After 10+ years of passively accepting amazingly sub-par services from Wide Open West (WOW!) I finally decided enough was enough. After all, I am paying the absolute maximum a customer can pay for the absolute minimum amount – and quality – of service. We are talking about basic, non-digital cable without a box, the lowest Internet speed available (so slow I cannot watch my Netflix programming) and a basic land line for long distance telephone calls. All this for what was once an annoying $75/month that recently got raised to $85, then $105, and last week I received a letter announcing a new $15/month increase. WOW!
So I held my breath and made the call. 1-866-496-9669.
Ten minutes later (thank you automated caller assist for appreciating my business, wasting my time and making me listen to an endless stream of promotional ads… just what I want when I am already aggravated) I was finally connected to and talking with Daniel in Customer Service. After providing my name, my address, my phone number, my account number, the amount of my last bill and the last four digits of my driver’s license, Daniel said he was unable to open my account. So I requested a supervisor.
Two minutes later Daniel returned to the call and said he could open my account if I could also provide the amount of a previous bill and/or the last four digits of my Social Security Number. At t his point my temper got the best of me.
“Seriously Daniel, I am not applying for a damn loan; I just want to talk to you about adjusting my monthly bill and service. I am being overcharged and under serviced and I am truly unhappy… and I am growing less happy by the minute.”
Finally, 24 minutes into the call, Daniel relents and puts me through to the Customer Retention department, which I had asked for 14 minutes earlier.
“This is Brendan, how can I help you?” So I got right into it and told Brendan the whole story about the ever-increasing rates and the ever-decreasing quality of service and the wasted 25 minutes with Daniel.
“I understand,” Brendan replied. “What if I freeze your current monthly service fees for the next year and bump up your Internet speed from 2MB to 30 MB? Would that work?”
“Yes, thank you, that’s all I wanted was for someone to listen to me and to be reasonable. Yes, Brendan, thank you, this is perfect. Just two things, why has WOW! been ripping me off for 10 years and why did I have to waste 25 minutes talking to Daniel?” Brendan didn’t answer.
Anyway, here is my advice to Steven Cochran, CEO and President of WOW!, I suggest you change your business model to eliminate all the Daniels and promote all the Brendans… or just change your brand name to WTF, because as of right now, “It’s that Kind of Experience.”
