First World Problems...

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

There are certain problems that the rest of the world cannot understand nor sympathize with that we spoiled Westerner First Worlders are forced to endure.

 

I feel silly in bringing this to a public forum, but it is too good a story not to pass on.

 

The Saturday after Thanksgiving (that would be November 26th), we had a shill...er Sales Rep for ATT UVerse do a cold call at our house. My son (the many times aforementioned D-Man) actually listened to his speil. (As an aside here, we have been running DSL here because my neighborhood didn't have access to the good stuff). He indicated that the HIGH SPEED internet was now available.

This is what I was interested in ( I won't go into a further digression with having to deal with Direct TV and the installation of a new line in my wife's office...).

 

Anyway (and believe me, I am leaving out a lot of crazy stuff to keep this relativly brief). My wife called the ATT U-Verse sales line and ordered an upgrade to the HIGH SPEED INTERNET. The Sales Rep on the phone decided we also needed to upgrade to the HIGH SPEED PHONE service also.

I'll admit it, I should have taken over after the wife and squid dealt with the ATT door to door sales rep...however, I was dealing with SIRIUSXM and DIRECT TV at that point, so I would have probably ended up on a tall building with a high powered rifle if I took that on.

 

My wife was told by the phone sales rep that the modem would be mailed to us by Tuesday, Dec.13 for the installation which was scheduled for the 15th. Wednesday afternoon (after not receiving the modem via mail) a technician shows up and does the installation of the HIGH SPEED INTERNET componants at the junction box and my house. No modem, now no DSL.

I told the technician that he wasn't supposed to be out until the next day and I didn't have the modem, and he basically told me it wasn't his problem and to call the 1 800 att 2020 number and see what was up. After a couple of hours, the technician indicated to me that the installation had been moved to December 22. My wife has her office in our house, so being without the internet for a week or more is not a matter of Crow not being able to sit and post to Via Chicago, it has tremendous ramifications.

After basically being told I was shit out of luck and wait a week, I called the DSL side of ATT and had them reinstall the DSL until we could get the HSI modem and installation.

 

With me so far? It gets better.

 

So...On December 22nd, I was supposed to have received the modem with the installation to follow the next day. No modem after the mail run, so I called my good friends at ATT U-Verse.

 

Up until this 4 hours bruhaha, nobody had ever mentioned the upgrade to the phone service. My wife didn't order it, the first two or three tech rep and customer service people never mentioned it.

The customer service service rep I talked to on the 22nd was the first person to mention the phone upgrade, and informed me that a battery pack for the modem to allow the phones to work if the power went out were on back order until March 26.

Now...thinking back to the first go round, if I had simply waited out the service delay in anticipation of the December 22nd date, I would be facing a three month service interruption. As I proceeded to lose my calm, the customer service rep mentioned the battery pack.

What stinking battery pack? We didn't order any upgrade to our phone service. WE ORDERED THE HIGH SPEED INTERNET UPGRADE.

After this came to light, I was transferred to a person to schedule the install.

 

At this point I am having a gestalt moment on the basic spoiled nature of the Modern American.

 

After having to give all my contact info for what would be the 5th time, the scheduler set me up for Today from 11-1. I was told the installing technician would have the modem available in his truck and we should be good to go.

 

Not so fast there bucko.

 

At 9am this morning (December 11th), I had one of foreshadowing feelings and decided to check my order online.

 

December 11th from 1-3.

 

So...Crow hops back on the phone (realize...I have spent 9 hours so far dealing with this shit) and after giving the contact info again and explaining the issue get back to a scheduler (that would be about 45 minutes into this call).

 

While on the phone, I hear the front door open and see my wife running out the door.

 

She saw an ATT service truck passing down our street and she was CHASING THE FUCKING THING DOWN THE STREET.

 

(That actually was pretty funny)

 

The scheduler reads me the comments from the record showing the December 6th install date in the comments but the work order showing December 11th.

 

I don't yell at people on the phone who aren't responsible for the problem. These poor customer service types can't really do anything.

However, I may have gotten a little...unruly.

Everybody is really apologetic, they must have the "I'm so sorry for your inconvenience" line drilled into them like John Holmes on Ginger Lynn.

 

She was able to get me an appointment for tomorrow (that would be Saturday) from 9-11...but she is going to check with dispatch on her lunch hour to see if there will be a way to work us in today.

Psssh...Yah Sure.

 

There are multiple layers of problems with all this incompetence. If I hadn't been taking a late lunch on the first day, I would have never been aware of the initial problem and would have been dealing with the DSL people. Not a big deal, I was already doing the phone warrior shit. But if I hadn't called at various points, I would never have been aware of the March 26th back order on a part for a service I didn't order. I would not have been aware of the problem today.

