Notes of a Defeatist

AOL and Comcast’s recent P.R. snafus have been given airtime on many “investigative news” segments this weekend showing the evils of the big corporate telecommunications giants screwing the little people. Can’t wait until Time Warner gets their moment in the spotlight too!
A Comcast Technician Sleeping on my Couch illustrates the everyday reality that is being a tech. You see a lazy, ignorant motherfucker asleep on a couch. I see myself the day after my fourth 14 hour day-in-a-row, on hold, again because their cheap-ass equipment isn’t working. Nothing speeds this process up and this, THIS IS WHY WE ARE FUCKING LATE TO YOUR APPOINTMENTS!!

Customers can’t believe it, but techs spent just as much time on hold. We are more meaningless than you are, and they don’t let us forget it. Most of the time falling asleep would be an impossibility because the customer’s too busy asking for another goddamn explanation on how to work the volume on the remote, like this is the first time they’ve ever seen a fucking remote control in their lives. Most customers hover, trying to keep an eye on you so you aren’t able to walk off with their John Melloncamp cds or damage that antique Wall Mart entertainment center they’ve had in their family since their Mama’s mama moved into town.

WNBC broadcasted Call To Cancel AOL, in which Vincent Ferrari (a porn name if there ever was one) attempts for 21 minutes to cancel his AOL. Boo-hoo, boo-hoo Vincent. Twenty-one minutes is quick.

What is that I hear? Is that the crumbling of AOL? Nope. That’s the sound of all the money they’ll still be raking in, because most people are too ignorant or passive to change their ISP if it becomes a problem.
Just because this dope recorded this customer service rep doing his job a little too desperately doesn’t change a damn thing. Do you think AOL would employ an entire department dedicated solely to cancellations without actually trying to keep people? Any company that offers a service has a retention department and they do the same thing. Credit card companies? Banks? Any other ISP? Everyone of them do the exact same thing. They want your business. They’ll offer you everything under the sun because they want to retain your business. Customer service reps attempt to keep their jobs by saving customers. A save consists of just not having your name on record as being the rep to cancel his account. Chatting at Vincent, questioning his usage, and problems with AOL gives this rep the wiggle room to possibly pass jolly ol’ Vincent to somebody else or just get Vincent to hang up. Then when Vincent tries again, somebody else will have to deal with him and they’ll look bad.

In Milwaukee, none of the local news stations will not mention Time Warner by name when speaking ill of their service, because Time Warner advertises on all of these stations. Everybody knows telecommunications companies, credit card companies, banks, etc are pains in the ass to deal with but, it’s just a fact of life. Most of the customers are ridiculous pains in the ass who have no clue about the service they ordered or currently have, they just want it to work. These places will never change because we give them our money regardless of their service issues and they know it.

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