I’m writing this post as a customer of Telstra’s ISP Bigpond. I had a problem with the speed of my ADSL2+ connection – the option that was supposed to provide a download speed of up to 20 Mbps. Problem was that speedtest results ranged in the order of 850 Kbps to 1.2 Mbps. Something was seriously wrong.
So I decided to phone Bigpond’s technical assistance for help. Yes I know, I hear you and share your shudder. This meant taking on Bigpond’s ‘computer man’… I did so with steely resolve. The saga (for that is what the 90 minute phone call became) went like this (using the third person).
Paul’s phone call was answered by computer man. Paul and computer man went through a protracted options exploring/no resolution session. Paul realised that during his session with computer man that he could tweet about the experience in real time (@conem).
Computer man asked, would I like to speak to a consultant? Yes, Paul said…although he did need to say this more than once.
So Paul went into a queue and finally…technical support person ran an online test with me and confirmed that my internet connection was slow…but, I would need to discuss the problem with someone in Billing.
So into another queue. Half an hour had gone by before a person in Billing picked-up my call. Billing person said something like “Oh, but there should be nothing wrong with your internet speed, everything looks fine from our end”. It just did not seem to matter that the technical person has said that Billing would help Paul: Billing said “we can’t help – go back to technical help and ask for a supervisor”. So back into another queue Paul did go.
By this time @bigpondteam had picked up @conem’s sour tweets about Bigpond’s service. They asked if there was anything they could help with. Paul replied “look at my tweets”.
Well, the phone call saga went on. When Paul got through to technical support, his request to speak to a supervisor was flatly refused. “Not until I know what the problem is” said the man. ‘Whatever’ thought Paul. Second technical support person proceeded to investigate. After some time he advised that the problem seemed to be that my service was not as it should be that I needed to deal with Activations. Back into another queue. An hour had gone by.
Meanwhile, after more tweets, Paul provided account details to @bigpondteam in response to their offer to look into what was going on.
As to the phone call, eventually – after going to activations and back to technical support – it transpired that Paul’s account not have been activated with ADSL2+ as the location was too far from the exchange. Back on hold, on hold, on hold and then Paul got cut-off! After 90 minutes on the phone: nothing!
What do to? Paul communicated directed with @bigpondteam. After a while a deal was stitched-up, Paul got the ADSL he should have been activated with originally, plus a credit was organised for being charged for a speed that was not being delivered. Paul tweeted his thanks openly to @bigpondteam. It was well-deserved. Social networking online was the winner on the day! Having a conversation with customers online, and having empowered representatives to resolve issues…that is a winning strategy. Paul felt so much better looked after than the phone session.
Of the several people Paul spoke to on the phone call, a couple seemed genuinely intent on meeting my needs…it seemed to be the system that let them down. ‘Computer man’ was just irritating. But Paul had the last laugh… the 90 minute call to Bigpond was through Paul’s VoIP service provider, PennyTel at eight cents untimed. Quality of service there was fine:)
