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roadkill401
join:2011-08-12
Oakville, ON

roadkill401

Member

[TekTalk] what a group of idiots

Does TekSavvy understand the concept of customer service? the seem to be able to hire peope with next to no interpersonal skills. Like asking so many questions to just verify that you are talking to the right person.

Great.. Ask me my name. Ask my phone number, ask my address. That should be enough. Why do you need to know my credit card number?? Why do you need to have my email address? Why do you have to be such an A-Hole in the process?

Sorry Dennis, but maybe you should go back to learning to be polite with customers 101 or else look for a new job.

But the biggest problem is they cannot seem to get the service to work consistently. I am beginning to believe that they do not want you to have a telephone service through them.

If my internet stays up and running, and TekTalk works through the internet, then logic says that the TekTalk service should stay up and running. But for some reason it does not. And the support people at TekSavvy cannot seem to figure out why nor do they seem to be able to hire people who have enough Savvy to understand the Tek side of things.

My suggestion is that you don't bother with TekSavvy if you want something that works consistently. If it breaks or you have trouble, you are just going to drive yourself up the wall with the TERRIBLE service. Just stick with the devil and go with Bell. at lest you will have a proven service that consistently works.

RizzleQ
Cunningham's Law Enthusiast
Premium Member
join:2006-01-12
Windsor, ON
Ubiquiti UDM-Pro
Ubiquiti U6-LR

RizzleQ

Premium Member

Wow, dude, you need you chillax about the HIGH security protocols TekSavvy employs before your account can be accessed or modified. Someone gaining access to your Internet and/or Phone provider is a BIG deal.

A LOT of people can know your name, phone number, and postal address which is why they insist on asking for a combination of information beyond that, which is extremely likely that only YOU will know. They simply ask for the last 4 digits of your CC # and not the whole thing and they ask for your email address because it can be any completely random email address that you only supplied to them when you signed up for the service, therefore, it can be difficult for other people to guess it.

TSI Andre
Premium Member
join:2008-06-03
Chatham, ON

TSI Andre to roadkill401

Premium Member

to roadkill401
Hi there.

I am sorry to hear your service is not working properly. If you can please post in the direct, we can take a look for you. We will also investigate our agents behaviour on the phone with you.

The questions we ask are to 1) Protect You and 2) to Protect Us.

If I can make a suggestion... It would have been much more effective of a review to leave out the name calling and rudeness from your post. Especially when you are trying to highlight a behaviour issue with one of our agents.

Thanks,

Andre
xdrag
join:2005-02-18
North York, ON

xdrag to roadkill401

Member

to roadkill401
I don't know... In the industry, it's usually account number, name, DOB, address and phone number.

Maybe also: what services do you have with us?

It's no fool proof way but I don't see why an identity fraudster would call into an ISP asking for technical support.

Account/Billing might require last 4 digit CC numbers.
At some point, you have to wonder what is "exhaustive" for the customer... i.e. having to answer 5+ questions.

For CC companies, (which disclose personal financial information) they usually only ask for the name, DOB, security question, account number and sometimes the last transaction on the account.

He does have a point. Maybe a good way to get around this is to have a "security question", right?

I really don't see the need for the 4 digit CC number. A lot of times, people don't remember it or it's not with them in a handy area to grab when calling in. Other people have multiple cards and don't remember which is used to pay for TSI.

Having to fuss around searching for this info, on top of dealing with the issue, is not a good way to start a call.

TSI Jonathan
Premium Member
join:2011-08-24
Chatham, ON

2 edits

TSI Jonathan

Premium Member

I've pulled the call that you had with Denis to see if there were any coaching opportunities. I have to say, he did not even get a chance...

He asked for the phone number to pull the account, asked for the name and address. He then asked for one last piece of information which was the email address and at that point you said he had enough information and asked for a supervisor. Credit card information was not even asked...

I do see from the notes on your account that you did speak to a supervisor and that an ATA replacement was approved and will be sent to you. As Andre mentioned, anything else we can help you with, please feel free to post in the direct forum.

Thank you,

TSI Jonathan

Nitra
join:2011-09-15
Montreal

Nitra

Member

Sometimes I wish these consumer interactions could be publicly posted for all to hear.
Especially when someone specifically comes to the forums to call someone out like this.
If you're going to throw rocks in a glass house, would be nice if you stepped on a few shards along the way.
xdrag
join:2005-02-18
North York, ON

xdrag

Member

said by Nitra:

Sometimes I wish these consumer interactions could be publicly posted for all to hear.
Especially when someone specifically comes to the forums to call someone out like this.
If you're going to throw rocks in a glass house, would be nice if you stepped on a few shards along the way.

that would be a privacy issue

Nighthawk
Premium Member
join:2013-08-30
Canada

Nighthawk to Nitra

Premium Member

to Nitra
Maybe if the OP agrees and has nothing to hide, they could post a transcript of the call? Would that be a privacy issue?

