Morris Broadband Delivers...

Ok, I guess I'm going to have to write something about the switchover in Hendersonville from the much-maligned Mediacom to the now much-maligned Morris Broadband.

As I write it's being reported that there are still a couple of thousand people without internet, cable, digital phone service. I've had customers calling me since last week trying to figure out what to do about the situation. They're saying they're "out of business" till this is over. I know of at least 3 small business that had to send employees home because of it. It's a no-win situation for lots of other folks too.

As the date for the changeover got closer I got quieter about Morris Broadband on this blog. Why? Well, because the scope of the changeover is so large that I couldn't figure out how it was all going to go down. I worked at a small ISP for a while which means I know just enough about "provisioning" to have a healthy respect for what they were going to have to go through. I had a feeling that it was going to be a rough transition & when they changed the date of the email transition from 9-18 to 9-24 I knew then that there was going to be trouble.

Think about it, Morris Broadband is (as far as I know) the first provider owned by Morris Publishing. Not only that but Morris Publishing is going through some pretty severe financial troubles too--missing interest payments, etc. All the signs of a company in decline. Add to that the fact that they were coming in behind Mediacom--a company with lots of issues as far as the public is concerned. Don't take my word for it, just ask anyone living in Henderson county about Mediacom & chances are they will have their own story to tell & chances are it won't be a nice one. They are famous around here for being non-responsive to customers. It's also well known that their installers are sub-contractors who will work for the least pay & what does that tell you? (by the way, the consultant hired by Morris--Mike Feld said this when interviewed by the local paper: "Some of our vendors and some of our subcontractors made a lot of connectivity and configuration mistakes that didn't show up until we went live." Hmm. Not taking responsibility, sounds like business as usual...

Put it all together & you have the potential for disaster. A company trying to learn on the job in a community already trained to not like them...

Then again, they did have months to make this transition happen right? Should I give them a break or not?

My biggest problem has been the way they handled the transition before all of this happened. Sure, they notified the public before transition happened, but did they handle the public's expectations? No. Did they let anyone know that there could be a disruption in service that could affect their business? No. They basically implied that everything would be fine, as long as the public made the email changeover correctly. No "plan B", no warnings that service could be disrupted for a while, no information on what exactly was going to take place, not even a dial-up number so people could still check email. Now they are in the soup so to speak & all their apologizing & promising is not going to matter to the public. They haven't even gotten started yet & they've already blown it by conducting business the way it's always been conducted.

I know it's a "keep your fingers crossed" situation whenever you are dealing with hardware/software & believe me I sympathize. But the public doesnt care, & should they? After all, don't they have the right to expect the service they pay for?

My home only lost connectivity for about a day, so I'm not mad. I was inconvenienced though--getting up early to do some work & not being able to, but that's not suffering, it's just a little aggravating. Would I be so calm if I was without phone, email, TV for days? Probably not.

OK, Morris--the burden is on you to make this right. (you put it there) Let's see you handle this. Good luck, I'm glad I'm not working there right now.

And by the way public, don't just yell at the folks on the phone. That really doesn't help you know. They're not the techs who made the bad decisions, they just know what they've been told. Write a letter (since you can't email right now). Let them know why you're mad. Here's the address:

William S. Morris III
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Morris Communications Company
725 Broad Street
Augusta, Georgia 30901

What's your opinion?