From Where I Sit – #@%$#@ Telus

Every so often people are horrified by a disgruntled employee who goes postal. Let’s just say, I’m one disgruntled customer who could go telus at any moment.

Let me set the stage. While I’ve been slower than some to embrace the technology, I’ve accepted the fact that I can either get onto the information highway or I can be road-kill. It is one or the other, so I’ve chosen to embrace the technology. I now have an e-commerce website. I make writing submissions via email. I do research on the Internet. I also live on a farm near Andrew, Alberta. Telus is my only choice for telephone service provider. They provide me with an email account that is not web-based. If Telus has a problem — I’ve got a problem.

I should’ve kept a log of who I talked to and what they said since I began calling tech support every few days since March 31st. First, a person has to get through that psycho-recorded menu message with an oh-so-patient woman who just wants to help. I’ve taken to screaming “agent “? tech support — dial-up” like a crazy person just so I don’t have to listen to her asinine questions and cheerful attitude. I’ve called at least eight times for help. That’s not counting the times I try to send and receive email, get an error message and just give up.

I suspect these tech support people get more training in defusing angry customers, repeating the same scripted answers, and giving as little information as possible, than they do on actual tech stuff. I am a cool, calm and collected personality type who doesn’t believe in shooting the messenger or blaming the wrong person for a problem. However, do not lie to me, don’t take me for a fool, don’t BS me, and do not use my name three times in each sentence. Just fix the damn thing and tell me the truth!

Here’s the routine. Describe the problem. Go into Outlook Express tools, properties, servers and change the outgoing server from smtp to mail (or vice versa depending on the day and person helping me). Grill me about my virus protection and try to blame it on that. Tell me to use web-mail at mytelus.net. Only when I get an edge in my voice do some of the these workers admit that Telus’ server was down, work is progressing, yes service is intermittent in my area, and it should be back in order by the end of the week. That I can accept and live with. Then I know it’s not me or my computer. We all suffer equally. Let’s not play the game of tinkering with the settings and suggesting web-mail is the answer to my prayers just to shut me up and get me off of the line. Tell me the truth. And fix the damn problem! And get those tech people off valium!

I tried to get high-speed service installed to ease the web surfing frustration and lost connections. However, I learned the 40-year-old row of spruce trees between me and the tower makes it impossible at this time. Some days road kill doesn’t look so bad, from where I sit.