My internet connection broke this weekend. I called Qwest customer service and was connected to a customer service representative in the Philippines. He was very nice, cordial, and really wanted to help. But, a few things were broken in the communication:
- It is fine to source offshore services to places like the Philippines, India, and elsewhere. But, please learn how to speak English. I tried to speak proper, non-slang English to help the customer service representative, but the customer services representative still had a difficult time understanding.
- Learn to read the call notes. Doing this will help the customer feel like they are listened to and that there’s context in the conversation. Otherwise, the customer will feel frustrated, having to re-explain the wheel.
- Memorize Office or Service Hours. The customer service representative scheduled a service technician to visit us during hours when the dispatch was closed. Not good, but nice effort.
All in all, it wasn’t a bad service and now our internet connection is fine. Doing the above items will help to put your offshore strategy on the right track: Learn English, Memorize office hours, and Read call notes. That’s a good start.
But even more though, if Qwest wants to go the extra mile, is to relax its policies and allow the customer service reps to help in ways that actually add value to the customer. I know that relaxing its customer service policies is not easy, but often it is those policies that cause so much distrust and are at the root of terrible customer service.
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james says
Interesting comment on #1. NPR just did a story about outsourcing to the Philippines. There is a drive to move some of the customer service work to their from India. The idea is that they (Filipinos’) picp up on American slang easier than folks from other countries. That seems to be the exact opposite experience of what you had.
The article did say that the high end customers will continue to be serviced from the USA though.
Julie says
I am a current customer of qwest and needed the internet and I called in, on the January 11th and was told that I would be recieving it by Friday, January 19th. That was a little long but ok. Then now it is January 24th and still no internet!! NO SURPRISE!!! Three people, in the cs dept, have promised me internet today, then I get a call and it should be tomorrow. This is a total let down. There customer service to exsisting customers is the worst I have seen. I live in a small town and they are the only carrier in our town or I would’ve switched a long time ago.
Jeff Bunney says
Wow. I’m going through this right now. I found this site while searching for Qwest’s customer service e-mail address. It’s 7 p.m. and those dogs were to be here sometime between 1 and 5 p.m. to do some work w/my phone line and DSL. I’ve got the reference number and all that…and no phone call to let me know they’re late/not showing up/etc.
I’m furious.
I thought I’d share.
Jeff
Dayton, WA
Lara says
I spoke to John #2KT and also to his supervisor, also John, but #87G. I spent an hour trying to articulate a simple problem, without success. Since I couldn’t get any logical advice, I asked for a customer service e-mail address. Unfortunately, they don’t provide this option. Qwest live chat service is down, the option to e-mail a person is not available, and their automatic canned response customer service tool is inadequate. I was told they would send me a survey to my e-mail address and the failed to do this.
ARRRGGGGHHHHH!
Lara
bb says
Qwest is the WORST!
Hollie says
Our business has been down now for 3 EFFEN DAYS and our DSL has been shut off by Qwest mistake the entire time….we are losing thousands of dollars per day…and they keep telling us they will be out and have not shown yet! We have called almost on the hour every hour. I do intend to file a lawsuit once this is taken care of AND of course I am looking for another provider.
QWEST IS THE WORST. I ditched them 5 years ago…I should have learned then!
greg says
If there is a choice go with anybody but Qwest!!! To make long story short it is taking Qwest 30 days now to correct the mess they created by their negligence. We are a business that sells products online; we now have been stuck with only 1 phone line working, 220kbps internet speed instead of full DSL and non-functioning 1800 number. On average we spend 1-3 hours a day calling Qwest trying to resolve issues. Seems like they do not understand and do not even care about the fact that the business has no way of communicating to their customers. So far we talked to over 30 people at Qwest and the funniest thing is they called us back to take a survey, as you can imagine everything was negative, so customer support rep called back to find out what they can do to fix the problems, assured that he will call back to let us know when the services will be back up and we’ve never heard back from him since then. Another very common trick that Qwest customer service does is this, if they can’t resolve your problem right away they either accidently hang up the phone or put you on indefinite hold (up to 30 mins and longer at a time). So, if their service works it may be ok, but if you add or change something then GOOD LUCK!
Luke says
qwest is awesome i dont know what you guys are talking about
Larry says
I just had a bad experience with Qwest Customer Service today and posted the details here. Both representatives told me that they could do nothing to address my concerns, when, in fact, it turns out they could. 40 minutes wasted on the phone.
Linda says
I’ve had horrible experiences with Qwest tech support, trying to get service for my Macs. The language barriers are huge, and I’ve ended up solving my problems myself. I recently lost access to my msn premium account and contacted Qwest. After hours speaking to many people, I was told Macs could no longer use msn premium services. After I complained, a man in the “dsl loyalty department” offered higher speed dsl services at the lower lifetime price I’d been paying. I questioned him repeatedly and was assured the offer was genuine.
