Lying is part of normal customer service here!

Customer service is a nightmare here.

I haven't made a post lately because my internet has been out. During two different outages, I lost 11 days of Internet service. The chances are I will not be reimbursed for at least five of those days, because their (choose one or more of the following) lazy/ inept/purposely deceitful customer service people did not bother to make a report of my complaint when I called. Therefore, according to them, it was not reported at that time, and cannot be credited.

The first time, there was a cable cut on a main road, and there was a general outage of Internet service for a large part of the city. Unfortunately, when the cable was repaired, I still didn't have Internet. I had no way of knowing that it was repaired already, so I didn't call back till the third day. They said to hold, and in a matter of a few seconds, I had Internet again.

The second outage proved to be much more complicated. Like the first, it began with a general outage, but this time limited to my area of town. I called on the first and reported it. It would be back on that night or at least by the morning.

IN fact, I was told that daily. I was promised that without a doubt, they would have it back on (fill in the blank) this afternoon, tomorrow morning, within 24 to 72 hours. Also I was told twice that a supervisor would call me. Not one of these promises came true for the first 7 days. Finally, on the 8th day, after probably 15 phone calls total, one lost day of work, and who knows how many hours lost on the eternal hold system, a technician came and replaced my defective modem. It took about 15 minutes for him to set it up and get it checked out. (He had to call the company, and they put him on hold too.) A speed test revealed supposedly the correct speed, but trying to play a youtube video proved that I was not really getting that kind of speed. They are undoubtedly throttling that site, and other popular sites, as that happens whether it is a peak hour or not.

I also brought to an end, almost, over three months of visits to my former phone company. My account is now at zero--or at least they claim it is. But they can't give me the paper to prove it unless I come back and stand in their line for 30 minutes or more. I've spent hours in their line. Every person who works there knows me, I've been there over and over again. I've been lied to repeatedly. In fact, when I tried to transfer my Internet service to my new location, I was lied to over and over (tomorrow, today, in three days etc.) until after an entire month, I was finally informed that they do not even offer service in my area!

The poor customer service is why many Dominicans just give up and let themselves be cheated. They pay bills they do not owe, because they know that the business will simply not correct them. Customer service from the major services here routinely lie to their customers. Sadly, that is just part of this Dominican Life.