I read an article written by John C. Dvorak posted on MarketWatch about Foxconn;  I thought it was quite interesting and worth a read.

From what friends have told me and from most reports it is “essentially a steel mill on one end and computers come out of the other end.”

Read More: Foxconn’s troubles expose China’s woes

Last Saturday I was trying to print a simple postage label for a package I wanted to ship.  All I wanted was a shipping label.  I thought it would take me five minutes at USPS.com, but it turns out a pot-roast cooks in less time that it takes to print a shipping label!  After using their sites, I have come to the conclusion that the United States Postal Service (USPS) and United Parcel Service (UPS) go through very little, if any, user acceptance testing.  FedEx isn’t much better; I did get a label in 10 minutes, but their rates are significantly higher than I was willing to pay.  Here are the pains I felt while navigating though the websites of the three major United States shippers.

United States Postal Service

The trouble at USPS.com started when I was signing up for an account.  The United States Postal Service’s website requires a “strong” password, which MUST include:

• A minimum of 8 characters
• At least 1 uppercase letter
• At least 1 lowercase letter
• At least 1 number

Special characters are not accepted.  The passwords “Sprite$%2” or “uisk28s5x” would not be accepted, but “Password1” would.  Which do you believe is more secure?  After signing up, I navigated to the shipping label creation page.

The “from” address, “to” address, and package information was all on the same page.  This made it impossible for a form filler to work correctly, which really pushes my buttons! For those of you who are unfamiliar with form fillers, they are tools that allow you to fill in web forms with the click of a button.  For example, I can say “fill the form with Ed Hayes data” and it will fill in my name, address, and most other personal information a form asks for.  I can also have it fill in my credit card data if I wanted.

I could not get past the screen of where I was supposed to enter the “to” and “from” shipping addresses!  The only error I received was “the address is not valid.”  I have no idea why; it gave no details on why the address was invalid. I ended up closing the window and opening it again. That seemed to solve the problem.  Go figure.

Continuing, I added my payment method with my form filler and got to the point where I was supposed to be able to print the shipping label.  I clicked the print button, and nothing happened.

I clicked the link that said “it didn’t print correctly” and was brought back to my shipping label cart.  I tried to go back do it again.  Although most of my data was saved, I was asked to type in my credit card CID code again.  It got quite annoying typing in this code repeatedly as I was troubleshooting. I tried three or four times to print the label, but was not able to do so, and I never got an error.  Furthermore, I didn’t see anything saying my browser or operating system was invalid or that I have to disable pop-up blockers.

I gave up and headed to UPS.com.

UPS

As luck would have it, my UPS account had expired.  For some unknown reason, UPS accounts expire after a few months of non-use. That is ridiculous. I had to start from scratch.

I got to the point where I typed my package information.  Like the USPS, they wanted me to fill out all the package information on one page. Once again, I couldn’t use my form filler.  I got pretty sick of typing in all the data over and over again.

Every time I did something with a drop down box, it would reload the page. I hate when sties have pages reload only to present the user with an updated set of options.  Every time the page reloads, the page position gets changed and it really aggravates me. A few lines of AJAX code would solve that problem and update data dynamically without page refreshes.

I went to choose the payment information, and couldn’t find a credit card choice.  For a second I was under the impression they didn’t accept credit cards as forms of payment.  I thought I would see what “Use  Payment Card” was, assuming it could be the credit card option, and I was right.  Why doesn’t UPS use the industry standard phrase “Credit Card?”  I pushed my “fill form with Chase Freedom” button.  And the data appeared to be entered correctly. I clicked next.

The page came back with errors.  It said my payment method expiration date was invalid. Looks like my form filler failed me! I corrected the dates and clicked submit again. This time my CID was missing!  UPS cleared the field each page load; very aggravating!  They should keep the data if the user is expected to fix an error. I corrected the errors, filled in the CID, and continued.

When I got to the package dimensions page, somehow I ended up with 10 packages to edit.  How did that happen? I never said I had 10 packages. I started to delete each package, which required a confirmations and page reloads.

I got so aggravated at the entire UPS process, I went to FedEx.com.

It turns out my form filler filled the package quantity with a 10 assuming that was the expiration date field.  Who do I blame for that problem?

