TU Dresden Regional Ambassador

It's official: I am now a Regional Ambassador of the Technical University Dresden (TUD). Many years ago, I earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in information technology from TUD. Throughout my career I found the education provided to me at TUD to be very valid and valuable in a variety of settings and thought that could be of interest to many North Americans unaware of the excellence in education provided by this university. So when the opportunity presented itself to become a regional ambassador of my university, I applied.

The city itself, Dresden, is a well kept secret. It is a vibrant city with several universities and colleges attracting a large population of young people. It has a long cultural heritage with some of the world best museums and galleries as well as a long track record in arts and culture. It's location on the Elbe river and proximity of the beautiful nature of Saxon Switzerland provides many opportunities for outdoors activities, nature exploration and entertainment.

Study in Dresden is a multilingual web site with rich information about the opportunities offered to Canadians by TUD. It can answer most of your questions. For additional information you can always contact me or the TUD directly.

Rogers Choco Promo

I recently went in the morning to a major Rogers location for updating the hardware of my daughter's cell phones. The first contact with staff was on the cool side. The person assisting us was sitting behind a long counter and did not stand up and join us as I am used to in that location (must be some new "stay-put" policy!).

Once we explained what we needed the rep started typing on his computer. His body language and terse responses communicated annoyance. I thought for a while it was because we disturbed their peaceful morning rumination, but it turned out that he was stuck trying to retrieve the account information.

Long story short, we selected the new phone (BB of course) and started the process of settling, which involves committing to a 3-years contract with exit penalties in order to get the subsidized cost of the phone. As soon as we signed on the dotted line a magic transformation in the attitude happened. Two bottles of water were offered. The contract was briefly explained, particularly the checklist of what a customer satisfaction survey to be expected in few days will be asking us.

Then, with the phone and papers we got handed two CD jewel cases. I was expecting the usual promotional materials, perhaps a manual in electronic format, or even a music selection like Nissan does sometimes.

To my surprise each case contained a thick CD made completely out of chocolate!



Now I don't know about you, but I am quite a chocolate fan. So I was initially pleasantly surprised. On second thought, however, and having eaten the chocolate, I have the following to say to my friends at Rogers:

• Thanks for the promotional chocolate; its quality was medium, but hey, it's free.

• While I am a chocolate fan, I would have much preferred a friendlier service before sale.

• I was not happy that despite being a VIP customer with significant spending with Rogers for many years, a hardware upgrade had to reset the account lock for another 3 years.

• I realize I am hostage to the only GSM carrier in Canada for the time being. All the chocolate of the world will not stop a hostage from seeking freedom. So I'll be seriously looking for alternatives as soon as other GSM carriers become available. Customer service is not post-sale token rewards. It starts with genuine and fair value of the products and services you offer your customers.

• Oh and by the way: After 4 months I am still trying to remove a Rogers monthly charge for web hosting that I canceled over six months ago for a web site that never ran on Rogers servers. I assure you, you can remove our web domain from your servers while keeping our (hosted exchange) email domain.