Archive for October, 2008



Comcast: How to Lose a Sale

October 23rd, 2008 by Gregory Silvano Posted in Business, Technology | 4 Comments »

Comcast announced its new high-speed internet offerings today, so I jumped on board and signed up for their Ultra package: 30Mbps download.  Verizon Fios isn’t available on my street yet (one of only a few streets in the entire town?!), so Comcast is my only option.

So I go through the checkout process and at the end I am greeted by Da in a mandatory chat window.  Here’s the unedited chat session, which lasted just 6 minutes.

Da(Thu Oct 23 09:14:31 EDT 2008)>Hello. Thank you for choosing Comcast. My name is Da and I will be processing your order. It will take me just a few minutes to pull up your order information in our system. I will let you know if I have any questions.

Da(Thu Oct 23 09:16:01 EDT 2008)>Can you please verify the last four digits of the social security number on your account?

Gregory_(Thu Oct 23 09:16:49 EDT 2008)>****

Da(Thu Oct 23 09:16:28 EDT 2008)>Thank you.

Da(Thu Oct 23 09:17:10 EDT 2008)>You current have the bundle for cable, internet and phone.

Da(Thu Oct 23 09:17:34 EDT 2008)>If you want to upgrade to ultra tier, it’s an additional $20 per month.

Gregory_(Thu Oct 23 09:19:02 EDT 2008)>that’s fine…what’s the total monthly bill?

Da(Thu Oct 23 09:20:47 EDT 2008)>I’m sorry but I am unable to upgrade the internet speed. The system is stating that the  ultra speed upgrade is only available for customers with the $114.99, $129.99 or $159.99 bundle.

Da(Thu Oct 23 09:22:22 EDT 2008)>Is there anything else that I can assist you with today?

Gregory_(Thu Oct 23 09:23:02 EDT 2008)>odd

Gregory_(Thu Oct 23 09:23:18 EDT 2008)>nope, that’s all.

Da(Thu Oct 23 09:23:12 EDT 2008)>This could be a glitch with our system because the $99 bundle is grandfathered. Please contact our technical department at 1-800-266-2278 for further assistance.

Da(Thu Oct 23 09:23:15 EDT 2008)>I’m sorry that I could not be of more help to you today. Thank you for your time! Goodbye.

Sale…lost.  Could you imagine being so close to a sale and letting it walk away?  Isn’t that astounding?  Where’s Da going?  Is there another customer waiting who is even closer to buying?  How about “Let me check with a manager because this should work…”?  Could you imagine standing at the checkout counter at Walmart, only to hear “Sorry, the scanner’s not working right…have a nice day.”

Obviously I’m not going to call the Comcast technical support line in order to buy more products.  Ironically, I was about to ask Da to upgrade to the Extreme plan at $145/month.  And I would have upgraded my entire package too.  But I didn’t feel like spending the next 45 minutes in a chat session trying to pursuade Comcast to let me spend more money on them.

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New Client: Cardinal Health

October 13th, 2008 by Gregory Silvano Posted in Stature Projects | No Comments »

We’re starting a new project this week for a new client: Cardinal Health.  Cardinal Health is a Fortune 20 company in 2008, so I’m obviously very excited.  The project is ASP.NET, C#, and SQL Server 2005.

Thanks to Danielle, Louise, and Michelle!  We’ll knock this project out of the park, don’t worry.  It’s an aggressive schedule but we’ll definitely get it launched on time.

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Google AdWords…$25.00 per CLICK?!?!

October 8th, 2008 by Gregory Silvano Posted in Small Business | No Comments »

Stature has used AdWords in the past with not-so-great results.  I just don’t think a software consulting business is the right client for AdWords.  People don’t call Stature because they saw an advertisement on Google.  They call because they talked to me, talked to my partner, or talked to one of our clients.  It’s a very “network” kind of business (aren’t they all?).

Given the economic meltdown in the past week, I figured I’d get some new ads on Google.  I wanted to get some ads that people would see if they wanted to outsource their software development in an effort to trim costs.

Look at the minimum bids for the keywords below.  Who in their right mind would pay $25 per click?  Are they insane!?!

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