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Comcast goes to an all time low by ripping off a senior citizen

daviddalka.com — A Comcast outsourced technician visits a senior citizen's house and claims to installed the service even though he didn't. Then he reports it back to Comcast as a completed installation and now they are going to keep on charging her until she returns the high speed modem she never received. She called Comcast many times but they are ignoring her.

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  • marcuschi, on 10/12/2007, -135/+6Pics or it didn't happen.
    • starf, on 10/12/2007, -2/+53What pics? There is no modem. Do you want a pic of an empty corner of a room?

      I had a not as bad experience where they couldn't get the cable modem going at faster than a 14.4 modem. They claimed that they were going to come back and upgrade the cable going into my house, which they never did, and they claimed they had no idea what I was talking about when I called in later on. They did leave the modem, which I was told I had to drop off at their center. After I did that, someone showed up at my house asking where it was, but they eventually cancelled it. My only compensation was that they had given me a $50 webvan gift card, which I got to keep.
    • Akaji, on 10/12/2007, -4/+35Here is the text of the article (since the server is being unstable):

      ----------------------------------------

      Comcasted

      The following is a first ever guest post by mother, Gloria Dalka, who recently had Comcast wasted her time, miss numerous appointments and experienced other inconveniences. The largest of these involved a contract tech that visited the house to install a cable modem, said “he’d return later” (yet never did), then reported the job and cable modem installed (apparently to get paid). Comcast stated via phone that they wanted cable modem back (which she does not have due to the apparent fraudulent work order the tech input) and after numerous calls there is considerable concern the refund will not be properly processed and that the US Mail was used to send unauthorized bills which constitutes mail fraud.

      Start guest blog post
      ******************************
      12/13/06
      At this time, we had Comcast for cable TV, 2 lines of phone service and we had a 56K Internet service provider (much to our son’s dismay when he visited).

      An uninvited Comcast sales rep, Mike, personally visits us late in the day, telling us that Comcast will not be able to support the technology that we are using for telephone services for much longer. He offers us unlimited phone @ $30 per month, high speed broadband internet @ $20 per month and leaving the existing Cable TV package unchanged. We signed a conditional contract accepting those services pending completed installation. Mike calls his office and sets up an installation for Dec 20th between noon and 4pm.

      12/20/06
      Service tech arrives in an unmarked vehicle at 3:15pm. He comes into our home with his clipboard and walks through the house looking at what we have both upstairs in the room where we keep the computer and in our basement to see what kind of box we have there. He checks our backyard and comes in saying that we have all old technology and that he doesn’t have what he needs to do the installation with him. He states that he will return first thing the following morning. My husband asked what time he’d arrive. Tech states that he leaves Palatine @ 7:00; my husband says we’ll expect you 7:30 to 7:40; the tech nods affirmatively and leaves. No equipment was brought into or installed in our home. No document was signed accepting any services or equipment.

      12/21/06
      No tech arrives. We are nervous and start calling Comcast.
      8:45AM - Call 866-594-1234 to find out what’s going on since no tech has arrived and was told that we’re on the schedule for 8am to noon.
      12:15PM - Call the above # again and Scott told us that someone will check and get back to us within 2 hours. Given reference # 899206. And no one calls back.
      2:35PM - Spoke to Christine at X6321 at the Schaumburg center who said that someone would check and get back to us within an hour. Given reference # 427066. And no one calls back.
      3:40PM - Called again, spoke to someone named OJ who said that he’d write it up and have someone get back to us. No ticket # given. OJ was anxious to leave since his shift ended @ 4:00. And no one calls back.
      3:50PM - Called Mike, the sales rep from 12/13/06, who was at home with his kids. He said he’d check and get back to us.
      3:55PM - Mike calls back and says he has seen how many times we called and that he couldn’t do anything, but that he’d have his supervisor call us. We did not get a call back from Mike’s supervisor or anyone else at Comcast.

      We took the innocent viewpoint that everyone had the holidays on their minds and decided to wait until after the holidays to pursue the issue again.

      1/2/07
      Called Mike, our sales rep and told him how things had gone and that we were extremely unhappy with the way we had been treated. He again deferred to his supervisor asking what day would be all right for installation. I suggested Jan 5th or Jan 9th as the install date and told him that I would not allow a third party installer into my home. He said we would get a call back and, again, no one calls back.

