I just tried to order an upgrade of Dreamweaver CS4 from Adobe’s absolutely rubbish online ordering system.
The problem with Adobe is that they absolutely insist on using their tools for their online services. When you want to order anything online with them, you have to learn their stupid interface.
I saw the PayPal icon as I got to the laborious rubbish checkout system.
“Brilliant, I don’t have to go and get my credit card.”
Yes, the fact that I don’t have to leave my desk and walk 10ft to get my credit card has lost MasterCard and Visa the business. PayPal wins because I know my username and password for that.
I click Check-Out.
And this is where the shite happens.
Adobe’s bollocks Flash system isn’t at all happy handling the PayPal hand-off. It’s fine when you’re dealing with their own internal systems 100%. I have managed to pay with a credit card before — enough to have given them a good few thousand pounds over the years.
I saw the system send me over to PayPal. I logged in and approved the transaction and we handed back to the Adobe ordering system.
Which played a nice little timer at me for a minute or so then told me there had ‘been a problem with my transaction’ (or words to that effect).
Great.
This is a billion dollar company screwing up right in front of me.
Couldn’t they have got it right?
I don’t care what the problem is. I need the transaction to be frictionless. If there’s an issue with the credit card (my bank(s) routinely have trouble if I use my card anywhere other than within 3 miles of my registered address) then tell me. Prompt me. Let me know what’s happened.
I logged back into PayPal and found that 168 quid has been taken from my account and is pending. It’s been sent to Adobe. But it’s pending. Whatever the hell that means.
Well that’s useless.
100% useless because it’s interrupted my day and I’m now staring at weeks worth of bollocks to resolve it.
Best case I might magically get an email tomorrow morning from a concerned Adobe customer services employee to say ’sorry about that and your order has been processed’.
Worst case I have to phone people. And explain shit. And try and get through to somebody who cares.
And I can’t be bothered. I don’t have time — I didn’t ever make the time for Adobe. I’m the one PAYING them the sodding money.
What’s interesting in this situation is that if you think I’m an annoyed customer, wait ’til you start doing business with the next generation. You’re going to love them. If you think I’m particularly intolerant to your billing and ordering system screw-ups, wait until you start doing business with today’s 14 year olds. You simply won’t get their money or their attention if you deliver service in this manner.
It’s the next generation of truly mobile, truly connected folk — the ones growing up to *rely* on Google and mobile connectivity — that are going to hammer these sorts of ordering systems.
As for me, do you remember the Richard Branson maxim of [something link] ‘give somebody bad service and they tell 10 people’?
Well, hello 250,000 Mobile Industry Review readers.
May I suggest that, for your next Adobe order, you think very carefully about purchasing with a credit card? I made the mistake of trying to use something that I’d never tried.
I’ll give it 24 hours and then I’ll start with the sodding drudgery of phoning to find out about my order.
According to Mobile Today, Phones 4u have stepped up the game in the bid to target students and are offering deals such as offering £100 of free music on any price plan.
Which is fantastic except there are not doing a very good job advertising it to us. In fact this year all the networks and retailers have generally been pretty rubbish at trying to get student customers. I attend Salford University which is located within about 8 miles of another 2 universities in Manchester. Manchester has one of the largest student populations in the country. I have seen nothing, well pretty much nothing from anyone. Are these companies stupid? Students around the country are sitting with about £1000 (I know it may not sound that much however for a student it is) in their bank account in the form of their student loan. I am not saying that students should be ripped off at all, but you would of thought the mobile industry would have thought about having a presence at freshers fair across the country?
In the last two years there was one network that got advertising to students during freshers week correct and they were Dot Mobile, OK they are in administration but they worked on wholesale, just reselling Vodafone airtime at a discounted price. I think they survived as long as they did because of being linked with the NUS.
This year I was looking forward to seeing who would be there in Dot’s place linked up with the NUS and heavily marketing their services, I thought 3 (pushing mobile broadband) and Blyk would be there. I was VERY wrong. Orange was there and I ran over to their stand (yes I am that sad), and I asked what offers they had and the free stuff they had. The reply I got was that the tariffs were the same as I could get in the Orange shop and I could enter to win a blow up orange animal.
I stood there shocked, your kidding me right a blow up orange animal?
Nope I am being 100% serious they had one to give away if I gave them my email address. No special discount if you signed up on the day, no sample handsets real or fake to be seen on their stall. Nothing, except their booklet for this month. No hard sell, in fact they did not even ask me if I had a phone at all or If i wanted a new phone. No mention of Orange Wednesday’s nothing.
