LETTER TO USA COMMUNICATIONS For those interested in reading the letter mentioned in the recent issue of the Borrego Sun, it follows below. The original impulse to write the letter was to see it published in full in the Sun as an Open Letter. Obviously that did not happen. Copies have been mailed to the recipients mentioned at the end of the letter (and the Sun article); to date, the office of Duncan Hunter has contacted me, acknowledging receipt and informing me that he will be made aware of the issue. I will update here as I get responses from the other recipients... Dear USA Communications, Your company is a provider, to Borrego Springs, California and surrounding areas, of an essential service: high-speed unlimited cable internet. Reliable service of this kind is indispensable to the well-being of any 21st-century American community, whether urban or rural. It affects the quality of our daily lives, the completeness of our educations, even the value of the properties we own. In Borrego Springs and surrounds, as is the case in most rural areas, customers in search of high-speed unlimited cable internet have no option other than to subscribe to the sole provider in the area. In this desert community, that monopoly provider is USA Communications. As residents in this isolated community, we recognize there are severe limits to - and little incentive to provide - competition for our high-speed unlimited cable internet business; and we are grateful to USA Communications for its commitment to servicing this area. And we are not insensitive to the unique challenges of maintaining equipment in a desert environment and the workload such maintenance places on field technicians. However, as part of the contract into which we enter and for which we pay every month, we expect a reasonable level of quality of service as well as timely, effective, and honest response to our legitimate reports of degradations of service in our homes and businesses. Your records will show the addresses of every USA Cable Internet subscriber in Borrego Springs and surrounds who have requested service calls for faulty or dead internet connections over the past few years. Your records will also show the frequency of repeat requests and calls to tech support from the same addresses. Your billing department will easily confirm the number of subscribers who have requested refunds and rebates over the past few years because they consistently havent received the speeds of service they are paying for; or because their home security systems have failed because internet signals to their homes are corrupted, or down altogether; or their internet-dependent businesses have lost customers when transactions cant be completed; or because they work from home and routinely cant submit their days work online; or because they are repeatedly frustrated because streaming a 90-minute video takes 3 hours or longer, or is completely abandoned, due to constant dropouts, bufferings and re-bufferings; or because their online classes have to be aborted because of a connectivity lapse. And perhaps your staffers at the local office can testify to the number of subscribers who, clutching documents and printouts, have come to the desk to plead for relief from the T3 and T4 timeouts, modem reboots, and download and upload speeds slowing to a crawl or flatlining altogether. Do your inventory records show the number of times your in-home technicians have swapped out a new cable modem to replace the existing one, and how many times the swap has been repeated at the same address? When one customer is given two or three new modems within a few months time and still complains of faulty connections does it raise the concern that maybe the problem lies elsewhere than in the subscribers original modem? And is there any way USA Communications can possibly keep track of the number of subscribers who call the tech support phone number for help but give up after being left on hold for a half hour or longer? Is there an archive somewhere in your email folders that contains the volumes of email requests for support that have not been answered until days after they were received, or gone unanswered altogether? Does USA Communications have a policy in place for addressing the frustration of the subscriber who has waited at home for a technicians visit during the scheduled two-hour window only to be stood up, without any notice or subsequent explanation? Does that policy apply as well to the subscriber whose missed appointment was re-scheduled only to be stood up a second time, again with no notification or subsequent explanation? What does USA Communications call the process by which a subscriber: (1) calls for service, (2) is visited by a technician who checks everything out, (3) is told by the technician that everything looks good, (4) is told by the technician that upgrades are being performed in the area, (5) experiences the original problem again, (1) calls for service, (2) is visited by a technician who checks everything out, (3) is told by the technician that everything looks good, (4) is told by the technician that upgrades are being performed in the area, (5) experiences the original problem again, etcetera, etcetera? An Infinite Loop? Many of your cable internet subscribers are not computer savvy, so when we are explicitly told by USA Communications support personnel our signals are just fine and nobody else in the area is having any problem, we feel foolish, as though we are the problem, and resolve to accept our lot. After all, weve heard it often, sometimes even from representatives of USA Communications itself: Poor internet service in the Borrego Springs area? Well, thats just the way it is. But when our internet service is up, we talk amongst ourselves on social networks. When we hear our poor service problems arent solely our own, but are reflected in our neighbors experiences all across town and in surrounding areas, we begin to think that there is a more widespread problem with the service we are paying for, a problem that exists somewhere in the broader infrastructure, a problem that USA Communications would rather not admit to, a problem that USA Communications will not - or cannot - fix. And when we agree that we have not been dealt with honestly and in a straightforward manner, we become restive, non-complacent, unaccepting. Because, in one word, the current level of internet service from USA Communications in the Borrego Springs area - in technical, customer-support, and consumer-relations areas - is: Unacceptable. Now, some of us - the squeakier of wheels - have noticed recently an unusual outreach from USA support, and attribute it to USA Communications growing awareness of the discontent of its customers, as voiced on social networks in recent weeks. The attention is welcomed, but must become the rule rather than the expedient exception. We therefore, as current and recent subscribers, publicly call upon USA Communications, as the sole provider of high-speed unlimited cable internet service in the Borrego Springs area: (1) to upgrade your customer-support system to allow for expeditious response - whether by telephone, email, or live chat - to complaints of unreliable service, (2) to accept, at the highest level of management, our complaints of unreliable service as valid, (3) to identify, and clearly and honestly describe to us, the causes of our individual, reported, documented service problems, (4) to communicate your plans to correct those problems, and (5) to keep us informed of all progress - or lack thereof - in a timely manner. A copy of this letter has been sent to the Borrego Sun, a biweekly newspaper with a circulation of 4000; a news story covering the issues raised in this letter will appear in the September 11, 2014 issue of the newspaper. Furthermore, the signers of this letter expect a response from USA Communications top management, addressing the issues raised above and in the news story, delivered by any means or any media that reaches all current USA Communications internet service subscribers. Copies of this letter are also being delivered to UCAN - Utility Consumers Action Network, San Diego County District Five Supervisor Bill Horn, US Representative Duncan Hunter, and US Senator Barbara Boxer. Signed, William Damkoehler (writer of this letter, primary contact) Pat Fleck Lynda Montgomery Schwartz Ruth Avey Stuart Charles Petrach Cristina Warren Sandra Kukla Trent C Hoskins-Kleinkopf Shamus Sherwood Dennis Mammana Michael Rodriques Jackette Barling Williams Judy Dunlea Stewart Paul Taylor Claudia Goldberg Jean Anderson Asche Stacey Chapman Paton Maribel Abrica Garcia Kerry Hubbert Dawn Zipper Arthur Levy Sandra Quintero Alexander Pape Kym McNabb Polly Macuga Dave Duncan Kerin Shugart Melanie Snowhite Kathy Pratt Earl Pratt Carol L. Hillidge Ron Shugan Beth Shugan Zane Smiley Greg Serveiss Nancy Smith Alan Smith Pat McArron
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 21:01:04 +0000
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