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But when I phone up, I expect to get through to a Brit who will fix my problem in double-quick-time..
:) Are Voda the only network with UK staff? I know O2 does have some - although they are usually jocks - almost as difficult to understand ;)
K
By contrast, a serious issue arose on the G1 this week with the ability to execute shell commands by accident. I have a G1 and a determination never to read the manual and never to plug it in to any kind of computer. This is a serious experiment in usability for me, it is a mobile device and I want to be able to do everything over the air. I pancaked it a couple of days ago whilst we were hacked into it via telnetd command in the office. I recharged it this morning and took it out and about, as soon as powered up the home screen I got a message telling me to install the crucial update. I declined this half a dozen times throughout the day as I critically needed the device to work today. Then once I returned to my home wifi connection it prompted me again to install the update. This time I hit yes and it took about 3 minutes to download and a further 3 minutes to recompile and boot. Job done.
The answer here for all devices with HSDPA and or wifi is to push an update alert out to the phone and give the user the option to act at a time convenient to them.
Watch and learn all you other device peddlers.
However.....I will maintain that the mass market - not iPhone purchasers, not people who have ever used the mobile internet - will be extremely hard to convert to the idea of reflashing a phone to solve a problem that should never have arisen. Even if it is as easy as Dom portrays.
Most people have no idea such a thing is even possible. It would never enter their brain to think they could solve it themselves. I mean, if somefing's broke, you take it back, roight? It's them mobile geezers job to fix it, innit? Waddaya pay 'em for eh?
I mean, most of the country is still shit scared of anything other than voice & text, because every month or so the tabloids run another '£2500 mobile bill' scare story about the dog biting your phone and initiating a stream of Hollyoaks on your daughter's prepay that only stopped because the battery went flat.
/m
If you've installed Desktop Manager, it should have informed you that there's a new version of the firmware out there. If not, visit the Vodafone Blackberry firmware update site. Download, install, flash. Done.
Money is no guarantee of quality. Take a look at the number of Ferraris recalled in the last few years.
(all comments are my own, natch)
Sorry Terence, but what customer service / experience planet do you live on? Do you SERIOUSLY expect normobs who have forked out £500 to 'install Desktop manager....download, install, flash"?
no. No. NO. They will return the phone. They will not accept that it is THEIR responsability to get it working.
People like Ewan's dad will probably terminate every Voda contract they and their family, their neighbours and colleagues have in disgust at such an approach.
You_must_be_joking.
Ewan is partly correct. Parts of the industry are shit. Specifically, the parts (and people) that release handsets so obviously lacking in appropriate test / release processes as to allow such a glaring fault to go public.
/m
I can see that the majority of computer based applications have went this way - Windows OSs, Adobe Eeader, Firefox etc.
Is it time that handsets go down this route as well?
The way forward has been here all along: Don't give the customer something that's broken and then expect them to fix it.
I'm sure if there was a firmware upgrade that enhanced functionality a very small number of users would take up that offer - like N95 users upgrading firmware. 1-2%? maybe?
Everyone else just expects it to work.
FOTA is good for security patches, but little else. Forcing a customer to upgrade is not a good thing.
Having worked in the device management industry for some time I can point to a number of instances of FOTA being used to retrospectively apply a fix to anything from missing softkeys and broken menu structures to dodgy power management processes (last year there was a spate of new devices being shipped with wifi activated on start-up / within weeks the returns rate was enormous because batteries were delivering less than 24hrs).
Under the OMA's FUMO standard, and subsequent SCOMO standard the ability to manage not only the firmware layer but the application layer is gaining momentum.
Unfortunately, the European market has been slow to react. FOTA is a regular maintenance tool for many US and Asian networks.
You've obviously never used Windows Vista!
Every consumer computer - from the BBC Micro to the iPhone has had post launch enhancements. Yes, your £20 DVD player should just work - but if you want it to work better, you should update it.
I absolutely agree that things should work first time - and it looks like this BB hasn't made the grade.
I think we should be using FOTA for critical bugs AND usability enhancements. The later, like some Windows / Linux updates should be optional, though.
T
don't have the time or inclination to fix problems that should not
have been present in the first place.
Sad but true.
T
"If it was a £20 PAYT handset, I'd understand."
I think this is the root of Ewan's gripe. He's not a PAYT customer, on a PAYT handset. He's a big spender, on a top-class business phone with an apparently impeccable business pedigree, on the UK's business network du jour, for which you pay a pretty penny extra.
