A simple principle of customer service is that the interface to the company should be able to do everything for the customer. If I ring in I don't want to be bounced from department to department. I just want one person to solve my issue. When you get transferred three times and asked the same question three times the company does not exist for the customer, but for itself. Qwest has a local phone monopoly so it is no real surprise that the customer is not a priority. If they were a smaller business they would probably be out of business.

I was trying o get a DSL connection at a new location and it took five phone calls to get everything organized and two weeks later no internet connection. I was told I would have to reschedule (the first technician was a real nice guy and very helpful, I have no complaints with him) and then it was ten days hence. Too much. I ended up getting cable internet instead.

To add to my woes at my other address Qwest sent me a check for $65.00 which surprised me. They then sent me a notice saying I was delinquent and owed them $130.00; great. I had changed my service so to their billing system it probably made rational sense. I was a *new* customer so they closed out my old account and then billed my new one. I payed every bill they sent me, but they must have mixed out the billings or some such.

The problem is I consider Qwest the company I am dealing with. So to me this looks like Qwest does not know its arse from its elbow. I don't care about their billing systems and how they have to fanangle it to make the whole system work. I just do not want to be paying each bill, cashing the checks they send me, and then be told I am delinquent on a payment.

Consequently I cancelled that service today. To cap it off I went through three more customer service people who I had to say yes to the same question such that they could access my account and then was handed off to a new person. I could not cancel my account until I payed the delinquent amount - which I was never billed for - so the whole enterprise was inundated with frustration and perplexing repetition.

Glad I could get rid of them.

They sent me a bill for $193.24 again. So now I have to ring up and yell at them again. I canceled their service over six months ago now, but they never bothered to turn it off. So they keep sending me bills for it. I don't see why I should be financially culpable for their ineptitude.

This is the third time they have sent me this bill and each time I ring up and explain why their billing system fails it, and each time they tell me they will take care of it, and each time I get a new bill a couple of months later.

Fail.

Seriously. I know the US has county based telecommunication monopolies but if you can avoid Qwest and their billing system - do so. Qwest sucks.

Previously: Qwest sucks, and Qwest customer service.