For entertainment purposes only, no action is required.
Yesterday.
Me: Hello, I scheduled an appointment to set up new service (at the San Marcos address.) I need to explain some details about the property.
Spectrum Rep: Okay.
Me: The property has a small detached apartment above the second garage. We would like to make sure Internet and TV are hooked up to that apartment.
SR: No problem. The tech will be there tomorrow at 11:00 am.
Today.
Tech: Yeah, I can’t really do this, because the wire isn’t long enough. We either have to install a new access point or they have to run the wire. I can;t do that because the wire has to be buried.
Gordon and I: Well, that sucks, but it is what it is.
Tech leaves. Call from Spectrum.
SR: Hi, what happened with the install? It says it’s on hold.
Me: Why don’t you ask your tech?
SR: Ma’am, can you just tell me what happened?
Me: Explain the wire too short dilemma.
SR: I don’t know how to handle it. Let me ask my team lead.
Me: on hold for ten minutes.
SR: What I have to do is get you back to Customer Service.
Me: Why do I need to talk to Customer Service?
SR: It’s protocol that we do this.
Me: on hold for ten minutes.
SR: The customer service is asking me if there is an electric meter on the apartment.
Me: No.
Me: on hold for five minutes.
Some weird woman comes on the line.
SR2: Hi, how can I help you?
Me, pissy: I don’t know. I was on hold and now I am talking to you.
SR2: Why were you on hold?
Me: Can you get me back to the person who called me?
SR2: Not at the moment.
Me: explained everything. Keep in mind, they called us.
SR2: Does that property have a separate electric meter?
Me: No.
SR2: Then we can’t do anything.
Me: Why would it need a separate electric meter? It is all one address according to city of San Marcos. The utilities are not separated.
SR2: It has to be a different meter from North Austin address.
Me, speaking slowly: It has a different meter from that address because this is a house in an entirely different city. They are an hour apart.
SR2: Oh I see what’s going on.
Gordon: Let’s just call AT&T Uverse.
SR2: Let me read the notes on the account.
Me: Why don’t you speak to your tech? I am not a tech. I shouldn’t be a point person for you.
SR2: I am a customer service rep, and my abilities are limited. I am going to get you to tech support.
Me: Ugh.
Me on hold for ten minutes. I am by now on the highway, because I am driving us back home.
Technical support SR3: What’s the issue?
Me, explain all of this for the third time.
SR3: Okay, I see what’s happening. You should get a call back within the hour with a resolution to this issue.
Three hours later.
SR4: Hi, I called about this install.
Me: Okay.
SR4: Is that apartment a detached dwelling?
Me: Yes.
SR4: See, we can’t do that, because it’s a separate dwelling.
Me: It has the same utilities. According to the city of San Marcos, it is the same dwelling.
SR4: So I can’t answer your question, ma’am.
Me: I didn’t ask you any questions. You called me. I just need you to install this wire or to tell me that it is beyond the abilities of your giant company to do so, so I can find someone else.
SR4, obviously irritated: A dispatcher from the installation company will have to call you, ma’am.
Me: Yes, please. Let me speak with the installation person and please stop calling me.
3 Minutes ago.
Installation supervisor: Hey, I am heading out there to take a look.
Me: Thank you! Thank you so much, because if one more Spectrum rep calls me, I might start howling.
Installation supervisor: If they do, tell them I am en route. That should do it.
Anna L says
Yep sounds like spectrum, I hate them but they have a monopoly. Also next time just howl it might get you a response quicker.
KR says
Spectrum has been insane! They changed all our boxes and the system is garbage. Totally capricious. Set something to record regularly (after you’ve figured it out by trial and error complete with growls of fury), it’ll do it if it wants to. There is no rhyme or reason. We use the PS4 and Netflix and Amazon now and I’m really wondering what we’re paying for here.
Good luck getting it figured out!
Cheryl Anne farley says
In our town ATT 100 times worse. Consider setting up a router with antenna to signal the node you bounce signal off satellite or just move houses closers together…….
Char says
I once had a similar issue with Verizon before it turned into Frontier. 9 months of either phone or internet out because the service rep could not work on phone when the ticket said internet and vise versa. I fixed it by moving to Charter-Spectrum. Good luck!
Ali says
I envy you having a choice. My area it’s Comcast or…. Comcast. Or Verizon which will not get FiOS in the foreseeable future. Charter is in the next town, out of reach. :/
Anne Marie says
Oh my goodness. We are moving into a new home also and Spectrum is only cable service available. I’m scared now. You aren’t the first person to tell me a horror story about this company.
seantheaussie says
A very productive hour 😉
Dee says
This sounds like the conversation I had with Centurylink about my internet/phone and my townhouse. God…that is terrifying. I was hoping that level of BS was limited to that company.
DK says
Oh, the joys of moving house!
Ann says
I Love Chattanooga, TN and My EPB. I never have to deal with Spectrum, Comcast, Or AT&T EVER AGAIN!!!!!
Good Luck!?
