The Blame Game

It’s important to use as few suppliers as possible to accomplish one task. Better yet, have one project or utility or chore handled by the same person or company from start to finish. This is the only way to avoid “The Blame Game”.

The basic version of Blame Game goes like this:

You have a problem with something. It can be your internet, the dishwasher, a repair job on the plumbing.

You call the designated repair phone number and explain the problem. Sometimes they try to trouble-shoot by phone, other times they come to the house. In either case, there are two ways this can go: they find the problem and fix it or they cannot find the problem or cannot fix it. There are sub-themes here, we’ll explore them another day.

If the first situation happens, you get the problem fixed and the only issue is whether or not it is under warranty. It's usually not.

The second situation is where The Blame Game begins. The repairman, customer service rep or whoever you’re dealing with can’t figure out the problem. But, they won't admit it. Their logic immediately pinpoints another company, product or service that is really to blame.

Of course, this removes the guilt from them, they are not incompetent or stupid, it's someone else's fault. After this pronouncement, they prepare to hang up the phone or leave your house. They have plenty of ideas about how to fix this problem but they all involve a new company, a new service, re-explaining the problem.

Today, scenario #2 happened. I was working on the computer when the internet connection went dead. I know a few tricks to get it to reset and I tried them all. After no success, I called the customer service department at Time Warner Cable.

I was connected to a man very quickly. He lead me through the same steps I had just taken, but I did them again, just to make sure. He then said he could reset my modem from his computer. After about 5 minutes on hold, he came back on the line to see if the internet service was restored. It wasn’t.

He then told me that it was my router. Is it a Time Warner router? (I didn’t know Time Warmer provided routers, they’ve never offered one to us). No, it is our router. Welllllll, in that case, he can’t help me, it’s the router’s fault and I’ll have to call the customer service people at Linksys.

Luckily, my time and patience ran out simultaneously. I had an appointment and had to run. I asked him if, perhaps, there could be an outage in our area? He said no. I asked him if he could check. He said there was no outage, he was sure. I then decided to give it my all and told him that I thought he was covering up by telling me it was the router when he just didn’t know how to fix it. He disagreed and I hung up.

Several hours later, I found the strength to get back into this problem The internet was still down, so I called Time Warner again. This time, an immediate message came on the phone saying that there was a general outage in our area and that it would be restored soon.

Thank goodness I hadn’t pulled the router out, unplugged it, called their tech support department. Because, they would have blamed it on Time Warner. And, they would have been right.

And, thank goodness this didn't happen in France, where in addition to all the nuisance factors I've just mentioned, the repairman would have an emotional crisis, screaming into the phone that "I have no confidence in him". Which, of course, is the truth.