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mbarker(This is Wednesday's posting - I wanted to sit on it overnight to make sure I really meant it.)
Mitsuko and I spent four of the worst hours I think we've had recently today. See, Saturday we had taken ourselves over to Softbank, one of the local cell phone dealers, and spent about two hours looking at models and plans and such. Of course, we picked models that they didn't have in stock - despite this being the dealer's own store, where I would expect the stock to be somewhat broader. In fact, we were there because our first foray into a stand in a local electronics shop had ended with questions that the very attentive people couldn't answer, but they were sure that the dealer's own store would know. So we went over, and they were somewhat more knowledgeable. At least we picked models and colors, and they said they would expedite things.
So today (yes, it took four days for them to get the right models) we went in to pick things up. And about three questions into things, I realized that our little buddy didn't have a clue. When I asked him whether my sister in America could call on my new service or not, and he started pawing through the sales literature to try to find an answer, I wondered. But then I asked him about connecting the new phone (which apparently does allow some kinds of data exchange) with my pc - and he dug through the box, and then looked as if he was going to faint, but agreed that maybe I could get the necessary USB cable somewhere else (because he certainly didn't know what it looked like or whether they had one).
Sadly, every time we asked something, it broke his set routine, and added to the time it took for him to get even simple things done. So what should have been - worst case - 30 minutes - took 4 hours. And then to top it off, after he had finally finished all the paperwork and odds and ends, Mitsuko remembers to ask him about the promised feature of having her phone show the time on its front (which appears to be a sheet of thin metal). And he presses a button, and tiny numbers appear, dimly, in the fluorescent bright room. Mitsuko goes "Is that all?" and gestures to the stack of phones beside us with large numbers in a display on their front (since that's one of the big features this season). So we go back and forth about whether or not she can change the phone now (after transfering phone books and everything else). And he gulps, talks with his manager, gulps, tells us it would be very difficult, well, no, really can't, no . . . and finally we walk out, with Mitsuko angry.
One of the points that I realized later - early on I had insisted on taking my box out of his hands and actually looking at the manual and phone. He was very uneasy about that, but let me do it. However, he didn't let Mitsuko even look at her phone until we were finished with all of his paperwork - which is a cute trick, because then he insisted that we couldn't change it because all the paperwork was finished! And of course the front time feature doesn't work on the non-functional samples that they show you ahead of time.
Not good. But when I thought about it, I realized he was a macserver - following the set routine, he probably does fine. Any question that's slightly off his track, though, and he's lost.
The phones, and the service, seem to be good. Lots of features, and now that I've dug up English language manuals (on their website, despite his assurance that they didn't have any - I think he meant he didn't know of any), we can even make them do tricks. But . . . beware the macservers, for they do not know what they are doing.
Mitsuko and I spent four of the worst hours I think we've had recently today. See, Saturday we had taken ourselves over to Softbank, one of the local cell phone dealers, and spent about two hours looking at models and plans and such. Of course, we picked models that they didn't have in stock - despite this being the dealer's own store, where I would expect the stock to be somewhat broader. In fact, we were there because our first foray into a stand in a local electronics shop had ended with questions that the very attentive people couldn't answer, but they were sure that the dealer's own store would know. So we went over, and they were somewhat more knowledgeable. At least we picked models and colors, and they said they would expedite things.
So today (yes, it took four days for them to get the right models) we went in to pick things up. And about three questions into things, I realized that our little buddy didn't have a clue. When I asked him whether my sister in America could call on my new service or not, and he started pawing through the sales literature to try to find an answer, I wondered. But then I asked him about connecting the new phone (which apparently does allow some kinds of data exchange) with my pc - and he dug through the box, and then looked as if he was going to faint, but agreed that maybe I could get the necessary USB cable somewhere else (because he certainly didn't know what it looked like or whether they had one).
Sadly, every time we asked something, it broke his set routine, and added to the time it took for him to get even simple things done. So what should have been - worst case - 30 minutes - took 4 hours. And then to top it off, after he had finally finished all the paperwork and odds and ends, Mitsuko remembers to ask him about the promised feature of having her phone show the time on its front (which appears to be a sheet of thin metal). And he presses a button, and tiny numbers appear, dimly, in the fluorescent bright room. Mitsuko goes "Is that all?" and gestures to the stack of phones beside us with large numbers in a display on their front (since that's one of the big features this season). So we go back and forth about whether or not she can change the phone now (after transfering phone books and everything else). And he gulps, talks with his manager, gulps, tells us it would be very difficult, well, no, really can't, no . . . and finally we walk out, with Mitsuko angry.
One of the points that I realized later - early on I had insisted on taking my box out of his hands and actually looking at the manual and phone. He was very uneasy about that, but let me do it. However, he didn't let Mitsuko even look at her phone until we were finished with all of his paperwork - which is a cute trick, because then he insisted that we couldn't change it because all the paperwork was finished! And of course the front time feature doesn't work on the non-functional samples that they show you ahead of time.
Not good. But when I thought about it, I realized he was a macserver - following the set routine, he probably does fine. Any question that's slightly off his track, though, and he's lost.
The phones, and the service, seem to be good. Lots of features, and now that I've dug up English language manuals (on their website, despite his assurance that they didn't have any - I think he meant he didn't know of any), we can even make them do tricks. But . . . beware the macservers, for they do not know what they are doing.
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Date: 2007-08-20 05:43 am (UTC)