Europe needs to come together
I was just reading a news article about the (already ridiculous) ban of liquids on board aircrafts. Today that ban is five years old and the European Commission is now relaxing that ban. Say you fly from San Francisco to Belgium. If you’re like me and fly Star Alliance chances are that you fly to either Frankfurt or Munich first. With the current ban I could not buy any liquids in San Francisco because I would not be allowed to take it on the connecting flight to Belgium. By relaxing this ban this would now be possible.
That’s great, right? Well.. Yes… If it weren’t for the fact that some European countries have already decided to maintain the existing rules. If you have a connecting flight in France, the UK or yes… Belgium you won’t be allowed to take the liquids you bought abroad on board. If you fly to Germany or The Netherlands it won’t be a problem.
It saddens me that Europe can’t seem to agree on the simplest things and can’t seem to agree on one European wide set of rules.
Now let’s apply this to technology. Some of my US colleagues were actually surprised when they heard that Europe doesn’t have something like Netflix or Hulu. Heck… the majority of Europe doesn’t even have movie purchases/rentals on iTunes. Why is that? Simple… Because there is no one European copyright law. If someone like Netflix would like to start operations in Europe they’d have to negotiate copyrights in every single country. You already see this happening with Spotify for instance. Spotify is only available in 7 European countries. iTunes movies are only available in 2 or 3 countries. And we only have copyright laws to blame.
Europe needs to come together in order to not get left behind…
Update: And yes… (Thanks Cyril for reminding me) we’re not even talking about things like European roaming rates, VAT, etc…
And the prize for most unreliable means of travel goes to… Eurostar!
Warning: rant alert! This rant is not about being stuck because of severe weather conditions (even though it’s hard to understand why some Eurostar trains are running and others aren’t). This rant is about Eurostar communicating with their customers.
UPDATE: Make sure you read the latest update at the bottom of this post. I am actually impressed by how organized St Pancras station is today compared to last year!
I’m sorry… This is extremely off topic but as I was in a similar exactly the same situation just a year ago I felt like I had to blog about it to document this. Eurostar used to be the one of the most reliable ways to travel from Brussels to London but I haven’t had much luck lately. Delays and rude staff are seemingly more than normal these days.
When I arrived in London on Monday we were already delayed for half an hour. Delayed because of… snow? Hmm… I wonder how they travel in the icy North. Surely they have trains as well, no? Anyway… I was already thinking about the train ride back home on Thursday. And yes… I just returned from dinner and found an email from Eurostar in my mailbox.
Due to the weather conditions in the UK and Northern France, we are running a revised timetable on Thursday 2 December.
We are advising customers to postpone and rearrange their journeys. For those customers who decide not travel they can either exchange or refund their ticket within 60 days for travel within 90 days through their original point of sale.
More detailed information is available on www.eurostar.com
Oh wow… That email surely says a lot, doesn’t it? Can I still get home? What is that revised timetable? Wouldn’t it be easier to say “Hey, we saw that you’re booked on this train. We rebooked you on that train”?
The Eurostar homepage says almost the exact same thing.
Due to the current weather conditions, Eurostar will be operating a significantly reduced timetable on Thursday 2 December, with a number of cancellations. In addition, Eurostar services will be subject to delays of up to 90 minutes.
So now I still don’t know whether or not I can get home. After 2 more clicks I finally find out that my train is canceled. Ok… So now what?
Customers wishing to travel are advised to turn up at the station for their original booked train and they will be accommodated on the next available service. For travellers booked on a late evening services that has been cancelled, you are advised to turn up after 12:00. We will try to allocate seating on another service as per the revised timetable. Please note however that very limited capacity will be available and therefore if you are able to postpone or cancel your journey we strongly advise you to do so.
Right… So apparently I’m supposed to go to the train station at noon to see if they can put me on a train in the afternoon or not. Ok… So… Message to my manager: I won’t be able to present at Flash Camp London tomorrow ’cause I have to stand in line at the train station in order to hear if I can get home or not. Ehm… Yeah… I don’t think so…!
