Amazon’s Unbox and Tivo

I’m on The Tivo subscriber’s email list and they recently sent out a notification that I could now download video from Amazon’s Unbox and have the program show up on my Tivo.

Sounded good! I signed up (just making the connection between my Amazon account and my Tivo account, really). I’m an ardent user of each service and imagined that it would be a marriage made in heaven. Boy was I wrong!

Whilst I have always liked Amazon – and spend a significant amount of money with them each year – their new services lack the ease of use and intuitiveness that I have come to love. Buying books etc. is simple, streamlined and a pleasure. The ancillary services – like Unbox (and their webhosting and publishing – which I TRIED to use in a previous life) are a nightmare. Unbox requires me to search – fair enough – and presents me with results. But there is no way – upfront – of notifying the system that I want results for a TIvo. And far, far from all (or even most as far as I can determine) of the videos available are capable of being downloaded to Tivo. But you can’t tell that. So i order a download, and after the transaction is complete I worked out that it wasn’t heading my way any time soon.

I’ll download it and view it on my MacBook – no way PC only supported for downloads and viewing!

So I ask for a refund. I get it, along with what I interpreted as a snippy note saying that whilst they had refunded me, it was against company policy. Even though they could (at least the should have been able to) determine that no video had been harmed, downloaded, or actually stirred at all from their systems.

The whole point of personalization – which Amazon does as well as most (not as good as it should, it knows I use Canon cameras, but still recommends Nikon stuff from time to time), so why does Unbox NOT know that I’m a Tivo guy? They could, with little effort, also determine that my notebook is a Mac and tailor the video listed for me.

Worse, they have Recommendations for me. Of the top ten I have to go to number 5 before I find one that will run on the systems I have. How do I discover that? I have to display the list of recommendations then click on ‘See all Buying Options’ for each video listed in turn. Then I have to scrutinize the text and spot the ‘Also works with Tivo’.

So of the Top 10 Recommends for me, only 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 are viewable on systems I have. Hmmmmn. And I only needed to make twentytwo clicks to get that information…..

Not the sort of ease of use and convenience I associate with Amazon.

{Product, advertising, Brand, Marketing, Product Management}

Technorati Tags: Advertising, Brand, Customer Service, Marketing, Product, Product Management, User Experience

Are we there yet?

I’m an avid participant in an email list that notionally discusses the works of Patrick O’Brian – especially the Aubrey & Maturin series of books. For those of you unfamiliar, the recentish movie ‘Master & Commander’ was based on these books. For those of you interested, you can find out more at www.hmssurprise.org – including the mailing list signup.

This list has an especially lively and erudite crowd from around the world (recent topics have ranged from moors of Northern England, Coin valuation and a rant about my ‘political’ photo for the Alameda on Camera competition).

So what has this got to do with our subject? Well, one of the list members who uses Gmail to read the list posts reported the list of Google ads displayed whilst reading the list yesterday – and it appealed to my warped sense of humor. The ads comprised ‘Ship Model for Master & Commander’, ‘Boccherini Music’ (his music is played by the protagonists in the book), AND last by no means least the book Walter The Farting Dog!

So Are We There Yet? At least as far as contextual ads go. Perhaps not, there has been much speculation about what was in context that triggered the ad, but we couldn’t work it out. My curiosity sparked (I’ll plead it’s because Barbara reads books and tells stories to 5-8 year olds in a school program here), I checkout out
Amazon. It turns out that there is a whole series of books on Walter. Who knew?
.

{Marketing, advertising, WOM}

Technorati Tags: Advertising, Media, User Experience

Upselling – Pressure or Pleasure?

I enjoy seeing a sales professional, a true professional – one who helps make a good decision easy, at work. I’ve always hated the traditional stereotype of a ‘close at any cost’ sales person and they are, thankfully, a rare commodity these days. Well, except when they are not sales people at all……

Last week I took my car in for a 35,000 mile service. Although the service was a moderate item I was prepared for a large bill as new brake pads were needed, and a troubling misfire needed fixing. I asked about the special price on the pads and they confirmed it.

I book the car in at 7AM, I tell them that the pads need replacing and about the misfire. The service and the pads should be trivial, the misfire maybe, maybe not. I expect them to get on and do all they can. At 1:30PM they call me to tell me the pads need replacing. ‘I know, I mentioned that when I brought it in.’ Do you want them replaced?’. I bite my tongue – Barbara is training me to ride with the ‘foolish questions’. ‘Yes please’.

‘Do you want the rotors surfaced?’ ‘I wouldn’t expect that to be necessary, at 35,000 with the pads replaced early.’ “We REALLY recommend that you do it’. ”How much is that?“ ”About $600“.

I decline! ”We will have to note on your invoice that we recommended it.“ Now they are pissing me off. I insist that if it isn’t necessary it can wait till next pad replacement.

When I pick up my car, there is no note on the invoice, so was it an empty threat to upsell me, or are they simply inefficient? I note that that they can’t find a fault on the misfire, but they replaced the engine management software anyway, $120! I’m told their hourly rate is $120.

I pull away from the kerb and note the misfire. I decide I’ve had enough for one day and will live with it for now. My car is low mileage, as I travel a lot but not by car. However, with my new consultant hat on, I’m involved in a Silicon Valley startup – no money but LOTS of fun (really!) – which puts about 150 miles a day on my car. On the way back – up a long hill – the engine light comes on.

To say I’m hacked off would be an understatement! They can’t fix a consistent and repeatable problem, but they can take the easy route on aggressive upselling of a non-essential item. And we spend time wondering why the Detroit Three (they are not the big three anymore, I hear) are losing share and customer loyalty.

I drive a Ford, by the way……..

{Customer Service, WOM}

Technorati Tags: Bad Customer Service, Customer Service, User Experience, WOM

KQED: Non Profit update…..

It did cross my mind to wonder if I had been a little harsh on KQED in my earlier post. I decided not, and resolved to grovel if I got a response from their General Manager….

Well, I got something, but not what I was hoping…… Last week a letter arrived stating that they hadn’t heard from me, and enclosing the same text as the last letter, (translation – ‘you haven’t sent any money’), which is patently untrue, I sent a detailed letter. To which I have had no response.

It seems to me that this cycle illustrates the points I was making much more eloquently than I did in my post. KQED writes, I reply and they write telling me that they haven’t heard from me. It reinforces that there is no conversation, I’m not looked upon as a ‘member’, but as a revenue source plain and simple.

Make it so, stop pretending that I am a member.

{WOM, Brand, Customer Service, Marketing, media}

Technorati Tags: Brand, customer, Customer Service, customers, User Experience, WOM