Federal Express

The FedEx experience was significantly better, but still rather frustrating.  Just like USPS and UPS, they had the “to” and “from” address forms on one page.  Again, my form filler wouldn’t work, I had to type it all in by hand.

Another part of the form asked when I wanted my package picked up.  It was filled with the current date; a Saturday.  After filling in the credit card data by hand, and submitting the form, the page returned an error.  Saturday was not a valid date for ground shipments.  A bit annoying; why would they default to an invalid date?

When I went to change it, I found the text box didn’t allow manual typing!  I had to use their stupid calendar! What is the deal with all this crap?? I fixed the date error and pushed submit.

The page came back with another error!  My CID field was blanked out!  You can imagine how thrilled I was about that. Although the experience was painful, I got to the point where I saw my shipping label relatively quickly compared to what I went through at USPS.com and UPS.com!  Come to think of it, I never got to that point on the prior sites.

I was so happy! But, I realized I never saw how much it I was going to be paying.  Before I confirmed the transaction, I clicked on the “view receipt” and was in shock!  My little 6x3x3 package at 1 pound would cost $10 to ship.  Not acceptable. FedEx almost got my money, their site actually worked decent enough to get a label out!  But their price was too high.

I gave up on FedEx and said “maybe I have to install Adobe Acrobat Reader on my computer for USPS.com to work.”  I gave that a shot.

Back to USPS

I installed Adobe Acrobat Reader.  Still, USPS could not show me a label. I tried printing the label on my PC.  To my amazement, it worked! I found out, after chatting with a USPS representative, I had to correct some settings in FireFox:

• Open Firefox
• Click on Firefox next to the Apple logo in the upper left hand corner of your computer screen
• Click on preferences in the drop down menu
• Click on the Applications tab on the right hand side of the screen
• Click on Portable Document Format or “PDF” for short on the drop down menu
• Click on the drop down menu on the right hand side of Portable Document Format or “PDF”
• Click on “Other” in the drop down menu
• Click on and select “Adobe Reader”
• The drop down menu should now read open with Adobe Reader
• Completely close Firefox
• Reopen Firefox and print out the label

None of this was displayed on their website.  Why not just allow the user to download a simple PDF instead of going through that process?  I would be willing to bet that most users couldn’t even follow that process to completion.

The web was built on standards, why not use them?  Why complicate the process?  It may make things easier for some users, but on the flipside, it makes the process impossible to complete for other users.  USPS doesn’t work with Apple Safari; there goes that entire client base. Why does it not work on Safari?  Because USPS most likely wanted to eliminate one step, and since most users use Internet Explorer, they designed their solution around that.

How it should have gone

All of these sites have many things going on that should have been weeded out with some simple user acceptance testing. If I was operating a shipping company, I would make sure the label printing potion of my company’s site had the following requirements:

Passwords should not be restricted

If a user is restricted to a complicated password, they will write the password down on a piece of paper or in an unprotected document on their computer.  This would completely negate any security the site was attempting to create.  Usually users have a few passwords they tend to use, which are easy for them to remember, and fit the majority of password complication requirements.  Let them use those.

The excuse that the server does not accept special characters is not an acceptable excuse either.  For one, the database should allow any number and type of characters in that tables field.  Furthermore, the site should be hashing passwords, not storing them in plain text where the database variable type may not accommodate special characters.

Data entering

Each section of the process should have its own page. This idea accomplishes many goals; it simplifies page development, it simplifies database insert statements, it conforms to browser navigation standards, it makes the process simpler for the user, and it allows the user to use form fillers.

All of these sections should have their own pages including a unique page for:

• Account creation (username, password, email) or Login
• From Address
• To Address
• Package Information and Service Type
• Shopping Cart, with option to loop prior 4 pages for additional packages
• Payment information
• Order Verification
• Printing the label

After the order is complete, and ready to be printed, the user should be given options to select print with PDF or via HTML.  If printed through PDF, the user should be able to click a link that directly links to the server-generated PDF file.  If utilizing the HTML version, the user would be able to print via the browsers printing function.  Each label should be presented as a separate image.  Modern browsers will make sure images stay intact, and not be split between pages. Any browser/operating system configuration could handle either label printing process.

