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Consumers Frustrated With Static on the Service Line
Doris Margolis has been living for months with a Comcast cable hanging across her front yard. Surveys show the communications industry doesn't rank highly in customer service.
(By Bill O'leary -- The Washington Post)
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Nudd called four or five times to try to reactivate his service, but was told he lacked legal authority to do so.
"Typically, people are sympathetic and ask, 'what can I do to help you,'" said Nudd, an environmental engineer in Austin. But in this case, a customer service agent based in Bangalore, India, told him he must call another number. Eventually, he gave up and signed up for service with another carrier, but as of last week, he received bills for his and his late wife's cell phone for the previous two months.
Sprint, which last week received regulatory approval to merge with Reston-based Nextel Communications Inc., said it deals with customers' situations on a case-by-case basis. It has policies to protect customers from fraudulent activities on a closed account, spokeswoman Lisa Malloy said, and customers can request to talk to a supervisor if they are unhappy with the solution a representative provides.
Dogged persistence paid off partially for attorney David Hutner, a seasoned dialer of the Verizon Communications Inc. customer-service line. He tried to resolve problems with his high-speed Internet service on at least eight occasions in the past two years. After spending dozens of hours yelling on the phone, he was given the names, direct phone numbers and even cell phone numbers for people who work in the "Resolution Group" in Canada, he said.
"When I was dealing with the Resolution Group, I could feel my blood pressure going down. The real reason I felt better was because I was talking to a real person," said Hutner, a Chevy Chase resident of who ultimately canceled his DSL service for a cable connection.
Customer service has had to keep pace with more sophisticated technologies, and Verizon has added more customer representatives with each new product, said Eric Rabe, a spokesman for the phone giant. Customer service is one of the costliest operations in the business, and even if a high percentage of problems get resolved, there are still thousands of unhappy customers, he said. "It's the hardest thing we have to do."
Jaye Gamble, a Comcast senior vice president, said internal surveys show that more than 95 percent of appointments made with customers are met and problems are resolved. Gamble said the company faces competition, and that forces it to try to improve its reputation with customers. "This has been a constant since I've been in the telecommunications industry -- you have to provide good customer service. If you don't, somebody else will," he said.
But Potomac resident Lotte Hall said she seems to keep falling through the cracks.
Since June 22, Hall has tried to resolve an ongoing problem with her Comcast service, but after several no-shows and a visit from a workman who was not able to resolve it, she feels trapped. "They keep saying they passed it on to the upper echelons," she said, yet nothing has happened.
