wiz561
join:2004-09-28
| Rude Customer Support and Overall Unhappiness
Earlier tonight, I called WOW (several times) and had some bad experiences. I was wondering what other's opinion is of the tech support and if it's just me or if this is just how they are. I know they probably receive a number of calls from people, but I just steaming right now. I wrote a letter and sent it to their customer service. I hope I receive a response...
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Dear Wide Open West,
I am extremely displeased at the way I was treated when I called your technical support department earlier tonight. The first tech I spoke with was extremely nice and understanding. The second call-back, badge number AQD, was extremely rude and not understanding. He did not listen to my concerns and made me believe I was not following his directions.
I am a cyber security specialist and have worked in the field for 10 years. I do know what I am doing when it comes to computers. Here is the problem. When I came home from work, I noticed my internet connection being extremely slow. I used the speedtest page at www.speakeasy.net/speedtest and it showed me receiving an average speed of 1100kbps down and 1800kbps up. I am currently paying for the top tier, which is around 15 mbps down and 2 mbps up.
I then plugged my laptop directly into the cable modem to check the speed. I was receiving approximately 15mbps/2mbps, which is what I am paying for. I then changed my mac address of my laptop so that it would match my router. With my laptop plugged into the cable modem and it receiving the same IP address as my router, I ran the speedtest page again and received the 1100kbps down and 1800kbps up.
This leads me to believe that I am receiving slow speeds on the 69.47.38.173 address. When I receive the IP address for my original laptop mac (69.47.77.103), everything works fine.
I made a final call to tech support and spoke with Barb. Along with tech badge # aqd, she believed I was not plugged directly into the modem and was going through the router, which I was NOT. I tried to explain to Barb that I wanted a new IP since I can clearly see that this was the problem. Instead, she decided to setup an appointment for me so a tech can come out and do who knows what.
I am lucky enough to have two cable providers in my area, Comcast and WOW. I have called tech support in the past, and while most of the time, the problem is resolved, I feel like they treat their customers absolutely horrible. I am paying for your top internet tier and have been a customer for approximately six years. How I was treated tonight was unacceptable and your customer service representatives should go through some training on how to communicate better. I really want to stay with WOW because when things run well, they run extremely well. However, this whole incident has left an extremely bad taste in my mouth and I am extremely frustrated.
Sincerely,
[name] |
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Clocker1000
join:2001-05-24
Sterling Heights, MI | Can't you just have the router clone the mac address of your laptop and all will be good? |
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wiz561
join:2004-09-28
| Yeah... I thought about that because I know you can do it with the Linksys. However, with Apple's Time Capsule, you can't clone or change the ethernet/mac address.
I really love Apple products...but I have to tell you, I'm a little annoyed that you can't change the mac address on the time capsule. |
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Komrade Rich
@wideopenwest.com | reply to wiz561
It's strange that WOW would be provisioning much less bandwidth to your second external IP.
Is it possible you could pull the third (and final, I think) external IP by using a third mac address and see what the bandwidth is for that? |
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wiz561
join:2004-09-28
| Yeah, the third one is the usual 15/2, as it should be. I turned off the cable modem last night and let it sit overnight. Turned it back on today, and now it's about 7/2. It's a heck of a lot better than 1/2, but still not what I'm paying for.
I have a linksys wrt54g at work that I think I'm going to bring home just so I can get a different mac address and have it front the time capsule. It's really a pain and should be unnecessary, but who knows what's going on... |
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The Joker
join:2003-08-01
00001 | reply to wiz561
Wow! actually has very good support, try calling at another time. |
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mtoy
join:2005-08-08
Troy, MI
| This year I've noticed the quality of the customer support declining. I waited around 2 days for techs who never showed up and had customer support on the phone that was sarcastic and rude on a few different occasions. Eventually I sent an email about it and received just a generic reply. Sad.
Right now we have everything through WOW, phone, internet and cable. We're seriously considering ditching the phone for just cell phones and also the cable and going with OTA and online content. That would leave just the internet access, and a lot of $$ saved each month. Actually I should start on this right now while our techie son is home for the summer. |
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The Joker
join:2003-08-01
00001 | reply to wiz561
I'm not sure how that saves you money when bundling is cheaper esp. when WOW offers you a good deal to make you stay.
OTA sucks for HD channels.  |
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wiz561
join:2004-09-28
| reply to wiz561
Just a quick update. I sent my email I posted here to the WOW "Contact Us" web site approximately a week ago (whenever I posted the message here). I left all of my contact information (email, phone number).
It's been about a week, and I have yet to hear a single word from WOW. Nothing, nada, zip... No email, no phone call, nothing.
In my professional opinion, I would think I company would have at least the decency to write a generic response back...but nothing. So, yeah, I agree with the others....customer service is going down the tubes at WOW. |
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wiz561
join:2004-09-28
| reply to wiz561
Final update. While I do complain, I also feel the need to tilt my hat and post about it.
A couple of hours after I posted the previous update, I did receive a call from Erick, a WOW tier 3 support specialist. He was extremely apologetic and sent an E-Mail to me along with a voicemail at home.
I was able to resolve the problem myself by setting a DHCP Client ID so I can get a new IP. With the new IP, I was back up to my normal speeds. I don't know why this was happening, if there was a DoS against the IP I previously had, or what was going on with it...but with a new ip, things worked out fine.
I just wanted to say that yeah, I was upset that I didn't get a response back from WOW. But I wanted to respond and close the thread with I finally did get a response and I'm a happy customer again.
Thanks,
Mike |
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pparks1
join:2002-01-01
Westland, MI
| reply to wiz561
Thanks for posting your story. Unfortunately this can be common. While I have always been pretty happy with WOW's customer service...it's mostly because of how UNHAPPY I was with Comcast when I had them.
It's hard when you are a trained and/or certified computer person. Imaging the tech support person, I'm sure they hear all day long about how much of an expert somebody is who is calling with a problem. I almost wish they had an online phone quiz while you are on hold to guage your overall knowledge about computers which could be passed along to the tech that you are speaking with.
I'm a certified Windows and Linux systems admin and have had a job as a systems admin/engineer for the past 9 years. I called a few weeks ago regarding slow performance in the evening and the first person explained that sometimes the internet is like a highway and when there are lots of cars it tends to go slower. Of course, I've had them for years and never saw drops from 14-15mbits to barely 1. Second person asked if i had recently scanned my home computers for a security problem. Jokingly I said yes...but it was during the morning when my speeds were fine, should I try again in the evening?.
Finally, I talked to 1 last person and explained how a continuous ping to www.google.com was showing a changing TTL from 51 to 52. He understood that this indicated that the route was changing and made a note. Within a day, my speeds were back to normal and I didn't have problems.
Unfortunately, being in the know has it's advantages and disadvantages. I used to do tech support years ago before going the admin/engineer route...so I have some sympathy. |
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