Camilla says
Ann, me too!!!! Chattanooga based Electric Power Board provides fast internet with great service….but you have to move here!!!
Rena says
It is a beautiful area. If you have great service and intelligent people running it, a move might totally be worth it! 🙂
Nancy C. says
Spectrum bought Time Warner Cable – the longtime kingpin here. Dealing with cable + internet services is never fun. 1 time a rep heavily insisted I rate his performance with Customer Service over the phone, while on speaker, as he was holding the phone while still IN my home. True story – totally happened.
Unrelated: best of luck to White Hot in the Good Reads competition. I vote wherever, whenever, I can 😀
Carolyn C says
My favorite was when I called in to report that my cable was not working at all, and while I was waiting while the techs checked from their end, the rep tried to get me to add another service. I pointed out to him the idiocy of trying to get someone who wasn’t currently happy with her service to add to that unhappiness by adding another service that wouldn’t work. He didn’t seem to get it.
Nancy C. says
That seems like their usual upsell technique 😀
KR says
I never had problems with Time Warner here. They were always helpful and quick with service. Since they’ve been Spectrum it’s been one pain in the butt after another.
Connie says
Been there. Done this with Verizon. My meter fior the house was installed on the barn 200 feet from the house and the power run underground up to the house. Verizon would only run the wire to the barn because that is where the meter was. It was a wonderful time!
Sue says
Not in same country, but feel your pain, red tape is the same wherever you live.
Take a deep breath, count to 10, then if yelling is required go for it.
Heather says
Ugh, we’re not fans of Spectrum, but like someone else said, in our neighborhood, AT&T has been just as bad. You handled it pretty well; better than I would have, at least.
Jakk says
I like Spectrum, as they really do have good internet and cable(had them for over 40 years now, (yes I’m old and need a walker and yell at kids to get off my lawn to make stereotype complete), but their customer service is spotty at best. The only tip I can give you is this: IF you lose service for any reason(power lines, snow, etc.) Call them and request a loss of service adjustment on your bill. It may be only a small amount, but don’t let them get away with charging you for services not received. Also, please update this story. Curious.
Kim says
This sounds like the calls I had with AT&T because they randomly disconnect my phone and give away the phone number I have had for 25 years
Anna says
I know the post was made about 20 minutes ago, but I am curious if you had to howl.
Anna says
I wonder if they would have batted an eye if you said “attic above the detached garage”.
dawn says
They sound just as wonderful as comcast! Dont even get me started on how bad my install went…and then they didnt do a room. Charged me for it anyway, 2 of my boxes didnt work and the router kept disconnecting. Called 3x for a tech to come out, once our call wasnt put in. 2nd time a guy just came looked at the wires and left without a word. the last time they swapped out the router and the wires, tried to charge me for the call because it was the third call in one month.
After all was said and done we dealt with them for a year then got a bill for $800 because somehow 1 terabyte of data was used…. we didnt use it. we were barely home during those months! Called to ask for when the heck did we go through that considering we barely used it as it is….they refused to help. Talked to some lady who said she didnt have to help me, i said ok well i dont have to pay you.
I now have ATT uverse and love them!
Ali says
I hate Comcast so much. A couple months ago I was having daily issues, so they told me to schedule a tech visit. So I did. Guy comes, redoes a whole bunch of things that were done badly the first time… then Comcast had the gall to try and billy me for fixing their crap. Fought it and got it back, but geeze. I wish they weren’t the only game in town. I have to have fast internet for work.
Amanda says
Just so you know, idiocy is contagious….especially is large corporations. Hence, your experience. Geez.
Iceburgh69 says
Makes me glad we have something of a choice. CabeOne or CenturyLink/DirectTV. But Boise is its own kind of special.
Shlomi says
Remember, it’s not customer service, it’s SHAREHOLDER service.
Shannon in Texas says
So very well said, Shlomi!!
Sheila Jacobson says
I hated Spectrum until we moved into a new development without any services. No land line available. No cable available, even though both Spectrum and Comcast are in the city. We are stuck with Direct TV. They are awful. Channels that were 24 hours a day with Spectrum now shut off whenever Direct TV wants to put infomercials there instead. So many channels – with crap on them. We had to get our internet with yet a
different company, and the connection is terrible. I’m stuck in a contract with Direct TV for another year. (Spectrum is now in our development.) So yeah, Spectrum and their “no contract” is
looking really good right now.
Katie says
That is utterly appalling. We now have Spectrum since they bought Time Warner. So far I’m having fun with lower prices but after reading this, I am extremely grateful I’ve not yet needed customer service.
Iceburgh69 says
And as a former CSR, I’ve always despised cold transfers. All it does it anger the customers AND the reps they get transferred to. I’ve had to take those calls, and they always started unpleasantly. Thankfully, I usually managed to actually resolve the issue right then and there, and if I couldn’t, I would first explain to the customer that I was going to have to transfer, who I was transferring to and why, and let them know that I would be explaining the situation to the new rep so the customer wouldn’t have to. That was most often for an Apple or Blackberry issue.
