Woman was left in ‘customer service hell’ after outage
A KCOM customer said she and her mum were left in customer service hell for three hours with no answers after their internet failed last week.
Kay Oliver and her mum Susan noticed that their KCOM provided broadband wasn’t working last Wednesday (October 20) and tried to contact the company for help.
Later investigation found that Susan’s Bransholme address had been without internet since 8am that morning but Kay and Susan weren’t able to contact KCOM for answers or advice over the phone or on their live chat feature.
In a frustrating experience Kay wasn’t able to get hold of their customer service department until later that afternoon by which time the issue had already fixed itself.
Kay said: “I just want to know what is happening with KCOM, are they all dead? Can’t do a live chat, can’t call customer service and can’t call technical support, nobody seems to be there at all?
“I was stuck on the phone at place 31 for more than an hour to get to 15 then be cut off, stuck on customer service for half an hour with no answer, tried live chat and was just circling.
“I was stuck with no answer and this was done on mobile phones on a different internet service. There was no way of getting hold of anyone at KCOM when it states they’re from 8am to 8pm.
“It’s been more than frustrating, more like infuriating when you get from position 31 down to 15 and they cut you off from technical support and you ring back and you’re back to position 31 again.
“So, you try customer service for half an hour with no answer and failing that you try their online chat for that to be circling for 20 minutes.
“So, no internet and no way to contact to KCOM from another device or network, it is annoying, time wasting and the ignorance from KCOM is out of order.”
Kay eventually gave up trying to contact KCOM and arranged for a call back on the landline at her mum’s house. Three hours after she originally tried to contact them she received a call to tell her that KCOM could see there had been an issue with the “light stream” as of 8am that morning.
Kay said the even after the explanation over the phone she wasn’t any wiser as to why the internet service had suddenly cut off and if the issue would happen again.
She was left frustrated by the whole experience and felt trapped in a circle of customer service hell without any answers.
A KCOM spokesperson said: “We always want to be there for our customers when they need us and we’re able to answer the vast majority of enquiries both quickly and effectively.
“Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, some customers do occasionally have longer wait times and we apologise if that’s the case.
“We have recognised this, and have carried out a large recruitment drive during the past few months, recruiting an additional 30 people to join our growing, Hull-based support team and we will continue to invest in our people and in additional technology to ensure we can deliver the best possible customer experience.”