I recently spent a lot of quality time on the phone with AT&T Wireless’ Office of the President. They are a special customer service hit team that specializes in resolving customer problems at the highest level. And they do a fantastic job by the way.

I’ve covered the why and what in other blog entries here and on my Barefoot Blog.

Once you reach the Office of the President, they assign you a resolution specialist (my term) who works with you to understand what happened and then they basically become your advocate (for high $ amount disputes at least) and present your case to the person/committee who can actually approve your level of “claim.”

And in working with the person assigned to my case at AT&T she mentioned that it would take longer than normal to get me an answer to the removal of abnormally high data charges (yes, due to international roaming, read the post)as it not only had to be blessed by AT&T Wireless but by someone at Apple as well, as they also get a cut of the data fees.

So for everyone who wonders why Apple was willing to give exclusivity to AT&T for so long, and why they’re fighting so diligently against the hacks working to unlock the iPhone, the answer is all of a sudden obvious.

It’s not out of love for AT&T, but out of the love of money (not that there is anything wrong with that).

What a great, and unprecedented, piece of negotiation by Jobs on that front. It also makes the quick price cut a bit more understandable (more phones/more $ for data), although I still think that was handled very poorly—actually horribly on their part.

All the best,

Doug

I recently blogged about my frustration with a ginormous data bill from AT&T for my new iPhone. See below at “A box I could live with, the $3,000 iPhone bill I could live without.”

Well, circumstances change, and AT&T has made an amazing recovery you can read about at thinkbarefoot.com.

All the best,

Doug

This blog entry was first posted at thinkbarefoot.com.

I won’t change my tune.

I still love my iPhone.

But I think with a premature $200 reduction in the price of the iPhone, Apple has alienated their most loyal consumers, and demonstrated a complete lack of understanding as to why people were willing to trade-up in the first place.

When people stretch and spend more than “they should have” for a luxury item, they find Reasons to Rationalize® their purchase. As for my $600 iPhone, my Reasons to Rationalize included the ability to finally have one stand alone device that allowed me to leave my macbook behind, the iPod functionality, the visual voicemail, etc. That was how I was able to rationalize spending $600 on a phone.

As of today, I can no longer do that. Now I can rationalize $400 of the purchase to get those features, but Apple has put me in an indefensible position (in my mind) of having spent an extra $200 due to what can only be seen as a completely irrational (or childlike) desire to be first. Essentially I now have paid $400 for a phone, and $200 to have it a few weeks before everyone else. That does not remotely feel good or engender any positive feelings toward the Apple brand.

Another of the key tenets of how you market a trading-up product is how you treat consumers after purchase. After purchase, a purchaser constantly searches for post-purchase cues that they’ve made a smart decision. Up until today, the media/blogosphere was filled with positive reviews all working to reinforce that an iPhone purchase was wise. And then Apple makes a move that completely undoes all of that positive post-purchase feedback in one fell swoop. Now the blogosphere is full of people enraged with their premature purchase.

Net, instead of looking and feeling smart about my iPhone purchase, I feel sheepish for rushing out and not delaying gratification for a few more weeks.

To be clear, I assumed we would see the price drop as the holidays drew near to drive additional iPhone sales, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine they would cut prices by $200 (with no reduction in features) in 2 months.

The lack of regard for their best customers is really impossible to fathom.

The odds of me ever buying anything in the first 6 months of an Apple new release? Zero.

Way to go Steve Jobs. You’ve just proved you’re not the “in-touch-with-the-consumer” genius people thought. Apparently you forgot how much your success has depended on riding the backs of millions of misguided Apple evangelists.

There will be one less back to ride in the future.

All the best,

Doug

I love my iPhone. I hate AT&T.

I just received my first full month bill from AT&T Wireless for my iPhone. It did not come in a box. I wish it had. Then I would have had something to throw up in when I saw the charge of $2,970.40.

