A few weeks ago I returned my HTC Magic to Rogers under warrantee because it was constantly crashing and freezing. The phone I was given in exchange for my phone was a refurbished one. Naturally, my first thought was, “Oh… a used phone.” I can’t think of any other product I’ve returned under warrantee that was replaced by a used one. Regardless of the OS problems I had with my original phone, it was physically well looked after. Maybe this replacement one was, too, but being given a used phone didn’t leave me with an overly positive experience.

Anyway, over the next few days I spent several hours re-downloading everything, re-configuring everything and setting the phone up the way my previous one was arranged.

All was good.

Until yesterday.

Yesterday, I tried to email a photo I took with my phone. (I know, a crazy idea… and apparently not something to try with the old and outdated version of the OS on the Rogers Android phones.) It broke something somewhere and my phone’s connection to the Gmail server was cut.

I couldn’t send any emails from the phone; I couldn’t receive any emails on the phone. Trying to send an email resulted in a little red “Sending…” message which never went away. I tried deleting the message in my inbox and in my outbox. Didn’t work. I tried killing the application and the process and restarting. Didn’t work. I tried a soft restart – battery out and restarting the phone. Didn’t work. The little red “Sending…” would not go away and emails would not send or receive.

So, I did some Googling and found it’s a common problem in the old 1.5 version of Android. Hmmmm.

I connected to Rogers Live Technical Support and after a few back and forwards was told the only fix was to do a complete factory reset to re-establish the connection to the Google mail servers. A factory reset means all your applications get deleted, all your settings and configurations are deleted and your phone is essentially returned to its “out of the box” state. I’d be back to where I was a few weeks ago, spending hours rebuilding my phone. Again.

I was not a happy customer…

I decided to do some more Googling and found a solution that literally took a few seconds and successfully fixed the problem. It didn’t involve deleting any apps, it didn’t involve doing a factory reset and it didn’t involve hours and hours of reconfiguration.

The simple fix was to clear a couple of Gmail’s caches on the phone. That was it…

Why Rogers wouldn’t have this solution for such a known issue in their knowledge base was rather baffling. The way they considered resetting my phone and starting from scratch again ‘no big deal’ was very frustrating.

Some solutions can’t be implemented because there are technical limitations. Some things are simply common sense and good customer service. There’s no reason for Rogers customers not to have a more current version of the Android OS on their phones. Other carriers have provided regular upgrades on exactly the same hardware. There are custom ROMs available that people have installed which are working fine (although voiding the phone’s warrantee.) There’s certainly no reason for Rogers not to have solutions to common problems in their support knowledge base and absolutely no reason or excuse for providing the low quality service and support to their customers.

Will they ever “get it”? We can always hope…

SIDE NOTES
The sad fact that Rogers STILL hasn’t upgraded the OS on their Android phones gave birth to a great site (www.iwantmyonepointsix.com) which has generated some good media attention and awareness. However, what’s sadder yet is that the site was created as an attempt to get the 1.6 upgrade (released Sept 09) for Rogers customers, and since then there have been numerous OS upgrades:
• 1.6 – Sept. 2009
• 2.0 – Oct. 2009
• 2.1 – Jan. 2010
• 2.2 – May 2010
• 3.0 – tentatively scheduled for October 2010

Google’s Froyo 2.2 OS for Android devices is making its way into the hands of customers, yet Rogers is still forcing their customers to use the now very-out-of-date 1.5 OS.

If you compare Roger’s handling of this to Kobo’s handling of some of their customer complaints it’s like night and day — complete opposites. Kobo has been very responsive, and has committed to a June 28 rollout of a firmware / OS upgrade to address their issues. That’s just two months after their initial rollout.

Kobo also has a very public presence acknowledging there were issues with how they launched the product and acknowledging that there are some confusing things with their e-readers. I realize there’s a difference in the scope, impact and risk between the two products, but Rogers is treating their customers as if the OS updates are a joke or insignificant issue. They clearly don’t understand that these are not just “telephones”. They are productivity and collaboration devices that are dependent upon their support for the applications that run on these mobile computing platforms.

