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novinha
@dfait-maeci.gc.ca

novinha to nashutzu

Anon

to nashutzu

Re: Terrible Terrible TekSavvy / Bell Story

What a timely forum for me to stumble upon.. I wonder how many unhappy customers simply don't know where to vent out their frustrations.

I too have had a long infuriating experience with Teksavvy, and I'd rather not get worked up again writing it down but maybe it'll help someone else considering signing up with TSI.

I was informed about a month ago that due to firmware issues with the modem it needs to be replaced, as I was still under warranty (I guess I should be grateful Teksavvy is willing to swap an unsupported modem a couple of months after recommending it and selling it to me). Upon receiving it, the issue still existed - oh but Teksavvy closed the ticket the day the replacement modem was shipped. The fact that the outage continues matters not - and come time to discuss refunds I wonder what days will be accounted for, actual downtime or TSI records.

I finally spoke to "Dave" on Sunday, the usual troubleshooting reboot steps and he proposed opening a ticket with Rogers. I wasn't happy about having to wait two or more days, but what can I do. This morning I receive an email that the issue was fixed, which is odd since Rogers never dropped by. I check and still have no service. More wasted time in the queue only to talk to "Ashley" who proceeded to inform me that Rogers rejected the request for service because the modem hasn't been upgraded. When I asked how that's possible since the modem was already installed on Sunday when Dave opened the ticket, it appears, although she wouldn't confirm it, that Dave made an administrative error where the modem swap was not accounted for in the logs before escalating to Rogers. It took two days for TSI to clear this in their system and now I have to wait a few more days while a new request to Rogers is being created.

To add insult to injury, the support staff refused to escalate the call, and kept forcefully reminding me that I cannot get a refund. When I finally spoke to someone in customer service I received a lecture about the fact that the Terms of Agreement which I accepted upon signing up state that TSI will have time to complete their troubleshooting. So if the support agents, through incompetence or malice, prolong the service outage, I'm out of luck. And if I attempt to cancel the service, if only to stop wasting my time on these pointless calls that lead to no resolution - I can't get my money back.

At this point I've had an outage for over a month. What exactly am I paying for? The privilege of getting stressed over this? No thanks.

I've been with Rogers for years, I've never had an issue take this long to resolve, or a customer service representative tell me out right that she doesn't care, because I agreed to this. No reasonable person would expect this!
I would never in good conscience recommend this company to anyone.

TSI Marc
Premium Member
join:2006-06-23
Chatham, ON

TSI Marc

Premium Member

Wow. that sucks.

We're clearly not handling these cases properly. Epic fail on that front for sure.

Having a solution for these cable modem problems is one thing but how we handle these cases until we do is another and on the second front there's no reason not to have that figured out right now.

We're on it.
TSI Marc

TSI Marc

Premium Member

If you guys can help me out, I'd like to get a list of all the problems that are occurring, the root causes, to try to weed out what we are currently doing on each front and what we aught to be doing in each case.

So for example, the original OP, his issue was that he just wasn't getting the right speeds due to distance issue it looks like at a glance. That then turned into another problem and spiraled from there... even though he spoke to great techs along the way it just wasn't fixing it.

The last post, the modem was messed up, and it then became a problem. It turned ugly from there.

JenSuisUn
Premium Member
join:2006-02-23
Chatham, ON

JenSuisUn to novinha

Premium Member

to novinha
said by novinha :

What a timely forum for me to stumble upon.. I wonder how many unhappy customers simply don't know where to vent out their frustrations.

I too have had a long infuriating experience with Teksavvy, and I'd rather not get worked up again writing it down but maybe it'll help someone else considering signing up with TSI.

I was informed about a month ago that due to firmware issues with the modem it needs to be replaced, as I was still under warranty (I guess I should be grateful Teksavvy is willing to swap an unsupported modem a couple of months after recommending it and selling it to me). Upon receiving it, the issue still existed - oh but Teksavvy closed the ticket the day the replacement modem was shipped. The fact that the outage continues matters not - and come time to discuss refunds I wonder what days will be accounted for, actual downtime or TSI records.

