spiralOut5
Premium
join:2002-09-05
Redmond, WA
| Great Connection, Unacceptable Customer Service
My experience with Westband (in State College, PA) was a mixed bag. I had 786/786 SDSL through them for 9 months, and as far as I can tell my connection never went below the advertised speed in either direction. Which is most impressive.
However, the customer service was/is atrocious. I've dealt with a lot of utilities in my life, and they were - hands down - the worst. I requested additional IP's four times over the course of a month and each time I was told "no problem, right away." By the time I cancelled service 3 months later, I still hadn't received the additional IP’s.
Canceling was another headache because I was unexpectedly charged for an additional month. I happened to be out of town for the weekend and was not paying attention to my account balance, and the $99 direct withdrawal was enough to rack me up $120 in additional bank fees thanks to some other recurring fees that I expected to have money in my account to pay for. When I complained, I was directed to the Westband terms of service and told that I needed to give them 5 days notice before the end of my billing cycle in order to avoid an extra month's charge. I had called to schedule cancellation a few weeks earlier and I was told that I couldn't do it over the phone and that I'd have to email billing@westband.net when I wanted to cancel. Of course there was no mention of any 5-day notice period. The impression I got that was that the email would cause my service to be cancelled immediately, so I waited until I was about to move out to send it. The cancellation email I sent had no visible effect - I got no confirmation whatsoever. However, I thought nothing of it since I had followed the directions exactly. Later, after I had been charged and accrued the bank fees, I called back. I spoke with THE SAME representative and he then told me of the 5-day period, said the email had slipped through the cracks, and cancelled my account while I waited on the line. So I miraculously CAN cancel by phone now?! I felt like I had been lied to. Because I HAD been lied to!
And this leads me to the most frustrating thing about Westband. Everything is...vague. I never signed any sort of agreement, I never got a bill (direct withdrawal was the only option given to me - although I started receiving billing emails a few months after my service started when I requested them), and their web site had no information about canceling, requesting additional services, or much else for that matter. Except for the 7-page, fine print terms of service, of course. I called probably 15 times over the course of 9 months, and more often than not I spoke with an answering machine. My calls were returned zero times.
My experience with Westband can be summed up by a quote on the main page of their web site: "You will NEVER hold more than 60 seconds to speak with a representative." I called many times and either connected to a rep right away or was handed off to an answering machine. So their quote is technically true - but only because their phone system doesn't have the ability to put people on hold. Slimy. |