Can you imagine buying a laptop from a store and having them prevent you from upgrading the OS? We’d still all be running DOS or Mac OS 7.1 if that was the case… When I bought my Magic I specifically asked the Rogers salesperson to confirm that all OS upgrades would be provided in a timely manner. They said yes. I realize the salesperson was probably selling shoes or popcorn the week before and that “timely manner” might be open to interpretation but it’s been over a year and there have been NO upgrades to the OS. I’m still on the original OS that came with the phone at launch… And now with the release of 2.2 we’re even further behind. Key applications and functionality (like Google Goggles, full Google Maps features) for my phone DO NOT WORK because 1.5 doesn’t support them.

I’m not sure whether there’s cause for a class-action lawsuit against Rogers, but they certainly deserve the proverbial smack to their collective executive heads for the way they’re treating their customers.

After a fall off the couch (about a foot and a half) the screen seems to be gibbled. It’s not cracked, but the eink seems to be somewhat confused about whether it’s on or off — very similar to what would happen to an Etch-a-sketch when the display got all messed up.

UPDATE: June 7, 2010: All taken care of. The reader was replaced under warrantee.

This new feature displays submitted comments in a sidebar next to the actual page. This isn’t an entirely new idea — a similar concept that used PostIt-Note-like overlays was tried several years ago by another company, but met with outrage and ultimately failure.

Of course, this failed attempt was well before the viral adoption of social networking. Today, the concept of group collaboration and multiple minds generating content is accepted and embraced by millions, as is the ability to provide product or service feedback.

The ability to add this feedback directly on any website, however, will be interesting, as disgruntled consumers happily post their frustrations right next to the product or service that is being marketed to others.

To read more, see the official Google Blog post.

I’ve run into three cases now, where I’ve bought something from a store, only to find the item was very obviously used.

Canadian Tire
I bought one of those George Foreman style grills as a gift for my wife.

When she opened it, we got a bit of a surprise — the grill was covered in grease, crumbs, and bits of what looked like melted cheese. Obviously this was a used and returned item.

The response I received from them was hardly what I expected. It was very much a "Yeah?" response. I eventually worked my way up through several levels of bored retail staff who were not in the slightest bit interested with my frustration, and found myself speaking with a manager. You would think that the manager would at least be SLIGHTLY concerned — even if it was just a front to pacify an angry customer. Nope…

I returned it for a refund and bought a new one (I think it was new…) elsewhere.

Walmart
This Halloween, I bought one of those skull-fogger machines. When I got it home and opened it up (this was the day before Halloween…) it was very clear that this, too, was something that had been used and returned. I imagine someone bought it for a Halloween party, and then simply returned it the next day.

What I ended up with, was a fogger machine with no fogger liquid, except for about an inch that was left in the machine. The instructions were gone, the bracket to mount the machine to something was gone, and the foam packing was all crushed.

Walmart’s response was certainly better than Canadian Tire’s, however. When I told them I didn’t want to return the fogger — I was just annoyed they’d sold me an incomplete and essentially useless product — they told me to keep the fogger, and still come into the store for a full refund. They also tried (so they said) to find a bottle of the fogging liquid at their other stores, and suggested some other stores to try.

Revy (Rona)
This time, I bought a tube of silicone for some outdoor work I was doing. The tube was already open and partially used when I opened it up. Since this was only a couple of dollars, and there was still enough silicone left in the tube, I never mentioned anything to Revy.

However, it really started to make me wonder about this pattern. How many stores simply dump returned items back on the shelves without bothering to check them? Even more interesting is the attitude some stores have toward customer service. Perhaps the Canadian Tire staff I dealt with didn’t feel they needed my business. I’d be surprised, however, if the execs at the top shared that same attitude.