CRM in action... today: freenet.de

I recently switched my DSL provider from Deutsche Telekom to freenet. Not that anything was wrong with the DSL service, but DT price/performance just didn't do it for me. Of course, it didn't help that DT wouldn't notify me that my flat rate charge was for a 2M line, although I physically only had a 1M line into the house.

At freenet, they offered a 6M DSL line, pretty much for the same price I paid before. I even got a free DSL modem/router, which was very easy to install. Switchover was painless. It's been two months now, and I checked the stats in the router about current downstream/upstream volumes. And I was kinda surprised to see my DSL downstream clocking at 3M instead of the expected 6M. So I called the freenet customer service to complain. After about 5 minutes in the queue (ugh), the lady confirms that my contract shows 6M, but because she's not a technical person, she routes me to another number, which I gladly type into my phone. The voice response, however, tells me I need to call a completely separate number, this time it's supposed to charge me about 1 Euro per minute. I didn't think so, why would I pay for a complaint about something the provider screwed up?

So I call the first number again, and explain (to a different person) that I want to discuss this issue, and I'm not accepting getting charged for it. I must have pushed a hot button in her, because she suddenly starts screaming at me "Listen to me! You have to call this other number!" When I refused again, she says "...then send us an email." Ah. Now we're getting somewhere.... now I wonder when I'll see a response from the freenet techies.

freenet CRM evaluation: Grade D- for bad customer service, lack of channel integration, poor responsiveness