Thank You For Calling
January 9, 2007
My cable internet connection went down about 5:30 today. As usual, I began with jiggling wires around, making sure there was nothing wrong here at the house, then sitting at my desk, staring at the blinking lights for a few minutes, hoping they might start their usual dance if I just sat there long enough. When I realized that wouldn’t work, I occupied myself for about an hour before I had really gotten tired of waiting for it to come back up. So, I called Mediacom.
“Thank you for calling Mediacom. If you are calling about your local Sinclair broadcast station, press 1.” [Pause]. “For sales, press 1. For all other inquiries, press 2.”
I press 2.
“For Mediacom cable television, press 1. For Mediacom High-Speed Internet, press 2.”
I press 2.
“Please wait while we search for reported outages in your area.” [Click.] [Dial tone.]
“Huh. That’s weird. Let’s try again.” I dial.
“Thank you for calling Mediacom. If you are calling about your local Sinclair broadcast station, press 1.” [Pause]. “For sales, press 1. For all other inquiries, press 2.”
I press 2.
“For Mediacom cable television, press 1. For Mediacom High-Speed Internet, press 2.”
I press 2.
“Please wait while we search for reported outages in your area.” [Click.] [Dial tone.]
Clearly, this is not working. I dial a third time.
“Thank you for calling Mediacom. If you are calling about your local Sinclair broadcast station, press 1.” [Pause]. “For sales, press 1. For all other inquiries, press 2.”
I press 2.
“For Mediacom cable television, press 1. For Mediacom High-Speed Internet, press 2.”
I press 0, thinking I might get someone with a pulse.
[Ringing. Score!] “All representatives are currently busy. Please wait while you are connected to a representative.” An obnoxious wrestling pay-per-view promotion plays. I hope this will be short. Exactly at the moment the wrestling ad ends, a representative answers. “Thank you for calling Mediacom, how may I help you?”
“Hi, my internet connection has been down for about an hour, and I’m having some trouble reaching technical support.”
“No problem, let me transfer you now.” [Click.] [@#$%^&* Dial Tone!]
I call back.
“Thank you for calling Mediacom. If you are calling about your local Sinclair broadcast station, press 1.” [Pause]. “For sales, press 1. For all other inquiries, press 2.”
I press 2.
“For Mediacom cable television, press 1. For Mediacom High-Speed Internet, press 2.”
I press 0, while destroying a stress ball.
[Ringing.] “All representatives are currently busy. Please wait while you are connected to a representative.” The same obnoxious wrestling pay-per-view ad plays. I wonder to myself, “I bet someone will come on the line right after this stupid ad.” Exactly when the ad finishes playing, a representative answers. “Thank you for calling Mediacom, how may I help you?”
I sit in stunned silence for a few moments, pondering the fact that Mediacom actually subjects you to advertising when you’re just trying to get your existing service to be functional.
“Hello?”
“Ahh, yeah. My internet connection’s been down for about an hour, and every time I try to reach technical support, I get disconnected.”
“Oh, yes, sorry about that. That happens when we’re overwhelmed with too many calls.”
“Aha. So I take it they know about the outage.”
“Yes sir.”
“You might consider updating your phone message with that information, rather than just disconnecting everyone who attempts to call in.”
“Yes sir.”
“Any idea when it’ll be fixed?”
“I don’t have that information, sir.”
“So that’s 90 minutes I’ll never get back, eh?”
“I’m sorry, sir?”
“Nevermind.” [Click.]
My connection also dropped about a week ago; after messing around with the wires, reseting, restarting, un-plugging and all the good stuff I finally went and called my provider in which I also went through the ‘Press 1’ jibbirish. After about 10 min of that I talked to the man on the support who kept telling me to open IE 7 and tell me what it said. This posed as quite a challenge because all that we have in the house are Macs, then he tried to explain how to download it from Microsoft’s Web Page…........
Good News is that I figured it out my self a bad cable cord leading into our house.
get a dog or go to the bank
I’m a step ahead of you on both counts, friend!
Check and check.
Looks like it’s to find a better high speed internet provider. Prices are getting more affordable anyway, I don’t understand why companies are treating customers like they are the only choice in the area.
Clearly Mediacom sounds like a fraud due to its’ horrible customer service. Find a more reputable internet service that you can trust.
Mediacom is one of the worst (no the worst!) cable/internet providers I’ve ever had. Within a year I’ve had at least 5 outages that have lasted over 1 hours (the one last night 1/9/08 lasted at least 5 hours) and they claim that you have to send in a letter with your bill requested a refund of charges for outage period! What a crock. I supposed there’s no way for them to cross reference accounts with outage periods, but come on! I would switch to someone else in a hearbeat, but unfortunately we have too many trees in our yard for satellite and there’s no other option for cable providers in our areas. I guess when you have a monopoly it doesn’t matter how you treat your customers! What a waste of money! Come on, Mediacom! Get your act together!!!!