AT&T's Rube Golbergian Web Form • Hacker News Board

Re: AT&T's Rube Golbergian Web Form

#11

Post by gcb » Sat, Jun 25, 2011, 5:20 PM UTC

spent two days trying to subscribe using linux after I found out they are the only ones around... I finally found a phone number that has a short wait and somewhat knowledgeable people

1-800-288-2020

Re: AT&T's Rube Golbergian Web Form

#12

Post by lhnn » Sat, Jun 25, 2011, 5:33 PM UTC

Cui Bono.

What if Microsoft pays AT&T on the side to force a large number of people to use their platform? Even if most people already do, it instills in people the believe that that Line-ux thing doesn't work with the Internet.

Re: AT&T's Rube Golbergian Web Form

#13

Post by pasbesoin » Sat, Jun 25, 2011, 5:40 PM UTC

soulinafishbowl wrote: post #9

There is (or was) a similar system profiler program that installs itself from Windstream's DSL service, and will not allow itself to be removed from a PC by any means I am aware of. Totally unacceptable on my machines that I purposefully kept perfectly clean!

It's not what you see, it's what you don't see.

Comcast installation was/is similar -- done in my case during the course of the Comcast technician's visit. I got rid of their crap when I reimaged the machine. Didn't affect service in any perceptible manner. (It did get rid of their branding from the IE window title, though -- another useless annoyance.)

If I have to go through similar, again, I'm going to do it in a disposable virtual machine image (reverting back to the last snapshot).

Re: AT&T's Rube Golbergian Web Form

#14

Post by planb » Sat, Jun 25, 2011, 5:57 PM UTC

The landing page [...] plays some audio instructions [...] There is a five minute pause as AT&T’s website “checks my system.” [...] my browser is not supported — well, I use chrome on ubuntu [...] Firefox. Wrong. It requires an ActiveX control [...] Windows XP [...] IE [...] ActiveX control. I’m getting frustrated by this point.

Wow, this is one patient guy. I would have gotten frustrated by the second point already and would have thrown something against the wall by then!

Re: AT&T's Rube Golbergian Web Form

#15

Post by chopsueyar » Sat, Jun 25, 2011, 5:59 PM UTC

Should be 'Goldbergian'. There is a 'd' in there.

Re: AT&T's Rube Golbergian Web Form

#16

Post by ilamont » Sat, Jun 25, 2011, 6:15 PM UTC

How many people give up before reaching the form, and end up calling someone at AT&T for help? The costs must be enourmous.

Re: AT&T's Rube Golbergian Web Form

#17

Post by mestudent » Sat, Jun 25, 2011, 6:17 PM UTC

ianterrell wrote: post #6

Over the last 7 years I've set up more than half a dozen DSL/cable/FIOS modems and routers (I've moved a lot). I've always used Linux or OS X (which was as problematic as Linux in 2004). FWIW, every company I've worked with (AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, others) has a method of activating everything that does not require installing any software. If you have a technician on site installing something they can do it for you;…

I've activated without installing anything with every broadband provider I have had as well and most of the time it is quite easy.

Cable seems to be activated just by using their modem the last few times and qwest dsl can be activated by a simple login on a browser and waiting for them to verify.

Re: AT&T's Rube Golbergian Web Form

#18

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jun 25, 2011, 6:17 PM UTC

lhnn wrote: post #12

Cui Bono. What if Microsoft pays AT&T on the side to force a large number of people to use their platform? Even if most people already do, it instills in people the believe that that Line-ux thing doesn't work with the Internet.

[deleted]

Re: AT&T's Rube Golbergian Web Form

#19

Post by nose » Sat, Jun 25, 2011, 6:26 PM UTC

Now: Would DropBox do something this silly?

Yeah. DropBox installs Growl without the user's permission. http://growl.info/thirdpartyinstallations.php

Re: AT&T's Rube Golbergian Web Form

#20

Post by brudgers » Sat, Jun 25, 2011, 6:30 PM UTC

>"In short: a simple web-form system shouldn’t end up installing Internet Explorer 8 for you. I think it’s interesting particularly because no lean startup would ever ever do this in a million years, yet we aren’t particularly surprised when a big company is flushing dollars down the toilet in this way."

I would hardly be surprised if doing it this way saves ATT millions of dollars. The default browser for Windows XP is IE6 and a large percentage of new ATT internet customers are highly likely to use whatever browser is on their system, and even a small fraction of ATT's customers is millions of people.

Also keep in mind that this default behavior was almost certainly implemented several years ago when the use of IE6 was even greater than it is today in order to avoid lengthy technical support phone conversations with people like your grandparents when they purchased their first computer.

I'll add that it costs ATT very little to only directly support IE - sure a few calls from Firefox users escalate but that is probably offset by the fact that as a market segment those users are more likely to be technically savvy.

ATT knows its market segment in a way that most startups would do well to emulate - and recognizing how their setup procedure goes to their bottom line is a valuable lesson about focusing on MVP rather than perfect code.