When reaching out to your cable provider, you often brace yourself for a bit of a struggle. However, you certainly don’t anticipate receiving snarky parenting advice along with your service complaint. That’s exactly what transpired when a news anchor from Australia, named Emily Carter, took to social media to report that her internet and television services were down.
Emily, a newsroom manager and busy mom, informed the telecommunications giant, Telstra, that her broadband and Foxtel services had stopped working. While her devices estimated a two-day wait for a fix, her son was growing increasingly restless, eager to catch his favorite show. She decided to tweet Telstra for an update.
In an unexpected twist, the company’s social media manager, Sarah, suggested that Emily take her son outdoors. Really?
Emily quickly responded, explaining that as a dedicated mom who had spent all day with her child, she simply wanted a moment of quiet. Kudos to her for maintaining composure instead of saying, “How about you just fix my service instead of giving me unsolicited advice?”
Soon after, others chimed in, calling Sarah’s comments rude and out of line. Eventually, Sarah explained that she didn’t mean to offend and that she, too, was a working mother. She then asked for Emily’s zip code to provide more information about the outage.
A Telstra spokesperson later acknowledged that Sarah’s remarks were “inappropriate” and indicated that she would receive additional training on customer service etiquette. After all, it’s generally best to prioritize customer needs over unsolicited parenting critiques.
Regardless of Sarah’s intentions, her comments felt condescending. Emily wasn’t looking for a parenting lesson about screen time; she simply wanted her cable and internet restored. It’s perfectly reasonable to seek a bit of peace and quiet while letting your child watch a show. The amount of screen time another parent allows is ultimately a personal choice, and as consumers, we expect the services we pay for to function properly.
If Sarah wants to offer parenting advice, she might be better suited for a role in social media for parenting experts like Dr. Sears. For more insight on parenting and home insemination, check out this informative post.
In summary, a cable company’s customer service representative faced backlash for giving unsolicited parenting advice instead of addressing a service issue. While the intention may not have been to offend, the response was seen as condescending, highlighting the importance of focusing on customer needs rather than personal judgments.