December 05, 2006
It's the experience, stupid
Shhh, don’t tell my mum about the new BT Softphone…
If she sees any start-up messages like this, I’ll get a support call.
UPDATE: Gets worse. Offers to upgrade, download new version, then won’t login (despite being logged in 2 minutes earlier). So I click “Forgot password” and get:
Important Notice. Please note that BT is currently carrying out essential engineering work on this service between 01:00 to 14:00 on the 12th of November. Please try again later. We are sorry for any inconvenience.
I know these things can over-run a bit, but three weeks? Skype’s never forgotten my login credentials…
Posted by Martin Geddes at 07:15 PMTrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.telepocalypse.net/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/mgeddes/MT/mt-tb.cgi/825.
You got further than I did. I liked the (end-of-lifed) BT Communicator, but when I tried to install the (replacement) BT softphone I couldn't get past all that gobbledegook about selecting which calling plan I wanted. I'll just carry on using Skype, it's easier than trying to understand the BT rulebook.
Posted by: at December 5, 2006 08:54 PMYou'll get a call?
:)
Rolling a service where such a dialog would appear would usually indicate a focus on hitting time line (regardless) vs. a sensible delivery date with lowering operational costs in mind.
Help desk minutes cost very real dollars. Tin eared applications and services raise help desk costs. Tin eared applications drive away users -- and the cost of customer re-acquisition is far greater than any help desk marathon call bill.
Posted by: at December 5, 2006 11:28 PMPoor old BT. On one hand they are great (past engineering, risk with 21CN) but on the other hand adapting to an "IP World" seems sometimes an almost impossible leap for them.
Posted by: at December 5, 2006 11:56 PMOh, I don't know, I've just moved into a new house & gone for BT's broadband & home hub combo. Set-up has been pretty painless, even with sensible messages like "don't worry if your firewall/antivirus generates popups during the software installation - this is perfectly normal".
And I confess that I even used the "troubleshooting" tips & discovered I hadn't pushed one of the connectors in firmly enough, instead of dialling support for help....
OK I haven't set up fully VoIP & the snazzy new DECT phone that came in the box yet, but the instructions look pretty simple. It's already installed the softphone client without the dialog above appearing
Posted by: at December 7, 2006 06:24 PM