We have a service provider that provides the best service; when it is working, at a competitive price, without naming this service provider, let’s just say they provide us with our home phone and Internet services.
But their customer service SUCKS!
Example One – we recently if you count last year as recently purchased a dongle (for those of you who are wondering if I just said a rude word, it is a piece of equipment that provides mobile internet usage) for the upfront cost of $300, which was to be credited to our bill once we hooked it up to this service provider.
Never happened… Not the hooking up part, we did our end of the deal, the credit bit.
Despite numerous phone calls and promises to credit our account, this was not done, until of course I rang the complaints department today and spoke to a lovely lady who seemed to understand my frustration and credited our account. Well about time.
We also had a problem using the dongle on our computer. Despite assurances that it would only take two minutes to connect and launch, it actually took my husband five hours and three phone calls (we lost count of how many times we were transferred). Apparently, in a company as big as this one, there was no manual and only ONE PERSON who knew how to connect the dongle to an Apple Mac computer, because of course it is a lot more complicated!
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| Image stolen from here |
Example Two - When we upgraded our home Internet from Broadband to ADSL, we were told five different stories of why it was delayed, and then even though they were charging us a month in advance on our bill, and our new plan was cheaper, they wanted to charge us for two months at the beginning of the new plan so we would be a month in advance EVEN THOUGH WE WERE ALREADY A MONTH IN ADVANCE!!! So they would basically get a month extra because they are greedy grinches who steal Christmas every year they are too stupid to use common sense and people probably get so frustrated with their terrible customer service that they probably can’t be bothered to explain it to the rookie on the phone, then their co-worker, then their superior, then get hung up on "while being transferred" and have to go through the whole darn thing AGAIN! We ended up asking for the complaints department to have the problem resolved.
And then the ADSL2 was slower then the broadband… Another six or seven complaints lodged there until that was finally rectified.
Example Three – do you know it costs nearly $3 a month to keep your phone number private and your address not readily available at a clicks notice on the Internet? Well I found this out when I rang to get my number changed to private and have my address removed from the World Wide Web. I couldn’t be bothered to complain here, could not be bothered for $3 a month!
So here is my dilemma - Up here in the beautiful Blue Mountains, this mobile service provider provides the best mobile reception, and yet, for the last two years, I’ve stayed with my current mobile service provider despite the terrible reception and constant dropouts. My contract with them is up next month.
I’m wondering if I change…
They are a pain in my backside, but it would be nice to have a conversation and not have to hang up and call back again because the call dropped out… and I can always be that annoying woman who calls the complaints department AGAIN because I’m sick of bad service…
What do you think???
Bad reception or the guarantee possibility of even more bad service?
Gluten for punishment?
When did such bad service become the norm? Is it like this because we have allowed it to become this bad by not speaking with our feet and walking out the door?
