In some of the more epic consumer complaints we receive, its evident that the customer service gotterdammerung became about more than just the money. The flaw is not with the Indian service rep’s but rather, there is perhaps a greater flaw in the universe, somehow the world is fundamentally askew for these disgruntled people. In setting right these corporate wrongs, we wonder if some consumers are fulfilling a greater quest for justice.

Maybe that’s a stretch, but in reading Robert’s tale after the jump about his crusade to get a DSL company to live up to their radio advertising, ask yourself this: How far would you go for ten dollars?

Robert writes:

“I wanted to try DSL service, because, frankly, it’s the 21st century. I listen to computer-fixit talk radio, and the Leo LaPorte show is fun and interesting. One major sponsor is DSLExtreme, and, unsurprisingly, the host recommends their service. In late December, 2005, I decide to take the plunge and sign up. My service starts Christmas week, and it goes well. That weekend, I hear (or the voices in my head put on a show simulating) a radio commercial for DSLExtreme in which they say they are so sure of their pricing and service that they will match other offers for DSL service within ten days of the start date for new service. Coincidentally, I receive an offer from Versizon DSL offering a lower rate. (I was on a promo rate for three months, but then would pay a higher rate for the rest of the year.)

Thinking this would be a simple matter, I call the customer support line to get the deal matched. They tell me that there is no such offer, and they would not match other rates. Chastened, I apologize for wasting their time with my DSL offer fantasies and go on with my sordid existence.

Sadly, the demons that beset me are not through with the torment! The next weekend, on the same show, I hear the same commercial again! I call in to customer service again, and press the point. The CSR tells me she will check with supervisors, who confirm there is no price matching. I ask her to send me an e-mail telling me that there is no such offer, so that when I get someone to admit it I will have something like proof that I acted within 10
days of service activation. I get this:

Subject: price match policyFrom: “Brenda Hidalgo”

Date: Wed, January 4, 2006 10:50 am
To: [ME]
Dear Customer,
You called in regarding a price match policy. I have been told by two supervisors that we do not offer that policy in our company. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Regards,

The day before I get that, I sent out this e-mail to see if I get a better answer by going through on-line channels:

To: 1. billing@dslextreme.com
2. From: [ME]
Subject: Rate Match offer
3. My DSL Extreme Actyivation date was Dec. 20, 2005. I heard a radio commercial that said that DSLEx was so confident in its service and pricing that it would match competitor’s offers for new subscribers. I received a letter with an offer from Verizon DSL for 3.0 mbps for $29.95 per month for a year with a one-year committment. Although I currently have a $14.95 for three (or four) months promotional rate, I think the one-year for 3.0 mbps for $29.95 is a better offer. (I believe my package is for one year at $29.95 for 1.5 mbps. Please correct me if I am mistaken.) My thanks for your assistance. So far, the service has been perfect!

I received this response:

Subject: Rate Match offer [#1256884-2336#]
From: support@dslextreme.com
Date: Tue, January 3, 2006 12:45 pm

Hello, I am sorry but we do not price match. For that speed we charge $39.95. If you have any questions please call (800)774-3379. Nicole

Flummoxed, I gave up. I did send the following e-mail to the host of the computer-fixit radio show, Leo LaPorte [original typos included]:

Leo-

I was listening to your KFI show this past weekend, and I heard a commercial for DSLExtreme (It is possible I’m wrong, but I doubt it) that said that they were so confident in their service and pricing that they would match any
better offer for DSL within so many days after you started with DSLX.

I had just started with DSL Extreme (on your recommendation, by the way) and in my mail there was an offer from Verizon for 12 months of 3.0 mbps for $29.95 per month on a one-year committment. I have two months at $14.95 and the ten months of 1.5 at $29.95 from DSLeX.

I wrote them and said I would rather have twelve months of 3.0 at the $29.95 rather than the 1.5 with the two months discounted. To my surprise, they wotew back and said that they had no such offer to match prices! I’m
astounded- I would have expected nearly anything else. So, thinking maybe I got a bad answer, I called customer service and asked the person to check with a supervisor. She said she checked with two supervisors, and they both said there was no such offer.

