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Archives
 August 1999 Issue
Columns
Customer Service In the Age of Bandwidth
Misery Loves Company
By Jennifer Whalen
Well, judging from the response to my column in June ("Dont Forget Your Customers in the System Shuffle,") about my Cable & Wireless experience, it really is truemisery does love company.
It seems I hit a nerve with my observations on customer service, and neither long distance carriers, regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs), nor cable operators remained unscathed in the aftermath of shared misery that followed. I was also accused of whining ... which was definitely true. But I can take the heat.
Steve Johnson, director of engineering and technology with Time Warner Cable, had his own Cable & Wireless nightmare to report. Johnson tried out MCI Internet for a month and then dropped the service. He thought that was the end of it. Wrong.
"Approximately two years later, I started getting bills from C&W for an account that I had closed," Johnson wrote. "Ive been receiving monthly bills of $14.95. When they do fix the billing, they only wipe out the past due amount, and the monthly fee keeps getting billed. Forget about reaching anyone on their 800 number."
Talk about long-term memory.
"I think I finally have the billing problems on my nonexistent account fixed, but only after numerous letters, e-mails and phone calls," Johnson continued. "They definitely are a great example of Dont let this happen to you when running a CSR (customer service representative) department or telecommunications company," he added.
Sage advice from a respected cable engineer.
Cable not unscathed
Before you snicker too loudly over the plight of your telco competitor, Ive got to warn you that cable took a few potshots, too. Drew Stone, project leader with Uniphase, had his own customer service lessoncable style.
"Your article was right on the money," he wrote. "I signed up for a 1.3 Mb pipe from TCI, delivered over my cable. The installers didnt show up when they were supposed to. My wife rescheduled. She then passed them on the way out, and they said because she had rescheduled theyd have to come backthree weeks later. Can you recommend a good place at TCI and AT&T to send hate mail?"
Even Im not going to touch that request.
Unfortunately, Stone was still struggling with his cable data connection at press time.
"The saga continues," he reported. "TCI finally showed up to install our cable modem. When the initial appointment was set up, they asked for a two-hour window. They neglected to mention thats the arrival window. After over four hours, the technician had to leave because my wife had to go out. As of last night, the system still wasnt working, and were supposed to call in to customer support and spend our time trying to get it runningcustomer service in the age of bandwidth. Wheres Terayon?"
Wow. What a plug for Terayon. I asked Stone if he was using a Terayon modem. "Just dreaming," he said.
Its not only cable thats causing Stone angst.
"Ive been getting terrible quality service from Bell Atlantic in my area, too. Any suggestions on who to write there?" he asked.
Anguish from the trenches
It seems there are some frustrated telecommunications employees in the trenches as well. Michael Walsh, with Mitre, had this to say.
"As a former project manager with a local Bell company, it was a constant irritation to me to see an undermanned workforce attempting unsuccessfully to provide good service to our customers. The catch phrase at that time was work smarter, not harder, an easy enough comment to make if you are not the one doing the work.
"In my opinion, the incumbent companies, such as the baby Bells, are going to be in quite a bit of trouble if their senior managers dont wake up to the fact that competition is here and one of the best ways to retain and attract customers is through service. Like you, I will shop around for companies that provide me with good service. At times, I am also willing to pay a little more for proper treatment."
You get what you pay for
Walsh wasnt alone in his willingness to pay a bit more for good service. (I knew Id take a hit for being cheap.) Joe Blaschka, P.E., with Adcomm Engineering Co., wrote to say good service is worth the extra money. And hes getting good service from AT&T.
Blaschka operates a virtual office, with employees working in their homes.
"I wanted to aggregate the long distance charges to a single bill to obtain the largest discount," he said. "In addition, I wanted project billing codes added so, when I got the bills, they were already subtotaled by project for billing purposes. At the time several years ago, AT&T was the only carrier that allowed me to have the long distance for all these phone lines spread out over two states incorporated into one bill and have project codes added.
"In addition, I can now have not only my cellular long distance but also the basic monthly service added to the single bill .... If AT&T were to offer me local service and I could have it all on the same bill, I would switch to AT&T local service immediately ... right now, I am served by GTE (Great Telephone Experiment or Get There Eventually).
"While AT&Ts long distance rates arent the cheapest (about $0.10 per minute), I have had very little trouble with their billing or adding on new lines to the service. I am willing to pay a little more for a service that works well and doesnt cost me a bundle of time. An hour or two a month messing around with my bill would cost me more than I would save by going to a low-cost carrier."
Blaschkas got a point. Over and over, we hear that tomorrows telecommunications winners will be those companies that provide integrated billing and discounts for bundled services. Take Blaschkas advice to heart. AT&T has a head start in this arena.
So where does that leave me? Well, in my last bill, C&W reported it was finally ready to roll out a new billing system. Ah ha, I thought, the end of my troubles. Then I fired up my e-mail.
I had a message from C&W. More news on the new billing system? Or maybe that notice I was supposed to have received on the recent price increase? Wrong on both counts. It was a kindly note informing me that C&W is selling its residential Internet business to Prodigy. As Charlie Brown would say, Aaugh! Isnt that how this whole mess started?
Jennifer Whalen is the editor of "Communications Technology."
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