Friday, August 3, 2007

Computers! Customer Service and EarthLink

I like to ask “what if”

I usually think big picture. I’ll approach a web designer or an IT expert and explain what I would like to do and why. I’d to design a particular newsletter. I’d like to send out an email that will easily link to. I’d like to create a very easy way for a potential customer to talk to us ….. etc. etc. I seem to come up with the “what’s”. My experts help me with the “how’s”.

I don’t have a clue how they do it. I read a book once on html. Got a few pages into it and my eyes glazed over and I have a background in engineering. I’m just glad over my career I have been fortunate to work with some very smart people.

Where is this going? Last week a bolt of lightning struck near out house. Afterward my home computer would not hook up to the Internet. The WiFi was out as well. No one in our household could get email. There was a crisis. The teenagers couldn’t talk to their friends. My wife could talk to her employer or her clients. She called EarthLink our service provider. They told her she needed a new modem. We ordered it. The new modem came, we plugged it in but it didn’t work. The family looked to me.

EarthLink advertises that there are multiple ways to get answers if your service is interrupted. You could go to www.support.earthlink.net. Well no, I can’t get on the Internet. You could trade real time messages with a friendly Live Chat representative. Well no, still can’t get on the Internet. You can call 1-888-EARTHLINK. OK I’ll settle for that one. I make the call and talked to a computer that asked me what my problem was, didn’t understand my answer, asked for my phone number, and put me on hold. After 5 minutes or so I end up with a real person. Robert was located in India.

Now I have nothing against technicians from India. I just wanted my computer to work. Robert seemed very nice. The first thing he asks for is my phone number. I give it to him but I already gave it to the computer. What kind of modem do I have? I tell him but they should know that – they sent it to me. He asks a number of other questions. We proceed to troubleshoot various things. Sometimes he doesn’t understand me, sometimes I don’t understand him (try saying “wizard” with an Indian accent), he puts me on hold to talk to his supervisor, and he apologizes for the delay. It is apparent he is following some sort of cookbook. We go down a couple of paths. He puts me on supervisor hold a few times. Finally after about 90 minutes he runs out of options and tells me to call Dell, the computer manufacturer. WHAT! the computer is working fine. It is the Internet connection that doesn’t work. I ask to talk to his supervisor. He puts me on hold. 5 minutes later I get a dial tone – I’ve been cut off. I go get a beer.

Next day I make the call get through the computer and talk to a different technician. Same questions. It appears they have no record of my call the previous day, at least this technician doesn’t. This guy is very green, every minute or so he is talking to his supervisor and apologizing for the delay. We get to the same point, the service isn’t working. I finally ask him very nicely for a number in the US that I can use to talk to someone. I’m on hold for the supervisor again. The supervisor finally comes on we go round and round. He finally gives me a number with a 404 (not a free) area code. By this time it is 1:00 AM. I go to bed.

I am sitting around the table next day at work and my computer guru says “sounds like you have a bad external network card” and proceeds to loan me a spare. That night I bring it home. Eureka it works. Still need to get the WiFi programmed so I call EarthLink, again and 90 minutes and 3 technicians later I’m back in business. Tired but online. My wife and teenagers are talking to me again. The next day I get four pieces of identical mail trying to get me to purchase a new EarthLink service. These guys need to get a clue!

So where am I going with this. My computer worked but I was ticked off. Why does EarthLink spend millions of dollars on advertising to get new clients while they have their existing client talk to technicians in India, and have no record of past problems or their current equipment? Why isn’t there a simple way to check the data line? Why is this process so frustrating? Why am I staying with these guys???

A couple of days later I get a call from my wife. “I know you don’t want to hear this but the computer is out. I called EarthLink they think we have a bad networking card”. AHHHH! Needless to say I go to the store and buy a new card. After I plug it in the Internet is still out but all of the modem lights appear to be working (I am finally starting to learn the system). I prepare for the worst and call EarthLink. This must have been when the Twilight Zone music came up or the clouds parted. The technician seems to know what she was talking about, she understood my problem, and I can understood her. We reach a point where she doesn’t know what to do. Instead of putting me on hold she told me her supervisor would call me back. In 10 minutes I get a call from the supervisor. He solved my problem and asked what else he could do for me. I’m back on-line. I’m speechless!!

That’s when it hit me. Yesterday I was ready to blast EarthLink for absolutely lousy customer service. I was ready to tell 50 friends about what happened. I was ready to switch to any other service. Then the Internet went out again (I still don’t know why). EarthLink had a chance to redeem themselves and helped me fix it quickly and professionally. All is forgiven.

The lesson for me is stuff happens, mistakes are made. Often a relationship is judged by how you solved the last problem. Do it well and treat your customers with respect and maybe they’ll give you the benefit of the doubt….. and then write about the experience.

If the powers at EarthLink are reading this though I do have some advice
1) Please give me a way to talk to someone in the US if I need to
2) Please don’t keep asking for information I have already given you
3) Please keep accurate records for each technician to see. If I call back I don’t want to start from the beginning
4) Call me back if I get cut off and keep saying thank you.

Until next time – All the best!

Roland

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