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I am posting a chronological account of what happened when I experienced a service interruption with Hotwire Communications. Dates and times are supported by my phone call records. As background, I live in an apartment complex and Hotwire provides the internet service and acts as a provider for DirecTV. They run the cable into your apartment, which is then split into 2 signals (data and video) by an HDNA (sometimes HPNA) box. With these boxes, itโ€™s pretty much all or nothingโ€ฆyou either have full tv/internet or you have nothing. I have omitted a few names which will be provided to Hotwire, but chose to keep the names of a few outstanding reps for recognition and guidance should any of you experience similar issues.

Tuesday 9/16 โ€“ 8:57pm โ€“ I lose all service. I call Hotwire and after an 8:55 (8 minute, 55 second) call, they have bounced the port which seemed to restore the service.

Thursday 9/18 โ€“ 6:43pm โ€“ I lose service again. I am placed on lengthy holds while they try to resolve. Steps included unplugging my HDNA box for 15 seconds and plugging back in, and them bouncing the port from their end. Call lasts 42:46. They tell me that theyโ€™ll have to dispatch a tech and that Iโ€™d get a call on Friday with when they can schedule an appointment.

Friday 9/19 โ€“ 6:08pm โ€“ Upon coming home from work, I see a tag on my door saying โ€œSorry we missed youโ€. But I notice that the tv and internet are working. I call anyway to ask why I wasnโ€™t notified of the tech coming, and to see if he fixed the issue by working outside of my apartment. They went ahead and โ€œrescheduledโ€ the technician (which was never scheduled in the first place) for Tuesday and told me to call if it was still working and theyโ€™d cancel the visit. Fair enough. Call time was 10:32.

Friday 9/19 โ€“ 9:49pm โ€“ Service goes out again. I call and ask if the service call can be moved up, to which they say that dispatch only works 9-5 so there isnโ€™t anything they could do for me. Try calling back tomorrow.

Saturday 9/20 โ€“ 5:07pm โ€“ Service was working for a long time, but eventually went out. They once again bounced the port which seemed to bring it back up again. They said the technician would move me to a new port to hopefully resolve the issue, as they were seeing โ€œhundredsโ€ of error codes on that port. Call time 22:00.

Sunday 9/21 โ€“ 1:11pm โ€“ Even though it was a Sunday, I call to see if I can get my appointment moved up since the service kept dropping in and out. It would stay up for about an hour, then drop for appx 2 hours. They said dispatch didnโ€™t work Sundays and my appointment was for Tuesday.

Tuesday 9/23 โ€“ 2:02pm โ€“ I receive a call verifying my appointment for 3-5 which I confirm and then head home to meet the tech.

Tuesday 9/23 โ€“ 3:00pm โ€“ The technician, MJ, is prompt and on time. Nice guy who does some troubleshooting and determines that the problem is with the HDNA box located at the IDF port. He says he moves my port to a new one and also replaces the box. Service comes back up and things seem fine. He spent no more than 30 minutes resolving the issue.

Saturday 10/4 โ€“ 2:18pm โ€“ Service goes down again during an awesome college football weekend. I call and hear that โ€œIDF boxes 4 and 11 have went down, affecting 30-60 users, we are trying to troubleshoot and resolve remotelyโ€. Call time was 6:00. I then headed out to do some errands.

Saturday 10/4 โ€“ 4:32pm โ€“ Receive a follow up call stating that my service should be back up and running. I could not verify but felt hopeful since I received a call back from them. Call time 2:39.

Saturday 10/4 โ€“ 5:34pm โ€“ Came home and there was no service. Called Hotwire and there was a โ€œheavy volume of callsโ€ so I chose to run errands, fix dinner and then revisit, kind of thinking maybe this was a bigger problem. Call time was 2:02

Saturday 10/4 โ€“ 8:16pm โ€“ With service still out, called to report the outage and learned that I was the only one down. The rep tried to troubleshoot but had no luck. Said heโ€™d put me on the list to get another service call and that Iโ€™d get a call on Sunday with a time they would be out to fix my issue. Call time was 23:13.

