Okay, so I’m not one to whine about service companies. After experiencing first hand the unbridled anger of a few irate customers I have a good deal of empathy built up for the people representing the corporate face, but with Comcast they’ve blown through that goodwill years ago. So now I’m writing on the internet to vent my frustrations. I know, it’s not very original.
Even before moving to Seattle I’ve had troubles with my cable and Internet connection. In Palo Alto, yes the heart of Silicon Valley, the cable guy visited our place at least 3 times for various service problems, and I spent a good 2 hours on the phone with their Internet troubleshooters. All the while knowing much more then they did, but I still patiently went through the protocol. It eventually worked, but it was way more hassle then it needed to be.
My cable here in Seattle sucks. I get ghost images on the lower channels and they’ve been out to fix it once already saying I just needed shielded cable. They ghost went away for a little while, but a few days later came back. I was going to just deal with it but…
Last week my Internet connection decided to stop working. Flashbacks to Palo Alto came flying back, but I calmly picked up the phone and called. After negotiating their touch tone phone menu system I got to a real person. To my surprise they were very polite, didn’t make me do any ridiculous over the phone troubleshooting and said they’d come out and fix it on Friday between 2 and 4. Sweet they’ll be here the next day, now that’s service. Of course on Friday at about 5, I realized the Comcast I know and love was showing its true colors. They didn’t show.
So, I called on Saturday and using some remote diagnostic tools they said my cable modem was busted. I’m leasing my modem so they said I could take it back to a CompUSA or Best Buy instead of having to wait until a technician which the earliest one could come was Tuesday. Alright, so you guys didn’t do the diagnostic over the phone last time and lied to me about a technician but at least you’ve setup this handy service where I can exchange my modem. No need to wait until Tuesday. So, I hopped in my car and drove out to Best Buy.
After waiting for 15 minutes in the return line I strolled up to the customer service counter and handed her my modem. “Hi, I talked to Comcast and they said I could return this here.” She gave me this classic head tilt, her eyes got wide, her forehead scrunched and she said the thing I feared but somehow knew would be the case, “I’m sorry sir but I have no idea what you’re talking about. We have no deal with Comcast. You’re going to have to get a technician out to your residence.” Super.
I call on the way home and since it’s Saturday they’re “Experiencing an unusually high call volume”. Thankfully instead of having me wait on the phone they offer to call me back, and I won’t lose my place in the virtual line. This service actually did work and was quite nice. About 30 minutes later they called back and someone must have wised up, bought some books, and dropped their service because their was an opening Monday.
I ended up working from home in the morning “borrowing” the spotty Internet connection from some kind soul with an unprotected connection. The guy did show up and after three trips out to my cable box and replacing my modem, I’m happy to report after almost week my Internet works and the TV ghost are gone.
I know all the people I worked with at Comcst meant well and it’s not really anyones fault, but it’s stuff like this that makes me loathe a company and want to find any alternative. Too bad they’re basically the only show in town I can get in my apartment. And by some unfortunate marketing coincidence, I just opened a letter today from Comcast saying they’re now offering higher speeds for free.
Riiiight, let’s just hope they didn’t break anything.