The IT Nerd

One of the things that I do when a situation like the one where the phone numbers of Canadian netTALK customers are caught in the middle of a dispute between netTALK and a company called Iristel is to check out social media to see how it is playing out. To properly do this, let’s start with the first Tweet about this issue which came from netTALK:

Alert! We're currently experiencing technical difficulties w/ Canadian phone number incoming calls. Apologize for any inconvenience. Thanks!

— NT CONNECT (@ntconnect_) January 15, 2016

That was late on Friday. Seeing as phone service is important to people, and no resolution was in sight, plus the communication from netTALK was non-existent, you can completely understand that people took to Twitter to find out what the deal was:

@netTALK are you guys bankrupt or what???

— AI (@ismail_arif) January 16, 2016

https://twitter.com/tammy_78/status/688237117873364992

Some went further:

PLEASE NOTE THE CUSTOMER SERVICE AND BEWARE OF @netTALK purchase, YOU CAN'T GET SERVICE OR EVEN A RESPONSE ANY MORE! https://t.co/rMfMbL0sfC

— Camille K. Parent (@CamilleParent1) January 17, 2016

All of this happened before netTALK put out their e-mail on Sunday revealing the dispute between them and Iristel, as well as netTALK recommending customers get new numbers to get incoming calls. When that e-mail hit inboxes, this story became bigger as that’s when the media including yours truly started reporting on it. The reactions to that were fast and furious:

@CRTCeng Can someone look into the problem for Canadian customers being cut off by @iristel because of a disagreement with @netTALK

— Mike (@Davidd419) January 17, 2016

Interesting email from @netTALK. Doesn't sound like Canadian customers will have phone service anytime soon and we might lose our #'s?!?

— Jason Wigmore (@JayWigmore) January 17, 2016

Now I likely inflamed matters by doing my job. Which was to get both sides of the story and report on it. So when I got Iristel’s side of the story and reported on it, this was the reaction:

@The_IT_Nerd @iristel @netTALK Thanks for investigating… Hey NetTalk, pay your bills!!

— John Walter 🇨🇦🇲🇽 (@johnwalt) January 18, 2016

https://twitter.com/leakithere/status/689052805638782976

But out of that was this suggestion:

@The_IT_Nerd @netTALK For those unfortunate netTALK customers, lots of options here: https://t.co/eMRVPpj9AP

— Jeremy Cooperstock (@jcooperstock) January 18, 2016

Thanks for that suggestion Jeremy.

Fast forward to today. netTALK has finally decided to respond to angry customers via Twitter. But I really don’t think they thought it through before doing so. First let me show you a response that I got:

@The_IT_Nerd @iristel We apologize that Iristel continues 2 use u as a pawn in its dispute with netTALK. You'll be able 2 get new# & FREE yr

— NT CONNECT (@ntconnect_) January 18, 2016

If you look through their responses to their customers on Twitter, they are using the same cookie cutter response for almost everyone that they deal with. That sends the message that they don’t care enough to address their customers as individuals. That won’t go over well. Plus, the fact that netTALK continues to push the new number option still rubs people the wrong way:

@netTALK You also missed @The_IT_Nerd's point: asking your customers to choose a new number is a non-starter. I'm speaking with lawyers.

— Jeremy Cooperstock (@jcooperstock) January 18, 2016

Asking customer to choose a number is a non-starter because people’s phone numbers are basically part of their identity. Sure it makes the immediate problem go away for netTALK, but it guarantees weeks or months of pain for their customers who have to update everyone from their bank to the brother in regards to their new phone number. That’s a #fail.

Now while netTALK seems to be the one who’s getting thrashed on Social Media over this, Iristel isn’t getting off Scott free. Just take one look at their Facebook page to see what I mean:

At least Social Media is being fair.

I will continue to monitor this situation and provide any and all updates on this situation. But It’s clear from the reaction on Social Media that many more eyeballs than mine are watching this situation very closely. Both netTALK and Iristel should keep that in mind.

This entry was posted on January 18, 2016 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Iristel, netTALK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.