I'm sure none of you missed the media hype over Google offering voice-over-internet (VoIP) services. Even though their offering is way inferior to existing providers such as Vonage; Skype; Broadvoice etc...

But the buzz in the IT world is that they are eventually going to link their service to their Adwords and links etc... This means that not only will you click on a link to go to a companies website - but you then click on another link on that website and your Google VoIP will call the company direct and put you through! All at no cost via the internet.

This is the beginning of the end (or the end of the beginning of the end if you're Winston Churchill) for traditional telcos - who are all "quaking in their boots" according to the financial press.

Google's VoIP will be compatible with other IM services such as Yahoo etc...; plus eventually it will become SIP compliant. SIP is the generic protocol for VoIP that will be widely adopted.

This means that such a VoIP link on a companies website will be linked to your SIP device of choice - just as you can specify which email program is linked to email links.

Once this starts to happen and companies adopt it; it will revolutionize the marketplace. Just as no company can afford not to have a website; none will be able to resist the free VoIP revolution.

Excuse my cynicism, PeDaSp, but I am confident they will find a way, especially in the UK....!  :-/

Fear not - VoIP is just like email - and who pays for email now? (Apart from your net connection).

I think the shear weight of market forces will force this through; although companies who wish to charge for tech support etc... will find a way - perhaps by billing via your VoIP account or special VoIP numbers.

But I think it spells the end of disguised premium rate numbers.

wrote on Aug 30^th, 2005 at 9:11pm:

Fear not - VoIP is just like email - and who pays for email now? (Apart from your net connection).

Voip is not at all like email.

Emails do not impose any cost on a company to receive (as Lousyjet and LyinAir know only too well) but only in the event that they choose to process the contents.

Also bearing in mind the amount of email spam I get I would hate to see the same phenomenon replicated in Voip amongst the world's overseas telesales operations.

Of course if you can use Voip you can be assumed to also have access to email and web form browsing capacity.  QED therefore that companies do not need to support voip voice calls at all and can isntead force you to communicate with them by email or customer comment form instead.

Voice calls on PSTN are only needed for people who do not have access to email..............................

Me thinks there is a fault somewhere in your logic and your commercial realism.  In 5 years time voip may be supported for sales calls but not for customer services by all the Lousyjets and LyinAirs of this world.

Written communications (that can then receive a 2 second stock emailed response to Question Type X) will be the only way of interacting with the world's largest and most customer abusing companies.

Have to agree with all you say NGM.

VoIP spam will happen and customer service will always be bad as long as the customers claim they are willing to pay for good service; but actually buy the cheapest with no regard for it.

Easyjet and Ryanair just face this fact head on and don't try and hide it. They both state quite openly that customer service is not top of their list; they have one God only - and that is price. Same God the customer has!

I love watching those airport shows where the plebs turn up 29 minutes and 59 seconds before the flight and are refused boarding as they are 1 second late. Serves them right and I love seeing the Easyjet folks telling them to get stuffed. Teaches the plebs to take responsibility for their own actions - something they don't get taught at school or by their parents.

*end of rant*

But there is no doubt that VoIP is going to stuff the telcoms companies big time.

Note: Ryanair and Easyjet have draconian check-in rules so they can offer good reliability to rest of us who can turn-up on time. Out of 21 UK airlines Ryanair is the 4th most punctual and Easyjet the 15th. Both better then BA and Virgin.

http://www.flightontime.info/scheduled/scheduled.html

And I must add that easyJet is the only airline on which I have travelled where the cabin crew has stopped the safety talk (a minute or two out of Liverpool John Lennon) and told, loudly and firmly, one row to "be quiet, pay attention and listen. This concerns you." Wonderful.

wrote on Aug 31^st, 2005 at 8:52pm:

VoIP spam will happen and customer service will always be bad as long as the customers claim they are willing to pay for good service; but actually buy the cheapest with no regard for it.

That's a good point. Although if today's 084/087 help lines were to be charged as geographical calls, there may be the same problem as more people take up inclusive call packages.