To be fair, I thought my bill might be a little bit higher than usual as it seems my iPhone never leaves my side and I’m on it far more often than I was ever on my old cell phone. But, holy shit. I felt like someone punched me in the gut when I opened the bill.

Thank god the bill still had all of the detail. It showed that the majority of the charges were due to data costs while I was in Canada on vacation. Yes, my beloved iPhone didn’t take a vacation when I did. It worked 24/7 to fill AT&T’s coffers. While I was awake, and while I was asleep, it faithfully and dutifully reached out to synch with my email back in the states, racking up huge charge after huge charge.

Now before you chalk me up as some idiot who should have known that international travel was going to cost more, you have to understand the voice plan I’m on with AT&T. I’ve been a loyal Cingular/AT&T for years and I’m on a plan they no longer offer called the North America Plan. It doesn’t matter whether I’m in Toronto, Mexico City or Cincinnati, I never pay roaming charges as long as I’m in North America. I assumed my “unlimited” data plan would have the same footprint. And why wouldn’t I assume that. When I signed up there was only one data plan offered. There was no mention of an international plan, no mention of any other option. Just “unlimited” data.

Take a look at Apple’s site and how they describe the rate plans. They say unlimited data, and no where is there an asterisk qualifying what unlimited means or any mention of international. I think this qualifies as a false claim.

I called AT&T customer service to get this situation remedied.

They were incredibly helpful.

No, not really.

They did let me know that though not listed, there is an international plan for data ($55) that I could sign up for from today forward. And they let me know that they could put me on a payment plan as they realized that a $3,000 bill could be a bit much to pay all in one month. I suggested they retroactively put me on the international data plan since this was the first I had heard of it. I mean seriously, if you can deliver all of that data for $55, is it really reasonable to charge someone nearly $3,000 for the same thing? Ummm, apparently so in their eyes. That logic didn’t resonate with my customer service rep, or his manager.

Here’s another thought, why not forgive these charges as there was a failure on their part in not revealing other options during the sign-up process. It’s not like they didn’t know I was on the North American plan. Perhaps they might acknowledge in their push to create the simplest sign-up possible that they overlooked some of their long-time loyal customers who didn’t have standard plans.

Where do we go from here? I’m currently awaiting a call from the next person up the totem pole. An area manager of some sort. I hope he can solve my problem. If not, I’ll keep pushing my way up the ladder until I reach Ed Whitacre. He seems bright enough to do the right thing.

AT&T’s tagline is “Your World. Delivered.” What they fail to mention is that there is an enormous freakin’ delivery fee.

I’ll keep you posted.

All the best (and in this case some of the worst),

Doug

Last week I was at Doug’s cottage on Georgian Bay in Ontario with little access to the outside world. The exception, my BlackBerry. Of the 6 adults on the island, 3 of us (the guys) could regularly be seen with SmartPhones. An iPhone, a BlackBerry Pearl and an old school 7280.

One night after a few beers and some wine of wine, we decided to have a friendly competition (we’re guys) to see whose smart phone was better. It became clear that none of us would concede we had an inferior phone. We each had favorite features that suited us well. The iPhone, as advertised, has an amazing google maps feature that blew the crackberries away. On the BlackBerries 2 great software packages stood out: viigo an awesome RSS reader that keeps you connected no matter where you go. It saves you the time of surffing on your mobile by pushing content directly to the BlackBerry. Another great app for the BlackBerry, 411. Plug in your address or zip and quickly locates restaurants, movies, Starbucks etc. and maps you to them. A great for the business/casual traveler.

We all liked our email applications. Doug’s iPhone had been set up for business email and worked as good as the BBs, despite some of the heat it takes in reviews. In the end we all stayed “loyal” to our phones, but were in complete agreement that they all helped us stay connected on the road.

When reflecting on our phone competition one great thing I saw, 3 different phones, 3 satisfied customers. Although only one of these phones is currently a “Best Of”, they were all a best of in their owner’s hand. At 3LUXE our ultimate goal is to help users find products that they’ll not only be satisfied with, but happy knowing they have the best.

All the best,
Bill