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.