Guy Rintoul's dashboard

Guy Rintoul reported a problem in O2 on October 09, 2008 15:13:

O2 charge customers to send calls to voicemail while abroad!

Turns out, O2 charge customers for the privilege of not speaking to people while abroad. While away recently, I received a call and rejected it to send it to voicemail. Not only was I charged THE FULL MINIMUM RATE as if I had answered the call, I was charged an additional fee for a call divert charge for sending it to voicemail. Absolutely appalling customer service, and wasn't rectified by either of the two customer service agents who clearly didn't know their stuff, fobbed me off and generally were appalling at their jobs.

A comment on the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

It's somewhat comforting to hear that you're still working on this. What I'd love to see is some sort of semi-regular status updates. I'm not asking for a weekly report or anything, a sentence or two at the end of blog-posts to let us know, even roughly, how things are coming along... – shinmai, on October 03, 2008 22:47

A comment on the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

I'm sorry you're disappointed but I'm hopeful that the eventual results will be worth waiting for :) – crystal, on October 03, 2008 20:51

crystal replied on October 03, 2008 20:49 to the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

Thanks for your feedback. It may seem like we're not doing anything, but we are actively working on this project.

Not everyone is aware of this, but getting international numbers in place and ready for use is no small project. It takes time to get new numbers for international use set up in other countries. There are many steps that have to be taken by many different entities to get the proper international permissions to obtain phone numbers. Following that, multiple entities must then build the infrastructure with which to support the numbers. Carriers in every country are different and there are numerous small projects within the larger project. All of this means it takes awhile to get everything in place. In this case, the time it's taking is the bad news.

The good news is, we should have local numbers ready very soon. We're also in the process of bringing our India short code up to speed as well. We're working on getting international numbers to you guys as soon as possible, and have been on task since the initial announcement was made. Thanks for your patience in the meantime!

shinmai replied on October 03, 2008 19:58 to the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

Are there no news on this matter? You said you'd be negotiating deals with local operators, yet nothing has been announced, and equally little has happened. Was the announcement made to silence people from smaller countries, while "the big boys" (germany, australia, india, UK etc) actually get service?

It would be better to just come out and announce that you're cutting the service down on low-costeffective areas, rather than feed us a cock-and-bull story that'll never actually fan out to anything more than empty promises..

Guy Rintoul replied on September 23, 2008 01:55 to the idea "Ability to add photos to faves/favorites" in Connected Flow:

Great - thanks :) Sorry, totally missed that!

Fraser Speirs replied on September 12, 2008 10:57 to the idea "Ability to add photos to faves/favorites" in Connected Flow:

Hi Guy,

It's already in there:



Or, in full-screen mode, you can get the same set of options:

Guy Rintoul shared an idea in Connected Flow on September 11, 2008 23:49:

Ability to add photos to faves/favorites

I always favorite photos I find that I like on Flickr - I love having a library of the photos I find that I like most - but in the featured section and elsewhere there doesn't seem to be a way to do this. Any plans to add an 'add to faves' icon like in the full-blown version of Flickr?

A comment on the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

Yeah, I second the password concern - if oauth would be back, then this would be a non-issue. ;)
http://getsatisfaction.com/twitter/to... – till, on September 09, 2008 11:57

till replied on September 09, 2008 11:52 to the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

Sorry to be negative, but this was one of the useful features left.

I mean, I see the costs and I'm kinda amazed that you guys did not cover this before. I honestly have a hard time believing you couldn't do a better job negotiating deals with local carriers.

Also, a 1,000 USD for 12,000 messages/user/year - shouldn't that be way more affordable? That's over 8cent/message?! Did you guys get ripped off? Even premium direct termination is cheaper at that volume.

Costs in the U.S. should be next to zero (txt can be faked via email), and I think the same applies to Canada. Many other companies make use of those services.

And a couple providers in Europe offer similar services (email to txt) to users. You might have to do more research though and/or educated your users on how to enable it for them (problem solved?). Also lots of people over here have "free" email on their phone while all other data is pretty pricey. Maybe you guys could start offering more export formats - such as, recently updated (= useful) feeds, maybe email notification etc..

