Emilie was a customer of Excite@Home. She was having problems with the cable internet service we provided and was disgusted enough with the service she was receiving to request to speak to a manager. When customers make this type of request we were instructed to send them to the highest level of customer support and not into the management chain where they would be unlikely to receive technical assistance. This meant that I was charged with speaking with Emilie. Once Emilie was given a chance to make her feelings be heard I found her to be very considerate and accommodating. She was excellent at following instructions and kept her sense of humor the whole time. We had a good time and resolved some of her problems. 

From: emilie [emca4@home.com] Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2000 5:45 PM To: DFaegre Subject: Your kind response

Hi Darcy!

I have to tell you no matter what, your response to my SOS made me feel better already. Thank you for that. And that customer satisfaction is the priority of your boss is encouraging too. Before the tech left on Friday, (Frank #711,) I insisted that he free up my 56 K modem so that if I didn't get any support satisfaction by Tuesday, I was going to switch to another ISP. I would hate to do that. I love the speed and navigation of Comcast cable. I just need reliability. I know this business is an art as well as a science, not perfect and with unique little glitches.

Darcy, anytime Tuesday EDT after 9:30 AM would be fine with me. But wouldn't that be 5:30 AM for you? Certainly I would be available at noon EDT or it could even be in the afternoon. Why don't you let me know what time is convenient for you? Either Tuesday or Wednesday is good as long as we can work thru this problem. Email me with a good time for you to call.

I also wouldn't mind reformatting this system. Before I heard from you I contacted a professional friend who is capable of doing the work. I do trust him to do a thorough job. Perhaps it isn't a bad idea. I bought a nice top of the line Cadillac (Gateway Pentium 3) in March 1999 to learn on and I wouldn't be surprised if it developed a few "dings" along the way. So as an alternative, I could have this computer get a full physical checkup and start out fresh, if you could help me install the V.2 at that point. It would probably take about a week to complete all the work prior to needing you to guide me thru V.2.

I don't object to paying for a tune up. I objected to this tech coming from Comcast and telling me he wasn't going to do what he was sent here to do and then suggesting I hire his friend. That is less than ethical but not surprising for Friday afternoon at 3PM. Frank told me he had one more job to do before he was finished for the weekend.

At any rate, I'm amenable to that option. The cost to format is reasonable and it would be nice to start fresh. We could talk about that as a solution as long as you would get me back onto excite afterwards. I know you can't advise me to do that but I would appreciate what input you can give me. I'll do whatever it takes to have a good experience with this whole thing. (It's sort of like - how are you gonna keep 'em down on the farm after they've seen Paree!)

You can be sure if this happened to me, it's happened to others as well. And perhaps, they have taken other routes to a solution. I'm just lucky I found you and have the time to see this thru. So Darcy,, let's talk. Tues or Wed. .EDT 9:30AM or noon or 2PM - whatever is best for you.

Emilie McAlevy 941-383-0617 emca4@home.com

7/31/00

I called Emilie back and we worked through things. It appeared that a prematurely released version of software by Excite@Home had caused configuration issues for Emilie. With some testing and a great amount of patience on Emilie's part we got everthing straightened out. She sent a letter to show her gratitude.

The issues seemed to be never ending for Emilie. Each time we resolved an issue a different one cropped up. On one occasion I found an issue before she even realized there was a problem. Through several support sessions we got her to a stable condition where it appeared that her internet service would continue working as promised. Another letter followed after one of our support session. This e-mail was directed to my supervisor at the time. My supervisor forwarded the e-mail back to me where I now present it to you.

From: emilie [mailto:emca4@home.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 01/ 2000 1:15 PM To: jsooy@home.com Subject: Darcy Faegre

Dear Jeff,

I hope you appreciate what a treasure Darcy Faegre is. He is worth more than the entire Comcast office here in Sarasota, FL. Ever since this cable connection has been installed 2/29/00 a weird assortment of problems has followed. That's to make a very long story short!

Darcy was the only one able to help me in May when Netscape and IE ignored me and fought each other after I tried to download V2. By the time I reached him I was not in the best mood - hours had been wasted - but he stayed even tempered and walked me thru the fix.

Everything was fine until Comcast took the server off last Tuesday nite at 9:45 PM, EDT. First I lost my email and then, the ISP. I spent hours Wednesday, Thursday and a bit on Friday trying to work with a bevy of techs. Some were nice; some, not so nice - but none could fix the problem. I was ready to go back to my 56K modem.

1 knew it was time to call on Darcy. 1 really had the feeling everything would be fine after I made contact. And it is. He uncovered all sorts of glitches and kept me laughing while we worked thru. Most important is his ability and knowledge to get the job done, properly. He doesn't do short cuts and put patches over errors. He doesn't say he is going home in 10 minutes or all the other things I heard.

I don't hesitate to complain when things aren't right and I feel the same way about recognition when someone goes above and beyond. Darcy did and I think you are very lucky to have someone so nice and smart working for you.

Sincerely, Emilie McAlevy emca4 @ home.com

9/22/00

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