Worst service call ever

[Eaglesfan27]

Last week my cable modem and internet went out. I got a repairmen on Friday who seemed fairly knowledgable and got things back up and running. Then on the following day my cable modem started occasionally flickering out of service. So, I place another order for service from Cox in New Orleans. Originally they say they will get to me on Wednesday. I realize the fact that it will take 3-4 working days is not a good sign as it means they must have a lot of service calls to take. Anyway, due to a late meeting at work, I postpone my appointment til tonight.

Tonight the guy shows up and I immediately realize I might have a problem as he had an incredibly difficult time finding my apartment. It's a little tricky to find, but I gave crystal clear directions. Anyway, after three phone calls he makes it to my place. He immediately gets to work, and knocks out all of my service. He then takes 30 minutes to get my cable working, but my modem is still out. Then, I can tell he is getting frustrated that this isn't a quick job but I push him to get my cable modem working again. He goes outside and fiddles for a while and then he comes back and tells me cable modem must have died tonight and that is my problem now. He says I should buy a new modem. I ask if he can install a new one right now if that is truly the problem, and I tell him if it works I will buy it, but I believe mine is fine and I doubt the new modem will work. He hems and haws a bit, and then agrees to try a new modem. It doesn't work. So after my prodding him again, he goes back outside, and a few minutes later my cable TV and my modem are both out again. What the heck is going on I wonder?

He comes in and tells me how bad the wires are (I do realize they are old wires as this is an old building) and proceeds to tell me how he is amazed my modem or my digital cable is even working at all. I proceed to tell him how they have been working 1 and a half years without incident until this past week. He says, "Well gotta go, someone will be here in the morning at 8AM."

By nature as an adult, I'm become too passive. My wife is constantly pushing me to be more assertive. I don't argue with people well at all, but this guy's cavalier attitude is enough to make me politely point out that the cable and the modem were working before he got here, albeit with an occasional flicker out of the modem, and I don't expect a cable service call to leave my service in worse condition then when they started working. He says, "It's an imperfected world." I say, "What? Have you been watching the Breakfast Club lately? (I admit I was frustrated and perhaps being unnecessarily rude) I'm going to call your boss if you leave here without attempting to restore service and I'm going to tell them I'm cancelling my service because of the lack of acceptable service on this call." (I'm embarassed to tell you all how much I pay a month with full digital cable service and cable modem service, but I'm certainly buying just about everything Cox offers and making them a decent amount of money.)

He says, "I don't care" and proceeds to walk out. I'm incredulous for a minute and then I start calling Cox Cable. Before I can even get done dialing the number I notice the cable flickering on. Then, a minute later it starts working perfectly and my modem lights up. I hang up and look at it suspiciously. A minute later the phone rings and on the other line is the voice of my not so great cable repairman. He says, "Well, one of the connectors I put on outside broke off and that is why it hasn't been working, but you should be fine now. Sorry for getting you mad, I was mad too. Is everything working now?" I check and tell him everything is working except for the new on demand service, but I don't really care about that at this moment. He says "good night." It ended well, but that was the most frustrating service call I've ever experienced. Furthermore, it really makes me wonder why he couldn't figure this problem out 2 hours ago when he was only 30 minutes into this service call as he apparently made a final quick fix at the last minute.

[kingnebwsu]

Awful.

Some people are just jerks.

Stop head-butting me Mr. Simpson.

[vex]

I still would have called his boss.

[sabotai]

Stories like these make me happy that when it comes to wires and electronics, I know what I'm doing...I'd have got ballistic if that jerk was sent to my place.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Sounds to me like the guy has just started a new career in cable t.v. installation after spending time in either: a) local cable accounting department/ad sales division or b) local cable traffic/continuity department.

At least after being a jerk, he managed to finally do something right. With that sort of ability, he'd have been waaaaaay overqualified for those departments. They probably forced him to make a lateral move into another department.

As you can probably tell, this is one of my biggest rants about my line of work. I've come to the conclusion that the sequence is something like this:

Y'know those people who are ultimately deemed to be either a) too rude, b) too stupid, or c) both to work as gate agents for cut-rate airlines? When they're eventually fired, they go to work for Hardee's (usually on the breakfast shift).

Y'know those people who are ultimately deemed to be either a) too rude, b) too stupid, or c) both to work behind the counter at Hardee's? When they're eventually fired, their next job is in the accounting or traffic department for a local cable system. They usually stay there for quite a while, it doesn't seem you can be stupid enough to get yourself fired from those jobs.

[Samdari]

Originally Posted by sabotai

Stories like these make me happy that when it comes to wires and electronics, I know what I'm doing...I'd have got ballistic if that jerk was sent to my place.

Don't the service people just hate it when you have a clue?

I love it when the people at radio shack try to 'educate' me. Dude, I went to grad school in Electrical Engineering for six years. I might have learned more there than in your 10 minutes of training on this product.

[hukarez]

Wow...service in New Orleans does seem atrocious. I'm running on Cox over here on the west coast, and I haven't been having any problems at all. More so with my router, than anything else. Blasted Linksys...!

[Coffee Warlord]

Heh. Reminds me of CW and the Tale of Cable Internet Access in Chicago.

When I first moved up there, not a day or two after I moved in, the local cable rep showed up, inquiring if I wanted cable. Well, obviously I did. He activated the television on the spot, and after some questioning, I signed up for internet service, and an install date was set for a couple days out.

I take a whole day off of work for the install. No one shows. I call the rep. I leave a voicemail. No answer. I call again. No answer.

Nothing.

3 months pass. I try to get DSL, but I'm literally 157 feet out of range. After that fiasco, I break down and call up the cable company again, prepared to raise hell and get internet access. Defining moment of that phone call, when the sales lady looks up my info.

