Is Verizon Having Trouble Selling FIOS?

In news that I don't find particularly surprising, Alley Insider has an article about whether Verizon can continue selling FIOS without giving away free tvs.

From the article:
During Q2, Verizon added 176,000 net new FiOS TV subscribers, down 33% from 263,000 in Q1 and 226,000 in Q4. The 176,000 missed RBC's estimate (273,000) and Goldman's (230,000) by a wide margin.

And a few quotes that might explain the decrease in new subscribers:

CFO Doreen Toben:

"The sequential decline in FiOS net adds was due primarily to a lower level of promotions, marketing and advertising activities during the quarter. For example, we ended our free TV offer."

Me:

..."I think Verizon is having trouble selling FIOS because their customer service is a steaming pile of dog crap...also, showing up for appointments might make it easier for people to add service...oh yeah, and billing people for services rendered would help Verizon's bottom line..."

Warning issued on faulty tire valve stems following rollover death-US

The death of a Florida man in a rollover accident coupled with the recall of faulty tire valve stems made in China has prompted at least one safety expert to caution consumers to check vehicle wheels to make sure they don't contain the rubber replacement tire valve stems. The valves may crack prematurely and lead to serious crashes, says Sean Kane, president of Safety Research and Strategies in Rehoboth, Mass

I belive serious similar situation is facing Tanzania consumers

More story on US incident follow the below link;
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/safety/2008/06/tire-valve-stem.html?EXTKEY=I5B0A18

A New Testimonial

Haven't heard from Verizon since they stupidly sent me a check. Sucks for them. But I have heard from a few friends who have recently switched from Verizon to other TV/internet providers.

One coworker is going through an ordeal where Verizon sent his alleged outstanding bill to collections - they claimed he never returned the equipment, when in fact, they moved it for him when he moved to a new home. So he remained a Verizon customer, they did the new installation, and they are claiming he never returned the equipment. Freaking brilliant! Of course he didn't return the equipment, you morons. He is still using it, and paying for the service. He is now switching to a new provider.

Just this morning, an old buddy of mine IMed me about his recent experience. Another typical Verizon nightmare. As he mentions, he speaks "redneck," so you'll have to excuse his spelling and grammar. The transcript is below, with some great one-liners.

friend: just thought i would share, Cox is outside right now hooking up my new cable modem
friend: i blew a fuse on Verizon yesterday
Me: nice
Me: seriously, they are freaking maddening
friend: so here a little history for your blog
friend: i have DSL
friend: i got upgraded
friend: to 3mb down 768 up
friend: all to hell after that, every time my phone rings it drops for 10 seconds
friend: every time i call they want me to delete temp files, reboot, unplug, etc
friend: i can unhook every single phone in my house
friend: call from my cell phone and my interent still drops
friend: that rules out their damn dsl filters
Me: that's useful
friend: so i call Verizon yesterday and spoke redneck to them
friend: guess what, today no drops and i never touched a thing
friend: but cox is still here because this has went on for 6 months now and they were never able to fix it before
Me: you'll be good with cox. they have been good with me.
friend: I can call verizon and tell them a tree is down and they will want me to still reboot my computer and delete temp files
Me: that quote is going on the blog
friend: and power cycle my dsl modem
friend: i call cox and George answers
friend: i call verizon and Saldfsajfkdsajfkdsajfdsafakjs answers
Me: that quote is also going on the blog
friend: so its Cox and Vonage now
Me: music to my ears
friend: i am sure the FIOS service is great just working with verizon sucks
friend: my buddies have 20/20 FIOS at their house and its good
Me: thats what i always said. FIOS usually works fine. just the customer service is downright asinine.
friend: i cannot get even try FIOS here because they destroyed our community and the HOA banned them from digging until further notice
friend: we had a congressman here talking against Verzon asking them to pay for the repairs

Also, last thing. Remember when I compared Verizon to Sprint a few months ago, in that Sprint foolishly acquired Nextel and created a huge pile of crap thereby sending the stock plummeting? Well Verizon Wireless recently agreed to buy Alltel for $28 billion. See a parallel? Time will tell, but if Verizon Wireless' service is anywhere near as crappy as their FIOS (and apparently DSL) service, Verizon stock should be on a Southbound train to Crapotown in the next few years.

Happy Birthday!!! Tanzania Consumer Advocacy Society

Happy Birthday!!!!!!! Tanzania Consumer Advocacy Society

Tanzania Consumer Advocacy Society today 11th.July.2008 is turning one year, what are TCAS's achievements all along this year?

Tanzania Consumer Advocacy Society (TCAS) was founded in 11th.July.2007 as a non profit, non governmental, independent consumers’ association which had been established with interest to promote, protect, disseminate, and advocate for consumers’ rights in Tanzania.

TCAS had been established after a substantial accumulation of knowledge and skills from the grand consultancy work carried out by its founders on the fields of consumer development, empowerment and consumers’ rights promotion and protection in Tanzania.

http://www.tcas.or.tz/TCAS%20Survey%20Report.pdf
Above survey findings (your can link the report) challenged the members to come up with a body of seven Tanzania citizens who have a wide range of accumulated experiences and expertise which can be translated into practical consumers’ development interventions.