The moral of the story

Make it simple, and use standards.  All other things being equal, if your process is the simplest, fastest, and easiest for each and every customer to complete, your company will be the preferred choice for all consumers.

Example 1: The Grocery Game

The Grocery Game is a service that informs their customers on how to combine coupons and promotions, at a variety of grocery stores, in order to get the best deal possible.  They distribute updates on a weekly basis to paying customers.  Here is a screen shot from an E-mail they recently sent me encouraging me to sign up.

Since when does $2 divided by 3 equal $0.55?  I would think their E-mail marketing would go through a more vigorous editorial review then their product.  If their marketing is inaccurate, how accurate is their service I would pay for? Or if this is a screen shot of the actual service, I now know that I would be paying for something that was not correct.  After seeing this, I could never trust the company.

Example 2: JBoss

I recently received an E-mail newsletter from a local consulting firm that my friend works for. They mentioned “JBoss” in the newsletter many times, so I thought I would do some research into what JBoss was.  I was browsing RedHat’s website and found this example comparing the cost savings JBoss provides compared to IBM WebSphere and Oracle SOA Suite.  I thought I would play around with the tool a bit. Check out these calculations:

I don’t see how 20% of  $212,800 is $212,800.  Am I missing something?

It appears as though they were going to add up the column and have a Total License Cost like they had in the first column.  But, in year two and three, they all add up to $0.

Both of these errors impact the savings calculation shown on the bottom of the tool.  If RedHat’s savings tool doesn’t work, why would I trust the service they are selling with my company’s data?

I recently rearranged furniture in my condo.  Doing so required me to use the wireless 802.11 G network on my iMac.  I was not too thrilled with the solution; media transfers to my Tivo were extremely slow, and the connection was not as reliable as the hardwired one I had become accustomed to.

I remembered that my condo had many phone jacks throughout, so I thought I would research how my builder wired my unit, and maybe change the phone jacks to Ethernet jacks. Worse case scenario, I could at least get one 100 Mb connection from my iMac on one wall, to my Tivo under the TV on the other wall.

Solution

Turns out, the builder did a remarkably robust job with the wiring!  He used Cat5 cabling and all connections went to the closet! What a blessing!

I replaced all the wall plates with new versions and terminate the cat5 cables with Ethernet keystones.  I then created a small little networking area in my laundry closet.  Luckily, the builder also wired the cable lines to the same location he put the phone wiring. I was able to tap into the cable line right where I terminated the Ethernet in the closet.

After some cable crimping and wall mounting I was set!  My cable modem and router were hidden in my laundry closet, with hard wired Gigabit capable Ethernet jacks throughout my condo.  Pretty slick! And all under $15.

Next Step: Gigabit 802.11 N router!

Here is a quick “1-minute” formatting improvement.

Original

Improved

The improved segment is easier to read; looking cleaner, better structured, and more professional.  I made five improvements, each of which made a dramatic difference.

• Move the date below the “Top Headlines” title -> cleaner look.
• Used an Un-ordered list instead of inline, text bullets -> cleaner look.
• Decreased quantity of words in each headline -> no wrapping text.
• Standardized text sizes -> all headlines match, cleaner look.
• Used Blagojevich’s real last name, not slang -> improved professionalism.

One of my clients caught a virus on her computer this last week.  In an attempt to correct the problem, she installed Norton Antivirus 2010 before doing a full system scan using the boot disk.  The first time she rebooted the computer, she got into a logon logoff loop; after entering her login information and submitting it, Windows XP would automatically logoff the account.  It was at this point she contacted me and I came to help her solve the problem.  [See the bottom of this post for the solution]

I was stumped rather quickly after many internet searches.  I could tell the solution would not be easy.  The logon logoff loop persisted in all versions of safe mode; I was unable to access a command prompt.  I ran the bootable Norton CD and cleaned any remaining viruses off the machine; that didn’t solve the problem. My attempts to rename or copy files from another working machine, using a Windows Repair Console, did not solve the problem either.

