Response to Suddenlink

Good morning, Mark,

Thank you very much. I will DM you my info in a moment. However, before I do that, let me note that I am no longer particularly concerned about the late fee, which I am sure I will never see again.  What remains an issue for me is the manner in which a Suddenlink employee responded to my concerns. He was, I think, beyond curt, and when I asked to speak to his supervisor, he indicated that no such person was available. He did promise that “someone” would get back to me, but no one did.

Now, let me clarify my goals. Just as I am not looking for money (the late fee was quite a small sum, anyway), I am not looking for an apology from Suddenlink. I’m sure that wouldn’t be forthcoming, anyway.

But, I would appreciate some expression of regret from Suddenlink for the way the situation developed. Let me stress that. I am not asking for an admission of wrong-doing or anything like that. I am simply saying that it would go far to mollify me if I thought that Suddenlink understood that something had gone quite wrong here—sufficiently wrong that I was changed from a loyal customer to one who was actively seeking an alternative vendor, and who was willing to share his concerns on social media.

So, those are my goals for our interaction. I believe that isn’t too much to ask.

Now, for my contact info. I am:

Michael Jay Tucker
(c) 781 710 0930
Email: mtucker57@yahoo.com
Account #: 0018630085606504

Suddenlink

I woke up this morning to discover that I had no Internet service. At first, I thought it was simply a local outage, but then I phoned my provider -- Suddenlink -- and learned that I had been terminated for not paying my bill.

The kicker? To the best of my recollection, I never received a recent bill. I had signed up to go paperless and, before, had been getting it regularly via email. But, not this time. Maybe it went into my spam folder or something, but I haven’t seen it there as yet. 

Also, I had not received any notice from Suddenlink that my service was going to be shut down--even though the company has my phone number and text info on file.  If they had texted me a “friendly reminder” I’d have paid up quickly enough. But...they didn’t.

I then paid my bill via the phone and set up automatic payments so that this won’t happen in future. But I had to pay a late fee along with my regular bill, and I really felt that was a bit unfair. How could I be charged a late fee on a bill I never actually got?

So, I called up Suddenlink’s help line...and got put into a lengthy queue. I put my name and number for a call back, and then attempted to use the company’s chat function on its webpage. That, too, required a wait, but I hung in there until I got a company rep on the line, someone named “Michael.” I had just started explaining my problem to Michael when the chat function froze. It didn’t work then, and it is still not working as of the moment (10:45 am).

I then got a phone call back from the customer service help desk. I explained my problem as best I could and said I would like to remove the late fees. A rather hostile individual informed me that I had had plenty of time to check my bill before the due date and so it was all my fault, and there was no way the fees were coming off. 

I asked to speak to his supervisor. He said no one was available right then, but he took my number and said someone would get back to me. No one has yet.

At this point, I was genuinely angry. The late fee had been annoying, but to be basically dismissed by customer service in this fashion was quite a bit worse. Indeed, it is inexcusable.

I suppose I will never see my late fee again, but I do think I’m owed an apology. I wonder if I will ever get it. If I ever do, I will let you know. But, it is rather unlikely, I suppose. Which is sad, because up to then I had been quite satisfied with my Suddenlink service.

What I expected

Help, CenturyLink!

Hello, Centurylink! Can you help me?

I sometimes write for the little web-magazine LiberalResistance.net. Apparently, or so I’ve been told, it has been blacklisted as a spam site and Centurylink users can’t get at it. Meaning, my brave and stupid attempts to promote my writings are being frustrated on a grand scale :-)

Anyway, I assure you, LiberalResistance is a bunch of things, good and bad, but not a spam site. So, how do I go about getting it whitelisted? Is there someone I should phone?

The site’s link is here: https://www.liberalresistance.net/blog/

Thanks hugely in advance.

cheers
mjt

Additional data:

Here's a screen shot of the site as it should be seen:

I'll post the error messages separately.

Finally resolved things with Direct Energy...maybe

So, I think I may have gotten everything settled with Direct Energy.

Maybe. But that's what I thought last time.

It was interesting because once I was through to right people, everything was fine. (Or, at least, I think so).

But getting to them...getting through the voice mail hell of the company's phone system, trying to figure out contradictory emails from the various offices...was maddening.