Saturday 10/4 โ€“ 8:47pm โ€“ Received a call from Christine with Hotwire who was very apologetic and tried everything to get me up and running with at least one box. We did a ton of troubleshooting and she eventually thought that one of my HDNA boxes was bad (cause she could see them, but theyโ€™d fail) and really did an awesome job trying to help outโ€ฆbut I remained without service. Call time 20:59.

Monday 10/6 โ€“ 9:02am โ€“ I get a call from Hotwire saying my service call is scheduled for Tuesday October 7th between 3-5pm. I raise a bit of a fuss and try to get my call for that day, since Iโ€™ve had numerous issues but the rep doesnโ€™t help and Iโ€™m stuck with my service call time. I actually receive a Hotwire generated e-mail stating my service call window. Call time was 9:02.

Tuesday 10/7 โ€“ 2:00pm โ€“ I leave work in anticipation of my 3-5 service call time. I live 35 miles from work and it normally takes 40-60 minutes to get there.

Tuesday 10/7 โ€“ 4:40pm โ€“ I had arrived at my apartment around 2:45pm so I knew I didnโ€™t miss a tech visit. I place the call at 4:40pm to simply get a status of where the tech was located. Upon calling, Iโ€™m told that โ€œoh, we have you scheduled for Wednesday between 3-5pmโ€. Gotta admit that at this point, I am frustrated..but not rude. I tell them, โ€œno, I was told on the phone, and I have an e-mail stating theyโ€™d be here nowโ€ฆI want someone here nowโ€โ€ฆto which I end up getting a โ€œwe have no technicians in the areaโ€. I tell them โ€œI know you have techs in the area, youโ€™re just refusing to have them come out..get me a supervisorโ€. Iโ€™m placed on hold and eventually get a โ€œwe contacted the tech in your area but it went to voice mail, Iโ€™m sorry but your appointment is tomorrow from 3-5โ€ณ. I get repeated โ€œIโ€™m sorry, but in the system your appointment is tomorrowโ€ and then I begin to flip out. They first lied to me about the appointment time, then they lied to me about a tech being in my area. At this point I do not know what to do. I repeatedly ask for a supervisor and Iโ€™m placed on hold, to only have her come back and say they are busy. She says โ€œwe are crediting you for your days out of service as well as a $25 customer courtesy creditโ€. Well, theyโ€™re gonna credit me for days missed regardlessโ€ฆand now they are saying my work time missed is worth $25? She eventually gives me a WRONG number for her supervisor and I hang up the phone in disgust. Total call time was 48:06. Really wish I had that call recording to playback for everyone.

Tuesday 10/7 โ€“ 9:45pm โ€“ Took time to calm down and then call back to get some explanation. Ended up speaking to Mr. Arthur who was everything youโ€™d want a supervisor to be. Apologetic, empathetic and seemed to actually care. He wanted the original e-mail, wanted to try and fix the broken system and I feel really wanted to help. He escalated service calls and got it to where a tech would come back out between 3-5 on Wednesday. Call time 30:49.

Wednesday 10/8 โ€“ 3:40pm โ€“ Left work again at 2pm to get home by 3pm. Tech shows up and identifies problem with the bedroom HDNA box. He goes ahead and replaces both boxes (bedroom and living room), service seems to be working fine and he leaves.

Wednesday 10/8 โ€“ 8:17pm โ€“ Service is out again. I call Hotwire and after getting through the menus hear that โ€œheavy call volumeโ€ estimates my time at 18 minutes, I hang up. Call time 5:14.

Wednesday 10/8 โ€“ 8:25pm โ€“ Still out, I call Hotwire. Cust Service rep goes through the normal procedures and says that the techs have no issue with the port but canโ€™t see the boxes in my apartment. He schedules yet another service appointment. I ask to speak to Mr. Arthur and he gives him my call back number via IM. Call time 42:07.

Wednesday 10/8 โ€“ 9:07pm โ€“ Mr. Arthur calls back. He escalates everything as much as he can. Nice to talk to and I genuinely feel heโ€™s trying to help. Says I will get a call by 9:30 tomorrow. Call time 6:54.

