Thank You For Calling!

Drobo CEO Geoff Barrall details his company’s struggle to get AT&T to deliver on their promise of providing functioning internet and telephone service. While Drobo bends over backwards to support their customers, AT&T can’t be bothered to have its right hand work with its left to flip a switch. Is that really “just the way it is, man”?

Part 3 in an ongoing series: "Disconnecting Telecom"

Sponsors

• Symbolicons: by Jory Raphael, designer of all our new artwork. Get 40% off any icon set bundle with ESN1
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• The Magazine Book 2: Back their Kickstarter and get some uncommonly great content to salute and bid a fond farewell to a great publication. An eBook of the first one is now free!

Guest

• Geoff Barrall founded and ran Drobo as founding CEO, left, and returned a year and a half ago. He has a university degree in cybernetics, and soft spot in his heart for 2000AD (Judge Dredd, et al). More on that bit below.

Related Episodes

• Thank You For Calling! #13: Escalation Points ("Telecom and AT&T" Part 1)
• Thank You For Calling! #14: Gesture of Goodwill ("Telecom and AT&T" Part 2)
• Giant Size Origins #14: Cigar-Smoking Baby (Geoff discussing Judge Dredd and 2000AD)

Show Notes and Links

• When Moisés saw Geoff reaching out to AT&T on Twitter to no response, Moisés inserted himself into the conversation.
• AT&T responded to Moisés as if he were the one having an issue. I guess the guy with more followers on Twitter is more important than a well-respected tech industry CEO.
• Our host heard the Drobo CEO on Mac Power Users #153 and followed Geoff. Geoff followed Moisés back.
• "I love your show," Geoff said in a DM. "Glad you're enjoying Critical Path," said Moisés. "No, I meant Giant Size." "...Wait...what?"
• This resulted in Geoff joining Antony Johnston on Giant Size Origins #14.
• Depending on how this situation develops, there might be two episodes of TYFC! next week. No matter what, there will be a followup installment of this developing story sometime soon.

Adam's Email to Drobo (Unedited and Unabridged)

Greg, 

I do not understand what I've done for you to believe that I haven't given you sufficient service. When we first met we discussed how 90 days was the standard interval for installation. I believe we were given just over a month and addressed changed. We created contracts, ordered services, cancelled services, all to help accommodate your move. We also created contracts for interim circuits to help you move in such a short timeframe. We had to get 5th level management approval to get this circuit approved as an interim solution. I understand your frustration as you need to run your business, but these issues are not coming from people not caring or lack of attention. Another Account Manager isn't going to be able to help with meeting due dates that you needed. Multiple people on your account team worked throughout the weekend to try and get the service installed. I'm not too sure what else anyone at AT&T could have done.

All the information you requested is below. Please use the link below and send me the trouble ticket number when you are done.

Adam  
Business Relationship Manager II 
Rethink Possible

Disclosure Statement

Drobo is a Founding Sponsor of this network, and continues to support our shows. That played no part in why this episode was recorded. No one at Drobo, including Geoff Barrall, suggested or influenced the planning of this episode. Geoff needed a couple of weeks of convincing.

TYFC! has addressed the topic of AT&T and regional telecom monopolies more than once on the show previously (as linked above). Situations like this are not right, and as you can hear on the show, it's gotten much worse since the beginning of the story.

TYFC! exists because I want to investigate why we keep making things unnecessarily hard for one another in a customer service context, and how we can cut through the noise, complacency, and spite. There's got to be a better way. Some episodes are fun, mini-memoirs of "the way things used to be", like an upcoming episode that features a 90-plus-year-old retired accountant, or the two-parter on video game retail. Some of them deal with the situations that make us want to scream. The next episode features two really nice people who love the work they do and the people they work to make happy.

If you, the listener, have any concerns, please send an email. I want to know that listeners trust the integrity of this and all the shows at ESN. You will get a response if you send something.

