Over the last two months, I started to notice a slight degradation of the speed of our Internet service in our house.
We were paying for 6MB of service and getting 2MB or less.
Nothing had really changed in our usage patterns.
We did not all of a sudden start downloading or uploading huge files. For the most part, it’s usually my daughter and I doing things most people do at home– email, surfing, being on Facebook, and downloading and playing music.
Paying for 6 MB of Service and Getting 2 MB
We were paying for 6 MB service, which I believe is more than ample for 90% of typical homes in the U.S. Yes, I know you can get plenty more, but if you're family is on a budget, I believe 6 MB is ample.
Now back to my story....I was hoping that the situation was some type of temporary blip in service. After testing our speed using Speakeasy.com and Speedtest.net, we were seeing speeds of slight under or slightly above 2 MB.
Clearly, it was time to call AT&T for a service call.
Over the course of one week, I reached out to, and experienced some very well-intentioned team members at AT&T who demonstrated the face of a highly disparate and dysfunctional team of customer service, technical support and technicians who made 8 truck rolls and multiple attempts to finally resolve my service issue and get me back to 6 MB of service.
In all fairness to AT&T, this has not been the norm. As a rule, any time I have had a service issue, I’ve generally found everyone at every level to be nice, responsive and competent. And in the last five years of being a U-verse customer, I've rarely had any problems. The service has been reliable and like any service provider in my area such as TimeWarner or Grande - or those up in the air - such as Dish or DirectTV, AT&T has generally delivered.
This time, it was different.
When Everything In The Entire Supply Chain of Getting My Service Issue Resolved Broke Down
Through sheer will, multiple calls and posting content documenting what was happening on Facebook, and by trying to communicate with the @ATTCustomerCare people on twitter, and the involvement of some caring people on U-verse social media team, things finally got resolved.
A Happy Ending of Sorts
Being a long time AT&T customer and having been a beta customer for U-verse, I think I have a pretty good take on the company, particularly in its transition from being more than just a phone company.
AT&T is very much like a giant airline. They are a huge company, there’s lots of moving parts to make this whole thing run, they are highly regulated and being publicly traded, subject to S.E.C. scrutiny as well. When things screw up, they tend to cascade big time.
If you’ve ever had an airline lose your luggage, bump you from an oversold flight, or served a really horrible meal, I think you’ll catch my drift. Everyday, the airlines get millions of people safely from point A to point B. And like he airlines, AT&T serves millions of customers and completes many millions of calls. So, in all fairness to this epic fail that occured, I saw this more of an insight in to how the company handles service calls and how it resolves major screw ups.
What’s An SLA?
It’s what’s known to businesses as a Service Level Agreement. In the business world, companies pay a certain rate for a certain level of service on thing like telecommunications, hosting, and tech support. This is pretty well accepted in the business world, but I don’t think most consumers are even thinking this way.
I spend a lot of time working from home, and like millions of Americans who work or run a business from their home, we too have the right to what I would call a Consumer SLA.
There is no official consumer (or residential ) “SLA” to my knowledge. And to be fair to service providers like AT&T, one might argue to a subsribption model - where you pay for X amount of speed per month for a flat rate may not be the same as have a dedicated switch connected to your businesses.
Regardelss, when a service provider advertises speeds of X, and you pay Y, you should have the right to get within 90% of what they are advertising.
You know, you pay for 6 MB, 12MB or more. The higher your download speed the more you pay. Even though it’s the same pipe coming into the home, you pay more by having your service provider open the spigot a bit more for increased speed.
As a Consumer, You Have the Right to Demand the Service You Are Paying For.
I am hoping others will test their speeds, call their service provider when they don’t get what they are paying for, get the problem resolved or demand a truck roll so the problem can be resovled in person. Every time a truck roll happens, it costs your service provider money. Lots of it. It gets their attention if you are diligent and share your knowledge with your friends and on your social networks. You can test your speeds from home here or here.
Over the next few weeks, I will be adding more posts expanding this story a bit more.
Get Your Service Provider To Make it Right.
If you are experiencing a service issue, you have a right to get your service provider make it right. If they can’t get it right over the phone or through remote diagnostics, they have to do what’s called a Truck Roll, meaning they have to send one of their trucks out to your house to fix the problem. An average truck roll costs about $200, so they more they have to come to your house to make it right, the more it impacts their bottom line.
Watch for more posts to come.
You have the right to get the level of service you are paying for.
If you have an experience like mine to share chime in.
This applies not just to AT&T customers, but anyone who depends on a service provider for a certain level of service.
Recent Comments