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Comments on news posted 2007-06-08 12:44:29: For years, the cable industry has been at the bottom of the barrel across industries when it comes to consumer satisfaction rankings. ..
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idjk
@sprintlink.net | Polish the apple ? Could it be that cable is trying to get where they should have been years ago because the telco's are starting to get into tv? | |
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Gandalf1315
Freelance Philosopher
join:2001-05-23
Indianapolis, IN
 ·RoadRunner Cable
 ·Vonage
| Not until...... As long as cable companies have exclusive territory rights that prohibit competition they will always treat their customers like crap. They dont have to earn your business.
A couple decades ago Ma Bell treated her customers the same way. As did the first cell phone companies. Notice how they all kiss your backside now?
Look at your local electric company. Talk about getting treated like a second class citizen.
Oh to be a monopoly.....
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No man's life, liberty or fortune is safe while our legislature is in session.--- Benjamin Franklin | |
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Chuckles
Premium
join:2006-03-04
Saint Paul, MN | Re: Not until...... Oligopoly. I dont think it restricts competition. They and the competition work together.
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kustomerservice.net | |
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dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ
| Cell providers STILL treat the sub like SHIT only its AFTER the contracts are signed. they dont have to care when they have that HUGE profit center known as the "EARLY TERMINATION FEE".
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You can never be too rich, too thin or have too much Bandwidth | |
| | bngdup
join:2007-02-20
Old Bridge, NJ
·Cablevision
| Why Customer Service Sucks Having worked in phone support before...none of this is surprising.
Basically, phone reps are extremely overworked and underpaid. They are also the last to be told about any issues at the company for fear it will be leaked to the customers. In addition, they are often not given many tools at all to resolve "issues". Even billing issues, often a CSR cannot give you credit even if you need it. They can create tickets or "cases" for other back-end teams to deal with, thats where communication fails.
Also there are very few supervisors around and they will rarely take a call, no matter how mad the customer is. Usually the agent is left stranded with some retarded script to read off to the customer and little or no resources at their disposal to resolve the issue at hand. Meanwhile the customer becomes irate, aggrivated, frustrated, whatever and the both of you end up tying up the line. The quality assurance for phone support doesnt care how mad you are, as long as the agent handled the call within X amount of minutes and greeted you properly it gets marked as a good call. Anyone who works or has worked in phone support wont disagree.
I constantly read posts about CSR's having "attitudes". It is because THEY DO NOT CARE. Their company couldnt care less about them, customers couldnt care less about them. I am not whining about a tough job, just explaining the mentality. Thank God I dont do that anymore. But until companies stray away from pre-formatted scripts and email responses customer service will be like this. Period. | |
| | decin2002
Premium
join:2005-11-09
Belmont, NH
| Re: Why Customer Service Sucks How about getting to the point where they answer the phone? I tried ordering Comcast service last week, called the 800#, was put on hold, waited 40 minutes, simultaneously started an order online, stopped and had dinner, finished the order online, and was still on hold with Comcast. Total time, 1 hour 48 minutes. Give me a break. | |
| | | bngdup
join:2007-02-20
Old Bridge, NJ
·Cablevision
| Re: Why Customer Service Sucks This is because the company employs F/T people to determine the absolute minimum amount of reps they need on the call floor at any given point in time, despite peak hours where you will wait forever in queue. Chances are the Rep you speak to got off the phone with someone else less than 5 or 10 seconds before they picked up with you. That will go on for hours on end. Its all about metrics. Comcast has obviously deemed 1hr + hold times acceptable and thus that is what you get. Its Comcastic isnt it?.......plus the aforementioned crap implementation of customer service causes 10 times the amount of calls to come in than would otherwise be necessary thus the need to enforce such metrics...blah blah blah, vicious cycle. | |
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phattieg
join:2001-04-29
Winter Park, FL
 ·Verizon Wireless B..
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
1 edit | Re: Why Customer Service Sucks said by bngdup  :This is because the company employs F/T people to determine the absolute minimum amount of reps they need on the call floor at any given point in time, despite peak hours where you will wait forever in queue. Chances are the Rep you speak to got off the phone with someone else less than 5 or 10 seconds before they picked up with you. That will go on for hours on end. Its all about metrics. Comcast has obviously deemed 1hr + hold times acceptable and thus that is what you get. Its Comcastic isnt it?.......plus the aforementioned crap implementation of customer service causes 10 times the amount of calls to come in than would otherwise be necessary thus the need to enforce such metrics...blah blah blah, vicious cycle. Interesting, because most of the time I'm idle for 5 minutes between each call, and our service level is above 90%, which constitutes a less than 3 minute hold time. Perhaps the call volume in your area sucks then, but in Jacksonville Florida, you call Comcast, and press the option for high speed internet, and your hold time is usually less than 10 minutes on average. 
Oh, and we don't read scripts, but we do sound like we're reading one when we're looking thru your account and notating at the same time we're diagnosing your issue. It's called multitasking. It's not an easy task, and it does require alot of concentration, which can make someone sound like they're trailing off into space, or just a bad reader, when they're are just too absorbed in their work.