SweetCorgi says
I’m so with you on cold transfers! Say the word “port” to a CSR at my company and I can almost always quarentee they won’t hear anything else and will cold transfer you to my department, even when it isn’t a port issue!!! I hate getting screaming mad people cold transferred to me especially when there’s nothing I can do in my department to help them other than to find out what’s wrong, promise to get them to the right department without them having to go over it all again and then do what I say I’m going to do. It’s not that hard really it isn’t!
Ruth Ray says
My service problem was with BT in England. First person in a new flat, went to connect the phone, no signal at all. Three calls to get them to send an installer who picked up the phone and said “You have no signal.” Fortunately the fix was simple but it had passed the line test from their side three times on an incomplete circuit.
Beth says
I had a similar situation with a power company but it took them 6 months for them to sort out and stop overcharging me! So frustrating!!
Nifty says
I love that you have to warn the BDH that no action on our part is required. LOL! I’m picturing the Customer Service reps at Spectrum all having a collective WTH?! moment because they’re being inundated by calls by readers.
“Hello, I’m calling on behalf of my favorite authors, Ilona Andrews. Actually, it’s a husband and wife writing team and their real names are Ilona and Andrew Gordon. Gordon: G-O-R-D-O-N. They live in San Marcos and are trying to get cable installed in the apartment over their detached garage. No, I don’t have the address, but they’ve already called about this so I’m sure you have it in your records. Can’t you look it up? No, I’m not the Customer, I’m just calling on behalf of the Customer. My relationship to the Customer? I told you, I’m one of their readers. Look, they’re very important authors and they have a BLOG and a FACEBOOK page and everything! You really should be more helpful! You know what? Y’all are pissing me off so bad I’m going to cancel MY service with you if you can’t get out there TONIGHT and run the line to their detached apartment, and it’s not going to be just me — IT’LL BE THE WHOLE DAMN BOOK DEVOURING HORDE!! That’s right, buddy! You heard me! You don’t know what you’re messing with! WE HAVE THE NUMBERS! WE CAN MAKE YOU SORRY YOU DIDN’T RUN THE LINE THE FIRST TIME!!!!!”
In my head, that’s exactly how it plays out. 😀 (Or would have, if you hadn’t warned us that no action was required.)
LisaV says
This may be my new battle cry: “WE HAVE THE NUMBERS!”
The WHOLE DAMN BOOK DEVOURING HORDE is nothing to trifle with.
Rena says
LOL
Brooke says
Omg! I love it!
Patricia Schlorke says
Lol! All of a sudden I hear the soundtrack from the movie Patton going through my head. ?
HM says
Exactly!
Candice says
Sigh you guys aren’t making me excited to come home to the U.S. Our cable/internet company has absolute monopoly over all the on base customers. Our service goes out with clouds and a little rain. We cannot use wifi upstairs because ‘the concrete walls kill signals’ . Even hard wired our internet is spotty at best. I do online schooling at home during the day because at night the speeds get as slow as molasses in January. I have had to change modems 3 times this year and probably know more than the customer service reps. Then they tried to tell us we went over our 1 Terra byte limit. I was looking forward to some sanity back in the states…I guess not.
Good luck Ilona and Gordon.
Clara says
They’re not great at communicating. When I moved, this happened:
Me: *calls them* Yes, I’m moving, but don’t have the house yet, so I need to put my services on hold until I do.
Rep: No problem, I’ve done that, you’re good to go!
*weeks pass*
Me: *calls them* I have my house now, ready for set up!
Rep: Great! I’ve set an appointment for TIME.
*TIME comes*
*waits*
*waits*
*TIME passes*
Me: *calls them* I had a setup appointment and no one came?
Rep: Huh. System shows your account on hold.
Me: Yeah, it’s ready for set up.
Rep: Um. Hold on. *waits on hold* Ok, I’m sending a tech now. Do you know *technobabble*?
Me: No.
Rep: Oh. The tech will figure it out.
It was fixed that day, but rather a hassle.
booksdarling says
ARRRRRGGHHHHHHH! Nothing creates a primal scream like the cable company does.
Hopefully the worst of it is over.
But, sadly, not likely.
🙁
I’d make you a cup of tea if I knew how.
Toni says
My experience with TW once, I signed up for a 2 year price lock. First year ends and the price goes up, I call and explain about price lock only to be told it’s not offered anymore. I said ok but I signed up a year ago for it so I have a year left, no we don’t offer it anymore and nd around we went. So I hung up and called AT&T. A rep called later to ask why I cancelled and it was like trying to break up with a boyfriend. But you haven’t talked to me, I can fix this, I will give you a gift card and so on. I was like nope bye Felicia.
booksdarling says
In my case, I had bundled services that included a “land line” I didn’t want or need, but they promised it wouldn’t change the price and if I didn’t use it, it would be a problem. The same day it was connected, it started ringing 10 times a day with cold calls from spammers. I was … displeased. I went round and round with various customer service people, but, it wasn’t until I threatened to go to the Better Business Bureau that I got launched out of customer service and to a manager so fast I was dizzy with power. Surprisingly, they managed to fix the issue ASAP.
