Is This Thing On?

Some New Yorkers are pushing through a fifth day of slow, almost unusable speeds on their TimeWarner / Roadrunner Internet connections. And when they can get though to Twitter or community-focused sites like Yelp! and the Brooklynian forum, they’re complaining.

So while their customers are dealing with pages that start to load but never finish (or that never load at all), TimeWarner — like many companies — is using a Social Media Outreach Team to monitor the internet for customer complaints and issues. Gripe about bad service or a bad product online these days and, more often than not, you’ll get a message on Twitter or an email from a company rep saying “I’m sorry that you’re unhappy…can I help?”.

While looking around on Twitter for anyone else mentioning internet trouble in New York City, I found TimeWarner’s Main Customer Service Twitter account. Social Media Team Manager Philip Blum and representative Brien H responded immediately to my report. They sent me messages on Twitter and by email right away and expedited a technician’s visit to my apartment. They also facilitated two different calls with a Tier 3 Tech to run tests that seemed to confirm what I already suspected: It is a problem with their network. [Read more…]