MegaCorp Risk

When signing up for a service with startups, you have to decide if the risk they'll be around in a year is worth it. With MegaCorps, you have to decide if the risk they'll cost you several hours a month on the phone is worth it.

I'm on hold with Bell Canada as I write this. Fed up with the way Rogers Cable Internet seems to go out for hours a week during prime Netflix time, I walked down the street on June 17 to switch my internet provider. They promptly signed me up and sent me on my way, informing me the modem would be in the mail and someone would be out to activate my line on June 19. The line went active as planned.

The modem didn't arrive. I called in, they called back. I finally ended up with a tracking number, which said it had failed to deliver for several days in a row. Someone at Bell suggested I go to the delivery distribution center to pick up the modem -- 30 minutes away by car, and only during business hours. Terrible customer service for a place that has a retail store no more than a ten minute walk from my place.

I knew I didn't want the service anymore. I called Bell proactively to cancel and was marched through a half-dozen cycles of being put on hold and transferred to another department. Finally I was told that if I didn't use the service, I wouldn't be billed. Sounded like nonsense, but after 45 minutes on the phone I was looking for any excuse to hang up.

Another bill came. I now owed $102 for a service I had never received and didn't want in the first place. I called again, went through the same holds and transfers, and ended up talking to a sales guy who just wanted to know "what [he] had to do to keep my contract going?" Reluctantly, he agreed to cancel the service, saying it would be canceled within the week.

The next month another bill showed up. I now owed $145 for a service I didn't want, had never used, and would never use. Calmly, I picked up the phone and informed the representative I had been wrongly charged, would not be paying, and wanted no further phone calls on the matter. She responded by saying that next a collection agency would be coming for me, all while agreeing it was ridiculous I owed so much money for something I never received.

Finally, after two more transfers I landed with the first competent, helpful person in the organization. After 38 minutes on the phone this time the account was actually canceled, and the balance was returned to zero before I hung up.

I prefer small- and medium-sized businesses.

The Trouble with Taxis

I've recently been introduced to über, a car service that is obliterating all the worst aspects of taxis. It works like this:

1. Send a request for a cab via iPhone app/Android app, which includes location
2. See the car moving on a map and get a message saying the car has arrived
3. Don't worry about cash or tip, because that's built into the cost, which is billed to your credit card on file

The Troubles

I'd almost always rather walk or take public transit when I need to be somewhere. Occasionally that just isn't fast enough. Chicago is largely immune to this first problem mentioned below, but San Francisco certainly is not

Impossible to find

You can mostly walk out to any main road in Chicago and within minutes cabs will be stopped on both sides of the street vying for your fare with their horns. Not so in San Francisco, where one can expect to stand on the busiest of streets for 15 minutes without an empty cab passing by.

Exhibiting poor customer service

I've taken cabs a handful of times here in SF, and perhaps it's just my luck...but I'm a perfect 5 for 5. No matter what side of Market Street I get in the cab on, the driver informs me I should have gotten in on the other side. I must be missing why it's such a disaster to have to go one more or fewer block before turning, particularly when you're charging by the distance you've driven.

Cash

I wish I never had to carry cash again. I used to be able to put a $10 in my wallet and make it 6 months, because virtually no business requires cash anymore. It was all around better. I spent the same amount of money, got a rewards percentage from American Express, and could easily track where my spending was going.

Dealing with cabs on a weekly basis actually brought me to the point of choosing a bank that doesn't charge ATM fees. The constant disappointment and barrage of "I'll take you to your bank for free. What's your bank? Where is it?" is exhausting.

In fairness to the cab drivers, they're dealing with an outdated model that needs to change. I asked one time what the big deal was. Drivers lease their cabs from a company for something like $700/week. Drivers cover gas. Cash, obviously, goes directly into their pockets. Credit is processed and held by the cab company, and then deducted from the next week's leasing cost.

über to the rescue

Obviously, über takes care of all of these (admittedly minor) problems. Payments are the biggest one. I love not having to carry around cash and fuddle with the awkwardness of a tip.

Foreshadowing?

I have a hunch virtually every consumer-driven market is ripe with opportunities to strip the nonsensical payment systems.

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A competitor solving only the problem of locating cabs is the also-excellent cab-finding app Cabulous.