dkpurks@uunet.uu.net (Dave Purks) (11/18/89)
Patrick:
In response to the message I forwarded from you, the Product Manager
for Outdial Services writes:
"The price change this past summer included a complete replacement
of the PC Pursuit Billing system. As would be expected, such a
complete change over, which included new account IDs, resulted in
numerous adjustments and addressing of customer concerns. This
put a significant strain on our Billing department. Additional
resources have been made available and the backlog has been reduced
so that current calls to Billing are now being processed in a timely
manner. Calls into Billing have also gone down as questions and
concerns have been addressed. The new Billing system is working
consistently and quite well."
"As to the particular customer concern raised, that will be resolved
within days, if it hasn't already been corrected."
The Director of Revenue Systems (Billing) has informed me that the
account was cancelled in early October and a $90.00 credit was
processed with the November data. That credit should be posted to
his account within 2 to 3 weeks and will show up on his bill on the
next accounting cycle (each credit card company is different so it's
difficult to say when he'll actually get a statement showing the
credit).
When we implemeneted the new billing system earlier this year, we
sent credit card debit authorizations to all existing customers.
The enclosed letter indicated that we would cancel anyone who did
not return the authorization. Telenet has been slow to take action
against the people who did not return the form so that we do not
cancel a customer who has just forgotten to return it or returned
it only to have it lost in the mail.
Some customers have complained at the delay in receiving credits
to their bills. Much of that is due to the fact that we are not
directly connected to the credit card company. Our accounting
cutoff is around the 5th of a month. If a customer calls in and
is issued a credit after the cutoff, it is not sent to the company
that processes the card transactions for us until the end of the
next billing cycle. It takes them about two weeks to post the
transactions. If that posting happens to fall just after the end
of the credit card company's billing cycle, there will be a delay
of several more weeks before the customer sees the credit appear
on their bill.
I hope that this addresses the various concerns you and other
customers have raised. If there are any further questions, please
feel free to forward them to me and we'll try to get them addressed
as quickly as possible.
Dave Purks
Telenet Communications Corp
..!uunet!telenet!dkpurkstanner@ki4pv.uucp (Dr. T. Andrews) (11/21/89)
Yes, I sure recognize a form letter when I see one. Mr. Purks:
) "As to the particular customer concern raised, that will be resolved
) within days, if it hasn't already been corrected."
In fact, his description of the installation of the new billing system
and the handling of "customer concerns" sounds like so much
double-speak. Did these folks formerly work for the government?
It was not, however, the service that caused us to turn off the PC-P
account. It was simple economics: $1/hour for a link able to push
70-80 cps is not fairly dear compared to $7/hour for a blazer link
about to push about 1000 cps and gives us better odds of connecting.
...!bikini.cis.ufl.edu!ki4pv!tanner
or... {allegra attctc bpa gatech!uflorida uunet!cdin-1}!ki4pv!tanner