communication

so my dad asked me to report this leaning electrical post to the utility company.  i went online and tried to do so through the Contact Us form in the company's website.

uh-oh!  i kept on getting the following message:

"Error sending feedback. please try again"

i therefore just called their hotline.

so the agent logged the leaning pole concern and gave me a reference number.

thanks.

i then proceeded to tell her about the error i encountered using their online form.  i requested her to log it as well and give me another reference number.

waahhh!  suddenly the conversation turned crazy.

sample:

agent:  'if the website is down, ma'am...'

me:  'huh?!  i never said the website is down...'

agent:  'if you are unable to register, ma'am...'

me:  'huh?!  i'm not trying to register!'

i was thinking the agent might have gotten lost in the call flow so i went, 'okay.  we're done with the first concern, right?  you've given me a reference number.  pretend this is a new call, let's go through your script.  so first you're going to tell me 'good afternoon' and then you're going to ask about my concern.  let's go through that.'

wahehe...  the agent would not and kept on telling me she will just coordinate my concern and she won't be able to give me a reference number.

i said i was fine without a reference number as long as the issue is logged so it could be looked into by the appropriate office.

the agent just kept on repeating she'll just coordinate as they don't log such issues.

me:  'don't you have 'Others'?'

the reply was a vague no, it depends, blah-blah-blah.

ugh!  their online form is right in front of me and there are 'Others' and 'Website Design and Content' in the list of valid values for 'Concern.'  how come a live human agent could not log such concern?  are they compartmentalized?

i was afraid other customers might encounter the same error so i wanted it logged so it will at least be on queue for enhancement or fixes.

i asked for escalation to a supervisor.

guess what, the conversation went smoothly and the supervisor even gave me a reference number.

whew!  sometimes you really have to move on to someone else.