iiNet shows how not to do social

I don't mind waiting for an internet connection, as I realise there can be screw-ups. However, I do expect regular updates if there are problems, which is where iiNet went horribly wrong in the saga that has led to me being without internet for almost three weeks.

Basically, I ordered an iiNet service, cancelled my other service to get the codes off the lines and then waited. On 14 October, I received an email saying that iiNet had to do something manually and the connection would take a little longer than expected, but that the company would be in touch with me in a couple of days.

With the mentality that ringing the company up and asking stupid questions would only take longer, I sat down to wait. When it got to 23 October, I decided that by anyone's definition of a couple of days, I should have heard from the company. So I sent an email to provisioning and asked what was happening.

I received no answer on Monday, so tweeted late in the afternoon that it would be nice to get a response to my email.

A little over two hours after I sent the tweet I received a response:

@engochick Hi, unsure of what could be causing the delay, quickest way to find out might be to call prov directly on 1300 634 515

Work was helter skelter. I sent a tweet back saying that I was busy, and would someone just answer the email please?

Again, I received a response.

@engochick Hi, if you like shoot through an email through to me with the details, [iiNet email address] & will track it down.

I thought, great. Someone's going to look into it for me. I sent an email on 26 October with the original email that iiNet had sent me about the manual problem attached.

Unfortunately, by the end of the following day, 27 October, I still hadn't heard a peep. So I manned up and called the provisioning team.

There had been a screw-up on the company's end, because the provisioning team had been waiting for something to happen which had already happened. Since I'd called, they noticed their error and could now get things back on track. Great, problem solved. Hopefully, I would have access to the internet within four days. The iiNet guy was polite and efficient. I was happy. Everything was right with the world.

However, I didn't know I was about to be sniped about behind my back on Twitter.

This is how it happened: I wanted to make sure I wouldn't be forgotten about again, so I started a Twitter tally just once a day for each day I went without internet. One of my followers picked up on my tweet and said it was odd iiNet hadn't managed to connect me, and put a #fail tag on it.

The iiNet employee who had tweeted me previously, tweeted again.

@engochick Hi, still happy to look into this, but need some details to do so, send me an email & I will see what the issue is.

I thought to myself, I have emailed you already, with the original iiNet fault email. What more do you want? But in any case, I had called and got the answer I wanted, so I wasn't stressed and ignored the tweet at that point.

Unfortunately, the iiNet employee also tweeted to my follower who had #fail tagged iiNet.

Offered to look into it earlier, but without any details not much I can do.

When I saw that, I was very irate. To me, it implied, that the poor iiNet employee was just dealing with an internet whiner. It was my fault I had been without internet for almost three weeks.

This was not at all what that employee had meant, as I found out when I sent an angry email. And in fact, the employee had never received my email because of an iiNet system problem. He said:

My apologies if it sounded like I was shifting blame, that was not my intention at all. I had been looking for your email and also ran some searches based on your name, but had come up empty. This has more to do with how you were listed in our system than anything else.

I found your original email once I had your account details, it was redirected to the provisioning task, so I never actually received it. Again not your fault, it is due to the open prov task and automated updates that appeared in the same task after the email arrived.

Despite it not being the employee's fault that he never received my communication, I think the whole saga gives a powerful lesson in social networking. Especially since it's coming from the company that's supposedly one of the best in the telco business at dealing with social media.

The tweet-off shows how careful companies need to be, and that they need to follow up with complaints more than just acknowledging the issue. If they haven't received an email, and can't find the name on the system, then why not ask for an account number? Also, things might read differently than the person who wrote them intended, so care needs to be taken.

As it stands, I have been told that my connection is now being processed, and that it is being carefully watched. Cross your fingers for me.

PS: since this is supposed to be a blog about government, I'll say that Government 2.0 will also likely encounter many such teething problems in its life, so those manning the public tweet streams will have to watch their p's and q's — especially since they'll have senators' keen eyes watching their tweets.