from The KOOKS today, saying that I could get a free wallpaper for my phone, well I replied back and I actually got a free wallpaper and also some information about the release of their new album! Pretty Cool! I also received a profiling sms asking which sports brands I liked!

That covers the last two weeks of my usage and interaction of BLYK. If you are interested in some of BLYK’s campaigns and their response rate you should check out The BLYK media site!

As usual if you have any question please feel free to post them below, or free to email Ewan (ewan@smstextnews.com), who will pass them on to me. I also just want to say a massive thanks to all the good press the column has had recently its fantastic to hear that people who are not enjoy in the age demographic can see what is happing with BLYK!

Blyk watcher Ricky is back once again with what’s been happening the past couple weeks.

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BLYK goes Innovative!

Hello it’s time to update you all on my past two weeks of BLYK watching, at the end of the post two weeks ago , I said I wanted BLYK to be innovative well as you read on you will find they only went and delivered. The other thing is that the column has changed from being weekly to fortnightly!

I will jump straight in (as Ewan would say) and you can read my additional comments at the end.

Monday 31st March 2008

No brand messages!

Tuesday 1st April 2008

April Fool’s day and BLYK took part by sending its members a message if they wanted ‘Touch of Spring – BLYK’s air freshening scent directly through your phone’s speaker’, well I obviously decided to play along and say yes, thinking they would send me a cheesy ringtone. Instead I got a message back saying April Fools! It seems like the advertising team and Ewan have a similar crap sense of humour! Ha Ha!!

I also received a brand MMS from Nizlopi (JCB song Fame) sending me a short clip from their new album! It’s ok however it’s no JCB song!

Wednesday 2nd April 2008

A SMS telling me I had been entered into a draw to win an intimate Nizlopi gig! I also received a MMS from The Kooks about their new album; it has a small sound clip. It sounded really good so I need to put it on the student shopping list, for when my student loan comes through!

Thursday 3rd April 2008

Another competition SMS from BLYK asking for a film review in less than 160 characters (1 SMS), however I have not been to the cinema recently so I did not reply.

Friday 4th April 2008

SMS advert from Beat Stevie Crew, if you read my post about their last advert http://www.smstextnews.com/2008/02/blykwatch_-_paranoid_diarist_absinthe_and_a_student_that_actually_does_essays.html, you will not be surprised to hear that I did not take them up on their offer to see their latest clip. I also received a few MMS adverts from Heat magazine.

Saturday 5th April 2008

SMS Advert from BLYK asking if I wanted to receive messages from gambling services, I replied Yes however I hope the SMS was only sent to the BLYK users over the age of 18. It would be worrying if they did not, anyway I replied with Yes. They sent me another SMS with a free click through able link (WOOO!). However they page after was chargeable so, again BLYK teased but did not offer the full experience!

Sunday 6th April 2008

REFILL DAY!!!

Monday 7th April 2008

No messages!

Tuesday 8th April 2008

A MMS from Lethal Bizzle (one of the original artists to join up with BLYK), sending out the dates of his tour! Great, love the fact they sending me useful information!

Wednesday 9th April 2008

No messages!

Thursday 10th April 2008

BLYK sent me a MMS informing the winner of the film competition from the 3rd of April and they sent the review out as well!

Friday 11th April 2008

BLYK sent me a MMS advert reminding me the different methods of getting a BLYK invite code, and that I get 5 a month! It seems that BLYK are on a recruitment drive! I also received a MMS telling me about the Rolling Stones movie, which is out in cinema’s today which a normal web link within the message (rubbish)! I also received another t3 review!

Saturday 12th April 2008

I said at the start BLYK has gone innovative and today proved it! Firstly I get a SMS telling me that some brand messages may contain a code that can give you discount or a freebie (always a good word in the student dictionary), all I have to do is show the code to a shop that has a pay point terminal! About an hour later my phone bleeped and a got a code for free bottle of Lucozade! WICKED absolutely wicked, just what I wanted a freebie! BLYK is scoring massive points! To make my day even better they offered me a free ringtone from Jamster, however I had to pay the GPRS charges. With no credit on my account I was unable to do it! Finally to finish the week they sent me a profiling question asking which social networking sites I used, I replied with facebook and they sent me a link of facebook’s mobile site, and reminded me I would have to pay data charges!

To summarise my thoughts of BLYK of the last two weeks they are doing some really cool things and I can imagine when they set up the network this is what they had in mind! The idea of codes by SMS for freebies and discount is amazing; I am yet to try my Lucozade code however I will trying it next time I see a shop with pay point! There are a few niggles like if they send me a click through link it should be free and if they offer me a free ringtone this should include data charges! They also seem to be listing to some of the suggestions I make in this column i.e. more innovation and sending out the winners film review for all to read, instead like last time with the joke competition posting on their blog!

If BLYK sort out the click through ad’s and including a bit a data in the free allowance I can really seeing BLYK being a massive success!

On a final point if BLYK are delivering on my suggestions, my final one for this week would be for an n95 for the writer of BLYK Watch!

Antti Öhrling, Co-Founder of Blyk, was at the APA conference yesterday discussing the latest advertising trends.