This seems to be somewhat of a crisis situation (half of their trains are cancelled) so I thought I would ring up the Eurostar customer service to see what I am supposed to do… “Welcome to the Eurostar customer service line. We are currently closed…”.
I find this absolutely unbelievable. It seems that Eurostar hasn’t learned anything from last year’s disaster. Communication is so important in these kinds of situations and Eurostar is failing miserably. I’ll try and call them again first thing tomorrow morning but you already see where this is going, can’t you? I can already see the crowds at the train station with people who are trying to find out more and see if they can still travel. Exactly the same as a year ago… Great job, Eurostar!
Update: And it’s already happening. This is a picture from St Pancras station earlier today posted by Ben Miller on Twitter.
And this one from Rob de Main also speaks a thousand words… In fact… There are lots of people Tweeting about Eurostar and the lack of communication.
I’ll keep you posted…
Update December 2nd – 7:15am GMT: Back home in Belgium it is now 8:15am. I just called the Eurostar support desk. I got an automated message saying that “they are closed right now and are open from 8am till 5pm”. Another fail.
Just found an interesting question on Twitter: “Why cancel the odd train here and there? Surely if some can run, they can all run…”. Wouldn’t they just be able to start earlier and end later and get everyone home?
7:30am GMT: It is now 8:30am in Belgium. The Eurostar support line is still closed. This is an absolute disgrace.
7:45am GMT: I’m beginning to sound like a broken record. It is now 8:45am in Belgium. The support line is still closed even though their site and the automated message say that they are open from 8am. I have a feeling that I know what they are waiting for. They are waiting for the UK support line to open up in 15 minutes. The Belgian support probably doesn’t know anything until they open. Same story as last year…
8:00am to 8:15am GMT: Tried calling both the Belgian and UK Eurostar service desk. The Belgian number just gave a busy tone. The UK number had a recording that basically said: “We’re busy. Don’t bother us. Call later.”
8:50am: I finally get through to the UK helpdesk. They only repeat the same message that was on the site: “Come to the station. We’ll put you in the first available seat.” So… I’m doing my preso at Flash Camp London and then I guess I’m going to stand in the queue in St Pancras station. If you travel by air and they cancel your flight, you are automatically booked on the next available flight. Why can’t Eurostar do the same thing? Again, that would avoid angry passengers who have to wait in line in the freezing cold (St Pancras station is not heated!) for hours… I really don’t get it…
1:28pm GMT: I am impressed! I arrived at St Pancras station and didn’t see a queue at the ticket desk. While the communication via email, site and the support line hasn’t changed much since last year, the organization in the station definitely has! The Eurostar staff was actually very helpful and friendly and everything is actually very organized. I could just go to the check in desk and get a ticket for next available train. Because I am a frequent Eurostar traveler I could check in at the designated check in desk for Carte Blanche holders and business travelers. There was no queue. The guy at the check in desk gave me a sticker with my new seat number on the next available train. The train is scheduled for 2:34pm but that could still change. But… again… I am impressed by how organized the station has become compared to last year. Last year the staff knew absolutely nothing and couldn’t really help. So Eurostar did learn from last year’s mistakes! They just need to get their online and phone communication sorted out as well. Now… While I have a ticket and a seat on the next train I do realize that the train will probably be delayed even more and possibly still get canceled. But let’s be optimistic… I have a good chance that I may actually get home today.
2:53pm GMT: I’m still here in St Pancras. It’s all good though. I’m warm, have a comfy seat and am working on some blog posts and code. It looks as if they’re running about an hour behind on the original schedule. So if that’s correct I should be boarding the train in about half an hour or so. We’re getting regular updates so we do know what’s going on. Fingers crossed.
3:41pm GMT: Still here. The train that rolled in to the station about half an hour ago doesn’t seem to be ours. They just announced that they are still waiting on trains to arrive before they can start boarding.