Mark Vivian says
You’re better off running the cables yourself and getting a lecky to connect them and then talking to communications provider. I’d offer to do it for you if I was in the same country
Gail says
I really hate these monopolies. No choice and so !ugh hassle! ARGHHHHH….
Norbert Püschel says
I am howling.. with laughter! It‘s the same here in Germany. It is probably a basic law of the universe, I am sure evety slimy tentacled alien out there has the same problem.
Brooke says
Awesome!
kath says
They sound as bad as Comcast, or Xfinity or whatever they call themselves. Too much to share, but the last 10 years has been a nightmare of failures on their part. UGH
I wish you better service and better luck, once the install is sorted ~
Pat says
Part one: I had CenturyLink hook up a phone line for this house before I moved, so I’d have phone service working when I moved in (Yes, I’m a Luddite). Because the previous owner had VOIP with their cable service, there was a wire running from the box in the front yard to the box on the side of the house. Everything was fine until the morning the crew buried the line, and then the phone didn’t work. Called customer service and explained the problem. Even though the signal was fine from their end, they agreed to send a repair person. He showed up the next day and I explained the issue. He didn’t even come into the house, just went to the box. Turned out one of the wires wasn’t attached very firmly and came out of the box when he tugged on it. Now it’s fixed.
Part two: I had AT&T phone and DSL at the old place. They were supposed to turn off the phone and DSL the day after I moved out, but I realized a few days later that I was still getting voicemails. Called customer service and found out that order had mysteriously disappeared. Now to see if this order actually got entered.
Moving takes great patience and endurance, no question about it.
DianainCa says
I hope it goes more smoothly now! If they have one of those “how did we do surveys” you should take it and explain the how they were not able to communicate properly.
Lynn-Marie says
Which circle of hell is cable?
EarlineM says
5th…Wrath!
Brooke says
HA!
Rena says
Sounds like Comcast to me last month before I moved to SD. I called to ask if I could get a phone outlet in the wall changed as it was really old and I couldn’t get a replacement cover plate for it (broken). I told them that I didn’t have a landline, I was keeping the house to rent it out and the renters might actually have a landline. Could I just pay the service call fee and for the installation? They said sure and set it up for the next day.
Next day, tech arrives as I am in the garage painting and he says “so, I am here for your DVR has a blank screen”? Umm, no, I don’t own a TV or a DVR, you are here to install a new phone outlet. Tech says, well, we don’t carry parts that we don’t need, I will have to go get one. He leaves, then comes back.
Tech now says, I have the part, but I see that you don’t have phone service. Unless you want to buy phone service, I can’t install an outlet. I explain how I had cleared this through Comcast to just pay for the call and the parts, but he is a subcontractor and says his company won’t allow it, too bad.
I ended up getting a guy from church to come bye and install one for me and he didn’t even charge me. 🙂
Most of these problems would be solved if they would let other companies come in and offer the same services instead of preserving the monopolies of the giant companies. There is no reason for us all to have to pay through the nose for these services. Some of the best internet I ever had only cost me $14.95 a month from a little online only company in WV that I had never heard of. The local company wanted to charge me almost $100 a month! Then someone from work told me to use the other company. They had great service and reliable internet. I wish I could get them everywhere.
Elizabeth Lee says
Ugh, I am sooooo glad I got rid of cable. I don’t miss it at all.
H Wawrejko says
We have Direct tv, and I love them. Dish years ago…NEVER again. We bought out our contract with lively curses. Like hexes, and swords brandishing, and blood magic, and, and. Did I mention we hated them?
catlover. says
I’m sitting here snickering. Two years ago my neighbor’s sister and hubby moved into his condo. The day they got their tv/internet hooked up mine stopped. Turns out their tech disconnected my hookup out of the box to hook them up.
Fortunately hubby was home and opened the patio gate for my tech three days later. All kinds of wires were laying on the concrete patio in a big bundle and he was amazed anything worked. I felt sorry for the tech. He must of weighed in about 280 pounds and my patio gate had to be picked up and pulled back because the post was rotted off so he had to squish himself through it several times. He was pretty frustrated by the time he was done.
Sophie says
Haha. That sounds a little bit like the issue we had with them. We couldn’t get the internet up and running and about 3 techs came out. 1. Said it was a cut line but didn’t have the tools to fix it 2. Fixed 1 cut in the line but said there was another under the street, needed to put in request for machinery or something 3. Came out because we called and were confused why nothing had been fixed in the last month so customer service sent #3 out. He has no notes with any of this history. Turns out they had come out and fixed it but no one told us. AND the 3rd tech only knew by seeing little flags. Each tech we had to explain what the tech before told us. I was flabbergasted. Do they not leave detsiled notes nor communicate in anyway? Why did customer service not tell us to try again? So strange.