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SIPPhone/Gizmo # 17476200648 / PIMPNET Chatline / Ran by Asterisk & Slackware 10.1. | |
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
 ·AT&T Yahoo
·AT&T DSL Service
·Cox HSI
·AT&T Southwest
| I hear ya man. My job has a lot of that. I like to call it "All of the Responsibility but none of the Authority" IE, I am held to blame and responsible for screw-ups, mistakes, angry customers, problems, etc but none of the AUTHORITY to make it right, fix the issue, deal with the problem, or handle the customer!
It's frustrating as hell! And everytime you DO make a decision and DO something you're always dumped on as having made the WRONG choice. IE, whatever decision you make, and do, it's always wrong. And if six months later the same issue occurs and you do the opposite, then you're wrong again.
Ah, fun. I love Corporate Management mentality....
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"Regulatory capitalism is when companies invest in lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians, instead of plant, people, and customer service." - former FCC Chairman William Kennard (A real FCC Chairman, unlike the current Corporate Spokesperson in the job!) | |
| | qworster
join:2001-11-25
Los Angeles, CA
·DSL EXTREME
·Brand X Internet
·RoadRunner Cable
·Vonage
4 edits |  Time Warner Cable is the most inept company I've ever seen!
I ordered Time Warner cable and Internet for my new Los Angeles apartment online last week. The next day I got a confirming email that said everything was fine and they confirmed my appointment for June 8th (today).
I also got a confirmation number to use for any questions.
So far, so good I thought....
Tuesday afternoon they sent an email that said because the former tenant had not cancelled their cable, my online order was cancelled. I did not read the email until Wed morning (remember, I don't have Internet yet at home).
I called them and the CSR said that the email was wrong and the former tenant HAD placed the disconnect order on the 31st of May. He put my confirmation order into their system and nothing came back. In other words, I had been COMPLETELY purged from their system! He had to re-enter the order from scratch and give me a new appointment-Friday June 15th! I told him that was unacceptable and he said he would call me if he found an earlier one. True to his word, he did call back yesterday and told me he had scheduled my install for the afternoon of June 12th. Fortunately, the cable was still working, so I had access to the local channels. Today, my wife called me at work to tell me the cable had gone out. When I got home I found out why: They had disconnected it at the pole!
Now, stay with me for a minute...they had scheduled a truck roll to REMOVE service on the very day they I was originally scheduled to GET service!
I called up CSR to ask them why the person, rather then remove things at the pole, instead didn't knock on my door and install my service. They told me that once a service order is in their system it can not be modified or deleted. DO YOU HEAR THIS? If I'm scheduled for disconnect, and I pay my bill, they're still going to disconnect me.... DAYS AFTER I've paid it (if the disconnect has already been scheduled).
What the hell kind of dispatch system is THAT???!!!! Service orders and truck rolls that can't be modified or cancelled???!! I've never heard of something that purely stupid...EVER!
So Now I won't have ANY television until Tuesday afternoon-and I have two small children that will cry when their PBS isn't there. They scheduled (and paid for) a truck roll to basically piss a new customer off. The CSR agreed that although MANY mistakes had been made with my account (going back to the original cancellation-remember if they had not screwed THAT ONE up, I'd be watching TV and surfing the web NOW!), she would not lift a finger to fix any of them. Wait until Tuesday afternoon or cancel-those are my options. Of course, if I cancel today they likely will still show up to install-after all it's already been scheduled.
Time Warner....you've got BIG PROBLEMS. You pay for unnecessary truck rolls, cancel orders for no reason and have rude, inept customer service reps. If you had competition you'd have long been out of business.
I think that a complete revamping of your entire corporate staff is in order-as this cancer starts at the top and flows downward. But then again, the bigwigs want to keep THEIR ineptitude a secret from the stockholders (so as to not upset THEIR personal gravy trains), so the chance of anything but window dressing happening is somewhere between slim and none.
And you're surprised that there's a class action suit against you?
I'm not surprised, nope I'm not surprised at all. In fact, once I become a customer I'm going to join it! | |
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JDMac
Premium
join:2007-03-17
Westland, MI
| Improve Their Image or Improve Their Service? In 2002, I opted to discontinue service with Comcast because they would not admit that the there was a problem with their service, let alone fix the problem (although they did fix the problem for those similarly afflicted shortly after I canceled). In 2007, I found myself completing the install for Cable, Internet, and Phone at my soon to be ex-wife's apartment for her Comcast service. Here is a novel thought: focus on preventing the problems from occurring in the first place. Basic cable technology has not changed in almost 30 years - a little bit of emphasis on doing it right the first time would tend to go a long way. | |
| grannywinkie
join:2007-06-09
Grand Rapids, MI | cable television It is the worst. To make things worse, it is the only service available for me. Get me away from cable please | |
| radam
join:2004-02-13
Fairfax Station, VA
·Cox HSI
·Vonage
| Cable industry profitability Well, this might be a tough problem to solve. Cox Communciatons as a privately held company doesn't reveal too much about their fianncials, but they are defintely in trouble posting signifiant losses for the past three years totally close to $3B. They may not have the resources. | |
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Kylemaul
Lovin' My Firefox 1.5.x
Premium
join:2001-03-30
North Port, FL
clubs: | NO, since $ is involved. That's all there is to it. | |
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