How great is this country? Where ELSE can a company call you, hang UP on you, hang up when you return the call, then put you on hold for an hour when you call back? Yup, only here, in the good old U-S-A!!!

The (back)story:
Typically, I let my Mediaconn bill go a bit. Yes, I know, I SHOULD pay it immediately, on time, blah blah blah, but considering the lack of respect THEY show their customers (no notification of scheduled downtime, slow service, hour wait times, pathetic service at best), I tend to let it go until just before they “automatically” shut me off. Oh, they don’t shut me off, they don’t GET to shut me off, because I pay the bill when I can, what I can, and keep the payments ahead of the “shut off” date.

Could I pay earlier? You bet. However, despite repeated protests by myself, these individuals STILL have not
A> Provided their clients with reasonable notification of scheduled downtime
B> Adjusted said downtime so that the entire town is not out for 6 hours
C> Fixed their call in system so that it recognizes the customer is a customer by their phone number
D> Addressed their “hold” time (an hour on hold, come on people!!)
E> Stopped calling me for ANY reason

This is much like the parent (myself) with a disobedient, disrespectful child. You must punish the child, and maybe (maybe) they’ll learn. Unfortunately, since Mediaconn is STILL the only reasonable provider in the area, there’s not really a lot that can be done, except for make last minute payments like I do.

The Story:
Early last week, I made a payment on said bill. This was pushing it for time, but I made it when I could, and what I could.
That night, I received a call from Mediaconn. Their call directed me to call an 800 #, then hung up. I knew it was mediaconn, because the caller ID told me so (imagine that). Enter hangup #1.

Because I couldn’t get the number from the message (or person, whatever), I had to look through my bills which told me the w’loo number. To my surprise, it was turned off. Not surprising, right? These guys don’t care about providing community service, no matter what ads we see.

Finally, a half hour later, I find a customer service # that works. I call it, get put on hold for 10-15 minutes, due to various problems. When someone answers, I simply tell them that I was directed to call blah, blah, blah. Her response? “We show you haven’t made a payment yet”. Umm, wha??? OOOOkay, so, as usual, mediaconn is out of date. Being hung up on, being put on hold, etc, I’m not in the best of moods, but I still manage to keep it cool and tell her that “you people are not to call me again”. You people, obviously referring to her company, etc. I know, for a fact that had I just said “you are not to call me again”, she would have responded with “Sir, I didn’t call you”.

The woman, at this point goes on and on about how they need to call, and how I need to stop referring to it as “you people”. Well, as an employee of Mediaconn, she was in fact, one of “you people”. I stated again, that “you people are not to call me again, period, for any reason”. At this point, she decided to throw a fit about the “you people” comment, and hang up.

Greaaaaat, so, now, my problem STILL hasn’t (to my satisfaction) been resolved. They will STILL call me, even though everything is in order, and there are no problems, with supposed “urgent” messages, which (of course) aren’t so urgent. Not only this, but I still have NO clue why they called, just a guess (albeit a pretty good guess). So, I call back. This time, it takes 45 minutes or so to get ahold of someone. OH, great, but, typical mediaconn.

When someone answers, I simply state that I want to talk to a supervisor. After the way that individuals treated me, I want revenge, I want vengeance, hell, I want blood. Someone’s either getting fired , or being put into some serious training about their job, because customer service does NOT hang up on the customer, for ANY reason whatsoever.

I get someone different, explain the situation, and the supervisor stated that she would ensure the individual got training for the matter. As to why they called? They did, in fact, call, because of misinformation. Typical mediaconn bullshit there. Her excuse? Not really a viable excuse, but :

Our payment systems are separate from our calling systems, and the payment systems are ahead of the calling systems, so we can’t do anything about this.

As a systems administrator, I know that line for what it is: CRAP!
They CAN do something about this, just like they CAN do something about the “automatic shut off” for customers who have dumped money into their systems for years. Will they? No way. Why? Because they don’t WANT to.

At this point, I’m an hour and a half into the situation, from call received, so I cancel things out, leaving myself with the basics. Her response? Amusing:

Mr. Whiting, I show that this will only save you $25/month or so

Umm, yeah, but that’s $25 a month that’s going back into MY pocket, not theirs. Why would I want to keep paying a company to do a job, when it refuses to respect their customers? Come on now! Of course, like I said, I have no alternative at the moment, but I’m praying that SOMEONE comes in and cleans up this town, because they could make a killing off of the crap mediaconn is dealing it’s customers. One can hope, right?

Long story short:
Don’t treat your customers like dirt, and DON’T call them trying to solicit money that is not owed.
If you’re a business, keep your stuff together, KNOW what your customer does, so you don’t have to make calls like this
The customer is always right, no matter WHAT. At least, that’s the case if you want to keep said customer!

Enjoy the entry, I may make another video one tonight, not sure.

-=T=-