Comcast

[DBK]

I called to make some changes to my service the other day. Guy on the phone didn't exactly graduate from M.I.T, but I forge ahead and explain what I want. We went back and forth repeatedly while I explained what my bill (that was right in front of me) added up to and what it should add up to after service changes. Math was not his strong suit. English was also not his strong suit, but I figure I'll deal with the consequences of entrusting my next bill to this person later. Eventually we agree to set up appointment for today between 2:00-4:00.

They were supposed to bring new X1 equipment and upgrade service. E-Mail is right in front of me. Says between 2:00-4:00 PM, Friday, March 14. My address, my account on e-mail. 4:00 PM comes and goes. I give it a half hour buffer and decide to ring up my friendly Xfinity representatives.

I call. Dial through the system to get to calls regarding appointments for today. Sit on hold. After a while, line disconnects.

I call again. Dial through the system to get to calls regarding appointments for today. Sit on hold. After a while, line disconnects again.

I call again. Dial through the system to get to calls regarding appointments for today. Sit on hold. After a while, I get a nice man that sounds like Dave Chappelle playing Mr. Nice Guy on the phone. I don't have great hearing, but I figure I'll power through because it's unlikely any alternative representatives are bigger enunciation enthusiasts. He asks if anyone ever confirmed an appointment. I tell him I'm looking at the e-mail right in front of me. Give him address it came from. Sit on hold. Comes back and says there's no record of appointment. Tells me they have no record of e-mail. Then goes into discussion that no record of appointment exists, so nobody came out. Thanks for the breakdown. As he continues explaining the relationship between a lack of Comcast appointment and a lack of Comcast employee at my house, I eject from the aircraft and hang up.

I call Comcast back. Dial through the system, this time to get to cancellation department. "Please hold." After a while, line disconnects.

At this point I switch to Xfinity-provided home phone thinking maybe it's my AT&T cell service causing these issues.

I call again. Dial through the system to get to cancellation department. "Please hold." After a while, line disconnects.

I call again. Dial through the system to get to cancellation department. "Please hold." After a while, line disconnects.

At this point, I've become so proficient at navigating the system, I can just tap away before Suzy Automation finishes her sentences.

I call again. Dial through the system to get to cancellation department. "Please hold." After a while, line disconnects.

I call again. Dial through the system to get to cancellation department. "Please hold." After a while, line disconnects.

I call again. Dial through the system to get to cancellation department. "Please hold." After a while, line disconnects.

So for those of you keeping score at home, Comcast failed to show up for an appointment their representative on the phone confirmed, which Comcast subsequently sent me an e-mail with "Tips on how to prepare for your appointment," and then their call system hung up on me 8 times on 2 different phone lines. That's where I'm at right now.

Keep in mind, this is the same group of people that earlier this week was pitching me on switching my home security from Guardian Alarm to Xfinity. That sounds like a great idea! I can only imagine the peace of mind individuals that entrust the security of their family to Xfinity to must have.

I'm an easy customer. I like pay cable and I like fast internet. My security system requires a land line so I spring for all three, and my bill is pretty high. Tomorrow's Comcast AutoPay is $256.

I've been dealing with this company for years. They absolutely never get any better. It's absolutely astonishing how bad they are at this stuff. I don't care what it takes, I am going to get ahold of someone that speaks audible English, that is versed in the services Comcast offers, and I am going to nuke my service to the bare minimum and obtain my entertainment through the tubes of the internet.

(this post written in real time as the disaster unfolded)

 

[mustangjoe87]

Is comcast the only choice in your area?

 

[DBK]

Yup. U-Verse is in parts of my city, but not my neighborhood. No other cable providers.

 

[standy]

I feel for ya, Man. I have had terrible experiences with comcast for as long as I can remember. I just don't understand how they can suck so badly. They must share Sprint's business plan. It is impossible to get any satisfaction without having someone come to your house. They "yes fuck" you on the phone until you just give up and try to resolve the issue by other means. Dealing with comcast on the phone is as bad as trying to get ahold of someone knowledgeable at a government office.

 

[05cesrt]

That's why I refused to deal with comcast. Everyone seems to have customer service issues. Direct tv is great. I think I only lost signal 2 times this year. Which one was a power outage and other was a hell of a storm, so rented a movie and was all set.

 

[YLWFVR]

That's why I refused to deal with comcast. Everyone seems to have customer service issues. Direct tv is great. I think I only lost signal 2 times this year. Which one was a power outage and other was a hell of a storm, so rented a movie and was all set.

Directv here since 2004. Haven't looked back. But I do have other options other than comcast for my ISP. Dave is kinda stuck having only comcast as the only option for TV and Internet service

 

[DBK]

Ultimately I pretended I was adding services and got through to someone, asked to be transferred to cancellations. They told me they were the wrong cancellation department (west coast), gave me a different number and said they would transfer me. Transferred me to the right department, which was the endless Comcast loop. Got to the cancellation portion of the call system, waited, line disconnected.

Tried it one more time, and got through to a woman. They cut $70 a month off my bill for the next 12 months with no contractual obligation to stay, credited my account $50, and gave me every channel available and highest level of internet. It only took 4 hours, but I have achieved something.

 

[OldbutNew]

You, sir, are a stronger man than I.
Had that been MY experience, I would be on the news right now. Probably seen from a helicopter as they load me into the back of a patrol car. After the swat team stood by outside. Waiting for me to release the staff from the back room I had locked them into. For their own safety. I wouldn't want anyone hurt from flying debris. Caused as I systematically destroyed the local Comcast office. (I exaggerate. But your patience is still quite impressive.)

