MarkTheSpot
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Case study: Griping about signal quality can produce results
For most iPhone owners, it seems like AT&T is deaf to our complaints about signal quality. It appears, however, that griping loudly and repeatedly to the company does have an effect. I live in the suburbs south of Denver and my signal quality is pretty good. However, whenever my wife and I have gone to Colorado Rockies baseball games in the last few years (we're season ticket holders), we've had awful service at the ballpark. Although the signal strength indicator would show five bars, it was impossible to do much of anything with our iPhones or iPads. Even trying to send out text messages would fail, and attempts to use the MLB At-Bat app in the ballpark were laughable to the point that I didn't purchase the app for the 2010 season. What was even more frustrating is that AT&T is a ballpark advertiser at Coors Field, so you think they'd want their service to be excellent.
AT&T's Mark the Spot app comes to Android, makes cursing bad coverage that much easier
Previously, one-tap bellyaching about crappy AT&T coverage was the exclusive domain of iPhone customers -- but no longer. The carrier has just launched an Android version of its Mark the Spot app, letting you report the precise location where you suffered any number of unfortunate fates: dropped call, failed call, no coverage, and so on. The theory is that the app makes it easier for AT&T to keep tabs on trouble areas in its network; for all we know, it could just be a digital stress ball for customers, but even the placebo effect can be pretty comforting at times.
Mark the Spot app delivering results for low-coverage iPhone users
Back at the end of 2009 when AT&T introduced its Mark the Spot app, some were skeptical that the location-aware self-reporting tool for coverage issues and dropped calls was anything more than a sop tossed to irked iPhone owners in the interest of better PR for the cell carrier. Still, like the 'close door' button in a high-rise elevator, any opportunity for feedback or a sense of control is eagerly seized upon by us crazy hairless primates, and the presumed database of GPS-tagged trouble spots has been accumulating. Where, however, are the improvements? The new towers? The carefully tweaked coverage maps? Is this thing even on? Apparently, it is. We've gotten a few reports from readers who say that they've received surprise free texts from AT&T, telling them about network improvements directly linked to their feedback on poor coverage. The message is as follows...
AT&T's new iPhone app conveys your disappointment in real time
OK, so the bigwigs at AT&T and Verizon have learned to make nice (for the time being at least), but what's a hapless iPhone user to do about dropped calls and other network problems? The AT&T Mark The Spot app offers long-suffering (or even the intermittently bedeviled) customers the ability to ping their carrier in real time, with location-specific feedback, should one experience a coverage crisis. To begin registering your gripes, hit the source link and download away! [Warning: iTunes source link]
