Worst customer service, ever.
We had a service call scheduled for today... we've been having trouble with our box overheating, and then last week we were blocked from watching some basic channels (Bravo, Food Network, CNN - basically? The only channels we care about). Patrick called in for service, and scheduled for someone to come today, on my day off. They were supposed to come between 10 and 12.
At 9:15, I got up and took a shower. I was still in the bathroom when the guy called. I hopped out of the shower and ran for the phone, but of course I missed it. Here is, word for word, the message he left on my machine:
"Hi, good morning we're calling from Charter Cable, Cable company. The time right now is 9:30; this is our first attempt to try to reach somebody at home for our cable guy to stop guy. Your appointment is 10-12, so we will be calling within your time frame to see if someone is available. Thank you."
OK, so by "first attempt," you would think they would make, oh, I don't know, a second attempt, wouldn't you?
I got dressed and expected to hear a knock at my door or for the phone to ring, but the only other call I received this morning was from somebody calling from Barak Obama's campaign to see if I was interested in donating (their pitch is to turn it into a competition. The girl said, "Most people have been giving $200! Can you meet that donation level?" I was all, um, No, but good luck to Obama anyway! Aren't political donations the realm of the rich and famous?).
I had an appointment at 12, so at 11:00, when they guy didn't show, I called to reschedule. At 11:45, I decided to call Charter to see what was going on.
I got stuck in a loop on their automated menu system... "3" was the designated number for my particular problem, but all pressing 3 got me was... a repeat of the same menu choices. And surprisingly: "I pressed 3, you fucking idiot machine!" got me nowhere. Oh, and pressing "0" for an operator was not a choice. I hung up and called back, and pressed no numbers, hoping they might mistake me for a poor person with a rotary phone, but that didn't work, either. Finally I guessed that it might be the phone (the office phone is cordless. don't ask me why I made that assumption: I was grasping at straws), so I went into the living room, and pulled the kitchen phone around the corner so I could sit on the couch and watch the end of "About Last Night."
Finally I got through to a human, and poor her: I was pissed. The woman I spoke to tried to tell me that my call had been canceled by dispatch after a second call was made to me, at 10 a.m. OK, that's a big fat lie: they didn't call. I've been here, watching TV, eating WW friendly food, and they did not call. I asked her why they bother calling before showing up if they're not going to give you an opportunity to call them back: what's the point of that? I went off on her, a bit. Anyway, I put on quite a show, and I'll spare you the details. I did give her credit for being nice (she was), and I said I knew it wasn't her fault, and I explained about the runaround I got from the automated system, and she pulled a classic "customer service-ism" on me by saying she understood I was frustrated, but then she also told me that my service appointment had been canceled. And I, without cussing, told her that was unacceptable - I said I had taken the day off of work (a white lie) and had rescheduled an appointment (at the spa - !) and I wanted someone out today. She said it might not be possible, because the tech would have gone on to the next call, and I said, look, I've been on the phone now for 45 minutes. Someone will be at my house, today (cue scary music). I asked to speak to her supervisor, and after sitting on hold for 30 minutes, he finally got on the line.
He apologized (he sounded like he looks like this guy), and was actually really nice. He kept putting me on hold (I know that's a technique they use to either get upset people to calm down or hang up. Knowing that, I calmed down, but only a little), but would come back to check on me. Finally he came back one last time and said he was able to reschedule my call for today, but he couldn't give me a time frame - now I have to sit around and wait for them to show up anytime between now, and 8 p.m.
I know the cable company and other places that make house calls have reputations for lousy customer service, and I'm sure everybody has had the same kind of experience. Being pissed off is NOT fun - I don't think I earned any WW activity points (or did I? My heart rate was raised). The thing that's funny about all this, though, is that apparently Charter thinks they have the best customer service, ever. Their website is all, "for 24-hour customer service, contact us!" But when you do contact them, getting stuck in the loop of a demonic automated menu - that's not customer service. Being directed to a link of "FAQs" that don't address your specific question - that's not customer service.
...
Update @ 11:46 a.m., 4/21
So, Patrick came home from work at around 3 p.m. (he was supposed to be off yesterday, because he works today, but he went in to pick up some overtime and prepare for a project), and I was able to head off for my appointment at the spa (my aesthetician did a glycolic treatment on me, and I'm not so sure it was successful. I have a bit of redness today). When I came home, around 5, "Juan" from Charter was here, trading out our old box. Luckily we didn't have to wait until 8!