What these Yahoos don't seem to realize is that spending 10 hours on the phone and taking two days off work (the day the DSL tech came by to reinstall my DSL until the upgrade went through, and today)is not just an inconvenience, IT COSTS ME MONEY. Luckily I didn't take off the additional day for the proposed installation on the 22nd.

I have spent the equivalent of a work week on this shit with the phone calls, the days of work, dealing with installers and quality controller.

 

I now look back fondly on my days with COMCAST where I had a service installation on Christmas day. I haven't even related the shady dealings with the ATT U-Verse door to door salesman.

 

I am now pretty gun-shy and am fully expecting to not see any positive results.

 

I may be calling about Cable internet service here is a day or so.

[bleedorange]

I always find these stories interesting, because I have rarely experienced them. Especially with DirecTV, which has been customer service platinum for me for over 15 years (going back to my college days). Plus, my AT&T DSL has been perfectly adequate, so I haven't felt the need to upgrade yet. But I certainly sympathize.

[ih8music]

As someone who works from home and is 100% dependent on internet service to accomplish my work, I can understand your frustration. I was very concerned about going through a similar disruption a couple yrs ago when I switched over from my cable co's internet service to Verizon FiOS. Luckily, the installation was perfectly smooth and my actual downtime was maybe 15 mins (of course, the tech was here for a few hrs prior to that).

 

If you can handle living on DSL for a while, I'd suggest calling AT&T, cancelling the order & register a complaint accounting for the real business cost that this ordeal has cost you so far. If they have any customer service chops whatsoever, they'll at the very least come back to you with an offer for reduced cost over the term of the agreement (& hopefully a better installation commitment) . If not, say adios and look for another high bandwidth option (i.e. cable, wireless, etc.).

[jff]

I could have told you that was going to happen. All those companies are punk ass, bush league operations.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

I always find these stories interesting, because I have rarely experienced them. Especially with DirecTV, which has been customer service platinum for me for over 15 years (going back to my college days). Plus, my AT&T DSL has been perfectly adequate, so I haven't felt the need to upgrade yet. But I certainly sympathize.

 

I have spared you my DirectTV rant.

 

They were only slightly less incompetent with the new line installation (let me just say it took them THREE TRIPS to do a simple line drop).

[Kim Bodnia]

These aren't exactly First World problems. Outsouring problems maybe, if the company moved the operations offshore?

 

When you said First World problems I thought you were going to discuss the ageing populations of countries like Italy, Germany or Russia.

 

I read a few years ago that if no initiatives were taken in Italy the population will keep dwindling each year until eventually disappearing.

 

Another problem is the future of nuclear power in countries like France and in the wake of the Japanese experience.

 

Or Canada's disappearing forests, Arctic fauna...

 

The political struggle over Antarctica's vast resources...

 

On the other hand I worked in a call center during a period of my life, not a nice experience I can tell, people who man the call centers are poorly trained.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

These aren't exactly First World problems. Outsouring problems maybe, if the company moved the operations offshore?

 

When you said First World problems I thought you were going to discuss the ageing populations of countries like Italy, Germany or Russia.

 

I read a few years ago that if no initiatives were taken in Italy the population will keep dwindling each year until eventually disappearing.

 

Another problem is the future of nuclear power in countries like France and in the wake of the Japanese experience.

 

Or Canada's disappearing forests, Arctic fauna...

 

The political struggle over Antarctica's vast resources...

 

On the other hand I worked in a call center during a period of my life, not a nice experience I can tell, people who man the call centers are poorly trained.

 

You are a real buzz kill.

[Moss]

Fortunately my aversion to technology and cheapness has spared me most of this kind of pain. But I have to admit, every time I think about upgrading to a better internet connection or something, these are the kind of stories that keep me from doing it. I finally upgraded to getting a DVR from Comcast but I drove to their office and picked it up and did everything myself. Is it the lack of competition that allows some of these companies to have such shitty service?

[bleedorange]

I think it's just that we hear about these bad service examples more frequently now. You're not going to hear from the millions of people that have good experiences, so the many who don't sound louder than ever. For every bad service example I can think of that has happened to me, there has been 10-15 good-to-great experiences.

[Kim Bodnia]

You are a real buzz kill.

 

My apologies, I take the blame, I realise it wasn't a post of much camaraderie, I should stop doing this, I'm a natural born pessimist. I'll delete the post if it helps, salutations

[OOO]

I live in a third world country and my internet connection is reasonably reliable, and I have not had to call tech support yet.