Mike B says
I understand why the tech had issues (I used to do installs for a cable company). If there isn’t an existing run to it that makes it a tough run, and yes, it has to be buried. He normally isn’t equipped to do a run like that, and you may need to have an amplifier installed on the line by the sounds of it, due to the run length. It will need to go from the grounding point at the house to the apartment and might need another ground point at that end too. Not only that, you want TV and Internet in the apartment. Most cable accounts are set up to have only one modem on the account that all of the Internet to come through. To have the Internet in house and the apartment, you will have to do it one of 4 ways. 1: A second modem, which the cable company won’t like and/or will charge you a bunch of extra to have 2 modem connections, and you will need to set up a VPN if you want to transfer files over the network between the house and apartment. 2: A wireless setup with repeater as needed to boost the signal back to your main route/switch. 3: An Ethernet cable run from the house to the garage/apartment, no longer than 326 feet between powered components (switches/routers/hubs/etc). The Ethernet line could be run through the same conduit that needs to be buried for the coax cable to run through. 4: Ethernet power adapters. They make adapters that will plug into a wall outlet that you can plug the Ethernet into at the modem/router/switch and the computer/router/switch at the other end, or at multiple outlet points. I have used some of these in the past, going over multiple circuits and out to the apartment, theses more than likely will have issues connecting.
Personally, if the run is less than the 326 feet, I would see if they will put an Ethernet cable along with the coax through the conduit for you. It would be the most consistent connection between the house and apartment, and you can use a wireless access point on it if you want to be wireless in the apartment. Good luck. I would offer to come by to check things out for ideas and help set it up, but that would be a loooong drive from where I am, lol.
Ilona says
Thank you! The installation dude came out and said that we will likely be stuck with two modems but there is a box and a wire running to it from the house to the apartment. However, it’s not an RJ 11 wire and needs to be replaced by the third party. I don;t mind having two modems/accounts. I just want interwebs.
Earle Davis says
Unfortunately this is a nationwide problem. The only way to get great service is to find out who wants your business the most. Anyone who says that they can do it without costing you more money, should get the job. The other building should be accepted as another room. True that underground might be better service, how does the cable get to your house, in the air or underground? Have you thought about wireless internet and tv between the the 2 houses. Get the best internet you can. Good luck.
Anneriet says
I work for Spectrum, but on the Charter side. Please don’t shoot us, I buy all your books, in duplicate. My teenager steals mine.
Tink says
Is the garage apartment too far away to pick up a signal from your wireless router?
It could be worse… My officemate is having a new house built. He called Comcast to get service. They said it would cost $7000 to run cable to their house. He doesn’t know what the neighbors have, but it must be satellite. So he called about satellite and they said they wouldn’t be able to provide the bandwidth needed for multiple devices, especially gaming devices.
GSG says
hah… The easy way is to set up wireless at the main house, and put a repeater on the outside of your house with a wireless receiver in the apartment. That gets high speed internet out there. Then dump the cable TV, and sign up for a service like SlingTV. It’s a lot less expensive. My hassle level dropped when I dropped cable TV
Rena says
I had SlingTV, I dumped them last month. I only got it to watch the Cowboy games. They blacked them out for me in NW Arkansas, said I was in the local viewing area. Then I couldn’t get the Sunday Night games on NBC because they wouldn’t recognize that I had the package that included NBC Sports.
kelticat says
Ah, the joys of dealing with buraucracy. Been there, done that, had to replace the water heater because GE was being a brat.
Nona says
Exactly.
Nona says
conlan snippet installer
Simone says
Ah yes – the no help desk Customer Support that follows a script only. No thinking required. Very frustrating
Glad to hear the tech was able to sort it out for you.
Sara says
I firmly believe that one of any cable company’s main missions is to irritate and make people howl while running down the street naked! (just kidding). They are so layered that one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing. I had a horrible experience with a well known cable company. I just wanted my son to have cable in his apartment. After 2.5 months nothing had been done. I asked for my deposit back – should have been simple. But with this company, I was told it will take 8-10 weeks at least to get my money back. I sure hope your situation is solved faster and to your satisfaction. Hang in there!
Teresa Hughes says
After taking up AT&T’s Special Offer and the subsequent 2 weeks of **, i can only say – stay far, far away from AT&T
strangejoyce says
I wish you’d been able to tell me that 2 years ago. I’d had DirecTV and an ATT landline for years. When they merged I went with the bundled U-verse because I had no other less expensive options at the time. Time Warner’s service then was abysmal in my neighborhood. Going ATT U-verse has been one of the poorest decisions i’ve made. ??
Sylvia H says
We have bundled cable, internet. In our house, if the coffee pot overflows, my husband blames Comcast. I recently explained this to a rep at the local office. She seemed delighted and said she was going to share that at the next staff meeting.
Gyslain says
Being a customer care agent for a pretty big company, I can assure that the level of service depends entirely on who you get on the phone. The good agents will know what’s going on and what to do even if it’s not up to them. It sounds to me like you got the runaround from a few people who didn’t know how to address the problem and kept passing the ball to someone else. Hope your story has a happy ending.
