("My Ultimate" will run most Tuesdays and will feature any topic that hops into my head. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the other New England Mamas. . . although they should).
Late last week, we lost our internet connection. One minute, I was checking my email, the next minute. . .blam! Nothing.
Husband called our esteemed (cough, cough) digital internet company (rhymes with FlomFlast) who told us we'd have to wait four days before the could get a service person to come to our home.
Four days. Four days! Gee, thanks for the service!
The night before the service call, we received an automated phone confirmation that changed the time of our call from between 2pm-5pm to between 11am-1pm. We made sure we were home until 1pm, at which time I called the company, only to be told, "Sorry! The phone call must have been in error! You need to wait from 2pm-5pm!"
And we waited, and waited. I called them at 4pm. Was told that they'd be there by 5pm.
Called at 5pm; was told that I would hear from someone within 30 minutes with an exact time.
At 5:30pm, I called again and was told that, not only was no one on their way, the call had been canceled internally at 4:45pm.
Would I like to reschedule?
I went ballistic.
The service person got a little nervous and decided to see if she could figure out the problem on her end. I handed the phone to my husband because I was ready to start talking in a devil-voice to her.
Five minutes later, the internet was back. All she had to do was push a button on her end to reset our internet connection.
Now, one would think that "Push the Reset Button" would be something that FlomFlast would do before scheduling an expensive, time-consuming service call, but what do I know?
I'm just the customer.
As pushing the reset button would be both helpful and efficient and Flomfast is incabable of either...ballisticism is warranted.
Said the girl who's bill was "problem resolution" for six months.
Posted by: jenny | July 02, 2008 at 11:14 AM
There are only two words that get through to FlomFast. Verizon Fios. Call today. It's wonderful...
Posted by: mrs. q. | July 02, 2008 at 11:15 AM
Ultimate indeed, glad you are back on line.
Posted by: AlphaDogMa | July 02, 2008 at 12:25 PM
I don't know if you remember but I was without a computer for several weeks because of Flomflast. I should send you my letter I sent to them with all the problems we had dealing with their customer service - its 2 pages. I didn find one person who finally helped us. If you want, I can give you his name. We are done with Flomflast and now are back with rhymes with Horizon. :)
Posted by: Shannon | July 02, 2008 at 01:28 PM
My son calls that my "Trash talking voice"
Posted by: Danette | July 02, 2008 at 04:40 PM
DH says you can ask for a refund or prorated rate for the days your service was out if it is over 24 hours. If you can bear to call them back...
Posted by: Krystan | July 02, 2008 at 08:18 PM
I can not tell you how many times I have I have called "Horizon" about DSL outages (at least 11) only to have the internet magically reappear while they are checking my account - even though it's been out since tech support left the office at 5:03 the night before. grrr
I so feel your pain.
Posted by: Janel | July 02, 2008 at 09:41 PM
Evil Voice -- I love it. I use what my kids call the "Mad Teacher Voice." No one messes with me then!
Posted by: Daisy | July 03, 2008 at 07:22 PM
In the interest of fair reporting, I just called Comcast to ask why we didn't get certain channels and the girl, who was far and away the nicest person I've spoken to there, walked me through their packages, offered up a few recommendations.
And when I told her just how surprised I was to be on the recieving end of such great service after six months of B.S.? She credited my account for fifty dollars.
And then her boss (I asked to speak to him so that I could let him know just how personable and helpful his employee was - one good turn deserves another) walked me through a techinical issue that we ironed out in about five minutes, versus calling tech support and scheduling a home repair thing.
And FiOS customers have been coming into the town hall reporting phone outages, lasting a week or more, for the last three weeks - just so you know.
Posted by: jenny | July 05, 2008 at 02:09 PM
When these things happen, my husband puts me on the phone. There's something about my head spinning 360 degrees that usually gets action.
Posted by: Manic Mommy | July 06, 2008 at 09:18 PM