Time Warner Cable: no communication • 12.07.06
Recently, Time Warner Cable bought Adelphia, the company that provided cable services in my area. I switched to Time Warner Cable from SBC DSL service a few weeks ago. I got onto the Adelphia network which, I was told, would soon be upgraded and switched over to the faster and more efficient Time Warner network.
It was very easy to sign up. I called 1-888-TW-CABLE [1-888-892-2253] and was told that some technicians could come to my place after 10 days. My SBC renewal date was coming up, so I decided to call again after a few minutes to get some other person on the line to help me. I called back after about 3 minutes and was told that someone could come over in 2 days. That was great. So far, calling Time Warner over the phone to get a new service was a good experience, and very fast.
The contracted technicians came and hooked up the new cable to the house. The technicians gave me a receipt and told me that they had no welcome package or any other paperwork for me, as the service was so easy to use. For me, that was fine as I already knew how to use the service. However, I wondered how new customers who had never used a broadband connection before would get started without a welcome package. For me, though, the service worked flawlessly and it was at least 3 times faster than the dsl connection I had from SBC.
On Tuesday, December 5th, around 3 pm, my internet connection dropped suddenly. I called the Time Warner helpline and heard an automated recording that talked about the entire Adelphia network in my region being upgraded at that moment, and the possibility of the entire process continuing until 11 pm, Thursday. The recording also told callers not to call regarding any connection issues until then. For me, that was unacceptable and a good example of bad communication. One of the last things a company would want is for customers to panic, and having no internet connection all of a sudden without any notice or a warning surely results in many customers who go crazy. I didn’t get anything in the mail regarding this, nor was I emailed anything. I could live without the connection for a few hours, but being prepared for such a thing is better. Unexpected surprises that are unpleasant are, well, unpleasant. The connection did come back on for me after a few hours on the same day, and it’s been good since then.
Communication is the central key to any good relationship, whether it be a one on one relationship or a business relationship. The recording on helpline did address my specific question right away. Even then, however, I would prefer a message coming from the businesses to the customers notifying them of any outages in advance, instead of customers reaching out helplessly to the businesses asking them about any sudden emergencies or issues.
Has anything similar happened to you? What is your outtake on this?
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