I'm not sure if this is true for all departments, but chances are very good that when you call D*, you are actually speaking with a CSR that is subcontracted out through a national call center. Meaning that you aren't actually speaking with a D* employee. That person you are mad at for giving you wrong information is employed by Convergys.
From my own personal experience with that employer (which was quite a few years ago), information travels very slowly. D* may have given Convergys information about how to word when the new HD channels are being lit up, but it may not have made it's way down to the CSR. If it's anything like it used to be, it just takes one or two people in the department to give the rest of the CSRs wrong info and then that info is gospel. Trust me, it happened all the time.
Check this out:
http://www.convergys.com/news_results.php?newsid=2822
I live in a city where Convergys operates. A lot of the people who work there are good, smart people, attending college (they offer excellent benefits), or retired. A good lot of the people employed there aren't. They suffer from a high turnover rate because these people quit on a dime, get fired or do a terrible job, but they are a warm body. Chances are that CSR you are speaking with has been on the job less than a month.
I guess what I'm saying is before you trash on D*, consider that you aren't actually dealing with a D* employee. You're dealing with a subcontracted employee. Does that let D* off the hook? Hell no. But it does explain why the information is inconsistent. It shouldn't be this way, but that's what happens when companies take their own people out of the equation and hire these national centers to handle their customer service. I work for a national bank that has their own in house call center and the customer service scores they get are remarkable. You can always tell if you are speaking with an outsourced call center employee or a direct employee.
The one good thing? At least D* hasn't outsourced to India. Yet.
From my own personal experience with that employer (which was quite a few years ago), information travels very slowly. D* may have given Convergys information about how to word when the new HD channels are being lit up, but it may not have made it's way down to the CSR. If it's anything like it used to be, it just takes one or two people in the department to give the rest of the CSRs wrong info and then that info is gospel. Trust me, it happened all the time.
Check this out:
http://www.convergys.com/news_results.php?newsid=2822
I live in a city where Convergys operates. A lot of the people who work there are good, smart people, attending college (they offer excellent benefits), or retired. A good lot of the people employed there aren't. They suffer from a high turnover rate because these people quit on a dime, get fired or do a terrible job, but they are a warm body. Chances are that CSR you are speaking with has been on the job less than a month.
I guess what I'm saying is before you trash on D*, consider that you aren't actually dealing with a D* employee. You're dealing with a subcontracted employee. Does that let D* off the hook? Hell no. But it does explain why the information is inconsistent. It shouldn't be this way, but that's what happens when companies take their own people out of the equation and hire these national centers to handle their customer service. I work for a national bank that has their own in house call center and the customer service scores they get are remarkable. You can always tell if you are speaking with an outsourced call center employee or a direct employee.
The one good thing? At least D* hasn't outsourced to India. Yet.
