Again! Tech That Doesn’t Work Won’t Let Us Work – BusinessWeek
Posted on: October 2, 2008
- In: Clickry | news
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Yes, I am an angry guy.
I yell at other drivers. I roll my eyes when I have to stand in line for more than two minutes. I complain about Wall Street’s greedy executives, out-of-touch politicians, and our local newscast idiots, with their pancake makeup, chiseled cheekbones, and chirpy laughter.
Stuff that doesn’t work—especially business technology—is at the top of the list of things that make me angry.
Computer equipment and software were the sixth most-complained-about category at the Federal Trade Commission in 2007. More than 27,000 people were sufficiently ticked off to bother reporting stuff that wasn’t working to the government. And that doesn’t include angry guys like me. Thank God these tech companies don’t make things that need to work all the time—like airplanes, water service, or Viagra.
Even TiVo Fails Me
Here’s a handful of the tech products that have been failing me or my business lately. Thinking I could save a few bucks for my company, I laid down $40 and purchased MagicJack, a device that attaches to my computer and promises that, for only 20 bucks a year, I can make unlimited calls to anyone in North America from my regular phone, over the Internet. And I can. Most of the time. Unfortunately, the quality is bad sometimes, or the call drops, or I dial a number four times before it can be connected. Ditto for Skype (EBAY) and some other Internet-based calling services. Can my business rely on this? No way. No how.
Then there’s TiVo (TIVO). I pay a monthly fee for my TiVo service at home. Except my TiVo sometimes loses the connection to my router and doesn’t get updated with new data. And about 1 out of 10 times it records the wrong channel. Doesn’t happen a lot. But it happens. At the worst possible times, too.
My frustration isn’t limited to TiVo. Users of Sirius XM Radio (SIRI) are accustomed to dead spots and lost signals—especially in the bottom of the ninth. As I write, my Comcast (CMCSA) Internet service is down. Oh, and it so happens my new Comcast Digital is kind of snowy today, too.
Even the Exchange Crashed in London
I have a Palm (PALM) Treo 700p. It works—most of the time. But then there are moments when it just freezes, sometimes in the middle of a call. Or locks up when I’m trying to send a text message. Or just reboots itself for no reason. Yes, I’ve installed the latest firmware. But the problems keep happening. Think I’m alone? Check out Palm’s support forums. And no, Palm, your admonition to “Just upgrade to the newest version” isn’t good enough. I can’t wait to trash my Treo.
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