Of course, I'm not condoning 084/087 one bit, but that would be a disadvantage as far as timewasters goes and may have been a selling point for telcos to businesses. That said, we are reliably informed that in the US, companies regularly use toll-free numbers.

wrote on Aug 31^st, 2005 at 9:10pm:

a disadvantage as far as timewasters goes

Much like the US callers offering me investment services et al. Irritating, but putting the 'phone down remains the only option.
Oh, that and being forewarned by Withheld, International (pace 18866 users ;)) and Unavailable.

wrote on Aug 31^st, 2005 at 8:52pm:

Note: Ryanair and Easyjet have draconian check-in rules so they can offer good reliability to rest of us who can turn-up on time. Out of 21 UK airlines Ryanair is the 4th most punctual and Easyjet the 15th. Both better then BA and Virgin.

Having been excluded by Easyjet for checking in 29 minutes and 30 seconds beforehand at Luton and having then seen the flight take off 1 hour late I cannot agree with you.

The main reason Easyjet and Ryanair won't let late passengers check in is not because it makes the aircraft leave late but because they travel with minimum fuel reserve on board so as to further cut operating costs.  Thus if four passengers show up late they are already on their fuel margin so can't acommodate them.  Also in the case of Ryanair they make a fortune out of the £40 ticket rebooking fee which is why they try so hard to exclude people, typically by closing down checkins several minutes before the 40 minute deadline.

However Easyjet do let you transfer to the next flight for free if you are a few minutes late so the minimum fuel reserves thing seems to be their main motivation for excluding you.

If you like seeing an uneducated uncouth working class person pointlessly following the rulebook to abuse other people who have already paid far too much for a substandard product then Lousyjet or LyinAir is clearly for you.  A return fare for a week from London to Palma with Easyjet from any London airport in the last week has been £500 and I would never pay that to travel cattle class.

wrote on Aug 31^st, 2005 at 9:00pm:

And I must add that easyJet is the only airline on which I have travelled where the cabin crew has stopped the safety talk (a minute or two out of Liverpool John Lennon) and told, loudly and firmly, one row to "be quiet, pay attention and listen. This concerns you." Wonderful.

That's because their staff are all uneducated ex traffic wardens or clerical assistants who are only capable of following rules in a mindless and unthinking way.  Above all their cabin crew staff would not no charm if it ran them over.

I would be more concerned about whether the aircraft had enough fuel onboard if it had to undertake a really major diversion due to very bad weather or terrorist action at the destination airport.

wrote on Aug 31^st, 2005 at 9:10pm:

Of course, I'm not condoning 084/087 one bit, but that would be a disadvantage as far as timewasters goes and may have been a selling point for telcos to businesses. That said, we are reliably informed that in the US, companies regularly use toll-free numbers.

The main reason uk companies get so many unwanted customer service calls is due to fowling up so many orders that customers then have to call to sort out.

In the US where bad customer service is not the norm customers have less reason to need to call.

wrote on Aug 31^st, 2005 at 9:20pm:

That's because their staff are all uneducated ex traffic wardens or clerical assistants who are only capable of following rules in a mindless and unthinking way.  Above all their cabin crew staff would not no charm if it ran them over. I would be more concerned about whether the aircraft had enough fuel onboard if it had to undertake a really major diversion due to very bad weather or terrorist action at the destination airport.

Hmm, take your point, but I do not want people whining and getting in my way to the exits because they are too knowing to listen. I had better stop ranting about some travellers...

wrote on Aug 31^st, 2005 at 9:44pm:

Hmm, take your point, but I do not want people whining and getting in my way to the exits because they are too knowing to listen. I had better stop ranting about some travellers...

Tanllan,

If you travel with British Airways most passengers have travelled before so there is not much need to emphasise the safety demonstration.  With Easyjet there are still many people who fly irregularly or who have never flown before on board.

The one thing Easyjet I believe do pay a lot of attention to customer care wise is aircarft safety since they know a crash could be very damaging to their business, however much they might otherwise target low cost operation.

It seems that Helias Airlines did not realise this fact.

