Friday, May 14, 2004
Mixed messages from British Telecom
you can now receive SMS text messages via a BT landline. I know this because a BT robot telephoned me at 12:45am (yes, AM, the early hours of the morning) to inform me of a text message that someone had accidentally sent to my landline instead of my mobile, at 9pm. great service guys. my pregnant wife really appreciated that call. and the one at 1:05am to tell us about it again, despite me having pressed the "delete" button. it probably kept trying all night, but I'd unplugged the phone by then.
I phoned BT to complain, but oddly enough there's no one there at 1am. I guess they like their sleep. I'm tempted to report this as a nuisance call.
ok, so this was irritating, but what's it go to do with HCI? well, one of the endearing characteristics of SMS is that you don't have to worry about disturbing someone when you send one. BT have effectively removed this appeal by translating one medium into another. no mixed messages please.
(maybe more thoughts on this later - the dog & cat related chaos that followed that 1am call kept me up much later. thanks again BT)
you can now receive SMS text messages via a BT landline. I know this because a BT robot telephoned me at 12:45am (yes, AM, the early hours of the morning) to inform me of a text message that someone had accidentally sent to my landline instead of my mobile, at 9pm. great service guys. my pregnant wife really appreciated that call. and the one at 1:05am to tell us about it again, despite me having pressed the "delete" button. it probably kept trying all night, but I'd unplugged the phone by then.
I phoned BT to complain, but oddly enough there's no one there at 1am. I guess they like their sleep. I'm tempted to report this as a nuisance call.
ok, so this was irritating, but what's it go to do with HCI? well, one of the endearing characteristics of SMS is that you don't have to worry about disturbing someone when you send one. BT have effectively removed this appeal by translating one medium into another. no mixed messages please.
(maybe more thoughts on this later - the dog & cat related chaos that followed that 1am call kept me up much later. thanks again BT)
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(c) 2003-2005 Russell Beale
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