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BellSouth PC Care?
Trialing service in Atlanta
BellSouth is apparently trialing a home-visitation PC setup service in Atlanta, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle. "BellSouth Managed Home Service" charges various fees for various services, doing everything from installing software to configuring web-cams. "So far we have not seen the telecom industry move into managed home services, but it is a concept that has great potential," says an exec. Keep in mind BellSouth is being the self-admitted least aggressive telco (barring perhaps Qwest) when it comes to next-gen broadband deployment.
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Robert
Premium Member
join:2001-08-25
Miami, FL

Robert

Premium Member

Walk my Dog?

Would they walk my dog and then give me a discount if I bundle it with a couple of dogs?

Mizzat
Will post for thumbs
Premium Member
join:2003-05-03
Atlanta, GA

Mizzat

Premium Member

Re: Walk my Dog?

Hey, another things for a one stop shop. How innovative...

technick
Premium Member
join:2000-12-16
Wheat Ridge, CO

technick

Premium Member

Re: Walk my Dog?

I have to agree with Mizzat, it's a new service. I am curious to see how it holds up. I hope the techs they hire are knowledgeable and able to hold their own.

But as the Header also states
"Keep in mind BellSouth is being the self-admitted least aggressive telco (barring perhaps Qwest) when it comes to next-gen broadband deployment.".
Which is one of the things ive been saying all long...

BIGMIKE
Q
Premium Member
join:2002-06-07
Gainesville, FL

BIGMIKE to Robert

Premium Member

to Robert
Computer Illiteracy to the Extreme

True story from a Novell NetWire SysOp:

Caller: "Hello, is this Tech Support?"

Tech Rep: "Yes, it is. How may I help you?"

Caller: "The cup holder on my PC is broken and I am within my warranty period. How do I go about getting that fixed.

Tech Rep: "I'm sorry, but did you say a cup holder?"

Caller: "Yes, it's attached to the front of my computer."

Tech Rep: "Please excuse me if I seem a bit stumped, it's because I am. Did you receive this as part of a promotional, at a trade show? How did you get this cup holder? Does it have any trademark on it?"

Caller: "It came with my computer, I don't know anything about a promotion. It just has '4X' on it."

At this point the Tech Rep had to mute the caller, because he couldn't stand it. The caller had been using the load drawer of the CD-ROM drive as a cup holder, and snapped it off the drive! »www.lovedungeon.net/humo ··· lit.html

ropeguru
Premium Member
join:2001-01-25
Mechanicsville, VA

ropeguru

Premium Member

Why would I...

want them to take care of my PC when they cannot even get their own act together when doing roll outs of new services??
clecrupt9
join:2002-01-22
GA

clecrupt9

Member

Re: Why would I...

Yep.

This type of service lends itself to a smaller company. IBM wouldn't do any better, matter of fact GE was offering something like this years ago- but I suspect nobody has heard of it, if it still exists. Geek Squad is who comes to mind with something like this and they were smart of go after a partnership with Best Buy. Notice they didn't partner with an SBC or Verizon. That probably because many of the technical issues revolve around the internet, and when you partner with the internet service provider you have a bias.

IMHO, this is another example of Bellsouth's managerial identity crisis.

upidstay
@bellsouth.net

upidstay

Anon

What?

To be impartial here, what does Managed Home Services have anything to do with a company deciding to or not to be aggressive in deploying fiber? If Bellsouth started a car rental company a mention of not being aggressive with fiber would still be in the headlines.

needforspeed59
Cruise Ship Just Passing Through
join:2001-05-02
La Place, LA

needforspeed59

Member

Re: What?

I think it is brought up because BS is not innovative in their core product development and yet they are off focusing on a tangent like this. It probably isn't fair to bring it up all the time. If there is a market demand for a managed in home service, they should go for it. It has nothing to with laying fiber.
clecrupt9
join:2002-01-22
GA

clecrupt9

Member

Re: What?

I think people may also find it interesting that Bellsouth hasn't done a voip product, is losing core revenue and decided to do something like this.

The only thing I can figure is, based on their marketing, they are going after the very unsophisticated internet users. But what they might not have understood is that crowd will be less likely to afford or pay high fees- everyone can find a son, or brother-in-law to fix their computer. This assumes the costs are somewhat high.

Now for small business this could be good idea.
dustee
join:2005-11-01

dustee

Member

Re: What?

Yeah I wondered about the voip product myself. So would they set up my vonage on my new pc?:D

lard saipens
@bellsouth.net

lard saipens

Anon

PC Cure?

Keep in mind that the vast majority of a large isp customers except the technologically knowledgeble few are completely computer STUPID. The pc care service will probably only be for people who dont know that Windows is an operating system, and that you do not put your credit card into a floppy drive to do "online shopping". (I am seriously not making the last one up) Most BBR users are very knowledgeble so there would be no reason whatsoever to call your ISP to help you to reformat and reinstall your OS or to install a soundcard things that an ISP is not responsible for anyway. Some customers are still stuck on Win 95 have computers that take 10 minutes to restart, have more spyware than the CIA, and NEVER keep up with any important software to get a pc back up when it crashes.

JohnQPublic6
Premium Member
join:2002-03-22
Xanadu

JohnQPublic6

Premium Member

Hmm...

Will the techs be based locally or deployed from Bangalore? If the latter, the lead times could be horrendous.
L2006
join:2001-12-03
Stratford, ON

L2006

Member

nice idea, but...

I can really see this conversation blending well with the other topic about call-center abuse.

»Indian Call-Center Worker Abuse

obviously the call-center will be the most cost-effective for the consumer, but i can see the home-visits getting pricey.
moogman
join:2000-09-12
Lynn Haven, FL

moogman

Member

to all of the BS doomers

I guess most of these comments (maybe not all) are from big markets. You know I am a supervisor (of BS adsl techs) of an adsl crew in a low area market and I do not have these kind of problems. I get high praises for all of my techs all the time and they go thru extremes to make sure the customer is happy and surfing and etc. Yes I know we have our help desk which is way in the need of help on many things, but overall if you break it down to the techs (speaking of my area of Florida) we do whatever it takes to get the customer service. One thing I cannot understand is why people have so much trouble, granted I work for BS and have a great deal of computer exp, I just have not ever had the trouble with my service that some people have had. Most of my techs that go out on calls are almost all user troubles with either spyware or they have no clue on what they are doing with a computer at all.

2nd lvl
@rr.com

2nd lvl

Anon

Re: to all of the BS doomers

Moog, 2nd and 3rd levels do not read the posts on here. No promotion for you