For those telecom / networking enthusiasts, Patexia has recently launched several contests in this area and offers $5000 to best answers. More details here: http://bit.ly/151e2m3
Interesting thought however how far do you think your are going to get when you have to approach say for example mobile phone manufactures for information regarding their products I only hope that its better than the response I received today from Samsung customer service
See below for the typical answers you receive from corporate companies when you ask for such information bearing in mind that any applications you develop could actually enhance their business not to mention sales
Tuesday, August 06, 2013
Dear sirs
This was today’s letter to a multinational company regarding some information re Samsung mobile phones 4 minutes ago • Like The question was quite simple regarding Hays At command set for the mobile phone Made By no one else except Samsung You have got to read this to believe this answer they gave me
As follows A multinational professional company " Yes !"
Dear Sirs would you please ask your senior management / director of consumer relations to contact me please re the following
My Question recently sent to Samsung
Dear sirs I’ve am currently looking to develop applications for the above model and any new models that arrive onto the market using both C sharp, java for Pc integrated applications and also Android apps One of the main challenges I’m facing is the severe lack of data with regards the mini USB port for example how to interface with PC and embedded pic micro applications
I am also finding that many of the hays at commands do not work with this model for example accessing the sim card to send text messages using hays at command set
Sending picture messages using Hays at command set Accessing the contacts on the sim card receiving sms messages etc c One of my main reasons for contacting you is that I want to write applications for this mobile phone such that I can develop applications with additional hardware that I can market these along side Samsung mobile phones Please would you contact me and send all relevant information or how too,s with regards accessing the USB port
A full list of hays at commands so that I can integrate this with hardware A full list of data that needs to be send to the usb port inclusive any drivers that may be necessary so that I can achieve this and any other information that might assist me in producing suitable applications for your mobile phones form both an external hardware point of view and form a PC related point of view I have managed to work with Csharp and visual basic which does access part of the mobiles functionality but not all commands appear to work can you please get back to me asap so that I can progress ideas further and move to completion for development
Sincerely
Mark David Harrington
www.harrington.force9.co.uk
Your Answer
Counselor answer Customer reference number: 2116011332 Please quote your customer reference number when contacting Samsung Email response ID: 2116604279
Dear Mark,
Thank you for contacting Samsung Customer Support.
Unfortunately we are unable to deal with your query at Technical Support as we do not provide support for app development matters and therefore do not have this type of information on our systems.
I have included below a website link which you may find useful:
If there is anything else we can help with, please let us know.
Our Customer Support Team love feedback! Share your thoughts on this response by completing the survey at the bottom of this page.
Kind Regards,
Naeve Online Support Team SAMSUNG Customer Support Centre
Note: This email was sent from a notification only email address that cannot accept incoming email. If you need to reply to this email, please use the link below
I know this may sound possibly really stupid of me but who exactly makes and designs the phone Who places the hardware and software into the phone Who then knows what they are putting into the hardware, how the hardware is designed what’s limitations are and exactly what you can do , cant do with the mobile phone Who writes the software to interface with the mobile phone from a PV ? last but not least Who exactly write the initial android applications for example that the mobile phone is shipped with and who exactly does the consumer connect to via the net when they need to and update ??
Answer Only Samsung so why is it then you cannot supply the information when this is not only to also to your advantage but would also increase you customer base if you worked with us instead of against us
Is this me or am I speaking some foreign language that you do not understand what Im trying to do here
I cannot for the life of me even work out how you arrive at the answer of here is an XDA development site that has nothing to do with Samsung or its structure of phones , software or anything to do with its hardware Only Samsung know these answers
Would you please ask your senior director to contact me
Sincerely
MD Harrington
The typical answer I might have expected from NEC (Harry Ramis ) a few years ago just shows you nothing has changed at all and this is supposedly Britain who are supposedly world leaders in business They make me die laughing this lot
The next trick they get up too is also very clever Before you next send out your communication the said company then discreetly whilst enquiring for technical information leave a field for model number Initially when you enquire you see the model number present When of course they see your replies then very sneakily the model number is quickly removed from the drop down list if they feel this might be a little difficult for them not that any of the questions I’ve asked them are difficult at all to supply answers for
So you can read on from here because you will also find that the same is applied to datasheets on modules, software, semiconductors and every product you can find
Its their attempted very feeble route out of an enquiry
Tuesday, August 06, 2013
Re Hays At commands, USB Information
Dear Sirs
I appreciate you may not be able to deal with this at technical support since the level of knowledge required may not be within your boundaries in which case I would have got in touch with the department that designs your mobile phones as they would have the answers
All Mobile phones which must connect to the internet or transmit data will have a modem
