Email, Suddenlink and Customer Service

My Internet Service Provider (ISP) is Suddenlink http://home.suddenlink.net/, which changed from Cox Cable about 5 or 6 years ago.  Except for the increasing prices, I have generally been more pleased with Suddenlink than Cox, with whom I had had running battles for years. 

With Cox, I battled misleading advertising, poor service, rude customer service and  untimely service.  Suddenlink has done better. But not by much.

Most of the time my internet and cable TV service has been pretty good. I have learned to refresh the TV cable boxes and the internet connection modem and routers without having to contact Suddenlink.

Generally, when I have a problem, customer service is pleasant. When I had to have someone come to my home, that person was nice. The last time that happened, the technician told me my modem was outdated. I wrote to Suddenlink, and told them I could have had restored service sooner, if their online staff could have told me the same thing. They were very nice. That was a while back.

At the end of November 2012, Suddenlink had a serious problem with it's email platform.   I realized this because not only could I not access email on my computer, I could not access email from their website. Suddenlink acknowledged the problems with their email platform. It took a couple of weeks to resolve, but it was resolved.  My main email account was less affected than a secondary account I have. (I have a third account that I no longer use at all.) 

Since Suddenlink acknowledged this problem, they gave credit to my account (and I assume, the account of others) for the problem.

However, since then, I have had intermittent problems with my secondary account.  A few weeks ago,  I could not access my secondary account because the password was rejected. It was a night when I really needed to use the account.  I called Suddenlink  for technical assistance, and talked to a very nice technician. We reviewed the connections, and she decided that the problem needed to be referred to an engineer.  She said it might be 2-3 days to correct, and if was not corrected, to call again. The next night, the secondary email account was working.

Friday 2-1-13, I experienced the same problem.  I called it in to Suddenlink and after reviewing my connections, the technician said the server was down, and connectivity should be restored after a few hours.  (I told the technician of my previous problem, and how it had been resolved by referral to an engineer. He said in this case, since the server was down, there was no need. He acnowledged that if the problem did not resolve in a couple of hours, I needed to call back and have the problem referred to an engineer, and he would note that on my account.)

It was late, I was tired, and went to bed.   Saturday 2-2-13, the secondary account still did not work. 

I called in agan for help. The technician I talked to did not want to hear about the history of my problem. More than once, after giving me instructions, he said the problem was fixed when it was not. At one point, he told me it was a Microsoft problem, but I refused to accept that answer.  When he realized the account was suspended, he told me to run my anti-virus and call back. He totally refused to accept that the problem should be referred to a supervisor or engineer. 

I did run the anitvirus. To no avail. When I called back to Suddenlink,  I told the technician the entire history of my problem, including the fact that I was so upset with the attitude of the prior technician that I was ready to leave Suddenlink.  I insisted that this technician listen to every prior report of  my problem and my story. When we went through the technical problems, and she realized that I had run the anit-virus and was still having problems of having my email account suspended, she immediately said she would refer it to a supervisor. She told me it would take 20-30 minutes, gave me her name and extension.  She said she would call me if they needed to talk to me about something else. She said I could call and ask for her extension, if I needed to talk about something else.

About 30 minutes later, the email program started to work approriately. I waited an hour and did not hear from the technician. I called and asked for her, but was told she was away from her desk. I told the technician I was talking to that she did not need to call back, but could he tell her I was calling to thank her.

I also sent a complaint to Suddenlink.  They agreed that my Saturday morning experience was inappropriate and would be addressed.  I hope they give kudos to the technician who helped me, but that was not part of the email I recieved.