We awoke this morning to our cable TV signal showing a lot of noise, and the cable modem showing that we had no network connection to the outside world. I called Comcast, ran through their ‘we want you to add more services’ telephone obstacle course, to land at the headset of a customer service rep. His first tact was to blame it on my equipment. Excuse me, I said, but both both the TV box and the network modem are having connection issues, so you expect me to accept that two pieces of equipment in my house both went on the fritz at the same time? So he started putzing around, had me reset the two boxes, and still nothing worked. He tried to do a remote reset, but (surprise) our box did not receive his signal (hint: if the cable line is not working, a remote signal sent down the cable probably is likely to not work. But hey, that is the advanced class, and this customer service has not made it there, yet). A bit confused, and apparently under orders not to admit they had a problem, the CR rep puts me on hold. A couple of minutes later a woman comes on the line and acts as if I had just called in. She wants me to power cycle my equipment (didn’t the guy who passed me off tell me we had done this?), then it is time to start the sales pitch: she tells me that if they have to dispatch a technician to diagnose the problem that I might have to pay for their time, but I can add a service guarantee to my monthly fee and then I will not be charged. Huh? I decline and tell her I need it fixed, but she wants me to sit at home all day and wait for a technician, but then again I might have to pay if they send the technician out since I do not have the service guarantee. Sheesh. Poor old me, I have only been designing, building, and maintaining information networks for 3 or so decades, so I cannot possibly understand the complexities of their system and the fact that the problem must be in my house since no one else in my neighborhood has called to report a problem …. at 5:45 AM. So I have to resort to the old ‘fix it or I walk’ ultimatum, at which time she agrees to escalate the issue, but then again unless I have the service guarantee I might have to pay for the technician’s time.
I thought Comcast would have rid themselves of the AT&T service mentality and customer service reps when they bought the old AT&T cable division. Apparently not.
After finishing the call, and seeing The Wife out the door, I started to get ready to go to the office (can’t work from home if there is no network, but that was a non-issue since the money man who pays me wants us all in the office today). By the time I was dressed for work all the cable stuff in our home was working. Wonder if they are going to bill us for the technician’s time?
Tags: Customer Service Issues
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interesting. my yahoo/at&t DSL was fritzy all day yesterday.
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Aaargh. How did you manage to stay so patient?
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Argh. That sounds horrible. I have to say that is pretty much the customer service norm these days… However, I have to say that with Cox Cable (my cable TV and internet provider) I have had pretty good luck with service. I was able to get my new cable modem MAC id registered and working in just 5 minutes on the phone…. and when the cable went out and I called, they managed to figure out the problem was THEM, never mentioned charging me, and had it fixed asap! So I’m happier with them now than I used to be.
Sad how low the bar is these days.
Glad you’re back online!
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you should have snuggled back in your bed!
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VeloGirl – I think that a few of the remote pieces of equipment for all the utilities were not liking the cold weather. Expected, but they should know that.
Groover – You are assuming I was patient. I was to a point, but my impatience was perceptible as I played the ‘fix it or I walk’ card.
Doc Kim – I had mixed experience with Comcast support in the past; some good, some OK, nothing great. Yesterday harkened back the old days when the division operating here was owned by AT&T and their customer support reached new lows. One of these days maybe I will give you the highlights of why I gave up on Earthlink, another customer service disaster.
Twinkie – good suggestion, but The Wife had to get going so she could do a 2 hour ride and get to work on time, and I had to head north and actually be in the office as the money man was coming down to give a holiday pep talk.
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For legal reasons, if there is a wiring problem inside your home (i.e. your dog eats through your cable, or hook up a splitter backwards) they have to charge you. Just the same if you had an electrical problem, the power company will tell you that the service to your home is fine and that you have to hire an electrician to fix an inside wiring problem.
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illidian41 – Yes, but I had no inside wiring problem. And the customer service rep could have determined that easily if she were to run the diagnostics on their network rather than trying to upsell me a home-wiring warranty. I did not cover it in the post, as it was irrelevant to the gripe that they were using customer service as a sales organization and providing no service, but I knew it was outside the house as I connected my cable modem directly to their drop at the external MPOE and it still did not work. Like I said, I’ve been in the business for decades so I know how to diagnose problems.
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