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

TSI Marc to LondonOntGuy

Premium Member

to LondonOntGuy

Re: Teksavvy - What the hell has happened to you guys?

LondonOntGuy,

I have my team doing a full investigation into what happened. I want to know exactly what happened; you mentioned we hung up on you, I want to know if that happened or not and why if it did. And if we can take something to Bell to look into.. we will. Why it got caught in the "system"..

My understanding is that you had to travel back and that the service is now cancelled but either way, if there is something to learn from this, we'll find it.
graniterock
Premium Member
join:2003-03-14
London, ON

1 recommendation

graniterock

Premium Member

said by TSI Marc:

LondonOntGuy,

I have my team doing a full investigation into what happened. I want to know exactly what happened; you mentioned we hung up on you, I want to know if that happened or not and why if it did. And if we can take something to Bell to look into.. we will. Why it got caught in the "system"..

My understanding is that you had to travel back and that the service is now cancelled but either way, if there is something to learn from this, we'll find it.

I am glad you are looking into it. This seems to be TSI's biggest Achilles heal right now.

It can't be underestimated how a sour install experience can set the tone for customer experience down the line even if the issue is resolved. Certainly my 5 year journey to switch to TSI and then ditch both expressvu and eventually my landline started with a multi week delay in my Bell DSL install. While my experience soured me on Bell. The dynamic for TSI is likely the same. Install nightmares weaken customer loyalty (possibly forever) and scare away new customers. Threads like this certainly give people pause to jump TSI because "if it ain't broke, why fix it" even if it costs more.

The fundamental problem is that beyond information giving, TSI doesn't have control of the installation process but is responsible to the customer for the install experience. As far as I can tell if an install is botched by an incumbent the only consequence is that it gets rescheduled.

Philosophically the solution lies in greater consequences to the incumbents when things go wrong. Even if the the incumbent is working in good faith, stronger consequences will motivate faster reform.

I'm not really in a position to know how this could best be done in the real world. Can TSI take this to the CRTC? Ask for penalties when the same problems reoccur? Be able to pass along charges to the incumbents for lost customers due to bad installs? Civil court? I imagine the difficulty with these options is that any good faith between companies would be lost and could backfire in the end.

In a good faith situation some practical solutions would include shorter install windows, courtesy calls from either TSI or the tech when an install is cancelled / missed, phone calls post install to see if the install completed, proactive call to reschedule an appointment when it's clear an appointment won't be kept. When scheduling appointments TSI should clearly encourage customers to book install days on a day when they would ordinarily be home rather than take time off work. As well, installs should be offered 7 days a week to accomdiate those who only work week days. I realize much of this is not solely at TSI's discretion but it could be an end goal.
MaynardKrebs
We did it. We heaved Steve. Yipee.
Premium Member
join:2009-06-17

MaynardKrebs

Premium Member

said by graniterock:

In a good faith situation some practical solutions would include shorter install windows, courtesy calls from either TSI or the tech when an install is cancelled / missed, phone calls post install to see if the install completed, proactive call to reschedule an appointment when it's clear an appointment won't be kept.

Big mistake in allowing Bell to contact indie customers directly.

Bell techs should be calling the indie to confirm appointments, misses, and problems. Indies should be the ones communicating with the customer at all times. Yes, that may mean some telephone tag, but at least that way the indie can faithfully record all calls from Bell techs (ie. dedicated number for Bell techs to call) and to be able to document all interaction with Bell for chargebacks to Bell.
kovy7
join:2009-03-26

kovy7

Member

said by MaynardKrebs:

said by graniterock:

In a good faith situation some practical solutions would include shorter install windows, courtesy calls from either TSI or the tech when an install is cancelled / missed, phone calls post install to see if the install completed, proactive call to reschedule an appointment when it's clear an appointment won't be kept.

Big mistake in allowing Bell to contact indie customers directly.

Bell techs should be calling the indie to confirm appointments, misses, and problems. Indies should be the ones communicating with the customer at all times. Yes, that may mean some telephone tag, but at least that way the indie can faithfully record all calls from Bell techs (ie. dedicated number for Bell techs to call) and to be able to document all interaction with Bell for chargebacks to Bell.

Yeah, that be great for Bell tech to wait 50min for indie to answer the line...