I finally spoke to "Dave" on Sunday, the usual troubleshooting reboot steps and he proposed opening a ticket with Rogers. I wasn't happy about having to wait two or more days, but what can I do. This morning I receive an email that the issue was fixed, which is odd since Rogers never dropped by. I check and still have no service. More wasted time in the queue only to talk to "Ashley" who proceeded to inform me that Rogers rejected the request for service because the modem hasn't been upgraded. When I asked how that's possible since the modem was already installed on Sunday when Dave opened the ticket, it appears, although she wouldn't confirm it, that Dave made an administrative error where the modem swap was not accounted for in the logs before escalating to Rogers. It took two days for TSI to clear this in their system and now I have to wait a few more days while a new request to Rogers is being created.

To add insult to injury, the support staff refused to escalate the call, and kept forcefully reminding me that I cannot get a refund. When I finally spoke to someone in customer service I received a lecture about the fact that the Terms of Agreement which I accepted upon signing up state that TSI will have time to complete their troubleshooting. So if the support agents, through incompetence or malice, prolong the service outage, I'm out of luck. And if I attempt to cancel the service, if only to stop wasting my time on these pointless calls that lead to no resolution - I can't get my money back.

At this point I've had an outage for over a month. What exactly am I paying for? The privilege of getting stressed over this? No thanks.

I've been with Rogers for years, I've never had an issue take this long to resolve, or a customer service representative tell me out right that she doesn't care, because I agreed to this. No reasonable person would expect this!
I would never in good conscience recommend this company to anyone.

Could you please send me a PM : JenSuisUn See Profile

I'll look at this for you.

Regards,
Martin

thcmacgyver
join:2010-01-29
canada

thcmacgyver to TSI Marc

Member

to TSI Marc
1 - Better training for the agents, so the have updated info and more knowledge to bring back the Teksavvy Tech Support name to where it used to be

2 - Providing Daily updates to the agents for outages or upcoming updates, and not posting else where until they have been told, so they can cut down the troubleshooting time and get through calls quicker as they will know what the issue is.

3 - Have more info on the phone auto system for outages and news. While waiting on the phone 15 min, also have quick tips to check there connections, while waiting. Like power cycle the modem, and check the cable or try with out a router. Or get this info ready before you talk to an agent.

Anyone else can think of what Teksavvy can do to improve?

TSI Marc
Premium Member
join:2006-06-23
Chatham, ON

TSI Marc

Premium Member

This is not what's going on here though macgyver...

What I see is that when these new situations come up that never existed before, the staff need to know how to handle it and if they don't they need to know how to escalate it or have the ability to escalate it.

The root causes are what's getting us in hot water. Otherwise you see very positive reviews on the majority of the "normal" problems.

Look at the list from CanadianISP I provided. look at the complaints and see what they're complaining about.

Not all problems are equal...

concerned1
@bell.ca

concerned1 to TSI Marc

Anon

to TSI Marc
TSIMarc you should also read your own forum. There are stories of the cable Modem issue with firmwares also.

»forums.teksavvy.com/yaf_ ··· tes.aspx
»forums.teksavvy.com/yaf_ ··· -31.aspx

wheemer
@speakeasy.net

wheemer to novinha

Anon

to novinha
Wow... Sounds like the tech support training at TSI is terrible.

JenSuisUn
Premium Member
join:2006-02-23
Chatham, ON

JenSuisUn to concerned1

Premium Member

to concerned1
said by concerned1 :

TSIMarc you should also read your own forum. There are stories of the cable Modem issue with firmwares also.

»forums.teksavvy.com/yaf_ ··· tes.aspx
»forums.teksavvy.com/yaf_ ··· -31.aspx

Those have already been taken care of.

TSI Marc
Premium Member
join:2006-06-23
Chatham, ON

TSI Marc to concerned1

Premium Member

to concerned1
ok. this is good. I'm eating my words a bit here but that's ok. I'm listening.

First. This notion that we are telling our staff to tell customers that they are SOL and that we leave them hanging without internet... I want to categorically say that we've never instructed our staff to do that.

I've made it a point to highlight that internally and so going forward we shouldn't be hearing about that. Very un-TekSavvy on that front for sure and I think these are a few of the staff and not all of them.

