Trolling Not Allowed

Trolling Not Allowed! Comments from anonymous trolls are not permitted and are deleted if posted by the offending pest.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Hello, Buckeye CableSystem. Hello, Customer Service. Hello, This is Peggy.

As do many other people nowadays, I bundle my telephone, internet, and television services with one provider. Well, the other day, I had some problems with my Buckeye CableSystem service. Rather than restate it here in my two blogs, i.e. Roland Hansen Commentary and Roland's Ramblings, I think I will just copy and paste the comments I made about it on Facebook, as follows:
Been without landline telephone service all day. Judy used cell phone to call telephone provider Buckeye CableSystem. She got a recorded message stating there were too many incoming telephone calls, call back later, and then Buckeye Cable hung up on her. This is service? I think not. Anyone else having problems?
To that I added another comment, as follows:
At least the internet service was restored after several hours. But, upon going to Buckeye CableSystem website, I could get NO INFORMATION about the telephone blackout!!!!!
If you read that carefully, my concern was what seemed to me to be inadequate and unsatisfactory customer service. Well, one person got it right away when that person wrote this comment:
Hate that!!! That is not customer service! Reminds me of the commercial, this is Peggy!
I found some very interesting reading about customer service and the commercials with the Peggy character over at Conveyance Marketing Group. Take a look at it for yourself by clicking over to: Hello This is Peggy What is Problem Please?

While I thought I stated my concern was about customer service, it appears someone else did not read it that way, when that person wrote:
"Since this is the company my husband works for that every one is bashing...their phone lines can only hold so much call traffic with all the people calling in...it has NOTHING TO DO WITH BUCKEYE CABLE SYSTEM as a company...It is 100 degrees outside be grateful we all have electricity to run fans and air conditioners!"
To which I responded, in part:
"xxxxxx, I understand the heat and power overload is a major factor. I just do not understand why I cannot get someone from Buckeye Cablesystem or its website to at least tell me what is going on. Please do not misconstrue my comments as a personalization of individual employees; that certainly is not the intention of my comments."
The aforementioned person came back later and wrote:
"Then switch to dish and when it rains and snows you won't have anything!"
(Oh, by the way, the comments made by the aforementioned person have since been removed by that same person from my Facebook wall.)

Those comments made by the aforementioned person totally confused me, in that my comments were about customer service and only customer service. First off, Buckeye CableSystem could have a different outgoing message with a bit more sensitivity to it; second, Buckeye CableSystem could put their incoming telephone calls into virtual queue and answer them or call them back in the order in which they were received; third, in that Buckeye CableSystem is all about communication, it seems to me that there should be some kind of communication tool on their website that could address the type of problems I was experiencing, at the very least, the Buckeye CableSystem website could have a Q & A section on all their products. You see, the whole problem that I encountered was that I could not even speak with Peggy.

It seems to me that good customer service is a thing of the past. I find it especially distressing that this particular cable service provider that has the monopoly on cable service in the greater Toledo, Ohio area and that specializes in the communications industry priding itself as being on the technology forefront of the industry cannot even have a half-way decent effective means of handling customer service queries.

Perhaps, if Toledo, Ohio had two cable service providers as does Phoenix, Arizona with Cox Communications and Qwest Communications International, then there would be better customer service generated due to the business competition for customers.

What do you think?
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Update as of Saturday, November 3, 2012 at 12:07pm (posted on my Facebook wall):
Buckeye CableSystem - Spolier Alert!!! Earlier this afternoon, approximately an hour ago about 2:00 p.m., I had an extremely unpleasant, bad, terrible customer service experience at the Buckeye CableSystem Customer Service DeVeaux Office location of 2600 W. Sylvania Avenue, Suite 106, Toledo Ohio 43613. I wanted to find out if there was a less expensive telephone, television, internet bundle package than the one I presently have but that would still serve the purpose for what I use. The representative was downright rude and nasty, being much less than helpful. She kept telling me I had a good bundle package and that I could wind up paying more for less service. I attempted on more than one occasion to explain what I wanted but she kept interrupting me; there was actually about 4 attempts by me. I finally stated "Let me word myself as simple as I can." Then I said "Is there a less expensive bundle than what I presently have?" To that, she started to tell me what services I had, to which I stated I know what I have, I want to know if there is a less expensive bundle. Well, she side-stepped the question and said she was just trying to help and .... Well, I couldn't be frustrated anymore, I gathered up my statement, stated she was not very helpful and started to leave -- at which point she told me to have a nice day. I asked her her name; she sad Pam; I asked her for her last name, she said she did not have to give it to me and then said she had only tried to help but I should have a nice day. RIGHT!!! As I was getting into my car, another customer had come out of the building and told me it was not me that was the problem, that she and others had also had problems with that same representative on previous occasions and had reported her. Oh, well. I am not happy. Maybe, I will find out the answer to my question another way. I must say that most employees of Buckeye CableSystem of whom I have encountered are very professional, kind, and helpful - extremely so --- but not this 'Pam' woman, who needed my full name, address, and telephone number before she would "help" me. OMG!
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3 comments:

Hooda Thunkit (Dave Zawodny) said...

Amigo Roland,

I'm not surprised by by your problem, nor “Peggy's” response. This is typical of how a virtual monopoly handles customer miscare...

Generally I have found Buckeye CableSystem to be very good at what they do in delivering their communications products; customer service though, not so much...

I would go as far as to say that their customer misservice has a very low opinion of their customers to the point that they treat them (their customers) as complete and utter dolts.

As your evaluation of their response and their response to a wide service interruption proves, not all of their clients are clueless about the nature of their products, the current status of communications technology, and their unwillingness to upgrade their customer service product to the current state of the art.

I could also tell you stories, but I won't; lets just say that in my past life, when Buckeye was offered as a potential solution to a communications problem I pointed out one of their potential weaknesses (and a potential solution to that one weakness), I also pointed to the biggest detriment to using them as a communication provider, was their lack of a modern customer service component.

Although today, the delivery of their communications products is almost totally acceptable for our intended purposes (except for that one issue) they remain totally out of date with respect to the delivery of their customer service component, which is key to the delivery of the total package, IMNHO.

As for the merit to removing them as a monopoly by introducing competition to the equation, that is a great idea..., for us.

As you can also see though this monopolistic provider would prefer that they remain a monopoly because that's how they prefer to business (just look at the Toledo Blah/Bland...)

When operating in a monopoly situation, as they clearly prefer to, you get what you have; take it or take it.

What choice do you have?

Competition would make for a more interesting picture here, again IMNHO.

(The short version: I feel your pain. . .)

CWMartin said...

Did she remove the comments after HER cable and internet went down, hmmm?

Roland Hansen said...

Apparently, the "aforementioned person" and her husband did not like the fact that I posted those comments that were made, even though I did not identify either of them in my original posting! They both defriended me from facebook right after I wrote this blog entry. Strange behavior. Well, there are two more relatives (the husband who is related to me by blood and his wife) who have disowned me. I guess some people just do not want to stand behind what they say, write, or believe, at least not publicly. Perhaps, in their minds, the blind, unquestionable, unswerving loyalty to Buckeye CableSystem is more important than family. Maybe, they are afraid that Buckeye CableSystem would retaliate against the husband of the "aforementioned person" because of what I have written. I can only guess because neither of them gave me a reason to defriend me. It was just "poof" and I was defriended. And that has happened after all that I have done for "the husband" of the "aforementioned person" throughout the years. I guess in his mind I am supposed to be a drone who is not entitled to think or express an opinion that differs from his.