Saturday night we had a situation with our cable service. Along with the cable TV, we have our phone service with the cable company and our Internet access. Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket. Fortunately, we don't have our cell phone service with the cable company. So, our cable service is off and I use my cell phone to call the cable company to find out what is going on, if they are aware of the outage, if they are what kind of response time can we expect, etc. Of course, I get an automated response. Now, this is where things get annoying. First of all, the automated voice message tells me that I can access support via their web site. Well, I'm not going to be able to do so...everything is out. So I wait for the message to finish. Once it is done, what do I end up hearing? I hear an advertisement for their new movie rental service they are offering and if I am interested I should press 1 otherwise keep waiting. I keep waiting. What do I hear next? I hear another ANOTHER advertisement about ordering their sports package. GEEEZZZ!!! I'm told to press 1 if I am interested in ordering it or to keep waiting. I keep waiting. Over 4 minutes have gone by at this time and I have hey to hear any options that would be of direct help to me. Finally, I start hearing the options about the type of problems I may be having. Press 1 if I am having trouble with the cable TV, press 2 if I am having trouble with my phone, press 3 if I am having trouble with my Internet. What?? No option if I am having trouble with all 3?!? So, I have to pick one. I chose 1.
NOW I get a whole new set of options. Press 1 if you have a blank screen, press 2 if you have a snowy screen, etc. I'm brain has already gone on vacation. So, I press 1. Now the automated voice starts to tell me steps on troubleshooting my problem (i.e. make sure the cable box is plugged in, make sure the cables are connected properly, etc.). We're now over 6 minutes into the call. After the lengthy dissertation on telling me how I should trouble shoot my problem I get to hear another set of options...press 1 to repeat the instructions again or keep waiting to speak to a customer rep. Wow!! I MAY be able to speak to a real person and only after 6+ minutes. Hey, we don't want to disturb any customer service reps or inconvenience them with a phone call. After all, the amount of money we pay for our cable service (basic + premium + digital + High Def + Voice + Internet; remember, you can't get Hi-Def without getting every level below it) we have to put up with automated responses. Now I finally get to talk to a rep and I tell her that all of my cable services are out and I wanted to know what the problem was and how long before it is resolved. What kind of response do I get from the rep? She asks me if my cable TV is on. I tell her that everything is out. She asks me about Voice. Now I'm getting slightly annoyed. I tell her in no uncertain terms and in a very calm voice that when I say all of my cable services are out, that's what they are...out, not working, nothing is displayed, no dial tone, no access to the Internet.
After all of this she finally babbles a whole bunch of stuff at me that I can barely comprehend (i.e. ticket will be generated, etc.). I repeatedly ask "What is the problem and when will it be fixed?" FINALLY, she tells me that they are experiencing low signal strengths in my area and the engineers (engineers?? Real engineers?? People with real engineering degrees??) are working to correct the problem. Once again (or is it for the third time) I ask how long before it is corrected. She tells that it should be corrected in 30 to 45 minutes. And that as soon as the problem is resolved I would be getting a call notifying me of that.
Really? Well, that was over 4 hours ago that the problem was resolved and I never received a call or notification. What a surprise. My neighbor and I took a walk around the neighborhood and ran into the "engineer" who turned out to be a repair/installation technician.
So, the whole point? That customer service sucks in this country IF you can ever talk to a real person. Corporations are so greedy for that almighty buck (trust me when I tell you that our cable bill is NOT in the double digits, it is in the triple digits) that they will put your though their automated response system in hopes that a) you buy more of their crap, or 2) you just go away and not inconvenience them by forcing them to spend any more money then they absolutely have to. And if you are that much of a masochist as to hang on in hopes of connecting with a real person, you will more then likely end up talking to a dolt who gets paid minimum wage (after all, the high wages are reserved for the executives and managers that don't add any value to the operation) and just read scripted lines out of binder they are given.
This is why I don't like calling any company about any problems. This is their way of keeping those annoying calls to a minimum.
That's why I prefer to use PlanetFeedback.
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