Editorial: CenturyLink a “Customer-Focused Utility”?

 — by Margie Doyle —

Long-time customers of CenturyLink on Orcas Island and in San Juan County have recently asked, “What’s happening with the compensation promised us by CenturyLink for the 10-day outage last November?”

So we thought we’d ask those who might know, including members of the County Council, county emergency services, Chamber of Commerce, State Legislature, telecommunications businesses and various CenturyLink staff, directors, and public relations people, including Jan Kampbell, Public Relations & Market Development Manager, Western Washington.

The last communication most of these people had heard about compensation was the press release sent Jan. 10, 2014 by Jan Kampbell and published that day in Orcas Issues and other county media:

“SAN JUAN COUNTY Wash. – As a customer-focused company, CenturyLink has issued bill credits to impacted customers on the islands. Unfortunately, in order to ensure that each customer received the proper credits, it took a little longer to process the credits than we would have liked. Our customers will see the proper credits on their February bills.”

We sent out an email to the people mentioned above asking if they could tell us anything to tell we could share with our readers.

Although we heard from some business owners, council members and Orcas Chamber Director, there was nothing from CenturyLink. The next day, Senator Kevin Ranker’s office staff passed on a response from Jan Kampbell:

“The credits adjustments appeared on the February statement, the credits were reflected on each of these accounts. After receiving your [Ranker’s office] email, I once again randomly viewed accounts, and again, on each of them the credits were there.

If there are customers that are not seeing the credit on their February statement, please have them contact me directly by email:

jan.kampbell@centurylink.com or by calling me at either of the numbers below.

Office 253-851-1416
Cell 253-549-5499

In an email copied to the higher-ups at CenturyLink, Senator Ranker’s office, and myself, Jan wrote, “I have had very limited access to email this week.”However, Kampbell mistakenly assumed that only Senator Ranker and I had concerns: I do not have a CenturyLink account, and as I had said in the original inquiry, I was asking on behalf of several Orcas Islanders. Since I still had had no reply from anyone at CenturyLink, I called Kampbell’s number and left a voice message asking her to call me, giving my cell phone number.

In the meantime, county business people came up with some solutions and explanations to customers’ problems, if not CenturyLink’s.

• One of the recipients, who had been promised a reply by the end of day on Feb. 5 and had heard nothing the following week, suggested that some islanders may have expected that the bills that arrived mid-January would reflect the credit, since Kampbell’s notice had come out on January 10. He suggested that the credit may appear on the February billings, which had not yet come by Feb. 12.
• Orcas Issues‘ Managing Editor Lin McNulty suggested, “I believe the misunderstanding and concern is because the billing does not definitively address “credit,” nor “reimbursement.” It’s just that the amount billed is smaller, with no indication as to what method was applied to reach the amount. Perhaps an explanation of how that was obtained would be helpful. Since that it is not indicated on the billing, Orcas Issues could be helpful in explaining that process.”

In the meantime I finally heard from CenturyLink! Tom Walker wrote saying that Kampbell is “traveling and in meetings all week,” and that she had only become aware of my email (to her) “after you included her in your email response to [Senator Ranker’s office].” Walker himself was not concerned with the issues brought up in the original email, just giving an excuse for why Kampbell checked on the account for the phone number that I had dialed from.

Still no response from CenturyLink or Jan Kampbell to my email and phone call.

But Kampbell, within hours, responded to Lin’s suggestion, telling her, “We did send out a direct mailer to each customer shortly after all services were restored, advising that Century Link would be issuing out-of-service credit in relation to the fiber cut.”

She disputed Lin’s claim that there is no indication of credit or reimbursement, saying that the February bill “does say ‘out of service credit for’ and then gives detail for what service is being credited along with the amount.”

Lin responded, “Jan, I’m not sure where you might be seeing ‘out of service credit for,’ but in viewing my online bill in two different versions, I do not see it.”

So Jan replied, “I was looking at the bill in our billing system. I could print the statement I have access to and email it to you if you would like.”

Just one person’s experience regarding the compensation for the 10-day outage.

I finally got a phone call from Jan, three days after my original email to her. She apologized for assuming that I had telephoned her from my personal, CenturyLink account; she said that she was unable to hear my message on her voice mail, and so she dialed the number that I had called her from (not my own number).

She repeated the business owner’s suggestion that probably people had gotten mixed up looking for the credit on their January bills instead of their February bills that had not yet arrived; and said that people who did not see the credit adjustment should call her:

jan.kampbell@centurylink.com or by calling either of the numbers below.

Office 253-851-1416
Cell 253-549-5499

She’s convinced that all CenutryLink concerns are individual, unique events.

And maybe she’s right but I’ve heard of too many incidents where customer concerns were dismissed or debated in a manner defending CenturyLink actions, not in a manner to improve or restore customer service.

Last November,CenturyLink managment, in excusing the lack of service to CenturyLink customers  (in particular Brian Stading’s response to Marla Johns), called their efforts to restore services heroic (all the while declining to work with islands’ telecommunications experts like Bob Jarman and Mike Greene).  The public who were able to attend the meeting, which ended an hour earlier than announced, repeatedly emphasized what the failure had meant to them; their questions about compensation were answered with CenturyLink’s assurances and also its concern that customers might  take advantage of the situation.

Following the meeting, CenturyLink staff admitted to Orcas Issues’ editors that the telecommunications giant indeed has a problem in delivering customer service. They asked me what I would suggest. I suggested a company-wide service training such as Washington State had employed in training its health care exchange representatives. I was asked to find out who that was (Fameuil Inc., a national company providing training customer care services) and sent the information to them. I did so within 24 hours. No reply of even having received the message, but then I wasn’t standing in front of them at a public meeting.

Now again, communication falls on CenturyLink’s deaf ears. It seems to be a one-way street with them – we bill, you pay, no problem.

So I guess CenturyLink intends to respond individually to anyone questioning their bill and their expected credit adjustment, giving them a print-out of the information CenturyLink has on hand, but doesn’t include in its multi-page billing statements. It’s probably more efficient than adding one paragraph to each person’s bill explaining how the credit amount was determined. More professional to just have the cryptic “Prorated suspended rate credit for Vg Ckt1 St term” amount deducted from the bill and assume the bill will be paid without questions.

So call Jan Kampbell if you have any questions or concerns about your bill.

And please let us at Orcas Issues know how that works for you — we’d love to report that CenturyLink is coming through in this matter.