How do you get competent support from Brighthouse?

[mbbrumm]

Steve, With all respect, all cable companies are required by the FCC to not encrypt the local broadcast channels.

However this is not what I am asking. The title of the thread is very clear. Does anyone know how to get past the first line of telephone support script readers and get to competent support for questions that require understanding of the systems?

 

[stevenl]

They send the local broadcast Analog. That is all the are required to do. They are not required to send you the local broadcast DIGITALLY. If you want local broadcast in digital then pay for it. Even then I dont think they encrypt the local channels anyway, there are a few channels even non-locals they dont encrypt and are availible "clear qam" but as I stated they move around alot. They dont advertise that service nor do you pay for it, so they have every right to move it around and when SDV becomes the norm youll have even worse luck with Clear Qam.. So you have 2 choices. Adapt or watch analog.

A CSR rep is not trained to answer this type of question. This would be a question you would want to ask a technician. Which is why they were going to send them to your house. A CSR does not know how the headend process's signals. They have 0 need to know. They know how to send a tech to your house, answer BASIC questions on the equipment BHN provides and even more basic questions on your own equipment. They are not trained to tell you have the qam signals are processed and have no need to know.

Again I refer you to my previous post as to what BHN does with its digital channels.

 

[jcarrera]

Steve, all that writing and you never answered his question: "My question for this group is: Does anyone know how to get through to competent technical or even support people at Brighthouse?"

LATER: oh, I see he got in before me and said the same thing I did...you didn't answer his question.

LATER: and even another post hit before I got this in.

mbbrumm, give up. You will never get a straight answer here.

 

[stevenl]

Itold him how to get his question answerd. Ask a technician who is trained to know this stuff. Not a CSR who is not. Or ask on a forum like this as I have answerd the question many times for him.

He refused to let them send a tech out, the question was obviously above the CSR's pay grade so she wanted to send a tech out to speak with the customer.

 

[byron]

Have you tried calling and asking to speak with a supervisor? The person answering the phone and taking your concern into consideration has already done their job. If they aren't answering your question or concern in your best interests, then just ask to speak with whomever is in charge with that person until you get what you need.

 

[mbbrumm]

Byron,

Yup. I have tried to go to a supervisor who also does not know the content. I usually am told that they will have someone call me but seldon hear back.

 

[byron]

Well, I think Steven's already hit that nail on the head. The company doesn't support it, and generally in cases where the company doesn't support something--the company doesn't take the time (nor should it have to spend the time) educating employees about something they don't provide support for. I think it's not something a supervisor should have just not called you back about, but then again, it may not have ever reached a supervisor in any understandable form that they could make any sense of. I understand where you're coming from, but I don't know what to tell you other than you have to follow the same path you've been taking when it comes to asking questions like this one.

 

[jcarrera]

Yeah, its OK to tell a customer you'll call him back--and don't--if you're BHN.

You should just understand that the message probably didn't get passed to the super in a way he could understand; that's all.

 

[stevenl]

No one said its ok, simply telling you what could of gone wrong. Also advising him that when the CSR said "I can send a tech out" It was the CSRs way of saying "This is above what I know let me send someone who might know" A supervisor of CSR usually was at one point a CSR. Sure they know more then their underlings but thats because of experiance and time. They will not know special details like the question he asked either.. Unless maybe they transferred from say a field op position into CSR positions.

How it should of played out is they could of had a Field op supervisor call her. Which can be done simply if the CSR would of filed a complaint/priority work sheet, to have the field ops talk to her. It seems the CSR did not follow protocol or she did and the paperwork got lost. Who knows.

 

[Khandurian]

mbbrumm, give up. You will never get a straight answer here.

EXCUSE ME? Ya know it's statements like that, that really tick me off. I think I have been more than helpful with very straight answers. Even to all of YOUR questions in other threads.


Mbbrumm - Since your box has the ability to scan, and most likely do a blind scan, you should know that all of the channels from 2-80 are multi-casted. The problem that I think you are having is that your box is scanning the channels and dropping the analog channels for the better quality digital channels. If possible, set your box to scan for analog channels only. The channels I mentioned will not change when their moving around the digital frequencies to free up bandwith.


Byron - There is NOT a single person in the call center that will be able to answer his question. Not a supervisor, not the supervisor's supervisor, and definitely not the one who answer the phone the first time. So for him to keep calling back is going to be a futile attempt to gain knowledge that noone there knows.

mbbrumm - back to you.... Steve did tell you correctly, you need to talk to a white shirt (tech). He is going to be your wealth of information. If you start talking to a tech about QAM, wether it be encrypted or not, he will have some good answers for you. If he doesn't, he may not have been with the company long enough to know. However, he can pass your information along to the right person who can set aside some time to come talk to you about what you want.

I do know that recently in my area, they were in the process of moving from QAM128 to QAM256. However, your over in Ocala, so I do not know what they are doing in your area.

 

[jcarrera]

I grant that I said that in blunt language, and am sorry it ticks you off.

But I stand by my point that he asked a very straightforward question ("My question for this group is: Does anyone know how to get through to competent technical or even support people at Brighthouse?" and the replies were nowhere near a straight answer--thus the truth of what I said bluntly.

I still don't see the answer in this thread, although just now the most recent ones (not the ones right after his question) start talking about a Field Supervisor which seems where the answers he was seeking were held, but how would he have known to ask for that, and would he have gotten anywhere asking that of the CSR.

 

[stevenl]

Many many posts ago I told him to let them send a tech out...

But I was not concentrating on the answer to the question you mention. I was trying to solve his real problem and answer that. I was trying to be helpful and answer the question about QAMS so he would not have to worry about trying to find someone at BHN to answer it. Forgive me for trying to be helpful and not just feed his rant about "no one at BHN knows anything!"

 

[jcarrera]

stevenl, I appreciate that and understand you trying to answer "the underlying problem" rather than his direct question...BUT...he wanted to know how to get answers from BHN, not how to get answers here. The replies here addressed his current issue, but provided no general help for the next time.

The next time he (all of us) still would be in the dark about how to get answers from BHN that the CSR can't answer. For customers, there seems to be only one path. Either the CSR answers, or a tech is sent to the house. That is the only path for answers--even if it is totally clear that the problem is not in the house (like the recent burps/pixelation)--or the question is about things unrelated to equipment in the house. No choice: CSR or tech at the house. That's it.

 

[stevenl]

Pretty much, either ask the CSR or ask the tech. There should be no problem as I mentioned for the CSR though to have a technical supervisor contact the customer. If she fills out the right forms.