Why Free should care about its marketing?

Thomas Husson | December 13, 2007, 02:15 PM

I thought that in 15 months Free / Iliad (3rd ISP on the French market) would have improved their marketing and their client service.

They simply haven't.

I already commented my previous experience but when I finally decided to call Free again to let them know I still had a poor Internet experience and that I could not access digital TV from my Freebox, they decided to send me a new electric plug to make a test before sending a technician. I received the plug. There was no letter, nothing that would let me know it was sent by Free. No words of excuse. I made the test and the downlink speed was still below 1Mo.

The tech guy finally came and managed to fix the issue, but apparently it was my fault when I made a change in the installation. So I have to pay 49 euros. I called them twice in ten days to obtain my password to access my e-mails when outside home. They could obviously not share it via phone for confidentiality reasons. So I said: "just send me a letter". I am still waiting...

You'll tell me: "why I haven't you changed supplier if the experience is so crap". Well, that's true. But that's a pain. I know we're still in an acquisition period and they don't care about client satisfaction. As long as churn is not an issue, this won't change. Well, for the moment...

Despite the fact that the likelihood Iliad becomes a 4th 3G player in the French market is increasing (see previous post here and here), I continue to believe they will have tremendous efforts to be legitimate as a mobile operator.