Customer Support Is Alive And Well At Powweb

What’s a blog for if it can’t be used to draw attention to consumers of good and not so good customer relations from companies large and small. As a producer of an independent tech radio show, we believe it’s in the interest of consumers to be well informed, so they can make the best possible choice (at the time) when it comes to purchasing goods and services.

In this post, Powweb, one of the (allegedly) largest hosting companies in the United States, seems to want to hide behind bureaucracy and procedures when it comes to providing customer support.

Credit where credit is due, Powweb have been flawless up until now, some 2 or 3 years service, but all of a sudden, things have taken a turn for the worst. You can see the email thread and read more about exactly what is transpiring at the Tech Talk Radio website. We’ve dedicate a page specially to Powweb.

To sumarise the scenario unfolding, Powweb removed the podcast files for the show for reasons made clear in their email. To their credit, the reinstated them the next day. This lead to email dialog questioning their actions, as what they offer in respect to advertised bandwidth on the Powweb homepage, and what they are prepared to deliver seem to be worlds apart.

The response was sadly lacking the information requested which was:

1. The surname of the support individual we were conversing with,
2. A management contact point and
3. And a technical explanation to the reason why the audio files were removed.

All in all, questions which consumers have every right to know.

In the meantime, the account renewal period passed, and the response from Powweb was, and I’m paraphrasing here… “Pay your bill and we’ll talk”.

Now hang on a minute, as a consumer, wouldn’t you sit tight when it came to paying your bill until your resolve the issues at hand (timing is everything) just in case you weren’t happy with the outcome and wanted to change provider? Too right! In a previous email from their billing department, they told me that they valued us as a customer. This is obviously some strange usage of the word ‘valued’ that I was not previously aware of.

Not wanting to antagonise the situation, this post is purely to draw attention to attitudes Powweb currently have towards customers in what could easily be solved with one simple email. This scenario is still in progress so keep an eye on this blog or the Tech Talk website for the next exciting chapter of “Customer Relations 101″