I Hate Comcast
Let me briefly tell you what happened. This is not a story about me not paying a bill. My problems began more than a week ago, on January 23, when I signed up for a Comcast promotion.
I already had Comcast cable and internet service; this would add phone service to my bill and upgrade my cable TV offerings.
The next day, four burly men showed up at my door. One of them was climbing up a ladder leaning against my telephone bill. The head burly guy says, "The previous tenant David Rosenzweig terminated service. We're here to terminate service." David Rosenzweig is my husband! I tell them. We did NOT terminate service. My cable bill was in David's name; the internet was in mine; in order to upgrade and take advantage of this package, we had to switch cable into my name. They won't listen. He flashes an order form in front of me and tells me if I write a check for $20, my service won't be terminated.
Instead, I call 1 800 Comcast and the person who answers confirms that we had put in a request to upgrade service, not terminate it. The person even tells the four burly guys that. The leader calls his dispatch who says, Never mind, you've got your order to terminate.
So they did.
After many phone calls, Comcast sends a truck to my house the next day, and my service is turned back on.
Then, the real problems begin.
The following Tuesday, January 30, a Comcast technicians installs a new modem so I can receive my new digital phone service. 30 minutes later, I am shut out of my email account. "Account inactive," the message reads.
I make many calls. Get nowhere. I am told the problem has to go to "Engineering," which will take 24 hours. The next day I call again. This person tells me Engineering normally takes 72 hours, but now they are backed up. "Who knows" when it would be fixed.
Oh, as a final indignity, I am told to call the "business office" to arrange for credit for missed service.
Instead, I insist and finally get a supervisor on the line, who promises action. He thinks this can be fixed by the end of the day.
30 minutes later, my Internet service is gone.
The end of the day, someone else calls me to tell me that it has to be fixed by Engineering. Now, I'm told that will take seven days.
So, now I have no internet or email service. People who email me find their message bounced back, with a strange message that says my email doesn't exist. Great for business.
Today, I muster my strength and call 1 800 Comcast. I talk to another technician who seems sincere. He promises he will look into it. I want an appointment to have my old modem installed. He thinks he can make that happen. I hope he will. I do my best to sound needy, grateful, pathetic.
But the problem is, Comcast is so busy signing up customers, it doesn't have enough people to actually service their clients. The old Ma Bells may have been greedy and gouging customers, but when service wasn't working, they would have a crew to your house in a day, and it would be fixed. Internet service is now as essential, perhaps more so, than phone service.
And where is the business press in covering this? Well, the New York Times wrote a slavish profile of Comcast just recently, praising them for signing up so many customers. No mention of their abysmal customer service.
Stumble It!
posted by pam at 11:33 AM
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