Urge to be an SC rising...

[blas]

I have literally had it up to here with the cable company. I've posted many times about their shenanigans....most of it was when I had their cable tv and Internet bundle.....now I still suffer....

My modem goes out at least two or three times a month and I have to call tech support.

My modem was out Tuesday night. I called tech support and had to troubleshoot with the automated voice lady. They connect you to a real person if it doesn't get resolved after a few minutes. I was told there was an outage and it would take a few hours. Ok fine, I figured I'd just go without and try again Wednesday.

Wednesday morning, my modem was still out. I called and was actually sent right to a real person. I explained the situation, and the rep said he'd reset my modem, but said "It probably won't work, I'm going to dispatch a tech to your apartment, now just so you're aware, this is going to cost anywhere between $70 and $100...."

I cut him off, because thankfully, my modem lights came back and the Internet was back. So it was a problem on THEIR end, not mine.

Then he started rambling about deals and upgrades, which I don't want, I already pay way too damn much for Internet anyway. I was polite, said no, and hung up.

Now today I cannot pay my bill on the phone. I pay ALL my bills online and the cable one is the only one I pay by phone. They changed the way you pay online, and I cannot do it. I don't own stamps and I don't want to drive 10 miles to pay at the building.

I tried 3 times today to pay my bill. They said "Transaction declined due to maintenance and because the card has been declined."

Um. No. I just got paid today. Besides that, there is ALWAYS money in my bank account. I know we've all heard it from SCs before, but I swear on everything that is holy and good, I am NEVER flat broke to where I can't pay my bills.

I just paid my credit card bill today. They took my payment. WTF?

I'm going to try ONCE more tomorrow to pay my bill on the phone, with both cards (I tried my credit card too, that one was declined as well). If it's denied, I'm going to have no choice than to drive to their building and just pay there, otherwise I'll be late in payment.

I cannot believe this shit. I really hate this company and the shit they pull. If Clearwire served my area, you can bet I'd drop the cable company like a bad habbit. I can't wait until I can get Clearwire.

Urge to be an SC rising. If my cards are declined again tomorrow, please God, give me the strength NOT to waltz into that building and cause a scene.

[rerant]

So this rep didn't even ask if you wanted a tech, and was just ready to send one out to you at some outrageous charge?
Real nice, cable company, real friggen nice.

Being an SC is something none of us look forward to, but I think at some point the camel's back must break and something has to be done to get them to wise the fuck up.

I am a hypocrite, of course, since I'm too sheepish to become an SC myself in order to stop the telemarketers who have been hassling me for months, but I figure I can live vicariously through other people's justified suckiness.

[Andara Bledin]

Wow, that is some serious suck going on there. (the cable company, that is)

At that point, I'd almost start considering satellite. If you don't do online gaming, you might want to look into it.

I don't know how your area is wired, but you might look into whether or not you can get DSL service if you go with a bundle package. We only get it 'cause we took the VOIP, too, as part of a package.

^-.-^

[Kogarashi]

Sounds like when I was still single, and my roommates and I got cable internet to our apartment. We initially got it with AT&T, but their cable internet was bought out partway through by Comcast.

Starting about two weeks before the buyout, our connection started dropping periodically for no apparent good reason. Sometimes it would come back up right away, and other times it would stay down for an hour or two. We suspected company-side problems, and one roommate's dad who is very computer savvy even helped her run a program to trace whether information was getting out on our end--they basically determined that a local node was on the fritz, and therefore the problem wasn't ours. If it had been, it wouldn't have mattered because we were renting the modem and thus wouldn't have had to pay for tech visits if it was determined the modem was at fault.

We started trying to contact the company after the problems persisted past the buyout, and were given the runaround by techs more than half the time. One lady insisted that our computers couldn't be networked to the modem (we had a router) because, "Comcast doesn't do networks." Despite their website having detailed instructions on how to set up a network with their internet service. Needless to say, when we hooked up just one computer to the modem, it still didn't work.

Others tried to place blame on our computers or the modem, and at least three times over the next four to six months, a tech was sent out to check. Every time, he verified that there was no problem in our apartment, and we told him that we suspected a local node or something. It never got checked.

Finally, after a total of six or seven months with the flakey internet, it magically fixed itself. I suspect the company finally had enough complaints in the general area that it found the real problem and fixed it.

[smileyeagle1021]

sadly, cable companies are a monopoly, so they have no reason to actually improve and compete (granted I've had good experiences with the people I've had to speak to with Comcast in Salt Lake... granted the only thing I've had to have done is have the intial sign up... the rest is handled as part of a bulk account through property management)
I think truly the only way to make them wake up and smell the coffee is to have a dish installed... so yeah, your company sucks and congrats on not going all SC yet.

[Bright_Star]

That's the main reason why I've kept my dial-up service in case my cable broadband service ever goes down. As a back-up. Dial-up is slow but it does the job.

[XXDarrienX]

I know how you feel, except I was the rep that would take a call like that and by policy rarely is there anything we can do. Our hands were tied so much for issues with customers having service out constantly with repeated trouble calls and the only thing you can do is escalate via email to a supervisor since it always appeared they never liked to take a live call. I got talked to when a manager of the CS department walked by and I asked him if he could talk to this customer since my supervisor was not available. I sent so many irate customers to a voicemail cause I literally had no choice. The best advice I can give as it stands and even though it sucks is to call alot. That seems like the only way to get things resolve.

[blas]

They denied both of my cards again this morning, so I called customer care and complained to a rep (politely, although I was holding back my true feelings). Fortunately, I was able to pay and my debit card was accepted. Thank gosh. I really didn't feel like driving 10 miles out of my way today just to pay a bill and argue with someone.