UPDATE!!!!
As most of you know, I had a terrible experience with Comcast. Their customer service was, well, lacking (to be nice). If you need a refresher, please read below.
Today, I received a call.
“Hi, Lauren, this is Christina with Comcast.”
“Um, hi…”
“I’m calling about your blog. It sounds like you haven’t really had a great experience with Comcast!”
*cough* *choke* thinking to myself, “did they really just call me?”
Yes. Comcast called me.
So, Christina apologized, broke down my bill for me, told me what she could do to make it as affordable as possible, and she did it! SHE DID IT! It wasn’t some empty promise (like tweeting with @ComcastBonnie was). I even have her direct phone number in case something else looks wrong on my bill.
I WAS TAKEN CARE OF. And she was just as nice as could be.
I have also received several emails directly from the corporate office! AND they’re sending someone out to fix my poor reception on Saturday! Can’t wait.
I was not asked to write this update, but I wanted to let everyone know that Comcast customer service does exist, it just might be a little difficult to find… may all you CS representatives learn from Christina. Mistakes happen. Own up to them. And make them right.
I HATE COMCAST!
Yeah. I said it. And I’m sure I’m not speaking for just myself here. I have had a HORRIBLE experience with them since I moved out to San Francisco.
Let me start at the beginning…
Day One
On the road, moving to San Francisco, I call Comcast. (Disclaimer, this is a summary, not exact words spoken by either myself or Comcast).
“Hi, I’d like to set up cable and high-speed internet in my new apartment”
Some blah blah blah and then a rendition of, “it’s going to cost you $150 dollars for both.”
“WHAT?!?!”
“Oh, wait there’s a special right now. We can give you cable with free HBO and high-speed internet for $44.99 a month.”
“GREAT! I’ll take it!”
Day Four
Comcast guy comes to my apartment to set up cable and internet. He provides me with a pretty silver box and a wireless router. Yippee!
Later Day Four
My internet doesn’t work. Call the Comcast guy. He comes back, begrudgingly. After fiddling around with the router and my computer, he determines that the problem is with my computer and “we don’t DO computers.” So I was all, “Ummmmm, Sir, my internet was working FINE two hours ago when I was at work.” And he was all,“don’t know what to tell ya.”
Sweet.
Really Late Day Four
I fix my own damn internet. The dude set it to a WAP connection and it needed to be a WEP connection and so I had to go onto Comcast’s secret site and redo the whole set up BY MYSELF.
Thanks Comcast.
Day Six
My cable doesn’t work. It’s all choppy and discombobulated and I can’t even get through the latest episode of Hung and I’m pissed. It’s like a remix for the TV and it ISN’T A GOOD ONE.
So I call Comcast.
“Um, hi, my cable is all screwed up.”
“Ok, let me reset your cable box; that should do the trick.”
“Great, thanks.”
Fifteen minutes later…
“Um, hi, my cable still doesn’t work.”
“Ok, let me reset your cable box; that should do the trick.”
“That’s what the last guy said. And it still doesn’t work.”
“That’s really all I can tell you.
Great.
So, it’s been two months and I’ve been watching intermittent cable. Meh, I’m not home that often anyway. Plus, I’m only paying $44.99 right? WRONG.
Get my bill from Comcast this month. $100.77.
EXCUSE ME???
Call Comcast.
“Um, hi, I’d like to discuss my bill. It’s over $100 and I was told I was paying $44.99 plus tax, of course. There must be some misunderstanding…”
“Well, let me look here… Looks like you’re paying $44.99 for the cable, $29.99 for internet, $15.95 for HDDVR and $9.99 for your router rental.”
*cough* *choke* *holy &^%$(@&* *breathe*
“That’s not exactly what I was quoted, but if you say that’s correct, can I pay my bill with you and then take the DVR off for future months?”
“You actually have to take the DVR box into a store in order to return it.”
“I don’t have a DVR box…”
“It’s your cable box.”
“The silver one?”
“Yeah.”
“But then I won’t have cable?”
“Then we’ll replace it with a regular box.”
“Why didn’t I get a regular box to begin with?”
“Don’t know.”
“Well, can you just send someone out to swap boxes?”
“No… we don’t do that anymore. You have to bring it in.”
“Super. So let me just pay my bill with you and I’ll try to find a store in this huge city and lug my cable box there and lug my new one back and hope I can successfully set it up by myself like I did my internet.”
“Well, you can pay your bill with me but it’s $3.99.”
CLICK
I know. Perhaps a little dramatic. But SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?!?!?!
I can’t believe that a company treats its customers this way. They’re basically giving me the middle finger and saying, “yeah, good luck with that.”
Not only was I misinformed, my problems were not resolved, I had to resolve them myself, I was charged for items I didn’t even know I was getting, and when I said I would just pay them right then and there, it was another fee. Yay! I love customer service!
