Since its inception (and the inception of its ‘sometime between 8 AM and 5 PM’ arrival policy) many decades ago the cable TV industry has been the butt of many a joke. Comedians have made entire careers using the idiotic cable man as an “inspiration” and feature length movies have even been made using the same inspiration.
However, after a recent experience with Charter Communications (the local cable company for the Madison, WI area), I’ve come to conclusion that the ‘cable guy’ mentality isn’t just with the actual cable guys – it runs right up the ladder to the top.
A few months ago we made a payment for our over-priced cable services (which could be the topic for a whole separate column in and of itself) just as we have every month for years. Charter, however, never applied the payment to our account. In other words, the money was pulled from our checking account and sent to Charter but according to Charter the payment was never made and our account showed payment due.
After I noticed the error I called Charter. After spending the customary 15 – 20 minutes on hold my call was finally answered. The friendly customer service rep explained that he would set up some sort of ticket or form (their internal issue tracking system) and get the situation corrected.
A few weeks later, with no word from Charter’s billing department, we received one of those nasty ‘you haven’t paid your bill’ phone calls. I immediately called the company and was lucky enough to have my call routed through their call center in the Philippines. The woman I spoke with was obviously reading from a script and, after going a few rounds, finally told me she was going to transfer me to the billing department.
The gentleman I spoke with in the billing department (apparently located in Michigan) explained that no ticket or form had been generated and that he would do what needed to be done to get things going. He confirmed that Charter would be calling me when the situation was resolved.
A week or so later we received another ‘pay your bill’ phone call, I again called Charter, and my call was again routed to the Philippines. Just as before, the person I spoke with finally managed to transfer me to someone in billing. And also just as before, the person I spoke with in billing said the proper paperwork hadn’t been generated but he would make sure it was and would then have someone call me when the issue was resolved.
Another week passed with no resolution and we received yet another ‘pay your bill’ call. By now I was getting pretty frustrated with the whole situation. So, I grabbed my phone and called Charter one more time. Just as every time before my call was routed to the Philippines. This time, though, I wasn’t in the mood for the usual 20 minute phone call with the operator reading the script only to transfer me to billing in the end. As soon as the operator picked up I asked to be transferred to billing.
Acting as though the operator didn’t even hear me, she began reading the script. I stopped her and asked her to transfer me to billing. She again began reading the script, asking the same questions, giving me the same ‘I can help you with your issue’ line. I explained that I was having a major billing issue and that all of the previous times I had called in the operator eventually ended up transferring me to billing. I explained that I wanted to avoid 20 minutes of answering questions and simply wanted to be transferred to billing.
She went right back to reading the script. I stopped her and again asked to be transferred to billing. She then told me that she couldn’t transfer me to billing. I tried arguing but it was pointless – the language barrier was obvious. I then asked to be transferred to someone – anyone – located in the US (I figured I could at least communicate with an American rather than listen to a scripted role-play). She refused.
By now I was really ticked off. I demanded to speak with her supervisor. A man with a thick accent who identified himself as Michael came on the line. I explained the situation, voiced my frustration with not being able to talk to the people I needed to talk to, and asked him to transfer me to billing. He told me point blank that I did not need to be transferred to billing and that the operator I had been speaking to could handle the situation. I explained my previous dealings with Charter and also explained that there was obviously a language barrier because the operator wasn’t speaking with me but rather reading a script.
He then argued with me about whether or not the operator could speak English and I finally blew up – I yelled that although the operator may be able to read English and speak “working” English (enough to get her work done) she obviously did not speak conversational English and could not help me.
Then…you’re going to love this…he said to me “Are you a racist?” I about dropped the phone… I couldn’t believe it! Not only had Charter managed to lose my money and drop the ball on my issue three times but now when I was trying to get connected to the right people to resolve the issue I was being told not only that I couldn’t talk to them but that I was a racist because the Pilipino operator I was speaking to couldn’t understand what I was saying.
This was the last straw for me. I quickly looked up the number to Charter’s corporate offices and placed the call. When I was finally connected to an operator she took my information, jotted down the situation, and said she’d have someone call me.
A short time later I received a phone call from a gentleman identifying himself as the person that overseas the call center in the Philippines and I explained the situation to him. He was apologetic and did his best to get to the heart of the matter (while providing me with the corporate ‘we support diversity’ and ‘it’s not that she didn’t speak English but that she was just a bad customer service rep’ lines). He assured me that he would look into the situation.
I also received a phone call from another higher-up regarding the billing situation. He assured me that he would look into the situation and get back to me on the billing issue. I was thrilled to death – I might finally be able to resolve the issue and put the whole thing behind me (except, of course, being called a racist by an employee of Charter because I wanted to speak with someone that could understand what I was saying and could help me with a difficult situation).
About a week later I received another call from the higher-up looking at the billing situation. He explained that the proper paperwork had never been sent but that the issue had now been brought to the attention of the appropriate department within the billing section of the organization. He assured me that I’d receive a response when the issue had been taken care of and told me that if it wasn’t resolved by the appropriate people that he’d simply “take care of it.”
That was about three weeks ago. Now, here we are again, with another ‘pay your bill’ phone call coming in. The original payment has still not been applied, billing still doesn’t know what’s going on, I’ve still been accused of being a racist, and I haven’t had any of the promised follow-up from Charter. Not only has their local office dropped the ball (yet again) but now the higher-ups in the company have as well.
I was originally grateful that the higher-ups had taken the time to get involved and I was hopeful that with their involvement this issue might finally get resolved. But alas, it has not.
I guess that the “we’ll be there between 8 AM and 5 PM” from the cable guy also translates right up the ladder to “we’ll call you when it’s fixed” from the guys at the top.
Ladies and gentlemen, here’s the heart of the whole situation. I made my required payment but Charter never applied it to my account. In trying to get the payment applied to my account (which should be a simple task) I’ve spent over 1 ½ hours on hold, been promised a resolution by three underlings and two higher-ups with no delivery of the resolution and have been called a racist by an overseas call center supervisor because the Philipino customer service operator couldn’t understand that my issue was above her pay grade and the call needed to be transferred.
Now, after a brief glimmer of hope created by two phone calls from higher ups, I’ve been abandoned by Charter yet again.
And all of this while the cable companies are trying to wage a PR war against satellite TV companies! Between you and me, I’ll take the fuzzy picture during rain and snow…at least nobody at DirecTV has called me a racist and I’ve heard that when their customers make a payment it is actually applied to their accounts!
Anyone have the number for the nearest satellite TV provider?
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