An Actual Phone Call to My Internet Provider

A few months ago, the company that provides me with home Internet and phone service sold that portion (part) of their company to another business. Since then, there have been many news reports about service problems. I’m one of the customers who has been affected (felt the change or influence).

Below are excerpts (short sections) from an actual phone call I made to my Internet provider (company that provides Internet service) to report my problem. The same company provides my landline (regular phone; not cell phone). The person who took my call was named “Kimberly.”

Kimberly:  What is the problem you’re having?

Me:  My Internet has been slow for the past couple of months. This morning, service was cutting in and out (sometimes working, sometimes not). And even when I have service, it’s running (operating) very, very slowly.

Kimberly:  [Silence.]

Me: So I’m calling to get my Internet service fixed.

[It takes about six minutes to access my account using my PIN (Personal Identification Number used for security purposes) and for me to give her a phone number she can call me at in case we’re disconnected (call ends unexpectedly).  I repeat my phone number three times before she gets it right.]

Kimberly:  Okay, what happens when you have no service?

Me:  Nothing happens. When I have no service, I have no service.

Kimberly:  I mean, are you not getting a dial tone (the stuttering (short, repeated) sound you hear when you pick up a telephone when its not in use)?

Me:  I have FiOS (a type of Internet service using “fiber-optic” wires).  I don’t have dial-up (using a telephone line) Internet service.  And I’m not calling about my home phone service.  I have a problem with my Internet service.  That’s what I’m calling about.

Kimberly:  [Long pause.]  Do you have pets?

Me:  Huh?  What?

Kimberly:  Do you have pets?

Me:  No, I don’t have pets.

Kimberly:  Can you tell me what kind of router (device needed to send digital data, required for Internet service) you have?  I am going to troubleshoot (solve common problems using established steps).

[The call has already lasted 20 minutes and from what I’ve read about other customers’ experiences, I was confident that troubleshooting over the phone would not help. Others have reported being on the phone for three, four, or more hours going through troubleshooting.]

Me:  I’d like to get a service call (repair work done at the location).

Kimberly:  I’m supposed to troubleshoot, but if you request it, I can schedule it.

Me:  Yes, please order a service call.

Kimberly:  Okay, they can be there Monday at 8 a.m. [Six days later.]

Me:  All right.  If they don’t show up (arrive as scheduled), is there a number I can call?

Kimberly:  You can call the number you just called. I have to tell you that if they don’t arrive by 8 a.m., the window (the time interval (beginning and end time) for arrival, usually for work to be done) is expanded (made longer) to 5 p.m.

Me:  Excuse me?  I don’t understand.

Kimberly:  If they’re not there at 8 a.m., then they will be there anytime between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Me:  Are you serious?

Kimberly:  Yes.

Me:  [Long pause.]  Okay, thanks.

The_Scream_Pastel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

~ Lucy

Image Credit:  “The Scream” From Wikipedia

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12 Responses to An Actual Phone Call to My Internet Provider

  1. Marcos says:

    Lucy

    Believe me, here is much worse. I wish you have your problem solved.

    Have a nice day

    Marcos
    Americana – Brazil

  2. Tania says:

    Hi,
    Interesting and actual topic. Before to read the post I was attracted by the painting “The Scream”.
    I know nothing about Norwegian painter EDVARD MUNCH (1863 – 1944). I have started to read on Wikipedia.
    “The Scream” was sold for more than US$120 million in 2012.
    Using the Expressionism and Symbolism, his paintings are fascinanting.
    Maybe too many weeping women, sadness (Death in the Sickroom, Self-Portrait in Hell).
    I like his “kiss”, a total merger.

    Thank you for to reveal us this great painter and his paintings.

    Best wishes,

    Tania

  3. emiliano says:

    Sure are you not telling us a movie of the Max Brothers?.
    Sometimes this kind of dialog seems unreal or absurd but they are real, in fact I had have some of them
    with the five different phon companies I have been client for the fouteen last years.

    What I think is that these companies pay a very low salary to these persons that are behind the line even
    some of them have not any idea about their own work because in few days they will be out.
    They have not any kind of interest about learning, and it happens the same everywhere, every country
    and with different subject.
    Some time I have found people that Know nothing about the items they are selling, tv., videos, electronic
    in general, or what is even worst personal computers.

    I could see now that is not only Spain where these kind of things happens, also in California L.A., it is
    just the same.

    Welcome to the club of angry people dear Lucy.

    emiliano

  4. emiliano says:

    It is easy to understand what have happened in phone companies
    if we read the news about France Telecom along the years 2008
    to 2010.
    Just in google write “suicides in France Telecom” and reading the
    newspapers or wikipedia we could have a good explanation about
    what happened with professional workers with good experience
    in some of these phone companies.

    Now everything is different, the subject is having bad employees
    knowing nothing but paying them very low salaries.
    The employees could be in different countries, Latino America or
    Asia, even Africa or whichever land were people works nearly
    for nothing.

    Yes a different world were a work good done means nothing when
    these large companies wants as much money as possible.

