22
Aug2007
Please sell me your product
I currently get my internet connection through Speakeasy (DSL). They're good, and they're server-friendly, but it's slow and expensive - and if something goes wrong, there are three separate entities involved (Speakeasy, Covad, and Verizon - it is not a plus that I now know what CLEC and ILEC mean), which makes troubleshooting ... interesting. I'd like to switch to RCN, who are starting service in my neighborhood. I've used RCN before; they let you buy a static IP for a residential account which makes them server-friendly, it's fast, and we'd switch our cable TV to them as well and consolidate two bills (for less than we were paying).
So I call RCN to find out when they might be serving my address (their website thinks that my house simply doesn't exist - according to RCN, my street consists of number 116, apartment 2, and number 122, apartment 3).
(I should note at this point that there are RCN wires already running past my back yard; in fact one of their wires was hanging into my garden, and they sent a truck to fix it.)
When I talk to RCN sales, they don't know when they might serve my address, but they give me a phone number for the local office and promise to have someone call me within 5 days. Over a week later I try the number for the local office and get someone's voicemail. I've left "Jane" four or five messages now, and received a single call back, about a week after the first message. In that call, someone (not Jane) promised to talk to the people who know which sections of my neighborhood are being lit up when, and to call me back with the info on Friday (this was a Monday).
That was last week.
On the other hand, Comcast, which should be at least as much of a big bureaucracy as RCN, called me with pricing and emailed me a contract two days after filling out a form on their website. Unfortunately Comcast requires getting "business class" service to get a static IP and that means a contract length of a year that has to be re-upped a full year at a time. But if RCN can't manage to call me back and give me a date...
This is not an isolated incident. J recently had to endure a small saga to purchase propane to fill the tank for our grill. Multiple rounds of "sorry, the propane filling station is closed - we'd love to help you out, but it's locked." "Actually it's not, I just walked by it." "Well it closes at 6..." "Two days ago you told me it closes at 7." "Was that Friday? We're open late Friday." "... since today is Wednesday, no." And so on.
I've even encountered this from someone who works on commission. J and I were ordering a refrigerator from Sears, to be delivered to the movers who were moving us into our condo. We wanted to buy an air conditioner at the same time. The air conditioner we wanted was available for sale on Sears' web site. But the salesman, who again I note was ON COMMISSION, refused to sell it to us. He told us it was "out of season."
We went home and J ordered it online. It shipped, to the same Sears that we had been in, within two days.
So I call RCN to find out when they might be serving my address (their website thinks that my house simply doesn't exist - according to RCN, my street consists of number 116, apartment 2, and number 122, apartment 3).
(I should note at this point that there are RCN wires already running past my back yard; in fact one of their wires was hanging into my garden, and they sent a truck to fix it.)
When I talk to RCN sales, they don't know when they might serve my address, but they give me a phone number for the local office and promise to have someone call me within 5 days. Over a week later I try the number for the local office and get someone's voicemail. I've left "Jane" four or five messages now, and received a single call back, about a week after the first message. In that call, someone (not Jane) promised to talk to the people who know which sections of my neighborhood are being lit up when, and to call me back with the info on Friday (this was a Monday).
That was last week.
On the other hand, Comcast, which should be at least as much of a big bureaucracy as RCN, called me with pricing and emailed me a contract two days after filling out a form on their website. Unfortunately Comcast requires getting "business class" service to get a static IP and that means a contract length of a year that has to be re-upped a full year at a time. But if RCN can't manage to call me back and give me a date...
This is not an isolated incident. J recently had to endure a small saga to purchase propane to fill the tank for our grill. Multiple rounds of "sorry, the propane filling station is closed - we'd love to help you out, but it's locked." "Actually it's not, I just walked by it." "Well it closes at 6..." "Two days ago you told me it closes at 7." "Was that Friday? We're open late Friday." "... since today is Wednesday, no." And so on.
I've even encountered this from someone who works on commission. J and I were ordering a refrigerator from Sears, to be delivered to the movers who were moving us into our condo. We wanted to buy an air conditioner at the same time. The air conditioner we wanted was available for sale on Sears' web site. But the salesman, who again I note was ON COMMISSION, refused to sell it to us. He told us it was "out of season."
We went home and J ordered it online. It shipped, to the same Sears that we had been in, within two days.