Since 11th.July.2007; days have passed making twelve months of Tanzania Consumer Advocacy Society existance; today 11th.July.2008 TCAS is one year old, Today I would like to share with you what had been achieved since day one to date.

During TCAS’s campaigns we would like to address a number of barriers including:
-Limited knowledge of consumers on the their rights and obligations;
-Poor citizens’ involvement in policy making and policy implementation
-Lack of capacity among individual consumers in developing and evaluating public policies;
-Lack of organizational capacities among key consumer related stakeholders
-Lack of reliable and sustainable markets information for consumers on goods and services.
-Inequalities caused by globalization economy

To eliminate the above, TCAS has four main strategic objectives
Objective 1; Raising Awareness
Working toward raising Tanzania consumers’ awareness on their rights and obligations.

Objective 2; Right to be heard
Working on providing a platform to Tanzania consumers to make their voices to be heard.

Objective 3; Capacity to claim Rights
Working effectively on building the capacity of Tanzania consumers to claim for their consumers Rights.

Objective 4; Make markets accountable and responsive
Working toward making markets accountable and responsive to consumers’ needs and interests.

Through the following campaigns:
-Consumer Education,
-Food Safety
-Drug Promotion,
-Consumer Protection,
-Corporate Social Responsibility
-Watch dog on Quality of Public Utilities,
-Watch dog on Standards,
-Sustainable Consumption and ethical consumer

TCAS Achievements since its establishment are;-
1-TCAS had successful carried an important step in preparing for consumer advocacy campaign,out of our April.2007 Consumer Survey. TCAS has careful identified the causes and consequences of consumer problems prevailing in Tanzania market and the survey recommended for possible solutions in solving the problems.
2-Able to have wider consumer membership from 56 in July.2007 to 582 members to date to form Voluntary Observers in Interest on Consumers’ Empowerment’’ (VOICE) in Tanzania.
3-TCAS was capable of doing plenty of Advocacy activities through media since July.2007, for instance we have done 17 press conferences.
4-TCAS advocacy campaign had appeared almost thirty five times in Swahili and English newspapers since July.2007 to date.
5-TV or Radio talks; There have been four television programs and five radio talk shows about TCAS advocacy campaigns.
6-TCAS had represented consumers’ opinions in TBS, EWURA, SUMATRA stakeholders’ meetings.
7-We are using drama and comedian shows to send the message to the beneficiaries
8-Demonstrations; On 15th.March.2007 we organized a street rally from Uhuru Primary School to Mnazi Mmoja grounds where we held consumer meeting; a greater emphasis was on consumer’s rights and unethical marketing of junk food to children. Tanzania's Consumer Advocacy Society had celebrated World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) for the first time in Tanzania history (the event was started to be celebrated since 1982).
9-On 13th.April.2008, we protested against substandard goods from China during Olympic torch relay in Tanzania. We acquired National and international media coverage on this advocacy.
10-Letter Writing; we wrote advocacy letter to the president, prime minister, ten different government ministries, the speaker of Tanzania parliament and chairpersons of parliamentarians committees, we wrote to all sectoral regulator authorises, we wrote to seven different embassies, we wrote to 24 news editors of different media houses being radio, TV and newspapers.
11-We have done consultative meetings with DGs of TBS, TFDA, FCC, chairman of NCAC, ED of Confederation of Tanzania Industry and key government officials.
12-So far we have represented 42 consumers in solving their consumer problems amicably with retailers.
13-Website; we have been able to establish our own websites (two) http://www.tcas.or.tz/ and blogspot http://tanzaniaconsumer.blogspot.com/
14-We have printed about 870 brochures, posters and leaflets on consumers’ rights and distributed them to consumers free of charge.
15-TCAS has been working closely with youth in order to build a generation of well informed and aware consumers who can easily solve their common consumer problems. About 785 youth of all carders had been involved into this.
16-TCAS had attended Arusha Sullivan summit from 2nd. To 6th.June.2008; TCAS was fully participated in several forums one being ‘’US Government role in Enhancing Business, trade and Investment in Africa’’

17-These are just some few

All the above happened by the use of very limited resources from members' contributions, TCAS deserves a word of Congratulation!!!! and a HAPPY birthday !!!!.

Bernard Kihiyo
Executive Director
Tanzania Consumer Advocacy Society

TACKLING ABUSE OF DOMINANCE BY CHECKING MONOPOLIES

Pradeep S. Mehta, Business Standard, June 21, 2008

Contestability of markets is the adrenaline of all economies. While countries liberalise their economies, an extremely vital concomitant reform is the enactment and implementation of appropriate competition laws so that consumers and businesses get the benefits of liberalisation.

In India, a new competition law was passed in 2002 to replace the archaic Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act (MRTPA) of 1969. The new law has been further amended in 2007 and will be in operation soon. One of its active agenda will be to curb abusive monopolistic practices by businesses.

Businesses either collude through cartels or abuse their dominance through exploitative and/or exclusionary behaviour. Every other day, cartels are being hauled up by competition agencies around the world.

But a more difficult area for competition authorities is taking action against dominant players abusing their dominance through monopolistic practices.

Abuse of dominance (AOD) is broadly of two types: Exclusionary and exploitative. Exclusionary abuse involves driving out competitors from the market. Exploitative abuse is when a firm is exploiting customers by ignoring their needs as well as those of its competitors.