This video is worth a look if you’d like a good introduction to what Blyk, the ad-funded MVNO, is doing. You’ll get some excellent stats (29% response rate!) and some example adverts together with example responses from the Blyk customers.

(Thanks Ricky)

By the way, BlykWatch 8 will be published shortly.

Back once again is Blyk Master Ricky ready to instill his great Blyk wisdom upon us.

—

Sunday 16th March 2008

A SMS from MTV Base telling me about some special shows this week! Kind of Cool!

Monday 17th March 2008

Firstly a MMS informing me of that the band Operator Please (I still have never heard of them except from BLYK) is releasing their album and they highlighted that Zane Lowe (radio 1 DJ) and NME think they are good. The best bit was the interactive content, a sound clip of one of their songs, ok so it’s not my music but hopefully BLYK realises that this is what we want! I also received a second MMS from a band called the Metros with yes you guessed it a short mp3 clip. When you press listen with my phone (k550i), I had the option to set it as my ringtone now that is potentially a cool feature, BLYK sends me a short clip and within a matter a seconds it can be my ringtone!

Tuesday 18th March 2008

Can you guess what I am going to say, yup another mp3 clip of a new single from that band everyone (well BLYK anyway) have heard of Operator Please, however there was a competition as well to win one of their signed records. I entered sadly I did not receive a reply back so I am presuming I did not win!
I received a SMS from T3 tech news asking what I would want to add to my bed, a) iPod dock b) Hi Def projector and C) mattress heating. I replied with B) of course, no reply came back to me though!

Finally I got a MMS from T3, telling BLYK customers are being offered a special gift of either free headphones, HDMI cables (WOOP bet they are fun) or 3 issues of T3 for 1p. It asked if I was interested and points me to a website…. NO NO NO is what I am thinking, there should be a mobile site which I can access for free so I can see what headphones I could get. My view is there are trying to sell me something then make it easy not hard by making me go on to a computer. So I never did subscribe, oh well!
No brand messages until the 22nd of March

Saturday 22nd March 2008

A MMS from BLYK telling me I can now top up in the post office! Cool, handy to know if I ever needed it, as yet I have had the sim for nearly 6 months and I have not topped up!
I also received a SMS from BLYK asking to reply with a joke and the funniest would win 500 texts. Again something new and cool, I replied with a rubbish joke. Will I win? I doubt it LOL!

Sunday 23nd March 2008
No Brand messages

Monday 24th March 2008

A SMS from another band called the Long Blondes, giving me a myspace link and telling me their record is out now in the shops!

Tuesday 25th March 2008

A SMS from T3 (again) asking if I wanted to read a short review on a laptop from Ferrari. Go on I thought, since it was free I replied with a Yes. They sent me a small review and a picture in the form of MMS, only one thing was missing the price but somehow I think it would be out of my price range.

Wednesday 26th March 2008

No messages!

Thursday 27th March 2008

A message from…. t3 (wow they really want me to buy their magazine). It was just another small MMS review about IPod Docks. I would go into more details however the T3 messages are starting to bore me.

Friday 28th March 2008

A SMS from BLYK concerning the joke competition, telling me the winner was online on the BLYK blog. They could have a least sent it to me by SMS! I also received a SMS from STA Travel asking if I wanted to fly to South America for GBP439! Lovely, however slightly out of price range, however they did include a free phone number which I tried and it came out of my BLYK free balance and there was also another useless web links.

No brand messages on the 29th and 30th March!

From reading my diary you can probably guess my one big issue and that is simply the number of web links being sent to me in MMS messages. None of the sites have a mobile version included within the BLYK portal, something I think BLYK is seriously missing out on. When they send me a link I want to be able to see it there and then, NOT when I get home, they would be better of me sending me an email not MMS if that was the case.

Another issue is the bombardment of messages on some days and sometimes you get nothing for a few days, if they spread them out a bit more to make a more even spread of adverts and less repetitiveness like the T3 ones. Yes the content is different however the delivery and style of the messages is EXACTLY the same every time. I want BLYK to be innovative and interesting like when they send me short mp3 clips.

A couple of operational issues I would also want to bring up, I read on the BLYK forum that they do not have the facility to PAC a number away from their network and the customer was told to wait three months! 3 Bloody Months, what an absolute joke and on the same issue we are still waiting for delivery reports and the ability to MMS other UK networks. They will be available in the ‘foreseeable future’; hmm it seems that BLYK is not competing with the big boys just yet!

Time to catch up with our Blykwatcher Ricky Chotai. He’s starting to get a little bored of Blyk when nothing is happening, but will there be light at the end of the tunnel? Read on to find out…

—

Firstly apologies another quite short post, again been very busy and to be honest nothing much is going on with BLYK.

Monday 25th February 2008

No brand messages today.

Tuesday 26h February 2008

An information SMS from BLYK informing if they send me a MMS then I should reply by SMS. Something I suggested on the forums as soon as BLYK was set up. It is important and some people may be easily mistaken to reply by MMS (something I did)

Wednesday 27th February 2008

No brand messages.

