Time Warner Screws Up My Phone Service And Has A Great Solution: I Do The Work To Fix It
My landline, which I need to do radio shows about my column and book, was really expensive, even after I'd brought down the cost.
After some consultation with people about Ooma, I ordered Time-Warner phone service -- on April 5. They told me the modem would be sent within five days.
Five days pass. No modem. And more no modem.
Tuesday, April 15, I get an email saying it was being sent out -- that day.
Meanwhile, on April 15, they also shut off my incoming calls. Gregg found this out -- there was not even a dial tone or a recording -- and called me on my cell four times before I noticed the message. (I have my cell set never to ring.)
Furious, I stopped my work on my next book and called Time-Warner. The rep, sitting in Colorado, said there's an easy solution: *I* can drive to Time-Warner Wednesday morning and go pick up a modem.
Yes, I can stop my work, leave my house, and drive somewhere. Take a couple hours out of my writing day and enjoy me some LA traffic.
Because they screwed up.
I asked for a supervisor.
Then, instead of doing my work, I waited on the phone for 20-plus minutes before a supervisor came on.
I told him the solution: They can get a technician out to my house with a modem at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, and have him set it up free of charge.
There's a problem with that, he said -- their dispatch center closed 30 minutes before.
This supervisor said he'd see IF he could make this happen for tomorrow. IF.
Because all the technicians are booked.
IF.
I have no phone service. This morning, when I woke up, there wasn't even an outgoing dial tone.
And they don't have anybody for trouble-shooting in cases like this?
Thanks, Time-Warner! Glad to see you're getting a headstart on the Comcast merger.
UPDATE ON GETTING THIS FIXED (excerpted from my full comment below, 12:09 pm, April 16):
I had the name and phone number of Time-Warner's field supervisor, this lady, Andrea Jefferson, who was really good. Customers are not supposed to have this number but I did. She's gone but the number still works and I got through to the new field supervisor. A technician will be here between 3pm and 4pm.
Because I had the magic number customers don't have.
Is it really supposed to work that way?
Time-Warner: "We really appreciate your business. Just not enough to unfuck you after we've fucked you (in any timely manner)."
My Dad ran into this as well. He got told by the dispatcher that all the techs were working on problems with larger, more important accounts, and that they'd get to him in a few days.
That was comcast.
Lamont Cranston at April 16, 2014 7:30 AM
Yeah, it sounds like they've already taken the Comcast customer-service training. We've just gotten through a wrangle wherein a Comcast tech did a bunch of unnecessary hackery on my inside wiring (which I installed myself), which did no good because the problem all along was that they gave me a faulty DVR, and then the tech signed me up for inside-wiring maintenance without my consent.
Cousin Dave at April 16, 2014 7:34 AM
Fortunately, my neighbor gave in to constant Time Warner sales pressure and signed up for their phone service. Disaster ensued. That immunized me from their sales pressure. Oddly enough, their cable service has been excellent. Of course, Comcast has one of the most atrocious service records in the industry. I hate to think of what a merger would produce.
Bar Sinister at April 16, 2014 8:00 AM
I think Time-Warner is run by a Democrat. They are holding up your phone installation on behalf of the Greater Good.
mpetrie98 at April 16, 2014 10:57 AM
Because at the cable company, the customer is always our bitch.
Notes: South Park cuts, with generally disturbing imagery...
I R A Darth Aggie at April 16, 2014 11:06 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/04/16/time_warner_scr.html#comment-4499775">comment from I R A Darth AggieLove this. They scheduled somebody to come out NEXT WEEK! Tuesday, April 22, to fix my phone. So, no phone service for a week -- nuh-uh. Plus, I'm not shutting off my land line service until I'm sure I have a workable substitute. This will probably incur an extra month's $80.
I called them at 8:30 am and realized what makes a big difference between whether I'm pissed off or launch into "truly furious," and that's the competence and manner of the person answering the phone. Last night, the guy who answered first sounded like he needed a nap or would soon be dead, not sure which. It took him 20-some minutes to get a supervisor, who couldn't understand why I was, oh, a little tweaked about not only losing my phone service but being made to wait a long time with hold music/hold announcements for someone to come on and help me.
This morning, I got this woman, Laurie, in their Colorado Springs office, who just by her manner told me she was smart and gets things done. She unfortunately had to send my call to her supervisor, some woman who speaks English with such a thick accent as to be barely comprehensible on the phone.
She gave me that crap about her supervisor calling about this. Someone would get back to me. That sounded like someone MIGHT. Today, tomorrow. I told her I wanted a call back in a half hour. Two hours later -- 10:30 am -- I'd heard nothing.
These big companies do everything they can to avoid allowing you to actually get through to somebody who'll help you.
But a few years ago, I actually was responsible for fixing all of Time-Warner's service in West LA, because I insisted and kept insisting there was something wrong with it. Indeed, there was, and after I wrote to the media person for TW in NYC, somebody took a look and found that there was an issue "at the node," whatever the hell that means. The technician who came out to my house told me that I had helped see that there was a fix on this that affected all of West LA (I'm not just bragging out of my ass).
Anyway, from that time, I had the name and phone number of Time-Warner's field supervisor, this lady, Andrea Jefferson, who was really good. Customers are not supposed to have this number but I did. She's gone but the number still works and I got through to the new field supervisor. A technician will be here between 3pm and 4pm.
Because I had the magic number customers don't have.
Is it really supposed to work that way?
Time-Warner: "We really appreciate your business. Just not enough to unfuck you after we've fucked you in any timely manner."
Amy Alkon at April 16, 2014 12:09 PM
Sounds like they all belong to a union. That way they don't have to do anything unless they feel like it. Just my guess.
BeBe at April 16, 2014 12:49 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/04/16/time_warner_scr.html#comment-4500346">comment from BeBeLatest in Time-Warner saga -- technician, who was very nice and reads a lot in psychology and ev psych -- just left. Dial tone...yay! Only my number still doesn't ring because...Time-Warner hooked my phone to some strange number that WAS NOT THE ONE I ASKED THEM TO PORT.
Technician is gone now. Field Supervisor calling to try to do something about this.
Unbelievable.
If you are thinking of switching your phone to Time-Warner, my advice is: DON'T!
Amy Alkon at April 16, 2014 5:17 PM
I worked in Customer Disservice for a while. Our supervision would do anything to avoid taking a call (IF they could be found at all). The procedure with a very adamant customer was to find another rep (peer) to take the call and pretend to be the stuporvisor. True Story. It takes at least 20 minutes to find someone willing to jepordize their job (or ready to quit) to take the call.
bmused at April 16, 2014 8:19 PM
This sounds about right. About every 6 months, I call Time Warner and complain about my low internet speed (I pay for about 15 Mb/s, at twice the rate of new customers, and I get about 7 Mb/s). I just ask for a supervisor, and they usually bump me up to the next level for free for 6 months. They simply refuse to put in an extra node in my apartment complex, where they and AT&T are the only two available (each neighborhood has one connection to their server, so all of your and your neighbor's traffic goes through essentially the same pipeline to the server, which means during heavy use, or moderate use times in my case, the service slows down dramatically)
spqr2008 at April 18, 2014 7:21 AM
They're the phone company. They don't have to care.
And they don't.
Seriously. The number you call puts you into a cookie-cutter routine, and if you're not in one of those pre-assigned niches, good luck to you.
It's not worth the money to be any more responsive.
Sad, but notice you didn't cancel your service. Almost nobody does.
Unix-Jedi at April 21, 2014 12:04 PM
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