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  • Internet follies (long)

    So, in this case I'm the customer/user, and the suck is largely on the part of the service provider.

    Background: We had internet service through a local provider for several years. Recently, that provider was bought by another company, based in a different state. This company has apparently been on a buying spree of late.

    Their claim is that they're upgrading local equipment needed to provide service. Reasonable, I'll put up with spotty service for a few days for that. Then... /background

    Total loss of service. For a week. This is sort of unofficially being blamed on one of their transceiver towers taking a lightning strike during one of our monsoon season thunderstorms. So we're waiting for a tech to come out.

    The day of the appointment. Appointment window was between 1 pm and 5 pm. Both of us were home and awake during this entire time. No tech, no phone call. So we call the provider. The rep we got then did his job and did it darn well, even went out of his way to FIND a supervisor who could do something about finding the AWOL tech (Julian, if you read this forum, thank you.).

    So the tech is contacted by his local supervisor, who we also spoke with. Tech claims he tried to call and got no answer, knocked on the door and got no response. This is complete and utter tripe. I don't know if he somehow went to the wrong address (but I sort of doubt it, he never asked for directions to get here) or simply decided to skive off and ditch work for the day. By the same token it's possible he misdialed the phone number in an attempt to call, but again, I doubt it. It was verified that he had the correct number. Either way, I wanted some way to contact the local supervisor again, in case the tech STILL doesn't show up. He's understandably reluctant to give me his phone number, so I ask him if he'll call me in an hour. He agrees to this.

    Hey, look, it's the missing tech! He's only an hour and a half later than the latest time he was supposed to be here. He's also looking kind of... um... chewed upon? The fellow says maybe half a dozen words to us, and goes about replacing the transceiver on the house. Takes him less than an hour all told.

    So we're back in business. I'm not exactly a happy customer, though. This evening I called the provider to make sure all the loose ends of this adventure were tied up, and, frankly, to ask for a couple of months of free service for enduring this debacle and not packing up and taking my custom elsewhere. I think I succeeded in not being sucky to the rep I spoke with on that call (aside from any suck perceived in asking for the freebie), and was right up front with her about what I wanted. I'm pretty sure a fair bit of her chatter over the next 5 or 10 minutes was stalling while she checked with her boss, or whatever procedure mandated for doing such a credit, because she didn't even come close to trying to say no.

    And so all's well that ends well. I got what I asked for, without screaming or being unpleasant. The internet service provider retains me as a customer, at what is probably all told not a huge cost to them. And I read almost a dozen books during the week without internet.
    Last edited by Kittish; 08-30-2013, 02:55 AM. Reason: Addition
    You're only delaying the inevitable, you run at your own expense. The repo man gets paid to chase you. ~Argabarga

  • #2
    ETA: Upon further reflection I think I'm going to call the company one more time tomorrow morning (my morning, about 1pm local time) and try to speak with a supervisor for the department and formally compliment both agents who actually handled this.
    You're only delaying the inevitable, you run at your own expense. The repo man gets paid to chase you. ~Argabarga

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