Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google Fiber Cuts Kansas City Resident's Internet Access Over 12 Cent Dispute (kansascity.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the nickel-and-dime dept.

New submitter twentysixV writes: Google Fiber offered a seven-year internet service if you pay upfront for connecting to your house, including taxes and fees. Victoria Tane signed this deal: $300 to connect, plus $25.08 for taxes and fees. Google Fiber internally accounts it as ongoing recurring payments. Kansas then raises taxes. Instead of absorbing the tax increase for customers who paid upfront, Google Fiber books it to the customers. To punish the customer for now being late on paying 12 cents she was not aware she now owed for additional taxes, Google then cut her internet access. According to Kansas City News, Tane tried to pay but Google wouldn't take checks for less than $10. Google reportedly tried contacting her via emails and voice messages, but Tane never saw them. When asked about the incident, Google Fiber issued a statement: "As with any customer who has a balance due, we made repeated attempts to reach Ms. Tane to resolve the matter. Google Fiber values our customers, and we have since worked with Ms. Tane to restore her Fiber service." Google forgave the total, restored Tane's service in less than an hour and credited her account for $30, reports Kansas City News.

4 of 191 comments (clear)

  1. 1 hour. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So less than an hour after the automatic disconnect, it was fixed. And they wiped the balance, thus eating the cost increase. Plus the time spent trying to reach her ahead of time.

    Such a bullshit nonstory, such a bullshit headline. Fuck you, Beau.

    1. Re:1 hour. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      On the other hand, nobody at google looks at this sort of thing and goes "waitaminute...", so that "trying to reach her" is also completely fully automated with no human in the loop anywhere, or the humans in the loop aren't actually thinking at all.

      This is standard. I changed internet providers about 3 years ago. To close my account, they required me to take my router in to their authorized retailer, and he calculated the final bill and gave me a refund for the unused portion of my last month on the spot. But since 1c coins were made obsolete here about a decade ago, he over-refunded me by 1 cent, following good retail practice of erring in favour of the customer. Every month since then, I've received a bill for 0.01. Obviously there is some human review or sanity check before sending accounts to the debt collectors, as they haven't tried to take it any further than sending me a bill every month in the last 3 years, but it is quite amusing that even with a fully automated email based system, it has to have cost them more than 0.01 to keep doing this for so long.

       

  2. Re:Think about it. by aktw · · Score: 5, Informative

    Looks more like they sent emails and attempted phone contact before ultimately cutting her service. I know you're just looking to insult Google here, but at least don't be a complete fucking moron with your misleading post.

  3. Article Blames; I Praise by cervesaebraciator · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The tone of the headline and text is critical. But if there is a story here at all, it's how decent Google acted about it. We should read this, not as it was intended, but as an article of praise for Google.

    Comcast, TWC, Spectrum, or whatever you are now, take notice. This is how to get people to like you: when you find your policies and automated systems have done something absurd, sacrifice the small change, fix the problem quickly, shell out a few courtesy bucks, and enjoy free publicity and good will.