Fuck You, Phone Company! >click<

The BBQ Pit
1

I’d been having static on my phone line for a couple of months - the land line had become more or less unusable. At first, I chalked it up to my cordless set going back, but two weeks ago, I got curious enough to do some light troubleshooting - checking wired phones, various phone jacks in the house, etc.

Every phone, every jack - same problem.

On Thursday, August 15th, I called the phone company. Frontier Communications, locally. I reported the problem, a trouble ticket was logged, and I was told that someone should be able to take care of it by the following Wednesday at the latest. Great!

The following Wednesday, the problem persisted. I called in again, and a very sympathetic older lady listened to my complaint and told me that the system said my trouble ticket had been closed.

“Without notifying me? Or resolving the problem?”
“That’s the procedure. I don’t agree with it, but…”

So she checked my account, verified I had been paying for inside line maintenance, and set me up with an appointment for an inside visit from a technician. Earliest available was the 30th, but she said she’d try to escalate it. I thanked her, and asked that she make sure to note that if the guy made it over early, I’d need a call on my cell phone to come let him in.

Friday the 23rd, I arrive home to find a note on my door explaining that Frontier’s tech had stopped by, but since I wasn’t home…

In a fury, I called them up. The rep who answered confirmed that the tech was supposed to call. He put me on hold, called the tech’s cell. I asked to be escalated to a manager so I could complain about the handling of the case - 1.) closing the trouble ticket without resolving it or calling me, and 2.) ignoring the instructions to call me to let the guy in.

While I was holding for a supervisor, the tech came back by the house. I let him in to do his thing, and then I finally got a supervisor.

Since the tech had arrived, I didn’t worry about #2, but I told him I wanted to complain about point #1. And he was having none of it. He condescendingly explained that ‘outside’ maintenance calls and ‘inside’ maintenance calls are different in the system, and since no outside problem was detected, the closure of the first ticket was proper, and that I should have called them for an ‘inside’ problem.

At this point, it was all I could do not to say “Are you fucking kidding me? What do I sound like, a goddamn psychic? Or a telephone tech? If I knew where the fucking problem was, I obviously would have told you, but as I am not a lazy-ass jumpsuited fuck working for your shitty company, I do not happen to be conversant in the art of telephone line maintenance.” I managed to convey the substance of the sentiment, though.

The supervisor kept stubbornly insisting that despite the fact that a) there’s a problem and b.) they were unable to detect it outside the house, and c.) I pay every month to cover inside line maintenance, that that in no way obligates them to - after determining that the cause does not lie outside the home - call me and schedule an inside visit. Nor does it obligate them to call me and tell me that no problem was detected outside. It apparently obligates them to sit with their thumbs up their ass and hope that I don’t call in again.

I told them that their policy was no way to run a business, and to expect the termination of my services soon, and hung up on him.

And then I dialed Time Warner cable. By adding in phone service through them, I can get a package with increased internet speed, an extra movie package, and unlimited US/Canada calling for $7 more than I already pay them for internet/cable, and can drop my $68 phone bill.

By the time the tech left, BOTH my problems were solved.

2

I was going to suggest switching providers before getting to the end of your post, because that service is pretty outrageous.

Out of curiosity, do you have DSL? Sometimes with DSL you can get static on the line if one of your DSL filters has gone bad (or if you don’t have a DSL filter on one or more of the jacks). You’d think that would be the first thing your phone company suggested, but then they don’t seem like the brightest bulbs in the package.

3

No DSL. Actually, I forgot the BEST part of this whole thing. The problem? Was that the line between the pole and my house had gone bad.

That’s right, it was an **outside **line problem. My house lacked a grey patch-box on the outside, so the tech had no way to test that line without coming inside… allegedly.

4

I am a Frontier Communications Customer.

I have stopped making any phone complaints about their service, because I have been repeatedly lied to by their call center. I have had CSRs refuse to give me useful ID information so I can pass on complaints about poor service to their supervisors. I have had calls dropped when I ask to escalate. I spent eight months trying to get enrolled into a discount bundle, with each month being assured I had been so enrolled, and the next month’s bill again reflecting the total lack of such enrollment.

At this point, the only way I am willing to communicate with the company is to go to their local office, and speak, in person, to the generally helpful staff still left here from when the company had been locally based.

I am going to be moving soon, and while I have a great deal of disdain for Time-Warner, I am sorely tempted to simply switch all my services to them, instead of continuing with a service whose representatives have proven to be completely untrustworthy.

