Affiliate Programs

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Well, if anyone has noticed, I haven’t posted anything lately. The problem lies with my Internet service provider, Embarq (formerly Sprint). You see, I think it is Embarq’s sole goal to hire the most incompetent people they can find.

We’ve had our DSL for about 3 years, maybe 4. In that time we had outages about every other month or so. Every time we call them, they always say it’s something in the line at our house, our computer or that our modem is bad. They insist of sending out a service technician which usually takes a few days to schedule. Of all the times they’ve done this (which is about 20-30 times to date) not once has it been a problem with our modem, the computer or our lines. Every time it has been a problem in a data center somewhere, usually it takes the field technician about 5 minutes on the phone (apparently they knows who to call) to fix our problem.

Embarq customer service isn’t much better, in fact, it could be worse. We’ve been hung up on, put on eternal hold, lied to (one customer service tech told me that he couldn’t help me because there were no tech’s on duty on the weekend, which I found out later was a lie), gave the wrong information, etc, etc.

Now they’re quite sure it’s our modem this time. I was on the phone for over an hour Saturday with the Embarq tech. We tried settings on both of my computers and still could not get my Internet service back. He assured me that he would have one go out first thing Monday morning and it would be over-nighted.

Here it is Thursday morning and I still don’t have a DSL Modem. I called them last night and was told it was shipped that morning. When I asked the girl on the phone why it wasn’t shipped out on Monday like I was told, she said she didn’t know and that they don’t offer overnight shipping on anything.

By the way, this is a Small Business account I have with them. I’d hate to see how they treat their Residential customers.

I reminded them every time I talk with them that if I had a choice of local service providers, I would choose someone else in a heartbeat!

The best though is when they call us wanting us to use their Cellular service. Trust me, the poor sap who calls me and wants me to sign up with Sprint Cellular service gets an ear full. Basically it goes like “Why in the hell would I want to sign up for your cellular service when you local service and customer support is by far the worst I’ve ever seen? Do you honestly believe that I want your crappy Sprint Cell service? I mean, no one can take that much abuse!”

So, if you’re planning on moving, you’d do well to check out who your local phone/DSL service provider is. If it’s Embarq (formerly Sprint), I seriously think about another neighborhood if you value your Internet Service!

I’ll be back to regular posting just as soon as this incompetent company can get their heads out of their butts and actually do something they’ve promised.

Note: The above post is entirely my opinion and based on the service I’ve received from this company over the last several years.

UPDATE: A packaged arrived yesterday afternoon shortly after I got home from McDonald’s where I was using their WiFi to post this blog post. It was from Embarq and it was my DSL Modem. It had been sent the previoius day (Wed.) instead of Monday as I was told plus it was sent Next Day Air (I guess they do have that service after all) Once again proving that the people who work there don’t have a clue as to what’s going on or what their company can/can not do.

BTW, it took nearly an hour to get the new modem working. When I was on the phone over the weekend with the Embarq tech, he had me change so many of my settings on my computer that I forgot to write them down so I could change them back.

PLUS the new DSL modem came with spamware an integrated virtual assistant program. Once I got my connection my browser automatically opened up the Embarq page saying I had to download this virtual assistant. I tried to cancel the download and installation of this program and go directly to the Internet but no dice. The browser wouldn’t work at all until I downloaded the virtual assistant program. Nice…real nice. Way to go Embarq! You really know how to make your PO’d customers love you even more! I can see a day in the future where they’ll be referring all problems to this virtual assistant program.