Thursday 28st February 2008

An information text telling me the BLYK portal is free to browse. This is great; however one big problem there is nothing of use on it except your balance. I am not sure what I am wanting put something to keep me entertained, facebook or even MSN messenger. Something I will happily receive more brand messages in return for.
I also received a question on what I though were the coolest brands. I replied back saying BLYK (just to be a geek)! Maybe they will be give more some more free minutes for being praising of them!

Friday 29th February 2008

I got an information SMS from BLYK telling me BLYK will try to get cool brands on board. Quite clearly the exercise was they were struggling for ideas of brands so they though hey let’s text our members and see what they think. Do you know what an amazing idea, however it should not be clear to me as customer what they were doing. What I would have done if I was the CEO of BLYK was reply to all members saying Pepsi was number 1 in the list and Pizza Hut was number 2, not tell them that I was looking for new brands because I was struggling with advertisers (which in my opinion BLYK is)!

Saturday 1st of March 2008

No messages at all today!

Sunday 2nd March 2008

No Brand messages.

I am getting bored with BLYK to be honest, when it first started out I was getting a few brand messages a day and lots of user interaction. Currently there is little of that going on, if I was BLYK and had no advertisers I would be learning my customer as well as I could! I would be at least be sending profiling texts? Eg Do you like mobile phones? I would reply Yes! BLYK then tells me the latest handsets it is getting in.

Now you are reading this and thinking this kid is asking for SPAM texts? Nope when I signed up to BLYK I agreed to receive X amount of Brand messages a day, so if they sent me a few a day, I honestly don’t mind. If I have time or I believe it is relevant to me I would reply. As a student SMSing is not a chore for me, it is part of my daily life.

Whilst I am on suggestion mode I have been researching some more about ad funded networks, especially as BLYK is looking to expand into the European Market. BLYK is not the only one (now BLYK don’t worry I am not setting up a rival) but over in the US they have Mosh Mobile

Now let’s have a look the first thing a status page of the network. Well this would have been great for BLYK a few weeks ago when their network was down.

They have two plans (wow now if BLYK incorporated that more customers I am sure will join), the people who are low users can have less free stuff and those willing to have more adverts they get more. Makes sense to me! If you see their plans they offer free myspace, facebook and twitter! Well BLYK come on, catch up! It’s what us kids want.

Now if BLYK take the T-Mobile’s FLEXT approach and allocate a certain amount each month it is sure to be success, FLEXT was and still is the killer tariff to have as a student. You are not fixed which is the great thing! Now add data, voice, SMS, MMS combination and BLYK would be a HUGE success. Especially if you have different plans for different about of brand messages received.

So if you have loads of money take my ideas and beat BLYK at its own game, or BLYK if you want to hire me, you can for a small fee of course !

—

Monday 3rd March 2008

A SMS from Pied Piper records letting me know a new band called Koop (www.myspace.com/koopa) with a link their myspace. I actually went online had a quick listen. Not really my thing though.

Tuesday 4th March

A SMS from t3 (http://www.t3.com/) the gadget website, asking what I thought was the best budget DVD player. I replied with one of the options and I was sent a MMS review! Pretty Cool!

Wednesday 5th March

I received a SMS asking if I rated Cesc Fabregas, knowing nothing about football (odd I know) I replied yes and then I got a reply back saying I should watch the game about Wigan Athletic on Sunday on Sky Sports!

Thursday 6th March

REFILL Day! Yay! This time no 5am SMS , but a 9am SMS instead and email as well. Getting better BLYK maybe a bit later next month! Lol 9am is too early to wake up on a Thursday!
I got a MMS advert from a band called Operators Please (www.myspace.com/operatorplease), the coolest thing was they sent an mp3 Clip. Wasn’t my sort of music but a cool idea!
I must say BLYK is getting better and better in the types of ad’s it is sending.

Friday 7th March

Another SMS advert from T3, asking what I thought was the best gadget, I replied the Wii (it’s amazing J). However they sent me an MMS back telling me the winner was the IPod touch and another mini review.

Saturday 8th March

A MMS advert from m3, the mobile social network and they sent me a link to an ad online however; it said was that if I clicked continue I would be charge. A bit rubbish to be honest, I thought I would have a least got a mini preview.

Sunday 9th March

Nothing

Monday 10th March

Nothing

Tuesday 12th March

Just a reminder SMS from BLYK telling me how I can check my remaining free balance either by SMS or by browsing the BLYK portal (for free).

Wednesday 13th March

A MMS advert from Future publishing asking which console I preferred, I replied with the Wii. I received a reply offering 3 issues if the official Nintendo magazine for just £3.

Thursday 14th March

Nothing

Friday 15th March

Nothing!

Two weeks combined into one Blog, this was simply due to having loads of deadlines this week. However I have now completed them and I am on vacation for 3 weeks from university.

This is normally the part of the blog where I start ranting and raving, however this week I have nothing to say apart from the adverts are really applicable to me and they are much more interesting these days. The other thing is that BLYK is a saviour as I have nearly used up all my FLEXT allowance, so it is a easy way to ensure I do not go over my allowance and start to get billed.(not a good thing for a student )

The final thing is a quick update about twitter and BLYK, I now have been receiving updates (mainly from SMS text news) on my BLYK number and its working really well. I would link it to my main number (T-Mobile) but I think having Google calendar SMS updates (check them out they are really cool) and twitter and all my normal SMS conversations all on one number is just too many SMS’s on one number (LOL)!

