An Open Letter to Mediacom

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing today to praise what an interesting job your company is doing in the face of the severe weather that occurred on Friday, May 8 in southern Illinois. While I have spent the past week dealing with such friendly, helpful people coming together in the face of what has been declared a disaster by the state of Illinois, your company’s complete unwillingness to be at all helpful is a welcome breath of fresh air.

Three times I called Mediacom’s support line to make sure they were aware of the downed wire in my yard, disconnecting my house from your services. Three times because the second and third times I called, to find out the status of my service requests, I discovered that the service requests had not actually been filed. I will grant that the third time I called, the request was in – but the service representative was confused as to why I was calling. According to her records, it had been scheduled for two days prior. This made sense as Mediacom van had been parked in front of my house and spotted by my neighbors – what didn’t make sense, though, was the fact that the line had not been restored and the my services were still nill.

She was good enough, however, to point out that I needed to pay my Mediacom bill. After all, having the services for which I’m paying is an entirely separate matter – whether I have them or not, I should be paying an exorbitant amount for them.

My last call was answered by an employee of yours named Renee (employee number 4208). You would be more than proud of her. While attempting to be helpful, she reused to answer any of my questions and, in fact, demonstrated very clearly that my questions were irritating to her. When I requested to speak to her supervisor, Ken (employee number 4341), she put me on hold only to come back and essentially tell me “no.” Ken refused to speak with me, to answer any questions I had, the questions that Renee refused to answer.

I would like to have mentioned the fine efforts of the technician who was seen sitting outside my house in this letter, to have praised his decision to not do what he considered an unimportant job. However, when I asked Renee for his employee number, I was told that jobs aren’t being assigned, that Mediacom is doing “whatever, when they can.” Again, compared to the concerted efforts of so many during this difficult time, Mediacom’s blasé approach is refreshing.

That blasé approach carries over to my own professional life, as I work from home and am reliant (sadly) upon the internet service that your company does not think is important enough to re-establish. As my own work hours have suffered tremendously due to this storm and Mediacom’s subsequent shrugging off of my downed wire, I’m excited to meet the prospect that not only will I have issue being able to pay that Mediacom bill (that’s due, whether you deign to offer me your services or not) and my other bills, but the very real possibility that I will lose my job due to my inability to access the internet. Of course, in an economy such as this, I’m sure I’ll have no problem finding new employment. Really, I’m sure this is just one of the many perks I can expect from being a Mediacom customer.

I would also like to thank Renee for being the first to inform me of the bad weather that my area has sustained. While I asked her about the truck that had parked outside my house and done no work, I was met with the explanation that there was widespread damage due to storms last week and that the trucks were in a different part of the area today. I don’t think she understands just how grateful I am for her informing me of this widespread destruction. Although I live in the area, was without power for the week, have spent a good amount of time in various communities in the area this week, and have had to deal with my daughter being out of school for an entire week due to the storm – I hadn’t quite realized the magnitude of the event until Renee told me it was widespread.

I will admit that in the past I have had issues with Mediacom. I have disconnected my service with your company on more than one occasion in a refusal to deal with the poor customer service that I have found you “offer.” As Mediacom is the only highspeed internet provider to service the area in which I live, however, I have been forced to return to your company yet again. I am thrilled to discover that your commitment to the lowest possible form of customer service remains intact.

I would offer my phone number for you to look at my account, as that is the identifying number your company chooses to assign each account. However, each time I call, I am told that my phone number, the one I should be using to access my account is a number other than my phone number. Each time I call, they change it – but it miraculously changes back each time, by my next call.
Therefore, I will sign this only by my name (with which apparently you cannot look up my account, as I’ve been told so often by Mediacom employees).


Kylie Olean
A Very Mediacom Customer.