Cable Blues
Over the last few months, I've had a number of disruptions at home with my cable tv signal (specifically HD) and with my high speed internet service too.
I've called our provider several times to complain, but usually hang up before actually getting through to a "human."
I love the "due to an unusually high volume of calls...it may take a while to get to you today" recording I get every time I call. The recording suggests the long wait you're about to experience is an occasional thing.
Today, my HD went out - again.
I called, got the "unusually high volume" recording, and instead of hanging up, waited for someone to talk to. I finally spoke with a real human being, lodged my complaint and asked what were they going to do about it?
I figured since I was paying for a service I wasn't receiving, I should get some money back. That makes sense to me, but in the world of cable...not necessarily.
Their response was - "actually we don't see any complaints by you recently" and "so there's nothing we can do except send someone out to check out the problem."
I explained that technicians had been out in the past and it hadn't solved anything. The intermittent problems were still occurring and the reason I hadn't lodged a "recent" complaint was because of the long wait required by their phone system.
"Trust me," I said. "I've had lots of complaints about your service."
That still wasn't good enough and again the offer to send someone out was extended.
I asked for a superior. I was forwarded to another extension and yup - got a recording.
I hung up and called the main number again. At this point, I was pretty worked up.
Long story short, by the time I finally spoke with another human, all I wanted to do was end my service with this company.
Apparently those are the magic words.. I was suddenly transferred to someone who offered to discount both my cable bill and my internet bill. And not only that, but the person was actually pleasant and sympathetic.
I caved...accepted the bribe, uh..discount and got off the phone. I feel good about the savings, but what happens when the cable goes out next time?
Comments
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Comments
What I do is call in and
What I do is call in and select either a "sales" or a "billing" issue. You usually get right through to a human who can transfer you to another human if necessary.
Gene, I do the same thing R.
Gene, I do the same thing R. Neal does and I always get right through.
One month I logged all of the hours without cable service and figured out an hourly rate and subtracted it from my bill when I paid it. I included a note and stated that my time was worth as much as theirs and I honestly expected to get a call requesting the amount I deleted. I never did and my service is much better!!
You might try this.
Along with what Randy said,
Along with what Randy said, you should try pressing the numeral that has the "cancel service" option. I always get a person on the line within 2 minuets. Then you play the ignorant card or say..."I am over this, I either want this fixed now or cancel me". Although a few times they have called my bluff and then I just hang up like it's a busted prank call.
I agree that when you hit
I agree that when you hit the sales or disconnect options you get a person faster, it is not in the long run. Most companies have specialized agents that work different areas. When you get a different department that does not have the specialized persons that can actually fix your issue, then they have to transfer you to the right department and you have to wait. So, you may get to talk to a "human" faster, but you usually do not get any quicker resolution to your problem.
Customer service is a funny
Customer service is a funny business regardless if its cable or your local drive through.
I have been in customer service for 25 years now and have worked for shopping channels and cell phone companies to
credit card processors. All have different ways of running their business. That being said I think that maybe you did not look at
the lager picture. My family and I have had cable for years and during that time we have had only 2 problems that I can
remember. I called in and they sent out at tech 2 days later. That was not bad at all since I can call the doctor and it I am lucky I can see them a week from next Thursday.
Talking with friends that have worked in cable I get a good idea of what it is like. How people call in thinking they have a right to it because they pay for it. Thing is people feel they should be getting it for free. No company will give you service for free all the time. They have to charge for it. Why? Because they have to pay for the channels they show. Like ABC. So when things happen and they do I look at it like " things could be worse" . I could be ill or I might be going through a death in the family which makes cable service problems look so small. I have had people call in and say things like I spent this much on a phone and its not working. HD Tv's cost thousands and looking at that one could say I spent thousands on this and I cant see in HD. Even if the other channels are just fine. I think that's what has people upset. The think of how they spent all that money on a HD TV .
Thing is they only spend $5 on the HD service of the Cable. So if you had wanted an credit for not having that then lets do what softballmom did and do the math.. $5 divided by 30 days in the month. Ok that's .16 cents. times that by 2 and you have 32 cents. You became upset that you did not have service and instead of letting them send someone out to fix it you went to another department and then called back and so on over 32 cents. Then you took the time to do all of this. Over 32 cents. Why?
I would have had them fixed it and saved all the time. Just a thought.
Gene, I agree with you to
Gene,
I agree with you to some extent, but i think that you are generalizing a bit much. To say that everyone has the extent of problems that you have received would be a stretch and probably a distortion of the truth(just playing devil's advocate). In reality how could any company fix a problem that they didn't know exsisted, i mean your in news right??. If someone had major breaking news regarding some wrong doings in knoxville, they couldn't expect KPD to do anything about it if they never notified them first. The point i guess is that in this day and age you have to wait for everything.
I know sometimes i go to fast food and i wait 20 minutes in line, so in order to get a good product and customer service you have to let somebody know, yes i know that it is an inconvience to be on hold for 30 minutes but would you rather spend time on the phone or complain all day about lack of cable. I think i would choose the first option. Just food for thought take it as you may. And just remember what dealing with the public is like.
Logging the dates, times,
Logging the dates, times, and duration of the outages may help them to determine what the real problem is, but I eventually got away from cable internet service because, since I work from home, the outages were more than I could tolerate.
I have found DSL to be faster than the service we received from Comcast, and there are almost no outages.
Competition would probably improve service as well as pricing.
Thanks Netmom :D I've been
Thanks Netmom :D
I've been '[bleep]' about Comcast for long enough and to make a very long story short... will let them just lose me as a one time satisfied customer. I've been 'considering DSL'...and I believe one more vote has set it :D
Thanks again.
Oh yeah, and to the ,"remember customer service?" guy...
If y
a don't like the 'job'...you should get out of it.
Jen
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