This week’s BlykWatch from Ricky Chotai covers a lot of ground. Let’s jump right in (I’m going to comment inline):

- – -

Monday 18th February 2008
No brand messages today, so I thought I would try something new, twitter. I saw that the blog had an item about it so I signed up with my Blyk number. I was always dubious about signed up in case I got reverse SMS billed, but as my Blyk sim has no credit I decided to give it a go. All signed up and now I am getting SMS updates from smstextnews.com (link) and some of my other site for free. Quite a cool service, shame it is not used by a lot of people here in the UK!

The Blyk forum has a service announcement stating Blyk will be undergoing routine maintenance on Tuesday, 19 February between 3am and 7am. This may temporarily interrupt SMS messaging during these hours. Blyk apologises for any inconvenience caused.

Hopefully in the morning things shall be fixed, for the whole of today SMS has been delayed or not sending.

Tuesday 19th February 2008No brand messages again today, SMS is fixed and working well. All I received are twitter updates from smstextnews.

I’m pleased Twitter’s working well for you, Ricky

Wednesday 20th February 2008
Nothing received at all today, all services are working normally. However I saw some Blyk reps on campus today, getting people to sign up. They however did not approach me (maybe I am on their most wanted list) or they did not see me as a potential Blyk user. Oh well!

Or perhaps they already knew you were a customer! For all those naysayers who regularly tell me that Blyk is going nowhere (or similar), don’t forget that, for the most part, we in the industry generally hear and see nothing about Blyk as we’re not the target audience. It’s good to hear that the street teams — or campus teams — are out and about signing up new students.

Thursday 21st February 2008
Blyk sent me a message telling me it loves my replies and telling me how I can reply to brand messages. Having A Blyk sim for nearly 4 to 5 months and that I reply to all the messages I can, I felt this was a pointless sms.

Aye. One man’s pointless is another man’s useful. I’d like to see Blyk humanise some of their communications as it’s clear from Ricky’s experience that he feels he is interacting with a brand. I think it’s always much better to interact with a human representative of a brand. So, for example, it’d be fun to see how Ricky and the Blyk audience would react to receiving updates from someone around their age (e.g. ‘Hi, I’m Stephanie, 25 from London and Blyk’s head of customer liaison. We love getting your replies so if you’ve any questions on using Blyk, just let me know.’) I think it’s all too easy in today’s cynical marketing world for customers to get disenfranchised quickly.

Friday 22nd February 2008
Received a message asking if I wanted a clip of Will Farrell’s trailer. I of course replied with a yes. I received a MMS with the clip great stuff, at the end of the message there was a look to see the whole trailer. It had the lovely ^ which meant I could see it for free. However after clicking on the link it tells me I need to top up. Rubbish, Blyk should not use ^ symbol if they want me to pay, and honestly who would pay to watch a trailer I am sure I can go on-line and watch for it free on youtube!

Ah this is a key issue that I think Blyk will need to act on at some point. Free should mean free. I wonder how many opened the MMS but didn’t bother clicking through? If it’s a cost issue on the advertiser’s side, the media buyer needs their head looked at. They should fund the campaign to ensure that every customer can view the trailer free of charge. Silly.

Saturday 23rd February 2008
No messages at all today!

Sunday 24th February 2008
Blyk sent me a message informing it values my responses but makes it clear that responses are free only when I see the ^ symbol. Hmm well it wasn’t free on the trailer I received a few days ago, oh well.

That’s all from me for another week, apologies if it was quite a brief blog this week, just the bare facts not had much free time to play around and test the service.

This is due to uni work and trying to save our university radio station from collapsing (I am the treasurer). So if anyone is reading this who is rich and wants to sponsor a student radio station in Manchester in the UK. Drop Ewan an email, oh and Blyk I still await your response

Ricky

- – -

Thanks for that Ricky, interesting, interesting.

Ricky Chotai’s back with another BlykWatch column charting his experience of UK ad-funded MVNO, Blyk. This week, amongst other things, Ricky points out that Blyk’s ‘free texts and calls’ model is missing what many youngsters are now demanding: data.

- – -

Monday 11th February 2008
A brand message from Blyk Music today, letting me know a new single by the Long Blonds was being played for the first time on radio one. A good SMS, however I have no idea who they are, and honestly I do not care. However had it been a band/ artist I liked it would have been a really useful SMS.

Tuesday 12th February 2008
No brand messages today, oh well. However I would like to talk about the arrival of the magic E (The what?) Well it’s the first time I have seen the symbol, (it’s a new phone) so I am sure it indicates that I can use the faster internet with EDGE. I thought, ‘that’s great I have never had an EDGE phone before now and never tried the speed.’

However as a Blyk user, I can only browse the Blyk portal at no charge — and it’s really boring — all it tells me how many minutes and texts I have left. Blyk: Please please give me some free data, so I can go on mobile messenger and check my Facebook. I am not asking for loads just a bit of data to do these things. I know Orange Blyk’s partner in the UK has rubbish rates for data but Blyk, come on sort it out, you are missing out on what your target audience want.

