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One day last month, Kansas City resident Victoria Tane's Google Fiber Internet service stopped working.
It turned out that Google Fiber cut off her Internet access because she owed 12 cents after an odd series of events involving an unused e-mail address, automated customer account systems, and a sales tax increase. Google Fiber quickly restored her connection and forgave the 12-cent balance after she called customer service, but the incident highlights a problem that Google Fiber may need to fix in order to prevent other customers from losing service over similarly trivial amounts.
The Kansas City Star of Missouri detailed what happened in a story yesterday. Tane has Google Fiber's basic 5Mbps Internet service which has no monthly payment and required only a $300 construction fee. Google Fiber no longer offers that package to new customers, but those who signed up for it and paid the construction fee can use the service with no further payments for a total of seven years.
Tane "paid the total upfront" a year ago, the Star wrote. "$300 to connect, plus $25.08 for taxes and fees. Transaction done. Free for seven years."
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday September 19 2017, @03:04PM
Oh, sure--from a marketing perspective, it's definitely not worth it to bug them over 12 cents. I was speaking from the perspective of the programmers who have to write the software to do it because the business logic doesn't want to just do a simple one-time lump sum for some reason.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"