Before telling my client I could not fix the problem, I called Norton to see if they could help me. Norton’s support was unacceptable, they could not help me.  I documented Norton’s inadequate support in a separate post.

I brought the computer to Best Buy, where my client originally purchased the Norton product.  I talked with the Geek Squad agent for a while, and we came to the same conclusion, a Windows Reinstall was most likely necessary.  I told my client I could do this at a fraction of the cost Best Buy would charge.

I attempted one last time to save the instillation of Windows, and returned to the internet once more.  I quickly realized I had managed to miss one of the possible solutions; fixing the registry.  I originally did not try this because I was unable to access Regedit.  This time, however, I brought some blank CDs and a copy of Windows XP Professional SP2 so that I could create a BartPE disk.  Using that disk I was able to open the local machine’s software registry hive and solve the problem.  My client’s computer booted successfully, and everything was as good as it was pre virus infection.

I learned two lessons with this service call:

• Run a full system scan prior to an Antivirus instillation; the scan provided on the bootable CD.
  • The Bootable Norton CD will download new virus definitions automatically if the machine is connected to a LAN.
  • Installing Norton on an infected machine could possibly cause damage.
• Come to all clients with all the tools at your disposal.  Even the tools you don’t think you will need.

Conditions

A Windows XP Professional machine was infected with several viruses.  Norton Antivirus 2010 was installed prior to a full system scan.

Symptoms

After rebooting, the system enters a logon logoff (or login logoff) loop; unable to get to the desktop. Safe mode will not work.

Solution

1. Boot from BartPE disk (Download and creation instructions for BartPE)
2. Open Regedit
3. Select the HKEY_USERS hive
4. Click File and choose Load Hive
5. Open the SOFTWARE  registry hive, likely located in:
   C:\Windows\System32\Config\SOFTWARE (Note: No filename extension)
6. Give the Hive a name: MyLocalHive
7. Navigate to:
   HKEY_USERS\MyLocalHive\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
8. Validate the value for the Userinit string equals:
   C:\Windows\System32\Userinit.exe, (Note: comma should be there)
9. The preceding string and value may be missing and must be added
10. Close Regedit and reboot the machine

Solution Credit: MVPS.org

I had a problem with my Samsung LN-S4095DX cutting off the edges of the image and was able to fix it with a firmware update.

I have had this edge-cut-off problem ever since I bought my TV.  I really didn’t notice the problem when viewing my Tivo; most channels do not to put important visual information on the edges of the image.  However, I had a difficult time using my Mac or PC with the TV as a display because the menus were always getting cut off.  Both computers were sending out a 1920 x 1080 resolution image via an HDMI.  My TV supports 1080P.

I have searched through my TV’s menus and manual on many occasions; unable to find a solution that would enable “pixel per pixel” or “Just Scan” image display functionality.   I searched the internet on multiple occasions, also unable to find a solution.  A few days ago, in desperation, I called Samsung support.  I told them about my edge problems, and they claimed my TV is set correctly, and the image coming from my PC and Mac were either incompatible or not correct.  The Samsung support supervisor even claimed a 40″ 1080P TV has fewer pixels than a 50″ 1080P TV and told me I should lower my computers output resolution.

The geek inside me knew Samsung’s information was far from the truth.

I went back to the internet and searched for another hour.  I found something that instructed me to disable the “Overscan” feature on my Mac.  I tried that solution; the image on the TV reduced in size, and I was able to see all of the menus.  However, the image being displayed was at a much lower resolution then the TV should be able to handle, and there were now black bars on the sides of the image.  This solution was not acceptable.

Finally, I came across some postings referring to a new firmware update for my TV.  I found the update files on a server somewhere on the Internet, thanks to Google.  I downloaded the firmware (usb_MOS2AUS0_1026.exe), used my PC to extract the files and put it on a USB drive, and upgraded my TV’s firmware. See below for the exact process.

I turned my TV on, pushed the blue P.Size button on my remote, and YES! the “Just Scan” feature was now present!  The picture looked perfect!  Problem solved.  I have no idea why Samsung did not enable this in the first generation of firmware.  But it works now, and I am a happy camper!

Symptoms

A Samsung LN-S4095DX is stretching a 1080p/1080i imaged and cutting off the edges.  The image displayed on the TV is 92% of the original imaged; stretched.

