No subject

and neither are pure technical issues. Both Rogers and Bell are and
continue too duel it out for a point of presence in the customers home.
This market share is desperately needed to ensure that "future" services
have free access to an existing customer base, where the real revenue
will be generated via deployment of convergence technologies.(rogers is
already playin this with cable, digital cable, and cellular but Bell is
comming on with a raft of services) Its always easier to "upsell" than
the generate a new account. This one-upmanship for your business should
continue well into this year. Further, these companies are playing with
very large amounts of capital and investment dollars. It has been
reported that Rogers paid Excite approx. $15M US to keep the current
@home email accounts live till the end of the month. It was further
reported that this sum was equivalent to three months of subscriptions
at existing levels (Dec). No chump change we are talking about here.

Consequently it fails understanding, why support and service are not
receiving similar attention to ensure account retention. After all that
is what the customer wants and has contracted Rogers to provide. It must
be remembered that the contract is a performance based contract the
Rogers has with its clients, hence it surprises me the lack of attention
that accounts receive when there are performance issues. On the other
hand, Rogers is very sympathetic with refunds, once they are requested.
I guess it's their most cost effect method (rather then sending out a
truck, paying trained support staff etc.) to retain the account. "Hay,
you got a problem, well here's a month free" is a lot cheaper that
spending an hour with tech suport at $15.00/hr (actual cost to Rogers is
3x's that) or sending out a repair unit at what $25.00/hr (again company
cost is 3x labor rate) So the numbers are clearly in favor of a refund
"when request"....:)

Chris H.