      1/8/07
      10:00AM - Decided that Comcast didn’t care about retaining a customer that they had for many years and called AT & T to set up installation of services for phone, internet and DISH network satellite television. Installation date was to be Jan 17th.
      10:45AM - Patrick Ellisworth, Mike’s supervisor, called to say that installation would be on the next day. I told him that it would not, that his failure to call in a timelier manner resulted in my choosing a different provider.

      1/12/07
      I received a call from AT& T saying that they had contacted Comcast and that Comcast said that they couldn’t make the change until after the 23rd. It did not seem strange at the time, I now wonder if they did this to attempt to fraudulently get past the 30 day satisfaction refund warranty.

      1/19/07
      Received a bill in the mail from Comcast showing that I had digital voice and high speed internet. Since no high speed Internet had been installed this now becomes mail fraud.

      Called 866-594-1234 to contest that I had the services shown on the billing.
      Initially I spoke to Neesha in billing who said that she needed to verify that I didn’t have the services; transferred Pan in technical services who transferred me to Brad in retention, who transferred me to Drake in retention who put me on hold while he conferred with someone and then came back to tell me I needed to speak to someone in a different department. I believe that he put me back in the queue and then the call was disconnected. So, after spending almost one hour telling the truth I was till being told that, no, I had the installation and had the services as well as their modem.

      1/22/07
      Called 866-594-1234 asking for a supervisor and got Sonia X6077 of the
      Schaumburg, IL office. She stated that there was no problem since there is a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. She claims that a credit would be issued in the amount of $75.38, I told her that they needed to get after the tech that marked our install order as completed since he had probably entered a serial # to “verify” the completion. He either had it or sold it.

      1/26/07
      Called Comcast to cancel the second phone line; the primary line was handled by AT&T on the 24th. Internet is up and running so we are no longer using the second line which we had used exclusively as our internet line. They still think we have their service and modem. I’m tired of being called a liar by them

      So, Comcast still asserts that we owe for services not received and Comcast believes that they completed the install and that I have a modem that they supplied.

      My requests of Comcast:
      - Refund of all high speed internet charges for services not received.
      - A letter verifying voidance of the contract (requested on 1/12/2007) and refund for all services (phone & cable) provided past the date AT&T requested transfer.
      - Compensation for the numerous missed visits and a formal apology.
      - Issuance of the refund check that my son David is owed when he changed to RCN earlier after hearing about our recent Comcast experience and other service problems.

      End Guest Blog post
      ******************************
      For me this is a frustrating example of a poor customer experience that is driven by management desire to cut costs by using contractors. This often does not take into cost of lack of execution, lack of process accountability and customer dissatisfaction.

      Selling via a house visit to upsell due to a technology change is an aggressive tactic, was the fact this occurred so close to year end meaningful and an attempt to “cook books”?

      It’s my second run in with the modem issue. When Comcast bought AT&T’s cable system, I owned my own modem. After moving to a non-Comcast area, it took over a year and calls from a collection agency to fix the error.

      Why does Comcast outsource things with a poorly defined process that leads to a bad customer experience?
    • lukas88, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This might not go over too well with the mob justice mentality, but except for a few technical problems with the cable in the apartment buildings I have lived in, I have always had really good service with comcast. Thats 5 years of high speed uninterrupted service. I started out at 1.5 mbps because that is all they offered. Without raising the price, and even without much competition in my town (denver), they still have raised the speed of their internet service without charging extra, like 3 times. It is up to around 3.5 mpbs now. They also gave me a student rate last time I moved.

      This sounds pretty lame what they did to this person. I for sure do not consider them the best company in the world. But in my own experience they have been great and I will likely stay with them until fiber optic is available in my town.
    • Badaudio, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I dont know where you guys are located, but the comcast over here would pretty much suck my ***** if i asked, they do everything for me.
    • jazbek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Where are YOU located??
    • chiklit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"An uninvited Comcast sales rep, Mike, personally visits us late in the day, telling us that Comcast will not be able to support the technology that we are using for telephone services for much longer."

