The Customer Anti-Service Case Study
We recently moved house, which can in itself be pretty stressful, but our telco decided to add to the stress by ‘forgetting’ (their words) about us moving.
Now to set the scene; we have been with this particular telco for over 5 years getting out phone, broadband and TV services via them at about $150 NZD+ per month - over 5 years that’s in the order of $10,000NZD.
So about 3 weeks before we moved I contact the telco provider and advised them we would be moving. At that stage they explained that the cable-based service we had was unavailable at the new house. After talking through the options it became clear that to keep our TV service we would need to move onto a fibre based connection which was slightly more expensive and would require a two step provisioning (first onto ADSL for phone and internet and then a move onto fibre to add TV) which I was happy with as long as we had phone and internet on the day of our move. I had it very clear that we needed a phone & internet and was told that was no problem.
So 3 weeks pass and the day of the move comes – stressful as expected – and by the early afternoon the movers had moved everything across to the new address. We had already received an account statement to the new address, which made me think everything was on track with the move. As mid-afternoon came around I clicked that I hadn’t seen anyone arrive to sort out the phone and internet so gave my friendly (this is before they gave me the run around and generally f*cked me around) telco provider a call to see when someone would show up.
After being on hold for 30+ minutes I talked to someone who seemed to get quite flustered and kept needing ‘to check something’ and who eventually told me we had been ‘forgotten’ and that no-one was coming to get the phone and internet up and running. Now I was surprised given the 3 weeks notice but these things do happen so I asked that someone call me back with an update on when things would be installed. After several more calls to their call centre - and a few tweets their way – someone eventually rang me back and apologised saying that a work order was raised to get it done urgently. The next day was Saturday and he said he’d try to get it installed then but realistically it would be Monday. Whilst not pleased with that I accepted that these things take time and thanked him for stepping up to sort out the stuff up on their part.
So Monday morning arrived and I almost chocked on my toast when I got an SMS to say the install had been booked for 2 weeks time! So I got on the phone – again waiting forever on hold – to figure out what had happened. The lovely lady on the other end confirmed that the text was right and then proceeded to go round and round the issue whilst in essence saying that there’s nothing she can do about the situation. When I asked to speak to a manager she put me on hold and then came back saying there were ‘no managers on the floor but someone could ring me back within 24 hours’! At this stage I was not amused and suggested that our, thus far great, customer-provider relationships might have to cease to exist which they didn’t seem to give one damn about.
I got put through to the disconnection department who seem to equally give less of a toss about me as a customer. I gave them one last chance to speed things up but they simply rang back and blamed Chorus who told them they had ‘too few technicians in Wellington’ to get onto my request.
I got tired of being told that ‘nothing could be done’ and that everyone had the same problem. As an aside I had dealt with the telco in my professional capacity and I can tell you that corporate customers get the same great levels of ‘service’ from them – over promise and don’t deliver.
We rang Telecom and they were far more helpful. They explained they needed the current telco to clear the move house request (so I rang the telco and got them to do that ) and then usually within 48 hours they can get us up and running. Excellent service – clearly explained the options and reasons for things. At that stage that was the best customer service I had experienced in ages!
We then ran Sky about the TV – they were helpful and said they’d be here the next day to get us connected up. That took all of 10 minutes to get sorted – great service.
So the lessons for the telco in question (even though I doubt they will learn anything from this experience) is:
- As a customer I don’t care about your business model. I don’t care who Chorus are and what they do for you, that’s your business.
- Do something to empower your staff – just saying there is nothing they can do is not what customers want to hear.
- Put as much effort into your work schedule systems as you do in the billing department. You’re great at billing and kinda sh*t at everything else.
- If you say you’re going to do something do it or at least ring me proactively and tell me why and when it will be done – I shouldn’t be chasing you and sitting on hold to your call centres all the time.
I’m looking forward to a long and productive experience with Sky TV and Telecom - here’s to the next $10,000+!