I’m a busy person who would like to spend money with you–treat me like that

When I finally decided that I would reduce/change my Blackberry plan so I could (better) afford the EVDO card I wanted to strike while the iron was hot and get it.

Stop one, mall.  Lesson: If you don’t have it, see if you can find it

Contrary to my what my gut told me, I went to my closest Telus reseller instead of the one I was at on Sunday.  This one is a basic mall store.  Nothing fancy.  I walked in, there were several people in the store and when I was looking at the card a person came right up to ask me if I needed help (ping! good!).  Unfortunately, the sales person wasn’t the most outgoing person and didn’t instill confidence in his sales ability (bzzt, bad).  I told him that I wanted the PCMCIA version of the EVDO card, he offered the USB version (in hindsight with the SD card reader conflict maybe should have gone for that).  I said, no, I want the PC Card one.  He check the stock and they didn’t have any.  That’s fine.  He said he could order one (good).  I said that I really wanted to get it now and today to use that night.  This was his chance to say: “Let me see if there is one another store…”, but he didn’t.  Bzzt. No sale, next store.

Stop two, another outlet on the way.  Lesson: When people come into your store, greet them

Okay, strike one.  I knew where I thought could get the card, the store where I saw it Sunday, but on the way there I saw another Telus outlet.  Okay let’s try this one.  I walk in, two people working in the store, both busy with customers.  That’s okay.  I look around a bit and then walk up to the counter.  I wait.  And wait.  No reaction from either human.  Okay, wander around some more.  Pause by other section of counter.  Nothing.  Wander.  Wait back at counter again.  It’s been well over five minutes now and nothing.  I start heading for the door and the customer says: “You should ask him a question, that’s what he’s there for.”  This is when one person lifted his head up and said “Can I help you?”  I said that I wanted to get something.  He replied that they were busy, could I come back.  I replied, “No, I have deadline I’m on”.  Bzzzt. No sale, next store.

Stop three, success. Lesson: greet, help, recommend. Sale.

Yes, I should have gone here first.  Of course if I did, then you wouldn’t get this post now would you?  I walked into the store, this is also a mall one and operated by Tom Harris Cellular (as I’ve said before), and the woman who wasn’t with a customer asked if she could help me within a minute of me walking up to the counter.  Same spiel, this is what I want.  We have USB.  I want PCMCIA. We could order it.  I wanted to use it tonight.  This is where the first place fell down, so … what happens next?  She says: “Let me check our other stores…” Wow.  Turns out there was one, just one, PCMCIA card in all of Victoria (the store in Sidney).  She asks if I’d like to set it all up there or drive to Sidney and do it.  I ask, if I do it here if she gets a commission, no. Oh … but we do get bonuses… Then I’ll do it here I say and tell her about the two previous experiences and how she did what, I think, is the right way to get business.  That alone would make a good story, but it gets better.

I know that I need to change the plan on my Blackberry so I can afford this deal.  I called Telus the day before to check out plans and such so I thought I knew what I wanted.  Turns out, I was wrong.  The woman, who was personable and outgoing, took the time to double check both my voice and data plans and found a data plan for the Berry with unlimited data but without modem tethering.  This, of course, is find since I’d have the EVDO card.  The voice plan was just what I thought, but she did give me good alternatives.  Perfect, all set.  Now, when it came time to switch things around one of my bundles wasn’t available.  Oh, buy when I called Telus they didn’t tell me that.  This could have been a stopper, but undaunted she called Telus directly and made sure that we could still do it.  And when I offered not to bother, she said, that it would be better too if I wanted voicemail.  Plan switched.  Done.

The EVDO card and plan was simple.  Just $100/mo for the unlimited North America plan (US and Canada only) and $49 for the card with a three contract.  By the time she was done, everything was ready and I just had to pick the card up in Sidney.

This is customer service.  She was pleasant and outgoing.  She checked to see if I could get the card today and made recommendations that got me more bang for my buck.

We have a winner.

Because I had this good experience I have no issue recommending them to you.  In fact, as I said in the other post, they have a “tell a friend” program.  You get $10 off, I get a $10 gift card, and they donate $10 to charity.  All you have to do is mention my name and cell number (I’d say from this card).  I was told that this unlimited data plan deal is only going to be around for another two weeks … so if you want one of these rockin’ cards and get this sweet data deal, I’d go now.

Yeah and getting the USB dongle will get you the device faster I guess too.

Post from: EveryJoe

Buying a Telus EVDO card–lessons for retail customer service

Making the jump to EVDO mobile broadband

Previously I’ve been using my Blackberry tethered to my laptop as a modem.  Which worked rather well, but a little fiddly, but the data speeds were capped to the 1X level (few hundred k of download/upload).  This gave me decent connectivity in Canada, but in the US, I didn’t even try.  Why?  Because the data rate for that level of connection would just be prohibitively expensive.  Canadian data plans didn’t provide for Canadian roaming, not affordably and certainly not as an unlimited data plan.  That is until now.

