Monday, July 9, 2007

Lies, damn lies and marketing.

OK, the correct quotation (by either Mark Twain or Benjamin Disraeli) is: There are lies, damn lies, and statistics. But apropos of marketing perhaps the quotation should be re-written as: There are lies, damn lies and lies that fuck up your brand and drive customers away like a fart in a sleeping bag.

On Saturday I had to add minutes to my daughter's AT&T phone card. Somehow adding $20 to a card cost me $25. Why? Taxes for one. And two, something AT&T calls a "re-charge fee."

So I called AT&T and talked to a supervisor.

ME: What's a re-charge fee?
AT&T: A charge for putting money on your phone card.
ME: So you charge me to spend my money?
AT&T: It's a charge to put money on your phone card.
ME: That's like a store charging me to shop there.
AT&T: We can give you address and you can write a letter.

Someday someone will provide an alternative to this kind of shoddy corporate management. I can't wait.

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