For the cable firmware issue. The simple answer is that the best way to solve this is through a CMTS push to the modem. Anything else leads to lengthy down time.

That's the situation we're in right now, where if you have such a problem. Our only solution is to replace the modem. Which we are and have been doing but the instructions perhaps had not been made 100% clear to everybody. We are doubling up efforts on this front.

The cable firmware issue is not simple to fix and it will continue to be a major problem. I have also reached out to the incumbent to see if they can find a way to help us out in these situations.

The only practical way to upgrade cable modems is through the CMTS and we don't control it so we need their assistance somehow.

As far as training goes. We have done more than 20000 hours of training this year.

These situations are not "normal" problems. I will keep defending the staff because I get way more positive feedback each day then I do negative and that these modem problems are a bummer however you slice it. It means downtime for no go reason each and every time.
MaynardKrebs
We did it. We heaved Steve. Yipee.
Premium Member
join:2009-06-17

MaynardKrebs

Premium Member

said by TSI Marc:

The cable firmware issue is not simple to fix and it will continue to be a major problem.

So's the Bell Cellpig DSL modem firmware.

How about stepping up to the plate and finally running your own FTTH with modems you take full responsibility for? Or your own neighbourhood mesh wireless networks with 300Mbps radios?

thcmacgyver
join:2010-01-29
canada

thcmacgyver to TSI Marc

Member

to TSI Marc
"20000 hours of training" and still no one can really read DSL or cable signals properly. Sounds like a bad trainer....

Also what happened to the manual that was made, and why are agents are getting denied access to it, to read on there own time?

TSI Marc
Premium Member
join:2006-06-23
Chatham, ON

TSI Marc

Premium Member

Click for full size
There is your manual.

JenSuisUn
Premium Member
join:2006-02-23
Chatham, ON

JenSuisUn to thcmacgyver

Premium Member

to thcmacgyver
A lot of things have changed since you left. Training is much better. It's not all agents, but a few that need clarification on a certain things.

Proper questions are being asked. Although I'll agree that some steps could be skipped on certain situation, but the overall communications for agents have been much better.

9 out of 10 things are communicated to the staff before released to the public, as where we used to find things out via Rocky & Marc through DSLR first & then agents were told. So on that front... it's help tremendously.

Being an ISP, means there is always improvement to be done, and even when we are making way on something, two other things will pop up.

We live in a continuously changing environment. Keeping up is the half the game.

Martin

thcmacgyver
join:2010-01-29
canada

thcmacgyver to TSI Marc

Member

to TSI Marc
Ah nice books. To bad all the agents don't see them

TSI Marc
Premium Member
join:2006-06-23
Chatham, ON

TSI Marc

Premium Member

agents as in other companies who resell or wholesale us?

thcmacgyver
join:2010-01-29
canada

thcmacgyver to JenSuisUn

Member

to JenSuisUn
Well that's good that training is better now. Just wished I would stop seeing agents making dumb mistakes, that makes teksavvy look bad.

You put some many hours in for a company, and to see management doing things that, they used to get mad at when they were agents them self's. Just a major pet peeve.

TSI Marc
Premium Member
join:2006-06-23
Chatham, ON

TSI Marc

Premium Member

where are you "seeing agents making dumb mistakes"?

thcmacgyver
join:2010-01-29
canada

thcmacgyver to TSI Marc

Member

to TSI Marc
Agents in general.

Gets annoying when your at work and your helping people over Ontario, and they start talking about Teksavvy. And you find out that they reason why there angry is they got lied from an uneducated agent. Which could have been avoided by searching for DSL area, from the bell portal to make sure they can get 5mb, but just doing a quick search on the address and see who else in the area has it as well.