      Since when has Comcast ever supported dialup or regular phone lines in the first place?
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Comcast are notorious for doing dumb ***** like this.

      I went to cancel my account because of their rampant asshattery. I went to the billing office, returned all my equipment, asked how much I owed so I could pay the remainder of the balance - which I did. I asked if this was now paid in full...

      "Yes".
      "So I don't owe you guys anything else after this?"
      "No sir, have a good day."
      "Thanks, you too"

      Then of course without fail the next month I get a bill for $3.29 for some ***** deactivation fee. I call them up asking if they could waive it since it's probably more hassle to collect it than it's worth, and that I didn't wish to do business with them any longer. Did they let it go? ***** NO. I must've stayed on the phone with the CSR for 15 minutes about this crap. This sort of thing would be waived by any other agency with a CS dept. that's worth a damn.

      So I decided since they were being assholes about it, I'd make them EARN every bit of that $3.29. I must've wasted at least an hour and a half of that one employee's time trying to haggle it. After they finally told me they'd waive the charge just to get me off the phone, I told them I'd just come into the billing center and pay by cash.

      And after all that I paid it. Hopefully they won't pull this kinda crap with anyone else, but somehow I doubt it.
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"I dont know where you guys are located, but the comcast over here would pretty much suck my ***** if i asked, they do everything for me."

      They do that in bigger cities where they actually have competition. In smaller markets, ***** forget it. You might as well not sign up for cable at all.
    • brufleth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I live in Boston and their service sucks. My connection completely drops out several times an hour. By completely drop out I mean the signal gets too weak and the modem resets. I know this is what happens because the four times I've called about it the person on the phone has been able to log into my modem and see some sort of log showing that it is in fact dropping the signal and resetting. I've had people come out three times and all three times they've given different answers to the problem and failed to fix anything at all. I moved the cable modem to where the coax wire actually enters the apartment. It makes no difference. It is no fun to get disconnected from work or online games several times an hour and still pay $55+ for a relatively slow connection. Currently Comcast is still the only available broadband ISP.
    • FerociousFerret, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1To brufleth:

      I had a very similar problem with the cable modem randomly resetting back when I had AT&T @Home (before Comcast bought them out). I spent over 3 months calling about the problem. They checked the line levels at my house several times and replaced the cable modem (but never seemed to want to check their end of the circuit, even after I asked several times). It wasn't until I posted on broadbandreports.com and found 4 other people in my area having the same problem. A guy from the AT&T NOC emailed me directly to get all my info and, after he got them to check their equipment, they replaced a bad card (or something) that serviced our area and finally the resetting problem was resolved.

      Maybe this info will help you.
    • binnis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@skyshock21
      You should have paid those ***** in pennies. Those bastards!!!
  • petroK, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17definitely a story for the Consumerist:
    http://www.consumerist.com/

    this kind of crap happens all the time. The sad part is when they get away with it (or try to) time and time again. way to document everything...I hate running in circles with customer service with near-monopolies. Best of luck to this poor lady (probably shouldn't have posted her confirmation number though)
    • etandrib, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Better Business Bureau. I had a lot of run-ins with AT&T wireless a few years ago and was transferred everywhere until I said I had submitted a complaint to the Better Business Bureau. I was refunded everything and even given credit for my time in sorting out the situation if I cancelled my complaint.
    • AriaStar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I ordered Comcast for internet in November when I moved to my new place. Just the internet as I decided to put off buying a new TV and had given my old one to Goodwill. A couple weeks ago I get a bill for THREE months of cable TV. When I called, the girl said they could discontinue service but I would be billed for the cable box until returned. Problem? I didn't have one since I didn't get cable TV. Well, I spoke with her supervisor, then the next one up. I let her know I was on the Better Business Bureau's website and would have no problem filing, that I was filling out the information as I spoke, which was true. She immediately refunded all charges and striked the box.

      Funny enough, about a week later I got a new TV and called back to order cable. They went out of their way to get it set up for me the same day, a Sunday, so I could watch the first episode of season 3.5 of Galactica.

