This is going to be a mixed post. Work and personal stuff.

The last couple of weeks with work, we have been looking at taking on another client, mainly because our current client - is giving Canadians a bad name, especially ones from Toronto. Thos guys would not know how to make a good database even if they put it together using Access, they would still stuff it up. We run a 24/7 support/games website and Canadians seem to be very much working 9 - 5 take one hour lunch and please if the site goes down or if there is a technical hitch well then forget it.

1: they are busy living their lives and having BBQ’s and don’t appreciate being disturbed on their weekends; or
2: who’s fault is it? it’s not ours so we will blame someone else who looks like they might fit the bill.
3: customer support = stating the blindly obvious
4: management style is very.. cheesy. This guy has had a date with Tony Robbins and Lee Iacoca (dude from chrysler and yes i’ve read his books)
5: Australians who are loyal to their company, workmates etc and want to see it successful or who take pride in doing a good job are seen as - over emotional.
6: canadians in question take the phrase “it’s just a job” to a whole new level.
7: CEO “we like this support ticketing program because it is great/wonderful/streamlined/wellpressented oh, and its CHEAP.”

Reasons why we don’t want this new ticketing system.

1: It has more security holes in it than a sieve
2: Customers can see confidential staff comments regarding their complaints
3: It’s ugly and bland
4: All screens for different menus look the same and could cause confusion
5: It’s text driven and not intuitive
6: New tickets don’t appear in the area marked - Open tickets, but appear in the report section.
7: Can’t initiate contact with players
8: Can’t BCC staff ticket replies, must open new emails to forward
9: Help was too technical and jargony and in some places not relevant
11: It looks like it was written by a scripter (not necessarily a bad thing, but it is in this system)
12: It doesn’t integrate with the present database which would make life easier
13: Takes too long to send reply tickets to users.

So then they ask this:

“If anyone in your team knows any other application that will fit better for the job and fulfills the negative points below, please forward to me the info and/or link in no more than a week timeframe. The point is to try the demo and make informed decision on the system, because as you know vendors claim lots of things. This system must be easily installable (demo) with fairly good reporting tools”

A few of us did suggest possibilities - but if faced with the ticketing system they chose without consulting us, and being stuck with mail the way it is… I prefer the latter.

Right now for the fun stuff.

I got dad a Canon powershot A70 digital camera for his birthday and he loved it. My sister saw it, and then did a little heehaw laugh and said “my pressie is better than yours!” to which I replied “It’s not a competition”

I am happy that dad got to fulfill his lifelong dream of flying a plane, and I would have been happier for him if it wasnt the way in which my sister rubbed it in.

The birthday cake we had for him was delicious, it was something akin to a slice of heaven *sigh* Chocolate mousse cake. Yum!

welcome to Chris who has now joined the blogging world!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 30th, 2003 at 11:07 pm and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.