User harasses cable company to fix a harmless typo.
Posted by modemman11@reddit | talesfromtechsupport | View on Reddit | 37 comments
Scene: Tech support for cable TV
Year: 2010-ish
Paraphrased and shortened, of course.
Me:
Customer: Yeah I'm having an issue with my OnDemand, it says a show is 60 minutes in length, but it cuts out at 45 minutes and kicks me back to live tv.
This could potentially be a legit issue, as I've seen titles end in the middle of the show before, sometimes even mid-sentence. So I fire up a slingbox, see the content is indeed labeled as 60 minutes, press play, fast forward to 44 minutes, and let it play. Indeed, the end credits of the show are already rolling, and at 45 minutes, it boots me back to live TV.
Me: So it looks like the only issue is a typo in the metadata, but since the end credits are rolling at the end before it boots you back out to live TV, you're not missing anything.
C: Can I speak to a supervisor to get this fixed?
Me: Sure, my supervisor is available right now, I'll transfer you, but he has the same abilities I do.
I transfer the call and think nothing of it until a day or two later. Word is starting to circulate around the office that someone is repeatedly calling and complaining about the timestamps being wrong and that no one can fix the issue. I wonder if it's the same guy. Lo and behold, a few days later...
Me:
C: Hi, OnDemand is saying that
is 60 minutes but it kicks me back out at 45 minutes. Me: Sorry, but that's not something we can fix.
C: (hangs up)
I look at the account history and see he's called in LITERALLY over 100 times PER DAY to complain about this and facepalm that he cares so much about something so insignificant that doesn't even impair his ability to use the service. At all.
A few days later...
Me:
C: Hi, in OnDemand
is saying it's 60 minutes, but it ends at 45 minutes. Me: Sir, we've been over this, we can't fix that.
C: Can I speak to a supervisor?
My supervisor is standing at the desk right next to me, just cleaning the desk up of all the papers and junk strewn around it. My supervisor looks at me, as if hearing the customer's request, and I see him look at me out of the corner of my eye, and match his gaze.
Me (to customer, while looking at supervisor): Sorry, I'm not wasting our supervisor's time.
My supervisor gives me a dirty look.
Me (to customer, while looking at supervisor): You've already spoke to literally every rep we have 10 times over, and every supervisor we have 5 times over, to try to get the incorrect running time of your OneDemand show fixed and no one could fix it. Don't you think if it could be fixed, someone would have by now?
My supervisor gives me the "oh, it's that guy" look and proceeds with his business and never says anything about it.
Customer hangs up of course, but to talk to every rep we have 10 times over and every supervisor 5 times over, you'd have to be calling in thousands of times.
I don't receive any more calls from him myself, but I keep tabs on the account. He continues to call with the same frequency for weeks. Occasionally a rep would schedule a tech to go to the customer's home, thinking it would fix the problem, but big surprise, it doesn't. Whatever the content was, it naturally expired a week or two later, with the typo never being fixed.
A few weeks later...
Me:
C: Hi, my OnDemand isn't working, it says that
is 60 minutes, but it cuts out at 45 minutes.
Oh, ok, something different, oh, but wait, the name on the caller ID is this guy again.
Me: Sir we can't fix that.
C: (hangs up)
And the loop just keeps going. He will complain about something insignificant, call 100+ times a day, occasionally talk to a supervisor, occasionally get a tech sent to his house, but nothing ever gets done to fix the issues, because big surprise, it can't be fixed. When the one content expires, he'd find another. One time someone was able to ask why he cares so much about something so trivial. Allegedly he was using OnDemand as a way to have a timer for 60 minutes and found the one program that just so happened to have wrong metadata. So instead of finding another program that lasts 60 minutes (or, you know, use a normal timer on your phone or a clock or an egg timer) he'd hound us to fix it. Eventually someone else thinks to pitch DVR service to him, so he can see his shows and verify he's not missing anything. He doesn't like it and hangs up on people that try to sell DVR to him. Now as soon as we see his name on the caller ID, we just cut straight to the chase and try to sell DVR service, and he hangs up in under a minute. Great for AHT!
Extra-Caterpillar-98@reddit
Which barely competent corporation created a meta data system where no one can fix a typo? I understand that calling a department that can't do it a hundred times per day is obsessively unstable, but someone should be able to, even it even if takes weeks for all the cached data to expire and the correction to be displayed everywhere.
1978CatLover@reddit
Likely the metadata isn't owned by the cable company, it would be up to the actual production company to fix (Showtime et al).
Routine-Jam-48@reddit
He could be dealing with dementia and forgetting that he had previously called about the issue. When visiting a memory care facility, I hear the exact same stories and jokes every time I visit, even multiple times on the same visit.
McdondoFloats@reddit
I can't believe there are people questioning why this wasn't fixed. Streaming service rates are already too high. Redesigning the meta data system would cost at least tens of thousands of dollars...and probably much much more...for absolutely no benefit to anyone.
Hargan1@reddit
Out of curiosity, because this is an environment I have no experience in, why couldn't this get fixed? Surely the OnDemand stuff was managed by *somebody,* did you not have a way to open a ticket with that team to correct the metadata or something? Or were they just super slow and would shift this kind of thing to the bottom of their pile due to being overworked or understaffed (or both) and so you knew it would never be fixed?
modemman11@reddit (OP)
There was a ticket submitted for incorrect metadata, several dozen times, but nothing really ever comes of it for things this minor. I didn't really have visibility into what happened after the info was sent to the provider, but I'd assume with it just being an incorrect timestamp and didn't really impacting anything important, it was assigned such a low priority, that the content just expires before they got to it. If it was an actual technical issue like the show cut off early, or had the wrong title or description entirely, that usually does get fixed.