3:46pm GMT: Weird… The train that rolled in to the station earlier just left completely empty…
4:31pm GMT: “We’re still waiting for trains to come in to the station. Thank you for your patience.” And while I type this a train rolls in to the station. Let’s hope this is ours… Another weird thing: That train was completely empty when it rolled in to the station.
4:48pm GMT: A second train just pulled in to the station. No announcements yet…
4:51pm GMT: Yay! “We will be boarding the green train shortly”. I’m going home!
10:30pm GMT+1: I’m finally home!
Travel nightmare: About the Eurostar, travel and winter weather
If you are following me on Twitter, you probably read that I was affected by the Eurostar travel nightmare this weekend. I wanted to write this post to document the event for future reference.
First of all, I wasn’t stuck in the tunnel and I am really glad I wasn’t. The stories from the people who were stuck in the tunnel are absolutely horrific. Even more so now that we are hearing that celebs like Claudia Schiffer seem to have gotten special treatment and were rescued hours before everyone else. It is painfully clear that Eurostar was not prepared for emergency situations like this one. Not for emergency situations in the tunnel and not for emergencies at its terminals. While most press only focuses on the thousands of people stuck in the tunnel, they seem to be forgetting the thousands of people stuck in the terminals. Now don’t get me wrong! I certainly don’t want to minimize the ordeal that people stuck in the tunnel had to go through! I’m just saying that there were/are thousands more affected by this event. More than 55000 according to this article.
I was one of the thousands of people stuck in one of the Eurostar terminals with no or conflicting information. I just wanted to get home but Eurostar staff was not helpful at all. Some even walked away when people wanted to ask questions.
I read about the incident in the tunnel online when I got back to my hotel after a dinner party on Friday night. It was already clear to me that this was going to change my plans on getting home on Saturday morning. So the first thing I did when I woke up was check the Eurostar site and call the Eurostar customer service. The Eurostar site said that all trains were canceled until 12pm. My train was at 1pm but just to make sure I called the UK customer service line to confirm. It was 8:30 am… They were not open yet.
#1 Why was the customer service desk in the UK not opened earlier?
I then called the Belgian customer service desk. I asked them if they knew anything about cancelations or delays. They didn’t! They told me to go to the St. Pancras Eurostar terminal and get information there.
#2 Why did they not have the latest information?
#3 Why did they send everyone to the Eurostar terminal?
I arrived at St. Pancras at around 10:30pm. The terminal was in complete chaos and packed with people who wanted to find out more. Just about every Eurostar staffer gave out conflicting information. They clearly had no clue. One guy was answer questions through a megaphone but those answers were not very helpful. We could get refunds or get rebooked on a later train. Eurostar was not going to pay for hotels or flights or anything. He also said that there would be no trains leaving that day. He also said that there would be a limited service on Sunday and that we could use our tickets on Sunday. But it would be on a first come first served basis.
#4 I’ve been stuck in airports before and was always offered accommodation and food/drinks. Why does Eurostar not have a plan like that? Airlines have to offer this because of European regulations. Why is there no such ruling for trains?
#5 Why did they announce that they would have a limited service on Sunday when they really didn’t know?
#6 First come first served? Seriously? Wouldn’t it make more sense to try and get those who got stuck home as soon as possible?
I parked myself in the St. Pancras Starbucks to check if I could find any alternative way home. I first called Brussels Airlines. There were no flights available. I asked about Sunday morning and got told it was very likely that Brussels Airport would be closed on Sunday morning because they expected heavy snow in Belgium. Great… I then checked ferries but also read about problems there. I eventually decided to stay an extra night and to wait for the Eurostar announcement. They were going to announce the limited schedule at 4pm. I called the hotel that Adobe uses regularly to check if they had any rooms available and they did. This hotel is not that far from St. Pancras so I was sure to be early on Sunday morning.
Because I was absolutely freezing (Great design those open doors at St. Pancras!) I immediately went to the hotel to wait for the Eurostar announcement and to warm up.
