you wait 40 minutes in line at your isp.......

**Gonzo0100** · 08-24-10, 10:22 AM

to exchange a cable modem. get it home, same bullshit.

then they tell you it could be 4-5 days before they get to your house.

**GReYVee** · 08-24-10, 10:33 AM

That sucks. Who is your ISP?

**flame** · 08-24-10, 11:02 AM

my net went down the other day and i called tech support and they told me my modem was part of a set of serial numbers that had problems. At 1 pm the lady ordered me a new one. By 10 the next morning it was sitting on my desk. Now... when they had to come check my house once before they traced it back and my port at their central office was dead. The guy told me it would take them 15 minutes to fix once they got the work order... it took them a week to get the work order

**Gonzo0100** · 08-24-10, 11:40 AM

TWC

**Gumby** · 08-24-10, 11:48 AM

ah monopolies. So good for customer service...

**GReYVee** · 08-24-10, 11:55 AM

Originally Posted by Gumby

ah monopolies. So good for customer service...

Lol, I doubt small time operations are much better. The biggest problem with any company in regards to customer service / technical support is the sheer level of attrition. You're left with a rather small percentage of an experienced skill set, and a massive amount with basic training and very little troubleshooting experience. If you raise your qualifications for support agents, you than limit the staff size, and than are unable to handle the call volume. Real key is disseminating the right information, and requiring a well oiled process of training and quality assurance.

**Rawr** · 08-24-10, 04:21 PM

It took me 45 minutes to pick up a DVR yesterday (they already had it ready for me, I literally had to say HI, show my ID and leave). It wouldn't work, so I had to go and wait 50 minutes the next day to exchange it >.<

Fakin comcast.

**Gumby** · 08-24-10, 06:39 PM

Originally Posted by GReYVee

Lol, I doubt small time operations are much better. The biggest problem with any company in regards to customer service / technical support is the sheer level of attrition. You're left with a rather small percentage of an experienced skill set, and a massive amount with basic training and very little troubleshooting experience. If you raise your qualifications for support agents, you than limit the staff size, and than are unable to handle the call volume. Real key is disseminating the right information, and requiring a well oiled process of training and quality assurance.

I disagree, sir.
I used to work at a small ISP. We had around 5000 users scattered around north Texas. Each and every person on our tech staff was very good at troubleshooting all manner of PC/network issues. Our customer service was top-notch. Our prices were higher than the big boys, but we were able to be profitable because many of our customers stayed with us because of our outstanding support or came to us because of our reputation for excellent support. Small businesses can compete with the big guys, they just cannot do it on price alone. They have to beat the larger competition by being more maneuverable and more available to their customers. SBC (Now AT&T) and Time Warner were our main competition and their prices were better. But when you called our support line, 24/7, you got to speak to someone right away that knew their stuff and would have you back up far quicker than those guys. We had no scripts for our techs. We had no one for whom English was a second language, and we took care of our folks. People appreciate that and a lot of people will pay a little more for that. But if the small business treats you no better than the big one, they deserve to fail.