Nitra
join:2011-09-15
Montreal

Nitra

Member

It's a huge privacy issue, but if the OP does consent, there's no issues posting it.
They'd need it in writing.

TSI Andre
Premium Member
join:2008-06-03
Chatham, ON

TSI Andre to Nighthawk

Premium Member

to Nighthawk
Regardless of consent, we won't post that kind of stuff.

The OP was already frustrated before the call with Denis began (which I can understand if service isn't functioning).

We clarified and now we are waiting on the OP to post in the direct so we can help resolve the issue.

Nitra
join:2011-09-15
Montreal

Nitra

Member

Frustration shouldn't degrade into abuse.
Judging by the tone of the OPs post, it seems it was nearly there.
xdrag
join:2005-02-18
North York, ON

xdrag

Member

said by Nitra:

Frustration shouldn't degrade into abuse.
Judging by the tone of the OPs post, it seems it was nearly there.

I agree with the fact that a lot of "frustration rants" are clearly biased. I'm sure there are also abusive customers as well (or in some cases, abusive CSRs - comcast).

In a poor state of mind, not everyone can think clearly and keep their emotions in check. The most minute things can set them off.

Sometimes it's just a baseless rant, but other times behind those rants, there's a legitimate concern.

Some people just don't know how to make a good approach to solving an issue and resort to "childish" things.

I'm sure there are many times when we've run into situations where Tier 1 CSR can't do much and we just want to talk to an escalated department (a manager) that can resolve the issue quickly. They've probably done all the basic (and by that, really basic) troubleshooting.

Nitra
join:2011-09-15
Montreal

Nitra

Member

There's also another group out there that will refuse to deal with tier 1 and will do anything not to speak to them, even though tier 1 is the best person to solve their issues.
xdrag
join:2005-02-18
North York, ON

xdrag

Member

said by Nitra:

There's also another group out there that will refuse to deal with tier 1 and will do anything not to speak to them, even though tier 1 is the best person to solve their issues.

nothing against Tier 1 support. Just that sometimes (in general sense - not TSI directed), it's the same script again and again. If the customer has already gone through it, the callback to re-do the whole thing is frustrating when they just need to need to talk to Tier 2. Multiple times of "reboot your modem, plug it into another jack, etc etc." can get old really fast.

A lot of problems can be solved through tier 1.

In the case of the OP, it seems like the agent is an innocent bystander of a bigger issue that has been asked to be escalated.
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btech805
join:2013-08-01
Canada

btech805 to Nitra

Member

to Nitra

Re: [TekTalk] what a group of idiots

I know these people very well, as an escalation tech with Bell, im the guy that goes there and frequently bills them when it was something lvl 1 support can assist them with (or common sense could have sorted out on their own). Im talking modem moved from the dedicated and labeled internet jack, tv on the wrong input (yes, I know) or even the power bar turned off. The best i had was a modem completely unplugged and everything that the installation tech had done because "it's supposed to be wireless".

Luckily TSI is one of the best companies out these in screening these truck rolls. I wish we did the same with our own customers rather than letting them abuse our CSR's until they get their way. These are the people who instantly refuse to speak to level 1 support and why level 1 exists in the first place.

Pir8pete
join:2003-09-05
Ottawa

Pir8pete to RizzleQ

Member

to RizzleQ
said by RizzleQ:

Wow, dude, you need you chillax about the HIGH security protocols TekSavvy employs before your account can be accessed or modified. Someone gaining access to your Internet and/or Phone provider is a BIG deal.

A LOT of people can know your name, phone number, and postal address which is why they insist on asking for a combination of information beyond that, which is extremely likely that only YOU will know. They simply ask for the last 4 digits of your CC # and not the whole thing and they ask for your email address because it can be any completely random email address that you only supplied to them when you signed up for the service, therefore, it can be difficult for other people to guess it.

they don't need to be asking for cc numbers period, thats why I never give mine in the first place ;P

RizzleQ
Cunningham's Law Enthusiast
Premium Member
join:2006-01-12
Windsor, ON
Ubiquiti UDM-Pro
Ubiquiti U6-LR

RizzleQ

Premium Member

said by Pir8pete:

they don't need to be asking for cc numbers period, thats why I never give mine in the first place ;P

If your payment method isn't a credit card, then they will never ask you anything about credit cards as part of verification.
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Rastan
join:2007-04-25
Canada

Rastan to TSI Jonathan

Member

to TSI Jonathan

Re: [TekTalk] what a group of idiots

said by TSI Jonathan:

He asked for the phone number to pull the account, asked for the name and address. He then asked for one last piece of information which was the email address and at that point you said he had enough information and asked for a supervisor. Credit card information was not even asked...

lol. All of that couldn't have taken more than a few minutes at most. If this is accurate then I don't think too many validation/verification questions were asked.

