LeeOffenberger.com

Yes, that’s right, I said it. I recently made an O-Face. At least, I think I made one, because I sure let out an audible “ohh”.

In a previous post, I referred to the ineptitude of the corporate giant Suddenlink, as they failed to accept the reality that they had made a mistake.

I exhausted the efforts to speak with anyone intelligible at our local (90 miles away) office. The bottom line was that their customer service representative had agreed to send someone out to pick up digital converter boxes from my porch in 2008, and in 2011-2012, they were telling me that was not their policy.

They were flat out lying to me, and denying that there were any records that indicated they would have agreed to that request.

On a whim, I started to dig across the interwebs to find the home base of Suddenlink, and landed on a telephone number for an office in St. Louis. Thinking that I might be wasting my time, I called the number and asked to speak to the person in charge of customer relations. To my surprise, the response was “Certainly, one moment please.”

Wait for it… Don’t make the O-Face yet!

I was transferred to a lady named Diane Henry, and went straight to her voice mail. My surprise turned to discouragement, because I figured I would be chasing my tail again before long. But, low and behold, I got a return phone call from Ms. Henry, and she patiently listened to my side of the story.

Ms. Henry told me she would look further into the issue and would get back in touch with me with a resolution. For me, that put the ball in her court, and I expected it to be several days before I heard from her again.

She called me in two days, apologizing for taking so long to get back to me and proceeded to let me know she had forwarded the information to the vice presidents in the eastern parts of the United States. I made it clear to her how grateful I was that someone was actually taking the time to research the issue, and that I would accept whatever resolve she was able to obtain for me.

Two days later, I got a final call from Ms. Henry.

It was during this call that I displayed my O-Face not once, but several times.

First, when I was told that there were clear records in my account that indicated that I had requested a pickup of the boxes at my house in 2008.

Second, when she informed me that they would be removing the digital converts from my account and I would never be charged for them again.

Finally, when she apologized for this ever happening, and for the lack of effort from the local offices in resolving my issue.

For whatever else may be wrong with Suddenlink, they should be damned proud of Diane Henry in St. Louis.

She gave me an O-Face!

Suddenlink blows.  It’s that simple.

Three months before we moved to our new house in 2008, I contacted Suddenlink to let them know that we no longer needed their services.  We had switched to DirecTV and I was cancelling digital cable from Suddenlink.  During the call, the representative informed me that I needed to return their digital converter boxes.  This wouldn’t normally be a problem, but their offices were only open during normal business hours AND they were in another city.

After a simple conversation, explaining that I worked during the hours they were open, and I had no way to get the boxes to their office, the representative said their technician would pick up the boxes when they came out to disconnect the cable.  Perfect solution, and I was pleased with the understanding she exhibited.  I told her that our porch was protected, and we would put the boxes on the porch for the technician to pick up.  I was told that would be noted on our account and it would be taken care of.  Two weeks later, we noticed the boxes were no longer on porch, and considered the matter closed.

Due to the favorable treatment I felt I had received, when we arrived at our new home and my wife asked that we establish basic cable service with Suddenlink, I quickly contacted them and set up the new service.  This was done because we are in a small market for DirecTV and we could not get the NBC network on the satellite service.  One of our local NBC stations, WTAP, refused access to NBC for area DirecTV customers.

Flash forward to May 2011.  I engaged in the rare act of opening the Suddenlink bill to review the charges.  Low and behold, we were being charged $20.97 for three digital converters.  Assuming that I would have no problem calling them and reminding them that their technician had picked up our receivers, I made the first call to Suddenlink.

As of December 2012, they are still refusing to remove the digital receiver charges from our bill.  When I speak with them, they inform me that it is not their policy to have technicians pick up the boxes.  They refuse to acknowledge that their representative made the agreement with me to have the boxes picked up.  The do acknowledge that the digital converters have NEVER been connected to their network after I terminated service.  When I point out that clearly indicates they were not stolen from our porch for use, they have no intelligent response.

The solution they offer?  Pay $199 per digital receiver, because I am responsible for the receivers.

Welcome to a digital monopoly, in which local residents have no options for providers.  These idiots have declared how much they value my business, and I’m going to start declaring how much I value destroying their business.

May DirecTV reign down on the Ohio Valley and drive the Suddenstink out.

I am a fan of DirecTV. When a service that I’m paying for actually stands against pressure from one of their suppliers that would ultimately result in an increase in my costs, I applaud the actions.

The recent actions by Viacom, aimed at extorting billions from DirecTV customers was countered by a less than dramatic exodus of customers from DirecTV to other providers. I have little doubt they expected their MTV and other trash viewers to pile complaints on the doorstep of DirecTV and it was obviously not effective enough to get the results they wanted.

So, to Viacom, you can kiss the collective rear ends of DirecTV customers. I am certainly not under the illusion that DirecTV was worried about my needs, but they were clearly aware that they would lose customers if they caved to the demands of a greedy supplier.