I will never, ever complain about Charter again.

 

[standy]

You, sir, are a stronger man than I.
Had that been MY experience, I would be on the news right now. Probably seen from a helicopter as they load me into the back of a patrol car. After the swat team stood by outside. Waiting for me to release the staff from the back room I had locked them into. For their own safety. I wouldn't want anyone hurt from flying debris. Caused as I systematically destroyed the local Comcast office. (I exaggerate. But your patience is still quite impressive.)

I will never, ever complain about Charter again.

HAHAHAHA! That is exactly the approach I had considered the last time I called them. +1 for letting me know that I am not alone when I consider resorting to violence.

 

[CMYZ28]

Ultimately I pretended I was adding services and got through to someone, asked to be transferred to cancellations. They told me they were the wrong cancellation department (west coast), gave me a different number and said they would transfer me. Transferred me to the right department, which was the endless Comcast loop. Got to the cancellation portion of the call system, waited, line disconnected.

Tried it one more time, and got through to a woman. They cut $70 a month off my bill for the next 12 months with no contractual obligation to stay, credited my account $50, and gave me every channel available and highest level of internet. It only took 4 hours, but I have achieved something.

Good Lord, time for a drink now LOL

 

[DBK]

It's definitely not my first dance with Comcast. I knew going in it would be rough. I have hated dealing with them as long as I've had reason too. A friend of mine did some consulting for them during the Comcast/NBC merger and told me they were the worst, nastiest group of people he'd ever done business with. Makes me feel better that he absolutely raped them with the amount he was charging them.

I was very happy with WoW, despite their somewhat ghetto service when I had it, purely because they were easy to deal with. Ditto DirecTV when I had it.

City now is Comcast or bust. I'm not gonna complain about 100 mbps internet service, but man are they a mess to deal with.

 

[Speedy]

I dumped them last month and they picked up their equipment and had to call them about my last bill and had horrible customer service and multiple disconnections and was out on hold for 50 minutes and probably longer if not for me hanging up and calling back only to get disconnect again

 

[347convert]

 

[YLWFVR]

It's definitely not my first dance with Comcast. I knew going in it would be rough. I have hated dealing with them as long as I've had reason too. A friend of mine did some consulting for them during the Comcast/NBC merger and told me they were the worst, nastiest group of people he'd ever done business with. Makes me feel better that he absolutely raped them with the amount he was charging them.

I was very happy with WoW, despite their somewhat ghetto service when I had it, purely because they were easy to deal with. Ditto DirecTV when I had it.

City now is Comcast or bust. I'm not gonna complain about 100 mbps internet service, but man are they a mess to deal with.

Wait till the time warner comcast merger goes through. Ugh. That will suck even more

 

[LTLHOMER]

Yup. U-Verse is in parts of my city, but not my neighborhood. No other cable providers.

U-Verse sucks too. I switched from U-Verse BACK to Comcast even with horror stories like yours from previous Comcast experiences. I've tried WoW as well but they sucked worse. You wonder why cable companies don't want you to have a choice...

 

[DennisH]

DBK, you have the patience if a saint. I would go without cable and internet if Comcast was my only choice.

Homer, that is the first time I've heard someone say WOW was worse than Comcast, your experience must have really sucked.

Dennis

 

[LTLHOMER]

DBK, you have the patience if a saint. I would go without cable and internet if Comcast was my only choice.

Homer, that is the first time I've heard someone say WOW was worse than Comcast, your experience must have really sucked.

Dennis

The customer service was better. But everything else about it sucked. I didn't keep that long before switching to U-Verse (which I had for awhile but their internet goes through the phone lines or something dumb and would flake out for long periods at a time every week). That was what forced me to go back to Comcast. U-Verse TV and what not was okay when it actually worked. But they could never get their internet to be consistent in my neighborhood.

Someone can probably explain how U-Verse is different than WoW/Comcast in terms of what infrastructure they use but here's a picture of how one tech did a connection in my house on like the 10th attempt at fixing the internet connection.

 

[Tin]

Someone can probably explain how U-Verse is different than WoW/Comcast in terms of what infrastructure they use but here's a picture of how one tech did a connection in my house on like the 10th attempt at fixing the internet connection.

UVerse is delivered over fiber optic to the distribution hub, then by twisted pair copper for the final run to the home, usually running over the existing telephone wiring, then to a splitter, then on to the modem or "gateway" as they market it. In technical terms, it is referred to as VDSL2. Going from fiber to copper causes a bottleneck, which is why the latency is generally higher for UVerse compared to cable. Cable is distributed over a hybrid copper/fiber coax cable to the home, then the drops in home are copper. This results in lower latency and potentially faster speed. The drawback to cable is shared bandwidth, but it isn't really noticeable unless it's during peak usage hours or you live in a neighborhood where the majority subscribe to one provider. Comcast was terrible for this until they started sharing their lines with the competition. In the early 00's they were the only game in town in some areas, and being online during peak hours wasn't that much faster than dialup at the time.

 

[Droptoplt1ta]

Comcast sucks. Thats all I have here. Had WOW before... Wow is better

 

[NBFRC]

Someone needs to create a cable company with Comcast speed, Uverse customer service and WOW pricing.