I’m stumped. I don’t think there are commercials on your podcasts. If there are, let me know and I’ll get the show from Sunday and listen to it. (I’m new to dsl, podcasts, etc.) However, if you’re aware of what the commercials on
your show, you may be aware of the offer. Since you’re an endorser of DSLeX, you may have some influence with them to make customer service aware of what they’re offering, and it dooes in some degree reflect on you if they don’t follow through on the offers they put on your show.

Right now I’m stonewalled. I don’t know where to go with this, and would appreciate your help. (Again, I could be in error, but I think it would tak a severe blow to the head to render me so completely confused about this.)

I’m attaching the correspondence I had. First, the response to my e-mail inquiry, and then a confirming e-mail I requested when I called customer service:
….

There was no reply.

My initial e-mail to DSLExtreme billing apparently generated a “trouble ticket,” which was closed around that time. As part of their dedication to customer service, I was sent a questionnaire asking me for my impression of
the quality of their customer service. I responded that they were prompt, polite, and totally unhelpful, as what they said conflicted with the signals I was getting from the troposphere.

Because that was not a wholly positive response, DSLExtreme contacted me to find out what the problem was. I told them, and indicated that I would like someone to review their advertising, because there seemed to be a disconnect between billing/customer support and advertising. I was told that this would be looked in to, and that they would get back to me.

I went back to my other affairs, sure that the corporation was assiduously pursuing my best interests. Early in February, I received another customer service questionnaire, indicating that my trouble ticket had recently been
resolved and soliciting my impressions. Well, I knew then that something had gone wrong with the system, and that DSLExtreme would be glad to know that the machinery of customer satisfaction had thrown a cog! I called in, and
explained that my trouble ticket had been closed– but that no resolution had been reached, and, in fact, I had never been contacted about its closure! In my mind, I could picture the poor CSR taking the vapors at that news.

To my luck, I had somehow been connected directly with a supervisor, and he took in all the information with real interest. He could not see why the most recent ticket had been closed, and said that there was nothing to be done but pull the advertising from the Leo LaPorte show and review it, to see if such an offer had been made. Zounds! His words were sweet in my ear! Erwin gave me his e-mail address at DSLExtreme, as well as his extension number. He told me he would get on this, but that I should call him in around a week if I did not hear from him.

I gave him two weeks. I called. Another week. I called. I called again and again, but somehow he was never in when I was connected to his extension, and he never returned my messages.

Today, spurred by the omnipresent screaming of hornets in my brain, I called customer support and told the CSR that I had been waiting and waiting and would wait no longer for a response.

I was told that DSLExtreme did and would not price match. I told her that I had asked that the ads be reviewed, and wanted to know if or when that would be done. I was again told that there was a policy not to price match. She
further said that there was another company, Extreme DSL, and that I must have confused their advertising with that of DSLExtreme. I told her this was very unlikely– I was willing to believe that I had misheard the ad once, but the second time I heard it-and I had heard it more than once in the show– I paid close attention. Further, DSLExtreme was the major sponsor on the show, and I doubted that “ExtremeDSL” would be a competing sponsor on that show.

[DSLExtreme is listed on LaPorte’s website: http://www.leoville.tv/radio/. ExtremeDSL has a .net address with links that, for me, go nowhere. I saw no sign that they advertise.]

Perhaps my sighs were off-putting, but she put me on hold to check something. She came back after a few minutes, and told me that the reason I couldn’t get “that rate” was that it was for residential service, and I was a
business. I told her that, as far as I knew, I was a person, getting service at my home, and that I couldn’t possibly be the huge organization that was my employer. She told me that that was what was listed as the account holder
on my account. I replied, somewhat hotly, that I had never before been told that the reason they couldn’t match prices was because I was a business, and why did I have to go through all this over the last three months because of their mistake in classifying my account? Was she now going back on her statement that they didn’t price match? She wouldn’t answer, and instead told me that I could get half speed for $14.95 per month. I said I didn’t want that, and that I wanted 3.0 for the $29.95 rate. She said that wasn’t offered by DSLExtreme for that price and that my only choices were to switch to the $14.95 rate or pay $39.95 for 3.0. I could see that this was going nowhere, and I asked to speak to a supervisor.

