I am staying in hotel in Scottsdale. The Hilton Homesuites. Overall, the service is good. The food is tolerable (free breakfast every morning and dinner four nights a week). The rooms are nice and the maid service is great.
The Internet service is horrendously bad. This isn’t the entirely the hotel’s fault. The hotel’s Internet management is outsourced to Bestcomm Networks Inc. (a Tucson-based isp) Every few days my connection will just stop.
Last weekend I complained and complained at the front desk. The technician assured me that it was my problem. He came up to the room, connected his laptop into the wall and showed me that he could access the Internet. He suggested that it must the my cable. The ethernet jack is right by the front door. I have given it a good kick a few times on the way out the door. I figured he was probably right. A few hours of Phoenix heat and 50 bucks shorter, the problem isn’t resolved. Finally the front desk suggested I call tech support and see what the problem is.
888-654-5319.
At first, the tech support seemed friendly and ready to help me solve the problem. Then for some reason the person became cold and started to treat me with disdain. “Sir, your MAC address has been blocked. This is something that automatically happens when there is bandwidth abuse occurring.” Bandwidth abuse? Hey, I do my share of downloading, but abuse? I don’t think so.
The only thing I can think of is that I was downloading some files from adobe and DAZ3d at the same time. I use an Internet download manger that will use multiple threads for downloading. Very fast, very efficient.
Anyway, she proceeded to tell me that it was impossible for her to resolve the problem, and that I would have to wait at least 24 hours before tech support could review it and decide whether to unblock me or not. She also made sure that I knew that it was their policy to not unblock bandwidth abusers and that I may not regain access to the Internet.
WTF? As I queried her closer on this absurd policy, she had no idea what algorithm was used to determine this alleged abuse. Her attitude was “Too bad.” We went round and round for 15 minutes until I finally convinced her that this was unacceptable to me. In frustration, she put her manager on the line. After arguing with him for ten minutes that I didn’t care about the policy, I needed access and I wanted my MAC address unblocked. He finally conceded but assured me that the policy was clear and that if I continued to abuse the bandwidth I would be cutoff again and under no circumstances would I be let back on through their system.
I am now on my fourth reset. A few minutes ago, the system just shut down again. I called back and talked to Sandy again. She assured me that there was no way she was going to help me and that her manager Nick had told me that if the system blocked me again—for whatever reason—I was out of luck. I could be putting the whole network at risk. She even gave me this line “it was all in your Internet usage policy agreement you read when you signed in.” She doesn’t know that I am fluent in vendor-speak. “You agreed to the terms of the policy agreement” can be translated to “you are shit out of luck and it isn’t my problem.” Hardly noteworthy.
When I asked to talk to Nick again, Sandy hung up on me.
Wow. This is the worst service I have ever experienced. I have never had a customer service department treat me like that. If you are looking for an example of what support should NOT be like. Here you have it.
In a word, Bestcomm Networks Inc. receives the Burtonian prize of the year for the worst service.
Sandy, Nick, don’t quit your daytime jobs. You are clearly not customer oriented enough to stay in this one. I don’t want either of you to lose your jobs over this, but at some point you need to start thinking about the customer, not about enforcing well intended but clearly non-functional policies.
3 responses so far ↓
1 antiblog88 // Jul 2, 2008 at 7:25 am
“The only thing I can think of is that I was downloading some files from adobe and DAZ3d at the same time.”
So it sounds to me like you were possibly abusing the network in this place by downloading multiple large files. Glad to hear you’re admitting fault.
“WTF?”
Are you a 12 year old girl texting your other bubble gum popping girlfriends through your sparkly pink cell phone which is probably sporting a Hannah Montana ringtone? Grow up and be a little more professional if you want anyone to take you serious.
“As I queried her closer on this absurd policy, she had no idea what algorithm was used to determine this alleged abuse.”
Algorithm huh? How about “hey you, yeah I see you there with those big ass files. Stop it. Stop it right now.” There’s an algorithm for you. I’ve worked in tech support before and know that YOU will never talk to a first level agent that can actually give you any good answers. You look like a retard for asking, not them for not knowing. You might as well ask the stoner at your local KFC what the Colonel’s secret recipe is.
“After arguing with him for ten minutes that I didn’t care about the policy”
If you don’t care about a policy then don’t agree to it. Plain and simple. If you do agree to a policy then don’t pee your pants, throw a fit and get all butt hurt when someone holds you to it.
“I could be putting the whole network at risk.”
A virus can cause an increase in bandwidth usage, this is true. It is not absurd that this company would not want its network or other users infected. I wouldn’t want a known AIDS patient in the middle of my orgy, would you?
‘“You agreed to the terms of the policy agreement” can be translated to “you are shit out of luck and it isn’t my problem.”’
You did agree, you did violate. It sounds like you have nobody to blame but yourself. If you don’t want to play by a providers rules then don’t play.
“In a word, Bestcomm Networks Inc. receives the Burtonian prize of the year for the worst service.”
Wow, that sounds harsh considering you are just a nobody like any community college student with a myspace blog. Congrats on naming yourself the president of the “I made up an award to show I am not pleased” club; I’m sure my grand kids will read about this in their history books. Oh yeah, usually “In a word” means just that, one word. In a word your opinions are “Worthless.” See what I did there? I didn’t say “In a word this blog lacks everything that could make a blog worth reading,” that is several words.
“not about enforcing well intended but clearly non-functional policies”
Sounds to me like these policies are functioning fine, otherwise you wouldn’t have written all this garbage. Customers need to learn they are not always right, especially when they don’t follow the rules they agree to. I like to speed but if I get pulled over I don’t think I’m going to blog about the cop that’s doing his job because I broke the rules, I’d probably just look like some kind of jackass if I did that.
PS: Proof read before you post and please get an education. Purely disgusting.
“He suggested that it must the my cable”
2 Craig Burton // Jul 8, 2008 at 1:32 am
I can always tell the nature of a commenter by the lack of or presence of a real name. If you want to be taken seriously as a commenter. Say who you are. antiblog88 is a cop out.
Downloading large files is not an abuse of network bandwidth. It is what we do. It is what I do. If I can’t download a large file I need a different service. If the service I have doesn’t let me download files, I will get a new one if I can.
Use of “WFT.” I will use it whenever the fuck I want. Welcome to the real world.
Agreement to policies.
I didn’t agree to any policies. No Internet policy was ever presented to me. I read no documentation or policy anywhere about Internet usage. I was staying at the hotel when the hotel switched providers.
Besides that, you missed the point. It isn’t about the policy. My point is, if you want to be a service oriented company, the policies are guidelines to help “guide” actions. When the rubber meets the road, a service oriented company sets aside the policy and considers the customer first.
Bestcomm not only didn’t try to make an effort to address my issues, it and its representatives made it clear that they had no intention of addressing the issues. And that the only possibility was that they were right and I was wrong. This boils down to poor service.
I stand by my position, “Bestcomm Networks Inc. receives the Burtonian prize of the year for the worst service.” If you don’t know who I am and the significance of that, I don’t really care. But you might want to do your homework.
As far as the rest, hey, you read it. It got your attention.
Thanks for the great feedback. It’s my policy to listen closely to my readers.
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