Waiting for the Cable (or Telco) Guy
Twiddling one’s thumbs while waiting for the cable guy has become a trope of modern life.
But no joke — it’s a pretty big hassle. According to a new survey, 49% of American consumers waited for a cable technician or some other service professional in their homes in the first half of 2009 — and 32% took a vacation day or sick day to do so.
The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, polled 2,261 adults online in June 2009. It was commissioned by TOA Technologies, which sells workforce-management software services. A copy of the survey findings is available here.
About 37% of those surveyed think long wait times occur because companies “take advantage of the consumer,” while 18% said they refused or cancelled a product or service because the service or delivery person was late or didn’t show up at the promised time.
Other findings:
* More households with incomes greater than $75,000 (28%) waited for cable service than the national average (23%)
* Men waited for a cable technician more than women (27% vs. 20%)
* Of consumers 55 and older, 97% said they wanted improvements in service vs. 84% of people 18-34
* 14% of single people waited for cable and 9% for Internet vs. 29% and 21% respectively for households of five or more people
Former Cable Guy commented:
I have to agree with the gist of the comments offered by "cust commented", however that doesn't prevent Comcast and other MSO's demanding that a certain number of jobs are completed within 3 specific time slots throughout the day regardless of what the tech may find at the home while, at the same time, offering a 'guarantee' of the tech's arrival within the particular time slot! It's pure insanity masquerading as customer service. But with regard to the comment on the customer being'clueless' about his wiring layout - well, this is understandable because why should he or she have pinpoint knowledge of the wiring layout of the home? Especially since it's usually located in the most inaccessible parts of the home: namely the attic or crawl space below. There's a subtle tension in this comment which is that, somehow, the customer is responsible for the technician's woes in installation work. Supervisors of install companies love to encourage this attitude since it helps to keep the tech's focus off the low pay and long hours involved in install work.
cust commented:
I love how people act like the technician is intentionally late as if they're waiting in a parking lot between installs or if their installation is the only installation the technician has that day. The thing is you CAN'T get a specific time as every install is different. A given tech has a number of installs to do a day, and the time each isntall takes can vary between several hours that involves a complete rewiring of the house due to ancient and/or nonexistant wiring, or a simple install where the correct wiring is alread layed out. And since in most cases the customer is usually clueless as to their current situation, the technician doesn't know what they're walking into until they actually get to the customer's home and survey the site. All the technician knows ahead of time is how many TVs the customer wants hooked up.