      So yeah, threaten the BBB on 'em and they'll bend over backward.
    • signal15, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Those installers have no clue what they are doing. My buddy ordered Comcast and the tech came out to install it. He ended up taking the old box off the concrete block wall on the side of the house with a hammer, and smashed one of the blocks all the way through. Then he got out a drill and tried to anchor the box to the house and drilled right through an electrical conduit. When my buddy came out to yell at him, he's like "hold on, I need to grab my phone and call the office." He went back to his van and just took off.

      He sued Comcast and got like $4k out of it, which is about what it cost to fix all of the damage this guy did in like 10 minutes.
    • xcoastie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I used to work for cramcast, and this is not unusual at all. We had an in house (comcast) installer that would routinely pull this crap. He would throw the digital box on the bed, or in one case just set it inside the screen door, either way not hook it up. I went on a few trouble calls where the customer was paying for cable and never received it. The supervisor did not care because he was buddies with this guy. Granted I never heard of this guy taking the equipment and making the customer pay for it, but still crappy service that no one cares to correct.
      Bottom line, comcast doesn't care about you. If they lose a few hundred customers from poor service, they will just come out with commercials about a stupid turtle or something and gain tens of thousands.
    • xcoastie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@signal15
      Not surprising, I was a comcast employee with tons of electrical experience and completed their 1 month training program. Afterwards I still did not know *****. It took me about 4 months before I up to speed on video service. But the company doesn't care they just want warm bodies to ***** the customers, so they put me in the field after only 2 weeks. It takes years to make a good service tech that can do all lines of service. Unfortunately all the techs willing to bust ass leave, and the customer has to deal with the left overs. I am not sure if the dish is any better though.
    • djlosch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3when i started with comcast, they charged me a $3.00/mo modem rental fee. i called up to get it removed and they said it was part of my plan, despite the fact that i wasn't renting their modem. however, when i moved out, they asked for their modem back. i told them that it was my modem, but they were absolutely adamant that it was theirs. i told them that i'm a software engineer and a law student, and i wouldn't hesitate to turn it into a class action bc i know they were full of *****, and my mac address from my cable modem would still be on file from my previous isp. they no longer demanded the modem, but wouldn't return the $36 for the year of me not renting the modem.

      then, when i moved back in, i chose comcast again bc dsl is a joke and there are no other broadband isps here. they used my same account number, but "removed" my automatic payment plan while leaving my "email only" billing plan on. then all of a sudden, i get a call one day that my account is like $350 overdue. interestingly enough, FPL did the exact same thing, and both charged overdue fees. of course, this probably nuked my near perfect credit score, because they left all my settings in tact EXCEPT my automatic payment.

      i absolutely hate the utility companies, but there is absolutely no consumer choice. with internet access, the only consumer choice is in dial-up, but that's worthless. with electricity, you either have it or you dont.

      of course, none of this matters anymore because in the past 6 months or so, basically every big consumer corporation amended their ToS to add arbitration and waiver of class certification clauses. i really think the average consumer should be unable to give up certain contract rights unless personally advised by independent counsel.
    • theDevilsDue, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The BBB is worthless. If you want to file a complaint, do it with your State Attorney Generals Office. Also, file a complaint with the State AG in which the business is headquartered. MUCH more effective.
  • Akaji, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14Wow, this kinda crap makes me angry. Companies need to stop getting away with this BS.
    • Akaji, on 10/12/2007, -0/+28By the way, nowhere in the article does it mention that the mother is a senior citizen...
    • dude187, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6"By the way, nowhere in the article does it mention that the mother is a senior citizen..."

      Even if it did, I wish Internet news would stray from such sensationalized titles.
  • webplus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+27Comcast is bad. This story does not suprise me.
    • fixyourthinking, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6They're better than Charter Communications
    • derekJAB, on 10/12/2007, -8/+23@Akaji On digg, anybody over the age of 12 is a senior citizen.
    • QueenBeeCassi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12I agree, comcast sucks... they sent this idiot out to install our cable- it took him 4 hours and in the end my husband (not a comcast tech) talked him though it because he didn't know how to use a mac.
    • OnAnyMouse, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Indeed. My Charter account has a cable modem, and the ping times very from 225ms to 2800ms.
    • zoom1928, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5jackwhispers, you're absolutely correct. We had over six months total worth of downtime with Charter "business" service last year. With our main connection to Sprint we had less than 4 hours of downtime for the year. Sprint had less one thousandth the downtime of Charter. To be fair, we pay $900/month for Sprint versus $120 for Charter, but you would expect Charter to at least try.
    • Akaji, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8@zoom: That's horrific! Anything more than 0.01% downtime on a business connection should never happen.
    • Phrag, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Since someone mentioned it, here is my Charter horror story. I ordered cable internet through Charter which is not cheap ($60 a month) but its the only option in my area besides Verizon DSL and I refuse to give them money. The order went fine until the guy came to install it. At first he didn't know what he was installing (he tried to hook up the TV). When I stopped him and told him that I was getting internet and not TV he looked at me like I had three heads and couldn't understand why I wouldn't get cable TV. After taking more time than necessary to explain that I rarely watch TV and don't consider it to be worth the money, he set out to install the internet.