As there is a lot of things, my self I would do differently, but i left so it does not matter, or would have mattered. As techs voices are usually unheard as the high ups think they are all mighty. Remember the 516 script issue

Sorry to rant, but starting to get annoyed with the teksavvy comments.

novinha
@dfait-maeci.gc.ca

1 edit

novinha to TSI Marc

Anon

to TSI Marc
Marc, I was frankly surprised at the customer service performance because you had such great reputation for it as a company. But I assure you, it's not the odd person having a bad day. I spoke to three agents in the past three days - and it was a farce. Basic, and I mean basic, listening skills, nevermind technical or customer relations competence, was simply not there. I can give you an example, after being on the phone with "Dave" for 30 min, troubleshooting, opening a ticket with Rogers, he concluded the call with assuring me that a new modem is on the way - !!! We just spent the last half hour troubleshooting this new modem which I already received and installed, as I repeatedly mentioned to him.
In retrospect, it makes sense that whatever tickets he created made no sense.

If you can believe it, I just received another call asking me to verify whether the new modem is plugged in, and since I am currently not home, I've been asked to call back to provide this assurance. No further work will continue on this issue until I do it.

The only pleasant and efficient customer service I've received thus far is from the accounting department when I call in every month with my Amex

Martin, I appreciate your offer of looking into this, in fact I would be very grateful. I can't pm you as a non-member, but you can contact me at [removed] at gmail and one of the tickets I've had for this issue was OID-[removed], I hope that helps in tracking it down.

thcmacgyver
join:2010-01-29
canada

thcmacgyver

Member

.
thcmacgyver

1 edit

thcmacgyver to JenSuisUn

Member

to JenSuisUn
Like I love you guys, and have always stuck up for Teksavvy. But come on, send a email to your agents for advise for what can be improved and see what happens and listen to them. As we don't all think the same way, and some of your agents might have a good idea to help out. Hell we are teksavvy

Oh and it would be best to have one person get the emails, so they don't go missing or unheard

Tx
bronx cheers from cheap seats
Premium Member
join:2008-11-19
Mississauga, ON

1 edit

Tx to novinha

Premium Member

to novinha
said by novinha :

Marc, I was frankly surprised at the customer service performance because you had such great reputation for it as a company. But I assure you, it's not the odd person having a bad day. I spoke to three agents in the past three days - and it was a farce. Basic, and I mean basic, listening skills, nevermind technical or customer relations competence, was simply not there. I can give you an example, after being on the phone with "Dave" for 30 min, troubleshooting, opening a ticket with Rogers, he concluded the call with assuring me that a new modem is on the way - !!! We just spent the last half hour troubleshooting this new modem which I already received and installed, as I repeatedly mentioned to him.
In retrospect, it makes sense that whatever tickets he created made no sense.

If you can believe it, I just received another call asking me to verify whether the new modem is plugged in, and since I am currently not home, I've been asked to call back to provide this assurance. No further work will continue on this issue until I do it.

The only pleasant and efficient customer service I've received thus far is from the accounting department when I call in every month with my Amex

Martin, I appreciate your offer of looking into this, in fact I would be very grateful. I can't pm you as a non-member, but you can contact me at REMOVED at gmail and one of the tickets I've had for this issue was REMOVED, I hope that helps in tracking it down.

Might i suggest removing your ticket ID and your email and email martin at support@teksavvy.com with ATTN: Martin in the subject?

I wouldn't post either OID or your gmail email on here.

my 2c

Edit: I suggested to remove them yet i quoted you lol..
Tx

1 edit

Tx to thcmacgyver

Premium Member

to thcmacgyver
said by thcmacgyver:

Like I love you guys, and have always stuck up for Teksavvy. But come on, send a email to your agents for advise for what can be improved and see what happens and listen to them. As we don't all think the same way, and some of your agents might have a good idea to help out. Hell we are teksavvy

I know you worked there, but i don't think emailing the agents would fix it. At our office though email is MANDATORY to read when you have any to open and read half the office doesn't do it.

I find it a lack of respect for the job personally and if it were my employees i'd lay the hammer down. Threat of loosing the job will either smarten up the group or weed out the crappy agents that don't care to educate themselves.

I don't know what internal issues there are that you may know about so i cannot comment on that of course lol

Been quite a few years since i worked at any office since i own my own business but this was how it was always done. No one cared enough.

TSI Marc
Premium Member
join:2006-06-23
Chatham, ON

TSI Marc to thcmacgyver

Premium Member

to thcmacgyver
I'm not sure what you're referring too but in the last 6 months, since we've moved into the new location, there's been a massive amount of change. It's like night and day from a year ago. Whatever you think you know, assume that's no longer the case because pretty much everything is different.