Kate says
Yeah, but the bosses like the employees who don’t know much. They’re usually the ones who handle calls quickly and therefore get great end of performance period reviews. The people who know their job inside and out tend to have to take extra time to actually fix the problem they’ve identified, and then there is the extra time taken away from their own call handling to help out when their co-workers come over to beg for assistance.
It doesn’t pay to be a knowledgeable worker in a call centre.
Cynthia says
NEVERNEVER GET CENTURY LINK. …
Danielle says
Oh dear god, no. Not if you ever actually want to use the internet.
momcat says
Man, I wish there were some way to “bank” the time spent on hold with service companies and departments.
Damietta Armstrong says
Yeah, and charge THEM for your wasted time.
“Let’s see…installation total, after “special”… $199.95 . . . minus 3 phone calls totaling 2 hours, and 4 hours waiting for technician who never came, plus 2 hours waiting for you, and 1 hour babysitting while you install cable…TOTAL is 9 hours at $22/hour. Here you are, one dollar and ninety-five cents.”
strangejoyce says
ROTF LMAO!!!! Oh so true, if only that were possible!! They (ATT and their crap U-verse) would actually have to pay ME for lost time and extensive suffering for all the calls I’ve made in the last two years.
Sage says
Local business woman charged doctor clinic for overbooked appointment and 3 hour wait time at her own fees plus cost of child care expenses
Sigh. Companies will do anything to get your business over the competition, but how much will they do to keep it?
Kitty says
I totally feel your pain! What is it with tv/internet/phone?? We just moved also and when DTV came to hook us up I found out that the internet and phone don’t go out this far. OK…so, I ask around and everybody has Century Link..so I call and set up an appointment, on the day of, they call and say that they cannot install internet/phone as they have no circuits available…but they will send it to their engineers and maybe late January? “Can we set you up with an appointment?” Uh, no thanks… So, we call the only other available internet in our new area, I order upgraded internet with phone service, get a quote, pay for 1 month up front, (all this after making completely sure I am getting what I want this time), and get a confirmation number. They show up days later and install my internet which is not even enough to game with. When I ask about the phone I am told to just call when I get it unpacked and they can walk me through it… OK, sounds good.. Phone is found, call is made…and I am informed that there is NO phone on my order… AND it’s an extra 40 bucks!! So I whip out the confirmation number and she tells me that it is only a confirmation that I ordered over the phone… whatever… I am not a happy camper…. On the bright side…I am not the gamer in the family…LOL
EducatedRodent says
Masterful work by Crawley. He should receive a commendation from down below for it. Personal approach to soul tarnishing is far in the past and with growing population devils need a more global approach. Customer service lines that don’t know what’s happening are a gold standard for it
Deblfransen says
Nice reference to the book, The nice and accurate prophesies of Agnes Nutter, by Niel Giaman and Terry Pratchet! A book I love!
Caity says
A great book – the BBC are making a series of it with David Tennant as Crowley, I can’t wait.
Carol says
Oh my goodness! LOL! Blessings to you both!!
Cath says
Here in rural Australia we only resolved our telephone connection problems when my (brilliant) husband set up a three-way conference call between himself and the two areas of our supplier who were telling us inconsistent lies. Once they were all connected, he sat back and let them thrash it out while he took notes.
Laurence says
Love it!!!
Kat from Australia says
*taking notes*
Regina says
That’s just great!
Wanda says
Wonderful idea I think I’m going to borrow it and do this here in Texas.wanda
Gretchen says
Oh lord, good luck with Spectrum. I had service with Time Warner, who was bought out by Spectrum. The good news is, they didn’t make me change my very affordable service plan. The bad news is, the service sucks just the same as it always has and I can’t order the Olympics channel without changing to their new service, which will cost about $100-125 more.
If Spectrum doesn’t work out, try Verizon Fios if they have it in your area. Fios has better service (never had problems with flaky Internet connection), and their user interface is logical and easy to figure out. I only switched to save money, and I wish I could go back.
jewelwing says
Verizon is way better than Comcast, I can tell you that. This is true both of customer service and the service in general, as in, it almost never goes down.
Harukogirl says
Probably depends on the area – m6 Comcast speed and service have been perfect for the 2 years I’ve had them.
And even if a problem came up, I wouldn’t have a problem – 2 of my brothers are Comcast techs and they’d fix it. They have to – I babysit for both of them ?
Sage says
Lol always good to have family connections. ?
Wanda says
I wish I had that kind of in.
Debi Majo says
I’m interested in finding out how you resolve this…
Christine says
You have a great deal of patience! ?
Any more news?
Kat from Australia says
Oh boy. You know what you need, aside from electrical supply to your detached property? You need Claire from Silver Shark. She would be all over that. She’d probably drive out there and fix it for you herself.
Rachel says
Blech. I have spectrum and heard horror stories about their customer service. Since all I needed was internet, and renting their equipment is a rip-off (What I bought was better than what they would have given me, and paid for itself in 10 months), I just bought my own, had them send me the installation kit (ordered online, no having to talk to anyone!), and made my boyfriend do the 10 minute activation call because I don’t like calling people and will only do it if absolutely necessary. I haven’t had any issues with it as of yet, knock on wood.
