Dealing with CenturyLink: Take 1 A few weeks ago Kathryn and I noticed that our land line phone had developed a hum. The hum wasn’t there every time we used the phone but it was noticeable. Recently it had gotten so bad that you could barely hear the person on the other end. So yesterday I finally remembered to call CenturyLink so they could come out a check out our phone line. How difficult could that be, right?? I got through to a customer service rep named “Jay” (after I decided to forgo the self-service section of their automated response and opted out to a representative). I proceeded to tell “Jay” my problem. Hum on the line, disconnected all the other phones (one at a time) and the hum was still there. After I explained my situation to Jay he proceeded to say, “So you have a hum or noise on your phone??” I knew right then this was not going to be easy. When we finally established that I did have a “hum” we had now reached the part of this 20 minute conversation where he wanted to set up a time in which someone over 18 years of age would be home. I responded, “Well, at no time. My wife and I both work and I’m pretty sure that the problem is on your side.” “Well”, Jay continued, “I’ll prepare the workorder and the repairman should be by sometime between 1 and 4 PM. And I also want to make sure you understand that if the problem is not on our side that there will be a charge of $85 for the trip plus what it will take to repair it.” “I’m good with the possible charge,” I said, “but I we have to do better than a 3 hour window for the repairman’s arrival cause, as I’ve already told you, I have a job too. Plus, why do I have to be here for your guy to check outside? You’ve already told me that they wouldn’t have to come into the house.” His response? “So when can someone be there?” To which I pissed offishly replied, “I can be home from 3 to 5 PM.” We now stupidly had a plan. So I take off of work and am at the house at 3 o’clock. I truly didn’t expect to see the guy at 3 so I decided to mow the grass figuring that I could see him if he drove up (they already said that they did a “test” on the line from their office and everything looked good so someone had to come to the house). After mowing, edging, and cleaning off the sidewalk and driveway it is now 4:30, no repairman, and I am becoming ever-so-slightly pissed. Fuming, I go into the house to stew in less humidity. For some reason, I picked up the phone just to take a listen. To my surprise, all I hear is the dial tone. When did this happen?? I was outside the whole time and didn’t see anyone pull up to the house. Hanging up the phone and walking through the house I notice that we have a message on the answering machine. I push the button and listen to a message from the repairman stating that they had found the problem and it was with a line down the road. He has fixed the problem and now everything should be OK. As the machine cuts off it calls out the time in which the call was received. And, much to my amusement and disgust, the machine chimes out “8:45 AM”. . . The repairman came at 8:45 in the morning. . . I guess the whole 20 minutes “Jay” and I spent bonding yesterday about an appointment time was all for naught. . . if I didn’t have much vacation time and had come home from work only to have no repairman show up my blood pressure would have probably risen to all new high levels. Nothing like providing exemplary customer service. . . it may be time to move all these types of utilities to one bill. . . I hope SuddenLink’s customer service people are a little bit more accurate than those at CenturyLink. . . .
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 03:12:54 +0000
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