Blog

Fool Me Once, Samsung… – While we don’t know the decision-making that went into Samsung’s problems with the  Note 7 phones (and replacement phones) that explode and burst into flames, it’s clear that Samsung has compounded a huge issue by not properly solving the problem before shipping replacement devices. As a result, any new attempts to hurry a second replacement to market will be faced with extreme skepticism. Further complicating matters are stories from customers trying to get a refund from the firm because the company seemed completely unprepared for handling such requests. The lack of customer service has made the impact of the recall more significant, and likely, more lasting in the minds of consumers. Only time will tell just how bad the damage from the Note 7 will be.
Read More: The Galaxy Note 7 is Dead
Read More: Samsung is Sending Incomprehensible Emails to Note 7 Owners Looking for a Refund
Read More: Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Production Permanently Ended Following Battery Explosions
Read More: Samsung’s Awful Smartphone Launch is a Holiday Gift to Google

Comcast Decides to Import Worst Part of Wireless Business Model – With coverage for wireless networks getting pretty good (rural dead zones not withstanding) the least popular aspect of service would have to be data caps. No one likes data overages and the fees associated with them. So it should come as no surprise that America’s least favorite ISP has decided data caps for home internet usage are a great idea. Despite arguing that 99% of customers will not be affected, the question remains, why penalize your best, most engaged customers by taxing them for using your service? Can you really find no other way to adjust your business model than to provide incentives for your best customers to use your service less frequently? That seems like backwards logic and will go a long way to fighting the negative impressions of Comcast with customers. It should be noted that the Time Warner Cable-Charter merger deal prohibits data caps from the newly formed company because regulators worry they would be harmful to competition (data caps could discourage customers from streaming Netflix and force them to consume only Comcast television).
Just in case the data caps weren’t enough to enrage you, the FCC levied its largest fine ever on Comcast today for a scheme that sounds eerily familiar to the Wells Fargo scheme that cost the firm $189 million earlier this fall. The dispute is over what Comcast calls “negative option billing” or billing customers for things the company didn’t specifically state they didn’t want. That means you were automatically enrolled into options unless you, unprompted, asked not to have those options added to your account.
Read More: New Data Caps Provide Another Reason to Hate Comcast
Read More: Nearly a Dozen New States are About to Get Comcast Data Caps
Read More: FCC Hits Comcast with Record Cable Company Fine Over Billing Practices

Yahoo Disables Email Forwarding to Avoid Hemorrhaging Email Accounts – Yahoo has disabled email forwarding in its mail program. While the company claims the feature’s suspension is to enable improvements to the service, it seems clear that the company is trying salvage what’s left of its deal to be acquired by Verizon. That deal is in question following revelations of a huge data breach earlier this fall that exposed 500 million user accounts to hackers followed by revelations that the company was enabling government surveillance of its users by building a custom program that allowed email snooping by the NSA and FBI.
Read More: Yahoo Makes it Difficult to Leave its Service by Disabling Automatic Email Forwarding
Read More: Yahoo Mail Disabled Forwarding, Good Luck Switching Now
Read More: Yahoo Reportedly Gave US Government Access to All Users’ Emails

Amazon Debates Making Fresh a Brick-and-mortar Business – When Amazon began testing its AmazonFresh service, it was largely seen as a natural extension of the company’s existing business model of selling everything to everyone and delivering it to their front door. But news today from the Wall Street Journal points to the potential for Amazon to build brick-and-mortar stores to take the AmazonFresh concept to the next level and become a serious player in the sector. The Achilles heel of AmazonFresh was always perishable food items, and the project would largely focus on stocking and arranging pickups of those items, while the existing AmazonFresh service would delivery nonperishable items, such as paper towels or peanut butter.
Read More: Amazon to Expand Grocery Business With New Convenience Stores
Read More: Amazon Said to be Planning Physical Convenience Stores for Grocery Goods
Read More: Amazon is Planning a Line of Tiny Grocery Stores

Featured CXOTalk Video of the Week: Episode 190: Digital Transformation in Retail Grocery with Gabriele Tubertini, CIO, COOP Italia
Digital transformation has come to food retailing and supermarkets. We talk with Gabriele Tubertini, CIO at Coop Italia, the largest grocery retailer in Italy.
Gabriele spearheaded the EXPO project, building the supermarket of the future. Prior to joining Coop Italia in September 2011, he served as Operations, Technology & Claims Director at RSA Group, and earlier as CIO at Granarolo (Dairy Products), and as General Manager of Mercato Impresa S.p.A (Milan, Italy).