Also, you might want to optimize the entire thing anyway. Sometimes you did send two messages when one was enough - just because e.g. you added a "Twitter-footer" to the message etc.. This sort of optimization could probably really save you guys money. ;)

If your API was less of a under construction thing, people could probably build apps on it to help other users. But, nah... ;)

A comment on the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

Haha... you demand 24 hour notice from a free service? Get real. – till, on September 09, 2008 11:29

A comment on the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

@Jack, can you please go a little into detail here? You guys like to be vague by using phrases like "soon" and "working on". Kinda like, "We're working to restore IM services to all users. Thanks for your patience!" - err.... yeah, only been there for six months. – till, on September 09, 2008 11:26

A comment on the question "UK SMS??" in Brightkite:

That's the email confirmation from GetSatisfaction, not a response from BrightKite. Everyone gets that when they sign up here. – Richard John, on September 09, 2008 10:45

greeneyedgirl replied on September 09, 2008 09:46 to the question "UK SMS??" in Brightkite:

even better

this is the answer i got to why can''t i receive a cnfrmation for SMS set up - did you read it?

We’re excited to have you with us, greeneyedgirl!

A default password was set for you: XXXXXX

Can you help us validate your email address? Simply click on the link to confirm. This will also transport you to your Get Satisfaction dashboard. From there you can edit your profile and account details.
Confirm

-- The Get Satisfaction Team

A comment on the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

+1 New Zealand. I agree. Twitter's my only method of texting my friends overseas - and now that's shot. :| Maybe when they get Australia sorted out we could hop on the bandwagon, but doubt it. (crosses fingers) – fridgefayse, on September 07, 2008 00:13

A comment on the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

+1 New Zealand. I agree. Twitter's my only method of texting my friends overseas - and now that's shot. :| Maybe when they get Australia sorted out we could hop on the bandwagon, but doubt it. (crosses fingers) – fridgefayse, on September 07, 2008 00:13

cwandel replied on September 04, 2008 11:31 to the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

Well, at least in Germany (yes, i know it's a small country compared to australia...) you could use the SMS-All-Net-Flatrates most Providers offer. It should be not a big problem to route SMS to a locally located server which in turn sends the SMSes to german users. I think i could convince a customer of me to provide a server and internet connectivity, especially if i talk a little bit to marketing...

Eridanus replied on September 03, 2008 12:36 to the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

Stefan and gya24jk:

I've already suggested to Twitter that they implement (non-SMS) instant notification via ping calls for those of us who relied on SMS DMs via Twitter's international number.

This would be the automated equivalent of the impoverished teenager who phones Dad but hangs up before Dad can answer. Dad notes a Missed call from his offspring, and can react appropriately.

Ping calls would surely be inexpensive and easy for Twitter to set up, and we'd at least know when to run to the PC or (for those of us who can) start a Twitter app. on our mobile devices.

I suspect that you, Stefan, might find this useful in monitoring potential system failures.

If such an interim solution would help you just a little, please indicate your support there, and encourage Twitter to get involved too.

I'm open to improvements and additions to my proposal, of course!

gya24jk replied on September 03, 2008 11:37 to the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

No fix yet?

Killing incoming SMS will reduce twitter usage. I understand that SMS is a scam in terms of bandwidth/cost, but fact is, most people have some SMS bundled with their phone plan. Or are able to send SMS with a discrete cost (e.g. 35¢), which is predictable and manageable.

The logical progression is for SMS to die, for everyone to pay for an equivalent data plan instead, and send/receive emails instead. Which should be more flexible. But, reality is that we aren't at the stage where most people have data plans or ability to send email on their phone. And as other people have stated, email is not instant either -- people will need to apply/buy a push email account.

So even though SMS is expensive in terms of bandwidth/cost, there are still advantages, and hopefully Twitter.com can monetise their service in some way that WILL allow us to restart using SMS.

In the meantime, at least give those users WITH data plans/smart phone/push email a "push"-like option, by redirecting tweets to email addresses instead. So far, the http://twitter.com/devices page is useless, because AIM don't work, Jabber don't work, and SMS don't work.

Which is retarded.

I've tried twittermail, and it only sends direct messages. And really, a 3rd party option for notifications is un-elegant, not to mention dangerous, having to let someone else know your twitter.com password etc.

A comment on the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

+1 to New Zealand. Telcos in New Zealand need encouraging...a lot. – starpath, on September 02, 2008 23:36