Do you come from Africa originally or is the Accra visit and conference purely due to the global nature of your job?  I can't say that it is necessarily where I would go for my leisure travels. ;)

Replying en clair to an instant message: I am UK born, Accra is work.

NGN - if Easyjet and Ryanair are so bad how come they are so popular and make so much money??

Despite all you say they, offer amazing pricing (much of the time), and fly to many, many airports unserviced by any other airlines from the UK. This allows lots of people who could not afford to fly before to do so now. So what if sometimes their pricing is just as bad as other airlines? So what if other airlines like BA have been forced to drop their stupid prices to compete?

I don't give a hoot about how "nice" the cabin staff are. Who gives a monkeys? I want my mother, my dog and my girlfriend to be nice to me. The only reason cabin staff are there anyway is because they are required for safety reasons. I'm not a baby.

I'm a responsible person: I READ T&C and small print - and I allow plenty of time to get to the airport. I expect a company to deliver what they agree to in their contractual agreement with me - no more and no less. I take responsibility for my own actions.

But if they break their contract with me a just pop on the web and issue a county court summons in two ticks. I once turned up at Geneva airport to take an Easyjet flight, and indeed the check-in desk was inexplicably closed about 10 minutes before the deadline. I got the airport manager as a witness; and in the summons required that they provide me with the names of all Easyjet staff on duty that day plus full details of their duty logs AND the video tape from the security cameras!

I claimed a full refund (£89); the cost of a replacement flight on BA (£324) plus £150 for the hassle. They paid almost the full lot (only £100 for hassle) before the court date! Plus the £30 for registering my claim. Very satisfying.

I don't quite understand your point about fuel margins. A jet has to be refueled before any passengers board; and as much of the time all the passengers turn up on time I can't see how it helps Easyjet with their fuel margins. ie: they can't under-fuel the jet on the hope that some passengers will not turn up.

The laws governing air-safety are incredibly strict and very well enforced in UK/Ireland and most of the EU. As long as Easyjet stay within the law I don't care.

wrote on Aug 31^st, 2005 at 11:35pm:

NGN - if Easyjet and Ryanair are so bad how come they are so popular and make so much money??

Same reason as DSG Retail Ltd.  A lot of brash advertising and plenty of capital backing.  DSG Retail Ltd only got where it is today by geographical presence and by being big enough to get new products in store before their rivals.  They didn't get there through training staff (something that Kaiser Electrical seemingly are now doing with Comet) or being nice to their customers.

But Easyjet and Ryanair are two completely different airlines really.  I do agree that Ryanair has always opened up a lot of new routes and also has generally very cheap fares, provided you book at least 2 weeks in advance.  But the same wasn't originally true of Easyjet on opening any new routes (Stelios simply believed ingoing head to head against BA on their established routes) and Easyjet have never had lots of cheap fares in the way that Ryanair has.  Easyjet play a lot of devious games to be able to claim cheap headline fares while 75%+ of their customers pay something little different from what BA, Iberia and so on are charging.


Quote:

I don't give a hoot about how "nice" the cabin staff are. Who gives a monkeys?

They don't have to be nice to me they just have not to be rude, crude and generally disrespectful of the customer as so many Easyjet staff seem to have special lifelong training in doing.

I never book more than a month before travel and often much less.  Easyjet fares are never the cheapest available this near to travel.  I travel either other major scheduled carriers or major charter carriers like Thomson, Monarch or Air 2000,  all of whom respect their customers more than Easyjet do.


Quote:

But if they break their contract with me a just pop on the web and issue a county court summons in two ticks. I once turned up at Geneva airport to take an Easyjet flight, and indeed the check-in desk was inexplicably closed about 10 minutes before the deadline. I got the airport manager as a witness; and in the summons required that they provide me with the names of all Easyjet staff on duty that day plus full details of their duty logs AND the video tape from the security cameras!

Other airlines don't have to be sued in order to solve these problems as they won't close the checkin desk on you before time and if you miss the flight due to their fault they will put you up in a hotel (they have permanent ground staff at the airport unlike Easyjet) and/or will compensate you in response to merely a letter instead of a threat to go to court.

