The Buckets by Greg Cravens for August 03, 2023

I get there in 3 minutes with their automated system!

He must not have Spectrum, I get through in a minute to complain about their crappy service!

Meanwhile Toby’s lying there staring at a blank tv screen.

I have DISH. I have been trying for two weeks to set up a TV in room 2. I gave up yesterday and called tech support. After trying everything I had already done for an hour she told me at this point I needed a tech for a service call. Since I don’t pay the 10.95 per month in “tech service fees” a $95 one time charge would take place. She then told me that I needed to upgrade my antenna. The tech would check all my installations at the time the new antenna was installed. Since the antenna is THEIRS, there would be no charge for the other checks, it would be part of the set up.Win Win. (Internet is via the X or Comcast company. When they call me for my “how satisfied are you” checks. I interrupt them and say "As soon as I have a second choice other than your company, I will cancel yours 1 minute later.)

At least you can get through. That’s a better start than some of us get

My wife handles phone and Internet. She was in HP Support for a while and has a high tolerance for incompetence. Her favorite: CS: “Hi, this might be the dumbest question you’ve heard.” Her: “Yes, it needs batteries.” CS: “Okay, second dumbest.”

3 worst customer service experiences ever – Sprint (a bit better since T-Mobile bought them), Dell Computers, and Comcast. Northwestern Medicine gets a Dishonorable Mention.

I detest the automated call sorting/routing menus which won’t let me talk to a person. If I call customer service, about 98% of the time, my issue requires human intervention and action, not an AI. Worse in my opinion is that after spending 15 minutes navigating through the phone bank is getting the prerecorded message telling me something along the lines of “All agents are busy at the moment, try your call again later. CLICK.”

Rant over for the moment…

The worst telephone support experience for me (other than the one where I was on hold for 45 minutes, then they hung up), was when I tried to tell Tracfone that I couldn’t sign on to my account. I couldn’t understand much of what he said, and apparently he couldn’t understand what I said either, because I simply could not get it across to him. It really wasn’t a major problem, since all I used it for was to check how many minutes I had, so I didn’t try again until after a major area power outage seemingly knocked out my phone service as well. What they told me was very odd, that my account had been cancelled several months before, which was still many months after I couldn’t sign on. And also, up until the outage, everything worked, phone, messaging, and Internet, and they had still accepted my monthly payments. Anyway, that support call went very well, my account got restored, and I now have a “4G” connection icon I didn’t have before. Go figure…

Real…. Press zero… Then State “LIVE AGENT” Several times. Their AI sucks

OMG that was my husband yesterday!

I’m still getting emails from debt collectors for a call that I made to cancel my plan with one company to switch to a better plan. The website claimed that it was a toll free call. They kept me on the line for nearly an hour then charged me for it. They also put spam ware on my phone while I was waiting for them to disconnect me and soon after my phone started to glitch and die. Many people disputed that I couldn’t possibly know this, that I’m being dramatic or whatever but the timing was too precise. By the time I found the spam and disabled it, I couldn’t remove it, it was too late. My phone was destroyed. It had the best camera I ever had.

Talking to a computer can be very frustrating….

Time to make an in-person visit to the store.to talk with a manager.

I’ve been there too many times.

Use cell phone to go to their website and ask to start service. That gets handled quickish