When I got home from work today there was a voicemail from Eastlink, our phone, cable and Internet provider, asking us to call their Accounts Receivable department. So I got on the phone and talked to an agent who ultimately had no idea why they’d called originally, and suggested that I was the victim of their system placing random calls to innocent customers.
When I got off the phone I went to use the Internet, and found that we had no service. I did the usual checks of the wifi access points and the cable-modem, but nothing jumped out at me. Later in the evening I phoned technical support, explained the mysterious call earlier in the day, and was assured that there was no problem with my account. They asked me to call back when I could be in front of the cable-modem.
So, just now, I trudged back down to the basement, got tech support on the horn again, talked to a different (and very helpful) chap who told me that my “modem had been deactivated” on their end. He put me on hold for 5 minutes and came back on the line to explain what had happened.
When our ISN service was switched over to Eastlink service last week we ended up with the original ISN-provided cable-modem when Eastlink replaced it with their own. The installer made mention of the fact that we should return it to ISN, and told us to call them to find out where. So a few days later I called ISN and was told that I had to return it to the Charlottetown Mall Eastlink kiosk.
As I’m not in the habit of going to the Charlottetown Mall every day, nor indeed am I regularly in its neighbourhood, I put the cable-modem on the dining room table with plans to take it out there this weekend.
Apparently this wasn’t soon enough for Eastlink: they decided to punish me for my tardiness by cutting off my Internet service. Without warning. They then made matters worse but bungling the follow up.
I knew that the halcyon days of ISN customer service were gone, I just didn’t realize how quickly and arbitrarily the faceless corporateness of Eastlink would manifest itself.
Sigh. I’ve been a Eastlink customer for more than 7 years, and an ISN customer for more than 10 years. It’s not like I’m selling my second cable-modem on eBay and making off with the proceeds. I can understand cutting off service after, say 60 days and a few phone calls. But after 8 days? 17 years of customer goodwill eroded seriously by a single careless act.
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Comments
My server was hung all day,
My server was hung all day, because Microsoft automatic update installed a security patch which rebooted the server all by itself, then got stuck waiting for a confirmation message to be acknowledged halfway through rebooting. It hung itself on Microsofts orders.
Anyway, you are like Ukraine with the Russians cutting off their gas! I wonder what kind of run around they get from Gazprom customer service?
Deactivated and ignored. Poor Ukranians.
Well Pete, that’s the tip of
Well Pete, that’s the tip of the iceberg. Dial users are being forced to change to cable service if they live in a cable service area and it seems all ISN email addresses are going to diappear in April even though Kevin said no one would have to change their email - did he he base that on something he knew or something he only wished for?
Point goes to Eastlink for
Point goes to Eastlink for phoning me today — someone got word to them obviously — to apologize for the mistake they made and offer an explanation for the error (they deactivated *all* service at 100 Prince Street when shutting off my old ISN account, including the new service).
Well apparently eastlink pays
Well apparently eastlink pays more attention to you than they do to me.
Hello? Eastlink? Could you please fix the capacity problem in my area so I don’t keep getting kicked off the internet?
I only passed on what I was
I only passed on what I was given.
Kevin, if this is true, you
Kevin, if this is true, you should have been more vocal from the start about what was happening and should be more vocal now. They are causing people to have to get new email addresses ( thank you Peter for the information you posted, that is what my family is now doing) and because it has to be done so quickly- they will most likely have to change again in a few months when someone finally gets some high speed to the rural areas- and it won’t be Eastlink according to the person we have been talking to constantly. If they said there wouldn’t be changes, is this a breech of your agreement - do you care about your former customers???????
Well Eastlink is telling us
Well Eastlink is telling us that it will take 6 days to replace our telephone/cable modem. Apparently this is acceptable. As much as I hate the ‘other phone company’ *NEVER* took 6 days to do anything. Being vocal and leaving a manager a voicemail has not helped thus far.
Eastlink CSR’s are useless.
Eastlink CSR’s are useless. Teir 2 is a joke. When I moved Eastlink sent their install guys to the apartment building across the street, then took over a week to get someone to my actual place and tried to start billing me from the date they bungled the building address. They also tried to charge me an install fee on my free install offer THEY CALLED ME ABOUT. Took a while to get that straightened out. Another really stupid thing was that their tech support couldn’t find my signal info when I was discussing problems I had with my modem (I was logged into the modem asking why my SNR was so crappy, she didn’t know what SNR was. Nice tech support). Last thing they did in a 2 month period was on a bill for $164 something, I paid $140 something before the bill was issued and it showed my payment on the bill. I think their ended up being about $19 left of the bill so they charged me taxes on the $164 amount… They tried to charge me more in taxes than my bill actually was.
Eastlink is garbage. But our only alternative here is Aliant which has crappy DSL, and Digital cable that goes through the phoneline. Yea, thats right, they put their internet, digital cable and of coarse phone service through a tiny piece of Copper wire. If you use net and TV at same time they slow each other down. It’s so bad you CAN’T get their 10mb/s net with digital cable cause the line can’t handle the load….
So crappy services for more money, or deal with stupid CSR’s every month… I can handle the idiot CSR’s so Eastlink wins because they actually offer services worth paying for… Still… another ISP would be great…
I have “wireless high speed
I have “wireless high speed internet” that only works in the garage connected to modem. I can’t get a service call to my house. Also i hooked up June 6th and got a bill mid July for 2 months of service due July 1st at $458!!!!! 3 weeks for $458. Eastlink says they prebill 2 months in advance with nowhere in writing that states they can do this. They simply say, “that is our policy” Imagine a world in business where banks, credit cards, auto finance companies, power companies just decide without a contractual agreement in place to pre or double bill a customer. It would be good for the markets as corporate revenues would soar but how long before the small consumer gets hurt. What the **** am I doing with EASTLINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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