Note to Telus: Try being a better carrier and leave software to people that can do it

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We lost the internet at our home yesterday. The usual reboot, check connections, etc. didn't give any satisfaction. I went to a coffee shop and tried perusing through telus's online site. They have an "eCare" app that I thought might be interesting.

It crashed twice during the download. So I gave up. Later on, I tried running it at home. It crashed. Now it starts up automatically, and when I close it I get a VBRun error.

They clearly can't write client software and should stay away.

I called up tech support to ask about getting the internet back. They traced the problem to an intermittent power supply problem and one of their wire stations. This had been going on since Sunday. There was no expected time of fix. I got a trouble ticket #.

I asked if I can check the status of the ticket online. No. Can I check the status of the outage online. No. Can they call me when the outage is over. No. Could they do an automatic call when the outage is over. No. Can they email me when the outage is over. No. Can they email me when the ticket changes status. No.

I know that I wouldn't be able to check email/online from home until the problem is fixed, but if I'm someplace that has network connectivity at least I could know if things have gotten better at home.

Telus, I see why you have great profits. BEA's helpdesk gives me emails and calls, and every other company that has products provides email/web connectivity to order swtatus. I think your helpdesk staff on actually solving problems are going to be cheaper than your helpdesk staff for the software to help solve problems. Maybe try using the "web" thing rather than a custom application with your own special installer to boot.

1 Comments

Great forum, and thank you.

When I arrived in Big Utensils, BC 4 years ago Telus ADSL was my only option. I was coming from 56K dial up. Yup, the software was terrible. Crashed repeatedly. I ended up needing to replace a two year old computer. Go figure. The phone line support was with guys in Quebec or Ontario. They could do little, and seemed to take umbrage at my mere mention of software issues,
"May I offer my apologize for your difficulties? Thank you for choosing Telus ".
Those distant reps gave me a 30 day wait time for a techie.

One of the great things about a small town is the interconnections. The Telus building is one stop sign away. All the guys could cram into one crew cab truck.
I got my installation that way, a great techie spent time in my newly bought house, on his computer and mine, left me a loaner modem, and it got solved. Oh yeah, he / we trashed the software.

My last phone call to Telus for support (overseas faxing) resulted a Manila call centre. We couldn't understand each other.
I'm just waiting for the $1.00 charge to come through on that.

Oh ohh. Did I just rant?

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This page contains a single entry by Dave Orchard published on March 9, 2007 10:28 AM.

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