A Planner in Hong Kong Part 1

Almost two weeks in Hong Kong now, and the days are flying past. I shall be writing about the experience over the next week or so, feel free to read or ignore at your leisure!

Part 1 - Flying!

Now I hope not to jinx this as I am yet to fly back at time of writing, but my journey here left me extremely impressed with Qatar Airways. Great service and excellent food made the journey as comfy as it could be for someone who's legs are too long for economy class.

I wanted to fly Virgin Atlantic after the great experience we had last time, but I think so far Qatar are pipping it.

The food was great (for air travel), it tasted good and didn't have the texture of polystyrene. The seats were comfortable and had a little more leg room than I remember on some other flights.

The little thing that said it all for me was the blanket. On most airlines they are these horrible wool/nylon static monstrosities that feel cheap and nasty. On Qatar they were soft and fluffy as a kitten that has just been machine washed with Comfort softener.

The service was excellent too, friendly staff who were happy to help out the whole way through the flight.

I also finally got to see The Social Network too. Great film.

Virgin Media Part One (possibly of many)

"Lunchtime is Rant-time!"

Me. Just Now

Long ago, in the dark days before iPlayer, when the internet was the preserve of geeks and just a few normal people, when non-cable broadband connections of over 512k were extortionate and limited to London and a few other selected dignitaries; there was a company called NTL.

Despite its great product, it apppeared that their customer service was managed by a brain damaged chimp with no arms and legs. They made BT look good.

Then they became Virgin Media, and suddenly (you hoped) that things would get better. Richard Branson would VA the company, take on SKY and win better media service for us, the cheering loving public.

Sadly not quite.

Having just moved I need internet, phone and tv services. Looking at SKY and VM, it appears that VM have the best deal. Then I notice the little * that says "When you take a phone line for £11 a month". Luckily it was still cheaper.

So I called them up, and got a few bits of info from a helpful guy named Dan.

Then...

I called again to ask about installation and found:

1) Though my street is cabled, its not on their database so I need to get an engineer out to look at it.

2) Get given a phone number for the engineers that doesnt wrk

3) Call back, person seems unable to comprehend what I want

4) Call again, get given an alternative number which works

5) Leave a message asking for them to look at it, having been told only that "should be done within days". Clearly VM don't realise that most people are lost without the internet, I dont wish to spend weeks waiting!

6) Waited

That was Thursday, still no reply. Asked someone yesterday to look into it, and nothing...

I shall keep you posted. You'd think Virgin Media would like to help new customers... they have about a week before I go back to Sky.

Something that puzzles me

Why it that so many companies seem to believe their product or service is the most important thing in the world to their 'consumers'? I keep noticing it in ads at the moment, and it's quite an irritating trend.

For example: Specsavers. Yes, we know that glasses are expensive and people want to pay a fair price for them. But acting (as their latest ad does) as if buying expensive glasses can cause a nervous breakdown is overstating their importance just a little it seems.

Ok, so it's played for comic effect; but it feels like they mean it.

I hope one day soon brands are going to realise that no matter how aspirational they are, they are still selling products and services. Maybe by better understanding that they are not important they can fit more appropriately into peoples' lives and actually increase their importance by understating it.

What do you think?

Image from sisk-o.stumbleupon.com

Have we Reached the Edge of the World?

Having just started reading "The World is Flat" (now i'm settled in the new house I actually have time to read the books i've had for ages!), it was very interesting to see how India and the growing countries have taken call centres and other such jobs, leading the world to in essence become a flatter place.

However, its very clear that many British consumers arent happy with having their calls routed to India. Whilst there are far too many bigots in this country, I do believe that this has nothing to do with race; my personal experiences of Indian call centres are of friendly helpful people who have no power or access to actually do anything with your enquiries.

In the news today they mention several big firms who are bringing call centres back to the UK as leaving them abroad is damaging their reputation and brand image. Natwest are one who make a big deal out of having UK call centres.

So, the question is. If the technology has helped make the world flat, will quality of service issues mean that brands are starting to fall of the edge..?