      He ran outside and did something to the cables (I live in a multi-family home so there are more than most houses would have) and then came back in. Now I'm a PC Tech and know a little about networking. For the next two hours I watched as this guy released and renewed my IP over... and over... and over... and over. He never called the office. Never rechecked the connections or the cables. Just kept hitting ipconfig /release - ipconfig /renew like it was a magical chant that would make everything better. He finally admitted defeat and told me he would have to file a ticket and come back later (no specific time or date. just 'later')

      I waited until the following Wednesday (the install was on saturday) and called the Charter office because I had not received any word of a new install date. It turns out that the guy had not filed a problem ticket. Instead, he closed the install ticket like everything was fine and they had already started to bill me. I explained what had happened to the lady on he phone and she said she would have to look into it and call me back. Over the next three days I told that same story to people at Charter no less than eight times when they called me back looking for more information. Finally I got a new install scheduled for the next Saturday and I made sure to ask that the person who was sent before not be sent again.

      So Saturday rolls around and who shows up at my door but mister ip release/renew. Before I have a chance to throw him off my porch he asks me if I have his modem. Now its my turn to look at him like he has three heads because he took the modem with him. He says he left it here last time and asks if he can come in and look for it. I tell him hell no as I don't want some dishonest stranger searching through my apartment and I don't believe that he coudl go all week and not notice that a modem was missing. Just as he starts to get angry two other guys from Charter walk up to my porch and say they are here to install the internet. Mr. IP see them and suddenly decides to leave without the modem that he was convinced was in my house.

      The new guys did a great job installing the internet and were very friendly. It turns out the the previous guy had not only plugged my cable into the wrong outlet on the switch but, he had also disconnected the cable television of my neighbor upstairs. When I told them what he was doing before they laughed and said that he was not only a complete moron but a theif and that I was smart for not letting him in my house. I felt better about Charter after they left but would still be hesitant to get anything else from them. I really just want a third provider to bring fiber to my neighborhood.
    • hobbers, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@ QueenBeeCassi

      I've decided that nobody touches my computer. If a tech wants to check the IP, DNS information, or whatever, I'll do it for them. They normally don't know what to do anyhow since you have to SSH into my server to check the IP that I'm getting from Comcast. And they only come out if I'm having signal problems, since any problem on my end I can figure out myself.
    • Thuktun, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4When our house was built in 1998, I had home-run wiring done for Cat3 phone and Cat5 network cabling as well as coaxial for television. We had a stub wire running outside the house to where all they needed to do was cut, strip, and connect to the existing wire. In expectation of their wiring work, I had run a temporary coaxial cable from the six-way, high-bandwidth coaxial splitter in my downstairs network closet (the base of the home-run wiring) across my unfinished basement to our downstairs television.

      I signed up for Charter because we couldn't get a dish service that would give us local channels because we were too close, but were too far away to receive anything from said local channels. They sent out the service tech when I was at work, and my wife didn't watch what they were doing. When I got home, I found that the clueless fsck drilled a new hole in my house, ignoring the stub coaxial wire not a foot away, sliced into my temporary cable that ran from the splitter area to my TV, and connected the main line there with a splitter.

      This was back when our Charter office actually gave out its number, rather than making us call their nationwide [bend over we're going to] service [you] number. Luckily, I managed to get a supervisor on the line that understood what I was talking about and agreed to come out and fix the situation himself. On looking at the install, he agreed that the installer was a clueless git, fixed the problem, and threw in six months of free cable.