Wednesday 13th February 2008
BLYK launches in the Netherlands — that’s what I learnt from the forum today. Thinking about it it’s great news especially if I could use my free balance on other BLYK networks, a bit like Three-like-home. However no plans were mentioned about this as yet. I hope they do, imagine what the other networks would do???

I received a brand message from swatch, telling me I could win a trip to Paris for me and my loved one ( I don’t have one BLYK, I ticked that box saying that I am single). I could enter via the web or by calling into the store in London, great if you live in London I don’t so not very good for me and I couldn’t be bothered going on the site. One interesting points is that it said over 18′s only now did BLYK send it to all its members or only the over 18′s, I wonder???

Another brand message from HEAT magazine, I deleted that one very quickly.

I also received a personal text from Lucy from member care. Last night I tried to update my email (I have just changed email address) and guess what? There was no option anywhere on the site to change it! So I had to email member care, and I got a nice SMS back from Lucy telling me she had changed it. Nice personal touch however a bog standard email reply would have done! I replied back saying thank you, but I suspect I don’t think it actually got back to my friend Lucy.

Thursday 14th February 2008
Valentine’s Day and I got another MMS from Swatch asking me if ‘my moves were hot’? I replied (for free of course) and I got a reply saying they weren’t. Heh. However their advice was to buy a loved one a swatch. Firstly I am bloody single, I filled in BLYKs profiling questions, and the second is a Swatch? Are they being serious I have not topped my BLYK phone up and they want me to buy a swatch. Wonders will never cease….

Another brand message from The Long Blonds, this time telling me locations of their gigs and where I can buy tickets. Another great message had it been about someone I liked, I still have not listened to any of The Long Blonds, maybe I should!!

Finally 2 missed calls from a withheld number, mystery lover perhaps? I have no idea who it was as I missed them. However it could be one of the chief’s of BLYK? Who knows??? BLYK do of course!! J

Friday 15th February 2008
I got 2 messages today, one telling I can reply to certain brand messages for free. Well Duuh, if they bothered to look on the system they would see that I have been doing that. Sometimes I think BLYK know so much about me, so why not send relevant messages, one of the ways BLYK was sold was that BLYK learns and interacts with you…. Well not with me, or maybe it just takes a long time to learn?? Ha Ha

Another Heat scoop, however asking me a question however I was in the pub so I could not be bothered to reply.

The other important thing is that as I am writing this at about 2am Saturday Morning I cannot send any texts. Looks like BLYK’s SMS server is playing up. Again.

Saturday 16th February 2008
Messages are not sending all of today, sometimes they say sent but don’t deliver other times there are delays on the texts. However I have no idea which, so I have been using my main phone to send ALL my texts. Posted on the forum and the engineers are aware of the problem. Why do they not email every member or SMS us??? I am slowly getting used to these problems now but it just means I cannot rely on my messages being sent!

Brand message from STA travel asking if I wanted to go trekking to Thailand, sadly I did not take them up on their offer for GBP 135. However if you willing to pay for me just get in contact with Ewan!

Sunday 17th February 2008
Sunday the day of rest, for most of us, not if you are BLYK engineer fixing their SMS server which has been intermittent all day.

Some messages are still not being sent and you have to resend it. Delivery reports are still not operational so you never really know. I have just sent another test and they are now delivering with a small time delay.

BLYK also has a new SMS tag for outgoing texts, it reads ‘Discover Cooling Crystals with Colgate Max Fresh’ now the previous ones advertising BLYK were not so bad but this new one does not make much sense. Imagine texting your friend about what time you are meeting and finding that tagged on the end!

That’s another week of me using a BLYK. The only thing I wish to add is that if BLYK are trying to contact me (I am convinced they are watching me), email Ewan who can gladly forward any emails to me. The only question is what do they want from me????

- – -

Just a little love, Ricky

Another interesting week on the BlykWatch. Data could very well be a key offering for many of Blyk’s target audience…

The first BlykWatch diary posted last week has been very well received, judging by the phenomenal response from a wide array of readers. I agree with reader, Tom, who emailed in saying that it’s excellent to ‘get an insider look into the service’. Since you can’t easily join Blyk (most analysts, investors and indeed, anyone with a passing interest in MVNO activities, is generally well outside the Blyk target age), it’s actually quite a challenge to experience the service.

Right then, here’s Ricky’s latest entry.

- – -
Tuesday 5th February 2008
No brand messages today, however I did have a missed call from a withheld number (which is strange as very few people have my Blyk number). I suspect it was Blyk contacting me in regards to the issue of signal dropping. Whilst I was browsing the support forums, I saw another member post about similar signal problems to me. I sent another email to member care pointing them to the post. I await their response in anticipation.

Wednesday 6th February 2008
Firstly today I received another Heat MMS about Lilly Allan, this was very quickly deleted. I received that about 12:15 in the afternoon. I also received two emails from member care from ‘Gareth’, the first telling me at 12:25 that he was passing it along to their technical team but in his opinion it was down to orange signal. This annoyed me slightly as I stated in my original email that I had checked signal in the same location with a spare Orange prepay sim and I got full signal. I then received another email at 14:15 asking for further details requested by the technical team. They asked me to specify:

- Dates of when signal dropped
- Times of when signal dropped
- Locations where signal dropped?