I can sum this post up in pretty much one word FAIL.
If you are reading this and work for one of the network operators you really need to do much better at reaching your target audience, you need to use tools like facebook and prize giveaways and get freshers stall stands to sell your products. If you act quickly some freshers week are this week and next week but you failed miserably at getting any customers from the 20,000 students Salford has.
Standby for more posts about freshers week from Dan Pullen, who will be telling us what has been happening at his university, hopefully he will have a better expierance then me.
Phoneboy has the details.
He was trying to find his local Wal-Mart with Nokia Maps.
Predictably, it didn’t quite work.
Google Maps found it perfectly.
Gahhh.
Is that a failure of Nokia Maps? Or is it Phoneboy’s failure for not providing Nokia Maps with the exact location details?
You’d be shocked and appalled if I told you that every time I browsed the Phones 4U website they showed me the personal details of the customer currently placing an order wouldn’t you?
Well at least twice a day I walk past what would appear to be the flagship Phones 4U store on Tottenham Court Road and most days I’m treated to an unobstructed view of some poor normob’s personal details. Name, address, phone number; it’s all there in plain sight as they cross their fingers and hope they pass the credit check for that shiny new device perched on the desk in front of them.
(For the non-Londoners: Tottenham Court Road, or TCR is traditionally where people go to buy high-tech goods although in recent years it’s popularity has dwindled somewhat.)
When I strolled past the other day and took some snaps with my N95 at lunchtime nobody was actually buying a handset, which is fortunate really as I couldn’t in good conscience post a photo of some poor unwitting sap’s home address on the Internet.
So yes, that photo you see on the left is one of at least five points of sale desks with the salesman’s monitor facing out into one of the busiest streets in London just a few strides away from the exit of one of London’s busiest tube stations (the prime real estate directly outside the exit is actually taken up with a very well designed and stylish Carphone Warehouse).
Now, as you’ll notice the N95 didn’t do a great job of capturing the text on the salesman’s screen. But a 1080p high-definition camera such as the one we use for the MIR Show would easily pick up all the information on the screen.
I’m sure the Information Commissioner’s Office would have something to say about this.
In the meantime, if you really must purchase a phone from a high street store, I recommend going into the operator’s own shop or buying online… speaking of which, I always buy from the operator’s website but does anyone have any experiences to share from using a third party website to order their contract handsets?
Invisible Shield is the well-reviewed clear-plastic wrapper for mobile devices including iPods and laptops. Its incredible claim is that it protects devices making them scratch-proof. Having seen the demo videos I’ve no doubt that’s true.
One of the privileges of writing for SMS Text News is that you get to review stuff that manufacturers send out. Sure, you have to send it back eventually, but you get to give a product a good workout before buying it and recommending it to other people. This is not one of those reviews… I paid £14.99 at my local Carphone Warehouse for an iPhone 3G wrap. If you want the quick version take a look at the picture above (that’s my kitchen bin) and you know all you need to….
In slightly more depth: The pack comes with front and back covers and a small spray bottle of what looks like water. Following the instructions I peeled the front cover off its backing, sprayed it with the solution, laid it on the front of the device, lined it up and used the special plastic tool to squeegee the few bubbles away. 5 minutes later it had dried and looked great.
The back was less of a success. Whilst the front had been a simple flat-glass face, the back of the iPhone is curved and needs cut-outs for the keys, speaker, microphone and SIM tray. I applied it twice following the same routine, but the corners wouldn’t stick… I tried again and used the techniques suggested on the manufacturer’s site. Still no joy. The problem (aside from getting the cover aligned) was that the corner segments overlapped the microphone slots at the bottom and the corners wrinkled – looking as if they had too much plastic in them. I tried one last time… disaster. In removing the cover a second time some of the adhesive remained on the phone and subsequent applications gave a bubbled, cloudy appearance. After an hour and a half of trying I gave up…
Instead of both sides, I just considered keeping the front face-covering on and had a play with the device in this state. However, the Invisible Shield adds a tacky finish – ideal I would imagine for the back where you hold it – but it wasn’t pleasant in comparison with the slick feel of the iPhone’s glass screen normally. It came off.
I’ve no doubt Invisible Shield does what it says regarding protection, but it’s current iPhone 3G template (which differs significantly from that pictured on the website) didn’t fit well for me on the back of the device – the only place I’d consider using it. I can’t recommend it.
|
