mimicit
04-02-2007, 12:42 PM
My angle ? I'm an independant IT consultant trying to get small business set up with the tools that the big boys use. VOIP is a great starting place, and integrates well with my opensouce mantra.
My experience with Via thus far, meh. I must say I went looking for a provider when my relationship was strained with low-cost alternatives not providing the level of service I needed. Solution: find a national provider, spend more money.
I went on the web, got an account, everything was smooth. Went to add a toll free line to that account via the web, not so smooth. The web logic sent me into a loop saying that the ticket I submited could be solved by submitting a ticket , waaaaa? So ,anyway, that was a week and a half ago. Last Sunday I decided to make a call to a real person.
I got <operator>, who told me, hey no problem, your new line should be up Wed by the latest. Guess what? Never happened. No phone call, no email, nothing. Clients getting itchy...me, no excuses, I told them my fault, I was sorry they had to wait.
So fast forward to today, where I call back, and believe I got <operator> again.
Somehow <operator> was able to get me my 1866 line, and told me that it was backed up, they come on a first serve basis.....and the number magically appeared.
So I asked, what happened? Will it happen again? I got a circle answer that landed on the no-blame square. Not "Sorry, we screwed up" , or "We would be glad to offer you X for your troubles, etc". Just a wad of excuses as to why this didn't happen. In fact, this person wanted to poke holes in my troubles, letting thier blame leak out. Nothing makes me more angry then a customer service rep saying anything besides, yes sir, no sir, sorry, it won't happen again. :mad:
So what now? I have not even USED this service yet, already I am watching my relationship with this provider crumble. I have clients that are ready to switch fully to VOIP, but thier land line numbers are 20 years +, and trusting that to, well what so far has been a less then stellar performance, is not in the cards.
If I ran my company like this, well I wouldn't have a company. I hope this is isolated, and I hope somehow Via can make this up to me, otherwise, BOOT...
On to the next one, untill I find a VOIP provider that cares....
My experience with Via thus far, meh. I must say I went looking for a provider when my relationship was strained with low-cost alternatives not providing the level of service I needed. Solution: find a national provider, spend more money.
I went on the web, got an account, everything was smooth. Went to add a toll free line to that account via the web, not so smooth. The web logic sent me into a loop saying that the ticket I submited could be solved by submitting a ticket , waaaaa? So ,anyway, that was a week and a half ago. Last Sunday I decided to make a call to a real person.
I got <operator>, who told me, hey no problem, your new line should be up Wed by the latest. Guess what? Never happened. No phone call, no email, nothing. Clients getting itchy...me, no excuses, I told them my fault, I was sorry they had to wait.
So fast forward to today, where I call back, and believe I got <operator> again.
Somehow <operator> was able to get me my 1866 line, and told me that it was backed up, they come on a first serve basis.....and the number magically appeared.
So I asked, what happened? Will it happen again? I got a circle answer that landed on the no-blame square. Not "Sorry, we screwed up" , or "We would be glad to offer you X for your troubles, etc". Just a wad of excuses as to why this didn't happen. In fact, this person wanted to poke holes in my troubles, letting thier blame leak out. Nothing makes me more angry then a customer service rep saying anything besides, yes sir, no sir, sorry, it won't happen again. :mad:
So what now? I have not even USED this service yet, already I am watching my relationship with this provider crumble. I have clients that are ready to switch fully to VOIP, but thier land line numbers are 20 years +, and trusting that to, well what so far has been a less then stellar performance, is not in the cards.
If I ran my company like this, well I wouldn't have a company. I hope this is isolated, and I hope somehow Via can make this up to me, otherwise, BOOT...
On to the next one, untill I find a VOIP provider that cares....