      Clueless people abound in all connectivity providers like this, it's not just one or the other.

      I once spent an hour on the phone with a technical support rep from Frontier (our telephone company) who tried to argue that we couldn't get multiple computers at home using their DSL because each one would have to wait for the web requests of the others to finish before it could do anything. *boggle*

  • Dracos, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13It's Comcastic!
    • zizzybaloobah, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16No...it's craptastic
    • Akaji, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I like how the title of the blog article is "Comcasted" (in the URL).
    • Dracos, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1@ zizzybaloobah (or anyone else who didn't understand my point)

      "It's Comcastic!" is Comcast's advertising slogan. It's supposed to be a play on "fantastic" (just like "craptastic"). Since Comcast's service is crap, the word "comcastic" picks up an extra meaning for those who have to suffer with them.

      Therefore: comcastic == craptastic
    • xcoastie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5It's a comcastrophy!
  • Kison, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4We've had bad episodes with Comcast over at my place, as well. From letting them know two months in advance that we were moving into our new home, to them rudely responding until it was taken up by the county Council.

    I used to like them as a company, though now I simply think they do not care anymore.
    • zizzybaloobah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Ditto here. We had the ***** of service for over 2 years (pixellation, stuttering, etc. - all the things they say are bad about the dish) and could get no satisfactory solution until I showed up to testify in a public hearing at Baltimore City Hall when their franchise was up for renewal (they were certainly eager to talk to me then!). We still ended up dropping them as they never gave us the full credit on our bill which they had promised.
    • ArmyOfFun, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@zizzybaloobah

      We had the same problems with Comcast (pixelation and stuttering). We did get someone out to look at it. I think they replaced a cable that had (an unused) splitter on it and told us to call back if the problem persisted. The problem persisted but they never responded to our phone calls. After 2 months we dropped them and are lucky enough to have a competing cable company in town (WOW). Our monthly bill is about $40 less for roughly the same service (no OnDemand stuff) and much better reception.
  • crawfishsoul, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12"An uninvited Comcast sales rep" [...] "Service tech arrives in an unmarked vehicle at 3:15pm. He comes into our home with his clipboard and walks through the house looking at what we have both upstairs in the room where we keep the computer and in our basement to see what kind of box we have there."

    They're lucky this is all that happened. Sounds more like someone was casing the joint. 4 days before Christmas? The "service tech" was shopping for his family.
  • compgeek, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1tried to read this but link is now down. I'll still digg this to support the senior who got ripped off. Up here in Canada it's Cogeco that supplies a lot of the internet in my region (Niagara Falls area) and they do stupid stuff just like comcast and all because they know they are the only option unless you want to live in a dialup and satellite only world
  • lawyernheart, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1mirror...?
  • SonicAD, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Comcraptic!
  • franksmith, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Comcast is an equal opportunity screw job

    Young or old makes no difference to them
  • Jaybob, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1The article is dead already?
  • OnAnyMouse, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1So what provider do you recommend? I'm about to sign up w/Earthlink.
  • jmuchrisf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1http://www.duggmirror.com/ hopefully?

    nope, they got the WP error. suck.
  • wranlon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This experience reminds me of my trouble with AT&T Broadband some years ago - http://www.whitefrost.com/documents/html/humor/BroadbandBlows.html

    Sometimes you have to try going to a completely different department to get the right person who knows how to help you.
  • Skinner72, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Comcast sucks but you gotta admit, those commercials with the turtles are funny...
  • Wooism, on 10/12/2007, -18/+3Most of you seem to be bandwagon jumpers. Nowhere is there any real evidence offered that the woman did not receive the modem, etc. It's her word against the big evil corporation... so you believe her without a shred of evidence to support her claim. It's people like you that voted for Bush!
    • LiquidPenguin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Most of us, myself included, have had hassles dealing with Comcast in the past. Ever see the videos of the Comcast guy asleep in the chair/couch? That's just a very small part of it.

      Here's a small list of the things Comcast has put me through over the years.

      * Incorrect modem installation forcing multiple visits from technicians to repair the problem. First it was the wrong account code and then it was a bricked modem from a botched firmware update.