Which is a crying shame, since the actual service has been top-notch. DSL rates averaging some 40% of the stated maximum from their ads, and a 99%+ serviceability rate for phone and DSL. I wouldn’t recommend going with their company to anyone, unless they’re have problems with the competing service providers in their area.

It’s almost like there are two Frontiers: Those that deal with customers and those who actually keep the equipment running.

5

Verizon pulled that inside/outside line nonsense on us, and we’re now happy with our Cox phone service.

6

Verizon is just as bad - they had our area before selling their interests in WV to Frontier; I had Verizon reps directly lie to me and set me up for promotional rates that then turned out to be unavailable in my area.

7

You might want to keep an eagle eye on Time Warner, too. Shortly after I moved into my house, my internet service would go in and out most afternoons and into the evening.

The first tech who came out said that there was a small voltage on the lines, caused by cable lines crossing power lines in the attic, that was knocking my modem offline. He said to schedule a tech to rewire the house. The second tech noted that he would need to go into the attic to do that, and to reschedule for a morning appointment. The third tech noticed that the wall in question was shared with the kitchen, so it wasn’t possible to run cable up to the attic; I would need to punch through my wall to the outside and run the cable along the outside of the house to the outside box in a “full wrap”.

I was not pleased, but before I scheduled appointment number 4, I came home one day and the line from the outside of my house to the TWC box at the edge of my property appeared to have been dug up, and I never had the problem again. The problem was on their end the whole time!

8

They’re all bastards, and service is equally shitty everywhere, because it’s more profitable to run a company that way. For all of them.

9

I’ve head TW for years and years for TV and internet, so I’m pretty comfortable with them, at least locally.

10

We have Frontier service and have always had excellent customer service from them, but I attribute that to our location in the middle of nowhere. If we have problems, we always get the same technician, a guy who lives in the area. Their reputation for customer service in more populated areas is abysmal.

I’m glad our experiences with them have been positive, because if we get fed up there’s nobody to switch to.

11

It seems that big corporations like the cable companies have many common traits. My only experience has been with the monopoly in my area, Charter, but I have learned to expect, as a matter of course (these are not isolated incidents, but repeated occurrences):
[ul][]A visit that was supposed to be in the afternoon was made in the morning and when no one was home, the ticket was closed without notice.[]A visit that was scheduled was never made and the customer was not notified because the tech thought the problem was elsewhere and closed the ticket. Yet the problem persisted.The ticket was closed without customer being consulted or notified because the tech didn’t understand what the complaint was, due to the operator’s misinterpretation or lack of knowledge.[/ul]

12

i the phone books i recall seeing it says (as i recall)

when you have trouble with your wired phone service then you should go to your Network Interface Device (where the phone wires enter your house). unplug your house from the phone company and plug a good known working phone into the phone company jack and make a call to someone. if the call is good quality then the problem is in your house (wires or phones). if the call is bad quality then the problem is with the phone company.

if the problem is with the phone company outside your house or if you have inside line maintenance plan then call the phone company. if your indicated a problem inside the house and that you had inside line maintenance during your first call you would have had better results.

if you didn’t have inside line maintenance then they might do the work for an hourly charge or you could hire a skilled person like an electrician.

13

Have they put in a radio tower near you recently? We live near one, and it tends to interfer with our phone all the time. :frowning:

14

Timely thread. I spent over an hour today chatting with Time Warner because our land line suddenly dropped dead. Am supposed to get a visit from a tech tomorrow between 11 - 12, we’ll see …

15

You might try reading my post before joining in. I didn’t have a network interface device. And I had no way to determine whether the problem was inside or outside. And it was outside. Frontier fucked up.

16

I used to share this attitude and it kept me from switching providers for way too long. I finally couldn’t take Insight’s spotty Internet access and shitty service anymore, so we switched to WOW. Astonishingly, their call center appears to be staffed locally and their techs seem to know what they’re doing. I’m really glad we switched, even though it was a pain in the ass and seemed futile at the time.

17

By the old clock on the wall, it is now tomorrow and this time has passed. What was the outcome?

18

I was lucky when this happened to me.

Me: Our DSL is going out because of static on the line.
Nice AT&T rep: I can’t hear you. There is too much static on the line.

They actually came more or less on time and found that a squirrel had chewed through most of the line. My wife works from home, so we don’t have appointment issues, at least.

19

Amazingly, he called ahead of time and came early. Tested a bunch of stuff and figured out that it is the phone itself that is dead AND he didn’t charge me.

So, I guess Time Warner in Orange County is OK! :smiley: