Consistency

I have been carrying on a running battle with Rogers over Internet Speeds. I am signed up for 3 Mbps, and over the past 12 days have recorded speeds as low as 0.066 Mbps and as high as 8.53 Mbps. (The average of my readings is a meaningless figure, but since you are curious: 2.66 Mbps over 43 tests).

Varying the browser (iexplore/FireFox), the router configuration and the test site (Rogers/Speakeasy) shows no change in status.

That is, it doesn’t matter whether I use Rogers preferred method (Microsoft iexplore.exe, the Rogers speedtest site, no router in the line, no programs loaded) or (from their point of view) the worst possible configuration (Mozilla FireFox, Speakeasy.com, DLink router in the line and half a dozen applications loaded (bit not running).

The day of the week and the time of the day seems to make no difference.

Now paying for 3 Mbps and getting 8 Mbps is a Good Thing, and I’d like to tell you that Rogers is great. (The nice waitress at Zellers brought me an extra coffee yesterday; I’ll eat there again, I know).

The real problem is inconsistency: When I decide to download an update to an application, or if a client sends me an attachment by email, I can’t be sure that I’ll be able to receive it in conversational time. My daily job that ought to run (used to run) in 3 minutes takes up to 2½ hours – some days. If I wake at 2 a.m. I am not sure whether to reboot the system to start that run, and then go back to bed, or just to stay in bed.

It seems to me that the same thing applies in the services I provide.

I ought to be consistent in the levels available to my clients. I ought always to perform above average, of course, but I ought to be consistent in delivering above-average results.

Let’s not confuse “consistency” with “average”. They are different and we need both.

If Rogers was consistent at 2.66 Mbps I’d probably just mail in a cheque with a snide remark and put them on notice. But the inconsistency has me going public. For example here .

Talk to Me !