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

TSI Marc

Premium Member

we could setup a direct line
TSI Marc

1 recommendation

TSI Marc to graniterock

Premium Member

to graniterock
So, I looked into it all. I listened to 3 or 4 calls.

I listened to the one where the call dropped. It dropped mid sentence.. it doesn't seem intentional but we'll follow up to see exactly how that happened. Our agent was not impolite or rude in any way on the call (or any of the calls).

Overall I think this is a simple case that the tech didn't show (we'll follow up to try to see why that is). And rescheduling wasn't an option because the OP had to leave town.

We cancelled it at his request..

We may well be on the hook for costs as a result. I'm trying
to figure that out still.

We did give the OP a full refund but the info provided on the phone at the time was that he would only get a partial refund.

I think this is an area where we need to look into more closely to understand what happens in those cases. Bell clearly missed the appointment. Should we be allowed to cancel it with no costs to us in those instances? what exactly happens? I need to dig into this further.

It does seem to me that anytime everybody commits to an appointment, everybody needs to show up.. if they dont it really buggers things up on every front.

There are other instances where the techs dont need access to the site and can still get it running. What are those instances? Why couldn't we just tell bell to hook the service and if there was inside wiring issues that the OP would take care of it some other way?

In the end, when listening to the calls, our staff did what they could.. there's not much in the way of troubleshooting that can be done. So this is really a case of bad timing. The OP needed to book it back out of town and the tech didn't show.

Wait times for tech support may also have contributed to frustration, not sure but that one we know about and we're in the process of hiring/training. Twenty staff start their month long training tomorrow and we're interviewing in Gatineau for another twenty bodies.

For our relationship with Bell. I would say its improving. We do have their ear and they are committing to work with us. We have already seen results and Pierre and I have been meeting regularly with them. We have direct people we can contact to look into situations if we need. This may not mean that we have the ability to have somebody go back out the same day if something is messed up but it does mean that the root causes of why things are going on are being looked into when we raise the issues up to them.

For the OP, I'm sorry it wasn't setup on time. I know how frustrating that can be especially when you're on a tight schedule. I PM'd you a suggestion about setting up a temp TekTalk service that you could essentially take with you wherever you go as a possible compromise until you're there full time. Either way, we're prepared to work with you to help however we can.
HeadSpinning
MNSi Internet
join:2005-05-29
Windsor, ON

HeadSpinning to kovy7

Member

to kovy7
said by kovy7:

Yeah, that be great for Bell tech to wait 50min for indie to answer the line...

Bell does that to us all the time. I've sat 45 minutes regularly on the wholesale queues. One time, I called in at 4pm, sat until 5pm when I was unceremoniously dumped because it was the end of the day.
Bhruic
join:2002-11-27
Toronto, ON

Bhruic to TSI Marc

Member

to TSI Marc
said by TSI Marc:

I think this is an area where we need to look into more closely to understand what happens in those cases. Bell clearly missed the appointment. Should we be allowed to cancel it with no costs to us in those instances? what exactly happens? I need to dig into this further.

You absolutely should be allowed to. It's a situation with dual agreements - one between you and the customer, and one between you and Bell. Your ability to deliever on your agreement with the customer is predicated on Bell's ability to deliver on theirs. If they don't do what they've agreed to do, why should you be required to pay them anything?

As long as they can continue to act in this way and still get paid despite not doing their jobs, there's no incentive for them to improve.

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

TSI Marc

Premium Member

Agreed.
kovy7
join:2009-03-26

kovy7 to HeadSpinning

Member

to HeadSpinning
said by HeadSpinning:

said by kovy7:

Yeah, that be great for Bell tech to wait 50min for indie to answer the line...

Bell does that to us all the time. I've sat 45 minutes regularly on the wholesale queues. One time, I called in at 4pm, sat until 5pm when I was unceremoniously dumped because it was the end of the day.

So it's obviously a poor communication practice... there should be a more direct line approach.
HeadSpinning
MNSi Internet
join:2005-05-29
Windsor, ON

HeadSpinning

Member

said by kovy7:

So it's obviously a poor communication practice... there should be a more direct line approach.

We used to have the ability to call and e-mail reps directly, but that has been taken away within the past year - we have to use the queue.