When doing some research I viewed Wide Range Broadband as the local little-guy internet provider compared to some of the other options in town. That's typically something I want to support rather than a larger corporation. Having experienced small-town life and businesses I was expecting the customer service to be leaps and bounds better than that of their larger competition. Since I'd never heard of WRB before doing my research I figured they'd do just about anything to earn my business, and although there were very few reviews of their company online they were all very positive.
Unfortunately, that is not the experience I had with them.
After submitting a form online for more information about the services they offer I got a quick response from someone there filling me in on their offerings, intallation charges, rates, etc. That was great, and the form was easy to find and fill out, easier than other places at least. They let me know when they do their installations, and Saturday's were an option. "That's great! I won't have to arrange to be away from work..." I said to myself. I said the upcomming Saturday would be great if they had an opening that day. This was on a Tuesday.
The response was that they couldn't that Saturday because the weather was going to be bad, so we scheduled it for the Saturday a week later instead.
Jump to the first Saturday where the weather was great all day, especially in the morning. It did turn a little bit cold and breezy in the afternoon, but no precipitation or anything.
Midway through the following week, the week of my appointment, they let me know that the weather on the upcomming Saturday was concerning and they my installation would need to be moved to a different day. We agreed that Friday afternoon would work for all involved.
On Friday afternoon I get a call from them 45 minutes after they were to have arrived to tell me the technician was running about an hour behind and should be there soon. About 75 additional minutes later they called to tell me that they would not be able to make it that day and wanted to reschedule again.
I asked about Saturday - the weather was going to be bad. (It turned out to be a little chilly, and snowed a quarter inch of snow in the afternoon. The morning was great weather-wise.)
I asked about Sunday & Monday - they give their technicians those days off.
Tuesday - the weather is going to be bad. (Turns out it wasn't great.)
Wednesday - there were some openings!
I asked if they would make it work at a time more convenient for myself, especially since I was already away from other responsibilities one afternoon when they weren't even able to show up at the promissed time.
Sorry, we don't do late afternoon installs because it gets dark so early at this time of year.
I hope it doesn't seem like I'm implying they should put their employees in dangerous situations. Bad weather or visibility due to darkness are nothing to mess around with, but I've also successfully used flashlights in situations where there hasn't been enough light to see as well as I've needed to. And if you're giving your technicians Saturday off because the weather is potentially going to be bad then do they also need Monday off?
Or, knowing that you have people that desire your service, when it turns out the weather isn't as bad as predicted, why not make a few phone calls to see if it would work to do the installation that day?
At that point I really gave them a chance to bend-over-backward to earn my patronage (and my monthly payments) but they weren't willing to do it. I ended up going with a larger company that I've used before that also may not have reputation for outstanding customer service, but does offer reliability and consistency (and doesn't require me to be home for an installation). read more