      * Require cancellation of service and reinstatement due to a move (three blocks to a new house). Forcing me to be without broadband for nearly a month while they untangled the screw up. I normally wouldn't have a problem with that, but the old modem worked just fine and the time frame between cancellation and reinstatment was not necessary.

      * Incompetent technicians stating that their service is "incompatible" with Linux despite my usage of Linux with their service for the better part of six years.

      * Incompetent technicians insisting I disable my segregated LAN on the basis it "interfered" with their cable modem (they screwed up on the firmware).

      * Billing surrounding a number of issues including a bizarre billing scheme that makes it cheaper to subscribe to "free" $12/month cable T.V. as a package with my broadband to save me $10/month over getting just plain broadband.

      * Incompetent employees insisting that I install their crappy Windows-only configuration software or have someone come out and "install" it for me (see Linux issue above), especially considering that Comcast advertises that you can "install" their modem with no technician.

      * Incompetent technicians claiming that the "problem" must be in my home rather than the line leading up to the home (after two technicians, it was finally discovered that the line was incorrectly installed and rusted).

      * Mismanagement of account, including locking me out of my own email, since someone else (me) was claiming to be the sole owner of the account.

      * Forced to drive outside of the city to a central(?) office to exchange defective and/or faulty equipment when it can either be mailed or a technician sent to replace.

      * A feeble attempt by Comcast to charge me for multiple computers behind a NAT.

      * Suspicious throttling attempts, especially during long downloads of extremely large files. Note, the donwload isn't always from P2P networks, the throttling occurs during FTP transfers as well.

      * Stealing my kitten.... OK, that's not really Comcast's fault. The only competent technician ever to come out, my kitten liked so much, she fell asleep in his tool bag. I get a call a few hours later asking about my cat. :)
    • MonkeyMCSE, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2you're such the word of reason. You make these claims as if YOU know any better yourself. I take it you're assuming none of this could ever happen, rather you decide to be a troll and a complete and utter *****, hence the dig downs. Maybe one day you'll get crappy service, as most of us have sometime or another, and then when you post something about it, I hope someone calls your little tirade a load of crap like you are doing. Do us a favor, let the grown ups talk and think rationally for themselves, rather than listening to your crap. I'd say about 75% of us have had some similiar situations, and as it is, share these situations to others so that it may help when it comes to making decisions on aforementioned products/services.

      Now run along and tell mommy and daddy someone on the internet was being mean to you.
    • bokchoy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1penguin your brave for letting them touch anything in your house pertaining to your computer/home network. Next time tell them to set the cable modem down and back away slowly hehehe. the rest of your points i pretty much agree with though.
  • dragon874, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I had a similar incident with Comcast when a friend and I moved into his house. He called Comcast to get them to install cable and internet access for us in his new house. Got a date and time scheduled for the install and on the day of the install got a call from the technician saying he would be there around 11:00am. The tech said he only had 2 installs for the day and that the first was about 10 minutes from our house. My roommate left work to meet him at 11 waited for 2 hours and he never showed. The roommate then called Comcast and they said that my roommate had called them and cancelled the install. The only people with enough information to cancel the install would have been my roommate, myself and the install technician. Since neither my roommate or I had cancelled the install it had to have been the tech (it probably was do the fact that it was a Friday and the weather was beautiful outside). To make a long story short my roommate had to fight with customer service for hours to finally get them to come install the service as soon as possible (they wanted to make us wait 2 weeks for an opening). It was a nightmare and in the end the only thing we got out of it was 6 free pay-per-view movie coupons. Comcast Sucks!
    • Jerim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3You did get something for your trouble though. 6 free movies is better than nothing.
  • mrbc19, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is classic Comcast.
    Although my experience with them was nowhere near as bad, it is still indicative of their practices.
    My "6 month promo" deal just ended, and to my not-so-great surprise, my bill was completely different than what I had originally signed up for. I signed up in the summer for just extended cable - no digital or STB - just plug the coax straight into the TV.
    The bills I have been receiving over the last 6 months did not really make any sense, but the rates where as expected (about $48 a month, give or take a little depending on how silly Comcast was feeling that month), so I let it be.
    After the promo period ended, they started charging me for their premiere package, digital gold with all the premium channels at a whopping $120 a month. I couldn't even get half of these channels without a STB.
    I called and complained, and they said they would fix the bill.
    The latest bill I received, has about 10 nonsensical credits on it, partial month charges, you name it - somehow lowering the bill to about $20 less than what it should be. Although, I really can't figure out what anything on the bill really means, so I still don't know if it's correct. I'll just see what next month brings.
    From what my friends have told me, they have similar experiences with their Comcast bills.
    I guess I just have to live with it, because I can't get anything else in my area.
  • LiquidPenguin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Damn, Duggmirror got the WP error. Hopefully someone has it in their cache? Another mirror?

