in the Universe's Customer Service Abyss

 

The joys of (on-line) customer service.  Last night, I turned on 1 of our TV’s and after 30 seconds or so, the network interface box started cycling through reboots, over and over.  I verified that the problem was in the box (not the TV, nor signal into the house).  I decided to unplug it overnight, but this morning it is totally dead (won’t power up).

Not really a big deal, it happens.  So, this morning it’s a dive into the abyss that is customer service.  First try:  Online support.  After about 20 minutes of serval paths through the infinite loop of on-line help, I finally found a phone number.

Next step: Phone support.  We got hold of a real person withing just a couple of minutes, and then had to go through resetting our PIN and security questions, because we hadn’t needed either in years.  I explained our problem, the person was very understanding.  Then announced that he was in billing, and would need to re-route us to technical support.  And then (before transferring me) tried to see me now phones.

So, after 15+ minutes, I was transferred to Technical support.  Or more accurately, to Technical supprt’s hold music.  And I’ve been sitting on hold for 40+ minutes.  After 20 minutes in a computer voice told me they were busy, and my wait time might exceed 10 minutes.  Yeah, a little over 10 minutes.  After another 20 minutes they told me again that my wait time might exceed 20 minutes…

Finally, after just over an hour, I reached a nice support person who cheerfully ordered a new receiver which we should receive tomorrow.  The whole process took about 70 minutes, but less than 5 once I reached the right person!