Wednesday. Halfway point in my vacation.  Nothing exciting, really, just taking it easy.  I was going to go up north today, but that plan was yet hampered again by Centurylink and their apparent inability to diagnose a problem.  After a long and rather intense discussion with a manager yesterday, I was promised a high level tech and a supervisor to come out and find out what the problem is at 11:00 am.

I am not going to go into the details of that conversation, it would just take too long and it was such a crock of crap.  No-one in that company takes responsibility for anything,.  Such as the promise that I was going to have a 2cd tier tech come out yesterday morning, which did not happen.  I was just another tech who couldn't figure out what the problem was.

This manager yesterday could have cared less what was promised.  She just blew it off, but I kept bringing it up until she was forced to at least comment on a co-manager's statement that the problem would "finally" be taken care of.

Anyway, this guy calls me - Mike is his name - telling me he is here to fix the problem.  Great.  Are you a higher level tech?  I asked this time because no use wasting my time yet again with a person that isn't going to be able to figure out what's going on.  He doesn't answer the question.  He states again he is here to fix the problem. Great, I replied, are you a higher level technician?  Uhhh, just call me that, okay?  What kind of reply is that?  I asked him again: either you are or you aren't.  I have had numerous techs out here that couldn't fix the problem, you either are or aren't.

He then started in on this spiel asking me if he wanted to start a confrontation or did I want the service fixed. Wow.  Okay, let's see where this goes.  No, I asked you if you were a higher level tech, legitimate question especially with all the problems I've had here.  Well are you going to be contentious - yada yada yada.  How do you equate my asking you a simple question with being contentious?  The tone you answered the phone with (???) and the attitude you have with me now.

Attitude? I think the person that has the attitude here is you.  I have said nothing to you to start this kind of exchange, I asked you a legitimate, simple question.  Well, he replies, I heard you abusively treated a technician that came out here and started trouble on the phone with customer service, I am here to fix your problem, either you do or you don't.

Unbelievably appalling.  I have NEVER abused any technicians that have come out here save the person yesterday from Cox that changed their story 3 times and I finally got fed up with it.  I didn't get abusive, either, I just called him out on all 3 different version of his story and informed him in a very blunt manner that they were NOT going to be drilling a hole in the front of my house since there were legitimate, viable alternatives and that was that.  Those 2 individuals were from COX, not Century Link. I have never had a negative exchange with Century Link techs coming out here, I don't want to do that, it would serve no useful purpose.

I have gotten into it with Century Link managers because of their constant interrupting me and cutting me off in the middle of a sentence, a thing I don't take too well, especially from a company I am paying my hard-earned money to for their so-called "services".  Hey, Mike, what's your supervisor's phone number?  He started back-pedaling then, but it was too late. This guy is NOT coming onto my property.  If he can start such s*** on the phone, what on earth is going to happen when he comes into my house?!!

He hangs up on me, then calls me back 5 minutes later and gives me the number.  Okay? He states, as if he is going to end the call. Umm, no, Mike, actually, you can stay on the line while I call your supervisor.  I wanted Mike to here the entire phone call.  I called his supervisor and explained, verbatim, the exchange between Mike and I and then I hung up on Mike.  I explained to his supervisor that I would be happy to sit down with all 3 of us if Mike decided to offer a different story and I would happy to look Mike square in the eye while I give my recounting of what he said to me.  His supervisor  said no, let me deal with that, thanks.  Yes, I didn't expect him to take me up on the offer, just attempting to solidify my standing on the recounting of Mike's words to me on the phone.  Mike should have just answered my question and then he would have already been in here and hopefully done.

Instead, this supervisor and another allegedly experienced tech are coming out here to find the problem in about an hour from now.  I made a lot of phone calls before I finally was given an 800 number for a customer care center in Century Link.  I'm going to post it in it's own entry on here so as to have it handy.  I can always Google it, lol.  Umnm, posted it before posting this entry : )

As for Cox - well besides everything else yesterday, they left my yard in a shambles.  I mean, dumping river rock - must have been underground when they dug out the trench - on top of my landscaping rock.  It will take some time to pick, piece by piece, those rocks out of there and they did NOT install the line inside of conduit, as not only their own company's guidelines require, but also the city of Phoenix regulations.

I may address that situation, well I probably will after the altercation yesterday between those 2 "against" George and I.  I want to get this CenturyLink crap dealt with first.

I must be offa here.  Gotta go out and check some more things with the Cox setup.

ben