As in many other companies, the communication department in mine sends out an e-mail with daily news about the company and the sector. They normally include bids, rumours, investing news, technology, etc., about ourselves, competitors and customers. But the best news so far has been this one I got this week:
TELIA CUSTOMERS AFFECTED BY SERVER FAILURE
Thousands of Telia’s mobile customers inadvertently slept in yesterday morning, as a server failure set back the operator’s clock by two hours. Many customers called in, requesting some form of compensation for having missed trains and for lost working hours. Although Telia do not intend to compensate its customers for the mishap, Hans Larsson, Press Officer at Telia says the operator has learned something: “You could say that the positive aspect is that this alerted us to the fact that so many people use their mobile devices as their clock,” said Larsson. (Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet)
Really interesting to see how a device intended to be a communication device has evolved in something else, substituting other technologies like watches and clocks, and putting our lives in them. I am sure Telia (and no other operator) had never thought that a problem with their servers time could lead to customers being late and trying to claim for that.