Exhaustive.

I also received two phone calls from a withheld number and one answer phone message during the day. Yes you guessed it was Blyk! To be more precise my friend ‘Gareth’. I missed both his calls as I was in university; however his voicemail was simply repeating his last email. Sadly I am in university all day, and can’t really use my phone. So I have emailed customer care saying I do not have the detailed information they want but will keep a look out if it happens again.

As part of this mini blog I have been reading (and contributing) a lot to the Blyk forums, where I read about many members having issues with porting their numbers, SMS not being sent and even issues with customer care not being helpful. The thing I wonder is whether my issues are getting extra attention since I am publicly writing BlykWatch. So far I have received excellent customer care, yet on the forum ‘Joe Blogs’ does not necessarily seem to receive the same level of service.

This evening I was struggling to SMS to my friend on Vodafone UK. I had to resend it four times before it went through. I posted the problem up on the forum. Hopefully I will receive an email from customer care tomorrow about signal issues!

Thursday 7th February 2008
The worst day in Blyk’s history to date, today the free credit system ‘broke’. This meant for the early part of the day I could not make calls and I simply heard the message that I needed to top up. This also meant that whenever I tried to SMS I got an auto message back saying I needed to top up. The Blyk GPRS Portal is also down.

The situation in the afternoon and evening was that SMS were saying sent however I have since found out that they were not being received. I was quite annoyed as Blyk in no way made contact by email, sms or even on their home page about the problems. The call situation was fixed earlier tonight. I logged into the forum and found some big issues associated with the current problems.

I found out that people who had credit on their sim, had found out that their credit had been used up instead of their free messages and minutes. The Blyk helpline is still overwhelmed, and the forums are full of posts asking about the problems. So basically a lot of customers do not know what is going on and in regards to SMS are presuming that they are being sent. When they are not! Not good.

Currently SMS is still broken hopefully the sort this issue out ASAP.

In regards to the signal issues I mentioned about yesterday they emailed me back and asked for further details if it happens again.

Friday 8th February 2008

Well Blyk sms servers were down for about 24 hours, if Blyk was my main network would I think about switching… the answer is very simply yes. I could not risk having my main network that could go down at anytime. As Ewan said in his article the target audience of Blyk are entirely 100% dial tone intolerant, in the 7 years I have owned a mobile I have never experienced such massive issues.

However Blyk did send a sms to all affecting member, actually something I suggested on their support forum last night (did they read it or were they going do it anyway? Who knows?) I said it a few days ago and I will say it again: I have this feeling the ‘Big Chiefs’ are watching my account and my posts on the forum. I may be paranoid but Blyk appeared to make no public effort to tell customers what the problems were yet when Ewan emailed them he received the following reply.

From Jonathan, Sales Director at Blyk:

We recently had an incident that impacted some of our members and the issue was caused as a result of an NSN issue to which they have made the below statement:

‘Blyk and Nokia Siemens Networks have seamlessly worked in good collaboration and there have been several upgrades and expansions to the network causing no trouble whatsoever to Blyk members. This time, an unfortunate human factor came into the picture and a procedure we’ve gone trough several times, failed – causing this incident. We regret all of the trouble for the Blyk members. Now the failure has been corrected and the Blyk service works again as it should.”

Because it was an isolated incident we’re communicating this to the affected members by sms and are posting an update on our forum.

Well I can tell you this now there has been nothing on the forum! Hmm…

There is just one other thing I want to mention tonight, If I was in Blyk’s current situation, what would I do? Well the whole network works on people wanting free stuff, I would give them some free sms and minutes to compensate for the problems. Why? I hear you ask, they have already apologised — well quite simply, I am a poor student, a few extra minutes and texts would make me think Blyk actually cares about its members and are willing to go above and beyond what is expected.

One last point no brand messages over the last 2 days.

Saturday 9th February 2008
I received two messages from Blyk today one from STA [STA Travel] and another from some called ‘Beat Stevie’. The STA was a simple a SMS asking if I was sick of deadlines and essays and telling me that I can leave it all behind! The funny thing was I was doing a big project for university (I know you are thinking yeah right!) however it was very true! All STA supplied was their telephone number, having only come back from Berlin a few weeks ago I did not respond to the SMS!

The next was from someone called Beat Stevie, invited me to watch their latest clip. So of course I replied and I received a MMS, it was a video of a coffin being burnt with absinthe. This was very odd and a link to a YouTube mini site. I had a quick look and I really did not want to spend a long time looking to be honest. They seemed to film things and put them on the tube also they seemed to be on Channel 4 as well. In my honest opinion I have never heard of them before, and I found the advert very distasteful, I felt that there should have been a warning before the sent the MMS. It surprised me that Blyk wants to associate itself with this sort of content.

Sunday 10th February 2008
No brand messages today. I thought I would talk about the Blyk support forum as there is nothing else to report. The forum is open to all members and is moderated by the customer care team. I check it daily and there are two major issues that come up all the time.

