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ominae
join:2003-05-11
Columbus, OH
| [CATV] Customer service is suffering...
I'm posting this with the hope that someone at Insight pays attention and actually cares. It's kind of hard for a lowly consumer to get any satisfaction from a call center rep nowadays so all that's left for me to do is rant.
So today I call Insight to find out the amount of my bill. The friendly CSR tells me it's a few cents shy of $100. I find this interesting since it's higher than I am accustomed to paying. I ask again and he assures me that is my normal monthly amount, but since I pay the bill I know for a fact that I usually pay around $85 a month. After a long silence while he "researches" my bill he tells me that the deal I received when I signed up was only good for a year but through Insights good graces they allowed me to keep it for another 6 months.
Why am I upset? Insight has a history of screwing up my bill and missing service appointments. I get RR internet service, basic cable and a DVR through Insight Here in Columbus, Ohio. For almost a year I've been paying for anything but. A little history:
First story: Last autumn I came home to find G4 was no longer accessible. I called the local office, the young lady on the phone tried several fixes (resetting the cable box, having me power the box up/down...) but after several failed attempts she advised me that a tech would have to come out to fix it. The tech arrived as scheduled and spent about 30 minutes on the phone with the office trying various things. He finally resolved the problem and left. A few months later I'm curious about my bill, which seems a little higher than usual. I go to the paper copy and find out that since I had the issue with G4 they are charging me for a higher digital tier. I call the office and find out that the basic tier was "reorganized" and G4 was no longer part of it (but they did give me a $3 higher bill  ).
The CSR, the voice of the organization, the person in a position to sell products, educate the public and keep their customers happy failed on two out of three. If she would have told me G4 was no longer part of my package but I could add it for an additional charge (kind of like how they removed it for an additional charge  ) I would have told her to keep her G4, I'll stick with what I have. Likewise the tech should have told me but didn't (I'll cut him a little slack since the person on the other end of his cell phone might not have told him, but that just makes the whole company look worse). In the end I received credit for the error, so no harm, no foul. And that brings us to...
Story number 2: So in April I come home from work, grab a beverage and plop down on the couch to watch a few shows on my DVR. I hit the power button and... nothing. I try again, no response. Power is good to the DVR but it's dead. I call Insight and they tell me I can pick a new one up at the office or they can send someone out. Like most people I work, adn those hours are not conducive to driving from the north side to the southeast side of Columbus. I tell her to send a tech. She states that the latest they run service is 7pm. I get off at 6pm. She says she will have her tech come out on the last run of the day.
Next week I rush home and find a note on the door. The tech came at 5:52. Now, if he would have come at 6:15 and I wasn't there that would be my fault. But he came at 5:52. I call the office, they cheerfully advise me that no one was home when their tech arrived (you don't say?), but they have no record that I got off a 6pm because nothing was noted. But I'm not upset. We reschedule the tech for next week and I'm assured that he will come after 6pm.
I leave work at 5:30 that day hoping to get home by 5:45 (I have a 10 minute commute). I get home and find another note on my door. Seems the tech came out at 5:25. Now I'm slightly upset but remain calm as I call to find out what gives. I am advised they do show a note advising of my situation but unfortunately the tech in the field doesn't have access to it. I lose it for a bit (I asked her to tell me how someone is supposed to read a message they are never given, I get silence in reply). At this point I tell her to schedule it for Saturday (bye-bye overtime) because I have no faith in their ability to arrive after 6pm on a weekday. She sets it up for 10am - noon.
So at quarter after 9am Saturday I hear a knock on my door (I thought the police were serving a warrant he knocked so hard). I throw on some pants (yes, I was asleep. I purposely chose the 10-12 over the 8-10 service window so I'd be able to sleep in on my day off. I figured if I couldn't get the OT I'd at least get a full nights rest) and ran downstairs. It's the cable guy, 45 minutes early (or 3 weeks late, depending on your point of view). He checks my old DVR, says it's probably the power supply and brings in a shiny new Motorola DVR. All is well.
