Qwest SUCKS!
By Saintless. Filed in Personal |
I’ve always hated dealing with Qwest. It should be illegal for them to call it “Customer Service” when you call in.
Last month I ordered DSL at my new place. Got it hooked up and running smoothly. Yay! No interaction with them other than the order I placed online.
Last week, I got a phone call from them about burying a phone line, and when I tried to return the call, I never made it to a live person, and kind of forgot about it.
Yesterday morning, I awoke to knocking at the front door. I quickly dressed and went to see who the HELL was knocking on my door that early. Turned out to be the Qwest guys wanting to crack a hole in the concrete in order to bury the phone line.
Side note: At Thanksgiving, I had one of the guys check for me, and they told me that cable strung across my fence to the house was the phone line.
So, I tried to get them to tell me why they needed to ruin the concrete for this. The guy wasn’t so good at the communication aspect of things. He kept looking to his partner and mumbling when I’d ask a question and then sort-of answering. He was wanting to drill a “small” hole in the concrete RV pad in the back yard in order to get the phone line to the box on the east side of the house. The line apparently comes in from the northwest corner of the yard. I wasn’t understanding what he wanted (even with the cup of coffee I’d thankfully set to brew the night before), and he kept mentioning that it was an “option”. After much pulling of teeth, he told me about another option where they’d cut the concrete all the way up to the house. I never did get an explanation from him about what the difference was, other than the first option included a round hole in the pad.
I finally told him that I’m renting and I couldn’t give them the go-ahead to do this, so he went away, promising to return later, after I talked to Laurell about it.
That evening, I took a look, and realized that if they ran the line directly to the northeast side of the house, they didn’t need to do anything to concrete, and oculd run it under the siding, like the other cables have been.
So, I get a phone call today from Sorensen Construction, from a very sweet sounding girl, about hacking up my concrete.
I returned her call, and left her a voicemail.
I then called Qwest. The worst of the nightmare was beginning. The very unknowledgeable girl answering the phone tried hard to be helpful, nice and polite. She accomplished the latter two, though I was on hold for most of the 27 minute phone call. I was calling to find out how much they were going to charge me for this monstrosity being proposed. She kept looking things up, and remained confused about whether I had, or wanted, an actual phone line (I don’t), and sometimes was able to see that there was a construction order, and other times told me it wasn’t there. She called another department twice, or two departments once each, I’m not sure which, to tell me what was going on. She seemed to be forgetting that I just wanted to know how much this was going to cost me.
Finally she comes back and tells me it won’t cost anything, and gave me a number for some other department, who could give me details about the construction aspect.
I called the number, where I got a message that it had been changed, and given another number. I called the new number, which appeared to be either an internal number or one meant for mega corporations who have whole departments just to deal with Qwest, and know their terminology. At this point, I considered calling my ex-boyfriend, who works for Qwest and is over the department whose phone number I had just called. I recognized some of the keywords from him, and knew that I didn’t belong at this number. I didn’t call the ex, though. I just gave up on Qwest and decided to call the sweetie at Sorensen.
So, I call Sorensen, and ask the girl if she’s just calling for permission to drill or if she actually knows what’s happening with the drilling. She seems informed. So, I explain the alternative I’d come up with. She tells me that Qwest refuses to let them run the line along the house for more than 20′, so that’s not an option. She explains that there are two options.
Option 1: They use a machine to tunnel under the concrete and drill a small hole to run the cable up through, to reach the house. They then fill the hole in with concrete.
Option 2: They widen the existing gap where the concrete slabs meet, from 1/4″ to 1/2″, lay the line there, and then seal it.
I then call Laurell, the owner, and present the problem to her. She wasn’t any happier than I was about it, but finally decided on Option 1, and I relayed that message to Sorensen.
Qwest “Customer Service”, my ass.
Tuesday, December 2nd 2008 at 2:43 pm |
So I guess you have no Comcast options there?! Comcast has their problems too, but in my experience they have MUCH better customer service.
Tuesday, December 2nd 2008 at 2:51 pm |
There is a Comcast option, but the price vs. speed was better, if I recall. I researched and went for what seemed the best when I got it installed. I never had much luck with Comcast, either, but usually dealing with them meant that I had to repeat troubleshooting steps I’d already taken (like unplug, disconnect, reconnect it all in the right order, etc) before they’d send a signal reset.
Tuesday, December 2nd 2008 at 3:42 pm |
oh…i’m so with you on this. here’s a couple of links: http://www.seehearspeaknoevil.com/jess/for-realqwest-sux/ and http://www.seehearspeaknoevil.com/jess/qwest-sucks-ass/
i’ve moved twice in the last 11 months. it was a hassle both times. first, they screwed up which service i ordered. then they gave me new phone numbers BOTH times. that led to billing issues because i pay with auto pay and didn’t know the account number was wrong. then i got a disconnect notice for unpaid bills – not true. i had to fax them 1 year of my bank’s bill pay service transmissions to prove i had made the payments. it was like 34 pages.
i don’t have comcast because we have dish. and you can’t have both. and honestly, comcast’s customer service isn’t much better.