-Moisés

17: The 5th Level of Management

Dan Provost of Studio Neat talks about clean & simple solutions that his clean & simple two-man company has used for support over the last four years. Whether things were sailing smoothly or descended into momentary "fiasco," their customers have stuck with them and grown in number for very good reasons.

Sponsors

• Drobo: mass storage for the masses. Use offer code MOISES for $50 off Drobo 5D or 5N
• The Magazine Book 2: Back their Kickstarter and get some uncommonly great content to salute and bid a fond farewell to a great publication. An eBook of the first one is now free!
• Presentations: a Macsparky Field Guide by David Sparks. Leave TYFC an iTunes review and email using the contact form to win a free copy.

Show Notes and Links

• Dan is on Twitter, as is his compadre Tom Gerhardt.
• Studio Neat's website (and their Twitter feed) is where you can find all of the wonderful, clean, and cool stuff they make, including apps and a book.
• Everyone talks about the physical stuff, but it's cool that their softwar compliment the accessories they make for your stuff like stop-motion/time-lapse app Frameographer, and Slow-Fast-Slow that does s-u-p-e-r-s-l-o-w-m-o video.
• It Will Be Exhilarating is a book about making stuff, in short. It's only $5.
• Inbox Zero is a thing created by a guy named Merlin Mann. He is on the internet.
• SPOILER ALERT: Gustin Jeans mailed Dan some rivets, and that made all the difference.
• Air travel sucks, right? We did two whole shows (here and here) about how stupid and bad it is.
• The Simple Syrup Kit will be great for a nice Mojito when you need it, among other things.
• Dan wrote this really great article he didn't talk about on the show. Jerk.

16: Mail Me Some Rivets

Real Estate Broker Donna Hazlewood talks about things to look for (and look out for) in a Real Estate agent, why she likes the hard work that others avoid, and what motivates us to do the work we choose to do.

Our previous episode inspired a reaction from AT&T Gigapower completely unlike everything that came before. Listen to what happened next, why Moisés thinks it went this way, and whether he'll consider switching to Time Warner or Google down the road.

Part 2 in an ongoing series: "Disconnecting Telecom"

Sponsors

• Drobo: mass storage for the masses. Use offer code MOISES for $50 off Drobo 5D or 5N
• Visit our Founding Sponsors as well as our Current Sponsors as a way of saying thanks for their continued support of ESN. Episodes like this one are brought to you with limited or no commercial interruption thanks to all of them.

Show Notes and Links

• This episode will not make sense unless you've listened to TYFC 13. Promise.

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A case study of the cable/broadband industry's customer service tactics, from the recent spate of Comcast recorded calls to our host's first-hand experience with new kid on the block: AT&T GigaPower.

Ever been signed up for a contract without your consent and then been told "no, I'm like...they read you those disclosures?"

It would be great if this show resulted in AT&T calling me back, making good on promised credits, or making sure their service would stop going out at random intervals.

Part 1 in an ongoing series: "Disconnecting Telecom"

Sponsors

• NEED: Place an order and send an email to [email protected] mentioning ESN in some way to get 25% off your next order and extras freebies sent your way in the meantime.

• Harry's: they're already disrupting the shaving industry by offering a much better shaving experience at a much better price. Use promo code THANKYOU for $5 off.

Show Notes and Links

• This episode of the show was already in the works before the "Ryan and Veronica" call melted down the internet, or the "Tim Davis" one took Reddit by storm. They provide an excellent lead-in to my own GigaPower experience.
• Ryan Block and Veronice Belmont's
• The Verge article on Comcast's customer service and cancellation call flows.
• The almost-lost episode of Giant Size with Merlin Mann, Rich Stevens, and co-host John Gholson.

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After Thank You for Calling! #12, Moisés and Tiffany Arment talk about the world of theatre (for longer than the episode they were really recording), covering The Little Mermaid on heelies to an all-female Glengarry Glen Ross.