Solution

1. Get file from here (sorry for the pop-up ads):

   http://www.mediafire.com/file/mzjgjvwzngy/usb_MOS2AUS0_1026.exe

2. Extract the files to a USB memory stick/jump drive.
3. Insert the USB memory stick/jump drive into the TV’s service port.
4. Turn on your TV
5. Go into AIR or Cable mode by pushing the source button.
6. Press: MUTE,  7,  8,  9, EXIT
7. Sit back and watch the hilarious status messages. TOUCH NOTHING
8. The TV will turn off by itself at the end.
9. Turn on your TV
10. JustScan will be available in the Picture menu, or by pressing the blue P.Size button.

© H3C Technologies Co., Limited

Last month, I spent a significant amount of time talking with representatives at two different RCN call centers; one in the Philippines, and one in the United States.  I was trying to get their new invalid URL request hijacking service, also known as PoxFire, removed from my account.  The situation spurred me to analyze why call centers are located in foreign countries.  I also wanted to review the factors that should be considered when making the decision to export a domestic call center.  After coming up with a structure that can be used to determine if a call center could successfully be exported, I applied my theory to RCN’s business model.  Finally, I determined if my interactions with RCN supported my theory.

Call Centers

Moving call centers to foreign countries has been a tremendously popular trend during the past decade, predominantly as a way to reduce costs.  The trend and momentum of their migration reminds me much of the dot-com internet bubble.  An initial few companies’ relative success spurred businesses in other industries to attempt the same.  Many of the latter businesses’ endeavors were, and are, destine to fail.  I believe call centers, in foreign countries, frequently foster higher overall costs of doing business because of the low wage employees, culture, and complex incoming calls.

Low Cost Labor

Before discussing foreign call center’s unique problems, I need to discuss an inherent problem of low cost labor that is nearly impossible to overcome; turnover.  The low end of the labor force is more apt to move from company to company, if given a better opportunity, because employers are not looking for specific skills or knowledge from their employees. Every time a seasoned employee leaves, and a new employee takes their place, the new employee must go through a training period in which they learn the industry and review policies.  Once they are allowed to act independently, they must also go through a “learning curve” where their work is less productive and less accurate than a more experienced employee.

Both the training and learning curve periods have a cost associated with them; a cost that is incurred each and every time an employee is replaced.  Therefore,  higher turnover, means higher costs.  Unfortunately for the business, it has little impact on how frequent turnover is, other than compensation.  And in this case, the goal is to reduce compensation, so it is unlikely that that a company will raise compensation in order to reduce turnover.

Foreign Countries

External factors have more influence than internal factors when determining turnover rates.  The two most significant external factors, that are pertinent to my argument, are the country in which the labor is located, and one business’s proximity to other similar business.

The culture of the workforce, determined by the country in which it resides, is extremely important; it plays a tremendous roll on how likely workers are to move from one job to another.  As seen from my personal experiences, in some countries, employees are a lot less likely to change employers because of the importance of relationships.  This causes a distinct commitment to their employer.  In other countries, the population would not think twice about changing employers; their personal status and wealth is their only motive, and relationships are broken all the time.  Coincidentally, the countries in which most call centers are located are the countries in which I have come to expect people are likely to switch jobs on a frequent basis.

The concentration of similar businesses, in the same geographic area, is the second most important external factor in determining employee turnover.  Thanks in large part to global trade; generally, many countries specialize in specific industries.  Furthermore, the more recent a country’s industrial revolution was, the more geographically concentrated similar businesses tend to be. When similar businesses are located close to one another, it eliminates one of the barriers of switching employers.  A laborer is much less likely to switch from working on a cotton plantation to an Internet Service Provider’s, or ISP’s, call center, than they would be switching from a bank’s call center to an ISP’s call center.

A mass migration of call centers has occurred over the last decade, a migration to countries with recent industrial revolutions, like India and the Philippians.  This migration has created business parks full of call centers; call centers that are located in close proximity to one another. Many of these countries are also the same countries where there is a cultural tendency to move from one opportunity to another. The combination of these two factors creates the perfect conditions for employees to move between different call centers, with relative ease, and low switching costs.