DalekKahn117@reddit
Well, incorrect metadata sounds technical as fuck… so, why isn’t it getting fixed?
fresh-dork@reddit
they probably don't own the data; it's packaged with the content, and there's no mechanism to edit it. it's possibly not even hosted locally
spaceforcerecruit@reddit
It can still be fixed by someone. If they don’t own it themselves, escalate to the vendor.
This guy has called thousands of times and had techs sent to their home multiple times. That is a staggering amount of wasted resources for something that could be fixed by someone going into a database and changing a number.
fresh-dork@reddit
it's a trivial problem, the vendor likely won't do anything, so i'd tell the guy to either stop calling about it, or we'll cut their service. if you're obligated to serve him, then route his number to voicemail. for shiggles, run AI transcription on the messages and filter the 'tv show length' complaint to a script that emails him once a day with the number of times he's called, and a short message about how we won't be addressing this. other complaints go to normal ticketing; generic complaints are ignored.
Mickenfox@reddit
Because companies are often lazy and incompetent.
FlameEyedJabberwock@reddit
Metadata is just the descriptive info (like title, runtime, genre, etc) that the content provider (e.g. HBO, Showtime, Fox, ABC. etc) embeds into the video file.
For decades "hour-long" shows were always 42-48 minutes and were only "an hour" due to commercials. This changed in the late 2010s with the rise of steaming platforms.
This is literally a non-issue. There's absolutely nothing that needs to be fixed.
smokie12@reddit
Hargan1@reddit
Ah, gotcha! Thanks for the extra info.
kevin_k@reddit
ok, so now it's cable companies 1, everyone else 23792301
pychoticnep@reddit
Did you ask him about is CO alarm?
LeahInShade@reddit
Poor lad is either bored or if his mind, not mentally 100%, or los dos...
A_Sentient_JDAM@reddit
It's the former. Old guy with nobody to talk to, so he calls up the first company he can that he has a legitimate reason to call.
LeahInShade@reddit
That's actually sad in a way if that's the case :(
CableWarriorPrincess@reddit
as someone who used to be a cable tech, it is both sad and incredibly common. Some old folks are self-aware enough to know what they're doing. Some are resentful and will hate you the whole time you are in their house but they don't want you to leave because they don't want to be alone. Some are in the early stages of memory loss or dementia and don't remember that you showed them how to work the remote control yesterday.
you want to stay and chat but their technical problems often aren't real and a dispatcher is blowing up your phone while grandma is trying to convince you to sit down for a cup of tea. It's a wild ride and you never know what you are gonna get
Fatigue-Error@reddit
Or, just imagine being related to him. “Yes dad… I know dad… yes, it’s annoying… yes dad… dad can we talk about something else? No? Yes dad, that is important…”
Mickenfox@reddit
Calling "100 times per day" means every 10 minutes from the time you get out of bed to the time you go back in bed.
If someone is calling 100+ times per day, they have some kind of problem.
Fatigue-Error@reddit
If that started 2010ish, how long did it go on?
modemman11@reddit (OP)
Went on for months at the minimum. I eventually stop checking on the account because I was getting bored of it so not sure when he actually stopped, if ever.
cerrera@reddit
Seems an awful lot like the metadata was written for content with commercials, and he was watching OnDemand without them.
modemman11@reddit (OP)
He was told that too, many many times.
Thriven@reddit
My old call center would have blocked his number or routed him by his account number into the oblivion queue after the first 10 calls.
Laahari@reddit
Yyyaaa this shit aint real for sure
Thriven@reddit
I dealt with one truly crazy person and they made it 4 calls before I shut them down. Granted it was a 24 hour ban and I arranged for a local sales person to meet with them to see if they can handle the situation. The sales person told me to cut service and they weren't worth the crazy.
I dealt with many deranged people but most people with kindness and many times a little coddling could be turned into a customer for life.
Something that I feel is lost these days. Call centers are not for coddling, they do the bare minimum and it's because of introductory rates and the fact that companies only want new customers and don't care about retention.
that_one_wierd_guy@reddit
they were probably certain they were missing some post credit blooper reel
Noch_ein_Kamel@reddit
But why didn't you just fix it?????
qooplmao@reddit
They're only a cable TV company. There's literally no way they could handle any metadata. They're just there to take money, not provide a solid service. They could even say "length: dunno" but they'd rather put no effort in and be wrong, so they can then blame the confusion on the customer. "You're wrong and we have no intention of fixing it, for no other reason than we can't be fucked... just watch it with ads and it will all be right. Otherwise shut the fuck up".
Therealschroom@reddit
wait, just for clarification. why can't you just fix the metadata? wrong metadata is sth that's been bugginh me too. Of course not to that extend, it's not even a minor inconvenience, but it makes an unprofessional impression imo.
gadget850@reddit
Has he checked for w carbon monoxide leak?
ArlapOfDion@reddit
Each call costs the company money. This may be the time to suggest that the caller be approved for cancellation since the level of services they need cannot be provided.
modemman11@reddit (OP)
Indeed. Unfortunately no one had the balls to terminate relations with a customer for anything other than physical threats of violence.
xyzzytwistymaze@reddit
My assumption is this was a 60 min show on a broadcast network with commercials. But was closer to 42-45 minutes when streamed. So, 60 min in original format and...