I'm actually quite impressed with
Roland's phone skills. I got rid of
cable as we were paying outrageous amounts each month. We have been able to pick up six stations
with an antenna we purchased, but there was a day when I'm assuming the weather
had interfered and we were only down to two.
As mentioned previously, Jenna and I
could live without the TV or cable. We
watch it because it's there, but would not miss it if it wasn't. But Roland likes having the TV and had called
another company to see how much cable would run.
So our internet was with Charter. We NEED the Internet. Roland works from home online. We both go to school online. We need the Internet. We do not need the cable. Nevertheless, Roland found a great deal in
which Frontier promised a cable and Internet package for the same amount that
we were paying Charter for Internet only. The first call placed was answered by a young
guy from California who was living in Salt Lake.
Why the heck would we be calling Salt
Lake? I had never even heard of Frontier
until we got to Oregon. The guy was
friendly and after the information was exchange, we got a little personal
(which I know is how he's from California) and he told us some jokes before he
hung up.
Our cable contract is through Dish and
NOT Frontier. And of course we are
locked into it now because apparently Roland's electronic signature proves
that. The cable box was sent - but
Roland wasn't sure how to connect it. Someone
came out to connect it and we had a SLOW connection. Not even 12 full hours. Fortunately we had
not cancelled Charter.
I don't know how many times Roland has
been on the phone with Frontier - asking employees for their first and last
name and employee identification (because thus far none of the employees have
been willing to give his or her last name - which I don't blame them. Most have been good to give their employee
number - or a number anyway (how do we really know) as Roland explains for the
umpteenth time that "I need this for work . . . I was very clear about
that from the beginning" He always
tells the employees to make notes on file and asks for the supervisor and that
supervisor's supervisor.
He is calm. Although he is frustrated, he doesn't express
anger. But he does become more irritated
with each call explaining himself again and again. We still have the box. We have asked for a box to return it in. I have even taken it to the two locations
here in Myrtle Creek - a warehouse downtown and the communication center? in Tri-City. It was closed. I wonder if it ever opens. Or why it's there.
Frontier will probably go out of
business. We heard that from an
employee. No kidding. I don't guess their exceptional customer
service would have anything to do with it.
I've been dealing with crisis of my
own. We're doing our taxes. Need I say more? No matter how prepared we believe we are,
we're always missing forms. At least three
1099s. And so I've been trying to make
contacts with each of the companies getting nowhere fast.
Actually, I did make progress with one
company. I've listened to at least 7
different recordings for another. I
finally left my phone # when I was given the option to leave with a promise of
a call back within 24 hours. Oh, they
did call back alright. But it was the
WRONG company. I was contacted this
morning by one who received my phone number.
It took us a few minutes to realize that the number I retrieved from the
other website had been connected to the other at one time, but was no longer a
part of them - therefore she couldn't help me.
(Ugh)
And the one human I get has an accent
so thick that she had to slow down when pronouncing "Annual Summary"
because I was hearing "Animal Movie" and I knew that is not what she
was saying.
I wish I had the patience and control
that Roland does when he is speaking over the phone. I am just too dang emotional. Customer Satisfaction really hasn't seemed
very satisfying this century.
I told Roland that one of the things I really like about living in Oregon is that I feel like a person and not just a statistic. When I am calling corporations I feel even less than a statistic.
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