ISP Blues

BridgeMax/Digital Bridge Communications needs to know this: My wife is fed up and isn't going to take any more.

You read earlier here about the pricing snafu, which we got fixed. Well, mostly fixed. They told us the modem was included in the new price. The next bill says otherwise. So, strike one.

Strike two is that our service is out. Out since Tuesday. It's now Thursday, 12:30 pm, and as far as I know, the tech hasn't appeared yet to diagnose the problem. Worse, the people she talks with there can't seem to fathom why having our service out for two days is such a problem. Maybe this is what customer service is coming to: squeeze the most money out, but if the customers actually excpect service, then make sure it's done in a way that's much more convenient to you than to them. When she called them Tuesday, they said, we'll send someone out Thursday. She asked for Wednesday. They said maybe. Then she had to call them Wednesday for news. Nope. We'll come Thursday. And we'll have our guy call when he's enroute. So basically my wife has to stay cemented at home so we don't miss the guy. If she leaves, as Dave Barry says of such shenanigans, the tech, hiding in the bushes, will emerge and leave a note on the door, expressing dismay that a customer couldn't obey his schedule more than hers.

Is it too much to expect promptness and competence? Why should expereinces that are prompt and competent be the exception, not the norm? I know I'm putting the cart before the horse here. Maybe when the tech comes today, the service will be competent. I just hope he doesn't mind tromping through the snow and cold for the diagnosis, because I'm sure not shoveling anything for them.