Telcos are broken at many levels.
I live in the Phoenix area and am forced at gunpoint to deal with these horrible organizations all the time.
1. The Sale:
- They get you on the phone and will tell you anything to get your credit card number.
- They know that without them, you are stuck dealing with the other batch liars.
Wherever you live in the U.S. , you deal with this problem. I am sure you can just fill in the blanks. Everyone got mad at the NSA when they found out ATT had a back room for them. Newsflash: They all have a back room! Google Magic Lantern FBI, Project Echelon, NSA.
2. The Hook:
Once you sign up, they have your credit card number and can start charging you out the wazzo and they know there is not a thing you can do about it. They don’t care a bit about quality of service, they just want to get you off the phone.
3. Installation time:
Operator- “Okay, Monday we will be at your house between 8am and 2pm. If you are not there, we will charge you more money.”
Monday rolls around, no people. Call at 2:30 pissed off.
Operator- “Your service contract says we have 5 days, so that Monday was tentative. The tech was called out and didn’t make it back for whatever reason (at Hooters, no doubt). We will reschedule something for you on Thursday from 11am to 6pm.”
Customer- “Wait, didn’t I just have to take most of the ENTIRE friggin’ day to deal with this, now you are asking me to do another day? How about I send you the bill for the amount of money I didn’t make today because I had to miss a day at work and burn a “personal day” with my boss who needed me at my job because I don’t work for some gigantic socialist telco.
“The paradigm of socialism is a public restroom.” – P.J. O’Rourke
The reason Cox is this way is because once you get enough inertia and government funding and laws passed to protect your industry and insulate your self with 50+ lawyers on your staff in 25 different states, you become this giant, mediocre, slow dinosaur.
The real question is, do you think the government could do a better job if they turned the telcos in the the Motor Vehicle Division?
I am working on a solution to this problem. If you want to leave a comment to correct me or offer a solution, I would love to hear from you. If you work for a giant telco and want to offer me an apology, or a correction, please feel free to leave a comment.
WTF! I have had so many experiences like this. Ugggh, why can’t people just do their jobs!!!!!