Telco promises in the spotlight

Two stories caught my eye this week regarding companies making claims they apparently haven’t been able to keep.

The first is Telecom who’s reached a settlement with the Commerce Commission following its admission it misled around 130,000 broadband customers regarding pricing plans. Apparently it overcharged customers more than $9.5 million between 1999 and 2006 when dial-up customers switched to broadband.

Although Telecom has refunded almost all these customers, since 2003 it has apparently received warnings, settlements or convictions relating to the Fair Trading Act at least eight times.

Quoted in the New Zealand Herald, Commerce Commission Fair Trading Manager Graham Gill said “Customers trust that businesses will have the correct processes in place and that they will be charged the right price”.

Gill is right. The majority of consumers do rely on the claims that are made and trust providers to follow through on their express or implied promises, be they advertising claims, technical specs or any other aspect of a product or service’s function or delivery.

Whether it’s deliberate or inadvertent, failing to deliver what’s promised is one of the biggest trust and reputation-damagers there is. Surely, ensuring people and processes are in place to avoid the failures should be part of the delivery plan?

Whilst Telecom forks out half a million in fines for a different breach of the Fair Trading Act, Bob Plaschke, CEO of Sonim Technologies, makers of “the world’s most rugged mobile phone” could yet benefit from a video clip that shows it is, in fact, entirely breakable.

The on-camera demonstration, undertaken by a BBC reporter, has sparked wide comment on the internet and prompted Plaschke to comment on his blog.

All kudos to Plaschke. His post is frank in fronting up about the phone’s failure and goes on to reiterate they offer an unconditional 3 year guarantee.

Nice, too, to see a healthy sense of perspective from Plaschke when he says

“So keep putting our phones to the test and if one breaks for any reason, let us know so we can learn and make the phone tougher still – and the recent BBC breakage will be at the top of the R&D pile!”

Maybe adding the word ‘virtually’ in front of ‘unbreakable’ in their promotional materials might help too!

© Hannah Samuel www.hannahsamuel.com January 2010