01 Jul Can’t stand your ISP? You aren’t alone

Americans and businesses don’t like dealing with their internet service provider, survey finds

Nothing is worse than an economy and entertainment sector intricately reliant on the internet, only for said internet to be wholly unreliable. The horror stories of providers like Comcast or ATT go back years, cutting out their own fiefdoms of control all across the United States and thereby creating a stranglehold of broadband “service.” It unilaterally allows them to treat their customer base however they want, since customers have limited options or none at all. You could ask anyone if they’ve had a problem with a previous or current ISP, and no doubt receive a quick story about sub-optimal service.

Rural areas, for example, are particularly vulnerable to poor internet provider quality. Many ISPs don’t bother investing in infrastructure, and those that do stand as the only providers in an area, usually with satellite or even dial-up as the only option. Coverage can be middling. Some may install cables, or not at all. There are regions of rural America that see no infrastructural upgrades or even future plans for investment, leaving them in the digital dust with slow, unreliable net. This is in a modern environment where every form of media and business platform normally requires high-speed broadband to even function.

Even in areas with high-speed providers, not everyone has a positive experience. Outages, negative customer experience interactions, middling quality, and pricing are several pain points customers struggle with when dealing with their broadband provider. All these negative factors have fostered an environment of, well, disgust among customers. From businesses needing reliable net to serve their functions to the regular consumer, ISPs have a foul reputation in the United States.

Internet providers in the states are so begrudged they rank lower than healthcare, banking, and the auto-sales industry in terms of satisfaction, according to a survey conducted by the American Consumer Satisfaction Index. This is out of 43 ranked industries, where telecommunication providers only sit above trips to the gas station. That rock bottom reputation is quite earned, as its dynamic is incessantly frustrating for clients of all backgrounds.

Why the discontent?

For both business entities and individuals, ISPs provide a frustrating circus of hurdles to overcome at the worst of times. Outages can take days, and horror stories of lackadaisical customer support abound. Some can’t stand waiting in telephone queues, talking with help agents, and being unable to reach a solid resolution to their problem(s). Some experience painful outages with no resolution in sight. When that happens, it’s a frustrating experience, as our lives are intertwined into the functionality of the internet. With its use and need for communication, it’s arguable the internet is a utility. What are you supposed to do when it goes out, and you’ve got things to handle online?

Businesses have an especially unique relationship with their provider, frustrating enough they’d rather not deal with them at all. An enterprise needs its service to work, but when the digital thread is pulled, so to speak, production can halt completely.

Unfortunately, the fallout is a vicious cycle of communication. ISPs and the affected company may enter a loop of blame, pointing at the other for service problems with little progress for long-term resolutions. ISPs frontload their discourse with technical jargon or details that are harder to parse for a non-specialist. That can feel overwhelming, if not unfair. A business can understand when it’s struggling with common net issues, especially when those issues impact the bottom line. But if an ISP is resilient at every layer of customer service, it’s any wonder why experiences with ISPs are rated so poorly.

Who can help?

Adding to the chagrin of dealing with ISPs and poor customer support is a feeling of helplessness. If there is only one provider, a business cannot take its money elsewhere, and even if it could, the uncertainties surrounding new ISP infrastructure are a serious deterrent.

An organization is not helpless, however. It is possible – and recommended – to interact with a third party to help manage the agreements (or disagreements) between entities. Bytagig, for example, is one such managed service provider capable of handling the “discourse” between a business and ISP.

What would Bytagig do?

As a managed IT provider, Bytagig offers a range of services. But specifically, it can wrangle the difficulties often occurring with ISP communication, making the process that much less agitating.

Bytagig handles:

• Communication between entities to reach problem resolution(s) at a faster rate
• Handles customer concerns and directs them to the correct parties of an ISP
• Offers its networking service to help troubleshoot various problems related to network configuration

If you feel like you’re screaming into the void or just can’t get enough help with frustrating ISP problems, it’s time to make a change.

For more information, you can contact Bytagig today.