The 4pm Eurostar announcement confirmed that there would a limited service on Sunday and that they would reimburse reasonable out-of-pocket expenses. The limited schedule was going to be announcement later that day. And so I kept refreshing the Eurostar website every 15 minutes or so until I read the update at 9pm. “No trains on Sunday”. They also changed the statement and it did not mention anything about reimbursing expenses anymore. (Note to self: Next time you’re in this situation, take screenshots of everything). With the extra hotel night and the flight I was about to book, I am now looking at an extra €450.
#7 Why was the statement changed? Did Eurostar realize how much this was going to cost? Surely they have insurance that would cover this, no?
So I decided to book a flight home… I figured the biggest problems would be in the mornings and so I booked a flight that would arrive at 1pm.
When I woke up on Sunday morning, I immediately checked the Heathrow and Brussels Airport websites and read “Due to severe weather conditions across the UK and Europe, delays and cancellations are possible today”. When I arrived in Heathrow, I got a text message from back home saying that Brussels Airport was now closed. The airport staff hadn’t heard anything yet so the flight was still departing on the scheduled time. They even called us to the gate at the scheduled time but then they told us that Brussels Airport was closed. They were going to board us anyway so they could leave immediately if Brussels Airport opened. They told us we could be looking at up to 3 hours on the plane. We had 10 minutes to decide if we would get on the plane or not. If we didn’t we would be rebooked on a later flight. After a few minutes, we were told a different story. We were not going to board as the flight now had a departure time of 12:50. “But please keep an eye on the monitors because we may get an earlier slot”.
#8 Why don’t airports have some sort of intranet where you can see the same information as you get on the monitors?
#9 Why don’t airports have a system that can text/tweet/email you any updates? (Heathrow actually has a system like that but my flight was not on it because the system thought the flight had already left)
At around the 12:30, the monitors said “Delayed to 12:50. Gate opens at 12:45″. It was very obvious that we were not going to leave at 12:50. Even more so because the Brussels Airport site had us arriving at 5pm.
Depending on who you asked, we were now going to leave at either 3pm or 5pm. At 2pm they called us back to the gate for boarding… And this time it was for real. I finally got home at 6pm.
I realize that the “extreme” weather is what both Eurostar and Brussels Airport are using as an excuse but I wonder if it really is that extreme. Eurostar claims they haven’t seen this weather over the last 8 years but Eurostar is already 15 years old!?
#10 How can this only be happening now? Isn’t it time for new machinery?
Brussels Airport only has one snowblower for the entire airport. They are clearly not equipped to handle this type of weather.
The biggest problem I had during this nightmare is the lack of and consistent communication. Surely in this digital day and age they could have done a much better job. When you book a flight or Eurostar train, you have to enter both your email address and cell phone number. Why aren’t they using that to communicate delays and cancelations? And what about Twitter? Or even their own websites?
I really hope Eurostar has learned a lesson… And I really hope Brussels Airport invests in being better prepared for situations like these.
I’m flying to the US next Sunday… I really hope things are back to normal by then but I’m not holding my breath.
Geo restrictions on media are so 2001!
I know I ranted about this topic before… But this just keeps bugging me. Here’s a question for you: When a large percentage of web users know how to circumvent geo restrictions on media files, what’s the point of even having geo restrictions?
I understand that copyrights need to be negotiated in every single country and that is just where this problem starts. Record companies, Hollywood studios, publishers and broadcasters are still thinking in old media and it’s about time that they wake up and join the rest of us here in 2009.
When a new TV show is launched in the US, it can take up to a few years before I can see it anywhere on local TV. So, if I choose to watch this before it is available in my country, why can’t I? Why do I have to wait fo my local broadcaster to pick this up and watch it when they feels like airing it? And what if they decide to cancel the show?
How about an example? I really like Burn Notice for instance. This show is currently in its second season in the US. None of the local commercial broadcasters has picked this up yet. Now imagine they pick it up next year or so. They may air season one and then decide to cancel it. Where do I go as a fan with geo restrictions in place? I know this show is available on Hulu but officially I’m not allowed to watch it.
