She got their attention, though she never got their service

I had already completed my column this week when I read the greatest story of the year for those of us who are fed up with customer service. 

It seems that Mona Shaw of Bristol, Va., could not take any more bad service from Comcast. According to Inside NoVa.com the 75-year-old Shaw walked into the Comcast office in Manassas, Va., with a hammer and used it on a telephone and a keyboard each time saying, “Have I got your attention now?” 

She also managed to knock a computer monitor over. 

Needless to say she was arrested and has to go to court in December. I hope she requests a jury trail and they call me to be on the jury. The way I feel about companies and bad service I could write on it every week, but I fear that many of my faithful readers would desert me.

Shaw responded to bad service like many of us would like to. In my opinion she had good reason. The irony of the entire episode was that she was trying to get the new three in one service Comcast was offering.  

The service man didn’t show up on the day he was supposed to. When he did show up he couldn’t finish the job so he told her he would be back. After he left they couldn’t use their phone. They could receive calls but couldn’t call out. Shaw has a heart problem and had already been forced to call 911 once prior to the current problem.  

When the Shaw’s went to the Comcast office they didn’t get much help. In fact they kept her waiting telling her that someone would be with her shortly and then after hours of waiting telling her that the person she was waiting to see had gone home.  

By the time the Shaw’s got home they had no phone service. They finally figured out how to connect the phone with the wires the serviceman left. 

Comcast told her that someone would call on Monday. She waited until 4:30 p.m. on Monday then made her now famous trip to the Comcast office.

Before it was all over they cancelled their request for the new 3 in 1 service.  Keeping with what appears to be the new company motto of service companies, “let’s see if w can add insult to any injury,” after all of this Comcast sent her a letter thanking her for subscribing to the new service. 

Dealing with phone companies any place seems to be the worst experience most of us go through. When we moved back to the lake we signed up with Alltel’s cell phone service. The serviceman assured us that they would have a tower on this part of the lake within a year.

After several months of the usual nightmare times getting everything set up we finally settled into a survivable relationship – which means I had no reason to call customer service so they couldn’t disappoint me.  After more than two years of using there service we decided that it was costing too much for the few times we used the cell phone. 

My sister suggested we try a pre-pay service from Tracfone. Research showed me that we could save at least $250 per year. We purchased the pre-paid phone and minutes. Because I wanted to keep my old cell phone number, it took us over two weeks to get everything straightened out with Alltel. We were told that our old service would stay active until the new phone was switched.  

By the next day the old service was disconnected. The problem was with Alltel not releasing my old number. There response was always the same. They constantly told me we didn’t have an account with them anymore so they couldn’t do anything for us.

Imagine my surprise when two months later I get a bill from Alltel for service after the changeover. I was really upset because I do not want to use what little energy I have each day to deal with this garbage. I had to make another call, with another attempt on my part to overcome my disgust and  to be extra nice, because they say getting upset will get you nowhere.       

I asked how I could be billed from an account that they said I didn’t have. They made up a reason, and told me they would take are of it. 

I must have been too nice because the next month I got another bill with additional charges and letting me know that I still hadn’t paid for the last bill.  I had to make another call and another attempt on my part to overcome even more disgust. They agreed that I shouldn’t have been charged for service that they could in no way deliver. Once again I was told they were sorry and would correct the problem.

I am now waiting to see what happens this month. 

I keep reading that these companies know they have bad service but do little to correct it. They work on theory that it takes so much effort by the consumer to try to correct that the consumer does nothing. 

I always enjoy seeing commercials on TV that the same companies I keep complaining about are winning some award for outstanding customer service. My favorite for this is DirecTV. They always seem to win some award, but for me they don’t deserve it.

There newest ploy is to put a statement on the bill that says, IMPORTANT NOTICE – For your convenience, we will automatically charge your credit card or debit card on file for this bill amount, if unpaid, plus an new fees posted to your account, and any applicable cancellation and equipment non-return fees if you cancel your DIRECTV service.” 

For the life of me I can’t figure out how it is, “for my convenience.” To me it is no different than someone coming into my house and taking any money they may find to settle a debt. If they are not allowed in my house without my permission, why would they think they could take my money from any other source without my permission? 

If I were a senior who just had enough money to make it from month to month, and the cable was the only way I could get my news and information – thus making it a necessity- their method of getting paid could mess up my finances for the entire month. Let’s say I was late because of a new prescription I had to have filled that was not part of my budget.

By them “conveniently” taking the money from my account, it may mean the money I need for drugs would not be there. Talk about getting caught up in a mess I did not create.    

In addition DirecTV has just insulted me by implying that I don’t pay my bills on time. I called DirecTV about the statement on my bill. Their CSR told me that the statement didn’t really apply to me. He went on to say that they put the same statement on everyone’s bill. I told him they have the ability to only put it on the bills that they have trouble with.  He said they weren’t able to highlight just one bill and take the statement off.

I then reminded the CSR that they have no trouble keeping track of each movie we may watch and insuring that charge is on the bill. He had no comment.

The battles with service departments will go on and on. I do my best not to write about it too often, but they never seem to stop from coming up with new ways to eat up time I don’t have trying to solve problems they create.  

Maurice Emery is the Editor Emeritus of The Littleton Observer. In addition to regular news coverage for the paper, he also writes a weekly column.

Check out his blog at www.athoughtortwo.com

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