The future is fiendly

Another ruined day, courtesy of Telus. I bet you thought we’d seen the last of this thread when the high speed turned out to be real, honest-to-goodness high speed. I know that’s what I was wishing for. God knows, I have better things to do than blog about an incompetent telecommunications company.
So – why don’t I just quit my bitching and tell them to come and get their crap and get out of my life and buy my services from someone else? Well, it’s like this: I’m connected to countless web sites, services, accounts, people and businesses through my email address, which I’ve had for more than a decade. Dropping that address means many, many hours of reconfiguring and updating information and I’m really concerned that I’ll miss a couple. That won’t just impact me, but could also impact clients of mine and I wouldn’t know it happened until the damage was done.
Now, I’m going to do a bunch of that anyway. If I’ve learned something from this debacle it’s that these companies aren’t particularly credible. Having myself anchored to one probably isn’t the best idea. At least with rob@gilgan.com, the whole situation is portable, on my terms, more or less. I can move my domain and the mail will just follow me.
So – today’s issue – when they installed the Telus TV, the installer only brought one digital box. Even though when we ordered the service and explained in great hoary detail how we’d be using Telus TV (in the livingroom and in the office) and what equipment specifically would be connected (right down to the model number on the TV tuner for the computer), the guy couldn’t install the second box. No, that would require another order, through, wouldn’t you know it, another ordering queue entirely.
And when this whole peculiar trip began back on the 26th of May, Telus had to release our decade-old email addresses and couldn’t assign them to the account until the installation was complete. Ordering the second digital box (the second time, in my opinion) meant the installation wasn’t complete, which in turn means we continue to have to access our Telus email via Telus webmail – easily the worst implementation of webmail I’ve ever encountered. Oh, Telus? How long you leaving that puppy in beta? But I digress.
We were on the phone from 11 a.m. until 2:45, when we had to leave. The installer was supposed to be here at 10 to install the second digital box. This was a make-up appointment for the appointment they blew off on the 13th. That was a stay-home-all-day-we’ll-get-there-when-we-get-there appointment, but Telus didn’t show. Or call. I mean, they’re a TELEPHONE company. Why couldn’t they call?
So, a disgusted ‘support’ person booked a Saturday 10 a.m. spot – they’d be here for sure.
So – this keeps happening and we’re asking….if Telus will book appointments when they screw up, why don’t they just book appointments all the time and deliver a reasonable level of customer service?
Ya know, the second digital box? Not that important. I won’t likely watch much TV until the fall anyway. But this imbecilic company won’t restore our email addresses, nor deal with the other outstanding issue until the installation is complete. This is their company policy.
The other irony? Nancy, the support person who kept me waiting for two hours on hold today? 31 years with Telus. She’s heard all the horror stories. Starting to see a pattern here.
Anyway – at 4:15 got a call that a manager will call me at 10 tomorrow morning to deal with the escalation of this issue. Think Telus is going to change their bizarre business practices? Me either.
Now, I’ll go take you a nice picture of my yard.