Tuesday, December 2nd 2008 at 5:02 pm |
One plus with Comcast (and this might be the only one) is that complaining loudly online (blog, Twitter, etc.) gets their elite ninja customer service squad to spring into action and resolve things pronto. That said… I’m trying to figure out a way to get a wireless signal to UTOPIA so I can ditch ‘em.
Wednesday, January 7th 2009 at 11:29 am |
I have some understanding of the inner-workings of Qwest. The sad truth is that the customer service job is probably one of the most complicated jobs at Qwest. One must understand land-lines, wireless, high-speed internet, cable & DirecTV, and billing. They must be adept at bouncing between programs that pertain to each particular facet of the business.
It literally takes 12-16 weeks of training to just be a customer service agent. Then, a minimum of 1 year for the agent to have a basic understanding of all the facets of the job. One is really lucky to be proficient at 18-24 months. The turnover in that department is somewhere around 125%. Whenever you call, you have a 50% chance that you will talk to someone who has been there less thant 1 year. Can you make the connection of why your rep seemed lost?
The solution Qwest offered was to outsource the jobs to Panama, Mexico, India, Pakistan, and elsewhere. In concession, the union (CWA) agreed to a job re-classification and pay cut in an attempt to retain union jobs in the USA. Qwest reps get paid less than most call centers, including Convergys, TP USA, Verizon, American Express just to name a few.
Interestingly, in a survery by MSNBC, Qwest ranked as the 7th worst customer service in the USA. Comcast ranked 2nd worst.
Our choice is either shyte or bollocks.
Wednesday, January 7th 2009 at 11:31 am |
Yeah, my ex worked in upper management of Qwest (defining processes, actually), so I totally understand why they suck so bad. It doesn’t make me any happier.
Friday, March 20th 2009 at 8:10 pm |
I used to work for Qwest and let me tell you that i know both sides of the fence.
just the fact that YOU work there SUCKS… and to deal with angry, unpolite, frustrated people is really really TIRED….
i worked in the repair department for landlines… 24/7… and that was not a joke.. i just dont get why people got soooooo stressed about a phone service…
Friday, March 20th 2009 at 8:14 pm |
and Qwest is not in Pakistan you dummiee!! is in the Phillipines!
And I was really tired of angry americans being so rude , and also i got a lot of calls transfered from phillipines agents because the “BOSSY AMERICAN CLIENT” didnt understand them
believe i live here, and it was a pain in the ass trying to understand a farmer from South Dakota or black people from MN … and people who were JUST outttt of their fucking mind
i
Friday, March 20th 2009 at 8:16 pm |
im sorry it was BELIEVE IT..
Wednesday, May 27th 2009 at 1:46 pm |
Qwest is without a doubt the worst, most incompetent company I have ever delt with.
To start with, I set up a bundle phone/net/tv package and called the next day to cancel the order. I called because I had talked to 4 different reps about how much my first bill was going to be, and got 4 different answers which differed by $172. One rep told me that information was not available until I actually got the bill! So, no wonder here, I cancelled 12 hours later with the 30 day risk free guarantee and was told my first bill will only be a couple dollars for the few hours of phone service and to call back when I get it to have them void it out.
Their prices by-the-way are NOT what they are advertised as. The promo prices are lies, and completly different once you actually order it. They throw all this save with a bundle $5 off this $5 off that in to confuse you and make you think you are saving money; you aren’t. That’s how I got the 4 different quotes on how much my first bill would be, even they got confused on how it works. I added it up after-the-fact on their site, and sure enough, once I added Verizon and Direct TV the phone and net ‘discounts’ went away, and the discount was moved to the Verizon or Direct TV slot to make you think it’s another $5 off. Sneaky bastards.
A few days later I got a $95 bill for a month of internet and phone so I called to straighten it out and was told my account had been cancelled, but the charges were screwed up. So, the rep made my balance $0 and said I should wait for my final bill in June which will reflect the $0 and ignore any bill that comes before then.
Well, 1 week later I got a bill for $262 ($200 cancellation fee, another month of internet I never got, and the previous bill) and ignored it since it was not yet the scheduled June final bill. The next day I got a call from a collections agency (3 weeks after the initial Quest order!) saying Qwest had turned me over to them! Are you friggin’ kidding me?? So, after ANOTHER call to that idiot company, the rep said that the other rep didn’t change anything at all, so she cancelled everything, (they never even cancelled my account to begin with just changed the service/plan which is why he gave me a reference number) erased all my balance, and now says I owe nothing. Also, she said the collections agency call shouldn’t screw up my credit, but we’ll see. She also mailed me a 3rd (yup, 3rd) return postage stamp for the modem I was supposed to mail them 3 weeks ago since the other 2 return tags were never mailed to me in the first place.
This is still not over, I’m just waiting for another bill and collection call, I know they’re gonna screw this up again.