IdeaTek — Local services in Buhler

Oh where to even start….well 3-4 months-ish ago I made a call to get fiber installed at our remodel in the middle of nowhere KS. We’re from the Austin, TX area and have a gazillion gadgets that all need an internet connection and the biggest reason is being I work from home as an nurse for an acute care psychiatric hospital…like a lot, so connectivity, reliability, and speed are a must at all times. We also have a toddler who has sensory sensitivities and a speech delay so we use many apps and gadgets for his needs as well, and he does not understand the word buffering. 😫 I was absolutely thrilled when I heard IdeaTek not only could offer us fiber but would come out and get all wiring installation dug/ran/buried and we wouldn’t have to do anything.

As I mentioned above we are remodeling an old local family gem of a house and it is vacant which is passed along to the enthusiastic young man on the phone scheduling us but still insisted someone be there for 3 hrs during the middle of the workday. 4 weeks later and a tonnn of confirmations for this appt including the morning of…crickets. My husband sat in his truck in the driveway for almost 3 hrs bc after not arriving on time I called in 30min increments to the scheduling/pending install dept and was assured multiple times that we were in fact still on schedule and tech like just running late from previous install. That makes sense. After 3 hrs I called again and was finally told that there was a “construction” issue and they would have to dig under/across the road so they wouldn’t be able to do anything that day. Frustrating.

This is just the first of many moments that left me scratching my head and wondering if we reeeeeally need internet or do I really need to work from home! 😬 ok that’s dramatic but this is the business of connectivity and communications. Like how are they not communicating amongst each other so that I would have known at the first call in. There were more appointments, bad weather days🤷🏻‍♀️, and a bargain bundle of other reasons why we were having to push back completion.

Until…in comes Kentucky Kris!! Our angel of an IdeaTek install tech…scratch that, we’ll call him a specialist or an expert!! Not only did he get us installed but he came on a really cold/windy Saturday, and he texted me an hr and half before coming to let me know he was coming. (This is what communication looks like) I was still honestly still in my PJs bc I was seriously expecting another no-show or another reason why we needed to jump over some other hurdle! He texts me shortly before arriving and even got there a few early. (Again, communication. Pretty cool how that works) Already my heart is racing bc we’re sooo close!! Bless his heart he had to drill through a fort of a house bc these exterior walls are all concrete but he stuck it out and got us all set up…but then told us that apparently our neighbor had an issue with his exterior wiring so ours was used to keep him up and running. Kris ensured us that he had ran it up the proper channels and that he would be keeping his word when he said he was going to take care of us. This loving soul did just that. Bc of the weekend we had to wait until Monday but first thing that morning there was an IdeaTek truck out there and within an hour I’m getting a text from Kris stating we were online!! (COMMUNICATION FOLKS) He got me all the info I needed to get onto our network and the app to manage it. If it wasn’t for Kentucky Kris coming in and saving the day (4 months) my husband would likely be on the roof adjusting a satellite dish and standing there with his “fiber” in his hand.

Since moving here almost 3 yrs ago Kris is def the first person that has gone above and beyond his “job description” for the needs and happiness of his customers. Luckily, we ended up getting a great deal and much more than expected as we shall now call...

The internet connection works good I have service to all of my devices and it runs good on them all , installation was confusing , the 1st guy that showed up explained to me how it would b wired from the pole to that pole etc etc there was a cox wire that sagged down real low across my yard I was unhappy with and that I would prefer idea tek wires to b tightened and raised when they ran there line ,so it wouldn’t sag so low across my yard , he said “they would run it from pole to pole so it wouldn’t even come across my yard , it would run to the pole beside my house just below the electric line ,that come to the side of my house ,and would enter threw the wall of the existing wires so no drilling ,no new holes “I said that’s perfect . That is not what happened this installer was in a comp truck , he leaves . About an hr later 2 guys in there personal vehicles pull up and start running wires. I notice that the line they run is coming across my yard barely above the cox wire .I stop him and ask what he’s doing ? he proceeds to tell me that they have to follow the cox line right then the 1st guy pulls bk in and I walk out towards him to see why the plans we had were changed we walk up to the 2 installers that ran the lines and he asks why they didn’t run it like he had instructed them to do and they say again we got orders to follow the cox line so now I have 2 lines hanging across my yard so I can’t get my 5th camper out with out holding the wires up while standing on the top of the 5th wheel camper . Def not what was discussed ! Also when the sales guy came and knocked on my door and we set an appointment for instillation I told him I would like just WiFi only and I had mail that I had received from idea tek with the special deals for diff packages they offered and the freedom fighter package included 2 wireless extenders and free installation no support fees for $18.00 along w the 2.5 gig for$ 79.00 a card with the date and time of the installation along w 2.5 gt FF written on it with contact info and instructions reguarding things to remember before scheduled visit. I received the bill for installation and the 1st months bill of $179.00 so I call to ?? What the .. and u have to call and tell them that u ordered the FF package on the day u were scheduled for instillation .. I was told they would fixit on my bill it hasn’t been fixed yet … other then that the sales guy was very nice and I have internet but I don’t have the extenders that come in the FF package ..but I...

Service/speed = outstanding!

The installer (I don’t remember his name, it was about 9 months ago) = awesome!

HOWEVER…customer support = sorely lacking and painfully unprofessional.

A few weeks ago, I logged into the payment portal to pay my bill, but kept getting “unable to connect to server” error messages. After 3-4 days of that, I finally went to the website to see what the problem was, only to learn their entire payment server was down.

I had concerns my service would be suspended because my payment was already late as it was, so I started a chat with customer support (god, I wish I had gotten screenshots or at least the guy’s name) to ask about this. He told me they couldn’t take ANY payments: not by phone, online, nothing…but he said they’d be sending an automated email notification to their customers when it was back up (spoiler alert: they did not and no, it didn’t go to my spam folder).

I relayed my concerns that I’d been actively TRYING to pay for several days and didn’t want my service to be suspended. He responded they wouldn’t “do anything until it was 2 or 3 months late.” (MONTHS?!) That didn’t sound right at all, so again, I expressed my concern about my service being suspended. He asked, “How late are you?” I told him around 3 weeks. He replied that I’d be “fine.”

Surprise! It got suspended. So thanks for that.

Customer Support Guy wasn’t rude, but he was so super casual throughout the entire chat that I was literally picturing him as a teenager lying around just texting me stuff off the top of his head. He obviously didn’t even pull up my account to look at it (seeing as how he asked “how late are you?”)

And literally telling people they will be “fine” paying “2 or 3” MONTHS(?!?!) late is not only absurdly incorrect, it also SOUNDS insanely unprofessional. Now, I wasn’t planning to wait “2 or 3 months” to pay; I was actively TRYING to pay, just waiting for the server to be back up and running so I COULD. But I guarantee you there ARE people who would hear that and take it at face value, like, “Oh cool, they said we don’t really NEED to pay this yet!” and then have their service suspended.

The whole experience left me with an icky, uncomfortable feeling of, can I even trust these people; who is actually running this company?!

If not for that experience, I’d...