Comments on: Weekend Word Wrap: the good word from customer service

By: Lacy

Lacy — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 19:24:30 +0000

I work for a credit card company, in the disputes department. I have dealt with sunrocket for the past couple of months. If you paid with a credit card, you should be able to dispute the charge as services not rendered…you may be able to recoup some of that cash…Just FYI

By: Sandy

Sandy — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 14:41:03 +0000

I’m moving to a new house down the street, and have been trying to get phone service there from Michigan Bell. No, wait, that’s Ameritech. No, wait, that’s SBC. No, wait, that’s AT&T now.

Anyway, here’s the comedy of errors:

Thu, Jul 19: I go online and set up a move. Current service? Leave it on until mid-August to be safe. New service? Install ASAP. They give me a new phone number for the new house and set the “on” date for Monday, Jul 23.

Mon, Jul 23, morning: I wake up to find no phone or DSL at our current house. CS gives me some BS about how they can’t have two DSL services on the same line. I explain it was 2 separate lines at 2 different addresses. Anyway, they mess around all day and finally get the phone & DSL service back on shortly before midnight.

Tue, Jul 24, evening: DSL goes out at our current house. CS explains that the order to cancel DSL there was still valid. (We never placed such an order.) They’ll see what they can do, but it’s late.

Wed, Jul 25, morning: CS cancels all service at new house, and puts in a new order there for phone/DSL to be installed on Thursday. He also promises to reinstate DSL at current address within 2 hours.

Wed, Jul 25, afternoon: Seven hours later, DSL returns, albeit at a small fraction of the speed I had before.

Thu, Jul 26: I bring a phone to the new house – no dial tone. I call, they tell me to check the gray box out back. I do — the plug is out. The guy installed the service and left the plug out.

Fri, Jul 27: I bring a PC to the new house; no DSL. I called asking about installation, they assure me it was installed on Thursday. I keep trying. Finally, they admit there’s a problem in the line, and they’ll fix it ASAP.

Sun, Jul 29: Still no DSL there. Of course, I’m sure I’ll end up with some huge installation/repair bill, and will be billed for service I didn’t have, and that they’ll wait until October to turn off the service at the old house. (But only after they turn it off at the new house once or twice.)

And folks? This really is the Cliff’s Notes version. I didn’t mention the time that one CS had THREE other AT&T employees on the line in what sounded like a Marx Brothers routine, when none of them knew what to do and each kept blaming the other for not doing his/her job. And I didn’t mention the FOUR times that people either never returned to the phone, hung up on me, or transferred me to the wrong location. (And for the record, no, I didn’t get loud or abusive even once during this whole deal.)

Now that there are plenty of options as far as phone & Internet service goes, you can imagine what I’m thinking. I’m not about to pay them $120/month for this kinda service. They’re going to have to come up with something special if they want to keep me as a customer.

Of course, when I change over, they’ll hit me with some “early cancellation” fee.

Sigh.

By: Matty

Matty — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 03:04:43 +0000

I have a strong feeling that the CS employees that frequent mental floss probably aren’t the CS I’ve dealt with. I say this knowing that most mental floss readers I’ve met are a bit smarter than the average bear.

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 18:30:06 +0000

I was also affected by the Sunrocket fiasco. But I found a new provider and they had ported my number in about 2 days.

By: Bunny

Bunny — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 02:44:16 +0000

I work in a number portability group, and I can honestly say those of you who got screwed over by sunrocket are going to have to wait some time to port your numbers. My company (unnamed so you all dont think I’m plugging them) has an agreement with them to expedite this process to 5 days instead of 14. I just feel bad for all of you yearly subscribers! I sincerely wish you the best of luck with getting your dinero back!

By: becky

becky — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 01:10:14 +0000

Just wanted to throw my Customer service 2 cents in, too. Customer service people get a bad rap. I, too, am in customer service, for the largest internet retailer in the world, and our motto is all about being Customer Obsessed. My bonuses are based on how many customers I make happy in any given month. I, too, have reached horrible cs reps ~ the trick is ~ be polite. The nicer you are, the more people will be willing to help you. If the person is unwilling to help, or unable to help, ask for a supervisor. They’re there, and more than likely, they’ll give you whatever it is you want, just to get off of the phone with you. Seriously.

By: Jeffrey

Jeffrey — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 22:10:18 +0000

SunRocket is helping transfer accounts… saw this news story and it triggered remembrance of the thread. I can’t post the link, but it’s on Yahoo! news or, more easily, you can find it on pcworld dot com slash news.

By: creesto

creesto — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 18:16:41 +0000

Thanks for the tip, Caroline! I too had recently renewed my sunrocket annual account and figured I was just hosed. I sent a query to my bank (Huntington) and hope they can help. My only concern is that the charge ocurred in early May and they may feel too much time has passed.

Here’s hoping!!

By: donner

donner — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 18:10:20 +0000

I used to work for a computer game company for 8 years..many of those were in the CS dept…we didn’t want to lie to our customers, and most of the time we didn’t…but in some cases we were told NOT to tell the customers there were bugs in the game (even after the game displayed ‘bug’ on the screen where the customer obviously saw it)…its no fun being on that end of the phone, getting reamed every day…I stay off the phones now a days and rarely ever answer my cell, even for personal calls…I’m burnt out on CS for the rest of my life…ugh…

By: Julia Rae

Julia Rae — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 18:09:32 +0000

Hey! I work in customer service too and I agree with AimeeD. I know it’s frustrating but us customer service people don’t make the rules and I honestly go to work WANTING to help people and end up in tears at how rude and angry the customers become. Please remember that as frustrated as the situation may be we are poeple too (and most of us are not on some kind of power trip).