TypeS
join:2012-12-17
London, ON

TypeS to xdrag

Member

to xdrag
Sometimes the need to do all the troubleshooting again comes from a specific red cable vendor whom's numerous canned responses includes "please perform the troubleshooting again because it was invalid for reason (typically router hooked back after the initial call).
Rastan
join:2007-04-25
Canada

Rastan to roadkill401

Member

to roadkill401
said by roadkill401:

Does TekSavvy understand the concept of customer service? the seem to be able to hire peope with next to no interpersonal skills. Like asking so many questions to just verify that you are talking to the right person.

What kind of customer service do you want? Do you prefer the type where the agent calls you "Sir" 25 times during the call, agrees with everything you say but can't help you? That's what you'll get from Bell for the most part & in most cases it's not the agent's fault, it's Bell's policies & procedures.

Although I think Teksavvy's long hold times create a bad customer service experience, they have a lot of good things going for them. Their agents are good, their policies are good (zap the cap, upload bandwidth doesn't count towards cap & unlimited bandwidth during off-peak hours) and they're honest as transparent. All of this is part of customer service & the customer experience.

If their service is not working for you then maybe you need to find another provider but you should give them another shot first.
roadkill401
join:2011-08-12
Oakville, ON

1 recommendation

roadkill401

Member

When one knows more than the tech on the other end of the line, it gets rather frustrating. When you have already done all the checks and tests that they are asking you to do before you have even phoned them, it does bother you to do it all again.

In my case, I use TekTalk at my only phone line. When it isn't working, then what options do I have to call up TekSavy to get it resoved. MY PHONE LINE IS DOWN! So am I to use an emergency only cell phone that I pay by the minute. Is TekSavvy covering my costs for that phone call? NO.

Now when you have been speaking with a Level 2 tech about an on going issue, it would be nice to get back with that level 2 tech, or someone of equal status.

When you phone in, they want you to enter in your account number. Well, for a while I did that and they still ask you the 4-5 questions including you phone number, address etc, so what is the use of entering it. How many of you out there can off memory re-sight your account number? How about the serial number of your modem and it's MAC address? Very useful bits of information but not something that I find useful about 99.9999999% of my life. I think I'll just save that bit of brain space for something useful like remembering unique passwords for my bank account.

So you give them your phone number. Had the tech entered that phone number into their CRM software and he could have the account info and past support comments up in about 15 seconds. I use to work for a Tech company that sold high end software for vitalizing servers. And having worked in a support industry, I pretty quickly learned to read a customer. Those who wanted to shoot the breeze, and those who just wanted to get it fixed. And you deal with each customer type differently.

So, had the support person bothered to pull up my account and see that as I am calling into the TekTalk support section, and the past 4 calls were about it not working, not registering, giving a crackling sound, he could have probably concluded that I was calling about it not working. And as the notes would have said from the last several calls that TekTalk is my only phone, and that I was talking with Luis before about my issues, that maybe I was not in a good mood and maybe just wanted to get this fixed.

I think I have very good reason to use the words idiots in my title. It is not only the way that they handle the customer, but some of the doozies they come up with. Like, with a VDSL 50/10 internet connection, asking "if I have tried another modem, you can pick one up for under $30 at a local computer store". WOW, and TekSavvy forced me to purchase their Sagemcom from them for $130 when I got it setup as you were not allowed to use anything but the one they sold (Nov 2013). There have been others that make me shake my head about how little they understand how networks and the hardware they sell actually work.

I know that this is forum tends to just get responses from a whole load to "FanBoy" people who just love their TekSavvy and hate it when someone posts about the problems they are having. But lets face it. For every one person who actually posts, there are 50 or more people who are just as dissatisfied with the service but just don't know how or can't bother to post and tell their story.