Within technical support you would have noted this and obviously with some technical knowledge which you must have other wise you wouldn’t be in that job , although I must admit sometimes I actually wonder how some people do sit on these technical help lines at times , you would have also realized all mobile phones incorporate internal modems ,
As a result of that knowledge you must have surmised that Samsung must therefore have a set of recognized At command sets ( This is not brain surgeon material its stock standard telecommunications knowledge which encapsulates mobile phones, All makes All models )
Thus safe in the knowledge that all mobile phones do have modems you would thus under these circumstances have sought the correct information
With respect to the USB port you would also realize that all Samsung Mobile phones have a mini usb port and adopted the same principles, applied this laterally and hence deduced that in order to communicate with the phone hopefully with some knowledge of how the USB port works you would optimistically realized that Kies a software interface (developed and approved by Samsung ) will know how to communicate with that usb port of your Samsung mobile phones , therefore you would deduce that when communicating via this port there would be some type of driver, some type or set of hex command, in word, DWORD format which would ultimately open an data output stream and a data input stream of some type such that a PC can communicate with mobile phone other wise you wouldn’t market Kies
Not that I’m too impressed with this either possibly the worst software interface I have seen for decades
Although once again I cant ideally place the entire fault here with this extreme lack of knowledge or technical skills with yourselves but rather possibly that Samsung hasn’t quite given you all the training necessary to deal with this formidable task of answering questions on more specialized topics regarding your brand of mobile phones
From an engineers point of view however and I’m sure you must have engineers, they would know these answers or I would hope they do else when consumers sending their phones in for service would not be confident to assume that Samsung could well be employing dummies and pretending to offer after sales service The consumer of such phones would not be to happy to find that the returned mobile phone serviced in these circumstances would not quite be operating in the state which they expected Not very good for Samsung if this were the case
So rather than actually waste your time I thank for asking your senior management to get in touch with me lets just hope that they are far more skilled and confident with the operations and engineering to a degree that I would expect Samsung to behold
I await further communication from yourselves as although I a like your mobile phones I do however require the correct assistance and technical back grounding as I do not just buy a phone to look smart , impress people with I buy a phone to use smartly and develop intelligent applications for future of business with the idea that I’m going make a living form although with the feed back so far Im actually wondering how anyone does actually manage this as this is such an incredible fete to actually gain a the initial requested information from yourselves
One would hope this would be in the interests of communications and consumer related products universally ,to be marketed along side those phones when advertising such solutions which I can hopefully develop given the right information otherwise I’ve really wasted my life , work experience engineering skills and education haven’t I !!
Sincerely
MD Harrington
Customer service , assisting with network communications , forwarding people into the Future
I whish you the best of luck with this because i already know the answers you are going to get Had this for years and years even if your right they will sit thier and argue with you !!
If you want to do anything constructive or remotely business orientated especially with regards the communications, telecommunications Industry In this country This is the answer you will receive So as for competitions Unless they actually ate prepared to supply that information you might as well forget it because you will get no where with this
I’ve had this row with Motorola , Nec , BT , and now Samsung The only people that are actually worth dealing with who will go out of their way to assist you are from lots of business experience and can confirm via many other businesses in the Uk and abroad ,are, Panasonic Uk and they don’t make mobile phones anymore
I wonder why ?
Also the Only bussiness that know anything are definatly proffesional about customer service Panasonic the rest phew , A joke
This will also prove to you that all knowledge that you’ve gained at university colleges , experience field , or otherwise will also prove to be a total waste of time Why ? Because of this very attitude that you will come across inside the telecommunications Industry and elsewhere As I said before all designed to prevent progress nothing to enhance or utilize knowledge ad skills that are very present in the Uk That’s why people have this attitude now towards major corporate companies because they are not interested not that you may not be interested They are not interested in you or furthering enhancing the communications environment You can talk to some of my colleagues if you like they will all tell you the same All of whom, I know on both professional and social basis some of who, I’ve taught privately All with very demanding high profile jobs Know what they are about !!
Now you can see why I’m am so bloody sarcastic with some of them and you can also see why in general when this reaches this stage people walk into a shop or outlet or move directly to their head offices and basically wallop the manager or staff
Not difficult to see why this is happening anymore because this is really and truthfully all down to people who are in these so called management positions who cause this trouble in the first place , equally not that this is always them to blame but also can be a direct result of a member of staff just being bloody awkward ( Typical the incident I had at Maplins where I was quite polite wasn’t being funny only to be fobbed off by some member of staff who decided she was going to show everyone what customer service shouldn’t be very good she was as this two cost me two years business this women in real terms if not more plus caused a very embarrassing situation not good for Maplins business either )
Not I think this is the right attitude either however what the hell else do you do when you can’t get the answers you need to basically just make a living and create Jobs
