I’d Rather Be Sad than Angry
When is good customer service going to come back?
For the past nine months or so, after every big storm, snow storm or electrical storm, my telephone has been going out. No dial tone.
Iowa Telecom always says the problem is interior wiring. They would gladly fix it for a huge hourly sum.
I would question them about it. “Don’t you think it’s kind of strange that it’s my inside wiring that goes out after every storm?”
Apparently not.
I used Mike’s Telephone Service for repair. He was half the price. But after every big storm, my phone had no dial tone.
This time, the actual Iowa Telecom serviceman who came out figured I had had enough trouble and had paid enough money that he was going to see what he could do, and he would do it free.
He finally found the problem, and it WAS their problem. It was the box! It was the interior wiring of the box! This wire or whatever it was inside the box worked fine on one end but not on the other end. The wonderful repairman did fix it.
I would love to say it was blue skies from then on. However, the phone line stayed fixed only until after the last thunderstorm when again there was no dial tone. Again, Iowa Telecom took no responsibility. At this point, I didn’t care if it were inside or outside wiring — I had had it.
My daughter added me to her cell phone plan for $10. a month, and she had an extra cell phone for me which she had somehow gotten free, and I was free of Iowa Telecom at last!
So now here’s where the real story begins. This is a sad tale of how I really really lost my temper. I could hardly believe it myself. I was livid. I was shaking. I was irate.
I will try to make the story brief, but you know I can’t.
It should be a simple thing to get your telephone disconnected so you don’t pay for a non-working phone any longer, wouldn’t you think?
Not with Iowa Telecom.
You know the whole rigamarole you go through pressing this button and that button — finally, the recording gave me a number to press that was for any service they had not yet mentioned. I pressed that number. I waited FIFTEEN MINUTES for someone to pick up. Finally:
“This is Dennis. How may I help you?”
I brightly said, “I’d like to disconnect my phone service.”
Then he said, “I will have to connect you to Disconnect.”
I said, “I thought this was the number I was supposed to press for Disconnect.”
He said, “Yes, it is, but I have to connect you to Disconnect.”
(Do you understand this?)
I waited on the phone, I am not exaggerating, for another HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES.
During this time that I’m waiting on the line, I’m forced to listen to Iowa Telecom advertising its good service. Over and over again, a recording tells you how Iowa Telecom cares about its customers. It asks you, for instance, if you still have dial up and your teenager is always using the line, and you are tired of not being able to connect to the Internet. If so, Iowa Telecom will give you a second line for just pennies a day so you don’t have to wait. There are other wonderful things Iowa Telecom will do for you for just pennies a day.
After an HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES of listening to how much Iowa Telecom can do for me and how much it cares, I was getting angrier by the minute.
Then when a person finally did pick up, I said as calmly as I could: “Do you know I’ve been waiting on the phone for over an hour?”
Good customer service would say, “I’m so sorry. This should never happen. You have been wonderful to wait so long.”
Do you know what poor customer service would say — did say? “We are very busy on Mondays and Fridays.”
I screamed, “IOWA TELECOM HAS TO HIRE MORE PEOPLE FOR MONDAYS AND FRIDAYS THEN! FOR AN HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES, I HAD TO LISTEN TO THAT RECORDING TELLING ME HOW MUCH YOU CARE AND WHAT GOOD SERVICE YOU GIVE AND IF I STILL HAVE DIAL-UP AND If I’M TIRED OF WAITING UNTIL MY TEEN-AGER GETS OFF THE LINE, FOR PENNIES A DAY YOU WILL GIVE ME ANOTHER LINE SO I DON’T HAVE TO WAIT. I want my phone disconnected now.”
“Do you have your bill there?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Do you know your account number?”
“No, I don’t.”
Oh, I should tell you that my daughter who lives in the apartment next to mine, also wanted to disconnect her land line. So with my new cell phone, I had walked over to her place so I could hand my phone to her so she could get her phone disconnected without having to wait an interminable HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES.
At this time, I am standing outside Lauren’s screen door, and Lauren is right there.
The customer service representative had just asked me if I had my bill or knew my account number, and I said I didn’t have my bill and I didn’t know my account number.
Then she said: “If you don’t have your account number, then I will have to call you back on the phone number that you wish us to disconnect.”
This is when I flipped.
“YOU CAN’T REACH ME ON THE PHONE I WANT TO DISCONNECT BECAUSE IT IS NOT WORKING. THAT’S WHY I’M DISCONNECTING MY SERVICE BECAUSE AFTER EVERY STORM, MY PHONE GOES DOWN, AND IOWA TELECOM SAYS IT’S NOT THEIR PROBLEM UNLESS I PAY THEM $80. AN HOUR. YOU CAN’T CALL ME BACK AND REACH ME BECAUSE THE TELEPHONE IS NOT WORKING!!!!”
This is what service representative says to me now:
“Madam, it’s an FCC ruling. We cannot disconnect your phone service until you give us your account number or until we can call you back at the number you wish to disconnect.”
I just handed Lauren the phone and stomped away.
I could hear Lauren talking, and Lauren became like a good customer service representative to the Iowa Telecom customer service representative. I could hear Lauren very calmly and sweetly saying: “Yes, I understand. Yes, I understand. You have to follow the regulations…”
Lauren was so nice that the customer service rep disconnected Lauren’s phone. Because Lauren was so nice, the service rep disconnected my line too against FCC regulations.
Godwriting is a blog by Gloria Wendroff and is about Gloria's daily life as the Godwriter of the Heavenletters project that is having a profound effect on the lives of people around the world.
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