Unless people start to post saying "hey you screwed up" then what reason would TekSavvy have to make things better. Everyone loves to bash Bell, but if TekSavvy isn't much better, then maybe they need the exposure too shame them to improve as well.
roadkill401

roadkill401 to TSI Jonathan

Member

to TSI Jonathan
said by TSI Jonathan:

I do see from the notes on your account that you did speak to a supervisor and that an ATA replacement was approved and will be sent to you. As Andre mentioned, anything else we can help you with, please feel free to post in the direct forum.

So I am paying for a service that I am not getting, for hardware that you own Level 2 techs admit get sent out misconfigered, and won't work as they should without customer intervention to fix.

You charge an "activation fee" that includes sending a person around to make sure it is plugged in correctly, but not to make sure it actually does work.

I am not trying to get help from you. I am sitting on my hands now waiting for the new ATA to get shipped to me so I can try that one out and see if it will solve my problems.

No, I am posting here to let every other potential customer who is thinking about buying into TekSavvy as a solution, to know that it is not all smiles and works all the time. It is not something that a 65 year old parent could take on alone without some outside help.

I am just documenting what I find the service you are giving is like for me.
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Viral
join:2011-09-10
Windsor, ON

Viral to roadkill401

Member

to roadkill401

Re: [TekTalk] what a group of idiots

We respect your right to an opinion, though the approach left much to be desired. Especially when you start off with a post with the very blatent judgement.

Now as for your phone situation, I've only seen you post about how the internet works, but the phone intermittently cuts out, then we bounce around the subject.

Nowadays it's expected that everything is plug and play, but were you able to check to see if your router was blocking any communication, keep in mind that you haven't referenced to any prior knowledge or technical skills so I'm basing my post on what has been presented.

Let TekSavvy try to fix the issue with you or give us something to work with.
hightech
join:2011-01-03

hightech to roadkill401

Member

to roadkill401
I understand you are frustrated, but you need to try to work things together then just name calling.

I have been in the Industry for over 25 years and regardless of company, there will be times people will make mistakes. It is how one deals with it is what makes a lasting impression.

I have had times Teksavvy has made errors due to issues with Rogers, etc. and Andre and his team have always come thru as long as you speak to them calmly. We understand services are down and that can be a pain, but things happen. Think about this: When have you had ANY Internet service that was 100%? It is the nature of the beast that issues happen.

Just relax, keep attitudes/egos at the door and discuss it politely. You can attract a lot more flies with honey then with vinegar remember
connor79
join:2011-11-02

connor79 to roadkill401

Member

to roadkill401
Well I can't speak for everyone but I have to say I think TekSavvy is amazing as is all their support team. Even if I could get the same from Rogers or Bell for less I still wouldn't switch providers. I love how I can hop on here to check issues, post in the direct forum to make an account change or upgrade/downgrade or install a new service and even open support tickets. I've had outages a few times and being able to log on here and open a ticket from my iPhone vs calling in is a huge time saver for me. Can't recommend TekSavvy enough personally.
xdrag
join:2005-02-18
North York, ON

1 edit

xdrag to roadkill401

Member

to roadkill401
said by roadkill401:

said by TSI Jonathan:

I do see from the notes on your account that you did speak to a supervisor and that an ATA replacement was approved and will be sent to you. As Andre mentioned, anything else we can help you with, please feel free to post in the direct forum.

So I am paying for a service that I am not getting, for hardware that you own Level 2 techs admit get sent out misconfigered, and won't work as they should without customer intervention to fix.

You charge an "activation fee" that includes sending a person around to make sure it is plugged in correctly, but not to make sure it actually does work.

I am not trying to get help from you. I am sitting on my hands now waiting for the new ATA to get shipped to me so I can try that one out and see if it will solve my problems.

No, I am posting here to let every other potential customer who is thinking about buying into TekSavvy as a solution, to know that it is not all smiles and works all the time. It is not something that a 65 year old parent could take on alone without some outside help.

I am just documenting what I find the service you are giving is like for me.

If it's an ATA issue, can't they guide you through re-configuring the device?

It's VOIP so it shouldn't be TOO hard enter a new server IP, ports, userID and password.

There are even "picture" guides online on where to put the information tailored to the most common models. I'm not going to mention anything else here (out of respect for TSI) but it's a fairly common technology out there....

»help.teksavvy.com/hc/en- ··· guration
roadkill401
join:2011-08-12
Oakville, ON

roadkill401 to Viral

Member

to Viral
said by Viral:

Now as for your phone situation, I've only seen you post about how the internet works, but the phone intermittently cuts out, then we bounce around the subject.

The only comments made about internet were that if the internet says up then one would expect the phone to as well. As TekTalk is a voip service, then it is dependant on the internet to work. But the other direction is not true.

