Angry Cable customer!

[jman01pa]

Last week I ordered Cable TV and Broadband through Insight, our local cable company for my new house. I needed a Saturday appointment because I am single and work during the week. The Sales Rep informed me that I was in luck, there was a cancellation for this past Saturday. She scheduled it between 1-5 pm. I had lived in the house a week. No cable tv or Internet. I was pleased.

Saturday came and I waited all day. At 5.15pm I called Insight and was told that I was mistaken. My appointment was for sunday between 1-5pm. Suprised they did installs on Sundays, I went along with it. I was a bit unhappy but all will be fixed tomorrow.

Sunday came and I waited once again. About 3.00 pm I called them just to see if they still were on Schedule. She looked me up in their computer. I was told that my appointment was scheduled between 1-5 and that as far as she could tell all was well. At 5.15pm they still hadn’t showed. By this time I was on fire. I called them back and the person that answered listened to me and then looked my account up. He informed me that they do not do installations on Sundays and he wasn’t sure why I was even scheduled. He also told me that there was no record that I ever had a Saturday appointment and that no one had documented any of the previous calls that I had made. He told me a supervisor would call me to work things out. She called and basically told me I would have to reschedule but she would give me 20.00 off of installation. She wanted to reschedule with me. I was told earlier by the last guy that they have made exceptions and should do an evening appointment. I said that I wanted Monday after 6.00pm. She then said that the only hours available for installs were 8-12 and 1-5 Monday through Saturday. No exceptions. I work during the week and have to work the next few Saturdays. she said there was nothing she could do. I wanted to go off on her. She said that was the best that she could do. I asked for her supervisor and she said he wasn’t there. I hung up on her withut even getting her name.

Today I will call. I am not sure how far I can go with this. I am so mad I cant stand it. Someone needs to be held accountable for waisting my whole weekend and I expect a little better than 20.00 credit to my account and better service time for the install.

If anyone has any suggestions or comments I would appreciate.

For the record, DSL is not an option and where I live cable TV is a necessity.

[J-Excel]

A similar thing happened to me with AT&T. I got free installation and first 2 months free. Just cable though. No broadband.

[jman01pa]

I would sure like some opinions on how to handle this. Anybody?

How did you handle yours J-Excel?

[mad1]

Ask for the manager, do not except any excuses from the person that answers the phone. THe person that answers the phone will promise about anything, they don't want to give you to a manage( it looks like they aren't doing their job). I had this same problem with my dishwasher, I just kept telling the lady that I wanted to speak to a manager.

Write down the name, time and the converstation that took place.The next person may tell you something different. ALso send a letter to the President of the company.
Good luck,these can be very frustrating

[Theophylact]

I have a friend who has great success by sweetly persisting along the following lines: "You don't understand. I don't have a problem; you have a problem. Now what do you propose to do to solve that problem?"

[osprey4]

What needs to be installed? If you've got the coax cable in your place, all the work can be done outside. There's nothing to installing a cable modem that requires a technician, unless they've got some proprietary set up.

That said, I'm with Mad1. Call, call again, and keep calling the same person. Polite persistence works every time!

jman01pa, I assume you have no alternative.

While I have not experienced this same situation, I can tell you from experience that if you threaten them with :

1) legal Action

2) Publicity - by writing to local newspapers/TV stations

They capitulate because they know they are wrong. I had a helluva time getting a $50 rebate back for a cell phone even afetr 8 months - they'd tell me " due to overwhelming response to this promotion, we are running late...." Well I got pretty fed up and fortunately one of the reps was a nice guy who gave me all details about the management/addresses and phonwe numbers.

Well, I called them and told them if they don't credit the rebate to my VISA in 4 hours, I will speak with a lawyer and they'll have to pay up to all the people versus only me.

Got the money in 2 hours.

Act tough but fair and the legal action with recovery of all costs plus payment to other similiar mis-treated customers (class action suit) normally stirs up things.

In your case, specially if they are a monopoly, they'd be scared of ANY publicity. Tell them you will personally put up posters of their actions all over town in the malls/restaurants/gas stations...

I'd guess they should give you installation free and 6 months free at the very LEAST.

[Gomer]

You probably aren't going to like this... because it doesn't involve trying to get reimbursed for your time, or some huge discount because they jocked you around.

But why on earth would you still want to do any sort of business with the company after all of this trouble?

Someone needs to be held accountable for waisting my whole weekend

Hold them accountable by taking your business elsewhere or by doing without.

DSL is not an option and where I live cable TV is a necessity.

If that really is the case then you are bound to dealing with their ineptness for the next year or so. Good luck.

[jman01pa]

I won

I am getting installed after 5.00 this evening, free installation and a credit on a month’s service.

After working my way up the incompetent chain of command, I finally ended up talking with the VP over broadband. As I had with the previous 7 individuals, I told him my story and he told me their policy. We did not agree.

Prior to this call I had been put on hold many times and I was able to listen to their advertisements over the phone over and over again. One that stood out kept saying "Customer satisfaction is our objective".

I finally had enough and raised my voice and asked him what "Customer satisfaction is our objective" is suppose to mean because I sure wasn’t satisfied. I said a few other choice words and my point was made quite clearly.

He asked me what would make me happy. I told him I wanted an evening appointment after 5.00 pm. He scheduled me for tonight. He asked if there was anything else. I said yes, I expect some sort of compensation. He said your installation is free and gave me a credit for a month’s service. I said thank you.

My main objective here was just for them to take care of me because they screwed up and didn’t take the initiative on their own. I am getting that. I would have taken this all the way to the media if I would have had to.


Gomer

I do agree its best to take my business elsewhere; I cant at the moment but will if DSL is ever in my neighborhood....

[J-Excel]

You might be completely happy with the service now that you are over the installation hurdle. In my experience cable installations rarely have gone without some kind of a hitch. I wouldn't plan on moving any business just yet. You might be trading the devil you know for the devil you don't know.