This is just sad. The poor Qwest sales people.
Due to various technology changes & snafus – I recently went online to see about getting DSL from Qwest. Turned into an interesting example for my next seminar series on service:
1. Qwest’s web site is offering a special plus a free MP3 player. Cool! I’m ready to sign up. Then, it tells me DSL isn’t available at my location (which I know it has to be, as I had four years ago at the exact same location, down to the very wall jack).
2. Once I finally get to a real person on the sales line, he tells me he can’t help or give me the special (or the free player) – that I’ll just have to “keep trying the web site.”
3. I persist/insist so sales guy transfers me to tech support. He tries to educate me on the mystery of it all. I call on my old life as ISDN product manager and start talkin’ telco – feet from CO, termination points, etc…So he then transfers me back to sales (To be fair, both gentlemen were polite and expressed concern.)
4. Hey, good news! Different sales guy says DSL IS available for me. But, he still can’t give me the special or MP3 player. I insist on talking to a manager. He finally agrees to find one, but “they can’t help you either.” I sit on hold for over 5 minutes.
5. Nice woman comes on line. After I once again explain (from the top) – she wearily explains to me that “the web site operates like those of airlines. We don’t know anything about the web specials and can’t offer them.” Ouch. Soooo, if the web site isn’t working, the sales people get to talk (eventually – if the customer really, really wants to buy) to somebody to whom they can’t sell. I give her my sympathy and hang up.
Total time I spent trying to buy DSL from Qwest? Over an hour.
Note to Qwest (and anybody else that sells direct, via phone and on the web) – put some processes in place so you don’t drive away customers. Web sites don’t always work – sales people need to be able to sell when people want to buy. In this case, good thing you drove me away…I ended up getting a much better deal from Comcast (more about that some other day…and about just how broken airline websites are.)
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[...] As regular readers know, I’m moving soon. So, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to consolidate communications and reduce costs. Qwest is always advertising bundled services and special promotions. And, personally I don’t find Comcast that much faster than DSL. So, thought I’d give Qwest another chance to take my money, despite a bad experience in the past. Here’s what happened: [...]