I am clearly to gather that you have no experience or understanding on how the TekTalk system works. To break it down into a simple form for you to understand. You have an ATA device that connects to a server at TekSavvy that routes all the calls. This ATA device converts a telephone connection into IP packets that are then delivered through my internet connection to TekSavvy, so in my case there is 2 telephone connectors as this device can support 2 different telephone connections, a WAN port that connects to the internet, and a LAN port that you can connect to via a TCP/IP connection such as through a web browser or telnet session.
This ATA can be configured many different ways. By default it is shipped out to accept DHCP on the WAN side to get it's IP address and DNS settings assigned to it. It will then try and connect through the connected network back to TekSavvy (although the settings and protocols used are a mystery as TekSavvy password protect the device even tough you outright buy it so you cannot see nor change the settings. So we are left to assume that TekSavvy set all these correctly before shipping the device out as the end user cannot reset anything)

This setting poses a bit of a conundrum as you don't set the ip address, it is set to whatever the DHCP is set to, you cannot really know what IP address it will take. According to my many talks with TekSavvy, I was told that TekSavvy recommends that you have your ATA sitting inside a DMZ, so the router would not apply any filtering or firewall to it. But how do you expect to do this if the IP address is not fixed? And I shy of hopefully having a DHCP server that you can assign an ip address based on the devices MAC address, you are stort of stuck. This fact was lost on the Level 1 tech that I talked to, and eventually I managed to get to Luis who did actually help out. But anyways, now as I have said this is a VDSL and TekSavvy send me the Sagemcom (that did not work) and subsequently replaced it with a SmartRG, it is funny that nether of these devices allows in their DHCP to assign a fixed ip to a mac address. Also, with the unit running this way, the only method to even log into this ATA is to plug in a computer directly into the LAN port as that must be in a different IP subnet from the WAN side. So any diagnosis tends to be a total pain as you are stuck ipconfig /release and /renew to change between the ip address set for the internet and being able to log into the ATA.

So you are not left with the task of changing this device to a different configuration. Sadly, as you bought this device from TekSavvy and they do not supply and form of manual for it, you are left to search on the internet for the manual. Yes its a common piece of hardware and it's out there.

So you log in and enter the very unsecure basic login password "123".

Now you can change the default from DHCP to either PPPoe, and let the unit get its own IP address by logging in it's own tunnel to TekSavvy's server, or assigning it a static IP address.

If you choose to go with the first option, you need to contact TekSavvy for them to assign you a second PPPoe login account so your ATA can connect to them. It seems their system won't let you use the same login twice. I did get a nice tech to set me that up, and it worked for a bit. But then it stopped as someone at TekSavvy didn't read the notes on my account and deleted this login. So my phone went dead. No sweat, get them to reset it back up.
Again, stated working for a bit, but then back to the error message "Device not registered". As it seems my Sagemcom keeps on dropping the internet connection and killing my TekTalk when it comes back up. Several times a week is just too often for me. So call back to TekSavvy and get the Sagemcom replaced for the newer SmartRG.

So new modem arrives but hooked up the internet is fine but the ATA doesn't work. Turns out that TekSavvy ships the new modem with the wrong configuration in it so PPPoe pass through does not work. OOPS!

Get that reconfigured and it starts to work for about 3 days, then boom. back to the "device not registered". This is what you get when the ATA cannot connect to the servers at TekSavvy for the VOIP to work. HUMM! The internet is working and the VDSL is fine. What is wrong.

So configure for the 3rd option. Assign a static IP address so you can then put the ATA inside a DMZ. But configured this way, the ATA seems to want to reboot itself every 4-6 minutes so you get nice short phone calls before you are cut off, and then have to wait another 15-20 minutes for the unit to reboot to use the phone again. Plus you get to have very bad static on the line. Not really a good option if you ask me.

So I bought a solution from TekSavvy. I can assume that they are many customers out there that it is working fine for. But for my install is didn't go quite a smoothly as one would hope, and still is not really working.

Installed in November of 2013, we are now in July and still don't quite have the bugs worked out. I guess I must be a very unlucky person as its just me who is having these problems.
said by Viral:

keep in mind that you haven't referenced to any prior knowledge or technical skills

I've worked in the networking industry since 1989. Have worked with the internet from the time ARPAnet was turned off and was converted into the internet as we know it today. I remember when it IEEE released the spec for 10baseT and was working for LANstart designing and implementing networks. I think I know quite a bit about what I am talking about. I am not saying I know everything, that would be arrogant.. But I'd hazard to guess I know more than most the tech's I have dealt with at TekSavvy.