I can't complain about some of the contacts I have in the industry. Local subsidiaries of companies like Microsoft, HP, Toshiba, Dell, Vodafone, Telecom New Zealand have helped with products for reviews and information. Overseas companies helped too and I can't list all the names here - too long!
I've noticed that within the mobile devices ecosystem, small overseas companies tend to work better and faster (no surprise here), while local subsidiaries of bigger corporations respond quickly probably because they're a phone call away and I've personally met most of the contacts.
I can't complain much, though. Some overseas companies even responded to my requests, sending products for review and prizes for our promotions. This is great and I praise these since I'm based in New Zealand, which is not around the corner from the main centre of technology. In one case I managed to secure a review while travelling, and had the product sent to the hotel I was staying (thanks AT&T Wireless). And most PR departments are good in replying with images and information.
Now, I read on Arne's PPCW.Net some strange experiences. For example how a mobile operator had no support infrastructure when launching a new product, redirecting hordes of new users looking for support to an enthusiast website with limited contracted bandwidth resources - without warning. In another interesting story, Arne tells us of his experiences with companies using some of his original images in magazines or catalogs - without credit. And when confronted, simply taking down the image seems to be the rules. No compensation, no thank you, no asking for usage rights.
One of most interesting experiences I had was sending out an e-mail to a company in Australia, with a Receipt Notification request. Thirty two users read the e-mail, and no one replied. After two weeks I sent out the same e-mail, and this time thirty five users on that company read the e-mail - and again, no reply. When I asked the American operations why this, the answer was "We don't reply e-mails"... So why do they have a Contact Us page?
On the good side, my work with the Geekzone migration is going ahead, lots of coding and testing being done.
