skreeeeeeee

Hi

I want to make a formal complaint about the service you have provided.

I rely on my internet service for work. I need to be able to download documents that are sent to me quickly because I am an editor, and need quick page loads because I use online resources to support my work. I switched to a higher speed, and pay more for it, because of the benefit to me of quicker downloads and page loads.

Last month my service was "shaped" to dialup speeds. I was not warned in advance that I was approaching the limit, and maybe you are not aware, but it is very difficult to find the usage on your site. I spent ages before I actually found it. When I tried to contact you about this, I found that your phone support was not working. It still isn't now. I proceeded through the very irritating robots, which you have far too many of (do you know how irritating it is to hear the same cheery voice every time you ring telling you that there have been tons of calls and you probably will have to wait for ages to speak to someone? I had a technical problem a few months ago and it was the same story), and when I was told I would be connected, I was instead disconnected. This has happened to me five or six times. I have not been able to speak to anyone by phone.

So I left a message on your site. It seemed to go unanswered. I asked to be contacted by email, but wasn't. Nor was there anything in "My messages". Having to load up your site on dialup speed was very painful, but I had to do that to check whether you'd answered. I left another message, and another, and was increasingly angry that none of my messages seemed to be being answered. Nothing on your site indicates how you can find an answer. My messages were marked "Low importance" and "CLOSED" with no sign of a reply. By the way, my service might be of low importance to you, but it's very important to me. You might reconsider your priority levels. You are asked what mode of contact you prefer and I asked for an email. None came. Eventually, I figured out that you put a message on the "what you asked about page".

I don't know whether you have technical limitations that prevent you from offering it, but you should consider allowing customers to buy extra download capability. Because it's hard to check usage, someone who downloads a lot, as I did last month, particularly someone with kids, who play online computer games that are resource hungry, can slip over the limit without realising. Checking usage is not easy, because you do not display it prominently. You ought to.

So someone rang me from support and was aggressive and rude to me. Maybe she didn't understand how frustrating it is to be in my position but instead of being sympathetic, she was unpleasant. She said that you could check your usage on the site, but didn't say where. She said no one in the industry offered extra GBs, but I don't actually think this is a satisfactory answer. If you do not offer *better* service than others in the business, why should I use you? I had to hang up because I do not enjoy conflict and having a "support" person being aggressive towards me didn't seem a good way to spend my time. Your customers don't know how things are. If they need an explanation, that's because they lack information and it's frustrating, not because they want to upset you. Surely your support staff should be sympathetic to frustrated customers?

Anyway, I accepted that this is how you do business and gritted my teeth to see out the month. I consoled myself that my service would come back on February 1. No one told me that there was any question that it wouldn't. No one at any point explained how your system restores the service. No wonder. I would have been furious if they had, and rightly so.

On Friday morning, I fired up the internet, and was surprised to find that it was still at dialup speed. I asked your support why, and was told it would be restored by COB. I was onsite on Friday, so I didn't mind that so much, but when I came home, it was still choked. I am not going to put a fine point on it. The email I received on Friday was untrue. I do not think you should lie to your customers. If my service was not going to be restored, you should tell me that it would not be.

I received another email on Friday evening telling me that my service would be restored after three working days. This is not acceptable. I will have gone five of the 29 days of the month that I have paid you for without the service you are supposed to be providing. You should restore my service promptly, particularly because I have expressed my concern several times. I am very frustrated at the lack of service and telling me that it will just be restored by the system makes me feel that you simply do not care about something that is very upsetting for me. This does not demonstrate a good service ethos. Also, there never seems to be any delay taking money out of my account. Your system works very well in that regard. I pay by direct debit, so you never receive your money late. You would doubtless become quite aggressive with me if I paid late, yet you are content not to provide the service I paid for.

The email also said that my service is currently unshaped. It is not. I have tested it using two speed tests and it is still at dialup speeds. It is not acceptable that your support lies to me! Clearly, they didn't check my service. I had asked to be telephoned, but again, the delivery of support was by a different method. Had they telephoned, I could have explained that my speed was still shaped, and they could have investigated further. Now I'm stuck with dialup speed and your support think that I have had my service restored. So I have to contact them yet again to try to get my service restored. They also suggested I telephone support if I have a problem. But I had said in my message that I cannot get through on the phone number they supplied. Do they even read what we write? Why didn't someone phone me?

It is not acceptable to retrigger broadband speed when you send out invoices. You need to restart the service at 12.01am on the first of the month. It is not acceptable that when I contact you, someone tells me that it will just work itself out. They need to be empowered to restore the service straight away. If someone is frustrated and upset, it would seem that good service, which you claim to want to provide, would be to try to help them with the problem. Your support gives the impression of simply saying whatever they need to to make the customer go away.

Furthermore, I asked to be given an address to send a complaint to. This was ignored the first couple of times I asked, and finally, I was simply pointed to the website. It wasn't actually clear where to send a complaint. I do not even know whether this is the correct address. I want what I have to say to be read by someone who is empowered, so that they know how upset I am that you simply do not bother providing the service you claim to. I know how bureaucracies work. I do not want to be replied to by someone saying it'll be looked into, and my email is then filed and forgotten. So when I asked for an address, I actually wanted to be given an address, not a page on your website. Which, you may remember, I can only access on dialup speed.

I am now going to have to find another provider. This is in itself a distressing prospect, because getting the line reprogrammed takes forever, and given my experience with Ozemail, whose actual service (I mean the connection) was bad, you probably are no worse than anyone else. You're just no better either. Luckily, Optus sent me something in the mail yesterday, and they have some attractive plans. Maybe they will care more about what I want and less about their system.

Thanks for your attention. I'm sorry this email has been so long. You have no idea how frustrating it is to feel that the "support" of a company you pay for a service is basically lying to you to make you go away, and has no intention of resolving your problem or helping you with it. It's almost as though you make things as difficult as possible so that customers are discouraged from seeking support in the first place.

posted by Dr Zen @ 9:00 am