Or not. A few months go by and I notice my bill is higher than it's supposed to be, which brings me to today. I turns out that 2 things happened when my DVR was replaced, neither of which I was told. First, the DVR "service fee" of $10 I had been paying had increased...to $15.95. It seems that my old DVR was a single tuner model. You could only record the channel you were watching, but since I am usually online playing Xbox Live while it's recording it wasn't an issue. My replacement tuner was a dual tuner model. Seems they no longer have the single tuner DVR available and the dual tuner model was the cheapest option. Second, it seems that when I placed the second service call that changed something in Insights billing records and I lost my previous rate forever. Now, I know it was only supposed to be for a year, but the fact that they screwed up and gave me an additional 6 months doesn't make me feel any more confidence in this company. A mistake is a mistake, whether it benefits me or not.
So I ask the rep if he can credit the difference in cost of the DVR since no one told me that it would cost me more than the old one. He gave me a bunch of song a dance but in the end finally worked up the cojones to say no.
Well, they are supposed to be coming 8/29 to pick up my shiny new dual tuner DVR. I can't justify spending $16 a month for something that ultimately is pure profit for Insight (after they recoup the cost of the DVR that "service" fee becomes pure profit). I can watch whatever shows I miss online for free.
I would have continued happily as an Insight customer if their customer service had been better. I plan on buying a house soon (thanks for the incentive, Barack!) and, fortunately for us in Columbus, there are other options available (Time Warner, WOW, AT&T, Dish, DirecTV...). The product is great, reliable and competitive from a price stand point, but your customer service is severely lacking. Missing details (not knowing your own products?) and appointments is a poor compliment to an otherwise excellent service. | |
Matt_31
Who Hit The Power Button
Premium
join:2003-02-21
Jasper, IN
clubs:
 ·Vonage
 ·Insight Communicat..
| I do have to say for your issues, it has been a pain I can understand. In situations alot of us have delt with, I wish we could pinpoint time frames when people come (and in my case alot of times being there earlier is better). We will get told 2-3 hours time frame and most of the times they come they are much later.
I do have to respect the workers alot of times they come out to fix a huge issue and its something small or they expect to fix something small and its huge problem. So granted being out there is tough (i know when I used to go fix business computers). I have also been called by the CSR's and told things are going to be late etc.. which to me is what should be done.
I have friends with other carriers who have only ever seen their cable people one time at setup. They have never seen nor needed to call them again. Where like in my case they have been out here MANY times and Ive had many issues. So it does leave things to be desired alot of times.
Then to be honest its up to us to "remember" when our special packages end. I cant really blame insight for that. Even I had a package at one time that was different then the regular pack "up to date packages" only to find out a channel my wife wanted was not included. So in order to get that channel we had to change packages and to be honest it wasnt so bad, cause what the package had has other stuff we like to. It did cost more sadly but its justified. I just wish now we had triple or more ability tuner DVR's (of course ones thats dont freeze and lock up), but im being greedy I guess.
The best way i would describe the insight issues Ive had, it like a thanksgiving dinner theres many parts to it. While some parts are really good, other parts leave a bad taste in my mouth to where I dont want it anymore.
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Intel E6600 2.4, 6gigs Ram, 2 - 150GB Raptor's HD's Raid 200gig Maxtor, Nvidia 8800GTS, Vista Home Premium x64 SP2 | |
ominae
join:2003-05-11
Columbus, OH
| Some things upset me more than others. The fact that I work hours that aren't convenient to weekday service visits isn't Insights fault. But don't tell me you can arrange to have the tech there at a specific time only to find out later that you were outright lying because you had no way to get that info into the system. Tell me the truth upfront, that he may show up anytime within the service window.
The billing issues upset me because as a CSR your job is to sell Insights services. She should have been able to look at my current package and see that G4 was no longer included. That would have saved a service call. Once the call was placed it went through 2 more employees who had no idea it was removed from the package, and worse, they solved it by singing me up for an additional package at an additional cost with no disclosure that it was happening.
The money is not the issue. Two things are happening that upset me. First, I'm not being told things that are at my sole discretion to decide to accept or decline (like whether I want to pay for the extra channel or not). It's like they're afraid to give you (what they believe is) bad news. I'd rather be told up front that I'm going to be charged than find out on my own 3 months later.
