Slashdot Mirror
Google Fiber Goes Down During World Series, Credits KC 2 Days of Service (pcmech.com)
kstatefan40 writes: Google Fiber went down in Kansas City during one of the most important times in the local market: Game 1 of the World Series between the New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Yesterday, I got an apology from them via email, and even though I wasn't home during the outage, they're making up for it by proactively giving the entire market 2 days of service off of their next bill. The rest of the industry could really learn from their customer service.
When was the last time a telecom provider gave you a discount on your bill without you asking for it? The only times I've gotten much apology from my own ISP is when I threaten (with reason) to jump ship.
When was the last time a telecom provider gave you a discount on your bill without you asking for it? The only times I've gotten much apology from my own ISP is when I threaten (with reason) to jump ship.
When was the last time a telecom provider gave you a discount on your bill without you asking for it?
when was the last time a whole city lost service? what does this say about the redundancy of their infrastructure? people rely on utilities to provide a crucial function in their lives. electricity? natural gas? phones? if google wants to get serious about their fiber, they need to take on the responsibilities that come with being a public service provider.
They take it as a writeoff, and now:
People know there's such a thing as Google Fiber.
Big companies use it for real things.
Google is cool about customer service.
I wouldn't be surprised if they torched it on purpose just to make the point.
Had an outage a couple of weeks after install. I wasn't home so didn't even notice. Got an email crediting me for the day and showed up on next bill. It sucks that there are outages but it's nice that they give credit for them.
I have Google Fiber, but not their cable product. The internet connection didn't go down for my house, but I heard from friends in the neighborhood that their television service from Google did go down. So not all Google Fiber was down in KC. The game was also broadcast on a local station so there were alternatives available.
You would get an email explaining that the service interruption was a feature and your bill will go up by $22.50 from now on.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Customer service is best when I don't need it.
"The only times I've gotten much apology from my own ISP is when I threaten (with reason) to jump ship."
Well, don't expect even that half-assed effort in the future.
We watch our government ignore anti-monopoly laws. We watch companies try and buy each other for hundreds of billions, knowing full well the DOJ should certainly shoot down the deal. And then we watch those same companies try and try again until they find that loophole (or greased palm) that allows the deal to go through. And it does eventually go through. Every damn time.
We've watched our cellular market collapse into massive monopolies, with fixed pricing so obvious you couldn't help but blame collusion.
As monopolies continue to grow, don't expect to be treated with kindness, since you will truly be nothing more than a number to them when there's 500 million customers to manage. Google is demonstrating a massive exception here, and one I wish would take precedent for customer service to be reborn instead of the steaming pile of shit we have today.
I'm not holding my breath.
GO Google!
The Royals won game one because of the outage.
BEAT THE METS,
BEAT THE METS,
Step right up and sweep the Mets!
Bring your kiddies,
Bring your wife;
Guaranteed to have the time of your life
Because we're talking about the New York Mets;
So place your bets, against the Mets!
East side,
West side,
everybody's coming down
to beat the M-E-T-S Mets of New York town!
I'd the only phone service I know that credits you back for unused data also. I pay for 3gig and what I don't use, I get back in credit. Most telecom providers suck!
5 years ago. I was with a local ISP (Distributel). They had significant capacity issues. I received 50% off my bill until repaired. It took a few months.
I remain their customer, still, because they're honest.
Carlsberg aren't internet providers but if they were........
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
"The only times I've gotten much apology from my own ISP is when I threaten (with reason) to jump ship."
No you won't. There's a reason you stick with your ISP even though you hate them. They give you the speeds you want and that keeps you right where you are. If you were going to switch, you'd just switch. You wouldn't be a ball-less baby and threaten to do so.
I used to get such treatment from Cox Communications all the time, then I had to move out of their area :(
they're making up for it by proactively giving the entire market 2 days of service off of their next bill.
Two day's worth of service is an insignificant credit compared to the loss, especially during a special event.
Most providers of business IP transit have SLA credits available, starting from the time when the customer calls in to request the ticket be opened, by the way, in some cases these are refundable, and can require the provider paying cash, not just crediting future service in case of a full on outage.
A couple hours worth of outage would typically generate enough SLA credit to make an entire month and possibly two month's worth of service gratis.
So how come it's so unusual for a residential ISP to waive even 2 days, after a few hours unscheduled downtime?
... it's required by law, and failure to compensate is met with strict fines for the company in question.
You will be overcharged 1.998 cents.
Our electricity provider and water provider thanked us for conserving by asking for a rate increase because of lost profits.
I got an apology from them via email, and even though I wasn't home during the outage, they're making up for it by proactively giving the entire market 2 days of service off of their next bill.
Did Google know you weren't home?
This tactic may sometimes work on a smaller business (it doesn't). Basically all you're telling the CSR is that you're unreasonable and will either be put on a long time-out in the hold corner, or they'll "escalate" you to a CSR that has a different personality. Another favorite is when people ask to speak to a supervisor. Oh man does that get some laughs in the call center.