Firstly people have trouble setting their phone up; I see post, after post, after post. I think Blyk needs to send more help with its SIM packs. For someone who has a keen interest in phones I have no trouble, however it seems the average Blyk user isn’t quite capable of understanding how to setup their handset. I think Blyk should compile a list of known problems and remedies and send it in an email or in the post to all new members. The other issue is that some phones simply do not work with Blyk, the most obvious example are windows mobile devices even though they are MMS compatible. I asked on the support forums why do Blyk produce a list of known phones that do not work instead of telling users that ‘all you need is an MMS phone’. The answer I was told was that they could not do that. WHY? Hopefully they Blyk chiefs are reading this blog: Surely if you have a list of compatible devices, it will mean people will not order a SIM if they don’t have a phone that works, and this will mean less hassle for the customer care team? And I will not have to read about in the forum on every other post!!

Number porting is a big problem. 5 days OFCOM says it should take! Well not if you are a Blyk member, more like three months. There are still people on the forum if have not had this sorted out. On behalf of these people, Blyk sort it out ASAP please.

To summarise, well… what a week for Blyk! But this clearly shows some big issues in the service Blyk provides and has identified some key problems.

If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact Ewan who will forward them onto me. I will try my best to get the answer.

That’s all from me this week!

- – -

Thanks Ricky!

Setting aside the ball dropping by Nokia Siemens Networks last week, it is really interesting to read how Blyk are responding to their customers. Although there’s quite possibly a focus on Ricky since he’s BlykWatching for SMS Text News, I’m very encouraged by the apparent prompt response of the customer care team. It’s only through tracking down annoying signal glitches and forwarding to the network teams for resolution that some bugs can be ironed out. It’s encouraging to hear that customer services are apparently active on the forums too. Listening and responding is critical for this audience.

I’ve some absolutely stonking data that I got with Blyk’s permission highlighting just how effective their offering is — I’ll post on this shortly.

Ricky Chotai, our BlykWatch columnist, wasn’t due to report in until next week’s scheduled update — however we interrupt today’s regularly featured content to bring you this BlykWatch missive.

Ricky reports that Blyk appears to have suffered some manner of service interruption. There’s nothing about the issue on the Blyk blog or the Blyk press release section so I’ve been unable to verify this.

Ricky writes with his experience…

- – -

Today Blyk’s free balance enquiry service ‘broke’.

The balance service is useful if you had free minutes you could not ring and had to listen to a recorded message telling you to top up. Voice calls seem to have been fixed now though. SMS same situation and still broken, messages were saying sent but never reached their destination (this is still the case). Earlier Blyk was auto replying saying you had run out of free text messages when you had not. The Blyk GPRS portal is still down. Big Big problems.

It was worse for those who had topped up with credit, Blyk reportedly used their credit up when calls were made to the balance enquiry service!

Blyk customer support is really overwhelmed massive queues and you guessed it — you’re using more of your free balance or top up when you call because of the massive waiting time.

So even more unhappy people. The Blyk forum is full of posts asking what is happening…

All Blyk appear to be telling customers (via the forum and on the phone) is that the matter is in the technical department’s hands.

This will be one big mess to sort out!

They have no public announcement on its homepage and made no effort to contact customers by text or email. So basically a lot of customers do not know what is going on and in regards to SMS are presuming that they are being sent. When they are not. Not good.

- – -

Well, on the basis that this is a widespread issue, this will be an interesting scenario for Blyk to deal with. Massive technical failure (or so it appears) does happen.. it’s how you handle it that matters. The critical problem is perception.

Ricky still had service — from his T-Mobile handset, his primary handset. Blyk will need to act fast to ally the fears of their customers — as I’m sure the early Blyk research will have established, this target audience — the 18-25s — are entirely 100% dialtone intolerant. That is, they have never ever picked up a normal working landline phone and found no dialtone. So if it ‘ain’t working’, it will take miliseconds for the majority to mentally switch to what they’ll perceive to be a ‘real’ operator.

Blyk can fix it though. Good communication and a few smart initiatives should work. I’ve emailed their PR for a viewpoint.

UPDATE: 7am San Francisco — I just received this update from Jonathan, Sales Director at Blyk:

We recently had an incident that impacted some of our members and the issue was caused as a result of an NSN issue to which they have made the below statement:

‘Blyk and Nokia Siemens Networks have seamlessly worked in good collaboration and there have been several upgrades and expansions to the network causing no trouble whatsoever to Blyk members. This time, an unfortunate human factor came into the picture and a procedure we´ve gone trough several times, failed – causing this incident. We regret all of the trouble for the Blyk members. Now the failure has been corrected and the Blyk service works again as it should.”

Because it was an isolated incident we’re communicating this to the affected members by sms and are posting an update on our forum.

Thanks for the update Jonathan!

I’ve been following Blyk, the UK (and soon to be international) advertising-based MVNO for a long time — ever since it was a glint in the milkman’s eye — or, more precisely, ever since news of it publicly broke a long time ago.

I did a count last week — I routinely get about 10 questions or calls about Blyk a week from various parties wanting to know more, particularly information starved analysts wanting to see how things are getting on in reality with Blyk.