Regina says
Being on hold is just another way of waiting in line. It’s amazing how you couldn’t get an answer to the only question you had, “Can you do the job or not?” especially after talking to so many company employees. I hope the service you receive is worth the effort you put in to get it.
Chanel says
Spectrum is the worst. We had 2 weeks worth of issues from them at the job. Ironically enough it was about buying lines as well to get us faster speed. They’re ridiculous but when you can’t get anyone else, you’re stuck. I made sure we got a bunch of credits for all the crap they put us through to get from point A to B which should have only taken an hour tops.
Shan says
Install I had to book 2 months out because how backlogged they were. No one ever showed up on the day. Waited 8 hours (the given window) before calling. Couldn’t get anyone. Finally I got a “Your cable is installed, please complete this brief survey to share your thoughts on process” call. From there I was able to talk to customer service.
Me to rep: No one showed up.
Rep: Yes they did. They completed the install at 10 am.
Me: No they didn’t. I’ve been here all day.
Rep: The notes say the install was completed.
We go back and forth repeating.
Rep: Let me talk to installer.
1 hour later
Rep: The installer says he was there. Your boyfriend let him in at 10 am.
Me: Again, I’ve been here all day. No man is here. Just me.
Rep: Let me get installer on the line.
Hold for 20 min
Rep: Sorry it took so long. They are a contractor so I had to track him down and he’s on the line. He affirms a male he was told was your boyfriend let him in to install.
Me: Can I talk to him? I’m telling you. I’ve been here all day alone. No men, no anyone.
Rep: Let me reconfirm.
Hold 15 min
Rep: He says he’ll call you. Please let us know if there’s an ongoing issue.
Finally talk to the installer. He went to my neighbors apartment not mine.
Ami says
Wowwww. I sincerely hope that the install supervisor has a brain and that your issue was resolved. And that your head hasn’t exploded because mine totally would have.
Jacky Bjorkstrand says
Thankfully my husband gets to deal with Comcast in our house. 🙂 He usually needs a couple cocktails after! 🙂
Jodi says
It just makes you want to hit your head on something hard to make it stop.
Thankfully I didn’t have that hard of a time when our cable box blew. I called for service to find out what we needed to do and they wanted to reset it over the phone. It totally stopped working, “ZAP” smoke, not working – what are you going to reset? So took the box to Spectrum and got a new one. End of story – boring, I’d never make it as a writer. 😉
SueS says
We switched away from Comcast years ago because of similar nightmarish experiences. Now whenever we get one of the (almost daily) promotional mailings for their various packages my husband gets a wild look in his eye before gleefully feeding it to the shredder!
Cat Kimbriel says
I hope you don’t get to take this to the next exciting plateau in the cable/direct wars–spiking lines.
Out in Seattle people are finding that when someone “turns off” the cable/direct, the technician stabs the wire somewhere so it cannot be hooked up again–thus showing you a preceding owner got tired of one service and tried to go to another. This is happening even with rental property, where *of course* the service constantly gets turned on and off.
I will need to turn on service somewhere, when I settle in the next couple of months. Dreading the decision and the search for service!
Kat says
I can’t confirm that this still works, but it did as late as June of this year…
When AT&T Uverse set up their customer support center phones for California, they tried to adjust for glitches. Not knowing this, a few years ago, I put my phone on speaker so I could do other things. As all cats are want to do, our cat decided to investigate this and ended up standing on the phones buttons. This is how we found out that holding down 0 for more than 30 seconds gets you automatically booted to tier 2 technical support. Since this is, overwhelmingly, where I need to be transferred should I call their customer support line… I may have exploited this frequently and I am pretty unrepentant. Why? It saves me 30-40 minutes of hold time and transfers when I simply need them to reset the connection at their end of the line because one of their linemen tripped something while attempting to upgrade their network in our neighborhood.
Barbara Hickman says
I had Spectrum here in Austin and switched to ATT Direct TV last December. While I’m not a big fan of ATT, I’d had all I could stand of TW’s level of service and notion of customer support/loyalty. There are issues with both ATT and Spectrum, but on the whole I’d rather deal with ATT’s customer reps. At least ATT have hired additional contractors to handle installation and in-home service.
