DSA Insights

As mentioned in an earlier post, Decision Support Analytics recently moved from Richmond, VA to Columbia, MD.  This was a move for the business as well as for my family.  Being that I work from home, I contacted my current cable/internet provider [Comcast] at least three weeks in advance to schedule the new services and a date for installation.  I needed to cancel everything at my old location and set up all of the new services at the new location.  Why they couldn’t just transfer the services is beyond me. 

What happened next utterly astonished me.  My appointment was between 12:00pm and 4:30pm on July 2^nd.  Normally, the wide window irritates me, but because I was going to be home anyway, I was okay with it.  Twelve o’clock comes and goes; Two o’clock comes and goes; Four-thirty comes and still no sign of the technician so I call the call center.  If you have ever called Comcast, you normally get a different person each time at which point you need to explain the problem from beginning to end.  Hence, the fiasco begins. 

4:30PM:

I explain to the Customer Service Representative that I had an appointment between 12:00pm and 4:30pm and it’s now 4:30pm and no one has come by.  I am informed that they can only see the appointment.  Once the actual day arrives, the information is transferred to their dispatcher who talks directly with the technician.  They won’t give you the dispatcher’s number so you can talk to them directly, that would be too logical.  They place me on hold for about 10-15 minutes while they reach the dispatcher and they in turn call the technician to see where they are.  The Rep comes back and says they were delayed and it will be around 5:00pm.

5:30PM

No one has shown up yet so I call Comcast back.  I talk to a different person because shifts have now changed, explain the ordeal again, and wait on hold another 10-15 minutes.  They come back and say they are still delayed and it will be about an hour.  However, they reassured me someone would be there tonight to get me set up.  You can see where this is going…

7:20PM

Still no technician and no one has called me at all today to give me any information.  At this point, I’m just a bit irate [hint of sarcasm], so I call them back and escalate the issue.  Now they say it will be another hour, but someone is DEFINITELY going to be by.  I have already explained that I work out of my house and it’s critical that I get up and running tonight.

9:00PM

[Patience shot] I started the process over again and contacted Customer Service.  What happened next absolutely astonished me!  After holding, so they could check with the dispatcher, the Rep comes back and says, “Mr. Rose, that job has been completed”.   Wait, it gets better… After about 30 minutes of me, (obviously upset) explaining to the Rep that no one came by and they obviously lied about completing the job, I suggested that they just get someone out first thing in the morning to complete the job.  That would be the correct solution, right?  Wrong!  Apparently, Comcast already lined up their jobs and confirmed them for the next day, July 3^rd.  Then they’re closed for the July 4^th holiday.  She explains that the next available appointment is July 5^th between 12:30 to 4:30.   I got heated, but never disrespectful, at that point.  I must have said that their solution was grossly unacceptable at least 20 times. 

I share this with you to illustrate all of the things NOT to do in customer service or designing business processes, which is related to an earlier post on good customer service at Walgreens and Ukrops.

 

I did get service installed on July 5^th and was pleased with the technician they sent.  I told them I wanted action taken on the first technician that lied.  In the end, I have service; with a customer credit of $75 for my aggravation.  That would have covered about 30 minutes of my time…  I probably shouldn’t ever have to pay another Comcast bill for the rest of my life to get over this debacle.

 

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 29th, 2007 at 12:54 am and is filed under Customer Service, Management, Musings, Relocation, Tony. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.