Hi all
I am a GC from Stuttgart. I recently made a contract with a Private ISDN-DSL provider, one of the biggest in Germany, they make 100s of Millions Euro profit each year, invests some 200-300 Million Euro each year.(Just curiosity, a question to those expert in law, can I be sued for saying the name of a Company in a discussion like this?). I made the contract by making a phone call to their free shop line. The lady on the phone was very friendly, and she told me a lot of good things on why I should make my contract over this phone line instead on the internet (where I get some months free DSL), such that only if I made contract by phone then they will have my data on the computer and I can always call them free if I have question about my contract etc.. Anyway, after the contract papers came, I got 2 calls from “The Company”s customer service asking when I am sending back the papers, and that I will have this and that advantage if I send the papers within this month. Anyway, I sent the papers, got back the final papers and saw that the D-Telekom technician will come to my house to setup the line, and it will be between 8-16 uhr, which means I will have to take vacation the whole day. So, I wanted to talk to “The Company” to know the exact time of that. Now started the fun. The person in the phone told me that they don’t have any data about the time of Telekom person (although I was told before tht if I make contract by phone they will have all my data.) and that I have to call their kunden betreuung (customer service). And this kunden betreuung is 20+ cents per minute. The peril just started . I called the kunden betreuung , the machine voice said Wellcome to “……….” kunden betreuung, we have this and that, bla bla bla, if u want this press 1, if u want ………….. , after the first choice, the voice again said if u want this press1, if u want that press2, ……….after the 2nd choice, oh GOD , the same thing….now he says I am in the Main Menu,….is u want this press1, if u want ………… Anyway, I choose “ ISDN,DSL ” and pressed the button, 3 minutes(1+ Euro, as I am calling from Handy) has already gone . Then the phone kept on Music, and no one picked the phone!!!! Nothing!! After 10-15 minutes I hang-up. Then I did some Google search and saw some saying they had to wait 50-60 minutes before someone picked the phone in kunden betreuung. Anyway, after some trials(GOD knows wht my handy bill will be this month) got someone at last, and she said I must wait the whole day for the Telekom person , they can come anytime(Is it normal, waiting tha whole day for a Telekom Techniker?). Great, I waited the whole day. At 14 uhr, I thought no one is coming, so went downstairs, and saw a letter on my letterbox, which said Telekom people came and did not find me, but all the time I was home waiting and they even did not knock my calling-bells!! I called again the kunden betreuung of “The Company”, and they give me another date. SO I have to waste another day!!! I wanted to wiederruf/cancel my contract, but they count the 2 weeks wiederruf time from the day they sent my initial contract. So, 2 weeks have passed long before I understand all this troubles, so tricky! I am so much frustrated with their service, but I have nothing to do!! It is obvious that they only want new customers and money, and not at all interested with after service. Did anyone have any experience like this?

nimo

" the machine voice said Wellcome to “……….” kunden betreuung, we have this and that, bla bla bla, if u want this press 1, if u want ………….. , after the first choice, the voice again said if u want this press1, if u want that press2, ………. "

-- This is normal with customer service over phone, so that one can be easily transferred to the proper person. But the 20+ cent per minute is teuer. And waiting for long period can drive one crazy but this is a common scenario nowadays.

I hope one day a law will be in place which allows companies to charge customers only for actual talk time and not for hearing 'music',pressing 1,2,3 etc.

"At 14 uhr, I thought no one is coming, so went downstairs, and saw a letter on my letterbox, which said Telekom people came and did not find me, but all the time I was home waiting and they even did not knock my calling-bells!!"

-- I remember watching on tv a report about these kind of experiences with postal service - not bothering to check if some one is home and leaving a note in the letter box, when there is a parcel to deliver.

" can I be sued for saying the name of a Company in a discussion like this?"

-- I hope some knowledgeable soul will provide an answer for this question.


" I wanted to wiederruf/cancel my contract, but they count the 2 weeks wiederruf time from the day they sent my initial contract. So, 2 weeks have passed long before "

--May be you can still cancel it irrespective of what is written in contract ,since they have not actually started their service - Just a thought, and hope some one with proper knowledge will give an opinion in this matter.

just a point before I continue reading your long writtings the time you speak with the computer and the time you wait is not counted in the bills, the clock start ticking when you got the "Hallo, Mustermann ist mein Name, wie kann ich Ihnen helfen?"

D.

Well, this is why I took Alice - you can cancel contract any time with 4 weeks notice. However they also depend on D-Telekom to install line - but at least they told that technician will come in the morning - and he really did Unfortunately I think it's normal to wait whole day :/

@nimo:

Instead of taking leave and waiting, maybe you can handover the keys to the Hausmeister.


@ Bies:

How long are you customer of Alice? Are you satisfied with the service, speed and quality?

-Fred

well,

somebody told about Alice, I faced the same problem with them. I had luck that the guy from D-Telekom came early, but you don't have any change to know when...

...I have a problem with the Alice setup software, I tried to call them to inform the situation. I have to pay 5€ just for use a "special" costumer suport and the guy couldn't know what the problem was...

I'm using the test conection that is started during the setup to surfing, it's Ok.

With IKEA also I missed one day waiting for the things that I bought. I had to call several times and finally they came the other day...

They just said:"sorry".

It seems that you have to learn to live with bad costumer support. And if you want to protest, you might win, but ending up paying (much) more that it was in question for the deal...

"customer service" is something deutschland has never heard about. i have an arcor connection and i could never get through to their support lines...and i really cant talk to anyone in person 'cos they only have this perpetually-engaged-fone-support.

is there some kind of a city-based/national consumer forum where you can complain against such lack of service problems?

perhaps detlef knows better

@ fred:

I'm customer since this summer and only thing I can say - Alice is great I have Alice 2000 flat and download spead goes up to 225kb/s, upload up to 22-23 kb/s. Had problems only one day - the next day they fixed it. And of course I don't use their software - just normal Win XP connection.

@c16x75/nimo,

Anyway, I sent the papers, got back the final papers and saw that the D-Telekom technician will come to my house to setup the line, and it will be between 8-16 uhr, which means I will have to take vacation the whole day. So, I wanted to talk to “The Company” to know the exact time of that. Now started the fun. The person in the phone told me that they don’t have any data about the time of Telekom person (although I was told before tht if I make contract by phone they will have all my data.)

What the provider says is correct, because although Internet services are privatized in Germany, service providers are using Deutsche Telekom infrastructure. If a customer wants a service from the provider, provider must ask Deutsche Telekom first, to send a telecom technician to you, for your connection at home. In that case provider cannot guarantee when the technician can come, because he is not working at the provider. On the other hand, technician probably goes to all other customers in the day, so you can never be sure when his assignments finish and when he will visit to you.

Then the phone kept on Music, and no one picked the phone!!!! Nothing!! After 10-15 minutes I hang-up.

I understand your pain. But private providers are cheap and their support have huge customer access. This time is reasonable. I have Alice at home and I also get similar response times. And I suggest you should call 0-800 numbers of their support, if there is any, because 0-800 numbers are free of charge in Germany.

I am very satisfied with Alice. Calls between customers of Alice are free of charge, no matter where they are in Germany, eg. from Bremen to Munich. It's free, at least until 31.12.2006.

In general, private companies in all branches get a huge fee in Europe, to solve problems. Unfortunately, to get rid of huge expenses, you must cope with your own problems. Sorry about that, but this is in general the reality.

Klenze17

@Bies:

Hopefully you are not from Hamburg, where they are well established for some time now, and its not a wonder if it works well in HH.

Am on the outskirts of Wiesbaden.


-Fred