Kevin Williams wrote:
>
> Well, before you go over and make a fool of yourselves at Sanno Park
> Tower, might I suggest at least getting NTT DoCoMo's president's name
> right. It's not Tachiyama. It's Tachikawa.
Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Actually, if you want to even be
entertained for more than a nano-second, you'd probably better put
the complaint forward entirely in Japanese (with press releaes FAXed
to major papers). Please tell me you're not actually serious about
attracting attention to DoCoMo's minor inequality imposed upon less
than 1% of their customers?
>
> While I don't necessarily believe that charging a 30,000 yen deposit is
> the correct answer, I don't see too many people providing other
> suggestions. Should only the US military guys be hit with the deposit,
> or is this just more discrimination? BTW, my understanding is that
> DoCoMo approached the US military here and requested they plop down the
> deposit to their troops instead of each individual person. That way,
> DoCoMo would be safe from those that skip out on paying their bills, and
> the US gov't could make sure their guys are responsible members of this
> society. Unfortunately, they said forget it. Just shows how much faith
> they put in their own people.
Uh, getting a service member's pay docked is incredibly easy, but
it does required paperwork to be in English and attention to a few
other minor paperwork details (such making sure they have plenty of
time left on their tour, having a photocopy of their ID and contract
signature). In fact the process is so easy that I'm surprised that
organized crime hasn't locked on this low-grade form of identity theft,
like they have in the PI (a criminal group was just caught doing the
medical benefits paperwork for 1000s of retirees who didn't exist).
Fortunatly, markets (even in countries that do everything their
power to cripple them) are remarkably self-blanacing. JPhone and
pre-pay service do quite well in he non-competitive vacuum left by
DoCoMo's incompetence. My personal opinion about the military's
"faith in their own people" is that there's way god damned too much
baby-sitting going on in the military as it is... after all, you
wouldn't expect DoCoMo to required your employer to pay for your phone
in advance, would you? ...and before list launches into a big self-
degnerating spiral of FUD about "US military problem in Japan", keep
in mind that all gaijin in Japan are treated equally, as gaijin
should be (with the minor exception of those under SOFA, who usually
get punished twice when they screw up). The next time you feel
put-upon as a foreigner in Japan, I'd suggest that you consider your
circumstances very carefully before you assign the blame to the most
politically correct and expedient scapegoat.
...and for the records, I *do* think the 300,00yen *deposit* is
absolutely the correct way for DoCoMo to remove themselves from
this niche market that they do not care to service. In fact, if
there is any turth to the speculation that DoCoMo approached the
military (which I highly doubt), it demonstrates a fundamental
misunderstanding about how markets and consumers work in the rest
of the world.
Received on Mon Jun 17 20:10:52 2002