Today's the Day for Tech Companies to Issue Hushed Apologies

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Ryan Tate

09/04/09 10:47AM

Filed to: Apologies

The best time to say "sorry" to your customers is when no one else will hear you say it. That seems to be the thinking at Google, Amazon and AT&T, which are all ready to grovel to you, today.

The Friday before a holiday weekend is the ultimate black hole for news, and thus the perfect time to dump embarrassing announcements. A roundup:

Google: To compensate for this week's hour-and-a-half-long GMail outage, Google has given three free days of service to its paying Google Apps customers. The company wrote in an email we received last night, "We understand that this service outage has affected our valued customers and their users, and we sincerely apologize for the disruption and any impact.

Amazon: Company CEO Jeff Bezos has already apologized for silently deleting copies of 1984 off people's Kindles, but now the company has made official amends, offering affected customers either a redelivery of the book or a $30 gift certificate, the Wall Street Journal reports.

AT&T: The telecommunications company knows its wireless network is the scourge of iPhone owners, so it's just posted a YouTube video of an empathetic, long-haired geek named "Seth" to explain how hard it has been for the company to keep up with the torrid growth in smartphone subscriptions. You know what else is hard, "Seth?" Spending $100 per month for crappy service.

"We have heard you," he soothes. "We are on it." We predict a parody version of this video will be up by the end of the weekend.

(Top pic by spud murphy on Flickr)

The following replies are approved. To see additional replies that are pending approval, click Show Pending. Warning: These may contain graphic material.

iplaudius Ryan Tate 09/04/09 11:38AM

AT&T iPhone data plan ($30) + unlimited voice ($100) + unlimited text ($20) + GPS nav. ($10) = $160/mo.

How is it even possible to have a pre-tax $160/mo. plan? $160? Really? And why pay that kind of money to a company that can’t provide the network to support the service? (A telcom monopoly, no less.)

spikelike iplaudius 09/04/09 12:57PM

@iplaudius: Add to that the fact AT&T is laying off like crazy, outsourcing heavily overseas, and raising the health insurance on those that remain? Really crappy stuff. And no, I'm not a CWA-er, just no love for how Ma Bell is doing things these days

dhammond iplaudius 09/04/09 02:52PM

@iplaudius: I pay $75 bucks a month for mine, though I don't have unlimited voice or text.

HDBoy Ryan Tate 09/07/09 01:28AM

Here's an idea. Until its network capacity is upgraded by 50% nationwide and transitioned to 4G, AT&T should stop accepting new smartphone data customers, stop selling the iPhone and reduce rates to existing customers by 30%.

Clearly AT&T is overselling its network capacity — to the detriment of existing customers. Why does the government allow a company to sell a service it obviously can't deliver? Where are the regulators? Where is Congress?

For its part, Apple should declare AT&T in breach of contract and immediately make the iPhone available to T-Mobile, which also is compatible with GSM phones. Unfortunately, T-Mobile's small GSM network will not make a big difference in solving GSM network problems, but it would be a start.

Next, Apple needs the Verizon network capacity and Verizon needs the iPhone to overcome its reputation as a phone technology laggard and a control freak. Unfortunately, Verizon first needs to transition from CDMA to LTE (4G) technology to get the iPhone. CDMA technology is a dead-end street and I don't think Apple will waste its time coming out with a CDMA iPhone for a technology that will be phased out over the next couple of years.

This leaves Sprint, which also is transitioning to a new 4G technology. But will this mismanaged company even be around two years from now? That's hard to say, as these are very tough times for the cellular business. And should Apple bet on a company (and network) that might not make it.

Apple is redefining an entire industry — and pushing these once arrogant companies to march forward more quickly. This is what we get in the U.S. for allowing "the free market" and competition to define critical infrastructure standards. We get mediocrity.

Again I ask — where is Congress? Fix this.

Mike Byhoff Ryan Tate 09/04/09 11:21AM

Seth is begging for a wedgie.

NigelAstydameia Mike Byhoff 09/04/09 11:36AM

@Mikey-B: Seriously. Now we know where to focus our rage!

OrneryBabe Ryan Tate 09/05/09 12:28AM

I had AT&T when it was Cingular. I never had any problems with my ancient Motorola Razr. But noooo, I had to be fancy and get an iPhone when my contract ran out.

Alls I know is, my barely 2-week old iPhone doesn't seem to like when I call people. First attempts rarely go through; the person I'm calling can never hear me. So I have to call back. My family regularly laughs at me, as to them it looks like I can't figure out how to use my highfalutin' phone.

For what I'll be spending for my plan, this phone needs to cook my breakfast, organize my closet, and show me a good time at night. Don't tell me any shit about network problems. Fix it.