A week ago on Sunday, our Internet access failed. 

Oh, the end of days!

Okay…perhaps it was not the end of days.  It did prove to be an inconvenience in many aspects.  Thankfully, smart phone capabilities are up to par (despite iffy cellular connections here in the country), and I was able to keep up with necessary tasks.

Sadly, blogging was not one of them.

I called customer support on that Sunday to see if I could get the issue resolved.  The woman I spoke with (Margaret) was pleasant and accommodating.  She took me through the steps required to sort out the problem, but could not solve it.  She put in a help ticket to have a service technician work on the issue “in the field” and would likely be calling me. 

Wednesday. 

Last week, I learned how much I rely on the Internet.  It is a research tool for projects.  It is where I shop on a routine basis.  It is my communication link with friends and family.  It is a resource for finding recipes, or solving problems.  It is my link to music.

Wednesday came and I planned the day at home.  Cell phone remained on-hand to assure I would not miss the call stating the technician had either resolved the issue, or was on the way.  Margaret informed me the technician could call anytime between 7:30 AM and 6:00 PM.  Quite a window!

I patiently waited.

As the day progressed, my patience waned, but still, I waited.

Jaxon helped on the look-out, and we waited.

By 5:00 PM I had not received a call, nor was my Internet working.  I decided to call the customer support number again and check on the status of my help ticket.  Patrick answered my call in a very pleasant, accommodating manner.

After sharing my story, Patrick did some research on his end.  He informed me the ticket had been cancelled as the field technician determined the issue to be a “common problem”. 

What?

He asked if we had been experiencing bad storms in the area that could have caused a temporary outage of service.

No.

I thanked Patrick for the information, stating it would have been nice to have received a call from the field technician so I could confirm I did NOT have restored Internet service.

That is when Patrick took over.

He started looking into the issue from his workstation.  Given he had limited resources, he had to contact another area of technical support.  While he waited for answers, he had to put my call on hold. 

I am not a fan being put on hold, but understand it is sometimes necessary.

Patrick would return to my call every two minutes, faithfully, apologizing for my wait, letting me know if he was still waiting, or if someone was working on my issue, and asking if it was still okay for me to remain on hold.

WOW!

I remained on the call for one hour and ten minutes.  Most of that time was spend “on hold”.  All of that time Patrick would interrupt the hold every two minutes to check in. 

That is customer support.

At the end of the day, I still had no Internet.  It seems the problem was bigger than expected, and could not be resolved at the remote location.  Another service ticket was put in, and Patrick offered to call me to inform me of any progress made on my issue, and reminded me I could call back anytime as he would be leaving detailed notes on the issue.

Patrick listened.  He offered information, even if he had very little information to give.  I felt valued as a customer because the technician communicated with me.  The problem was not easily resolved.  Service was not restored until late in the day on Friday.  This weekend, I wrote to the company to let them know how lucky they are to have someone working for them like Patrick.

It was a great reminder to me that sometimes we just want someone to listen.  We want someone to hear what we have to say and give it value.  In my situation, the problem could not be easily resolved, but I felt heard.

I am thankful for everyone in my life that takes time out to listen.  There will be an opportunity for me to give that back today.

I will listen, and I am thankful to be connected to the world once again!