Thursday 10/9 โ€“ 9:00am โ€“ I am up and showered, expecting an early service call (yep, missing work yet again). I happen to look out the window at 9:15am and see a Hotwire truck close to my doorโ€ฆso I feel hopeful. I look out again around 9:30am and the truck is gone.

Thursday 10/9 โ€“ 9:32am โ€“ Place a call with Hotwire inquiring the status of my service call. She says that she can get a tech back to me within 25 minutes..was I at home. LOL. I say yes, she places me on hold and in 2 minutes the original Hotwire truck shows back up. She comes back on (once Iโ€™ve greeted the same guy who was here yesterday) and says the tech should be there within 20 min to which I tell her โ€œhe is already hereโ€. Call time 22:42.

Thursday 10/9 โ€“ 10:30am ish โ€“ Technician ends up replacing the HDNA box at the IDF bank once again. Service immediately comes up.

Soooooโ€ฆ.my service went out on 9/16/14 and I have it restored as of 10/10/14 and it took the following:

17 phone calls totalling over 5 hours, 8 minutes and 16 secondsโ€ฆ4 missed half days of workโ€ฆ.close to 7 days of total down time in my home (and I do work from home)โ€ฆ2 HDNA boxes at my IDF boxโ€ฆswitching an IDF portโ€ฆ4 HDNA boxes in my apartment.

So we last left off with the following from my previous dealings with Hotwire

Soooooโ€ฆ.my service went out on 9/16/14 and I have it restored as of 10/10/14 and it took the following:

17 phone calls totalling over 5 hours, 8 minutes and 16 secondsโ€ฆ4 missed half days of workโ€ฆ.close to 7 days of total down time in my home (and I do work from home)โ€ฆ2 HDNA boxes at my IDF boxโ€ฆswitching an IDF portโ€ฆ4 HDNA boxes in my apartment.

Well things worked swimmingly for a whole 6 days until this morning, so letโ€™s pick back up the unbelievable ordealโ€ฆ

Wednesday 10/15 โ€“ 7:43am โ€“ After noticing that my internet and tv were both down again, I once again called Hotwire to have them send a tech out. The Cust Support person was extremely nice and supposedly escalated everything (making me wonder what the heck theyโ€™ve written about me on their notes). Took 12:12 and he said Iโ€™d get a call on when someone would be out today.

Wednesday 10/15 โ€“ 8:43am โ€“ Received voice mail and e-mail stating they would be out between 3-5 today. Yep, here comes another half day missed from work.

Wednesday 10/15 โ€“ 3:20ish โ€“ Anthony shows back up and discovers that the port was completely down. He moves the port and replaces all HDNA boxes once again. He leaves around 3:50 after verifying everything was working

Wednesday 10/15 โ€“ 4:48pm โ€“ I lose both tv and internet once again. I immediately call customer service and speak to Mahogany. She apologizes (imagine that) and I go through the lengthy hold process only to hear that I will get a call when someone can come out. I say thatโ€™s unacceptable and want an answer while on the phone, I want the tech who was here one hour ago to get his butt back and fix it. She comes back after another lengthy hold and explains that the Field Tech Manager has been notified and Iโ€™d get a call back for sure with when someone would come out, even if Mahogany had to call herself. She verified my phone number. Call time 33:40

Wednesday 10/15 โ€“ 9:15pm โ€“ Havenโ€™t received a call from anyone. I call requesting to speak to a supervisor. Got Nina (cust svc) on the phone and was placed on hold (to which they always say โ€˜iโ€™m sorry about the long hold timeโ€™โ€ฆI no longer need their scripts)โ€ฆ she eventually came back and said a technician would be out tomorrow. I told them I would not be here, they can get with an office manager to let them in as I can no longer miss any more work time. She stated it showed that there was a bad IDF box (no ***). I requested that they do more than replace my boxes, maybe put me on an entirely different IDF box. Anyway, Iโ€™ll receive a call tomorrow with when the tech will be at my apartment. Call time 18:20.

โ€ฆTo Be Continuedโ€ฆ

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