What does customer service mean today compared with even 10 years ago? One week ago I made the plunge to bundle my DSL with the Qwest service to MSN. I ordered it through a very nice woman over the phone; I got my ticket/order number and everything. I was promised a "smooth" transition on Tuesday evening. Snail mail would bring me my welcome set up CD and at 5 pm my ISP would transfer over.
I so should have known better. I hadn't even been drinking so no good excuse for my stupidity and belief in the system. First problem it was Qwest, hence nothing was going to go right (past experience should have told me that). Secondly I got up Tuesday morning to NO ISP because Qwest in all their grand excitement and plans cut off my other ISP and changed over early. Irritated I went to work to ignore it 'til the mail brought me the easy setup disc I now needed to get online.
Trusting not, at work printed up the "easy configuration" instructions for my modem. Get home, gee helpful; no disc arrived in the mail. Get on the phone with Qwest (call one) wait 20 minutes. Mind you I have online billing hence no paper copy and my DSL is standalone, so I don't know the number...never needed to bother. The nice tech support dude says, gee sorry that Ticket number isn't in the system and without your account code I can't find you. I guess my name and address are worthless to the system. So he transfers me to the business office. (call two) Wait 9 minutes and a nice woman comes online, goes to look up the account, says wow, it wasn't entered right, you'll need to go back to tech support. (call three) After waiting for 7 more minutes, line disconnects me from the system. Mind you I have now heard the "your business is important to us and we know your time is valuable. Try our online form for help", love that.
Call back tech support (call four) wait another 10 minutes to get through, finally someone actually gets my modem set up because the easy friendly online info sheet they had was "sorry out of date" according to the tech. So yeah, online...wait though...how do I get my email? Gee sorry no email was in this package...what? How can email not be included in an ISP package with MSN? So he sends me back to the business office (call five). Furious and wait 5 more minutes, gee we're awfully sorry about all this. The set up of the order wasn't done correctly, let me transfer you to a group called loyalty...what the h*** does that mean? At this point I so don't want to be transferred and once again put on hold. Call six, loyalty...nice young guy once again apologizes for that 8 minute wait I just had, gee I already have spent over an hour on my cell phone for all this crap. He sadly lets me know, sorry the account was not set up correctly, hence your email package is not set up and will not be configured until Thursday.
So I'm able to get online (yeah), but my Outlook and email accounts are locked on web only (urr, sucks). Me beyond frustrated, that's what I get trying to save $27.95 per month. According to my cell phone I used up 92 minutes of time more than half on hold. I hate Qwest and I cannot even email them to tell them how much. But my time is valuable and they have a great customer service system.
Now that you made it through that rant...enjoy your updates! Email me what you think...but please wait, because we all know it ain't gonna happen tomorrow. Early next week I'm assuming or hoping.
Elisa
