Saturday, July 4, 2015

How to lose a customer before you even get one, thanks Centurylink!

disinfo.com

One hour and 16 minutes of life wasted.


Thinking about it for several months after Comcast jacked my rate up yet again for internet service I made the decision to try Centurylink Broadband through the phone line. I had been a previous customer twice before when they were known as Quest and had been fairly satisfied with their performance.

It was my understanding that they have been upgrading their service in many areas to high speed connections that were as good as Comcast. I found an introductory offer on-line for a much cheaper rate than my current Comcast that was guaranteed for one year, ordered the modem and set a date for service install.

As the date drew near to start service I had to call the customer service department to make some changes. That began a nightmare of a phone call that last one hour and 16 minutes while I was handed off to 5 different people!

After navigating their frustrating menu, I was on hold for 10 minutes before getting a live person to talk to. I gave her my account info, she was gone for awhile before finally coming back and asking where I live. I said "Salt Lake City, UT" and she said "no wonder I can't find you, your not in my area and I need to transfer you". Great, I get transferred and am on hold again for another 12 minutes.

Another live body comes on and asked for my info all over again. His computer pulls up a previous account of mine and he's telling me that I have been cancelled. As I try to explain, he says "this is not my department and I need to transfer you to account retention services, please hold". By than I was already pretty irate as I sat on hold for another 15 minutes.

So on and on, the next person says I shouldn't have been transferred to her, I need the billing department! Another wait, and another until I got to the fifth person. It was more than 70 minutes after I first dialed the phone.

By that time I had to try so hard to keep from yelling at the guy and flat out told him that I was cancelling my account and I need it done NOW! Fortunately, he was able to do that without transferring me to a sixth "person". I'm trying to be nice and not call them names, I know they are probably doing what they have been trained to do. I opened the box that the new modem came in, retrieved the return shipping label, stuck it on and dropped it at UPS.

So, Centurylink, you lost me as a repeat customer before it even began. These companies really need to look at their customer service department and understand what is happening.

So, I have been hearing that Google internet may be coming to this area, I'll wait a while and see about other options.


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