Oh boy, where is the customer service in this?

Oh boy, what happened to quality service and action?  There was a day that TQM – total quality management, six sigma, ISO, and other quality management tools were touted as the way to improve work flow, eliminate constraints, and aid is customer satisfaction. 

One of the responses I have heard over the years when asked why certain quality issues were dropped were because, well for example DoD and particularly the AF was that it took too much time, time to build slides showing metrics of how quality should be done and never really implementing the efforts.  Kind of like an academic institution wanting a solid strategic plan but never really putting the plan to effective work. But that is another issue along with ghost administrators.

So twice I have to call CenturyLink for issues.  Now understand that CenturyLink for the Front Range has two companies; Centurytel CenturyLink and Qwest CenturyLink.  I can’t combine the bills because of this disjointed system but recently the call centers and IT support have been outsourced to a Pacific Ring country to which I wish I had studied Tagalog more intently when I was there.  Now you still need to call LaJunta if you want service in the south and east but otherwise you call the outsourced center.

Maybe it is my age or maybe I am just tired of this nutroll of having to call and like an elephant in a circus have to go through a series of “games” in order to receive my peanut.  “Have you massaged the dsl line? What fabric is your knickers? Can you repeat after me ‘I have rebooted and reset the modem at least 20 times’?”  Of course the statement in the end is that the problem is with the house and for $85 dollars I can let the tech in my house to determine how much more CenturyLink can drain from my bank account.  Oh and it will be a week before they can get to the house. 

At Mountain 1, the whole neighborhood is on the fritz. It is called by neighbors the bi-annual something needs to be fixed in the main line.  So after the internet is working for 4 days I finally get a call from the tech who states he was on vacation and why no one was called to work on this early is beyond him. 

On to Mountain 2 the system goes out and again the problem is with my house line.  Riiight.  I call and I tell the CSR all that I had done such as send my modem to the spa, turned the dsl cable upside down, rebooted and reset the modem a dozen times, and have the system up on the computer reading the status of the modem and the line with the line being the problem.  

Circus time – let’s play clown car.  Geesh, are you not listening to me?  Problem with the house.  Ok, one thing about a free education in the military is that you learn some things without going to school such as rewiring the phone lines in the office in the bomb dump and learning how to use the testers.  So I know the system at Mountain 2 is up to CenturyTel CenturyLink.    Ok, it will take about a week to get a tech out there because they are really busy.  Really? So there is a massive problem?  My question to CSR, who is paying for the time I have to go to a useable internet?  I rely on internet for my work.  Where do I sent my $60 a day plus per diem while this is out?  I could use the money to buy some good cigars.

The tech calls the day he is to arrive and asks if I am irritated that it took so long.  Ahh yeaaaah.  Apparently the techs are getting the brunt of the anger of people having to deal with the new system.  I told him that I almost called the LaJunta office but… So I do have a direct line now.

So was the problem Mountain 2? Woodpeckers damaging the lines upstream. 

Geesh.