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The Magic Screwdriver?

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posted on Oct, 23 2007 @ 11:56 PM
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I wrote this and posted it on my personal blog a while ago. I'm reviving it here because the freaking problems are all coming back and starting all over again! Grrr...
So, I have been going without phone, internet, and cable service for the past week. Mostly. They are all bundled together, and usually only the internet and phone would be out, but then the cable ended up joining the other two missing services.

It wasn't that I had no service completely, because I did have service. I just didn't get it back until about 6:15pm or a bit later. Since the service cut out at 9-ish in the morning, I was obviously not happy. This started on Monday. Now, on Friday, it has (hopefully) been resolved and will no longer be a recurring daily event.

After a week of daily calls to the ungodly craptastic company that is supposed to be providing these services, though frequently is unable to deliver on any sort of (mostly) uninterrupted service to the customer, I was about to give up and just cancel my subscriptions completely. Quite honestly, I don't need that kind of bovine excrement in my life. The problem is that this is the only thing that they are good at providing. Garbage excuses, flat out lies, disgustingly unprofessional "customer service", and supervisors (maybe) who will refuse any and all requests to speak to anyone higher up the corporate ladder than they themselves are.

Who is this shining beacon of frustration and "How to lose a customer in the fewest number of steps possible" you ask? Well. They are Mediacom. Not only will I not EVER recommend that anyone try their services, but I will go out of my way to ensure that every person in my life knows about the quality of "service" and "customer support" that I have received from this company.

Obviously, I have regained my services. Hopefully this will not be a limited time phenomenon. Regaining service went down like this:

The line tech (I guess that is who it was) showed up this morning, screwed around in the power/wires/whatever box in the alley by my driveway, closed it up, drove all the way across the street to the OTHER box, opened it up and screwed around in there for a few minutes, closed it up and left.

Then, magically, my little green lights began coming back on and blinking to life on my modem. All of them. The line tech must have waved his magic screwdriver or something, because the demon beast from the depths of hell was only here for maybe 6 minutes, total. (Okay, he might not have been a demon beast from anywhere, but he works for mediacom, so it is kind of an automatic guilt by association.) Whatever he did in his 6 minutes spent outside my house sitting across the street, it worked, because I now have service again.

Now...tell me why I am hearing a choir of angels singing the Hallelujah Chorus? Oh, I get it...it was that a miracle just occured out at that little green box across the street from me. Really. That is what it was sounding like it would take to get full service restored, since no one at mediacom could tell me what the problem was, when it would be fixed, or how long the wait for that fix might be. It had to have been an act of God to make my service magically reappear. That is why the angels were rejoicing.

Really. Hopefully, this will end any contact between myself and mediacom. I don't think that I can handle another week of conversations like the one that I just had.

Unfortunately, it now is starting to look like I will have risk calling them again. All appendages that can be crossed currently are in the hope that it will help preserve my sanity!
Take care,
Cindi



posted on Oct, 24 2007 @ 12:30 AM
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Having worked in a call center for an internet/cable provider - and been a cable internet user with problems I can empathise with you and the poor bugger at the other end of your dog and bone!

The best bit of advice I can give you is: Be calm and polite. you shout and swear - they hit the mute button on their mic and laugh at you. Oh and then all tech appiontments for the next three days disappear!!

Report the problem, chill out and then. Now this is going to hurt!!

READ A BOOK!

MonKey




posted on Oct, 24 2007 @ 12:45 AM
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That is excellent advice! I've done a little bit of customer service call center work, so it is easier for me to keep that in mind most of the time, just because I always hoped that people would treat me that way, too.

My biggest frustration was when I knew that I was starting to feel frustrated, I would ask if I may speak to the person's supervisor only to be told "no, I'm the supervisor", when I would again ask to speak to that person's supervisor I would be told that they were the only person that I would be speaking to and that they did not have to transfer me to any other supervisor. That usually resulted in me thanking them for their time, hanging up and asking my husband to call. To do otherwise very likely would have ended in my howling like a screamer monkey at someone. That definitely wouldn't have gone anywhere towards helping me get a resolution to the tech problems that we were having.

Surprisingly enough, he always got to talk to a supervisor on up the ladder. Not sure why, but it was just one of those frustrating things that I am dreading having to deal with again, but the same things are starting to happen again, so I will end up calling and hoping that I can talk to someone who doesn't start the conversation off in a bad mood from the first "hello".

I did get quite a few books read that week, though, so it wasn't all bad!

Thanks for the great reminder!
Take care,
Cindi



 
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