TekSavvy and me versus Telus

[haggholm]

So, I moved to a new apartment last Friday, July 16, across a staggering distance of three blocks. Naturally, I want my DSL service to move with me, and I’m a big fan of TekSavvy. However, dealing with TekSavvy qua third-tier ISP does have the disadvantage of involving one of the big telcos (Telus in BC, Bell in Québec, …). Past experiences have not been pleasant.

In brief, Telus owns the physical lines and switches. TekSavvy are responsible for my internet service, but Telus is responsible for setting up a connection so that my DSL modem can physically communicate with their gateway and DNS servers. Thus, whenever I ask TekSavvy to do anything that involves such low-level services (e.g. turning service off at one address, or turning it on somewhere), they can’t do it themselves—they have to place a work order with Telus.

I contacted TekSavvy fairly close to the move, as a lot was happening pretty quickly, and I was prepared to be cited a date rather late in the month. I was pleasantly surprised when the rep told me that they could probably have it activated as early as the 16th! —This was not to be, of course.

A few days later, they got back to me…and here was my first-ever poor experience with TekSavvy support. The email I received didn’t say what was wrong, but only that there was a problem with my DSL order and I had to call them. I did, and the woman I spoke to was, to put it mildly, not up to the very high standards I am used to with TekSavvy support. She had no idea what was going on, and started off by asking for all my address details (which they already had down correctly), then (after putting me on hold) told me that apparently DSL was not available at my new address. I wanted to know what was going on, and said so, and after many hesitations and stammerings and ultimately being put on hold thrice, it turned out that all that was really wrong was that Telus had moved my activation date to Tuesday, July 20. Oh well: This was to be expected; the 16th always did sound too good to be true. But I should have been told that right away in the email, or at least straightaway on the phone—rather than being on the phone for half an hour, on hold thrice, and on the verge of cancelling my service! (Remember, she told me that it was not available at my new address. I came dangerously close to switching to another ISP.)

Come the 20th, I get home after three hours of jiu-jitsu and sit down to check the status of my internet connection, which turns out to be none at all; I have no access and my modem finds nary a trace of any DSL access. I sigh and call TekSavvy again. There’s a bit of a wait, but when I finally do get to talk to someone it’s more what I’m used to with TekSavvy—a friendly, confident and (yes) tech savvy guy who knows what’s going on and can talk to me with a sense of humour and an attitude as though I, a customer, am smart enough to actually communicate with.

It turns out that Telus has in fact changed the activation date again. This time (heaven knows why) they opted to call me directly rather than have TekSavvy do so. This was unfortunate. The note on my account said that Telus tried to call me, but it seemed as though my phone was off and they were (it seems) unable to leave so much as a voice mail. (My phone was not off. My phone is never turned off.) Having thus tried once and miraculously failed to contact me in any way whatsoever, Telus did the reasonable thing and ignored the situation, thus leaving me unaware that they had rescheduled my activation.

I am of course sort of puzzled that this activation is such a big deal—why is this not a nigh-automatic process? They have all my account details in their systems; a computer should surely be able to do this work for them. I am also somewhat surprised that Telus were unable to contact me. They provide my mobile service. When my phone company are unable to figure out how to reach me by phone, I am mildly troubled.

Here’s hoping that they actually turn the damned thing on tomorrow.