Friday, June 06, 2008

And now... a GOOD word about Embarq

Even though my phone service and Internet have been coming through a 500-foot wire strung across my old yard, at least I've had a phone. And more importantly, Internet. It must be obvious to my readers that I spend plenty of time on the Internet. Hey, my kids are grown, I'm retired, and it's cheaper than many hobbies.

Around noon today, my Internet stopped working. I did the usual reboot routine: turn off and unplug the DSL modem, turn off the computer, wait two minutes, etc. etc. In fact, I did this four times. The Internet light refused to come on.

One thing about it, Embarq techs are usually very good at fixing things like this, so I dialed the number for Internet technical help. A recorded voice asked me to punch in my phone number with area code, as always. That's when I got a recording telling me that the status on my work order was delayed; the voice thanked me for my patience, and that was that. I was disconnected.

Hmmm. Obviously if I wanted to speak with a tech, I'd have to go in through the back door. I dialed the same number again, only this time I made up a phone number. After trying to get me to give them a different number a few times, I finally got a real person. A very nice real person.

Of course I had to explain the whole thing about how I'm temporarily working off a line from the old house, it's strung through the yard, blah blah blah; but it's been working fine for me until noon today.

She told me I might be on hold awhile; after waiting about five minutes, I noticed the Internet light on the modem was on, and clicked Firefox. It worked! I had Internet.

The lady was soon back, and I told her it was working. She said techs had changed some settings on the line.

"You've made my day," I told her.

"We at Embarq are trying to improve our service, so I'd like to ask this: Would you recommend Embarq to a friend?" she asked.

"You're asking me at a really bad time," I replied. "But after my experience with you, my opinion of Embarq is somewhat better; so maybe when all this mess is over, I would recommend you guys after all."

Oh, notice on yesterdays post where I complained about Embarq, an Embarq representative left a comment.

Blog power!

6 comments:

  1. Now to see if they're just talking heads of if they come through and get the line to the house buried and fixed as they said they would....2 weeks ago!

    Have a good weekend, Donna. :o)

    Love and hugs,

    Diane

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  2. Anonymous7:25 PM

    Google alerts are a wonderful thing. They've set up a google alert watching for the name to pop up. That is actually a pretty good sign that they really are worried about customer service at least. I've got google alerts set up on myself just in case I get famous and didn't realize it.

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  3. I always hate it when my cable goes out and I can't get on online! How neat that an Embarq rep made a comment!!

    I loved seeing the two dogs playing and the "Salty Dog" music too!!

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  4. Google alerts? What the heck are they?

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  5. Hi Donna, My internet was off this week too! I have comcast and the cable went out during the big storm the first of the week and then next thing I knew the internet was gone too!! Karen came over the next night and she did that stuff you talked about in one of your post, and pretty soon the internet was back on!! I hate to be with out it!!!
    Love and hugs, Grams

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  6. Hi Donna,
    I like the one comment"your son said",have a good week.

    Hug's
    Cuz

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I love comments!