"History is a wonderful thing, if only it was true"
-Tolstoy

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Feedback is no longer free

Morning Rant:

Just spent over 45 min with Charter Communications trying to sort out service, billing and credit(s).

Backgrounder :
Cable Modem had been failing, going from a reset every few weeks to several times a day.
Had service a few weeks ago, tested the line, good signal, but maybe some flucations.

Returned the modem to their offices yesterday afternoon... account called up and credit going forward (I had been "leasing" the box). Note that there was no mention of any problems with the account.
Purchased a modem, installed and it seems to work fine.

Watched Tigers loose last night, ah well
This AM, digital signal had a message to the effect that there's a problem with the account.

Long story short, spent far too much time (up to 1/2 hr) with the automated "bot" troubleshooting. Finally got through to a representative, who informed me that the autopay on the account was no longer in effect, and as a matter of fact, the last payment was returned.
Note that our Visa had been updated, new expiration date - this triggers the problem.
Representative offered to take my payment over the phone... for a fee!

Needless to say - screw that!
Fixed via company website.

Now to the point, besides being pissed at situation which was not of my making, there is a flaw in the "bot" for Charter Troubleshooting.

One of the steps in the decision tree is not compatible with the messages, and therefore essentially "hangs".

Having had a run-around from at Telco earlier this year, offering to show them an error on their website in return for service credit, I've taken the position that I will not give positive feedback or help with providers system errors without a payment/service credit.

Service providers can "beta test" their systems on paying clients, but not for free.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programing

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