Of course, the bill showed over a 50% increase in my dsl bill. After hours talking to several different people, I was told the first loyalty man had lied, I was lying, I was stupid, and I was crazy. The men I spoke to would not answer my questions, and the last man refused to let me speak to his supervisor, saying he didn’t know who his boss was. (Some of us should be so lucky!) After years as a Qwest customer, I plan to find other service and to let the world know what a ripoff, disrespectful company they are. I urge you to do the same.
Clarpea says
I’ve just had a horrible experience with Qwest customer service. Like another commenter, we agreed to a 2 year plan after our price shot up when the “promotion” ran out. We quit 6 months early because another service provider offered faster internet at a lower cost. The first customer service reps were nice enough, but couldn’t do a thing for me. The manager I spoke with was outright aggressive. Over the years I’ve given qwest roughly $8000 and the way they thank me is a $200 penalty. They kept telling me how much money I had saved by signing up for their program. This is BS; like when you buy expired food at the dented can store & they tell you how much you’ve saved (compared to non-expired costs). What a load. I think their contracts are unethical & will never use qwest again. Competition is central to capitalism. If another company offers superior services at a lower rate, consumers should have the right to choose that company. Another note: qwest does not give customers any sort of customer service reference # when they call with a concern. The customer is totally powerless. And the man on the phone had the audacity to end the call by telling me that qwest is known for its excellent customer service.
Bertrand Russell says
I just got off the phone with Qwest about the billing, apparently last month we agreed on a price of 29.99 for internet service. When the bill arrived the price was double then what was agreed upon. They acknowledged the mistake that they quoted the one price for the first year but WILL NOT honor it. In other words, they knew what they were doing when they quoted me the cost. That is very unethical. Where’s the attorney general in all this? I’m planning on FIRING QWEST today!
Funny about Money says
During my saga with Qworst, I called the state corporation commission, which supposedly regulates utility providers. A person there called me back and informed me that there is NO REGULATION at any level of government over DSL services.
So…it’s open season on customers.
Wade says
We would have fired Qworst long ago if we had another option in the area we are in. They by far have the worst customer service that I have experienced in nearly 14 years in the corporate world. Name it; misquoting pricing to get you on board and then billing more than quoted price claiming that you have to stay with them to avoid a contract penalties. We cancelled a phone line and they accidently cancelled our entire DSL service costing us 3 business days of revenues. Then they billed us for the reconnect. We’ve had to set up auto billing 3 seperate times because they couldn’t get it right in their database. When we initially set the account up they were a no show the first two appointment times….it took 3 times and a week and a half later to get service. They call you on a constant basis to try to sell you more service so be prepared for regular sales calls……..this is just the tip of the iceberg!!!!! Stay Far away!!!
zxzMaezxz says
“Another note: qwest does not give customers any sort of customer service reference # when they call with a concern.” Every Qwest customer service agent has an Employee ID number that you can request. Each rep. also has an e-mail and a manager. You can request to have a manager call you back this can take 2 to 48 business hours. As for the price for life agreement its like any other two year contract, you agree to the two years and it gives you a monthly discount off the Broadband *depending on what speed you have*. You only get the 26.99 if you have a home phone package.
Funny about Money says
Two months after I posted my first comment here, I’m FINALLY almost quit of the hateful Qwest. The rep at headquarters who was assigned to my case called this afternoon to say she had rescinded another $99 worth of overcharges. And I managed to cancel the cell phone contract by pointing out to Qwest’s CEO that the $240 I apparently was overcharged during the two years I allegedly did not get the bundle I bought should more than cover any cancellation fee. What a horror show.
Here’s how to get a rise out of Qwest (don’t bother with customer service: it exists to give you a runaround, to wrangle you into services you neither want nor need, and to rip you off):
1. Write a clear, concise letter detailing your complaint to this person:
Edward A. Mueller
Chairman and CEO
Qwest Corporation
1801 California Street
Denver, Colorado 80202
Ed.Mueller@qwest.com
2. Send a copy to your state corporation commission or public utility commission.
Be sure to add a line at the bottom of your letter to Mr. Mueller saying
cc: [name of your state regulatory agency]
Lencho Samsa says
If you are in New Mexico, Qwest is regulated by the Public Regulation Commission. Send your complaints to:
NM PRC
P.E.R.A. Building
1120 Paseo De Peralta
Santa Fe, NM 87501
Their lobbyist says they have lost 5,000 customers in this state in the last month alone. He says it’s because they are over regulated. I think they’re just going out of business because they are absolutely incompetent at customer service.
