This week, I called Centurylink [to find out about getting ISDN service for a customer I know]. When I reached their business office and asked who I needed to call to find out about ISDN services, they told me they had never heard of ISDN (they actually asked me what ISDN stood for. So I told them it stood for Integrated Services Digital Network). Then she asked me if I meant VOIP. I said no. Then she asked me if I meant DSL. Again I said no. They even went so far as to tell me that I needed to call the company that provides ISDN because Centurylink does not provide it.
Excuse me?
Someone I know gave me the number to the ISDN bureau at Centurylink (I'm fortunate that he had it). I called and told her that I couldn't get pre-sales information about ISDN. I told her that their business office told me that they didn't know what ISDN was or who handled it. I told her that their business office denied that Centurylink even offered it. She was appalled. So she put me on hold and called the business office herself. When she picked me up again, she told me that she was told the same thing when she called the business office.
But the lady from the ISDN bureau did refer me to an account rep that was able to answer my questions and get me a written quote for possible service.
I think it is very sad how poorly Telco CSRs are trained. I had a very similar issue when I was a kid and wanted to get a QKT coupler installed on my home line [so I could plug a phone patch into it for use with my ham station]. They knew what a QKT coupler was but their supervisor had the nerve to tell me that what I wanted to use it for was against Telco's tariffs. I kept having exchanges with the business office which never resulted in them agreeing to put one on my line. I only got it resolved because I had a ham radio friend that worked at the Telco marketing office. Once I told them to call him, the problem got resolved. Then I got my QKT coupler on my line.
I've had so many horror stories dealing with different Telco business offices simply because they provide inferior training to their CSRs.
I've published a number of horror stories on Telecom Digest about not being able to get foreign listings without resorting to calling PSCs in the different states I've lived in. And I have had to do that in SC, NC, and GA to get my foreign listings. I even went round and round with the NM PUC without success.
And I've had to contact PSCs to resolve order issues with Telcos a number of times over the years. If their people knew what they were doing, I wouldn't have had to resort to that. And they are always upset because I called the PSC and never mind that I couldn't get it resolved any other way.
I was renting a room in Maryland years ago. My landlord was bad about mailing them the monthly check. He had the money but he'd forget to put it in the mail. I paid him for my share of the utilities on time every month. Twice, our phone service was interrupted for non-payment. The first time my grandmother died and my family had to call the county police to have someone come to the house and have me call home. The second time, my first niece was about to be born any day.
After the second time, I called Telco and ordered my own line. They told me I'd have to pay a two hundred dollar deposit and never mind that I had a perfect record of payment on my previous phone in Maryland, my phone in SC, and my phone in NC. So I called the PSC and then Telco decided I didn't need to pay any deposit after all. So they came out and put my phone in. That was the only way I could resolve the issue with them.
And I could tell more horror stories.
Do I have a problem with Telco business offices? Sadly, I think I do.
Fred
***** Moderator's Note *****I had a disappointing session with a Verizon CSR who insisted that I had to buy both caller-id and caller-id-with-name if I wanted the former, and who also told me that I couldn't get call-forwarding or conference calling unless I bought a package that included call-waiting.
I'm not sure it's a matter of poor training, though: I suspect that CSR's are being taught that customers are sheep who'll believe anything they're told, and that they should lie like the devil to bump their sales. It's the wrong *kind* of training, but I've seen and heard too many stories like yours to believe that it's not intentional.
Bill Horne Moderator