Review of Embarq Telephone Service - My Personal Nightmare

Most phone and utility companies across the United States tend to change their name or merge at some point in the lifetime of their business; Emabarq falls into this category. What used to be a small telephone company that began back in 1903 and was respectfully named Union Telephone and Telegraph Company has now morphed into what is now referred to as Embarq. Some residential customers in the United States may remember the former company name of Sprint, which has since merged with Nextel to become the new local monster company of Embarq communications.

I refer to Embarq as the "local monster" because in many small towns the residents do not have a choice of other telephone services, except for wireless phones. Case in point: I lived in a small town in Ohio a few years back that only offered Sprint for home phone service. Since the company was still Sprint, the customer service or lack there of was fairly undesirable, not to mention the over abundance of virtual price gauging for simple phone service. Now in 2007 enter the newly merged companies that have made the "local monster" named Embarq. Has the issues with poor customer service and virtual price gauging been solved during the merger? The residents could only hope, but yet they have been let down once again. Even though I am sure that not every resident has had the amount of problems that I have encountered, I can only estimate that the number of unhappy billing-paying customers are on the rise and will continue to sky rocket.

So what could have possibly went wrong with a simple telephone connection to have a customer so disgruntled over the entire service so far? Please allow me to paint a very vivid picture for you as well as warn those that may be thinking of building a new home in a new section of a community. My home was completed in March of 2007 and it happened to be the first house on the street in the new section of the development. My fiasco with Embarq began a week before closing on my new home. For some odd reason they had input the street name incorrectly from the city. However, I was not to find this out and they would not realize this until 2 days after my closing. I had opted on a bundled package of phone, satellite, and internet since the cable company wasn't fully up and running in the newly developed section. The minute the Embarq representative heard that I couldn't have any sort of cable access yet, they happily jumped at the chance to pile their services on me.

After taking a full day of not moving my belongings in order to be at my home for the installation of my telephone, satellite, and DSL I was extremely irritated when nobody showed up to render my services. As time grew close to the end of the 5-hour service window, I decided to call the company. They explained that my cell phone number had been input incorrectly and since I couldn't be contacted the day before for confirmation, all services were cancelled. So there I was wondering what "highly trained" customer service representative got a case of the fat finger and input my information incorrectly. Needless to say I was a little angry over the lost time but decided to reschedule. Upon rescheduling I was made aware that the actual street name was incorrect in their database and I would not be able to have any service from them until the city verified that it needed to be corrected.

As my temper began to boil I called my home builder to try to get something done faster, rather than sitting and waiting for the geniuses at Embarq to "wait" for a call back from a city official. The home builder stepped in and handled the situation themselves, or so I thought. In my feeble attempt to call Emabarq back to reset my service call I was once again told that the street was wrong. Apparently the associates at Embarq do not like to communicate with each other and the woman on the phone basically told me I was out of luck until they physically spoke with a city official. So after my frustration and rage I decided to tell them to cancel my order and I didn't want their services.

Most people would think that would be the end of the problem, but it was not. Later that week I received a call from an Emabarq representative telling me that they had finally fixed the street name and would be able to have my service ready within a couple of days. I decided to stick to my guns and tell the representative that I did not want their service and to cancel the order. She placed me on hold and then asked to speak to my husband upon returning. He then took over the call and told the woman the same thing about not being pleased with the problems so far and not wanting any service through their company. You would think this would be the end of the conversation and the problem, but we actually had to repeat our decision to a supervisor two more times.

So here's the kicker to the story; two days after the phone conversation where we cancelled our service arrangements, we were received a call from Embarq telling us that our phone had been turned on and should be ready to use now. I immediately asked them what they were talking about and reminded them that we opted for no service from them. The representative repeated herself and asked me to check my telephone for a dial tone. I humored her and did as she requested, then fired back by saying there was no dial tone and we didn't want service through them anyway. Once I hung up I had the eerie feeling that I would be hearing from them again very soon. The next day they called and asked if we had a dial tone yet because their system was showing service being ready. Just as I was cut off in mid sentence and placed on hold my door bell rang. To my surprise there was an Embarq technician at my door ready to check my connection box in the basement.

So what came from this incident? I had enough stress from the move and buying the house that I agreed to have them check my connection. My husband and I figured that it may be easier to go with it instead of fighting them and getting billed, as illegal as the entire situation was. So never-the-less, I now have Emabarq phone service. I did not use them to set up my satellite dish, but I have called them for internet service since they are still having problems with cable services in the newly built areas. You would think that I couldn't possible have any other problems since the initial situation, but I have. I am now waiting on my second DSL modem for my internet service that should be turned on and billed today. The first modem mysteriously was delivered to the wrong address and nobody seems to know where the second one actually is at this point in time.

So what is my conclusion on the type of service that Embarq telephone services give? Basically, I wish I would have never given in to their bullying about the phone service and if given the chance I would rather go without phone and internet than have their company supply me with what I need. I have never in my life spoken to a company where every time you call and get a new representative you get a different answer about your account. Through this entire ordeal I have been told or asked such asinine things such as: "are you sure the address on your closing documents were right because we show your street name as something else." "Are you sure UPS didn't just deliver your modem because the tracking says delivered as 3:46 (which was the exact time I was talking to them)?" And "I'm not sure why you don't have a dial tone nor do I know when they will be out to repair it (as they knocked on my door)."

In my opinion Embarq needs to iron out quite a lot of bugs since the merger of Sprint and Nextel. It seems that they don't have a structured training program with their associates to the point of them not being aware of the legality issues involved with forcing service on a customer. To me, setting up service that was not wanted should be a definite no-brainer on something that you should not do. But as I sit back and think about the entire ordeal I believe it all comes down to two things. First, the lack of training on the side of Emabarq and second, knowing that they can take advantage of citizens in smaller areas of the country as opposed to larger cities where they will have competition. So heed my advice; if you live in rural America and or have built a house in a new area of a housing community, plan on having a possible battle with Emabarq if they are the local provider. I hope you have enough minutes on your cell phone to cover the calls.