Mom’s new phone system is VOIP via Comcast / Xfinity. But from the time it was hooked up, despite the fact that she doesn’t have Comcast Voice Messaging on her account (answering machine!), her phone line had the stutter dial-tone that modern phones use to detect if there’s a telco voice message. Which her phones dutifully reported.
I called Comcast on her behalf today (because nobody wants to have their parent call Comcast), and got a Tier 1 tech who … hung up midway. And then when I called back, the help automated system bumped the call in an attempt to solve the problem (unsuccessfully) with a remote reset.
The third person I contacted grasped what I was telling her pretty quickly, but she let me know that she was a Tier 1 person, and she had to bump this up to Tier 2. So a Tier 2 person would be happy to call me sometime … tomorrow … between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.
“Um … I’m visiting my mom’s place. I won’t be here for twelve hours tomorrow, waiting for a tech to call. This is my mom’s residence, not mine.”
“Your mom will be there, though, won’t she?”
“Yes, but I’m not going to have her on the phone with a Tier 2 tech. That’s why I’m making this call.”
We settled for the Tier 2 tech calling back between 1-3pm tomorrow.
A few minutes after the call, I got a call back from Comcast with an automated survey. And I did not pull any punches as to my dissatisfaction that, while the person had understood my problem, she couldn’t immediately escalate the call to a better tech, and had an unrealistic understanding of people being available to take the call from that higher level tech. Which I explained in more detail in the “tell us why you gave a score of X” prompt.
Ten minutes later I got a follow-up call from a Tier 2 tech. Who started working on my problem.
And while I was on the VOIP line on hold with that tech, I got a call on my mobile (which is the second number on Mom’s account) from another Tier 2 (or maybe Tier 3) tech, calling to solve my problem.
And as I explained to that tech the situation, I had the other tech come back on the line and talk in my other ear.
It was kind of zany.
But the problem got solved.
So kudos to Comcast for going to DEFCON 1 because of a poor quality survey (though it would have been much better to fix the problem in the first call) — and a reminder that saying okay to those follow-up surveys can sometimes be useful.
Having done tech support by phone, you live or die by your CSAT, or whatever the customer satisfaction rating is called at your company. My last employer, Marchex, actually specialized in tech to help analyze calls like this, and did good business with it.
There are also good odds that your tech is actually working for a third party from a script and can't do too much anyway. So yeah, always give an honest assessment, and please also separately rate agent behavior (they hung up on you -> fukken fired at my old job) and actual ability to remedy the problem.
+Bill Garrett Having worked (and managed) tech support, I always try to be honest about the good, bad, and ugly when I do surveys. I am well aware that if companies don't get feedback, they can't improve (even if they are inclined to do so).
I was just really surprised by how fast and thorough the response was.
(Alas, even though the T2 tech who solved the problem said that if I got a survey I should respond as to her resolution of the problem, I didn't get one. I would have given her top mark.)
FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS (LET ALONE FAMILY MEMBERS) SIGN UP FOR COMCAST!!!
What the hell is wrong with you, man? 😉
I'm surprised you don't have WOW! where she is considering Colorado is where they got started. I'm back with them after a 12 year absence (due to living in different places) and they're still a pretty good cable/ISP company from what I can see. Certainly better than Comcast.
+Les Jenkins most all of the front range cities are Comcast, never heard of Wow! Other than the big box store that went out of business last year.
I've heard of WOW! (as someone in the tech job market here, sigh), but it was not an option in her community. It was essentially Comcast or Centurylink. And Comcast had certain advantages for her (not least of which was that we have it, and so I could support her).
Honestly, though there are moments of customer service fail here and there, I'm pretty happy with our Comcast service most of the time.
Stan, I believe they still go by their original name in Colorado of Wide Open West. They're headquartered in Colorado Springs. They came to Michigan around 2002 or so and we jumped ship from Comcast (who had taken over Media One in our region, the only other cable company I've loved) as soon as we could. Wide Open West bought out Ameritech's cable TV service, which wasn't competing well in part because they refused to provide cable modem service because it would take way from the DSL service.
Not sure when they started going by WOW! out here, but had them up until we left Canton in 2005. Used my in-law's Charter service for the 2.5 years we were there and then AT&T U-verse for the 7 years in Ann Arbor and additional two back in Canton. As soon as I picked up the keys to my house I had a WOW! tech at my door. I figured they'd be well known in their home state.
So doing a little digging, I came across this article on their IPO that apparently happened last year. It appears they do not operate in their home state. https://www.denverpost.com/2017/05/25/colorado-based-wideopenwest-offering/