I remember, and I am not that old, when companies were built upon value and customer service meant providing service to customers.  I remember when speaking to a customer service representative meant you had the attention of, and representation from, the company.  I even remember when you could speak to a manager and a fair outcome was almost certain.  My mother used to call and complain about everything.  She’d get free comps sent her way all the time and she’d still huff if things weren’t perfect.  Its seems the pendulum has swung the other way.  Now you can’t get decent service from major providers unless you have a relative with authority in the company.  Did over-complainers kill quality service?  Did the global economy destroy local concern?  Did my mother create an unrealistic expectation in me for satisfaction in retail?

AT&T

Now that I know what happened, this is a shorter story.  I’ve been with BellSouth for a long, long time.   ATT&T bought them.  So, now I am with AT&T.

On June 10th, my Internet service went down, unexpectedly.  I tried everything I knew to reconnect.  I reset my modem, removed my wireless and plugged it directly into the computer, etc.  I called Tech support.  They indicated that I was disconnected for non-payment.  I retrieved my bill only to verify that it showed my last payment as received on time and paid in full.  WTF?!  Billing would be open the next day between 8 and 5.  Frustrated (understatement), I called Comcast, instead.

Comcast

When I announced, at work, that I was switching to Comcast because AT&T was unreliable and their staff incompetent, Christian laughed and said, "Oh, you’ll be real happy with them."  I couldn’t imagine anyone being less helpful than AT&T (formerly BellSouth) employees.  Before I go on, I’ll note that the AT&T acquisition has resulted in more polite, incompetent staff.  They are nice, just not real smart.

So I ordered my Comcast Internet and Phone and was told that I would have to wait more than a week for the installation.  Fast forward to July 2nd, and my wife stayed home to accept installation.  No show, no call.  I clearly indicated that our home phone was NOT a good contact number.  I found a message on my home answering machine from 3:30 pm, one call, that a technician was there.  Unfortunately, he did not knock or ring the bell (as evident by the fact that the dog didn’t go apes$#&, so we did not get our Internets installed.   I, of course, called the next day. 

Who fights with potential customers?

When I had ordered the service, they needed the last four from the social of the person who was home.  Of course, I gave them my wife’s.  Unfortunately, she had worked from 8pm that night until 8 the next morning and was sound asleep in bed.  Since she had been up saving lives and bringing new babies into the world, I felt her sleep was more important that Comcast’s security question.  I explained that she was sleeping and would like to provide alternate information to verify my identity.  The CSR then became argumentative, antagonistic and hostile with me.  She said, "I cn’t do anything until you give me that number!"  I replied that ‘d, "already given here 6 pieces of personally identifying information that should suffice."  Her response was that, "anyone could pick that up off a pice of your mail." 

Excuse me but its Comcast!  All I want is a new friggin’ appointment for installation.  I’m not even a customer yet.  Am I at risk for someone maliciously scheduling an install of HBO at my address?  I really couldn’t believe what was happening. 

A year or more ago, we ordered cable television.  A very similar thing happened to my wife and she canceled the order.  When I returned home that day, she was pissed off.  It ain’t easy to do that and we didn’t consider Comcast again until we were without Internet for two weeks. 

So I canceled the order.  Its remarkable that I attempted to purchase service twice and never so much as got the cable run to the house.  Perhaps its fate.

AT&T back online

A it turns out, AT&T reps were very polite.  They weren’t able to get my service activated until I called half a dozen times and spoke to twice as many people.  The last person I spoke to in billing was very professional.  He managed to get my service turned on, much to the tech support representatives surprise, while we spoke.  He asked her to call me back but she said, "we’re not supposed to do that."  He referred to her as "Tech Support" and she called him "Billing" even though they had both stated their names wen they came on the line.  Michael eventually explained that my service had been issued a non-payment cancellation order in error.  In other words, they completely f’ed up.  Even so, I am not entitled to ay compensation or refund for my lost time or frustration.  He insisted that on my bill after next I would see a credit for the time from when my service was disconnected to when the order was placed to reinstate it.  I decided not to raise issue with the fact that it took them an additional 5 days to process their reinstatement order.  I was too exhausted from all the long ass calls.  I won’t tell you how long I stayed on hold each time, because I could tell you.  I just made use of my speaker phone and pretty much stayed on the phone like a for sale sign on a suburban townhouse.

Disconnected Services

In software, we try very hard to operate services so that they are autonomous of each other.  This aids in efficiency through change.  However, I realize now that sometimes its important for systems that depend on each other to know some details about each other.  In this example, it would have been helpful if tech support could understand how billing works, particularly since it appears billing is responsible for service activation. 

A the Award for Crappiest Internet Service in the South?

If you consider customer care and personal treatment to be moderately important, Comcast is the worst provider you could choose.  Sure, Bellsouth will probably go out with every thunderstorm and they might even turn you off, just for fun.  However, when you call them, and you will have to cal them, they will treat you like a customer that they want to keep even if they don’t deserve you.  I can’t tell you what the technical side of Comcast service is like, I never made it past, "hello"

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