How Not to Deal with Cable Companies

I worked for two different cable companies for a combined amount of three and a half years. I worked customer service and took repair calls. The people who called to have their cable installed were almost always nice. The people who called to inquire about an outage were less nice but not too bad. The people who called to insult you and threaten your job...well, they were the fun ones. You see calling any customer service/repair hotline you can get a lot more done by being polite and smart. Here are a few tips to help you out.

Life Stories
You'd be amazed at how many people call the cable company up and tell them a long story of why they were late paying their bills. I'm going to be honest here; the rep taking your call doesn't care. She has a few hundred calls to answer after yours. All the rep wants to know is that you are going to pay your bill. Sometimes you can pay it over the phone, other times you have to bring the payment down to the office. But not one time does the rep care that your cat needed surgery and that's why you can't pay your bill. If you keep your stories short the wait time for getting calls answered will be much shorter.

The Tech has Gone Missing
You can call your cable company's customer service hotline to complain that the tech hasn't shown up to install or repair your cable. The rep understands why you are angry. She'll reassure you while you swear at her and threaten her job. The rep will even call dispatch to try and locate the technician. What she won't tell you is that the technician is probably lying under a tree somewhere eating lunch or smoking a fattie. The truth of the matter is that the repair techs waist a lot of time doing absolutely nothing. Sure there are a few good ones out there that work hard but they are few and far between.