You've heard the ads, they're everywhere. Here's how PacBell really treats their customers.
 
 

Quick Overview

I ordered the advertised special of PacBell's DSL service. I was put on a five week waiting list. The technician who originally came out to install and set up the system, did not properly finish his job and left. This was the first round in a 10-day nightmare marathon trying to negotiate the maze of PacBell's frustratingly automated and unresponsive corporate machine. I was stood up over and over and over, day after day after day, as appointments were made, and appointments were missed. In all, PacBell skipped my appointments an amazing total of nine times. That means each time, I had to make a point of being here at my house, waiting for someone who never showed, and never called. I missed a whole week of work, a whole week of pay, a whole week of life, all for nothing.

But far from being productive here at home, I spent all day every one of those days on the telephone, mostly on hold, trying to reach someone, anyone from the Pacific Bell company who could help get someone out here to finish setting up my service.

To be fair, I would like to say that, other than the incompetent technician who walked off the job, almost every person I eventually was able to speak with was very friendly, helpful, and towards the end, very sympathetic. But nobody could seem to accomplish anything.

I would especially like to mention a manager named Rita who was finally able to break through the roadblock and get some real action out of the Santa Rosa dispatch office. They let her down too on Friday night, but she did follow up Saturday morning and arranged to send a technician here that day.

If anyone is considering getting PacBell DSL, you owe it to yourself to read the following report and brace yourself.
 
 

My Saga, Blow by Blow
 

March 30, 2000 I ordered DSL service from Pacific Bell (PacBell). They gave me an installation date of May 4.
 

May 4, Thursday about 3:30 p.m., a technician arrived to install and set up DSL service. I understand he is not with Pacific Bell, but is contracted out from a separate company named Prime Services Group. He seemed unusually anxious to hurry up and get done so he could go back home to San Mateo. He did most of the installation but packed up and left before completing the job. Also, he had a lot of nasty things to say about PacBell. He said someone would call later that evening to walk me through the rest of the setup process. No one called. I called and spoke to Terry, who put me through to Marcel. Marcel called me back later and said that someone might call that evening yet, although if they didn't call by 8:00, they would probably call the next morning. No one called Thursday night.
 

May 5, Friday morning no one called either. At 10:20 a.m. I called PacBell and got hold of Ron, who put me through to the Tech Support. I spoke with a man named Lord-Smith. I was on the telephone with him over the next three hours. During that time we tried various things and it still wouldn't work. He was on the phone to other people at other companies involved with the equipment and service, including Randy, Ray, Vivian, and Carol. It was finally determined that another technician would have to be dispatched. Since this was Friday, that meant I would go all weekend without my service. However, Lord-Smith scheduled an afternoon appointment on Monday for a technician to come out and finish the set-up.
 

May 8, Monday, I waited and waited and finally at 4:00, I called Lord-Smith and verified that someone was indeed scheduled to come out. At 4:50 p.m., I called Pacific Bell Customer Service and spoke with Bob. He was friendly, tried to help and gave me some more numbers I could call.

I next spoke to Jeanette, who told me that it was too late for someone to come out now.

She put me through to Deion at the DSL office. He scheduled me to be the first service call of the morning, at 8:00, because of the missed appointment.

Throughout the day, I had left messages with several voice mail boxes that I ended up reaching. No one returned my calls.
 

May 9, Tuesday, no one came in the morning. I called 888-900-9933, one of the numbers I got from Bob on Monday. I spoke to Lily, who basically told me that I was on the schedule for today, although she couldn't say whether a.m. or p.m.

I called 800-450-1666 sometime this morning and left a message on the voice mail.

Next, I spoke with a guy named "Camelot" at the PacBell DSL office. He pretty much told me the same thing, although he did tell me I was set for a p.m. appointment. It was already in the p.m. anyway.

My next contact was William at the PacBell Customer Service number. He was friendly and gave me another couple of phone numbers of various departments.

Danielle was a very friendly and helpful Pacific Bell Customer Service representative. She stayed on the line with me until we were able to connect with someone who could help. It still ended up that all they could do was tell me I was on the schedule for today.

2:48 p.m. I received a call from Richard in DSL Routing (800-450-1666). He was returning one of my calls from yesterday or this morning. He informed me that it was not a number for "orders today" as I had been told by someone yesterday. He apologized that he couldn't help me.

Shortly after 3:00 p.m. I once again called PacBell Customer Service, this time speaking to Lisa. She patched my call through to a DSL office. I was on hold from at least 3:15 to 3:30 when Debra answered. She called the Dispatch office and they tried to locate a technician. After awhile, she came back online and explained that the technicians were at a problem job that required three of them and I was going to have to reschedule for sometime next week! I thought that under the circumstances, I should be able to get an earlier appointment than that!

