Road Runner Arrogance
Is TOO Big a possibility?
How big can a company get before they are too big for their customers? I have been a Road Runner customer for more years than I can remember. I am constantly bombarded with other on-line options, yet have remained loyal to “The Bird.”
When I went to my computer this morning (Saturday) to send my daily positive message to thousands of people who have opted in from my web site, the e-mail got stuck in my out box. I tested sending some more e-mail only to get an “Error” message, saying that I cannot send e-mail from this computer. I went to the on-line help desk and “chatted” for about 45 minutes with a woman who guided me through through the steps to completely reconfigure my e-mail. The result was the same error message, to which she said, “Sorry you have this problem.”
I then called to talk to someone on the phone. After listening to a recording for 30 minutes, the person who finally answered checked my account and told me that I need to call a different number and gave it to me. I called that number and got a recording saying that this department was open Monday thru Friday, 9 to 5 PM; nice hours! I’m open 24/7, this just doesn’t work for me. What to do???
February 7th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
THROW THE BUMS OUT!!!
February 7th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
There are far too many internet providers out there to tolerate such poor service. Revisit your options and make a change. Customer service rules these days more than ever before.
February 7th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Aloha Ron,
I can sign you up right now! =)
Thanks,
Sheila
February 9th, 2009 at 4:56 am
If they are that big Ron, would they miss you if you left them? Would they care? Would a manager call you and say anything? Do anything?
Will it be convenient for you to leave them? Or would you have to start again! Would it mean the same difference?
I have several examples here in S A where customer loyalty doesn’t really matter - must say with different products.
Several examples of financial services like banks, they don’t care much if you have been with them for 30 years or 1 month, its movement on your account and the account balance that counts.
A toothpaste manufacturer who just stopped producimg a favourite brand because the numbers were not adding up. If this was the case, why not offer an alternative? Or at least tell the consumer so that they could stock up before it left the shelves. Why bother! Sell out and stop.
A food maufacturer, dairy products who now puts long-life additives to a previously ‘clean’ 500gr butter pack.
A face and body cream manufacturer who fiddles with the recipe, adding water to bump up volume to keep prices down … product less effective.
I think its only the little person and small business (however that is defined) who really cares about the customer. Sometimes you will get a real Manager of a store branch (like a Walmart) or a Franchisee who does care. Good luck to him and you when you find them.
Maybe I am wrong?
Cheers
Lestie
Johannesburg S A
February 9th, 2009 at 9:21 am
When you talk to RR, please pass along my opinion that they are certainly entitled to shut down an email account that appears to be spamming - and more ISP’s should do so.
But - for them to suspect spam activity and to then shut down an email account, without any investigation or advance notification to their customer, is the height of arrogance and irresponsibility.
They have a greater responsibility to their customers and should investigate for a “false positive” which is exactly what your situation was. And in the case of my clients, what was always the case.
February 12th, 2009 at 9:11 am
They usually provide multiple warnings before shutting someone down. In this case they didn’t follow their own procedure.
February 13th, 2009 at 7:18 am
Elena, we haven’t met and I don’t know your credentials, however on this issue you are 100% incorrect.
On more than a dozen occasions RR provided NO WARNING before shutting down business email accounts for many of our clients. And, as Ron experienced, in each case we embarked on countless phone calls and were bounced from one department to another.
I’m pleased to report that we solved this issue by advising our clients to never use RR for incoming or outgoing mail services.
Since then . . . NO PROBLEMS . . . and we have very happy clients !
February 13th, 2009 at 7:49 am
This is pretty timely as I am (was) about to switch to RR. Great ads.
Hey Pete; what is it that you advise them to use? I understand that it’s them or Hawaiian Tel who is in bankruptcy; scary!
February 13th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
We think RR is ok as an ISP (Internet Service Provider) but not for email service (i.e., don’t have RR for your incoming or outgoing servers).
If you have a Website manager (I don’t like the term Webmaster) they can establish POP or SMTP email service using the servers of your hosting company.
After that, there are an abundance of options and at the top of the list we place Gmail (Google Mail); then Yahoo Mail, Hot Mail, etc.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Pete is 100% correct. I use RR but not their abysmal mail services. The reason initially was that using my acct remotely was a joke that got ugly when trying to figure out how to access mail on the road. All the issues discussed here are icing on the coffin so to speak. In my repeated calls to tech support, it is apparant that time warner has told them to “disconnect” on any complicated issues with their email services. I would like nothing better than to switch my service altogether but i know of no one offering faster or better service yet. I basically loath Time Warner emphatically, they are too big and arrogant and not in touch. I was thinking of going with someone with a laptop broadband service such as sprint at $40/month just to get away from time warner. Anyone use sprint mobile broadband?
February 19th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Aloha John,
I appreciate your involvement here. I have three things to comment on;
1. I finally found someone at Road Runner who was willing to take the time to understand my problem, and better yet, to fix it. I am accustomed to superior service from Time Warner when I have TV issues. I was expecting the same here and eventually did.
2. In light of this experience I remain a bit leary and have begun using my own outgoing mail server as the default one, and switching to that as often as I think about it when replying to mail sent to RR.
3. I do have a Sprint Broadband Card and have for many years. I use it exclusively when traveling. It is ALMOST as fast as RR now (after numerous updates) and has been virtually faultless. I have been able to get on line anywhere on the mainland, even Puerto Rico, and everywhere in Hawaii except Poipu on Kauai.