My 2 cents !!! You'll love it!!!!

[SBD]

Touching story, really. Thanks for sharing.

Are you sure you are telling this story ripe with poor customer service to the right people?

I personally would of relayed my problems with poor customer service back to the organization responsible. More specific, to those responsible for the employees with poor customer service practices.

That's the point, it was designed that way from the beginning.

The company was The Sutherland Group and the DSL company was Telocity. Search Google for Telocity, I'm sure you will find a lot of complaints.

These companies don't care about customer service. All they care about is their bottom line and their stock price. Once they have you in a contract, they will enforce it and if you try to leave because of bad service or even no service, they will charge you such a high penalty that you end up staying. They know the majority will stay rather than pay the early termination fee.

SBD

 

[mattb]

The problem with all outsourced customer service/tech support is the employees are under mandates to keep call times down and get you off the phone as quick as possible. Whlie yes a lot of these workers could not do anything beyond reading the script, even if they knew how to hang your dish or fix your PC or cook a turkey for you, they are bound to low call times, and if they show up in switch reports (that are looked at daily by the centers management whom have to report figures back to the company that is contracting them for support) as having "high call times" normally they are terminated or repremended for having them if they contiune to spend more time on the phone than the "set avg"

So yeah it stinks but I guess that's the nature of outsourced support, be it computers, satellite, or anything else.

 

[Zookster]

My only real CSR experience with Dish happened when I cancelled a couple of weeks back. I got a very nice "account specialist" who insisted that my leased 811 that I had added to my DHP account just over a year ago through a Dish 'n Up promo was actually purchased by me. I even pulled out my Dish 'n Up contract and related that I paid only $29 for it. (For the install/upgrade, I used the same retailer my dad works for, so I know he didn't inadvertently sell it and install it for less than thirty bucks!) Still they insisted I own it, along with the new LBN that was also installed, and only asked that I return my 508. I just hope it doesn't come back to bite me in the butt down the road, and for that reason I'm keeping the 811 for back-up OTA reception.

 

[dishcomm]

I see that I wasn't unique with customer service. I have recently had to deal with them. I have found that it works best to get to an account specialist. I have not had much luck dealing with the Indian call center. They seem to be very limited in what they can do or their understanding of how to resolve an issue. Try explaining that MLB is not basketball. I don't think they ever understood. I usually have to press to get to an account specialist. I have spent a lot of time on hold and being bounced around. I had quite a few times when my call was disconnected. I still have to make one more call to get everything to where it should be. I hope it isn't another couple of hours to get this done. I like the product that Dish offers but their customer service can use a lot of improvment.

From a tech's point of view the India call center is a friggin disaster area....i get compliants from customers ranging from dropped calls to frustration to uncooperative and discourteous CSR's.....
on occasion I have had to deal with the India call center myself....I hate it...Can't say it any other way..If Dish management has any business smarts they will dump that facilty..I won't hold my breath....
Fortunately my dealings with them are limited.....the best way to appraoch this is to document and submit your complaints directly to diish networks corporate office..Writing to Charlie helps also....

 

[dishcomm]

My first tech job was for a company that had offices in India and San Diego. The company offered tech support to large DSL companies by promising them that they could improve their bottom line while they expanded nationwide. The problem was that the local Telco also sold DSL, so their installs were always put off behind the Telco's installs.

We were called Tier 1 support, but in reality, we were the punching bag for all of the angry customers calling in to complain about their DSL service or lack of DSL service. Some were told they would have it installed in two weeks and waited over 6 months. For those customers with service problems, we had a list of excuses to tell them explaining why their DSL wasn't working. My favorite was asking if they had a microwave in the house and making them move it to see if that helped and call back if it is still not working.

There was always something we could point to that was the cause of the problem. The reason was that we had to be off of the call in less than 10 minutes in order to keep the on hold time down. This allowed us to use less staff and keep the wait time down which is how the company got paid.

The DSL company assumed everything was going great. They saved money, and their customers were being attended to quicker than ever before. The sad fact is that the strategy worked and the DSL company became so big, they were bought by Direct TV DSL.

I was out of there in less than a month!!

Now you know why Dish has so many dropped calls!!


SBD

Good move..I think those worrking in call centers save for retirees and college grads with lots of resumes out in the world, are at the dead end of job choices...Overall, customer service goes downhill whenever unemployement rates fall. Part of that is because pay rates fro custoemrr service people are low..T
I have a question but first a comment...in dealing with Dish CSR's on the Tech line it seems they are reluctant and sometimes unwilling to allow a transfer to a supervisor....Is it true that CSR's can be reprimanded for transfering calls to supervisory people.....Answer that from your past experiences at the DSL company..Thanks

 

[flytank]

Sorry Jordan about the "crammed" original post....it was sort of a la "Jerry Mcguire" kinda "I just started writing and writing about how I felt" thing. I didn't worry about spacing or anything....will try paragraphs next time !!!

 

[SBD]

Good move..I think those worrking in call centers save for retirees and college grads with lots of resumes out in the world, are at the dead end of job choices...Overall, customer service goes downhill whenever unemployement rates fall. Part of that is because pay rates fro custoemrr service people are low..T
I have a question but first a comment...in dealing with Dish CSR's on the Tech line it seems they are reluctant and sometimes unwilling to allow a transfer to a supervisor....Is it true that CSR's can be reprimanded for transfering calls to supervisory people.....Answer that from your past experiences at the DSL company..Thanks

Sorry for the delay in my response to your question, I have some health issues to deal with all of a sudden. Anyways, I was referred to the Sutherland Group from the school where I earned my MCSE. At the time, I had no tech experience as my former employment was owning a restaurant. Even though I was only there a month, it gave me a tech company to list on my resume.

As for your question regarding transfers to the supervisor, most of our calls wanted to be transferred to a supervisor. The supervisor had pretty much the same authority we had, which was none. Usually he or she was the best sympathizer with customers and would say anything to get them off the phone. They never gave a correct name to anyone. The main reason we did not transfer to the supervisor was because the supervisor did not want to talk to them. The more angry people we sent to him, the more our schedules would to be changed to more graveyard shifts or early morning shifts as punishment for not being able to take care of it ourselves.

SBD

 

[FSS3]

wow!!! Youot to love csr. Man i whish volkodav would told me about this website sooner .ijust found out about satteliteguys. I went to CES in vegas ,in january. And talked to dish reps out there .When I got back i new more than enyone else on the shop about new HD.The problem is new system get realised but insteler got no training on it,so we have to learn on our own,2-3 mounts down on the road they usualy came out whit a training. My point is if instalers doest get proper training in time Im not surprised that CSR doesn't eather.