(I still get people asking me about Lethal Weapon when I mention ‘Blyk’ (background here). I still have a pretty good feeling about them. I reckon they’re in the right place.)

My biggest issue with Blyk is the entirely arbitrary 217 texts and 43 minutes a month they give each customer. I know it’s ‘based’ on research. Just, well, I always like to look at the end-game — and I think they’d have been far better suited making it free. Entirely free. Or 1,000 minutes and 1,000 texts per month. I don’t like the temporary nature of it… I think it paints the wrong impression in the mind of the consumer: Like they’re only ‘worth’ 43 minutes each month to Blyk. That being said from what I can see, I think the team are doing well.

So what’s BlykWatch all about? Well, Ricky Chotai is 19, based in Manchester and I’ve engaged him to write a daily account of how he uses Blyk — and, crucially, to document how Blyk interacts with him. Ricky became a Blyk member right away when the service became available in November 2007. His main number is a T-Mobile UK contract so Blyk, running on an unlocked Sony Ericsson W610i, is Ricky’s second phone.

We’re going to give BlykWatch a go and see how we get on — it’ll main comprise of Ricky’s weekly account of his Blyk interactions. However if you’ve got questions, send me a note and I’ll put them to Ricky to answer in his next report.

(Ricky Chotai is not to be confused with SMS Text News daily contributor, Ricky Cadden.)

On with the BlykWatch:

- – -

Thursday 31st January 2008
Sent a few texts with BLYK this morning, and have discovered that text tags (a small ad added to outgoing SMS messages) are no longer attached to all SMS. Logged into the BLYK forum and read that this is due members on the forum not happy with the tags and now they will only be attached to a certain number of outgoing SMS not every message. It is great to hear that BLYK is listing to its members.

I think I may have found a problem with BLYK, sometimes I lose all signal all together and then it comes back randomly. It is a very strange issue and I will pop over to the BLYK forum and see if they have any answers. I know it’s not my phone as I put an Orange sim and the signal is full. BLYK is MVNO of Orange so signal wise they should be the same!

Finally I received no brand messages today.

Friday 1st February 2008
I woke up to the sound of my phone receiving a message at 12pm, and lo and behold it was from BLYK. It was an mms of the Sony Ericsson k850i telling me I could buy it from BLYK shop unlocked for GBP279! I had no reply from my post on the forum about signal issues so I sent member care an email.

I then traveled on a virgin train from Manchester to my home town of Lancaster, for those of you who use the trains in the UK will know that Orange has an exclusive deal for signal boost on these trains. As a result I could happily chat and SMS all the way, whilst my T-Mobile phone was out of signal!

I also received a further two brand messages; one was a HEAT Scoop about Peter Andre and Jordon, which I promptly deleted and the other was from dominos pizza giving me a £5 discount code if I spent over £15. Sadly the dominoes in Lancaster do not deliver to my house so that was not happening and the voucher code runs out on Sunday. Oh well!

Saturday 2nd February 2008
One brand message received today from L’Oreal, I also had the option to reply which I did and I was sent a mms which contained a video. In my opinion it was not very interesting. That’s all for today except I am running out of minutes, however my refill is on Monday so all is ok.

Sunday 3rd February 2008
One brand message (however it was a sms not mms) today asking if I had used an online dating site, to which I replied no and I got another sms back, pointing me to www.quickflirt.com and a unique promo code. I will however not be using the code so if you want it drop me an email (in confidence of course haha).

Just a couple of quick points I received an email back from member care they told me that they had no information or known issues about signal, but they would keep a watch out. The other point today: Whilst trying to replying to the brand message, I had to send the text a few times — as the BLYK SMS server was playing up again. I feel BLYK need to move quickly getting this issue resolved as the same thing was happening a few weekends ago, and it is not showing them in a good professional light.

Refill day tomorrow!

Monday 4th February 2008
Refill day BLYK sent me a SMS at 5am telling me and my account had been refilled. 5am thank god I had my phone on silent (this was because it’s my birthday so my mates would sms me at stupid hours). No happy birthday message or anything extra from BLYK oh well!

They also set me an email at 5am telling me the same thing however it was marked as very important! Anyway I think I should not complain as it is all for free!

- – -

Fascinating, thank you Mr Chotai. It makes for interesting reading, does it not? What are they doing sending account refill messages to students at FIVE am in the morning?

It’s great to see how Ricky’s actually interacting with the messages. I remember a lot of sneers from the analysts and journalists in the room at the Blyk launch event last year who reckoned no one would bother responding. Nonsense. It’s passive entertainment. Why else would Ricky respond to a L’Oreal ad? Fair enough, he didn’t think the video was that interesting — but L’Oreal got to him through Blyk. Quite telling, too, about the Dominos 5-pound discount voucher… had he been located nearer a Dominos, would he have used the voucher? Sounds like he might have.

Not good news about the Blyk text gateway appearing to have problems. I remember they were extremely careful to point out that their technology was all under their express control. Looks like they’re still working out the kinks. Critical to fix, that.

Thanks Ricky — look forward to more from you soon.