Sales: ".......my god, you've had a work order open since June."

Yeah. They wisely comped me for 3 months of service.

[Chubby]

I still would have called the cable company and bitched, that's ridiculous.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Samdari

Don't the service people just hate it when you have a clue?

I love it when the people at radio shack try to 'educate' me. Dude, I went to grad school in Electrical Engineering for six years. I might have learned more there than in your 10 minutes of training on this product.

I never had to deal with a service person at my house (when I got a cable modem, I just set it up myself)

But when I go to Radio Shack or someplace when I want something to do something specific (I kind of come up with some nutty ideas with how to connect all my electronics and gadgets. ), what I ask them about goes RIGHT over their head. They usually have no idea what I'm talking about. Then I just say "I'll just look around and see what you have."

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Samdari

Don't the service people just hate it when you have a clue?

I love it when the people at radio shack try to 'educate' me. Dude, I went to grad school in Electrical Engineering for six years. I might have learned more there than in your 10 minutes of training on this product.

Hm... I guess we just have nice cable people (tho, from what I've heard, that's a rarity). Most of the time (not all), whenever they send someone actually out here from Sunflower rather than a subcontractor, they're more than eager to explain stuff and I keep picking up little nuggets of cable information every time they're here (I used to be a CoE now CS so this stuff is interesting to me). I'll just bug them like questions about why a certain channel is fuzzy ("oh, that's because X is also broadcasting at that frequency") or how to get better wiring to improve my pictures ("those gold plated things in the store don't do much".

SI

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by sabotai

I never had to deal with a service person at my house (when I got a cable modem, I just set it up myself)

But when I go to Radio Shack or someplace when I want something to do something specific (I kind of come up with some nutty ideas with how to connect all my electronics and gadgets. ), what I ask them about goes RIGHT over their head. They usually have no idea what I'm talking about. Then I just say "I'll just look around and see what you have."

To be fair, if you're working at Radio Shack, electronics is your hobby not your profession (retail would be, in that case). Same with Best Buy or Circuit City or any other consumer electronics place. I don't see too many EE's out there looking for work at the healthy rate of $7 an hour or whatever a Radio Shack employee makes.

SI

[Samdari]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

To be fair, if you're working at Radio Shack, electronics is your hobby not your profession (retail would be, in that case). Same with Best Buy or Circuit City or any other consumer electronics place. I don't see too many EE's out there looking for work at the healthy rate of $7 an hour or whatever a Radio Shack employee makes.

I don't expect the folks at RS to be electronics experts. I just hate when they pretend to be, and give me information that I know is wrong.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Samdari

I don't expect the folks at RS to be electronics experts. I just hate when they pretend to be, and give me information that I know is wrong.

Yeah, that's true. I hate when I'm in Best Buy, and to a man, none of them know anything about the Gamecube because none of them have one. So, half the time I'm in there browsing for games on sale I overhear something moronic, and then after the salesperson leaves, walk over there and tell some poor dad and his kid that what the BB guy said was completely wrong and set them straight.

When I worked at Office Max, when I didn't know, I said "I don't know". A few would get a little aggrivated but rarely did anyone get downright upset. And better to tell them the truth that you don't know that lie and have them come back looking for your head on a plate because you lied to them. Even better, if I don't know and they storm out in a huff, going to the Office Depot down the street and that guy lies about what he does/doesn't know, they buy something and return it there, we have a customer who would never shop at our competitor again.

SI

[vex]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

When I worked at Office Max, when I didn't know, I said "I don't know". A few would get a little aggrivated but rarely did anyone get downright upset. And better to tell them the truth that you don't know that lie and have them come back looking for your head on a plate because you lied to them. Even better, if I don't know and they storm out in a huff, going to the Office Depot down the street and that guy lies about what he does/doesn't know, they buy something and return it there, we have a customer who would never shop at our competitor again.

SI

That's what I did in electronics in Wal-Mart. Now I'm selling cell phones and that seems to be a common occurence with me. This is because they don't train you like they should. I mean, everything I learned in elctronics at Wal-Mart, I either knew or learned from personally experience, or had a customer tell me that was how it was and I never minded because if I'm wrong, I would at least like to know for the next customer.

[Eaglesfan27]

I was shocked today to discover that the cable guy actually followed through on his suggestion to have new cable run to our building by the construction side of the cable company. He put in and got a work order approved. The "construction cable man" will be coming on Friday to "modernize" our "old" lines. Hopefully, they don't mess things up and make it so I have no cable or internet access over the weekend. This could be a minor disaster, but if they really lay better cable, perhaps I will notice improved speed on my modem and better reception on a few cable channels that occasionally get fuzzy.

[vex]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I was shocked today to discover that the cable guy actually followed through on his suggestion to have new cable run to our building by the construction side of the cable company. He put in and got a work order approved. The "construction cable man" will be coming on Friday to "modernize" our "old" lines. Hopefully, they don't mess things up and make it so I have no cable or internet access over the weekend. This could be a minor disaster, but if they really lay better cable, perhaps I will notice improved speed on my modem and better reception on a few cable channels that occasionally get fuzzy.

You're supposed to pay for those channels

[DanGarion]

Being someone in "the business" I would suggest you still contact the cable company. Talk with a customer service supervisor and try to get in contact with the Technical Operations supervisor that oversees the service technician. The way he handled himself was completely uncalled for, regardless of the problem. He should have atleast got your cable TV back on before he left, even if it's an apartment with old cable.

I can understand him referring the job to another department because it was work he can't do, but techs are usually required to leave the service atleast serviceable for the customer, and he if can't atleast give you a viable explaination.