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here is a copuy of the letter I sent out postal delivery to
the Arizona State Attorney general's Office.
The names and other private information have been censored
here for privacy reasons.
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************************ letter to state attorney general
********************
<name deleted for privacy>
<address deleted for privacy>
Phoenix, Arizona 85033
account: 623-xxx-xxx-167R
16 July 2001
Arizona State Attorney General
Consumer Complaints Division
1275 W washington
Phoenix, Az 85007
to whom it may concern,
I have had recent (and troubling) problems with QWEST, Inc and their
management of my account.
I recently ordered DSL service during one of their specials (on 26
April) and was given an install date of 7 May. Well, the deadline
came and went with no installed service and a really screwed up bill.
On 9 May, I contacted QWEST to determine why my services had not been
setup. I was told that my new due date was for sometime after the
13th of the month. I ended up being passed from on person to another
over the course of the day. The following is a list of people (and
case numbers) that transpired of the course of that day.
The format is: date, time, person, ID# and case# (and comments in
parenthesis)
9 May 09:15 Mark 20298 Case: 537-1316 (discussed the problems
with the instal. Nothing was done at this point. I was recommended to
call the DSL sales office)
9 May 09:25 Dawn 665 Case: n/a (Spent 3 minutes trying to
determine why my due date was changed. No resolution, was passed to
supervisor)
9 May 09:27 Cyndi 22935 Case: 537-1476 (was informed that the
ticket was not submitted. I asked why and wasn't given an answer I
could call coherent. After 20 minutes of waiting on hold, I was
instructed to call back to the DSL sales office to resolve the matter)
9 May 10:45 Shannon 2520 Case: n/a (discussed solutions to this
problem. This person had nothing new to offer, save some additional
phone numbers that were not previously included with the information
packet sent along with the service order. It was suggested that I
call back later that afternoon and speak with a tech support person
about getting the modem device properly configured.)
9 May 15:44 Ramon 20630 Case: 537-6159 (as suggested earlier,
I called DSL Technical Support to get current information on
configuring my device to interface with the system. The configuration
went ok. This was also a service query to see if anything new had
been done since this morning to correct the misorder <what they refer
to as a "missed commitment">).
9 May 17:08 Brad 21000 Case: n/a (I was connected here after
my previous call <having spent nearly 1 hour and 20 minutes on hold.>
My account was still not properly operational. I discussed this with
brad and he connected me to his supervisor <another long wait on hold>)
9 May 18:15 Greg 22813 Case: 537-8255 (spent a long time on
hold waiting for this person. Told him the problems and relayed to
him all the other people I had spoken with this day. Told him that I
was becoming concerned that nothing was being done to meet my original
deadline (which had passed 1 hour and 25 minutes before). I was
informed at this point that my actual deadline was 11 May. I asked
him why I was not informed of this previously. I was informed that it
was not the responsibility of QWEST DSL to keep the customer notified
of changes such as this... after nearly an hour of this type of
go-around, I terminated the call)
10 May 10:15 Brain 5018 Case: n/a (called in again to see if
anything could be done to get my order installed expediently. I
relayed to him what had transpired the day previously. Because of all
the troubles, I was awarded 2 months free credit toward my phone
bill. I was informed at this point that I would have to call the
billing office to get them to credit my account when the new bill
arrived.
11 May 15:00 DSL service wa finally turned on.
11 May to 11 July, intermittent problems with e-mail services and slow
responses from other services included with the DSL package. Sent 1
or 2 e-mails and made some calls to QWEST.net to resolve the problem..
Hold times were often longer than 1 hour (unacceptable lengths of
time for customers to remain on hold!). Gave up and waited in most
cases.
12 July 13:28 DSL service failure! Called into DSL service dept. spent
time on hold waiting....
12 July 14:40 Paul KN2156 Case: 5951364 (called about DSL service
failure. Spent the next 2 hours going through a complete rundown of
the problem, including reprogramming the DSL router, collecting data
and submitting a trouble ticket. It was determined to be a
malfunction at the central office, however, due to a service order
change <I discovered I was being overcharged by $30.00 a month for a
service I did not need>, the repair would not be initiated until the
service order was completed. I then requested that he attempt to have
this changed as I was now losing my customer base <I offer the use of
shell accounts and remote web hosting from my home/office>. We spent
the next 4 hours talking with several individuals within the technical
support hierarchy. I was told that until the reprogramming of the
line was completed, that nothing further could be done. I then
requested that he contact a supervisor. He told me that he would do
so. We disconnected. 40 minutes later, I heard from him again and was
told that nothing else could be done. He was very apologetic about
the problem. I thanked him and terminated the call and waited for my
circuit to come back up)
15 July 01:00 DSL circuit came back up. All seemed to be working.
16 July 08:40 DSL circuit died 9again).
16 July 09:00 placed call with DSL support center. Was on hold for 1
hour and 26 minutes before I got a live person
16 July 10:26 Forgot to record name of person here Case: 597-5164
(called in to determine what the problem with the circuit was. We
went through the reprogramming of the router to insure that all was
working correctly Person was unable to determine where the fault
was. Said it looked like the circuit was not installed. Suggested I
call the Business office).
16 July 11:10 QWEST Residential (spent 22 minutes on hold waiting for a
live person. I was informed that on Friday, 13 July, the DSL package
had been canceled. Was requested to hold while the DSL center was
contacted to determine the problem. Call was interrupted <terminated
on hold> and I have received no callback.)
As indicated above, the level of service I have received during the
last 2 months is substandard. I have gotten the run-around with
technical issues related to my circuit. Filed due dates change
without notice and to top it all off, service is terminated without
notification. Any customer base I may have had has now been completely
lost to me. I have not been given a time frame in which these
problems will be corrected (if ever).
All of the above data indicates the following:
lack of customer care, inability of the customer service
representatives to interface in a timely manner with the actual
technicians on duty, the inability of the respresentatives to
provide relivant information, the use of "buck passing" as a tool
to stifle customer resistance, the lack of authority with those who
interface directly with the customer, and the problem of the "right
hand not knowing what the left hand is doing" (lack of inter-office
communication), failure to submit service orders and/or trouble
tickets in a timely manner (or failing to submit out of irritation
due to poor customer interface), The refusal of QWEST, Inc. to
give priority in service to on-going (or re-acurring) problems,
all goes to show a complete and utter incompetance.
I request that you, (and the others to whom I have carbon copied this
letter of complaint) investigate and resolve these issues in a fair
and equitable manner.
Thank you,
<name deleted to preserve privacy>.
_(signed in hardcopy)_____________________-
(signature)
cc: Arizona Corporation Commission
cc: Better Business Bureau
cc: various Arizona State Representatives and Congressmen
cc: local media outlets
********************* end letter *************************************
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