Result!
Guess they figured out a way to remotely disconnect a city in the middle of the continent whilst chillin' at the bottom of the Atlantic.
Verizon Wireless used to do this. Any time you had a legitimate gripe with your service you got a $20 credit on your bill. That was back in the day when Verizon was a good company. Now they're among the most hated, like Comcast.
I remember Netflix used to do this when a streamed video did not play correctly. When a movie wouldn't play the first time, or it dropped in the middle, I would get an email crediting my account for small amount. Of course, this was when they were just rolling out the streaming; now that they are established I don't receive these anymore.
You hear about looting and crap like that happening in New York and California. Not really in the vast majority of the country, just the coasts. When is the last time you heard about looting and rioing in Texas, Oklahoma, Montana, or Kentucky?
Interestingly:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/w...
Seriously is this not normal that you don't pay for something you don't get?
When was the last time a telecom provider gave you a discount on your bill without you asking for it?
Errr every single time I've had an outage, across multiple providers, even for small localised ones. At one point I had a 1 month outage and the ISP not only didn't charge me for the month but they credited the cost of my wireless data for that month which I used as a backup.
Actually my record was getting credit for 3 months when I called up and asked to cancel the account. I really wanted to leave so I took the credit and asked them to put me on their biggest, fastest and bestest plan to get rid of the credit as soon as I could. Still took me 6 weeks to do though.
They gave everyone less than $5 and *that* is the customer service model to aspire to? "Sorry we suck, here's $5, go away"
Worked for Time Warner. We always issued credit when the service was down and people requested it.
We never had to do something like this because we never had an entire city down. Only local outages. I would hope anyone would do as Google is now if they were to have such a large area go down but it's very very uncommon to have happen.There are multiple redundancies at the headend which make this kind of thing almost impossible short of someone cutting multiple trunk lines.
I just subscribe to the fastest service provided via Centurylink. It works good enough. Problem solved. Then I don't have to deal with crappy Comcast which lies lies and lies and f's it all up every f'ing time. Though I did have a nightmare of a time getting Centurylink to hook up my mothers connection properly. Only went through 6 different calls each and every time they tried to transfer me to Netgear all because I had a Netgear ADSL modem that *they* did't support. The problem was Netgear wanted $200 that I wasn't willing to pay when *I knew my configuration was right because I had the same configuration two houses away in the same service area and at another location prior to the move within the same service area as well!*. Ultimatley I got a supervisor on the phone (an American) and they were like 'year- wtf. The problem is obvious. They all should have known better. They only activated the line and not the internet connection.'.
What sport? I had no trouble not following it here in Europe.
Which planet does this "world" series occur?
This is kinda fun because back in Russia pretty much al telcos have been doing this thing like forever.
New York didn't have rioting and looting in the 2003 blackout. You're thinking of the one in 1977.
Yep, a rare opportunity for direct comparison of Democratic vs. Republican government of the same city, I might add.
Back when Century Link was Qwest, our service died and it took two on-site visits-that I had to be home for-to determine the problem was in their base station. My compensation for 5 days without service, hours of staying home to wait for their tech, and a couple hours navigating their "service" phone tree? (They closed our ticket when the first tech was dispatched, so I got to go through the whole process twice.) Nothing.
One of the techs who came to our place mentioned that our distance to the base was beyond the DSL spec, which explained our slow data rates. I switched to Comcast a couple days later.
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
Just so you know, everything you like can be described in condescendingly dismissive phrasing by insecure douchebags too.
I get the prorated bills every single time there is an outage lasting more than the minimum (I think 30 minutes). I've had a few dozen adjustments posted to my bill over the last few years as a customer without having to lift a finger.
This is one of the many differences between Comcast's business versus residential services.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I know the diggers aren't actually real Google employees, but yesterday, their diggers cut a large gas line in our neighborhood (suburb of Kansas City). I never smelled so much mercaptan in my entire life. Could barely breathe outside. Good thing nobody had a cigarette lit.
Are things really that bad in the USA? Over here, such compensations are given as a matter of course.
When I worked for PowerUp Internet, before they got bought out by OzEmail, we automatically gave all customers free days when we had system outages. It was great for customer service satisfaction which regularly polled >95% in the national surveys.
The power company doesn't bill me for usage during a power outage. I would expect no less from any other service provider.
> When was the last time a telecom provider gave you a discount on your bill without you asking for it?
My cellphone was down for a day this summer. They apologized and offered a "free 500Mb of internet" for the September billing cycle.
I buy "internet service" on my phone with lots of margin. They charge like 100 times more for the "over your limit" traffic, so I rarely use the upper 500Mb of my "prepaid" 1G limit. It's cheaper to pay 12 months for 1Gb/month than to pay for 500Mb and go over the limit once a year.
So their "free 500Mb of internet traffic" is indeed completely free... for them.
Even turning on the entire sports package for a year would not be enough to make up for that.