So, in addition to the inherently high turnover frequency of unskilled labor, foreign call centers, especially in the South Asian region, have many other possible cost disadvantages.  The already high turnover frequency is increased by both cultural tendencies and the close proximity of many call centers.

Customer Satisfaction

The most important effect of turnover is poor customer satisfaction. A new worker is generally slower, less accurate, and less likely to find a solution to a problem than a seasoned worker.  All three of these reduce customer satisfaction, especially in a call center.  Even though customer satisfaction does not directly impact the cost of a call center, it has a direct cost to a business’s overall operating costs.

Reduced customer satisfaction is actually one of the highest costs to any business.  Because call centers are frequently the one and only connection a customer has with a business where a discussion between the customer and business takes place, they play a very important roll in customer satisfaction.  For arguments sake, if a foreign call center’s costs were able to stay below a domestic call center’s costs, poor customer satisfaction has the ability to indirectly erode any potential cost savings by dramatically increasing the cost of marketing.  If a customer’s discussion with a call center occurs with negative results, the customer is likely to bring their business elsewhere.  And, as most business owners know, obtaining a new customer costs many times more than retaining a current one.  When customers start to leave, a business has two monumental problems; revenue plummets, and marketing costs skyrocket.  Ask the executives at Sprint, Motorola’s handset division, or Chrysler; they are all well aware of these problems.

Call Complexity

Call complexity can refer to either the depth or breadth of knowledge required to complete the call. Previously, in regards to turnover, we discussed the frequency of training and learning curves.  Call complexity has a different effect; it impacts the length of the training.  The cost associate with training is directly related to the length of the training.  Less complex calls would have a short less costly training period, and highly complex calls would have a long costly training period.  Complex calls also mean longer learning curves; increasing call length and decreasing the quality of and quantity of call solutions during that period.  These all directly impact a call center’s cost.

The indirect impact these call centers have on marketing costs, due to different levels of customer services is also important.  If call complexity was high, the length of calls would most likely be longer, and have more frequent unresolved or poorly resolved calls.  All of which would likely cause a loss of customers, increasing the costs of marketing.

Call Center Decision Making Framework

• Turnover
  • Culture will directly affect turnover
  • Competing call centers will directly affect turnover
• Complexity of Expected Calls
  • Highly technical problems and/or solutions will increase complexity
  • High variety of problems and/or solutions will increase complexity
• Training and Learning curves
  • Increases in turnover will increase the frequency of training and learning curves
  • Increases in complexity will increase length of training and learning curves
• Call Lengths
  • Increases in sophistication will increase call length
  • Increases in learning curves will increase call lengths
• Customer Satisfaction
  • Increased call length will decrease customer satisfaction
  • Increases in unsolved or incorrectly solved calls will decrease customer satisfaction
• Cost Savings
  • Increased Call length will increase direct costs
  • Turnover will increase direct costs
  • Decrease in customer satisfaction will increase indirect cost

Solving the Problem

Potentially, a foreign call center could be successful.  It is possible, if done right, to create a lower cost call center abroad.  It has been done before! If calls were extremely simple and very short, training time for new employees would be short and cheap; the high frequency of low-cost turnover may not be an issue. However, if the call center is expecting complex calls, training time would increase, and the highly frequent low-cost turnover would cascade into highly frequent high-cost turnover.

As logical and elementary as these principles are, it is astonishing companies continue to promote the exportation of call centers. Why do so many companies invest so heavily in foreign call centers, when, on nearly all fronts, they are likely to fail?  Especially if these call centers are expecting complex issue resolution. It is apparent that executives make the strategic decisions to export call centers based solely on the hourly cost of labor.  Many companies, like the ones previously listed, operate primarily in business silos, where each major business operating unit is connected only at the executive level.

To judge the overall success of any cost reduction project, including call center exportation, I believe it is vital that both the cost reduction projects and marketing cost impact be combined.  Business silos must communicate and think of the bigger picture.  Regardless of who is at fault, or for what reason, low wage labor and frequently complex incoming calls many foreign call centers receive, inevitably cause them to fail on both their cost savings and customer satisfaction metrics.