3:50 p.m. I called Customer Service and spoke to Gary. He put me through to Don at the DSL office. He couldn't help me.

4:15 p.m. Somehow I got routed to Renda in Technical Service. She obviously couldn't help me either.

4:30 p.m. I got hold of Alex, a testing technician. Seems the phone calls roll over to the technical services side when they go unanswered for too long. Alex tried to locate a Manager for me but he said most of them had already gone home. Said he would call me back and let me know if he found someone to help me.

An aside, everyone I spoke with at every turn made a point of telling me how busy they were with filling orders for DSL. Seems every department and employee is overly swamped and working overtime. It is really curious then how all the managers had gone home by 4:30.

About 5:30, I got hold of "Mac" or "Max" but he couldn't help me either. He was mostly a support technician too. While I was talking to him, another call came through on my call waiting. It was Alex calling me back, said he couldn't find anybody who could help me.

7:10 p.m. I called 888-900-9933 and spoke to Joyce. Joyce had a hearty laugh when, in answer to her question "How can [she] help me?" I answered, "Get somebody over here tonight to get me set up." She said there was no way I could get a tech out that evening, and it was too late to schedule an appointment for Wednesday. I would have to wait until Thursday. She at least made sure it was a morning appointment.

This evening I tried to send an email to the address that's repeated at the beginning of several of their voice messages, datacom@pacbell.com. It was returned. Twice. I next gave a stab at a .net extension, but same result. Guess they just want to waste our time as much as they can, just for fun.
 

May 11, Thursday (One week after my originally scheduled installation appointment)

9:56 a.m. I called DSL Service Center (888-900-9933), ended up with a voice mail box, and had to leave a message. No one ever did return that call.

10:01 a.m. I called PacBell Customer Service (800-310-2355), spoke to Jose, he checked, and said I was on the list for an A.M. appointment today.

10:23 a.m. I called DSL Service Center again, this time I got stuck in a loop because the options on their voice mail system kept taking me back up to the first menu. I tried a few other options and eventually got through to someone who was way down the line from what I needed. However, she did put me through to the proper line.

10:34 a.m. I began waiting on hold.

11:04 a.m. Finally after a half hour on hold, Teresa came on the line. She said she would try to put me through to a manager at the Dispatch office. On hold again for almost another 15 minutes.

11:18 a.m. I got disconnected.

11:26 a.m. I then tried to call DSL Emerging Products Center Help desk (877-375-3375). A recorded message said that due to high volume, they could could not complete my call, please try my call again later.

11:28 a.m. I called DSL Service Center (888-313-6333) and waited on hold.

11:47 a.m. Kim answered and wasn't sure how I got through to her because she's not in a position to help. However, she did offer to find a manager who could help me.

11:56 a.m. Kim eventually connected me with Sonia, her supervisor. She said she will attempt to contact a manager at the Dispatch Office in Santa Rosa. She told me they had about three people working on this with her to get this resolved.

1:27 p.m. Lovell called from the San Francisco Office. He explained that he is an "Escalation Supervisor" and that the buck stops here. He then went on to tell me that a "truck broke down" (guess they only have one truck) and they could not get someone there today. Curious how the very first (and so far only) technician to come out was driving his own car. He sympathized with my frustration but needed my okay to schedule an appointment for first thing in the morning. I had no choice of course. He assured me though that someone would definitely be here between 8:00 and 10:00 A.M.
 

May 12, Friday

7:09 a.m. Lovell called and told me that he couldn't squeeze me into a morning appointment after all. Now I'm scheduled for an afternoon appointment. He also told me he called my wife's work number and left a voice mail message. As I heard later, he had said on his message that he understands that I've already gone through a lot, so he was going to make sure I got service today.

1:53 p.m. I called Lovell's number. I told him I was a little anxious about being on the schedule and just wanted to check in to make sure things were in order. He assured me that I would be on the list for today, that he had personally made sure everything was done properly to insure that a technician would definitely be out sometime this afternoon. He also said that he would be leaving for the day in about a half hour.

3:40 p.m. I called Lovell's number and left a message. I said I was getting pretty nervous because it's getting toward the end of the day (and week) and no one had come by yet.

4:04 p.m. Still no service technician. I decided I'd better call the DSL Service Center again to find out what's happening. Got put on hold for 10 minutes.