Sam Exley says
I had my own nightmare problems with Charter/Spectrum here in Houston after Ike blew through town several years ago. We lost a number of trees which took down both our power and cable supply lines to the house. After 26 days without power, a really nice crew from out-of-state showed up a set a new power pole and ran a new line. During this time I called Charter every day trying to get them to come run their cable line which was on a separate pole that was still standing. Each time they told me they couldn’t do anything until the power was restored but could never tell me why it had to be that way. Once power was back on I called yet again to schedule the work and was told the soonest they could get to me was in another 3 weeks. After escalating the issue multiple times and spending close to 3 hours on the phone I finally got an appointment for the next week. I took the entire day off to make sure I would be there when the tech arrived even though I had a 4 hour appointment window. Because our outside A/C unit also took a hit from the downed trees and still hadn’t been fixed I was sitting in a lawn chair in my front yard with my two dogs waiting for the tech on the day of the appointment. The guy pulled into my driveway, put his truck in park, I watched him look at his paperwork and as I was walking over to his truck he backed out of the drive and sped away. I immediately called customer server and told them what happened. I was told a supervisor would have to call me back. Several hours later the supervisor called me and said the tech reported that there was no answer at the house when he knocked on the door. I told him that was impossible because I was less than 10 foot away from the guy and he never got out of the truck. I even described the tech to the supervisor and what his truck looked like. The supervisor basically said I was lying and that nobody was home. I came unglued. I asked for his boss and complained to that person. I called the corporate office and complained. I drove over to the maintenance center where all of the techs were dispatched from and complained. And still no cable. I was told since I missed my appointment I had to wait 3 weeks for another. After 4 days of calling every person I could find at customer service and the corporate office, and I am talking literally hundreds of calls, I found out that the tech was afraid of dogs so he lied about me not being home. They still told me they couldn’t get out there for 3 weeks. I have access to Lexus Nexus which has 10-K and SEC filing info for every corporation in the U.S. and used it to get the email address for the CEO. I sent a single email and copied a reporter for the Houston Chronicle on it. Within an hour of it being sent I received a phone call from a director at Charter telling me a tech was on standby and what time would I be home from work so they could run the new line. I also ended up with 6 months free cable service. If I hadn’t been so insane about it, I would have had to wait a month to get my service resorted in addition to the month it had already been out.
LucyQ says
Well. Not a cable installation story but a…de-installation story? Last year I was working at home and my Internet service went down. Oh well, I thought, it’s flaky sometimes, I’ll have lunch and then reboot the router if it’s still out. I look out the front window and my neighbors are chatting. Apparently a wire from my house had gone down across my neighbor’s car so she called PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric) to ask them to come take a look, thinking it was a power line.
Luckily another neighbor was working in his front yard when the PG&E guy came by, and my neighbor saw the whole thing. PG&E guy looks at the wire, realizes it is not a power line but in fact, my phone line. So what does he do? He cuts it and then rolls up the rest and tapes it to the nearest telephone pole. Just before he cuts it my neighbor says “Hey, I think that’s a phone line.” And the guy says “Yeah, well no one uses their landline anymore anyway.” Guy did not bother knocking on my door first to ask. Didn’t even knock on the door of the woman who called them. Just cuts the line and drives away. Cuts the line of a utility that does not belong to his company and he is not even supposed to touch, said a manager and a customer service rep I complained to.
My husband and I both work from home and even if we didn’t, we still like internet service for some weird reason. Took 2 days for the phone company to come and fix it.
“You don’t have to be an idiot to work here, but it helps!”
ready to read says
wow. That would make me crazy.
Blood pressure pill would have to be doubled. haha
Sage says
OMG!!! How many stubborn seniors with medical conditions would he have killed by cutting their communications?
E C Treece says
My kids are in San Marcos. If you continue to get the run around there are at least 2 providers there for internet. Neither of my spawn bother with a land line.
Candy says
Spectrum bought out our local cable company, whatever it was, here in Florida and it has been a nightmare. We ended up getting rid of our cable TV and just using a Chromecast. We still have to have internet, but it’s less of a hassle than before.
Kate says
This is what happens when companies with call centres primarily assess their employees with metrics like ‘average seconds per call handled’.
Teresa says
I have been trying for 5 years to get two different companies to hook up cable in my third bedroom. Good luck with that.
30 book a month reader says
I blame everything on Comcast. Cat is sick? Comcast. Flat tire? Comcast. Got laid off? Comcast did that too. Not only are they expensive and slow, but their customer service would be equivalent to crossing the Oregon Trail in the covered wagon. It is that convulsed and time consuming. If another service ever comes to our area Comcast will be run out of town. Ilona, are you SURE your cable company isn’t a division of Comcast? Lol. I have been in your shoes. Not fun!!
Dana, Kentucky says
When we first moved to Lexington, KY to start up our business, we had only 1 option – land line service/internet through the company that is now Windstream. Insight cable was available, but only for non-business accounts. We suffered through that for 2 years, with service becoming more and more unreliable by the day. In the meantime, Insight worked the kinks out of its business service and we were determined to switch as soon as the contract came up for renewal. Things got worse and we had the techs out 4 TIMES IN ONE WEEK!!! Finally the tech said the infrastructure was bad and not scheduled for changeout and all we could get was dial-up speed. While he was still in the office we called Insight to come out and do the switch that day – I didn’t care HOW much it cost to change. And a good time was had by all for almost 3 years – until Time Warner Cable bought Insight. Snarky, know-nothing customer service. And then Spectrum bought TWC. Our only choices in town are Spectrum and Windstream. I just want to beat my head against a wall. I miss Insight so much!