You know what worries me about all these mergers?
Not whether they might gouge consumers.
I'm more concerned they just forget consumers.
Because I'm fairly confident the government will be watching out for anti-competitive behavior.
But that doesn't mean it cares about bad behavior.
Pity, because a lot of these companies pairing up don't exactly have this whole service thing down.
In fact, survey's reveal that Time Warner's awful at it. And come to think of it, Comcast isn't a whole lot better at it.
Yet they're looking to hook up now.
Just me here, but if each is known for kinda crappy service, do you really think the two together are going to be any less crappy?
I say crappy squared.
Because you can dictate numbers, but you can't dictate nice.
And fairly or not, when behemoths which don't exactly pile up a lot of customer satisfaction awards, merge that so-so attitude merges too.
And the sad thing is we don't have a lot to say about it.
Because as long as they're not gouging us, for the most part they can continue ignoring us.
That means they can continue putting us on hold if we're waiting for service.
Or take forever getting a technician out to our home if we need service.
It's their service. And they're pretty much it for that service.
I'm not saying combos like Comcast and Time Warner or DirecTV and AT&T are bad just that once approved, they have even less incentive to be good. At least good to us, the suckers who pay the bills.
Because oftentimes they're the only game in town.
Not for all. And not forever. After all, technology is always changing.
But sadly, bad customer service usually does not.
And nowhere in the government's approval of such mergers does it ever add the line, "and you better quit treating your customers like garbage."
Oh, these companies will talk a good game. After all, they're still wooing us, they're still wow'ing us.
About all the goodies they have coming down the pipe.
And all the services they're going to bundle into that pipe.
Sounds like a hell of a pipe.
So why am I thinking customer service will still be a pipe dream?
Maybe because I haven't heard any of them talk about beefing up something called, follow-up.
Maybe because I haven't heard how they're going to respond to our calls faster, or make service disruptions fewer.
Maybe because I've seen some of these guys on their own.
And discovered as they grow, there isn't a whole lot of room for me.
Let's just say bigger might be better.
But that doesn't mean bigger is nicer.
You want that next time you call in press the pound key and just pray.
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