As I am typing this from my office I am surrounded by exposed beams, hanging wires, and the sounds of hammering and buzzing saws in the background. I am technically "in" my office, but I can see through the walls that used to be into my bosses office, the hallway and into another company's office. Why, you ask? Our office is being re-located to a new office (currently being wired for power, internet and phones) and the existing office that I am in will be a Curves Gym. This is exteme chaos! Luckily, my boss isn't here to experience this or we'd have an even more extreme chaos!
I write about this because I am baffled by Customer Service in today's world. Last week I contacted Verizon and Comcast, our phone and internet providers, to schedule a technician to come out and move our lines across the hall to the new offices. Let's start with Comcast, shall we? When speaking with them, I was told that I would get a return phone call to schedule the move. I explained that it needed to be done this week as we'll be in the new office later this week. We NEED the internet more than anything else because of email communication and the fact that our main phone lines are IP phones that run through the internet and connect directly with our Home Office based in Ft. Worth, Texas. I made the call on Wednesday. I hadn't heard anything from them when I returned to work on Monday. I called again and was told that someone would call me. Still nothing. It's funny because the other office that I can "see" in to also needs to have Comcast move them and they had no problem. That's issue #1.
Issue #2 is Verizon. Oh, Verizon, how I loathe you!! We have the Verizon phone lines for fax and to have as back-up in case the internet phones go down. This is also the main line that I communicate with my boss when he is on the road. Again, I made the call last week to move our lines to a different office. When I got in to work yesterday, the phone line was somehow forwarded to a residential phone number. Whenever my boss would try to call me, he would get the resident instead of me. We tested our fax from another fax in the building and it happened to ring not only the fax machine, but also the phone line as well. Figure that one out?! We had 2 Verizon technicians here yesterday and one came in this morning as well. I had him call the line and he got the resident. He then advised me to call Verizon. Let me add that he's not even here for me, he's here for the other company. I called Verizon and the lady on the other line was completely rude. She then called our phone number and it went directly to me. Huh?! Guess what, it was a fluke, because it still doesn't work!! Ugh!
What bothers me is that I used to work in Customer Service. I genuinely took care of my customers no matter what. This was when I worked at Class 1 in Florida. We manufactured parts for fire trucks and emergency vehicles. (Shout out to my Florida friends! Russ, Aimee, Sakina, Dave - miss you guys!!) I felt responsible at the end of the day if a "po-dunk" town in the middle of nowhere did not get the part that they needed. Some of these trucks were old and needed that single part to function. Could you sleep at night knowing you didn't do all that you can to get that part out to them? What if there was a fire in that town and that truck couldn't get there in time? It's called perspective and it should be the same with a phone company. What if there was an emergency and I needed to call 9-1-1? Of course there are cell phones these days - but let's think about this realistically. If I am a paying customer and need service to be changed or moved, I should be able to get that without any issues. It would be all fine and dandy if it was a pure mistake, but after having 2 other technicians out and the same thing happening to the other office, there seems to be a bit of a trend here.
I can't wait until this week is over and we are finally moved! Lord, give me the strength to get through this week......PLEASE! Someone pass the bottle of aspirin and the bottle of vodka!!
