Customer, Yes. Service, No.

I’ve always felt sorry for people who had to deal with customers all day long. I’m a people person, but I also know that dealing with some folks can be trying.

People can be mean and rude and short tempered and, well, just not very bright. Any one who watches any version of any reality show, from Cops on down the line to the whiny girls trying to get a man to the whiny college kids trying to live together in the same house to whatever the networks have come up with now know what I mean.

I try to be a good customer. I pay my bills on time, I’m polite when I need to call with a question or a problem, and I remember that the person answering the phone is not the cause of my problem. They are just the person having to answer the phone.

Trying to be a good customer has gotten real difficult lately. Me and my phone company are in a battle. I’ve called in reinforcements, but I shouldn’t have had to.

When we moved, we didn’t have a phone line to our house. Okay. We dealt with that by calling the company on May 18th. Their solution to the problem was to string a line from a phone box almost a mile away up to our house.

Three months later, the line still hasn’t been buried. It is laying across the road, across the neighbors’ driveways, over bushes and shrubs and fences. Every time a neighbor pulls into their drive or mows their yard or someone drives over the line just right, we lose our phone service.

We call an average of twice a week to report an outage. Each time, they fill out a repair ticket, and each time we explain the problem and they promise to get something done. Each time, not much happens.

It’s frustrating for us personally, but on a bigger scale too. I got my first bill four days after I moved in. The company has no problem sending me a bill, but has a real problem giving me service I am paying for.

If we as customers do our part they should do their part. Not just me, but every customer everywhere. They certainly want their money and will fuss and call and threaten if we don’t pay. Why don’t we have some sort of power if they don’t uphold their end of the bargain?

Thinking along those lines, I started doing some research, which led me to the Arkansas Public Service Commission. They oversee utilities in the state. I had a nice little chat with Connie on a Friday, and she promised to look into my problem. It would take three to five days, she said. Three hours later she called back and said the phone company had promised to have the line buried by the next Friday.

Wow. Now there’s customer service. At 10 a.m. on that Friday, Connie called me back. Was the line buried? Umm, no. Connie said she would take care of it. I didn't know what she was doing, but I felt better with her on my side.

I don’t feel better about my phone company. Three months should be plenty of time to take care of something in a timely manner, particularly since my payment for my bill is making it to them in a timely manner.

I’m their customer, and a new one at that. But their service? It certainly leaves something to be desired.