Tiffany Arment joins Moisés to talk about wedding photography. Whether suffering the basement of a church or guests determined to make it look like prom in 1982, make sure at all times to ignore Uncle Morty.

Photo credit: some guy named Marco

Sponsored by

• Harry's: they're already disrupting the shaving industry by offering a much better shaving experience at a much better value. Use promo code THANKYOU for $5 off.

• Drobo: mass storage for the masses. Use offer code MOISES for $50 off Drobo 5D or 5N

Guest 

• Tiffany Arment is "tiffanyarment" all over the internet: .com, on Twitter, on Instagram, and so on.

Show Notes and Links

• The post-show we recorded (mostly about theatre) ran so long that it is still in post. As in "ran longer than the "actual" show. It's a good listen, promise. When it's up, it'll be "Extra #10".
• Tiffany's assistant photographer (also husband, turns out) Marco recently tried his hand at programming an "app" for listening to "podcasts". Over half of ESN listeners now use it, based on our stats.

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An all-star panel of Apple techs discuss dealing with customers who have broken iThings.

EXCLUSIVE SPONSOR

• Backblaze: back that Mac up for only $5 a month (less if you sign up for longer). Whatever kind of computer you’re using, make sure you’re backing it up. Think about what you spent on coffee this month. Is your data worth the $5 you probably spent on just two trips (or just one) to the coffee shop? Take the advice of our panel and set up Backblaze for yourself or a family member (or both) today.

PANELISTS

• Joe Saponare works for PsiMac and is one third of the Cmd-Ctrl-pwr (Command Control Power) podcast along with Sam.
• Sam Valencia works for HCS and is also a third of the Cmd-Ctrl-pwr podcast.
• Stephen Hackett writes 512 Pixels and was previously a third of The Prompt (RIP OMG). Keep your eyes peeled for what the Prompters have going next. He has a self-published eBook called Bartending: Memoirs of an Apple Genius. It’s only $1.99, so just buy it.
• Peter Cohen writes for iMore and can be found at iCape Solutions every weekend. He’s a big fan of bacon done the right way.

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Christina Warren and Casey Liss return to discuss video game retail and all it entailed: sexual harassment, death threats, Pokémon cards, babysitting kids, "quick change", and the loss of camaraderie and caring over the last 15 years. Part 2 of 2

Pictured: NOT Casey Liss, but close. Adam from the FuncoLand training video.

An "extended cut" combination of both episodes will appear in the Master Feed (iTunes) as "Trouble in Pikachu City". Let us know if you like that sort of thing.

SPONSORS

• Transporter: personal cloud storage that lives in your house. Use offer code ESN10 to get 10% off any Transporter model at FileTransporter.com

PANELISTS

• Christina Warren is the Senior Tech Analyst at Mashable. She's also a big-time film nerd. Big. Time.
• Casey Liss writes software and is one-third of Accidental Tech Podcast (ATP if you're nasty).

SHOW NOTES

• Part 1, "The Summer of '99"
• Funcoland commercial "Back in Five Minutes" was the bane of many's existence because a) it encouraged dropping kids off, b) minors could not sell back items, c) no one got a check or cash equivalent for trade-ins, and d) no kids were ever allowed to have that much fun in the store. Where did they think they were, FuncoLand???
• Pokémon cards are the devil, and Redemption (which is still around!) fought the devil and all the "Satanic" other CCGs of the 90's.
• Not only is Redemption still around, but they have "Women Booster packs" and a 2008 expansion set called Rock of Ages.
• Casey inaugurates "Shrinkwrapping, shelving, helping customers on the floor, or ringing in customers?" as the new "F/M/K"
• Keymaster/Gatekeeper
• Consumerist is a great site filled with loads of customer service horror stories alongside some of the best-ever reporting on consumer advocacy issues.
• Quick change scams are mean, awful things to do.
• Superman 64 is still 100% awful.
• Intelligent Qube is a great, tragically forgotten puzzle game for the PlayStation worth saving life good scotch. Chu Chu Rocket too.
• Syphon Filter really wanted to be Metal Gear Solid.
• People often forget the N64 had a bunch of really great games like Wave Race 64 and Banjo Kazooie.
• Resident Evil 2 and Code: Veronica were an obsession for many. Both games would be sold back and re-bought in Moisés' store repeatedly.
• Earthbound, part of the Mother series in Japan, still has an enormous cult following (including creator Shigesato Itoi) that drove its being made available on the Wii U eShop and the digital release of the classic Nintendo Strategy Guide.
• A combo GameCube/PS1/PS2/XBox controller to USB adapter. An yes, this makes it possible to use a Wavebird or two.
• A two-port N64 controller to USB adapter.
• You can still find loads of original vintage-plug controllers, but USB "alike" variants are all over too.

