"Chuck Bennett (919)966-1134" <UCHUCK@unc.bitnet> (03/16/90)
Lotus Corporation has announced a 900 number for technical assistance for its PC based product 1-2-3. The rate structure is a reversal of most 900 services... $0.00 1st minute, $2.00 each additional minute. One is supposed to be immediately connected to a technical "high trained engineer" for support. They are doing this on a trial basis. It will be interesting to see if this works and/or spreads. Chuck Bennett UNC, Chapel Hill, NC
Will Martin <wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil> (03/20/90)
>Lotus Corporation has announced a 900 number for technical assistance >for its PC based product 1-2-3. The rate structure is a reversal of >most 900 services... $0.00 1st minute, $2.00 each additional minute. >One is supposed to be immediately connected to a technical "high >trained engineer" for support. They are doing this on a trial basis. >It will be interesting to see if this works and/or spreads. Intriguing concept, but I find it hard to understand just what they are trying to do with this arrangement. I get the impression that they are encouraging simple questions -- if you can get your answer in a minute, you don't pay anything. (But then Lotus has to pay for the call -- the previously posted information on 900-call-charging assumed the callers would always be paying more than the cost of the calls, so I wonder how the billing arrangement works in this case...) But then you pay more and more as your question gets more complex or harder to answer. So it actively discourages difficult queries. Yet this seems to be the reverse of what a technical hotline or customer/user-assistance service is supposed to be doing. It promotes "RTFM"-type questions that the user probably can and should figure out for themselves in order to learn the use of the product, but punishes the user for having a difficult problem they cannot get solved locally. Yet "pushing the envelope" for a product like 1-2-3 is the way it gets applied in more and more areas and thus generates more applicability and therefore eventually more sales. And finding obscure bugs that didn't show up in regular product testing is what advanced users are really good for, from a system-designers' and -implementers' point of view. But such bugs would most probably be describable or identifiable only after a *lot* of trial-and-error and give-and-take between the user and the tech-assistance rep. This charging procedure would discourage such interaction, thus leaving such bugs undiscovered and lurking to bite other users and haunt the company in the future. If they just don't want to be bothered, I could understand a high fee for the first minute. But a zero fee for the first minute with some fee thereafter is hard to comprehend, unless this is coupled with a method for the tech-assistance folks to turn off the fee when they recognize a valid problem or decide the time they are spending is worthwhile to the company. Is that an available option for 900 calls -- that the callee has a button they can push that tells the telco "this call is free to the caller"? Regards, Will wmartin@st-louis-emh2.army.mil OR wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil
David Schanen <mtv@milton.u.washington.edu> (03/21/90)
In article <5370@accuvax.nwu.edu> wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil (Will Martin) writes: >If they just don't want to be bothered, I could understand a high fee >for the first minute. But a zero fee for the first minute with some >fee thereafter is hard to comprehend, unless this is coupled with a >method for the tech-assistance folks to turn off the fee when they >recognize a valid problem or decide the time they are spending is >worthwhile to the company. Is that an available option for 900 calls -- >that the callee has a button they can push that tells the telco >"this call is free to the caller"? Being a former representaive for ATT/USWEST/Mountain Bell (during divestiture) I'll tell what I know about 900 numbers. When I worked there, 900 sevice was being billed as single-number service, or an alternative to having 2 800 lines (one for intra and one for inter state) It also had a vote taking feature whereby you could charge the customer for a vote that they cast. (I thought this would be great for demographics, you could see who was willing to part with a buck for little in return.) How all these Phone Sex etc... $5-$30 per call things got started, I don't know. As for Will's question I doubt very much that ATT or anyone else who sells 900 service would let the customers turn off and on their rates. -Dave
weave <@sun.acs.udel.edu:weave@sun.acs.udel.edu> (03/21/90)
>Lotus Corporation has announced a 900 number for technical assistance >for its PC based product 1-2-3. Yeah, sure... I can imagine me placing a 900 call from my office phone to a service like this. We've already gotten threatening memos about calling 900 or 976 numbers. (Every call we make causes a printer to print the extension it came from and the telephone # called, along with date/time.) My employer will be convinced I'm calling up Dan Quayle's Nintendo Tip Line. I hope other vendors don't use this scheme or if they do, still offer other maintenance arrangements. Ken Weaverling - Systems Administrator | Internet: weave@sun.acs.udel.edu Delaware Technical & Community College | Voice: +1 302 573 5460