Technology Futures

CNet has an article that provides a good summary of some of the current issues surrounding community-financed broadband. On one side, you have the cable companies and telcos, determined to prevent communities from controlling their own destiny. On the other side, you have communities getting limited or no access to broadband services, with those towns and cities at a serious disadvantage in the global economy as 15 other countries have better broadband than the United States.

If the incumbents had their way fifty to seventy-five years ago, we'd have no paved roads, no clean water, no sewer services, no libraries, no sidewalks, no streetlights, and no plowed streets in winter. All of those services could be provided by the private sector. But we decided that for the common good, it was better to have local government provide those.

The Register reports on a new law enacted in Holland that can charitably only be described as "stupid." In a misguided effort to prop up the ailing music industry, the Netherlands has decided to impose a per megabyte tax on all hard drive-based music players, with the proceeds going to the music industry.

This means, according to the article, that the 60 gigabyte model of the iPod would have a tax of $235! According to the Register, Germany also has a tax on computer hard drives, and as they get bigger, the hard drive tax could exceed the base cost of the computer (that is, the tax will be several thousand dollars).

There are so many things wrong with this approach that it is hard to know where to begin. In the first place, the Holland law assumes that all music stored on portable music players is stolen, when in fact only a very small percentage is. So music lovers have to pay royalties twice--once when they buy the music, and again when they buy the music player. It's a windfall for the music industry, since only a small part of royalties actually go to the artist. It forces the music player retailers to become tax collectors, which is always a bad idea. And it will simply drive the purchase of music players out of the country. Holland is an easy drive from a half dozen other countries, and it's barely an afternoon trip to take the train to France, pick up an iPod, and go home.

The music industry does not have a "right" to make money. As markets and technologies change, businesses have to change too. This business of using laws to protect monopolies hurts communities and whole countries, as innovation and new products are simply driven elsewhere. It's a global economy, and Dutch lawmakers are naive in extreme to believe this law will work. It will only hurt the country's economic development as businesses see their customers go elsewhere, and not just for iPods. While they are across the border, they are likely to shop for other items as well.

We have a similar problem with anti-muni broadband in this country. Making municipal investments in broadband illegal props up old, Manufacturing Economy businesses, drives away innovation and new economic development activity, raises prices, and hurts communities.

Wired reports that a San Francisco AM radio station is going to an all-podcast format. The station is inviting people to create their own content and send it to the station, which will screen it and then make it available for download.

Wired's cover story in its print magazine was about the sea change in radio being brought about by MP3 players, and the only surprise is that a station has gone over to the other side this quickly. You don't need an iPod to listen--any MP3 player will do--but Apple's software (iTunes) makes it quick and easy. iTunes is available for both Windows and the Mac, and all iPods work with both Macs and Windows.

Xerox wins some kind of special prize for the worst telephone support I've ever encountered. How bad is it?

It's worse than Verizon! (Note--not any more--see my updated note at the end of this article. Verizon, on the other hand, still has terrible customer service)

I have a Xerox printer/copier, and the hinge on the cover broke a few days ago. I bought a Xerox in part because I was assured that I could get service for it. I was tired of having to discard cheap printers because you could not get minor repairs.

I called nine (9) different phone numbers. Eight times, I ended up speaking to someone with a limited command of English who informs me that I have to call another number. It's a circular process--after the sixth call, they started giving me the first numbers I had called.

Xerox has apparently outsourced all American customer support to other countries. After a while, I started asking where people were, and talked to someone in Jamaica and Canada. I'm also guessing I was connected to someone in India and perhaps Mexico.

What would be hilarious if it was not pathetic was that every single person had the same response: "We don't handle that model here. You need to call this number...."

How hard can it be to associate model numbers with the correct phone number? This is the simplest of database problems, and apparently Xerox is unable to do that correctly.

I finally did get someone who spoke English as a first language (from Nova Scotia), and she was very helpful. She got a service person on the line who was able to schedule a service call. The machine is less than a year old, and when I asked about the repair being covered under warranty, I was informed that Xerox sold its machines without warranties, or at best, with a 90 day warranty. No warranty! One of the biggest copier companies in the world apparently makes machines so bad they don't warrant them to work at all.

Now some of you might be thinking, "He should have checked." And so I should have. But would you have ever imagined Xerox would sell machines without a warranty? The service rep offered to sell me a maintenance contract, but they could not tell me how much it costs. Another IT failure. Surely a company the size of Xerox could cough up a little database application that would let a company rep type in a model number and get back simple information like the cost of a maintenance agreement. For crying out loud...you could do that with a Wiki in about fifteen minutes. Instead, the nice Nova Scotian said she would have to CALL SOMEONE! I hope she has to call fewer than nine people to get an answer.

Update (2/21/06)
I had actually gotten the service contract thing straightened out back in mid-fall. Maintenance is actually very inexpensive, and includes not only all repairs but also toner cartridges and replacement drums. Two people from Xerox contacted me last week and asked if I was continuing to have problems--I have not. They said my postings had triggered an internal review of their customer service procedures and they were working to try to ensure that I or any other customer did not have this kind of experience again.

Good for them.

I'm delighted with the copier-printer I have. It cost more than the cheap laser printers you can buy in OffficeMax for a few hundred dollars, but it has been worth every penny. It prints and copies reliably, never jams, and I can get it fixed if something breaks. I'd much rather buy from a company that is willing to say, "Boy, we screwed up but we want to try to fix things," than a company that will not acknowledge that, or worse, that you can't even contact for help (I bought the Xerox printer after having horrible experiences with a Samsung printer).

Will my next printer be a Xerox? Yes--the quality and reliability, the ability to get the machine repaired, along with a company anxious to do better makes it a no-brainer.

2007 Follow up: I had these problems several years ago, and Xerox's handling of customer calls has much improved since then. I continue to be a huge fan of their printers; they cost a bit more, but boy, do they ever work! My M20i printer, now more than three years old, has jammed only once--a single sheet of paper in three years. The Samsung laser printer I replaced with the Xerox jammed at least weekly, and often daily. Late last year, I purchased a Xerox 6350 color laser printer, and it too is a fantastic machine--extremely fast and extraordinary print quality.

2008 Follow up: My M20i continues to perform beautifully after nearly four years. It was well worth the extra cost for absolutely trouble free performance. The 6350 color printer, now more than a year old, has been outstanding--not a single paper jam, nearly a year on a set of toner cartridges, and dazzling color performance.