Now, I’m on a hunt. I need to find another provider of internet and cable. Because I do NOT want to give another DIME to this company. Wish me luck.
I have to sympathize. My Comcast troubles from the last 4 weeks could fill a novel. To top it all off – I turned on my TV this morning, and the entire screen was GREEN. Yes, the TV just showed a green screen. After unplugging my comcast box and “resettng” it like, 8 times, it finally decided that I was allowed to watch cable again. GRRR.
Lauren, your experience sounds almost exactly like mine. I may have something helpful to contribute, although I have not yet resolved my own circumstance with Comcast. (Latest attempt last night having eded with a sudden disconnection of phone conversation after about 20 minutes.) A few points in random order:
(1) The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing there, multiplied because they’re now an octopus. Sales, marketing, tech support, all the departments seem to be protected from any knowledge of what’s said and done by any of the others.
(2) There are no real rules, policies, or prices, in the normally accepted western world model. Instead, think of an interaction with Comcast as an exciting trip to Marrakech, where fabulous rugs can be gotten if you haggle–or they will skin you alive if you don’t. I don’t like the haggle hassle either, but the pain is transitory and the reward lasts forever. Summing that one up, think “We can work something out.”
(3) Technically, I find them to be great, and cheap. After you wrench the train onto the track, it runs straight and smooth and reliable and fast.
(4) I had always ignored their promotions offering introductory 1-year prices, since I intend to be around for many years to come. Turns out I was wrong. Those special intro prices are the real ones; after they expire, you can arrange for a similar one. Posted price is a fiction, I suspect for some arcane regulatory purpose.
Here’s my experience with them: For years, I had bare basic cable TV for an appalling list price of $50-ish per month. I never considered getting fancier service, assuming it would be commensurately overpriced. Then came the great digital conversion of US broadcast TV around June, which Comcast ran endless ads about, assuring that its customers would be unaffected. Technically we were, but Comcast itself embarked on a project of its own which required all non-digital customers to get new devices.
Thus roused from my torpor, I took a good look at alternative levels of service. Hilarity ensued as I plowed through their website, which described services and packages that hadn’t existed for YEARS, and every rep I talked to said something different. (I’m not even including the polite, clueless denizens of Bangalore who do their internet chat “service,” other than to say I generated transcripts that still make me howl with laughter.)
Cutting to the chase: A rep offered to replace my crummy $50/month SD cable TV service with a new class of service: A zillion channels (including IFC, TMC, and Sundance, the only ones I really wanted), HD feeds of the ones that had HD, free 8-feed HBO, two dual-tuner HD DVRs, AND internet faster than my DSL, AND voice phone service with unlimited nationwide calls and every conceivable feature, all for $99/month. Thus: vastly improved TV selection (haven’t left the house since), faster net connection, and all-I-can-eat voice. After I cancelled Tivo service and droped my $80/month voice/internet package from another company, total telecom cost was DOWN by $45/month, and quality up immeasurably.
Then came my bill for around $150. I chuckled over its incomprhensible details, and called them to get it straight. Nooo problem, said a very nice rep. OK, said I. The next bill was about $300. Call rep, rinse, repeat. They’ve been shaving money off each time I call back, and although I don’t understand it, it’s close enough that I’m ready just to pay it. Start over, assume the next month’s bill would actually be $99. I hsven’t paid a dime yet, and my September bill, including that month’s service, was actually $60 LESS than my August bill, so we may finally have gotten it right.
I left out the chapter where they sent me a contract for the promotional cable price of $45/month, I called to make sure that was right, the rep told me it was superceded and I should throw away the contract, then they sent me a letter saying sign it NOW or lose the price break, I called and another nice rep helped me accept it on the website. It still doesn’t correpond to any pricing I see in their materials or my notes. What I’d like is a contract for what we agreed on; it seems that isn’t possible. I still can’t make sense of it by adding the components up and getting a sum anything like $99. I worry too much.
I hope that helps, or at least helped you sleep if you were having trouble.
Lauren, JK, and MrMadman,
I seriously think a customer service “rescue” is in order here. I’m really sorry to hear of your unacceptable experiences, and we need to work to make this right. Please, please, please reach out to my team and I via email at We_can_help@cable.comcast.com. We will share these experiences with leadership and do all we can to make you guys happy campers.
Be sure to include a good contact number and a link to this blog.
Best,
Detreon Roberts
Comcast National Customer Operations
We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com
I met two of Comcast’s Twitter-Reps at Blogworld last year. Really nice crew and they truly care about the customer which is very important.
Using Twitter, I’ve gotten calls from
1. Bank of America
2. AT&T
3. Comcast
4. SFPD
5. Charles Schwab
6. Starbucks
7. Guinness
8. Ford Motor Company
9. Visa
Companies are paying attention now.