{"id":4137,"date":"2010-11-15T08:12:06","date_gmt":"2010-11-15T08:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=4137"},"modified":"2010-11-15T14:42:33","modified_gmt":"2010-11-15T14:42:33","slug":"when-is-something-not-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=4137","title":{"rendered":"When is something not new?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I had a phone call the other week.<\/p>\n

It was a sales call. We are ex-directory, unlisted and registered with the Telephone Preference Service, but these days the sellers get around these mitigations by calling to offer ‘enhanced’ services from companies we already receive goods or services from.<\/p>\n

In this case…<\/p>\n

BT.<\/strong><\/h1>\n

As if we haven’t had enough issues with BT for the last six months – you know how it goes:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • the phone rings<\/li>\n
  • you pick up the handset, and…<\/li>\n
  • you hear a ringing tone, which is quickly<\/li>\n
  • answered by a person in a call centre<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Sigh.<\/p>\n

    Can I speak to Mr Jones please?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    You are.<\/p>\n

    Hello, it’s Mandy from BT, how are you today?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    Have you just rung up for a chat, Mandy? Are you so concerned for my mental and physical welfare that you just took the decision to give me a call out of the blue? Perhaps because you had heard I might be feeling a little bit grumpy today, and you wanted to cheer me up? To wish me well? No?<\/p>\n

    I’m calling to tell you about our new service – BT Vision.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    Two things, Mandy. Firstly we already have it. What I mean by that is that we are an existing customer of both BT and BT Vision. We have been receiving the BT Vision service for a couple of years.<\/p>\n

    Secondly, Mandy, it isn’t new. It can’t be *new* because, as I’ve already said, we’ve had the service for a couple of years.<\/p>\n

    Do you know what happened next?<\/p>\n

    Mandy entered in to a philosophical debate with me around the very loose definition she – and therefore BT – applied to the word ‘new’.<\/p>\n

    Something is new, said Mandy, if someone had not heard of it before.<\/p>\n

    This is clearly utter bollocks.<\/p>\n

    According to Mandy’s (and therefore BT’s view), if I had a Ford Model-T which rolled off the production line decades before you, dear reader, were born, it is – according to Mandy’s definition – brand spanking new. If you weren’t aware of my ownership of it beforehand.<\/p>\n

    She went on to say, ‘The service *is* new to people who haven’t heard of it before’. That’s a quote.<\/p>\n

    But I have heard of it. In fact I’ve been subscribed to it for years. And yet you, Mandy, ring me up and tell me this service which I’ve been receiving, for years, is new?<\/p>\n

    Doesn’t this strike you as being dishonest, Mandy?<\/p>\n

    No.<\/p>\n

    And that’s a quote too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I had a phone call the other week. It was a sales call. We are ex-directory, unlisted and registered with the Telephone Preference Service, but<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stuff","two-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}