You may have read my recent blog about installations, and truth be told, some of that experience was from my initial install back in 2012, and some was from talking with other customers who have ordered TDS TV in the last six months. But behind the scenes, I had been building a new house since February and TDS was scheduled and all set to install my services on April 30th. Or so we all thought…
I want to outline a very unusual experience as a new TDS TV customer. While this situation may never happen again, I thought I would share my story and how TDS handled me as a not-so-happy camper.
On the 30th, the day started as expected. The tech called me 30 minutes ahead of his arrival and I was able to make sure I was home and had everything ready for him. Since it was new construction, he had to put the Optic Network Terminal (also called an ONT–what is often in a small box on the side of your house) on my house (and I ended up putting it inside per his recommendation) and make some connections in my basement. Everything seemed to be going great. A second tech came by to get all the boxes in their locations, and get the remotes all set up to work properly with my TVs and other equipment. It looked like they were going to complete work in record time. (Side note, my home was all pre-wired. They ran the gateway to my main level, with the Wireless Access Point and Connected-Home DVR connecting directly to the gateway. My remaining three boxes are all wireless, so install was quicker because of that)
As we were all set to “go live,” there was no activity to my ONT. Fiber connections were solid, and the buried wire from the box in my yard to my home was good. Why the issues? Another call had to be made, tests had to be done and as it turns out, there was a fiber cut in my neighborhood. Sounds like a local utility struck the line as they were digging the house next to mine. No fault of TDS, but my install was delayed, and potentially for days. I was definitely bummed. No TDS TV and, importantly, no internet for an undisclosed amount of time. What was I going to do? It was around 6:00 p.m. and my doorbell rang. While I thought the guys went home for the day, they were still working to fix my problem. I was given two options, run a 600 foot temporary cable drop overnight to get service immediately, or delay a day and everything would be corrected the next day.
Being late, I had no issues with not having service for one day. I could make it. But I wondered, how were they going to run all new fiber ASAP the next morning? That’s a big task. Sure enough, 9:00 a.m. the next morning, crews were out trenching new cable and I could literally watch the progress. Around 1:00 p.m., the technician called me to let me know the digging was complete, and he was going to be over in around an hour to wrap up the inside installation. Right on time, and everything was right as rain. An excellent effort by TDS techs, our contracted techs, and our digging vendors to make this ONE customer happy.
Beyond that, a couple things after my completed install threw me for a loop. I went to log into my account at www.tdstelecom.com, but it said my account was locked. I called in to customer service, and they informed me my tds.net email user name had changed, and walked me through the password update process and it took just a couple minutes. Then, when I received a voicemail the next morning, realized I also couldn’t access my mailbox. I called in again, they reset my passcode, I updated it on my own, and everything was right again with all my services. I suspect all the confusion was because I had “suspended” my account while I was between houses, but at least the problems were resolved quickly.
Now that I’ve been up and running for roughly three weeks, I’m happy to report that all my services are just as fantastic as I recall them being at my old home. The situation went from one that could have taken days or weeks to resolve and resulted in very impatient, angry customers, and turned into a story I will continue to share with people considering TDS for services. They didn’t have to move schedules around for literally one customer, but they did. And at the end of the day, what more can you ask for?
—Austin