Surely this could have been done with a lot less fuss.

Item: I had to send the company proof of my father's death. I can understand that, so I emailed them his death certificate and the legal documents showing my role as successor. I wrote a letter about it. Then, I sent everything to the office of "credit exception."

Only to get an email saying that oh, sorry, in spite of what I had been told by a somewhat impolite phone center person, none of those documents was useful. I had to go through a completely different office and a different group of people.

Which sent me back into voice mail hell.

Like I say, when I did get through to the right people, everything was fine. But, again, this could have been relatively easy. It wasn't.

Why would a company make it difficult for me to continuing paying them?

Just curious.

A concern about Direct Energy - revisited!

Okay, what the heck is going on?

I thought this problem was resolved. Now, I'm told I can't close out my late father's account. The man is dead. He can't pay any bills any more. 

I want to transfer the bill to my name, but it doesn't seem possible.

I am particularly peeved because I'd thought this was taken care of. I'd even posted kudos to "Jane," who thought she'd had it all set for me.

But then, I get the following email:

Good Morning Mr. Tucker,

 

                We did forward your documentation to see if the name could be changed. Unfortunately,  we are not able to transfer the account into your name. The accounts can only be transferred between spouse’s names. At this point we would recommend for you to enroll for services under your name and identifiers. You can contact our enrollments department at 888-305-3828. Sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused.

 

 

Thanks,

Nickie Catlett

Credit & Debt Exception Specialist

Direct Energy Residential

Office 855-788-8923

Fax 866-745-6571

      


  How difficult will Direct Energy make it for me to give them money?


***



Kudos to Direct Energy, and particularly to "Jane." She helped me with the problem described below and was direct and kind.

Thanks so much.

cheers
mjt




*




I have a concern to raise with Direct Energy.

My late father was a Direct Energy customer. I have just sent a note to credit.exceptions@directenergy.com with his acct. information.

But my concern is as follows.  I have been attempting to change the billing information for quite some time now. It has not been a pleasant experience. To take the last two days alone, I began on Thursday by entering your voice mail system and spending a good ten minutes trying to get the system to actually put me through to a customer representative. Once I did reach someone, that individual transferred me to someone else who told me that there had been a “reset” of the system and that he would call me back. He never did.

Today, I went through the same routine. I finally ended up with an individual who identified himself as “Rick,” and who, in my opinion, was less than helpful.  He told me what I already knew and that supporting documentation needed to be sent to the company to prove my father's death and that I was the designated heir. As I say, I knew this, but the message was not provided in a particularly respectful manner. Indeed, I actually had to ask him to stop being patronizing.

I suggest that you reconsider the mechanisms by which you interact with customers in these sorts of situations. Things would have been easier for me if: 1) There had been an option in your voice mail settings to directly enter the account number rather than "the phone number associated with this account" (which has been disconnected for months), or 2) there had been a place on your webpage a place to arrange for the transfer of billing without going through a live operator, or 3) that Rick (or whoever) had not been so quick to assume that I needed to be treated as if I were not particularly bright.

regards
Michael Jay Tucker

problem with my Linksys?

Hey, Linksys folks!

So I’ve got a problem that I hope you can help me with...though I’m guessing that the problem isn’t coming from my recently purchased AC1200. But, who knows, maybe you’ll have some insight.

Anyway, it’s like this. I am a CenturyLink customer. They gave me a Q1000 modem. I’ve been using it for quite some time, but it has very limited range (the TV in the living room is always losing the signal).

Worse, every once in a while, though not all the time, it would suddenly misbehave. We’d either lose connectivity to the web, or the web would slow to a maddening crawl.

Centurylink support was only marginally helpful. They said that another modem in the area might be interfering with our signal. They told me to change the channel on the modem, which I did, but it didn’t seem to help.

So thought perhaps my problem would be solved if I got the AC1200. I attached it to the modem, turned off the modem’s Wif-Fi, and starting using the router’s network. (And yes, I put the Ac1200 across the room from the modem. I’m told they can interfere with each other.)

But, once again, the web goes in and out, and can slow down dramatically.

I’m guessing the problem is in the Q1000. But I’d thought I’d ask just the same. Can you offer any suggestions before I go and deal with Centurylink (shudder) support?

Thanks hugely in advance.

cheers
mjt