Now for the long version:
I recently had to contact my friends local internet provider due to their automated pay system not functioning correctly. It seems from the email received, that the credit card 'refused payment' and so the first thing was to sign in and check if the credit card information was correct, since this is something you will have to do when you get issued a new credit card with expiry date and numbers.. it was correct so I then went and made a manual payment using that same credit card--and it worked! So off I went, figuring that was it.. however the next month the same thing happened and that is what forced me to start a chat with their tech support. While in the chat the had me waiting for some time, so while waiting I picked up the phone and contacted the credit card company and explained things to them. They assured me they did not 'refuse payment' and in fact stated if they had flagged this payee that the manual payment would also not have gone through. I then explained this to the internet company chat when they came back on (yes, I was able to complete my conversation with the credit card company before they got back to me).. they assured me it was NOT their problem and that this account was now on a cash pay only due to it not going through two months in a row... I asked to first stop the auto-pay because it isn't a problem with the credit card and I obviously don't want them to continue trying if it is not going to work. (the other issue was that the second time they tried using it they were also trying to cover the month prior as well, even though I had made a manual payment in full which their auto system had not recognized due to the fact it had gone through after the statement had been sent out). In any case 55 minutes in the chat, they told me I would have to contact their accounts department if I wanted to be 'hooked up to pay online again' due to the failed payments (even though it was not the credit card companies fault). Quite pissed at this point I ended the chat and called their tech support, went through the BS number clicking (press 0 by the way if you want to eliminate everything and get to a human being--I already knew this but still it takes some time).. after getting through to the human in accounts I first explained my 55 'lost minutes' due to the incompetence of the person I was in chat with and of course they apologized for that person and went on to help me. The very first thing this Customer Service Rep (CSR) told me was "oh yes, I read in my email this morning that the online system was having troubles with the pay option and they were working on it".. I not only removed the auto-epay but made the payment for that month using that same credit card that was apparently refusing payment and all was well.
That was one internet company.. now I had to deal with my own internet company and so I thought I would first try their chat... It took about 4 minutes to get connected but once I was connected I was able to not only ask the questions I had but placed my new order and will have my new modem mailed to me by the time I arrive home.. the entire chat was less than 5 minutes. Awesome!
So as I stated in the summary above, it isn't necessarily the technology you are using to get to the end result quickly will only be determined by the knowledge of the person you are dealing with at the other end. The reason I typically choose to email or chat with these companies is because when you put something down in writing, if the person reading it is unsure they have the ability to research before responding whereas when you talk to someone in person, they are quite often put on the spot and you will end up hearing that response, "I will have to transfer you to someone else that can help you with that". Don't get me wrong, I love human beings but I just can't stand ignorance and lack of the use of common sense.
Ok some people may ask well, which were the companies? The internet service provider with the bad chat tech support was Suddenlink and the internet service provider with the great chat support was Shaw.
