Monday, February 16, 2004

Is there a well run business in the house?  I was with my parents today in CT.  My father just bought a Sony HDTV and he wanted to buy an HDTV package from his local cable company:  Cablevision (a $7.3 b marketcap company that has 3 m subscribers).  Unfortunately, the information on the Website was disorganized, which made it difficult to understand the options available.  We did find a page on the site that advertised a number to call for HDTV services.  We assumed, based on the language in the page that this number would provide us with a way to check on HDTV availability and allow us to order the HDTV cable box.  Very simple expectations.  We called the number.  Rather than routing us directly to a sales rep, we were put through two voicemail menu trees and finally were told that the wait for a rep was 9 min.  Our conclusion:  let's hang-up and try Direct TV.  It's amazing to contemplate a company that is worth so much but is so badly run.  It is very easy to provide prospective customers with a phone number that routes them directly to a knowledgeable sales rep.  Too bad these highly paid execs are so out of touch to understand that simple truth. 3:03:11 PM    Comment_ Trackback []