Brian says
I have not had any problems with Qwest. I tried many other companies, such as CBeyond, Comcast and Vonage. They were hrrible. QWest made the transistion wonderful and I have never had an outage like I did with the other companies.
Ben says
After dealing with slow internet which would completely refuse to connect to certain sites for the better part of the past few months I made multiple calls to technical support. In the first set of phone calls the technical support representative promised a tech would deliver a replacement modem the next day. However the modem was shipped UPS who took 2 days to deliver it. This was the 3rd tech after the first 2 claimed there was nothing wrong as they could connect to the modem one of whom hung up on the phone call. I was also promised 2 months refund for the service outage + the extreme hassle of your tech support NOT LISTENING to what they were told. Unfortunately it seems that many of your tech support agents do not understand the difference between WAN IP and LAN IP. To cover this they provide completely incorrect information such as YOUR IP ADDRESS NEVER CHANGES. This is quite the contrary to the whole reason for the existence of DHCP.
After installing the modem, 6 days later my IP address changed again. Once again I lost access to several important sites such as Macys.weddingchannel.com, update.microsoft.com, expedia.com and even walmart.com. Upon calling technical support again and got hung up on once most likely because my problem wasn’t in your 1..2¦3 how to configure email guide that your tech support seems to have to run through instead of listening to the customer. Then on the second call I got someone who was able to temporarily solve the issue(Deauthenticate the modem from Quest, and reauthenticate resulting in a new WAN IP) this however took 48minutes and 51 seconds not including the 12minute 21 second first call.
Ben says
When this tech was confronted that I had not received notification about the previously promised refund I was told that the other tech lied. I was told that it was the prerogative of any tech support agent to lie to the customer to get them off the phone.
Upon farther investigation I found that you have been overcharging me since July of this year by not readjusting the price when you could not provide the promised 12mbps after moving. You have been charging me 39.99/month when you offer the transfer rate I have for only 14.99. This is an overcharge of 175$.
jason says
The Qwest customer service is maddening I moved a few miles to a new (for me) house Qwest promise & confirmed my DSL would be up and running at the new place, and all I had to do was plug in my modem & I would be good to go ¦ well that was 5 weeks ago. I called customer service and started a trouble ticket which any time you call back they must not ever reference went through all of the rigermoral of cycling the power etc. etc. etc. every time getting the exact same response from the modem it was connected to the Qwest high speed network, it just wouldn’t let me sign on and access the internet. At the end of each hour long session on the phone the technician would tell me he had figured out the problem & that he would get it fixed, and call me the next day at no time did I ever receive a call back. Eventually they decided to send me a new modem, which was insane, the modem always connected to the WAN just fine, and the new modem connected, so I spent another hour on the phone with overseas customer support cycling to power, checking the settings on my computer, and of course still no internet. To their credit they didn’t try and charge me for internet service for the month of December. I know this though; if my internet isn’t working by midweek, I’ll just choose another provider & Qwest can kiss my backside. So, if anyone is looking for broadband, don’t choose Qwest
H Gordon says
i ordered directtv and an very dissatisfied with the service, as i don’t recieve local channels and was told that i would recieve local channels by the qwest sales person!!!!! i was informed by the installer after the dish was hanging on the siding and i had removed the cable equipment. this reminded me why i dumped qwest some years back, and will do so again when this directtv contracts is up. your salesman that you chose to represent your company is inproperly trained, or is a lier!!!!! I HATE YOUR TV SERVICE IF IT CAN BE CALL A SERVICE. i have not had any problems with your phone service, but i am sure that is coming soon!!!!!
Rogelio #6mc says
ustedes estan equivocados… yo era soporte tecnico de qwest. yo lo atendia austedes y muchos agentes damos el soporte adecuado. hay muchos clintes que salen satisfechos, el problema es cuando ustedes llaman enojados y la cogen con el que agarra el telefono, nosotros no somos los que le cortan el internet, telefono, etc… simplemente estamos para ayudarlos y ustedes nos gritan… es justo?
Victor Deutchman says
QWEST is absolutely positively the worst internet service provider on the face of the earth. Every morning I lose internet connectivity, and on those occasions when I was stupid enough to waste time talking to their Fillipinos for tech support, wasting as much as 90 minutes, I heard explanations as wide ranging as “your satellite dish is the problem” (I had disconnected it) to “you need to change all your DSL filters (I did twice). They are totally clueless. Even the more “local” people don’t even know if they are doing construction/repair work in your area. Unfortunately, where I live they are the only game in town. I wish I knew what I could do, but if I help even one person avoid QWEST who has a choice I feel better. By the way, I always get a good laugh from the obviously ringer-placed “yay QWEST” comments. Keep them coming.
b says
qwest i would say is one of the best isp in the face of the universe…the service both customer and technical is just promising…kudos to all qwest tech support
b says
i juts talked to a filipino tech support from the philippines and he’s great he was able to resolved my problem right away
Jazzwoman53 says
Don’t EVER forget that Qwest donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to both the Bush/Cheney campaign and the McCain/Palin campaign. But they cannot infuse enough working capital into their own product to ensure that it works and provides the service promised.