ISP Specific Call Centers

Hypothetically, with the formerly given framework, and the fact ISPs receive many highly complex calls, it is likely an exported ISP call center, where all types of calls were routed abroad, would incur high costs and low customer satisfaction ratings. If I were responsible for making the decision on whether or not to export an entire ISP’s call center, I would make the decision that it is undesirable to export the call center.  The combination of high turnover, location, and extremely complex calls would damage the profitability of the business.

RCN

With hypothetical analysis out of the way, I would like to analyze the direct cost, and impact, my situation had on RCN.  If my interaction with RCN is any indication, the customer satisfaction ratings of calls directed to the Filipino call center are extremely low.  And, from my experience, it is apparent that turnover is quite high as my interactions with each representative gave me the feeling that each was in the midst of their learning curves.  None of the employees I talked with were able to answer simple questions without putting me on hold for several minutes, or even the majority of an hour.

In terms of cost, I spent over three hours on the phone with RCN’s Filipino call center, which accomplished no positive outcome.  In fact, there were numerous times where the representative had to call me back after researching the problem.  I would estimate my inquiries consumed 5 Filipino people hours.  The cost of the connection to the Philippines is likely negligible, and, although the cost for the 800 number could add up to something substantial with three hours of talk time, I would consider that negligible as well.  Irregardless of what costs were incurred, my problem was never resolved during the 5 hours of Filipino support.

The United States based technician was able to resolve my problem in 15 minutes.  It took 1/20th of the time to solve my problem using the US call center/technician as opposed to the Filipino call center.

Now, let’s assume the the Filipino service was 1/5th the cost of the US service on a per hour rate.  The Filipino based support cost at minimum 4x as much as the US based support.  Keep in mind my problem was never even solved with the Filipino support, so in this particular case, the entire cost of Filipino service was a complete loss.

The impact of my call on RCN customer relations is another matter that must be considered.  My frustration with RCN’s lack of competent support reached a point at which I was frustrated enough to blog about my problems AND tweet my frustration to all of my followers on Twitter, which is number in the hundreds.  The public relations impact I had on RCN is hard to valuate, but it most definitely had a negative impact on RCN’s business.

Prior to calling RCN’s Filipino support center, my opinion on whether or not an ISP should locate a call center in a foreign country would have been no.  Experiencing it first hand only serves to reinforce that opinion.  Locating a call center in a foreign low wage country is not always successful. In this case RCN’s decision to outsource their call center has not only cost them money, it has detrimentally impacted how at least one customer perceives their brand.

Late last week, I was having a problem with RCN hijacking my mistyped URLs.  I was finally able to get them fixed!  This post has two different distinct topics; the situation and how the problem was solved.  In the near future I will post a new entry analyzing RCN’s business practices.

*Update – December 31st 2009*
I added a symptoms section and two guaranteed solutions at the bottom of this post.

The Situation

I spent hours on the phone with RCN (800-RING-RCN) and their representatives in Filipino call center.  I went through six phone calls, over three total hours on the phone, and reset my router and modem at least eight times.

From the discussions I had with the Filipino representatives, I concluded  my technical knowledge likely  surpassed theirs to a great degree. Each representative I talked to took over 30 minutes to fully understand the extent of the problem either through my explanation, their review of their FAQ system, or their review of my call history.

I told each representative I talked to that I was using the Safari browser on a Mac computer.  I also informed them that I was behind a NAT router.

One of my early discussions with the representatives lead to a discovery of an internal e-mail that RCN sent to all of their technicians.  On August 4th, RCN started utilizing a “PaxFire” system that would direct users that mis-typed or typed in an invalid URL to an RCN search page that contained sponsored search results.  I frequently had to refer to this email to subsequent RCN technicians to help them understand the situation.

With or without referring to this document, all of the representatives I talked to wanted me to clear my history and cookies.  This would supposedly solve the problem. It did not; and I knew it wouldn’t.  I was just following their directions.  At different points, they wanted me to go to the “terminal” and type in the following command in order to discover my DNS server settings:

/cat/etc/resolv.conf

That command was actually an invalid command that was listed in their FAQ system.  The correct command to find the current DNS server addresses on a Mac OSX computer, as I found searching the internet, is the following:

more /etc/resolv.conf

Correct command or not, I was still behind a router, therefor my Mac’s DNS server settings would always be my router. This was further proof that the technicians I talked to did not understand the situation.  They did not understand how to discover the problem.  Finally, they did not understand the possible solutions.  RCN’s Filipino technicians were incompetent and/or ignorant of internet technologies.

