We interrupt this blog due to technical difficulties beyond our control… or anybody’s control for that matter. If your internet provider is Comcast you could not see my website yesterday. I’m not sure exactly when this problem began because most Mondays are a blur of activity for me. It could have actually started over the weekend. I noticed that there was some kind of glitch mid-morning when I was trying to upload a new blog post and do a little maintenance. This budgeted time out of the day suddenly mushroomed into a nightmare.
The Website Host – My website is hosted by Atlanta based Earthlink and they have been a long time partner in keeping the forward facing part of my business alive and well. I am planning to do a major update to the site… when I get around to it. My call to their tech support first resulted in telling me that there was no problem, but they listened. I appreciate that in technical support people. I told them I had tried to access the site from three different computers using four browsers with the same result. I killed the firewall to see if that was the problem, but from my perspective the site was still dark. An odd sinking feeling came over me when they mentioned that this was not a unique problem but a lot of Comcast customers were calling about the same thing. I was given a ticket number and told that their engineers would have to contact the Comcast engineers. I mentioned that I had previous problems with Comcast and would appreciate a follow-up even if they fixed it.
The Internet Provider – Comcast technically is a great company considering all that they do. The problem is that they are almost too big to be responsible anymore. The front line customer service people read from pre-prepared scripts instead of listening to the customer. I spent over three hours being bumped around to five different support people before finally getting someone to admit that they had a problem and would work on a solution. Tech helper #2 agreed with me that the problem was not at my end, but insisted they would have to charge me to fix it. Agreeing to a minimal charge (knowing that I could have it removed if I complained loudly enough) I was given a ticket number and forwarded to tech helper #3… who had no clue how to fix the problem and told me so. He said that he would transfer me back to Comcast tech support (not sure who he really was) and I found myself back at the beginning after over an hour of haggling. After being disconnected (accidentally?) and redialing the support number, I finally reached helper #4 Kerrie (not sure of spelling) who probably put her job on the line by actually trying to help me (my previous experience at this level is that they want to dump you) and found out who could fix the problem. Finally, Tech helper #5, Andy, recognized that this was something they needed to address, gave me a ticket number and escalated to engineering, promising to deal with Earthlink engineers.
The Sigh of Relief – At approximately 10:30 PM I had received assurances from both companies that they would have an engineer talk to an engineer from the other company. No fixes yet and no guarantees that it would be fixed soon, but a sign that this was as far as it could go for now.
The Workaround – The lightbulb moment came sometime during this insane process when I realized that if I disabled my Wi-Fi and connected my iPhone through the AT&T 4G network there was no problem in accessing my web site. Fearing for the consequences of data charges, I tethered my laptop to the iPhone to update my blog.
The Post Mortem – Tuesday morning normalcy is a good feeling! Follow-up calls to both of the offending parties was both helpful and at the same time a little frustrating. Everything was fixed, but of course each party blamed the other. Comcast had blocked websites hosted by Earthlink because there was evidence of theft of identity websites being hosted there. Earthlink pointed out to me that no other internet providers blocked their sites and offered me a credit for the downtime… while mentioning that Comcast owed them for the inconvenience. Both Chris at Earthlink and Don at Comcast were very, VERY responsive to me and answered questions while explaining the problem in more detail than was really necessary. Perhaps both companies should focus on putting this kind of service closer to the consumer to prevent the nightmarish runaround.
Next Steps? – I really have to reassess everything and consider alternatives. Mama always said that if you play with the pigs you will get muddy. Do I want my website to be hosted on a place that could be seen as a disreputable location? Sometimes we are our own worst enemies and do stupid stuff online that cries out for automated security. Do I need the all-embracing Comcast condom of security to “protect†me like all the web troglodytes that click on anything to their ultimate dismay? Decisions should be logical and cost effective, not emotional. Last night I was ready to fire them both and find another way. I may still do that.
Is this just another story about how little service is actually provided to customers? Is this a lesson in marrying marketing claims with forward facing client services? Is this a demonstration of why we need to extend corporate culture into the community? I hope so!!! What tech driven problems keep you up at night? This blog is now returning to its normally scheduled postings, already in progress.
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Image credit: CustomerService lightwise / 123RF Stock Photo