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Christina Warren and Casey Liss join Moisés to relive their mutual past in video game retail. Back in the days of VMUs, GD-ROMs, Product Protection Plans, and pre-internet consoles, it was the Wild West. Part 1 of 2

Pictured: FuncoLand #23 in Mesquite, TX.

"The Society of the Shrinked Wrap" will return in Part 2, "The Key Holder" (Thank You For Calling! #10).

An "extended cut" combination of both episodes will appear in the Master Feed (iTunes) as "Trouble in Pikachu City". Let us know if you like that sort of thing.

SPONSORS

• Hover: get 10% your purchase when signing up at Hover.com using offer code GLENGARRY
• Drobo: mass storage for the masses. Use offer code MOISES for $50 off Drobo 5D or 5N
• Igloo: an intranet you'll actually like and use. Visit the link to learn more and support the show. It's free for up to 10 users!

PANELISTS

• Christina Warren is the Senior Tech Analyst at Mashable. She's also a big-time film nerd. Big. Time.
• Casey Liss writes software and is one-third of Accidental Tech Podcast (ATP if you're nasty).

SHOW NOTES

• Moisés sings an acapella, truncated version of his new take on a Bionic theme song at the end of Bionic 94.
• Even for novelty value, the Virtual Boy, CD-i, and Jaguar aren't worth it. Well, maybe the Jaguar edition of Aliens vs. Predator.
• Babbage's, Electronics Boutique, and FuncoLand used to exist, I swear. Now there is only Zuul (Gamestop).
• Charles Babbage
• Babbage's has no Wikipedia page, so here's a great Ars Technica piece about the chain.
• Want to know FuncoLand? Learn the G.A.M.E.S. process before proceeding (part 1 and part 2). Moisés remembers this hilarious ripoff of Tron or Captain N: The Game Master or (probably) both vivdly...from his nightmares.
• This guy is an example of the sort of EB employee Moisés used to hate and still does. The Christina-type were always awesome. ThisGuy-type were the worst, even though he points out some of the FuncoLand-patented sales tactics and procedures.
• The Funcoland uniform was those green polo shirts and khakis you see in the video. If you came to work in jeans three times, you could actually be fired.
• This is "FuncoLand #23", where Moisés worked for most of his high school years. It has since become "GameStop #543".
• If you didn't experience the Dreamcast, you haven't lived. It won't die.
• The Neo Geo Pocket Color was a great idea, horrendously mis-marketed and had very little worthwhile software.
• Fingerboards were the bomb diggity, bro! Check these STUNTZ MOVEZ. and practice your movez anywhere!
• Seriously, Power Stone (and Power Stone 2) and Ecco: Tides of Time and Chu Chu Rocket and Crazy Taxi and Shenmue and...lots of Dreamcast games are really great, but forgotten.
• A fun story about Dreamcast launch, which involves a creepy guy in a van.
• Final Fantasy VIII had a Collectible Card Game (CCG) called Triple Triad built into the game, and yes, they actually made physical cards. There is a Flash adaptation of the game!
• Superman 64 was bad. Very, very bad.
• Star Wars: Episode One RACER was an awful game.

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