The problem I was having was simple; my router was receiving RCN’s DNS server address that utilized the “PaxFire” system.  They had already set me as opting out of this “PaxFire” system.   I should have been getting the “non-PaxFire” DNS server address.

Fixing the Problem

After these many hours on the phone with support over the weekend, and with no solution in sight, I wrote the previous blog entry.  I also tweeted my problem on Twitter.  Today, Monday, I received a Twitter response from @RCNConnects asking me to e-mail Help_Me_RCN@RCN.net with my problem.  I sent a quick e-mail and hoped for the best.

An hour later, I received a call from an RCN technician that was based in the United States!  We quickly went through several things and my problem was fixed!  I can’t tell what finally solved the problem.  But we completed the following steps within 15 minutes:

• I restarted my modem and router.  (Did not fix problem)
• I told the representative my IP address, proving it was receiving an IP address on the Non-FoxFire enable router. (Problem Persisted)
• I connected my modem directly to my computer, and restarted the modem.
• I checked my DNS servers using the correct command above. (Problem Solved)
• I reconnected my computer to my router, and reconnected my router to my modem.
• I restarted the router and modem.  (Problem still solved)

I can not verify what, if anything, the RCN technician did on his end.  From my perspective, I essentially reset my router/modem, which I had already done many times unsuccessfully solving my problem.  The solution possibly had something to do with the change in connected devices.  It is also possible the technician did something that I was unaware of.

In either case, my problem was solved during the conversation with a Unites States based technician.  And the only way that a customer can get in touch with one, from what I can tell, is to e-mail Help_Me_RCN@RCN.net.

Symptoms

When a mistyped or invalid URL is entered, an RCN search page is displayed.

Solution 1 – Easy

1. E-mail Help_Me_RCN@RCN.net.
2. When that process is complete, power cycle your equipment.
   1. Unplug the modem and connected device (router or PC/Mac)
   2. Plug in the modem; wait 1 minute
   3. Plug in or start the connected device.
3. The connected device should now pull a different IP address and DNS server.

Solution 2 – Advanced

1. Download the DNS Benchmark program from GRC.com/dns/benchmark.htm
2. Run the program
3. Update your machines DNS addresses to a fast, public, non hijacked DNS server. The address will be provided
4. This will not only fix the RCN hijacking problem, but will also speed up internet browsing since you will not be using the DNS services provided by RCN or your home router.

My ISP (Internet Service Provider) is hijacking my mistyped URLs!  Instead of sending a “Does Not Exist” error when I type in an invalid URL, RCN is redirecting me to their search page.

*Update August 14th 2009*
See how I finally got this problem fixed.

If a URL does not exist, I should not be getting a page back or redirect from my ISP’s DNS server.  The internet was designed in a way that if something is requested that does not exist, I get an error that it does not exist.  A good metaphor would be me calling Pizza Hut, dialing a 5 instead of a 2 on accident, and then having my call routed to the nearest Papa Johns.

I don’t mind that they are trying to monetize something, they have the right.  I do, however, have a serious problem with them opting me into a service, automatically, that changes the way my internet connection works.

I called RCN’s technical support to ask how to disable this, and they put me on hold for 10 minutes.  Their first response was resetting my browser settings.  I immediately asked for a manager.  After a five minute wait, the supervisor insisted that it was my browser that had incorrect settings.  I was put on hold again.  After another 15 min wait, the representative supposedly disabled FoxFire (that is what they called it) to opt me out of this DNS hijacking service.

Upon further questioning, the representative told me that they received an email on August 4th that explained the details of the Chicago area getting this DNS search service.  At this point I have restarted my modem and router to accept new DNS settings, and the problem still persists.  I was on the phone with RCN for at total of 55 Minutes. As it stands, I have a request for a manager to call me back.