Katrina says
I ordered Qwest, and when the box came to my apartment, the installation guy told me the phone jack was broken. He left, and I called Customer Service and they said it would be an extra $90 to fix. Living paycheck to paycheck, my bank account doesn’t allow an extra $90 spendature. I then cancelled five days later. I checked my service agreement and it stated in black and white that if I cancel within the first 30 days, I will not be charged anything.
A month later, I got a bill for $15. I called them and they told me don’t pay it because it will disappear once the cancellation runs through the system. A month later, I got a bill for $50. I called customer service, and they told me I would have to pay it because I had installed it and used the internet service. I disputed with them that I had not used it because my phone jack was broken. I asked to speak with a supervisor, but the lady told me she was the only one around. I left a message for the “man in charge” but have still got nothing back. Just furious with this company!
Greg says
Keep in mind that for every complaint against Qwest here, there is probably at least 100 very satisfied customers. I have had Qwest internet and phone service for many years now, and love not only their superior services, but also their prices and promotions that blow the doors off of any competition out there. Qwest also has won several awards for excellent customer service and has partnered with both Directv and with Verizon cell phones. Would they really be winning so many customer excellence awards if their services and customer support were as horrid as the above customers proclaim?
For EVERY company out there, you can find negative remarks about how horrible they are using google. Very few people log on to tell us all how great a company is, but if any customer every feels that the company does not agree that the customer is 100% right, then you bet your sweet azz that you’ll hear about how bad they were treated. I bet that half the time the customers complain, it is their OWN fault for simply not listening the the sales people when they read the disclosures and forgetting things like “Once your 12 month promotion is up, you’ll see an increase of $15 per month in your bill”. People hear all that and just forget it all and then complain 12 months later about how Qwest “lied and ripped them off for $15 per month more then what they promised”.
There’s two sides to every story, and like I say, for every complaint against Qwest here, I bet there is many, many dozens of happy Qwest customers out there.
Blondy says
Wow! Somebody works for the Qwest public affairs office. Greg, enjoy your little bonus for writing your schlock. Oh hell, what was I thinking? Greg doesn’t really exist.
Koh says
So let me get this straight this forum is filled with people who accepted a 2 year contract then acted offended when they were charged a termination fee for cancelling early? Try that with your cell phone company or sattelite provider. Hell try that with comcast’s triple play. You get a service pay for it and stop crying about it.
Wolf says
Hrm… maybe I just dodged a bullet.
After patiently waiting all day for installation service I scheduled weeks ago, having a technician come out in a marked Qwest truck and dink around the network box only to leave without telling me, being on the phone with a script monkey for an hour before I could escalate the call only to be told what I already told them – I was not getting a DSL signal and that’s why I was on the phone – Qwest still failed to manage to produce anything resembling a DSL signal. I was only told that the order was “completed” and that my DSL modem was broken (when it worked wonderfully just a few days before in my last home with another carrier) and, oh, did I have the number of the technician who came out? WTF? Why would I have his number?
I told them to cancel the service; I am lucky enough to have another broadband option in my neighborhood. Hopefully I don’t end up like another poster on here who is being charged for services not rendered…
Gary H. says
Hands down the worst customer service is Qwest Communications. People who run this company are not even people that have any practical experience in the telephone service business. What a shame that so many people have to put up with crap for service because of a company run by a buch of greedy executives looking for a big payday and then out to the gated commune for a round of 18. Greed rules America!
Nick says
i called qwest yesterday about my dsl problem. i got a representative from philippines, very polite and well conversed, surpisingly he sounded almost like an american. i must say philippine representatives are better than indians.
phoenix, az
John T. says
I have had Qwest for more than a year now and I can honestly say that Qwest is the worst internet provider I have ever had. I own a Internet Cafe in the Philippines (third world country) and the internet provider I have there is a thousand times more reliable than Qwest. I have called Qwest a million times, each time they take me through the same steps, reboot my computer, reboot my modem then the lady says “sorry sir but we show you have perfect internet, is there anything else I can do for you?”, five minutes later I loose internet connection. I have grown tired of calling Qwest since its the same thing over and over again. I would suggest not to get Qwest at all possibility, if there is another provider in your area.