You seem to fly a lot but I can only assume you book your flights 6 months ahead.  Well bully for you if you can do this but personally I prefer the convenience of the car where I can decide to leave in 5 minutes time and not have to pay 15 times as much for the privilege as a result.

Quote:

Easyjet play a lot of devious games to be able to claim cheap headline fares while 75%+ of their customers pay something little different from what BA, Iberia and so on are charging.

But who was it that got BA and the others to lower their prices?? They didn't do it out of the goodness of their hearts because they "love" their customers. They did it because Easyjet came in; cut costs and lowered prices.

I work in the film business and fly crews around Europe the whole time - I just can't tell you how much money Easyjet has saved me. I went to a talk Stelios gave - and I stood up and told him. The whole audience broke into applause with agreement.

I often book at the last minute - and more often then not, Easyjet (or Ryanair) are still the cheapest. The prices only go up if it's near the fly date AND they don't have many seats left. If they are full then why can't they charge more?

But it's true that some people assume Easyjet will always be the cheapest - they're not. But it's them you have to thank for the low prices.


Quote:

Other airlines don't have to be sued in order to solve these problems as they won't close the checkin desk on you before time and if you miss the flight due to their fault they will put you up in a hotel (they have permanent ground staff at the airport unlike Easyjet)

I agree 100% - and that's the whole point! Easyjet just have a different business model - right down to "sue us". Look how overstaffed BA is - and how the unions force them to keep too many staff. This overmanning even extends to their outsourced suppliers like Gate Gourmet: they have rules like "X number of people must be present to unload each food trailer" even when most of them are just standing around.

This government has made it SO easy to sue companies in the small claims court. You just fill in a web form and pay a few pounds depending on the size of the claim.

I NEVER waste time writing or calling customer services departments. I go straight to the companies house website, find out the companies' registered address (free), and then issue a 7 day notice by post. Then on the 8th day I pop on the web and issue the summons.

Because I'm smart I get the best of both worlds - cheap prices  and then full recompense if the companies mess me around. I've NEVER lost a case and only once have I ever actually gone to court - and even then I didn't need to and could have won on my written submission alone.

Bulldog Broadband are next on my list if they don't sort themselves out quick :-)))


Quote:

They don't have to be nice to me they just have not to be rude, crude and generally disrespectful of the customer as so many Easyjet staff seem to have special lifelong training in doing.

I must confess I quite like the way they are so rude! Anything is better then fawning cabin staff pretending they are enjoying such a silly job. I remember on my very first Easyjet flight a passenger standing up as the plane was still on it's steep ascent with all the seatbelt signs on. The Easyjet steward just stood up and shouted all the way down the plane for the prat to sit down - lovely!

If it's cheap and good value you can be as rude as you like to me (not that I won't be rude back).

We have a famlily holiday apartment in good old Mallorca.

All I can tell you is that Easyjet have been very bad for price competition on that route and have targeted it as one where they are determined to become the dominant supplier of scheduled seats (as opposed to inflexible duration charter seats).

Easyjet have never offered particularly cheap seats but their relentless pushy marketing power has stolen bookings and ultimately the route from other low cost carriers on for instance the London to Gatwick part of the route (Air Europa).  Then the moment they had driven their main Spanish low cost airline low cost rival off the route this year they also cut their own schedule and rammed prices through the ceiling.  And because Easyjet have driven up the price of scheduled tickets the price of last minute charter seats has also gone through the roof too.  We do not travel on this route on business but on holiday and the fares are now frequently so high in peak season that we cannot afford to go when we want to go.  So we don't go on another date.  We just don't go there at all.

As for you liking Easyjet staff manner well I can only assume that you would enjoy travelling on a coach or staying at an old style Butlins camp.  Its not a question of staff in the other airlines being fawning but of them employing more pleasant people who they pay higher wages too.  Easyjet pay peanuts and get the cabin crew you would expect as a result.   Any good Easyjet cabin crew member rapidly leaves for jobs with other airlines after a few months.  Only the rude ones with less skills stay with them long term.  On the same basis I doubt they have the most skilled pilots and co-pilots in the industry although they are probably adequate for most of the time.