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A gentle suggestion: calling customer before sending tech

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 8:53 pm
by timoteo7
I'll begin on a positive note.

Last Saturday Sonic arranged for an AT&T tech to visit my San Francisco home to determine why I was getting sub 5 mbps download speeds. The tech found a short; my download speeds soared; I was a happy user.

This morning, out of the blue, another AT&T tech called on his business cell phone to let me know that he was on his way to my house for more testing, and needed access to the MPOE. Fortunately, I was on my way home when I received his message; had I been out for the day, he wouldn't have gotten in at all.

I had to call Sonic to find out what was up. Apparently a Sonic tech had run some tests on my line that morning, decided it needed more work and dispatched the tech to my home ... but without bothering to notify little ol' me that someone would be coming. I put the poor tech through the third degree, and had to wait on hold for ten minutes to reach someone at Sonic who told me, whoops, you do have a Sonic-initiated service call, and so sorry no one told you.

I am genuinely pleased that Sonic would think to test my line after the service call this weekend. Your service always has been first rate.

However:

I don't think techs should be dispatched in this fashion. I think customers always should be informed by Sonic in advance of service calls, rather than just sending a tech out.

If you were in my shoes, would you be happy to get an entirely unexpected call saying: I'm on my way over, I'll need access to your MPOE, see you in five minutes!

Re: A gentle suggestion: calling customer before sending tec

Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 10:24 pm
by virtualmike
I suspect it was a rare oversight rather than SOP. I received a call from Sonic.net tech support when an AT&T tech was dispatched to my home, giving me the two-hour window when to expect the visitor.

Re: A gentle suggestion: calling customer before sending tec

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 2:17 am
by dane
One more bit of info: in many cases the utility MPOE is accessible, and we don't need the customer to be home. Often AT&T and other utility providers will visit without any notice at all. Sometimes they'll leave a door hanger note afterwards, sometimes not.

-Dane

Re: A gentle suggestion: calling customer before sending tec

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 6:44 pm
by timoteo7
In this case, the service call originated on Sonic's end. It sounds like an oversight.

Everything is working, my speeds are roughly the equal to what I used to get from cable, and I've got a new phone with unlimited nationwide dialing for $40 a month. I'll count my blessings.

Thanks, virtualmike and Dane, for your responses.

Re: A gentle suggestion: calling customer before sending tec

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 12:07 pm
by stefanl
Same thing happened to me. I have an open ticket with sonic.net, but never got a confirmed time for the appointment, AT&T showed up, I wasn't home, AT&T never left a note. It sounds like AT&T likes to do a 'first pass' before they call the customer.

However, this has been my experience with AT&T for the last 10 years. They rarely notify me ahead of time, or call me at work when they arrive at my house and I cannot leave work.

-= Stefan

Re: A gentle suggestion: calling customer before sending tec

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 8:23 pm
by dane
Bingo. Generally they consider the MPOE is likely to be accessible, and they want to come and go without having to coordinate.

-Dane