[Stories] Debitels Online-Kundencenter: Ein Erfahrungsbericht

Die Verlockung

Debitel bietet von Zeit zu Zeit atemberaubende Angebote über ihre Reseller an. Im Juni hatte Debitel in Kooperation mit ihrem münchner Reseller Eteleon folgendes Angebot:

  • Playstation 3,
  • 2 x Motorola Motofon und
  • das Ganze für unter 8€/Monat
  • bei einer Mindestlaufzeit von 24 Monaten.
  • ohne weitere Zuzahlungen

Das ganze Konstrukt wird natürlich erst durch geschickte Nutzung der Subventionierung und durch Sonderprovisionen für Options-Testings möglich, denn die eigentliche Grundgebühr, die auch vom Kunden bezahlt werden muss, beträgt 2 x 15€. Eteleon hat dieses Thema nahezu perfektioniert. Details finden sich hier in unserem Beitrag vom Juni.

Die folgende Dienste (Options-Testings) wurden im Rahmen der Verträge für uns zum Testen freigeschaltet:

  • Verbindungs-Checker
  • Mobile Web S
  • direct-Spar-Option

Selbstverständlich ist sich auch Debitel des überaus guten Angebots bewusst und hegt die Hoffnung, dass der Kunde vergisst, die (eigentlich praktischen) Options-Testings zu kündigen. In unserem Fall lohnen sich die Options-Testings leider nicht und so machten wir uns nun dran, diese wieder zu kündigen. Ein Anruf im Callcenter von Debitel bringt zu Tage, dass das telefonische Kündigen 5€ pro Option pro Anschluss kosten würde.

Bei Debitel Einloggen und Optionen kündigen

Also muss man sich zunächst unter http://www.debitel.de/kunden/mein_debitel/ einloggen. Zur Freischaltung erhält man einen Response-Key auf eine der Debitel-Anschlussnummern per SMS gesendet. Im Gegensatz zu Forenberichten, funktionierte dies einwandfrei. Binnen Sekunden kam die SMS und wir konnten uns im System einloggen.

Die Optionen finden sich ein wenig versteckt unter dem Menüpunkt Meine Verträge » Dienste(siehe folgender Screenshots):


Probleme mit dem Online-Kundencenter

Danach öffnet sich die Übersicht, die etwa folgendermaßen aussehen wird. Die Optionen Verbindungs-Checker und Datendienste sind hervorgehoben. Interessanterweise findet sich die direct-Spar-Option hier nicht

Das Kündigen der Options-Testings ist hier dargestellt als Ändern. Das Ändern des Verbindungs-Checkers sollte keine Probleme bereiten. Das Ändern der Datendienste auf Data-Standard hingegen wird derzeit quittiert mit dieser Fehlermeldung:

Der Telefon Support

Nach vier Tagen probieren und warten, haben wir nun heute wieder den Telefon-Support angerufen und nachgefragt, ob dieses Problem mit der Umstellung der Datendienste bekannt ist und zweitens, wie die direct-Spar-Option deaktiviert werden kann.

Das Problem mit der Datendienste Option  war wohl bislang nicht bekannt, die Techniker werden aber nun informiert, sodass hier “bald” Abhilfe geschaffen wurde. Wie lange “bald” dauert, ist uns nicht bekannt.

Leider ist auch die (freundliche) Dame im Support nicht imstande die Datendienste umzustellen, sie könne jedoch die direct-Spar-Option wieder entfernen – die im Kundencenter leider ohnehin nicht deaktiviert werden kann. Sie hat jedoch die Technik informiert, dass hier ein Problem hinsichtlich der Datendienste vorliegt. Die direct-Spar-Option hingegeben löschte die Dame sofort (ohne weitere Kosten!), da dies offensichtlich nicht online gemacht werden kann. Verwirrend finden Sie? Finden wir auch!

Schlussendlich haben wir nun auch noch den Support informiert und Screenshots per Mail geschickt. Eine Rückantwort haben wir bislang jedoch nicht erhalten. Stay tuned.

[UPDATE]

Auch wenn Debitels Online Kundencenter offensichtlich einige nicht nachvollziehbare Phänomene zeigt, ihr Kundenservice per Mail ist besser als der einiger anderer TK Unternehmen (z.B. 1und1). Schon heute vormittag haben wie die Antwort erhalten, dass das Problem momentan gefixt wird, sie aber schon im Voraus die Datendienste wieder auf den kostenlosen Tarif zurückgestellt haben und kein Zutun von unserer Seite mehr erforderlich ist. Souveränes Umgehen mit Kundenproblemen erfreut uns sehr.

[iPhone] iPhone Firmware 2.0.2 released – don’t update!

We’re back. All articles should still be available. Nothing more to tell.

As we expected the 2.0.1 firmware was still buggy like 2.0 and since yesterday night, Apple offers firmware 2.0.2 for iPhone 2G and iPhone 3G. They claim this firmware version solves UMTS/3G issues for iPhone 3G users. Besides that information Apple don’t tell anything.

As we investigated a little: customers who already installed this new firmware still encounter 3G connection problems (see Apple’s forum here).

As we’re not aware if there are any advantages for 2.0 and 2.0.1 users: we recommend not to update now. We will get back to you with more details, once we tested 2.0.2 carefully.

[e-Biz] Issues with MobileMe again and again and again and…

MobileMe is this month’ Apple’s never ending story of issues. At first it was only minor problem: customers from Germany and France could not cancel their plans. But then too many eMails got lost and Apple needed about 10 days to fix this issue. Then silently the highly advertised Push-Feature got deactivated (see our report here). In contrast to Apple’s high quality when it comes to usability and features, MobileMe began to leave an impression like a not well tested software in beta stadium.

