Dear Operator,
When I have a problem with your network, I really do not want to call you. I fault-find my home network, I reset the router, I check the ONT (Optical Network Terminal), I reset the PC, I reset the router with the PC off and then turn on the PC. I do everything humanly possible before calling you, because I know the experience will be awful. I have a heavy feeling in my stomach in anticipation of the terrible experience you’re going to put me through as I call your fault report line.
When I call you keep me waiting on the line listening to muzak, after a series of failed voice recognition attempts. There are services like Fonolo that remove this frustration and also improve termination of calls to your agents. As a communications company you really should be using the latest communications technology.
When you finally get around to answering the phone you haven’t even bothered to check if the problem is with your network first, you just assume the fault is with me. Today, I reported a fault on the phone line and internet line, both are running very slow, so the fault must be on the BPON (Broadband Passive Optical Network) or MSAN (Multi Service Access Node). Instead of acknowledging that I know what I’m talking about you make me jump through one hours’ worth of pointless exercises until you finally get around to testing your network, and then issue the trouble ticket, which of course you will not issue until you’ve wasted one hour of my time.
To add insult to injury, I’m told “It’s not our network it’s the home unit (he means the ONT) so we need to send a technician out.” Which by the way isn’t for 2 days and we will not give you a time of day for the appointment. This is a lie, the ONT is in your network. In the end it was a problem with your network configuration and it was sorted later that morning.
Your customer service is the worst customer service I experience of any business I buy services from. I’m spending $2k a year with you and it is truly anti-customer service. I really do not want to call you because you waste my time, frustrate me, and demonstrate a lack of customer service. Next time I call, check your network first, it’s the least you can do. In fact recognize me as a person and know that all the times I’ve called you its been for problems with your network / systems, never my home network as I check that first.
Yours disappointed yet again with your anti-customer service,
Alan Quayle
What’s remarkable -in my experience- is that operators’ customer service is consistently messy across geographies, services (telco/MSO/satellite), customer segments, and even time periods. On the surface, this may be correlated with sub-optimal processes, training, and tools. When you look a little deeper, you may recognize a monopoly’s culture. Culture is what people do when you’re not watching. Every day, I see an operator’s van parked near the basketball court by my house in Harlem (boasting an old parking ticket on the windshield). The van always leaves at dusk when the park closes. The truth is the technician is a hell of a streetball player! When I call his dispatcher at the end of a long day spent waiting for the replacement of a supposedly faulty router, I’m told the technician did come and call earlier, but I was nowhere to be found! I now must wait for the next available appointment next week… But the fun wouldn’t be complete if, around midnight on that same day, the dead router’s lights didn’t come back to life in harmony after the network problem got fixed. Happy Halloween!