Customer Service?
I'm in mobile phone purgatory. My cellular provider was purchased last year in what I thought at the time was a great move. You see, I didn't like the service I had that much and thought the new company would be a great improvement. Indeed, on a daily basis I noticed better reception and almost no dropped calls.
That was then, and this is now, as they say. My handset just suffered a little setback, and now I can't read the display. As a long-time Palm user (since November 1996, in fact), I thought that this would be an ideal time to integrate my Palm and phone and get a Treo. That was when I left the surface of planet Earth and entered purgatory (or Heck, as Dilbert would say).
Since the company I work for owns the plan, the new company (Cingular) wouldn't upgrade my handset (since it was AT&T) unless my plan was changed (upgraded in Cingular speak) from AT&T to Cingular. "Wait," I said, "I'm now a Cingular customer." "No," they said, "you're still an AT&T customer until you upgrade to us." But...I can't upgrade. The whole company has to upgrade at the same time. Apparantly at some considerable cost.
So, I go to a friendly competitor. I'd like to keep my number, since it's a business number and people all over the place have it. The competitor says, "Sure." That is, they say that until I go to the store to sign up. Then they want to know the plan number. Oops, it's in the company's name. We won't transfer you over by yourself. We want the entire company to change. It's all or none.
So now I have a new phone, a Treo, but I also am the proud possessor of a new number. Also a new provider. It's a pain, but I'm slowly working my way out of purgatory (don't know if that is a theologically correct statement, but it fits the message).
Tying this to the headline...I've been pondering the state of service in the automation business. Software companies are notorious for service complaints--hard to upgrade, hard to get support, inadequate mergers when companies combine, bugs, version update heck, and so on. Look at the consolidation among suppliers lately. For example: GE Fanuc buys Intellution and Mountain Systems; Siemens buys Orsi and Moore Products; Rockwell Automation buys Interwave Technology and ProPack Data. Have you gotten the same runaround that I've been getting?
So, how is all this change affecting users of the software? Automation World wants to know. Look for a survey in our e-mail newsletters and online in the coming weeks. Let us know what you think in all its gory detail. As one industry insider told me last year, "A survey like this would set the industry on its ear." We shall see.
1:16:48 PM 
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