Surprisingly, she was a supervisor! (Somehow I had great luck in getting supervisors when I called in to the general support line.) I asked to speak to her supervisor, and, after a long time on hold a new person picked up. At
this point, I had had enough of the whole thing, and just told her that I had been dealing with the issue for a long time and that customer support had been horrendously unresponsive. Because of that, I would like to drop
DSLExtreme’s service, and would do so at the first opportunity, either when my contract was up or now, if I could. Her voice soaked in the weariness occasioned by dealing with the unreasonable, she asked me if, first, I would
explain the situation to her, as she was wholly innocent of the details. This surprised me, given that there had been such a long delay before she picked up, and the whole story was present in the trouble ticket and correspondence that should have been before her. Still, hope springs eternal: I again set out the story for yet another CSR. Surprisingly, she disclosed that DSLExtreme did not price match! I told her what I had heard, and how long I had waited for some competent response from customer support, and how to date nobody had even been prepared to lie to me and say that the advertising had been reviewed by some troll in a basement in fulfillment of my request.

She and I were not destined to get along. She held strong to her view that my proper role was to accept their pronouncements and be silent, and I nattered on about my lack of satisfaction with their indifference to my complaints. I told her I wanted a price match, or to be let out of my contract with DSLExtreme, and she told me that I would get nothing and have to like it.

Stymied, I told her that I would tell others, despite the fact that there is not a race to quality among ISP customer support desks, that DSLExtreme had terrible customer support, and that they were not good people. Somehow she
did not break down at that threat. I further asked her for a corporate address to which to send a physical letter of complaint. She repeatedly gave me the e-mail address for the customer support managers, and, when pressed,
finally gave me an actual mailing address for the “general managers” at DSLExtreme.

So, shorn of redress, I have now turned to the Consumerist, hoping my bitterness will be dissipated by clever comments in response to this post. I also hope that some potential subscribers to DSLExtreme’s service who value
courteous and prompt customer service over DSL connectivity that actually is quite good will pointedly reject their offers because of this news.

DSLExtreme, your customer support is shoddy, unfriendly, and worthy of scorn.”

Robert, we suggest you break out of the loop and file a complaint with your Better Business Bureau. Last time we checked, not honoring advertised prices is illegal.

UPDATE: Robert got another email. He writes:

“Well, I just now got _another_ we hope we solved your problem qustionnaire. NOte that I cannot reply to their e-mail with an e-mail. I must call them.

I was going to send them the link for the Consumerist post….

-rcb
—————————- Original Message —————————-

Subject: DSLExtreme Ticket Survey[#1256884-2336#]
From: noreply@dslextreme.com
Date: Sat, March 25, 2006 10:12 am
To: rcbutchko@dslextreme.com
————————————————————————–

Dear valued DSL Extreme Client:

A few days ago your customer support ticket with us was closed. This is
a courtesy email to make sure your issue has been resolved and to give
you the chance to rate our representative.

If your issue hasn’t been resolved please call the respective department
below to report that the issue was not resolved. Please do not respond to
this email or respond in the survey that the issue has not been resolved.

DSL Technical Support: (866) 491-7221
Dialup Technical Support: (877) 714-7549
Billing & Customer Service: (800) 774-3379

If the issue has been resolved please click on the link below to rate the
way it was handled. If you have additional questions please open a new
ticket. Questions asked in the survey will not be responded to.

To open a new ticket please go to:
https://secure.dslextreme.com/contact/email.asp

Click here to complete the survey:
https://secure.dslextreme.com/survey_wombat/survey.asp?surveyid=1001&staffid=288&ticketid=1256884&custid=130799

Ticket ID: 1256884
Ticket Date: 1/3/2006 12:43:00 PM
Completed by: chiamika.p
Customer: US Courts (#130799)

Thank you from everyone at DSLExtreme!”

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