So late last week, I received a call from Towerstream, the new broadband provider for our workplace. So what, you say? Well, we didn’t realize we’d left Sparkplug Communications. We certainly hadn’t requested it… yet… as our contract is not up until July. It turns out that Sparkplug has divested their holdings in the Chicago and Nashville markets. Friday’s call from Towerstream, the company that acquired those holdings, was the first notification we received. Neither I, nor our office manager, as the primary/technical and billing contacts, had received so much as a phone call, email, or voice mail from Sparkplug.
Our broadband service itself has been operational throughout, and connectivity has been consistent. So I supposed this could have been a lot worse. There are enough unhappy stories out there about service providers of all types simply disappearing without warning as they became victims of the economy. We may not have received any warning, but nothing disappeared either. The woman from Towerstream who called us acted genuinely sorry at my dismay and disbelief at being notified after the sale.
There was a press release posted last month on Sparkplug’s website announcing the sale. I never saw it because this company does not do web-based trouble tickets, and there normally would be no other reason that I’d visit their website.
How hard would it have been to email that press release to affected clients, along with someone to contact with questions? How is it that anyone could think that this is an appropriate way to communicate with your clients? Yes, we are a small client with a single office and one of the less expensive service plans, but this was still not right.
(NaBloPoMo | April ’10: 21 of 30)
Mark Button says
Kathi,
As Towerstream’s Manager of Customer Care, it is my pleasure to welcome you to our family of customers. We appreciate your business and are excited about this opportunity to serve you. I read your post and wanted to offer you some consolation, and assure you that our customers concerns are addressed in real time. Please contact me via sparkplug@towerstream.com or at (866)829-7912. I look forward to speaking with you.
Welcome to Towerstream!
kathi says
Thank you for your response. I hope it was clear that my displeasure is with Sparkplug’s approach to informing, or rather not informing, clients about the change. We appreciated the call from your rep. It was our first and only notification about the change!
Richard says
Hello,
I have been an investor in TWER since they went public. Of the companies I have invested in TWER is the best communicator. I learned of your concern from a Twitter which they themselves published so it is not only the good news that they communicate. This is their first acquisition and it only closed very recently. I bet that they add a step to their acquisition process to do a special welcome to their new customers. I hope that you get great service and like the company as much as I do. Unfortuneately I can’t get the service. I live in Calgary Canada.
kathi says
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences. We did receive a welcome call from Towerstream, which was appreciated. What was not appreciated was the extremely passive approach taken by Sparkplug, who did not actively inform us of the impending change.