Wednesday 21 May 2014

Wow, customer service...

I just got off of the phone with my cable provider as a very happy bunny. (How often do you hear that!)

Our cable recorder just died on us. First it turned off, then it wouldn't turn on. Even after being physically removed from the power for a couple of minutes.

OK, then 15 minutes...

Woot, it starts. But now my EGP has two entries for a lot of channels, and for those channels when I press the channel number it goes to one that says 'This channel doesn't exist any more - retune your decoder'

Fine.  Menu. Systems.  WTF - the option to rescan the channels has greyed itself out!!!

So I called the cable company as they provided the box and after a wait got someone on the phone.

I said who I was, gave my address and was told:

"I see that this account is in the name of your husband."

Ah, yes...  A couple of years ago when I tried to change my name and title here I was told that it could only be done in writing, and I hadn't got around to it...

"Er, no. It's in my name. It's a bit of a complicated story"
"OK, can you give me your date of birth then"
Sure
"OK, and that is *your* date of birth"
"Yes, like I said there is a story behind it"
"Well, do you just want me to change it to Mevrouw?" (Dutch for Ms, Miss or Mrs)
"Er, yes please!"
"Done"

Wow, I wasn't even expecting my decoder to be fixed - I certainly wasn't expecting someone to be able to fix my customer record.

Result.

Oh, and with a bit of a collaboration between him and me we got the decoder working again :p


6 comments:

  1. I forgot how impossible the Dutch language is! Briefly crossing a corner of it this summer, looks like a full time scrabble game.

    Great to see how more organisations are getting onside with the name changes we have to go through. Was it the children's programmes you were missing?

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    1. The more I speak it the easier it becomes :) Still there are just phrases that I cannot get my head around (let alone my tongue!)

      I was just surprised that they had changed from 'You have to do this in writing with a signature' to 'Do you want me to quickly change that for you?'

      I'm not sure that the Daily Show and Colbert Report count as children's programs :p

      Stace

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  2. A win-win. :D

    Now if only my company would take a cue from your cable company and get my name changed in their internal records. Half of them still refer to me by my boy name. Oddly enough, some folks there seem to think that I can change this myself - to which I reply that if I could, don't they think I would have done it the day I went full time - five months ago?!? lol

    Anyway, I am glad your cable provider is a full-service outfit, hon! :D

    Hugs,
    Cass

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    1. Most places were easy. All the banks wanted was a copy of my new passport.

      The UK wanted to see the original Deed Poll so I did that in person when visiting my parents.

      The cable company was the worst - there was no reason for needing paper, it was just bureaucracy. The best was my email provider - they simply said that they stored no gender information as it's not needed. As long as my initials hadn't changed there was nothing for them to update. Perfect!

      Stace

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