Unnecessary Power

There is Unnecessary Power at Time Warner Cable. I have my services, phone, internet and cable, bundled with Time Warner.  When they all work, it’s great. 

Imagine going almost three weeks with inconsistent service on my phone and internet.  Oh, I’d call them and ask them to send a signal and it might work for an hour and then be off the rest of the day.  It was so frustrating.

It was determined on the 13^th call to Time Warner, I might have an outdate modem.  Since I travel, I asked for an appointment in two weeks.  Alas!  Time Warner only books appointments one week in advance.  Now, who in this day and age only books out one week in advance.  My dentist books out six months.  My gynecologist books a year in advance.  And, Time Warner, in order to provide their most excellent service books out one week!   Oh, oh, you need to know… if you are not going to be at home during the upcoming week, you have to wait until the next Friday to call them back to get an appointment for the upcoming week.  I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP, YALL!

So, as an obedient Stepford Customer, I call on a Friday and make an appointment for the following Tuesday.  In order for them to provide their most excellent service, I get to wait at home until someone arrives during the-ever-so-inconvenient-time of 8 am – noon.  At 11:30, I had heard nothing from them so I called to determine when I could expect a tech to arrive.  Well, well, well, I was not allowed to ask any questions nor access a human until after the noon scheduled time!  ARE YOU KIDDING ME? 

So at 12:15, I contact what I thought was Time Warner which had evidently been relocated to India.  What?  I talked to a young man, who called himself Chad.  REALLY, CHAD?????   His broken English was so indecipherable that I kept saying “Please repeat that.”  When I finally got accustomed to his accent, he said, “Oh, your appointment was canceled by the tech.”  WHAT?   Really irate, I asked, “How can a tech cancel an appointment without making any contact with the customer? “  Cha,d reading from the script in front of him, said, “Oh, we call that human error.” WELL, KISS MY GRITS!  I have just wasted four hours waiting for a tech who can randomly cancel my appointment and my gift is Chad reading a script?  I was hot!

I immediately called the local number and told the rep in no uncertain terms was I going to settle for such ineptness and I wanted a tech at my house that day.  Although she was very soothing, and could speak fluent Southern, she indicated it was impossible for a tech to come today.  BUT, she could book me an appointment next week!!!!  SHUT YO MOUTH! Now I am going on three weeks of sporadic service.

Frankly, I don’t think Time Warner cares.  They possess the DMV mentality – we’ll provide service when we want to because you don’t matter.  Isn’t that sad? 

After 22 phone calls in America and 1 to India, I finally had the tech arrive.  He walked in, changed out the modem and left…taking all of 8 minutes.  Why are customers being held hostage when we are paying ridiculous fees to get very marginal results?  Because Time Warner has Unnecessary Power.