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Monday, February 02, 2009

System Outage

In June 2008 my broadband connection was interrupted for almost a month. Finally due to my persistent follow-up calls to my provider the service was back running July 19, 2008. It was after a man came to our house, who advised me he represents my provider. I did not bother to asked if is he is an employee or one of the contractors. The meeting was not very pleasant but I did not show my violent reaction. I guess you would have the same feeling if you were in my shoes. I was advised by the nice gentleman if my broadband would not work again, to turn on and off the modem and my computer.

I thought all the while my connection will be up and running since then. But since July 2008, that accordingly the connection had been fixed I would still have service interruptions every month. I had been calling about the problem but instead of fixing the problem it had worsen. The last service interruption in 2008 was in December, for two weeks. I was given the info that when the service is interrupted for 24 hours subscribers will be given credit on our bills. I received my bill for the service period covering the two weeks outage in December, I did not have a credit on my bill. Worst scenario, my landline phone and broadband were out since their system outage, Jan 2, 2009, while my neighbors connection were fully restored.

Despite my repeated follow-up calls since Jan 4, 2009. Three service techs came to our house only last Jan 19 late afternoon. I was advised someone had cut the wire from the pole to our house??!! They left, after they had reconnected the wire and fixed the small box inside the house where the line was connected. I was told the phone will work in due time and they will just call me back. No calls. I had to wait again tediously, nothing happens. Again I made calls, narrating the same mantra every time I called. My frustrations prompted me to write a long e-mail to the customer service of my provider, giving all the details of the “series of unfortunate events. “

Somehow my effort was rewarded. Two techs came to our house January 26 late afternoon, belonging to the same group of techs who connected the wires Jan 19. In less than an hour my phone had dial tone and my broadband connection was up and running. The outages and delayed service restoration had cost me monies. But, I am glad to get back to the World Wide Web. And hopefully, I am keeping my fingers crossed I would not get service interruptions anymore. If ever a system outage is unavoidable, my service will be restored same time with the other subscribers. In this way I would not be a bitch to the customer care advocate attending to my calls.

Word of advice to service providers - Maybe you could stop promoting your services in the meantime giving out freebies, etc. Until such time you could fully assure your subscribers you have the capacity to service them well.

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