[clue-tech] Qwest DSL download speed reduced

[black at clapthreetimes.com]

> If Uncle Louie works building engines for Rousch Racing, I think the guy
> doing "lousy work" better listen to him.

How often does that happen in the home market?

> People who actually care about their download speeds and actually call
> to complain (generally) aren't that stupid and shouldn't be treated as
> if they are.
>
> Don't fall into the corporate support trap of thinking all customers are
> or SHOULD be treated equally.  Small business people know who their best
> and/or brightest, and/or biggest customers are and give them better
> service.

I agree, home users encompass a large grab bag of abilities. But I'll
argue that it doesn't really matter, you will only get the customer
service that you pay for. It's not commensurate with abilities. If I'm a
Cisco CCIE then I probably know more than the guy answering the phone, but
they aren't going to escalate my call because of it. If I was totally
clueless and had a business account I'd get better customer service. By
the same token, someone putting critical services on a home account to
save a few bucks is asking for trouble.

Maybe mom and pop shops with personal relationships fall outside of this,
but the big guys all do it this way and right or wrong, I don't know how
large companies would "quiz" users or otherwise test them to judge what
kind of support they got. If anyone figures it out they'll be very
wealthy.

> Knowing where your bread is buttered is important.  Telcos are really
> bad at it.  When the person with the $90 a month high-end DSL service
> calls, they get the same service as the guy on the subsidized
> money-losing $19.95 introductory plan.  That's not right, and if one of
> the service providers figured it out and categorized support calls
> appropriately, people would love it.

I think you're saying something similar to what I just stated, but I don't
think that business and non-business customers receive the same level of
customer service. Business accounts with the same data speed cost
significantly more, and this is directly attributed to better service.
Every major cable and DSL company that I'm aware of in the Denver area has
business and home offerings, and they differentiate by customer service
level.

> "Consumers" aren't as dumb as most corporate support systems make them
> out to be.  My recent example of Apple requiring an appointment at the
> so-called "Genius Bar" to tell me my 4 day old laptop wouldn't even
> POWER ON [ http://www.natetech.com/?p=203 ] is a good example of
> corporate customer "service" policy gone insane.

Probably not, but corporate support systems are painfully rigid for two
reasons. The first reason is that their support people are usually not
very skilled, so they have to stay within a well documented script. The
second reason is that an effective troubleshooting methodology will have
simple repeatable steps, so any tech can pick up where another left off.
In order to help everyone, they have to aim low and work up from there.
Unfortunately this is often very frustrating.

I hope this isn't offending anyone, I'm just throwing in another
perspective. And I don't work for a big ISP :)