Same goes for the music industry. What if I like artist X but the local office for record company Y decides not to release it in my country? What do I do? I download it. What if artist Z releases his album in my country months after he released it in the US? What do I do? I download it. Would I buy it if it was available (on CD or as legal download)? Absolutely.
There’s actually a very good example on YouTube right now: Esmee Denters. This girl from Holland used to just record herself singing and then upload it to YouTube. She rapidly became one of YouTube’s most watched stars and got offered a record deal by Justin Timberlake. While her videos were watched all over the planet, you can no longer watch her new videos because of that very record deal she got because people watched her videos…
And what about the movie industry? With some exceptions, movies tend to be released about 6 months to up to a year later in Europe. Most movies are already available in the US iTunes store before they hit the theaters in Europe. So what do people do…? I think you get the idea. Would I buy or rent that new release if it was available in the local iTunes store or equivalent? I sure would and I’m actually also doing that now. Again, it’s very easy to circumvent geo restrictions even in the iTunes store. Do I stop going to the movie theaters? No… I still go and see the occasional movie in the theater.
Also, when I travel to the US, I can walk in to any Best Buy, Virgin Megastore or the likes and pick up any CD. There are no geo restrictions on that CD but if I want to pick up a DVD or Blu-ray, I can’t play that when I get back home. So what do people do? Get a multi-region player.
So let me ask this again: When a large percentage of users know how to circumvent geo restrictions on media files, CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray DVDs, what’s the point of even having geo restrictions?
OT Rant: SMS games: How can this be legal…?
<RANT>When I tuned in to watch the news just now, I happened to catch a commercial for yet another SMS game. “Win a free Nintendo Wii!”, the commercial screamed.
Let’s see how free “free” actually is…
First of all, most of these games are subscription based (even though they only print that in unreadable text) and so is this one. €6 per week. In almost transparent tiny letters, the commercial says that this game ends on December 31st (their website does not mention the end date). So if I enter the game today, that still leaves me about 25 weeks. The subscription alone will cost you €150.
But that’s not all! You also have to answer a bunch of questions to actually get a chance at winning the console. Each question costs you an additional €1,5 (on top of the actual cost of the SMS)! The commercial doesn’t say anything about how many questions you get. Out of curiosity, I visited the advertised (although also in tiny almost unreadable letters) website and found that there are 15 questions per week! That’s an additional €22,5 per week adding up to a grand total of €712,5. And that only gives you a chance to win the console! You can almost buy 3 Wii consoles for that price…
This is just one example. There are dozens if not hundreds of other examples like this one. Is it just me or is this a very obvious rip off? Some of you will probably think that no one falls for an obvious scam like this. However, if you switch on any music television station, you see commercials like this every 10 minutes or so. Since these commercials also cost money, it’s obvious that people DO fall for this… So… Let me ask this… How can this be legal?</RANT>
No Twitter support outside US?
I know this is a bit off topic but it’s something that’s been bugging me. As many of you know, I am working on a Flash Lite based Twitter application (mTwit) that will run across all devices that have Flash Lite on board. Even though my account and my server have been whitelisted on the Twitter service, this is now the second day that my Twitter account gets suspended “due to strange activity“. I’m not sure what else I can do to make sure that a) Twitter doesn’t suspend me while developing the app and b) my server back end gets accepted as a Twitter proxy. I’m pretty sure I did all I was supposed to and did all I can.
In dealing with the Twitter support people, I noticed that it seems that there isn’t a single support representative outside the US. That means that getting support outside the US business hours seems to be a big no-no. I wonder how many people outside the US use Twitter. I bet it’s a massive number.
This is rapidly becoming one of my pet peeves… Companies/startups should start thinking outside their borders! Especially when they are active on the Internet. The Internet doesn’t stop at the border!
So… Because of no support outside US business hours I won’t be on Twitter (and won’t be working on my app) until they reinstate my account.
Feel free to follow me on: 
