it pays to complain

A modest moral victory in a skirmish with Time Warner Cable. They recently underwent an "upgrade" in service that involved sending new software into subscribers' cable boxes and re-booting them. It was supposed to take 15 minutes and then go on normally. Only my box developed indigestion and would not function, just repeatedly go through the re-boot cycle. It's a DVR box and I had tons of programs stored for future viewing and/or preservation. After a series of unpleasant dealings with customer service, an appointment that they mis-scheduled and ultimately having to be given a replacement box (and losing my stored programs) I was feeling a bit miffed. So I sat myself down and wrote a letter, detailing the whole sordid story and expressing my unhappiness with Time Warner Cable in general. I dropped it in the mail, not expecting it to do any good.

But what do you know? TWC took notice. One of their customer service executives left a message on my machine. Another lengthy saga as today I tried phoning him back four times without getting through. But finally (after his regular work hours!) he phoned me and pretty much apologized for everything I went through. And offered me some compensation: one month credit on my bill PLUS one free month of all their premium channels. And don't worry about having to cancel or get charged automatically after that period. It will stop automatically (but of course if I'd like to continue any of them, I could call and pay for them). He credited my letter, stating clearly what happened, and my dissatisfaction with their service, with getting their attention. Just phoning usually won't do it; words on paper carry weight.

Today's lesson. You may now allow your attention to wander.