The RM of Sifton municipal office is equipped with five phones, but that doesn’t help anyone right now, because all the phones have been out since Dec. 23rd.
“We have called to get tech support,” says the Chief Administrative Officer Lon Turner. “My jaw dropped when they said the earliest they could have someone out to check on our system is Feb. 2nd.”
He contacted BellMTS Virden, which is a retail outlet. The answering service there told him to call customer service which he assumed would be in Winnipeg.
Turner says, “I did. Got the same person. What are the odds of getting the same customer service rep for such a large company, calling at different times during the day?”
The service informed the Sifton CAO that someone would be out by Feb. 2.
Turner asked to speak to the manager and was told that someone would call him (on his cell phone), but he didn’t know when to expect that call.
The Empire-Advance placed a call to MTS Communications customer service number to enquire about their response time. The call was answered immediately and while the specific problem with the business phones of the Sifton office was of course private, the representative assured that business customers’ phone troubles receive priority service.
When asked why the long wait, had something changed to bring such a delay (weeks not days) in service, he flatly answered that nothing had changed. He gave no explanation for a wait of weeks for service.
In the meantime, it’s not business as usual at the Sifton office. Turner says the office “can't make calls or faxes and can't receive calls or faxes (daily on-line bank deposits notices for example are faxed to us).”
He doesn’t think he’s expecting too much to have someone out within a week.
“I would accept three days or even a week (maybe) but an entire month for a telecom company? Very unsatisfactory customer service.”
