Well, the nightmare is over…I hope.
Last night before I went to bed I tried calling Earthlink to get a status report on my ‘trouble ticket.’ The automated voice told me that my problem was being worked on and to call back in 8 hours.
I hit the sack, then got up this morning and called again. The same automated voice told me the same thing: your problem is still being worked on; call back in 8 hours. I went ballistic. I called the original number, went through all the push-button BS until I got with a real Indian. I told him in no uncertain terms that I was agitated to the max. He quickly got me to a female upper level tech who took me through all the steps I had been through with a dozen other Indians. At just about the point at which I was ready to let her have it, she asked me if I were talking to her on the same line the DSL line was on. I said yes. She asked if there was another line we could talk on. I gave her my cell phone number. She called back. She put me on hold for about 10 minutes, came back on, asked me to try to get online. I opened the browser, and, Bingo, I was online. Why couldn’t this have been done 48 hours earlier? I’ll never know. But, as of now, I’m online. I’m going to make a couple of quick posts, then I’ll tackle the multitude of comments that have stacked up.
Thanks for your patience.
“…went through all the push-button BS until I got with a real Indian”.
Quoted for truth!
Do you tell them that you’re a widely-read blogger when you call? That would probably get you bumped up to the people who actually know something toute suite.
Hi John–
I didn’t know I was a widely-read blogger. And I’m sure they wouldn’t have given a flip.
Cheers–
MRE
After several similar experiences with Earthlink DSL a couple of years ago, I switched to cable broadband, and I’ve never looked back. It’s extremely fast and reliable. The only time I had a problem with lost connectivity, it turned out to be a DNS problem upstream from the internet provider. The support person I talked to on the phone about it was knowledgeable, and I think he actually lived in my area!
I’m not necessarily against outsourcing, and I have a lot of friends who are Indian, but I too felt irritated that every time I needed to call Earthlink support, I had to talk to someone in India. I think I’ve figured out why. To locate the support organization offshore sends a message to the customers that the company cares more about the bottom line than about customer satisfaction. It might be different if their support system was effective, but in my experience, it wasn’t.
I love your blog, by the way.
Thanks for the kind words about the blog.
I agree. All the people I talked to from India were very nice and tried to be as helpful as possible. But it wasn’t until I raised hell and got to an upper level tech that something got done, and it got done within 20 minutes start to finish. I’m sure had the right person been on the phone the first time I called, it would have been fixed then, and I wouldn’t have had to go almost two days without internet service.
It does indeed send a message that the bottom line counts more than good customer service.
Cheers–
MRE