  5. Peter says:

    Tell me about it Lucy

    I resent it when it happens
    U know,
    When my internet service is sluggishly slow or acting up.
    I don’t immediately pick up the recover and call it in.
    No mam
    I went through that milion times and have learned my lesson.
    First :
    I try to come up with a workaround of sth.
    If it fails I try to wait it out hoping the service will pick up in a few days.
    When it doesn’t happen which typically never does.
    Evey night , I sit by my bed and pray to God to make my speed up my internet service. Well , apperantly the reception in not good in this part of the world. As I never get any response from God.
    Once I did all the steps and didn’t get a satisfactory result
    Then ,and only then
    I reluctantly pick up the phone and reach out to customer service to help me out.
    That is how much I dread calling them
    Man
    It is brutal
    It is hell
    First , they put through that ridiculously long voice prompt. U know , I mean one of those interactive voice response service systems. Man , it tskes u forever to press every keypad buttom the system command u to do.
    Then ,once ,eventually with a crazy fluke , the system patched u through, abd U hear a real person voice on the other end saying :
    ” hi what seems to be s problem sir?”
    It feels like a gift from the sky.
    Well , not exactly ,
    As you have to repeat all u said in the voice tromp for the real person.

    No!!!
    don’t be so naive
    I m not off the hook yet

    The rep on the other end always put me through a lot of technical jargons and steps to resolve the problems -air coding.
    Well ,needless to say , in 99.99 percent of cases it never works.
    And as Lucy mentioned
    Even my tenacious patient with thses people wears thin and I settle for the call service.
    What can I do ? You can’t shot at people on the phone
    And
    As Lucy mentioned
    They always schedule me , if I get lucky , for the following week -which mean another week woth no standard Internet service ,or at least what I promised when I signed the service agreement.
    As Lucy mentioned
    They give u a 6-8 hour span in which they will show up to have a look-see at ur internet service and whatnot.
    So I need to hire sb to stay at my place or get a day off so i can sit around waiting for the Internet guy to show up.

    To sum up ,
    U end yo having a poor service for at least 10 days or so and interestingly enough , the Internet service bill at the end of the month reads the exact same amount u r being charged every month.

    🙂
    Pete

  6. Tania says:

    Hi,
    It seems that I am a lucky person.
    According to a top made by AKAMAI in 2015, Romania, my country, is ranked 10th in the world and
    1st in Europe in terms of average Internet peak connection speed.
    We have the fastest Internet in Europe.
    Nine cities in Romania are among the top 15 cities in the world with the highest download speed.

  7. Tania says:

    Hi,
    I have a “router” for Internet. We use the same word with the same meaning.

  8. Tania says:

    Hi,
    Very funny ESLPodcast 1235 – Joining a Secret Society.
    For the phrase “protect each other at all costs”, we say “at any price”.
    And for “you’d take a bullet for each other”, we say ” I’ll protect you with the price of my own life”.

  9. Tania says:

    Hi,
    Thank you for the explanation of the difference between “every” and “each”.

  10. Tania says:

    Hi,
    The phrase “I’m one of the chosen few” remembers me of a great English writer who begins one of his novels with the same phrase,
    “Are you the chosen one?”, that usually means you’re extra-special.
    The action continues in a Greek island.
    And his autobiography is a great novel. I read the both novels many years ago. Can you believe me?
    I forgot the name of the writer and the titles of his novels.

    I kept in my mind this phrase “Are you the chosen one?” as we do not have this concept in our literature as I know.

    Thank you if someone can help me.

  11. Wang Luu says:

    wow, that sounds helly terrible Lucy

    I’ve just realise how lucky I am ever being in such frustrating case

    I mean, of course there are times my internet service is really really slow n i also have to suffer thru

    that long-lasting automatic response system which definitely requires me an enormous amount of patience to

    have a getaway as well but when there is a real pick-up at the other end of the telephone line…i trust that the

    problem will soon be resolved within a day or two! yay

  12. emiliano says:

    By my side I can´t say internet is slow now, no it is not, I have optical fiber so it is really fast.
    Even I have Netflix and I could see some movies or tv. seials very good, one of them it´s
    House of Cards, and other I have seen before.

    The tv., doesn´t exist for me now, it is so bad and with so many publicity, I can´t resist the
    publicity shutting the movie and you or me lossing my time looking something I don´t like
    to see.
    In fact I hate publicity, and nearly every kind of silly programs about people I don´t know and
    I am not interested at all.
    News are always more or less the same, and usually they are really very very sand and terrible.

    Poor people of Italy, it has been so bad that some time I can´t resist seeing the cities and houses
    all destroyed, not to tell about Sirias´s war.
    Everything seems really horrible and prefer not to listen or watching so bad and horrible
    men´s acts.

    So yes, optical fiber it´s fine, and Netflix it is fine too.
    I like to see the Wien Philamornic playing Beethoven symphonies even the Chicago Symphony
    has some very good records of the great composer like Beethoven, Bach, Vivaldi, Belioz,
    etc. in Youtube, and having the opitcal fiber it´s easy of watching them without interruptions.

    Having that, why to see tv.? No, please, I prefer Beethoven or the Fantastic Symphony of Berlioz
    that is really great.
    Some movies like “The Shining” take the Fantastic Symphony I think, but even a movie of
    Julia Roberts, takes the music of Berlioz.

    My best to all of you.
    Thank you Waan LUU, we need blogers like you my friend.

    emiliano

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