Something tells me my employers would not find my listening to Homer Simpson sing a parody of the “Jetsons” theme song to be a productive use of my time. But, that’s what I find myself doing (which follows listening to the theme song from”Gilligan’s Island”) because I’m on phone call No. 5,472 with a certain communications company that still has not successfully installed my home phone and Internet service (though the cable is now working). You may recall reading about my bundling plight TWO weeks ago. I’m heading into week four without services. Week FOUR people!
I’ve encountered some very nice — and some very infuriating — people along the way, but I just have to ask: What does a person have to do to get some decent customer service? I’m talking someone who will follow through to see this problem resolved.
I don’t particularly want to own my own company. But I’m telling you, if I ever do, my hallmark will be customer service. And customers will be so completely shocked and delighted, I won’t even need to advertise.
And when that happens, I’ll be so rich, I can pay someone else to stay on the phone with the cable company.
8 Comments
AT&T U-verse will be here before the end of the year… whether the Eagle likes it or not.
Interesting that the author didn’t seem to want to identify the company.
Mrcontroversy … I’m not sure what you mean by “whether the Eagle likes it or not.” Can you enlighten me? As far as I’m concerned, I can’t wait for U-verse. The competition will be good.
Give me a break!
Take that hit piece the Eagle wrote in January of 2007 that was slanted wayyyy too much toward Cox.
Take the fact that trying to get anything past Lori Linenberger regarding any of the four local stations Cox refuses to carry is tantamount to a act of espionage.
Take the fact that the Eagle–at the urging of the local cable company–took KCTU out of the TV listings in 1995. Now they say the TV listings are “a paid supplement”… never mind that the Monday through Saturday listings show no such annotation. Would the higher-ups at McClatchy like to know that the Eagle is giving Cox $20,200 a week in apparently free advertising?
And then there’s the whole TV guide thing… you ask the newsroom, they tell you it’s an advertising product; ask the advertising department and they tell you it’s “news content provided by Cox”.
Care for any MORE enlightenment?
“news content provided by Cox”.
Sounds almost as bad as FAUX running GOP campaign ads as “news content provided by the GOP”.
The day I was liberated from Cox and went on to much better by the simple installation of a dish started out a good day. It wasn’t until I encountered the lack of customer service provided by Cox Communications that it went downhill.
The monthly bill came in the mail and I noticed a “converter box” rental had increased to $5 per month. I needed to be downtown for another reason so unhooked the box, tucked the bill into my purse and added that stop to my list of errands.
I was greeted pleasantly and asked how I might be helped when I approached the counter. I explained we didn’t use the television the box had been hooked to any longer so I wanted to return it and not be charged that monthly rental in the future.
After typing in some info I was told I wasn’t on the account and couldn’t make changes — only my husband could do that.
We need to back up a tiny bit so you will understand that I had personally set up our account with Multi-Media and my future husband moved into my house and my existing cable services after that point. Through the buy outs and changing of hands somehow now with this Cox Communications company he was the only person on the account. I don’t know when or who made that change, I just know it wasn’t either of us. Just as I won’t ever work on a small engine, my husband won’t ever interact with a cable company. That’s just not how it’s done at our house!
Back to the present and me standing at the counter trying to return the rented box.
I offered the bill that arrived in that day’s mail, several forms of ID showing I lived at that address. Nope! I couldn’t make changes to the account that was in my husband’s name. I asked for the Supervisor.
Long story short. I had to ask for the Supervisor’s Supervisor. Now, I’m seated at a desk of the third person I have explained my need to. Pleasantly, she repeated the “not on the account” meme. I asked if my husband could make changes over the phone and she said, “Yes.” She turned to her back bar, dialed the number I gave her and handed the receiver across the desk to me.
I said, Wayne, I’m at Cox and they need your permission for me to return a rented box. Now, hubby knows me and he knows this was code. Remember, he knew this was my area and needing his permission meant some “stuff” was going down. Some “stuff” he wanted to avoid! I handed the receiver back across the desk and after she and he exchange a few words she hangs up, turns back to me with the announcement that “Your husband, the account holder, said you had his permission to make changes.”
I asked if I could make any and all changes. She said, “Yes.” And she never even saw it coming!
A man on the other end of a phone number I provided gave me permission to make changes to his account. I don’t do business with people that stupid! I didn’t wonder for long whether they ever figured any of it out as I headed out the door after canceling the account in its entirety!
The day they could have ruined turned out to be a great day! I have a superior product, superior customer service and a lower price. All because they decided I wasn’t on the account!
Linda, Ben:
Just had another great conversation with AT&T
This sounds ALMOST as bad as my experiences with Verizon Business Solutions since their takeover of MCI. Unilateral changes in service conditions, false billings, overcharges, etc.
I wonder if Alltel cellphone customers will have similar problems with Verizon cellphone.