Useless support chat to the rescue!!!

[Jeeebus]

Ughh. Companies must be scraping bottom barrel in hiring their 'chat' support staff - are you useless? Can we not trust you to actually talk to customers? Good, you're hired.

Tried to chat with U-Verse today about particularly slow internet yesterday/today to see if there is a problem. This was the result.

Me : Trying to figure out if there is a problem today with internet speed in my area.
....
Agent : Thank you for providing all of your security information, your account has been validated. Please allow me one moment to access your account.
Agent : I see here that you have Max 12.0mbps with a total monthly bill of $49.00 plus taxes, fees, and surcharges.
Agent : May I ask what do you usually do online?
Me : internet, work, watch videos, etc.
Agent : May I ask how many devices do you have?
Me : speed is normally fine but is very slow today - my outlook is very slow to download attachments and the cloud based document management system is taking forever to open/download/upload stuff
Me : there are only 2 computers in house on the network
Agent : I am sorry to hear that. based on what you have told me, I would recommend you to upgrade your Internet service to 18.0 Mbps Max Plus.
Agent : No worries, you will still be paying $49 plus taxes, fees, and surcharges.
Me : not to be rude but I didn't initiate this chat to be upsold new service - I'm just asking whether there is something wrong with the network today/yesterday that is causing it to slow down. The service was fine two days ago. It's terrible today.
Agent : I do apologize, however, we will be needing to change your Internet service to avoid any interruptions on your Internet connection.
Me : That doesn't make any sense. Thanks for your time - I'll just call tech support.

 

[theknight571]

I think the problem there was you were talking to a cable company. All they know is the up-sell.

I've had pretty good luck with most of the online chat support I've dealt with.

 

[Markbnj]

Your attempt to interact and explain your question is not on the script. I will refer this post to our Customer Service Robot team and see what we can do.

 

[Krazy4Real]

yup. att uverse chat is completely useless.

 

[lxskllr]

Sounds about right. I don't contact "support" unless absolutely necessary. IOW, shit's impossibly broken, and there's no way *I* can fix it. Slow internet? Not as slow as CS, and easier on my blood pressure. I wouldn't even consider calling for that.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I used the robot chat on uverse page for when my wifi radio died on my uverse box. I dont use wifi much, have most of my stuff wired with cat5e to gbit switches. But woman uses wifi, and we use wifi for one tv/roku/chromecast.

Anyhow, it wasnt too much a pain in the ass

 

[cubby1223]

Sounds about right. I don't contact "support" unless absolutely necessary. IOW, shit's impossibly broken, and there's no way *I* can fix it. Slow internet? Not as slow as CS, and easier on my blood pressure. I wouldn't even consider calling for that.

I also know enough people who actually do call the ISP demanding cash refunds for any and all perceived slowdowns, some who even demand refunds for days their computer was turned off not in use!

He was offered a bump in speed from 12mbps to 18mbps for no extra charge. That's worth complaining for

 

[jlee]

Why not take the free speed upgrade while you were there?

 

[Jaepheth]

Someone needs to write a chat bot with a self evolving script that selects for longest chat session.

 

[Jeeebus]

Why not take the free speed upgrade while you were there?

Nothing is free. The speed upgrade was already there on the account login screen and it's only for a few months. After that it's back to upgrade speed price. Not worth my time having to call them again to argue why they should bring me back down to prior speed.

 

[jlee]

Nothing is free. The speed upgrade was already there on the account login screen and it's only for a few months. After that it's back to upgrade speed price. Not worth my time having to call them again to argue why they should bring me back down to prior speed.

Ah. The last time I called my cable provider I got $3/mo off for 2 years at the higher speed tier. I have a strong dislike for 3-6mo promotional prices.

 

[Platypus]

You didn't mention anywhere that you were a lawyer, I don't think this transcript is real.

 

[Rage187]

They are in India, and it's all scripted short keys.

 

[FleshLight]

Woah I pay $60 for 55 mb internet and that's from relatively crappy Cox

 

[DaTT]

Nothing is free. The speed upgrade was already there on the account login screen and it's only for a few months. After that it's back to upgrade speed price. Not worth my time having to call them again to argue why they should bring me back down to prior speed.

That's why you deal with only the Loyalty Department when making changes. I am locked in to a $69/mo for 120Mbs for 2 years.