To start, I own a duplex and the fiber lines for either side come from a pole across the street.
Friday August 29. What I assume was a city garbage truck comes down my street, and somehow pulls the fiber line off of the one side of the duplex and partially damages the fiber line coming to my side, causing slowed internet, drops in signal, choppy TV and static on the phone line. The other side of my duplex is currently unoccupied (that's important.) I call Telus around 11am, and arrange for a tech to come and restring the line for the other side, and fix the line for my side. Arrangements are made for Monday September 2 at 8-9am.
Monday September 2. Two days of really slow and awful signal, I'm ready to have this fixed. I'm up early on the holiday Monday, and wait for the tech to contact me, as per the appointment text I received 2 days prior, to let me know he's on the way. Nothing. Okay, maybe something came up. I was home all day, and no one came. That's one wasted day. I don't call right away, because I don't want to take my annoyance out on the call center person, this isn't they're fault.
Tuesday September 3. I phone the call center, and ask why I didn't see a tech for the appointment I made. I was told, after some questioning, that the tech came on Monday around 2-3pm, and determined that the broken line doesn't need fixing because "there is no signal on it", and my line was "good enough". I'm getting hot, so I ask for another appointment, and have arranged for Friday September 6. I also ask to speak to "Loyalty". I am transferred as asked, however, after around 10 minutes on hold, the call is dropped. Yeah.
Thursday September 5, I phone in again, because another truck has come down my street, and pulled the line to my side of the duplex off the wall. Yes, you remember correctly, the line the Monday tech said was "good enough" is now coiled on my front lawn. I arrange for an appointment for 1-3pm for tomorrow September 6, and ask to speak to "Loyalty" again. After around 20 minutes on hold, the call is dropped AGAIN!!
Friday September 6, I am hopeful that today, my situation will be resolved. I wait for 1-3 to come. I get a call at 11am (YAY!) and he arrives 10 minutes later, without a ladder! Stunned that there's a fiber cable laying on my front lawn and another coiled at the base of the pole across the street, he states the obvious, "I don't have a ladder, so there's nothing that I can do." But he spends about 20 minutes on the phone, and before he leaves, assures me that someone will come in the next 30 minutes to an hour and fix the problem. So, yes, I wait again. My waiting all day goes into the night, and no one comes. I phone Telus (AGAIN!), this time annoyed and, unfortunately, take some frustration out on the call center employee. Rolf, to his credit, remained calm and arranged another appointment for me on Saturday September 7, again for 1-3.
Saturday September 7, I wake up to a text from Telus, that "due to unexpected circumstances, the technician is delayed, and will arrive sometime before 5pm." Awesome! Another day left sitting around the house with no fiber signal, waiting for the POSSIBILITY someone will show up. Forgive me, at this point I'm skeptical. At 4pm, a Telus truck rolls up, and parks. I get a little excited, there's 2 ladders!!
The technician, Karim, listens to what has happened, sees the 2 fiber lines and 1 copper line, coiled at the base of the pole across the street, or on my front lawn. He gets to work, and boy does he work. He seems to me to be a very conscientious person, because he climbs up the ladder to examine the distribution node on it. He said later, there was some damage to other peoples' lines as well, so he fixed them too. Not only that, but he made sure there is NO WAY the line will be pulled down again, I'm impressed. He also explains that without signal going to a house, there's no need to run a line to that side of the duplex. Understood, no line to the unoccupied side of my duplex. He finishes, and comes in my house to run checks to make sure my service is back, and to no ones surprise, IT IS! Karim is my hero, in that he did ALL that he did, and didn't leave my house until 8:30pm. Yup, that's 4.5 hours!
However, after all that, I still find myself underwhelmed. I can't believe that it took multiple phone calls, 3 of my days wasted, multiple no-show techs, and 2 dropped calls to get this fixed. That's some really poor customer service Telus. I've been with Telus for over 20 years, and now, I'm somewhat disillusioned. I find myself looking over to the other side of the fence, to the competitor, to see if service can or would be any better. I see offerings are the same, and in my opinion, better with the competitor.
I hope this doesn't fall on deaf ears, if for at least giving Karim some recognition, but something needs to be done. I've noticed over the years the problems are getting worse, and are becoming systemic.
Telus, please, do better.