It's fair game though that the past will come up and pretty much until we're absolutely flawless for a year straight, I'll have to defend like this. But I guess that's what I'm trying to say is that things are changing and they're changing for the positive and so you have to look at what's happening in real time. Issue by issue.

thcmacgyver
join:2010-01-29
canada

thcmacgyver to Tx

Member

to Tx
Ah worked there for many years and loved it so much that took too much to heart and had to leave on health issues.

But just got annoying when agents email management for a issue or change to help out, and you would get a angry message back or a sarcastic replay back, which would cause the ball to stops there and not get to the proper people that will listen or fix the issue.

Now don't get me wrong, i will still refer people to Teksavvy. Just I will be doing their support on all levels, instead of the new Teksavvy techs. So they don't have to worry about DMC charges.
thcmacgyver

thcmacgyver to TSI Marc

Member

to TSI Marc
Yes I know things have changed for the better, but there are things that should have changed as well.

Also fixing the portal for resellers would be nice too. So we don't have to call up to get a DSL signal check.

As that would cut down call time as well. But that's what i mean. Little things that would save time and money.
As that way, that agent that is taking that call, is able to help other clients that have issues.

TSI Marc
Premium Member
join:2006-06-23
Chatham, ON

1 edit

TSI Marc to novinha

Premium Member

to novinha
said by novinha :

Marc, I was frankly surprised at the customer service performance because you had such great reputation for it as a company. But I assure you, it's not the odd person having a bad day. I spoke to three agents in the past three days - and it was a farce. Basic, and I mean basic, listening skills, nevermind technical or customer relations competence, was simply not there. I can give you an example, after being on the phone with "Dave" for 30 min, troubleshooting, opening a ticket with Rogers, he concluded the call with assuring me that a new modem is on the way - !!! We just spent the last half hour troubleshooting this new modem which I already received and installed, as I repeatedly mentioned to him.
In retrospect, it makes sense that whatever tickets he created made no sense.

If you can believe it, I just received another call asking me to verify whether the new modem is plugged in, and since I am currently not home, I've been asked to call back to provide this assurance. No further work will continue on this issue until I do it.

The only pleasant and efficient customer service I've received thus far is from the accounting department when I call in every month with my Amex

Martin, I appreciate your offer of looking into this, in fact I would be very grateful. I can't pm you as a non-member, but you can contact me at [removed] at gmail and one of the tickets I've had for this issue was OID-[removed], I hope that helps in tracking it down.

okay. thanks for this post.
TSI Marc

TSI Marc to thcmacgyver

Premium Member

to thcmacgyver
things are still changing.

Comment
@teksavvy.com

Comment to TSI Marc

Anon

to TSI Marc
"As far as training goes. We have done more than 20000 hours of training this year."

You can't help yourself, can you? Faced with a unpleasant reality, there is this persistent Pavlovian response of throwing out some "statistic" as though it were a "solution". There is an old observation that "20 years experience" can simply mean doing the same thing year after year, learning nothing.

You are in denial (no, it's not a river in Egypt). Teksavvy has a cultural systemic problem. Any one reading this thread (and others) will see it. In spite of all the protests to the contrary, you do not show any interest in the individual customer, but rather generating "statistics" that "prove" overall "customer satisfaction".

And that is the primary underlying problem.

Look at what can be gleaned from this thread:

1. Call response time has been continually getting worse for over a year. As it has degraded, it has simply been accepted as the "new normal". Yes, there are new hires, but only in reaction to the situation getting worse, never sufficient to "reverse the trend".

2. A new phone system was installed, not to reduce call response times (although it was hoped to be an ancillary result), but to "improve" the audio quality and provide better internal facilities for Teksavvy. And events have shown that this installation was woefully inadequately tested and that there was NO fall-back should things go wrong.

3. For whatever reason (it doesn't have to be a direct instruction), problems are NOT escalated and are NOT properly processed NOR documented. (It's a guess, but I suspect that the Techs are measured on how fast they can "clear a call", rather than how effectively it was resolved.)