Ripped off by Qwest Service
I have been having trouble with Qwest for over six months. The "special ring" that my children are supposed to have does not work correctly, in fact, Qwest took one of the numbers that was mine, and gave it to another customer. Now they say they can't give it back to me because, and I quote, "two wrongs don't make a right". Then they asked if we wanted the service that would not allow telemarketers to call, try it for one month free. After about 15 days, I was fed up, because cell phone callers couldn't get through, but AT & T called twice a day asking for our long distance dollars. I cancelled the service, then found out they charged me over $9.00 for the 30 free days! They have disconnected my phone for "non-payment", when they had posted my payments to someone else's account. I have called three times for a bad line before anyone came out to fix it.
The last time I talked to Qwest, I asked for a manager, and was told that none were available, but they would call me back. I asked for a complaint department, but amazingly enough, they don't have one!!! I asked for a consumer advocacy number, and they don't have access to that either. They have a monopoly on the market in the west, and don't feel that they are responsible for providing adequate, competent services for the exorbitant price they charge. In the east I had two phone lines for the price of one here. That wouldn't bother me if I actually had a phone that consistently worked, without overcharges, and with friendly service. Come on Qwest, wake up and serve your customers!!
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1 Updates & Rebuttals
Sherry
Rigby,Idaho,
No Customer Service
#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Thu, November 28, 2002
I'm not sure there is customer service in big
business anymore.
I can give you a bit of insight into how things
work in a Qwest sales/service office. I know
this doesn't help your situation, but I do believe
you're not getting the whole "scoop" from the reps
you've been talking with.
There ARE managers at Qwest but they're usually
kept so busy with the myriad of tasks they're
required to complete in a day they simply do not
have time to take customer complaints. I used
to be amazed at what Qwest expected from my "coach" on a daily basis and wondered if he ever got any time at home. Also, usually in the early morning hours and late evening hours, there are less managers "on the floor" for the reps to have access to. Most times, the best a rep can do is to get a message to a manager and hope he/she returns the call, or perhaps transfer the already upset customer to the managers voicemail (which only serves to aggrevate the situation even more).
As to the complain department, you're correct...
they don't have one. There was, however (and I
believe still is) a Consumer Advocacy Office within Qwest. I used to have the telephone number and the address for it but no longer have it. I do still have some personal contacts at the local Qwest office and after reading some of the problems here I am going to try to get it as a contact for comsumers here.
Again, you're correct about being a monopoly, although more and more areas serviced by Qwest are being entered by competitive companies. More rural states actually seem to be penalized because they are rural.
Of course, if you look at the business end of it,
in an urban area one mile of telephone line can
service many more customers than one mile of line
in....say, the Wyoming desert. In Idaho, our basie phone service is some of the highest I've seen. I just look at that as one of the prices we pay to be able to live outside the city.
Most of the problems you've described can be
connected with Qwest representatives that just
don't do their job. Any sales or service rep that
you speak to from Qwest will have a quota they
are required to meet in order to maintain their
job. When I was "terminated" for not meeting that
quota, the monthly quota per person was $56,000.
Reps jobs are dependent on not only meeting the
dollar quota, but also a time limit on each call,
little or no "closed" time off the telephone to
help a customer or make a call-back, and several
other things. Reps can not even take a "potty
break" without calling the front desk to okay it.
With that much stress on the rep,it's no wonder
details are missed. In some cases information may deliberately be omitted by the rep in order to secure the sale.
Unfortunately, I don't believe anything will change in big business. The dollar is the bottom line regardless of how much lip service the business gives to customer service. And, with that in mind you can be assured that anyone within the Qwest corporation that tries to give good customer service is not meeting their dollar goal and will, usually within afew months, be out of a job.
I personally will pay more for something that
comes with good customer service than for a
bargain with no service at all.
Maybe with new companies coming into Qwest areas,
something will have to change, but don't hold your
breath.