4:13 p.m. Stephanie answered, I told her the situation. She attempted to contact someone in the Santa Rosa Dispatch office. I was put on hold during this time, although she would come back on the line once in awhile to make sure I was still there.

4:26 p.m. A supervisor named Rita came on the line, and prepared me for bad news. She said that the office in Santa Rosa had reported that the service order had not gotten there in time and the technician in the field did not have it on his list. In frustration, I demanded that someone must come out today, no matter what time, even if someone came out at midnight, that I've been skipped four times and that Lovell in the San Francisco office had assured me that everything was taken care of properly. She put me on hold for awhile, came back and told me that she and her supervisor would attempt to find someone who can come out yet tonight. Asked me to give them an hour.

5:23 p.m. Figuring that today was probably another bust, I realized that I had not yet scheduled any other appointment. So I called DSL Service Center yet again. After being on hold for another ten minutes, I got a call waiting signal. I clicked to the other line.

5:35 p.m. It was Rita calling. She said that it had been arranged that someone will come out sometime tonight before midnight to be sure I get my service today.

It's after midnight now. Not surprisingly, no service man ever came to my house this evening. At this point I am extremely depressed, because I really don't know where else to turn, who else to trust, or what, if anything can be done.
 

May 13, Saturday

8:20 a.m. The phone rang, it was Rita calling to follow up (bless her heart, she's the only one who has gotten much done). She was dismayed to hear that nobody came by last night to install my service. She said she would work with her morning supervisor to see if something can be arranged for today. I am not hopeful.

8:45 a.m. Rita did call back. She was on the line with a Dispatch agent. They wanted to know if I will be home all day today. I said that if they promise to send somebody out today, I will stay home (as I have for the past week!). Rita explained to me that someone will be out around Noon today, or shortly after. A major first here is that I actually heard her speaking to a real live person at Dispatch, not just passing the word along with hollow promises.

9:25 a.m. Bob called! Who's Bob? Bob is an honest to goodness service technician from PacBell. He will be the man who comes to my house to set up my service. He said he will be here late morning or early afternoon. He wrote down directions to my address. This is a major first. Talking to the real person who will be coming to my door. I'm still not getting my hopes up though. I'm expecting that I'll get a call about mid afternoon from Bob saying that he has gotten delayed with an unexpected problem and will not be able to make it out here this weekend at all. I'm normally a pretty optimistic person. But after all this, it's easier on my stress level to just be pessimistic and hope to be surprised.

12:00 Noon. No Bob yet. But it's not too late!

3:20 p.m. FINALLY!! A PacBell truck in front of my house! I almost fell over in a dead faint. Yes, it was Bob. Bob the PacBell DSL Service Technician. Bob came. Bob tried. No luck. But at last, we have the problem pinpointed. Too bad it took ten days to get to it. Bob was sorry he couldn't do more, I said he had done plenty just by arriving. Now I can go forward and get to the root of the situation. Bob left about 4:20, about an hour is what it took PacBell.

For the next several hours I tried various things with my computer configuration, to no avail.

May 14, Sunday

SUCCESS!!
I opened up my computer and tried some things on my own, based off what Bob suggested. Then I rebooted and tried to connect to DSL again. VOILA!! It worked!! After all this time, I'm finally up and running with DSL.

Ahh well, I now have the service I've waited for going on two months now. Am I happy? You bet. Am I satisfied with PacBell? Not a bit! Read below.

This ordeal has cost me somewhere close to $1,000.00 in lost time. This equals over two years of DSL service at their advertised $39.95 per month. I have been literally held hostage in my own home for a week waiting for service technicians that never bother to show up. Not only is it keeping me from working, it is keeping me from doing anything else, such as running even the smallest errand for fear I will miss the elusive service man from PacBell.

If you are even considering taking advantage of PacBell's DSL offer, consider again. Cable Internet service, from what I understand, is equally as fast (despite the DSL ads to the contrary, such as Web Hog in the neighborhood). And the price for cable is much lower in cost. With service such as what I've experienced with PacBell, is it really worth it? Had I only known better...

The Rest of the Story

May 15, Monday

10:03 a.m. Lovell called and left a message, he was very dismayed to hear that nobody had come out on Friday. I was unable to return his call Monday.

May 16, Tuesday

07:35 a.m. Lovell called and left another message, said he was just as upset about it as I was, wants to talk to me.

11:23 a.m. I returned Lovell's call, explained how things had transpired over the weekend, he was glad I was up and running now. Now I need to speak to PacBell Marketing about the whole situation. Oh boy, this is going to be fun...(sigh)