If any combo warranted 'first time stability' it should be that.
If RIM/VF want to 'encourage' customers to look elsewhere (or wait 6 months), then (apparently) don't bother to invest the time required to get it right.
Of course this is all speculation, and is very unfair on the (no doubt) hard-working, passionate folk who laboured to bring the handset to market. Ewan may well have just been very unlucky. I think we all eagerly await the outcome of a handset swap or firmware upgrade.
/m
We'll get the video up soon.
With the iPhone, you need to install its manager (iTunes) and download and flash. The BB DM software comes on a CD in the box and is needed to activate many of the features of the phone.
Finally, if it's broken - take it back. SOGA will get you a repair, replacement or refund. Or the store can tell you how to fix it.
Testing software is a task of diminishing returns. I've no idea how so many carriers seem to have missed the bugs in this BB - but it happens. Or perhaps Ewan got a "Friday Afternoon" model. The simple fact of the matter is - when testing any product - you don't get a better test than selling it to a million people and see how they break it.
Quick to market, Cheap, Bug Free. Pick any two. That's why the market - no, any market - is shit. It has always been the way - even for sainted Apple's products.
Want a bug free phone with exemplary customer service? This is how much it costs.
Take a look at the Vodafone eForum's Device Support pages (or those of any other carrier). Every single device has problems. Nokia, Apple and RIM are pretty much the only ones pumping out semi-regular updates.
In conclusion - you should expect better from your devices, but I bet you won't pay for it.
In the same space of time it took Ewan to compose and post his rant, he could have Googled the problem and got it working. Not as cathartic, perhaps.
(As an aside, newer BB firmware allows for OTA updates and, I think, pushed updates.)
T
(My own views, not Vodafone's. I'm tired and grumpy and evidently not suited to a CSR role.)
Having owned / used both kinds since launch day I certainly would not call either iPhone 'plagued with bugs'. I'm sure most of the Bold OS is sorted, but on such a fundamental issue as 50% call handling failure, the error should not be forgiven by forcing the customer through hoops.
Had I just spent a small fortune committing to a Bold, I would assume the carrier would sort out such a glaringly obvious issue. If Ewan does have a duff handset RF-hardware wise, no amount of firmware upgrades will fix it.
Q: had Ewan reflashed his handset and screwed it up, would he have been covered under the handset/VF warranty? Unless the answer is a 100% rock-solid yes, you cannot suggest he DIY the thing. (and by guaranteeing to honour any problems arising from customer-reflashing, VF/BB accept liability for ANY customer hacking around and screwing their handset on a PC, because you'd not be able to tell the difference)
I agree, while you may have a detailed understanding of the technical challenges and solutions, you definitely should not be in CSR. A company that forces problem-solving of this nature onto its customers will fail.
/m
AFAIK, you don't need iTunes to run your iPhone. I don't have it installed. But the Desktop Manager - like iTunes - contains many useful functions.
To answer your question - yes, it's a supported upgrade option. Your BlackBerry will only accept firmware which has been branded by your operator (unless you hack around a bit). You can't screw up an update (easily) using Desktop Manager. Certainly no more than you can with iTunes. I don't follow Apple's / O2's policies enough to know what happens if you brick your phone with their update.
You'll notice that certain carriers' firmware releases lag behind others depending on how thoroughly they test the latest firmware. Check out the list of carriers offering BlackBerry firmware updates. At the time of writing, the VF branded one is at the latest version.
TBH, this sounds like he's got a duff one. And Ewan being Ewan (love you, man!) would rather rant and get page views than pop into a store in passing (or ring up 191) and swap it out. Which is what a normob would do with any other broken product.
So, apart from delaying release to fix every last bug - how should a company handle this? Given that bugs are inevitable in consumer products - how would you suggest they get fixed? Genuine question. The only options I can come up with are users update at home, FOTA, RTB/CAR to base to be updated, physical device swap out. Are there any others which are more palatable?
T
If it doesn't make calls it's broken one. get it replaced.
iPhone activation needing a server is not a comparison here. Apple chose to do that for control-freakery reasons. I'm not sure if the unlocked ones need it, or for PAYG shortly.
Note that none of the 2G iPhone updates were solving call-related issues. For 3G, yes. But this was Apple's first 3G handset, first time with the call handling protocols etc etc. How many BB's have RIM made?
I am well aware of the compromise required to call a release go/no-go. I've been a part of it many times. But 50% call failure on 2 differing handsets, in multiple locations? Something's rotten in the state of Newbury....