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switching

Telephone Service

I recently switched my Land Line Phone Service to a new Vendor (for me) here in Middle Georgia.

After the switch I received an E-Mail asking me about my experience.  Overall, the Technican who conducted the switch over was very competent and understanding.  Unfortunately, the level of support he and I the customer received left a lot be be desired. 

Here is a copy of my comments to the new Vendor for my landline phone service:

First of all, about 9 working days ago I called Cox about A cable problem. The nice person I spoke with also recommended that we change our program to better/faster internet service and reduced cost for the TV Cable. In addition she informed me about Cox Phone Service.

We discussed the many options available and settled on a package for about $125.00 which included the phone service. My two reservations were that we could keep our phone number which we have had since 11 December 1978 and also that the new Cox Phone would interface with Safeway Security Systems. It was arranged to switch over the very next morning. Well the next morning arrived as well as the prompt technician. He quickly ascertained that he could not redo the phone service because it would take 7 days to fire AT&T. No problem. We arranged a 11 February 2013 change over date. I just got ahead of myself. On the day of the initial contact the Supervisor called to validate our discussion of a few hours earlier. I was then informed that the package would cost $135.00. We arranged to have the package as agreed upon earlier in the day. No problem.

 

Now back to 11 Feb 2013. The technician arrived on time and commenced to make the change over. No problems. As he left I asked about the system now allowing us to view the number of incoming calls on our TV screen, if we happened to be watching TV. I was informed that I would have to call and have a third party set that up. Then we checked the alarm system out. Safeway did not call within the normal period of time after we tripped the alarm. I contacted Safeway and  after several checks I was informed that they could not communicate with our phone. Long Story short - we were finally told that Safeway had a communication problem from their Monitoring Station in Hawkinsville, GA to Bibb County. The trunk was nor working properly. The technician departed only after Safeway promised to resolve the problem and that Safeway would advise us via phone when that transpired. That transpired about 9:00 A.M. this A.M, Tuesday, 12 February.

In the meantime I called the Cox Service at 784-8000 to set up my system so that the TV would show the number of incoming calls if we were watching TV. I was informed that the installation Technician should have done that. "The old switch deal," where it was someone

else's responsibility. Only after I reminded the Cox Person that I was the paying customer was she able to tell me how to set up theTV so we could see the number of incoming callers. Two or Three times and it never was accomplished.

We terminated that phone call with her promise that the Installation Technician would return later on 11 February 2013 to do what he was reportedly to do when he visited earlier in the day.

He had a busy day. It was about 7:00 P.M. when the Technician arrived. No problem. He did what the on the phone customer service rep told me to do earlier in the afternoon. It did not resolve the problem. The technician then went back to his vehicle to talk to his Supervisor. After a brief period of time he reported back to us that they had a problem somewhere and that it was being worked on even as he was talking to us.

Short Story very short. I used My Bride's Cell Phone to call our landline number. They must have resolved the issue because the number appeared on our TV screen.

Today, 12 Feb 2013 I called 784-8000 to learn about the Voice Mail options. I was told to go online, however the customer service rep did tell me how to do it and we did it.

 

I then went on line to see the plethora of information you have concerning the Phone Options. I will review this stuff and write up a simple, easy to read document that I can use to meet our needs.

Bottom Line: The sales personnel at COX must be made aware of the time constraints of Phone Change Overs. They must also keep to the scheme that both the Customer and the First Point of Contact agreed upon. No changes, unless the price is decreasing, for the package first agreed to.

I would propose that you have one or two of your best Sales People actually go out in the community and call your service center and attempt to do business with you. Then, and only then will they be able to appreciate what the customer has to endure with defective information and/or unknowledgable sales staff. The person I first talked to should have known that it would take 7 working days to fire our former carrier, especially if we desired to keep the same number. Additionally, your entire organization must be taught that there is no placing blame on another vendor/contractor to Cox or a peer at Cox when things do not work as promulgated. To deal with any organization where there is blame placed on another reflects that the entire organization does not know what is going on, or who is responsible for what!

I trust that there is someone at Cox that will actually read this commentary. You can do better and I expect that you will. After all, Cox should be in business to retain customers and to also maintain their loyality.

Warm regards,


Alan