Unlimited data, IMHO, is the only thing that really makes sense for a mobile broadband card.  The idea is anywhere, anytime mobility and internet access.  Keeping an eye on your bandwidth is a pain.  So much to my surprise, and geeky glee, I found this limited-time offer plan from Telus called Connect 100.  What do you get?  Unlimited data in Canada and the US and unlimited access to the Telus wifi HotSpots around Canada.  All for $100/mo (actually $107 with access fees).

In a later post I’m going to talk about my experience buying the card–a great lesson in customer service–but let’s get into the nuts and bolts of this EVDO card (at least my first day of having it).

Which EVDO mobile broadband card?

I opted for the Sierra Wireless AirCard 595.  It’s a PCMCIA card (full-size) because that’s what my laptop has.  Yes, I could have gone for the USB model and I happen to have an x54 adapter, but I just wanted the convenience of a slot-based card (once it’s in, it stays in).

This card is ready for (and looks like I don’t have to update) EVDO Rev A and even comes with a nice little case for it.  Sure it’s big, but hey that’s okay with me.  One thing I didn’t think of is that this bugger has it’s own phone number.  Of course it does, you answer, it’s a freakin’ cell phone essentially.

The software install, as I would  expect under Vista, didn’t go smoothly.  The install on the CD didn’t work, but I figured I’d have to download the latest software from Sierra regardless.  So with the latest stuff and the little vbscript dll registration that is often required for Vista, I was off and running.

Activation was no problem.  The auto worked just ducky (I did have an activation code just in case) and I was ready to connect.

Connection, easy.  One button click on the Sierra Wireless Watcher and I was golden.

How fast is EVDO in the real world–the connection question

The big question is performance, of course.  On the EVDO Rev A network I’m looking at about a meg down and a few hundred k up which is about DSL speed.  Thus far I’m happy with the experience for my day to day stuff.

IM, email, surfing, all pretty good.  I haven’t done much RSS yet on this connection and this is the first post through the connection.

I’m not the only one looking at this at either.  WirelessNorth had a post yesterday on how good, affordable mobile broadband can be a gamer changer for connectivity:Wirelessnorth.ca » Blog Archive » Mobile broadband is a revelation.  BTW, on a three year contract I only paid $49 for this card.  Which is a sweet deal.

I went through Tom Harris Cellular and because of their tell a friend promotion you can get $10 off from them if you mention my name and cell number.  I also, disclosure here, get a $10 gift card and they donate $10 to charity to boot.  If you want to take advantage of this deal, leave a comment and I’ll email you the number for this card so you can use that.

Update Apr 15: Wow.  Just wow.  I’ve been putting this bugger through it’s paces for a week now and yeah it rocks.  I’ve even done voice calls over Skype … not a problem.  Even connecting to a POTS toll-free number.  This was a great decision.

Image source Telus Mobility

Post from: EveryJoe

Buying a Telus EVDO Rev A mobile broadband card–first experiences

Sources advise that the company was regularly asked about its intentions and that it consistently assured ISPs that throttling would not apply to wholesale services. Now that the company has dropped that pretense, the business community is left to wonder whether it will soon target business VPN traffic or broadcasters like the CBC for their streamed traffic.  This represents a fundamental reshaping of the Internet in Canada as we pay (literally) for the dire lack of competition and independent ISPs gear up for likely legal challenges.  Regardless of those outcomes, it will become increasingly apparent that the regulators and politicians can no longer remain silent. Source: Michael Geist – The Bell Wake-Up Call

The specter of my ISP throttling back VPN traffic is pretty scary.  How can Canada expand and improve it’s tech industry when we have to worry about ISPs degrading the performance of one of the essential parts of our work?

Will politicians get involved now?  There is a Facebook group (I joined as a show of support) that has over 450 members and growing asking to prevent this kind of activity by Bell, Telus, Rogers, and others.

Ben Lucier has more commentary on this and it has hit the Globe and Mail as well so what can we really do?

Without real competition, as Michael points out, we’re quite stuck.  Couple this with the appallingly high cost of mobile data rates in Canada, we’re looking at Canada, once a tech leader, becoming a tech laggard.

There are statements from Rogers and Telus about traffic shaping, but nothing I’ve seen from Shaw as yet … as tech professionals we need to keep this issue alive and kicking, maybe the politicians will notice–eventually.

Post from: EveryJoe

Is the tide turning on Bell Canada and Net Neutrality in Canada? Hope so.