Second, I'm being told things that are not true. If you say a tech will be there within a certain time, like 4pm-7pm, then that's when he should be there. Don't tell me you can have him come after 6pm when you have no control over when he arrives within that three hour window and no way to communicate that specific time to the tech.
Tell me the truth. It's not your job as a CSR to make the decision for the customer. Tell me what you offer, what my options are and leave it to me to make the decision. You are not helping me by conealing information either because you think you know whats best, you're trying to keep me from getting upset or you don't want to deal with an angry customer.
I'm not calling to make your life hard. I deal with my own customers on a daily basis and a fair amount of them don't like what I have to tell them. But my job is to give them the options regardless of their reaction. That's part of being in customer service. If you don't like the job or can't hack a few complaints (and a lot of people can't which is why the turnover in the customer service industry is so high) then you're in the wrong line of work. | |
OSUGoose
join:2007-12-27
Columbus, OH
clubs:
 ·AT&T Midwest
 ·Cingular Wireless
·Verizon BroadbandA..
·RoadRunner Cable
| I'll provide a lil insight (pun intended) based on my experience dealing with this company.
1. Whenever your given a 2 hr window for arrival, double it, esp if your a early 8-10 or late 4-6 apt. One of two things will happen, he will be early, or late. Neither time will you EVER get a call letting you know where the tech is, or should i say subcontractor if your upgrading/installing.
2. Do not take a after 2pm apt on a saturday. After 4pm, the local office closes, and your routed to louisville after-hours call center, who cant do shit to contact the contractor/tech and will tell u to call monday.
3. Insight has no way to communicate with their techs, is what i was told verbatim from a CSR in the local office, the best they can do is send a message to Dispatch to ATTEMPT to contact, but only if he's in-house, if you have a subcontractor coming, its a crap shoot if they have a way to contact him.
4. Insight does not value its customers, in terms of they would rather have some sloppy, unprofessional sub-contractor (either Vision Broadband Services, Broadband/Cable Express, Precession Broadband Inc, Macotec(if ur being disconnected)) install a new customer, upgrade services, and even some service calls, than to send one of their own in-house tech's that u see driving around in brand new vans/trucks with new ladders and cones (there slowly replacing their fleet here to those). And there is no way to guarantee if you ask for a in-house tech if you'll get one. I had added phone service, had them put on the workorder to send a inhouse tech, and a sub comes instead and the fricken wo had it typed to not send a sub!!! and the guy was like yea i was that.
5. Insight very rairly does QC (quality control) checks on any installs/upgrades/ect. When they do, its only one guy for this market, driving a unmarked new white ford van, who could be anyone posing as a cable tech.
6. Insight will literaly laugh if you tell them your going to WOW. They will state that WOW is cheaper because they have less channels. And dont even view them as a legit competition.
7. Insight will also laugh if you threaten to go to satellite, using out dated tactics saying when theres clouds, or very light rain you'll lose signal. You'll pay more a month for less service, or they dont have on-demand, while both providers have added that solution, just not as simplified as Inisght's is.
8. AT&T is not even a threat to Insight, they cant even finish rolling out u-verse.
Overall, there is a reason in columbus Insight is hated as much as if not more than TWC. For a company that advertises as being Better and Better TM and hype that we're your neighbors. Well you sure do treat your neighbors like shit. It took insight 2 YEARS to finaly discover their backup generator for there node wasn't working, when the maintenance tech came out, he told me the generator was OUT OF OIL, and wouldn't kick on bc of the low oil safety switch. They insisted it was a signal issue when i called in to complain about losing phone service in a power outage, among other misinformation.
Letters to the CEO of insight Michael Willner will get you no where, they will just get fwd to the local office where a CSR Supervisor will try and pay you off to make your complaint go away, vs actually fixing anything. Mr Willner used to grace these forums, but i haven't seen him in months. Theres days were i wish TWC or Comcast would just buy us up in Columbus, then maybe we'll finaly get to chose between more than 2 cable boxes, Digital Box, or HDTV/DVR and not enough box choices, why can TWC and WOW offer SD DVR's SD on boxes, HD only boxes and HD DVR's and yet still be in business? Because if you ask insight about that, they will say they are saving you money buy only having 2 box choices. | |
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