In the end Apple did the right thing and apologized by offering one month free of charge. All customers thought all of MobileMe’s issues are solved. But sadly they were wrong.

Now MobileMe got again issues. This time syncing of addresses and appointments with mobile devices did not and in some cases still does not work properly. But as Apple said, this problem is also solved now. In certain cases data may not be synced back to the mobile devices. In those cases customers need to activate syncing manually. Read here how to do it. Take a deep breath and be patient, re-syncing may take up to 15 minutes.

[iPhone] Makayama releases Voice Dial App

As of yesterday Makayama released a Voice Dial Application for the iPhone. That means we finally can dial numbers without looking at the screen. Driving in your car and making phone calls is much safer now.

Voice Dial does not depend on a dictionary or vocabulary. Instead you can record voice samples for any contact in the addressbook. It therefore works with all languages.

There are two versions of Voice Dial:

  1. For iPhone firmware version 2.0 (updated iPhone 2G and iPhone 3G): Simply download from AppStore using iTunes.
  2. For iPhone firmware version <= 1.1.4. Your iPhone needs a ‘jailbreak’ to install. Start Installer, press Sources, then Edit , then Add . Next, type http://tinyurl.com/3544mp

The introduction offer until August: is $ 24.95 (EUR 17.95) ex. tax

Voice Dial is definitly the missing application for the iPhone. Find the manual here or watch the video:

absatz

[iPhone] Apple’s AppStore DRM broken

You don’t trust DRM protections? You read that Microsoft and Yahoo switched off their DRM servers thus disallowing the continuous use of legally bought Music?

Then this might be the news for you. Sources that wish to stay anonymous confirmed and explained that removing of AppStore’s DRM of your legally bought applications is fairly simple for people who know what a command line is.

The technique only requires a jailbroken iPhone that got SSH installed. Once you legally bought the application you can run it on your iPhone / iPod Touch. Then you log in via SSH, determine the process ID and dump a part of the memory. Since the application needs to be decrypted in order to run on your iPhone it will be decrypted before it’s going to be executed. So in memory you have the decoded binary and you only need to dump in to a file. Using the GNU debugger here makes your life easy. After that you only need to replace the part of the encrypted binary with the memory dump and set a flag to not encrypted. People who know what ProcDump in the early Windows days did: this is exactly the same technique without the automatization.

Anyway we’re not sure if more concrete information may violate Germany’s weird intellectual property rights, we can’t go into further details here. We recommend to do a Google search. You will most likely find one or two tutorials that go in to detail step by step. Applying that technique will allow you to save your very bought apps. We don’t condone misuse or piracy.

[iPhone] Sigpate vs. T-Mobile: Court rules in Favour of Sipgate

As we’ve reported earlier this month, german T-Mobile sues german Sigpate. T-Mobile argued Sipgate encourages T-Mobile iPhone customers to break contracts when jailbreaking their iPhones in order to install Sipgate’s VoIP client.

Now Sipgate struck back. Sipgate argued, T-Mobile in Germany advertises unlimited use of Internet, but in reality limits the use to a certain amount of MBytes and certain applications only. T-Mobile for example explicitly permits use of VoIP clients, Instant Messenger apps and VPN clients (although being pre-installed) on their iPhones. In contrast to their advertisements T-Mobile in fact does not offer unlimited Internet access.

The Hamburg District Court (AZ 315 O 360/08) now ruled in favour of Sipgate. T-Mobile is disallowed to use the term unlimited internet access in their advertisements any more. In case of violation of this court’s rule T-Mobile will need to pay 250,000€ fine.

[iPhone] iPhone 3G Proxy Unlock Available in Germany (update)

Update July 27th, 2008: In their testing program Juma found issues with some european carriers using 3G technique. In contrast to other SIM proxy manufacturers, Juma does not want to sell solutions that don’t work 100% on either GSM or 3G/UMTS networks. Customers who had already ordered got full refund on saturday and sunday. Anyway: we heard Juma is researching these issues to come up with a solution as soon as possible

It finally seems to be true. We already reported that unlock specialists from Brazil and from Vietnam independently from each other announced they can unlock the new 3G iPhones using a proxy SIM solution. But nobody (at least in Europe) got such proxy SIM into their hands.

Anyway here seems to come the real deal: a working proxy solution hit the streets of germany as of today. It is called iPhonix and is manufactured by Juma FZE – a trading company located in Dubai. As initial offer iPhonix will cost 50€ (about 80US$), instead of 59€. Sadly the product page seems to be available in german only by the moment. We already ordered a product sample, but as we don’t have it yet: we can’t confirm, but the german Magazine MacBug does (see german article here). Update: This currently does not work with any german carrier!

On the following video you can see a white iPhone 3G running with german interface. The iPhone 3G is obviously carrier locked (most likely to the german T-Mobile D1 net). After inserting the iPhonix proxy it connects to the carrier of Dubai (Etisalat) – obviously roaming. Anyway this is not the best video to convince german customers. We’d better seen checking out a T-Mobile SIM and putting in an O2 or Vodafone card that does not work and then after using the proxy… You know what I mean… And where is the making calls… Anyway see their promotion video here:

[iPhone] Firmware 2.1 Beta and new SDK for Developers

Apple has just released the new firmware 2.1 beta to developers. Firmware 2.1 brings a better GPS integration for 3G devices to allow using it as a real navigation receiver. The GPS feature “Core Location” can now also detect the speed and the direction of your moves. For 2G and 3G users there will be an update included for better integration of push notifications.

Along with this beta Apple shipped the new SDK. But currently this new SDK cannot be used to provide Apps to the AppStore.

We are not aware yet, if this update solves the slowing-down issues of Apps (we reported here).