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IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

Make these demands

Make these following demands be part of the new franchising agreement.

1. All customer service calls must be answered in a call center located in the city with no more than a five minute wait time under normal operating conditions.
2. Customer service number must be a 508 area code number with a prefix in the Worcester exchange.
3. Must have 24 hour customer service for outages and technical support and other calls for sales and billing answered between 8AM and 5PM 7 days a week.
4. Payment due dates must be on a business day and cannot be on postal holidays.
5. Must respond to customer trouble calls within 24 hours and must give a free month of service for missed appointments.
6. Must operate a local service center adequately staffed so customers do not have to wait longer than ten minutes in line under normal operating conditions.

These are all things that can be included in a franchise agreement.

vaxvms
ferroequine fan
Premium Member
join:2005-03-01
Polar Park

vaxvms

Premium Member

Worcester signed a 10 year agreement with Charter last year. The transfer is for that contract. The city cannot require any changes until 2023.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

1 recommendation

tshirt to IowaCowboy

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to IowaCowboy
said by IowaCowboy:

...

Great Ideas, but might add $20-30 plus a month to basic service to meet that list...and the number 1 complaint CC hears "The price is already too high!"

This is not just a Comcast issue, for years the consumer chant has been "Cheaper, Cheaper, Cheaper" and we've seen QC and local service and "Made in America" bulldozed to meet that demand.
Now tiring of Wal-Mart and off-shored CS, and product safety issues some of the public says "let's go back", but belaying (and sometimes jumping) off the cliff was easy and cheap, climbing back up and rebuilding the foundation is a long, hard and costly grind.
Are YOU ready to commit?

why60loss
Premium Member
join:2012-09-20

why60loss to IowaCowboy

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to IowaCowboy
said by IowaCowboy:

Make these following demands be part of the new franchising agreement.

1. All customer service calls must be answered in a call center located in the city with no more than a five minute wait time under normal operating conditions.
2. Customer service number must be a 508 area code number with a prefix in the Worcester exchange.
3. Must have 24 hour customer service for outages and technical support and other calls for sales and billing answered between 8AM and 5PM 7 days a week.
4. Payment due dates must be on a business day and cannot be on postal holidays.
5. Must respond to customer trouble calls within 24 hours and must give a free month of service for missed appointments.
6. Must operate a local service center adequately staffed so customers do not have to wait longer than ten minutes in line under normal operating conditions.

These are all things that can be included in a franchise agreement.

Time warner cable would have sure had to hand out a few years worth of service if #5 was the case where I used to live.(Mostly because most appointments were a week plus out. No next day visits.)

I like those ideas, but what happens if Comcast or any ISP says the network is down and the tech can't or won't fix it. It would sure be nice to get a free month for that to.

I really like the wait time idea, oh the many hours I spent waiting for phone support.

Oh and #6 well time warner cable sure pulled an epic fail on that one. 3 Hour wait on a weekday, yes that was nice. I agree that should be in there.

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

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As it stands the contract is with Charter so since Charter is pulling out that voids the original agreement (which requires the city to approve) and Comcast must negotiate a new agreement unless it has a transfer provision. They could deny the transfer. And lacking a transfer clause, they could be stuck and have to seek council approval and void the agreement and comcast has to sign a new agreement.

vaxvms
ferroequine fan
Premium Member
join:2005-03-01
Polar Park

vaxvms

Premium Member

said by IowaCowboy:

As it stands the contract is with Charter so since Charter is pulling out that voids the original agreement (which requires the city to approve) and Comcast must negotiate a new agreement unless it has a transfer provision.

Nope. It's a transfer of the contract. ALL MA communities currently served by Charter will be served by Comcast sometime in the first half of 2015, unless the FCC denies the transfer which is not likely. Charter is not pulling out. It's simply transferring all of its Massachusetts contracts to Comcast.
said by IowaCowboy:

They could deny the transfer.

That's what the recommendation by the Silly Council is. The City Manager actually makes the decision. If he says NO Comcast will appeal it to the state (and FCC?). The state will tell Worcester TFB you're now served by Comcast. The Council knows this. They are trying to make the statement "Fuck you Comcast". Comcast will remember the hostility which is not going to help city residents after the transfer.

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

I'm surprised the city is even involved as the franchising authority in Mass is the state DPU (at least according to my cable bill, which is from Comcast).

PaulHikeS2
join:2003-03-06
Fitchburg, MA

PaulHikeS2 to IowaCowboy

Member

to IowaCowboy
said by IowaCowboy:

Make these following demands be part of the new franchising agreement.

1. All customer service calls must be answered in a call center located in the city with no more than a five minute wait time under normal operating conditions.

Asinine. I think there are 58 communities serviced by Charter in MA. And you think that whomever services them needs to operate 58 call centers?

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

Usually cable systems are operated in clusters (like where I'm at is Springfield, Agawam, Longmeadow, Westfield, West Springfield, and Holyoke with the headend in Westfield). They could demand that the call center be located in that cluster and not in the city. If the call center is local, then the reps can be trained to each individual cluster as opposed to the non customer service you get these days. Customer service standards can be set by the local franchising authority. And I've read FCC filings on cable systems and they have to declare if the local system is a part of a cluster of cable systems.

I was talking to some Comcast line techs today as I was walking the dog and he was sympathetic about how I was blown off by Comcast's non customer service. He said that putting in an amp will also amplify noise. He gave me some terminology to use with the CSR that will put them on the losing end of the phone call like asking them to check the modem resets, timeouts, and lost syncs. I did something similar last night with an offshore call center rep by saying I entered 192.168.100.1 into the browser so my router is talking to the modem so that rules out my computer equipment and router so the issue is at the modem and beyond and I'm not playing their blame my computer game.

amarryat
Verizon FiOS
join:2005-05-02
Marshfield, MA

amarryat

Member

Why not switch to FIOS

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

said by amarryat:

Why not switch to FIOS

Not available in Western Mass, otherwise I'd take it the day it became available at my residence.