Saturday, May 19, 2007

Saturday coffee

Sudenlink communications is my internet servicce provider. I have a cable modem and all the technical support in the world. The only problem is that my internet service has been out since sometimes Wednesday, after I posted the last post. I've been playing "dumbass" with the call center folks and the local office folks.

Our call center is in Tyler Texas. The folks who work there tell me that our local office doesn't have any numbers that we can call. The call goes something like this:

Me. I'd rather talk to someone local. Give me a number at the local office and I'll talk to them.

Call Center Weenie: Sir, your local office doesn't have any numbers you can call. Your local office is walk-in only.

Me. Are you telling me that the Pineville office doesn't have any working telephones?

Call Center Weenie: Yes, sir.

Me. What kind of dumbass do you think I am? You're telling me that the Pineville office of Suddenlink Communications doesn't have any working telephones? That they can't communicate with the outside world?

Call Center Weenie: Well, no sir. I'm sure they have telephones.

Me: Well, give me the number of the office manager there.


I'm sure you all get the drift.

Note to all Call Center Weenies: Your customers are not dumbasses. Your job is not to provide management with an insulating blanket. Your job is to provide customer support. If a customer wants to talk to the local manager, give them the number. All that happens when you treat your customers like a dumbass is that they get pissed and go get the numbers they're looking for. The Pineville service guy has a telephone number. I got it by walking in to the office. It's 318-641-7012. He's a nice fellow who can't quite believe that the Call Center Weenies don't want customers to have his number.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had the same problem a few years ago here in Florida with Adelphia.

CS was doing their best at keeping the draw bridge up despite repeated service calls for my "high speed" line. We were getting nowhere and I was tired of installers playing at being service techs.

I finally cornered one of the "techs" and got hold of his dispatcher, who connected me with the service tech manager.

A 3-minute explanation of the problem to him resulted in a service tech fixing the problem the following day and I've never had a problem since, about 3 years ago.

CS indeed did not understand their role, but worse yet had never, in all the instances, relayed my description of the problem accurately or completely. Neither had the pseudo service techs.

Anonymous said...

Hey Texas is better than bangladesh. Thats were most of my calls seem to end up.

Rivrdog said...

Yeah, but I can't quite walk to Bangalore or Uttar Pradesh or wherever else on God's Green Earth is the location where they put Verizon's call center.