    Either way, Comcast sucks. As long as you pay your bill, or want to pay for extra services, that's about all you'll ever hear from them. Got a problem with any part of their service? Forget it.

    Here's horror story number nine (or is it ten? whatever).

    I had my digital cable box for about five years when the remote finally died on me. The remote received no abuse, no soda, nothing. It was very well cared for other than the numbers being worn off. When I was with a different cable company and the remote died, I called the cable company and they simply mailed me a new remote with instructions to mail back the old one. No hassle whatsoever. With Comcast, I was required to drive just outside of the city and locate their nearly impossible to find office next to the rail yard before they closed for the day. Inside, the reception area was closed off in bullet proof glass. I then had to prove I was a Comcast customer (I neglected to bring my bill) at which point they exchanged my remote.

    The actual wait in the office and exchange took about 20 minutes. What pissed me off was the fact I had to drive outside of town into a seedy neighborhood just to get a new working remote. I asked the lady behind the glass why I had to drive out of my way to get a working remote and her response was that people were abusing the mail-in exchange whenever their batteries would die! I asked why they didn't keep records of who was abusing the system and deny the mail-in method for those who did, but she just shrugged her shoulders.
    • Jerim, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3The reason you never selectively deny customers anything, is because sooner or later they are going to find out that you are treating them differently than their neighbor. As soon as they find that out, they are going to cancel and start bad mouthing you, claiming that you are lying about them and that they never did that. So instead of singling anyone out, they just stop doing it for everybody. They have to be fair or unfair to everyone. I am not saying it is right or wrong, just that I understand the company's need to not be accussed of "profiling" anyone. Blame the idiots who abused the program.
    • starf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Or they could just stop sending new batteries with the remotes, and they abusers wouldn't be able abuse the system anymore. Stupid comcast.
  • renski13, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3I'm going to say that there's a pretty easy solution to all this trouble. Just contact the Better Business Bureau. www.BBB.org . One letter from these guys and Comcast will whip up into shape and help this senior. If not, their professional reputation will be severly injured.
    • logomancer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah, they're a huge monopoly, but the BBB is going to send them quaking in their little space boots. What peers do they have to judge them? Lessee...Time Warner, Cox, and Charter. Given their sterling reputations of customer service, I'm sure they'll do a great job at wagging their fingers at Comcast.
    • LiquidPenguin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Contrary to popular belief, the BBB has absolutely _no_ governing ability over any business. They are merely a communications pathway between consumer and _willing_ companies. If a company does not want to work with the BBB, there is nothing the BBB can do to force them. Please read the FAQ at the BBB to get a better idea of what they do and how they operate. In particular, pay attention to FAQ #4 http://www.bbb.org/about/faq.asp#faq4
    • renski13, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Hey penguin... I never said anything about the BBB having government ability to regulate. I'm quite aware of what the BBB is, so refrain from lecturing me. Notice how I said it would hurt their reputation. Please read more carefully next time.
    • LiquidPenguin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@renski13

      Please note, the videos of the sleeping Comcast guys did more damage to Comcasts reputation than anything the BBB could ever hope to do.

      Ultimately, Reputation means Jack to Comcast. Especially when companies like Comcast have a monopoly in many areas when it comes to anything resembling broadband.
  • colincornaby, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Odd. My girlfriend just moved houses, and one of her roommates took the cable modem. Comcast let my girlfriend cancel without the cable modem being returned, and just told her to swing by one of their stores to pay a fee for loosing the modem.
  • broomett, on 10/12/2007, -13/+0Yeah...no bias in hte article at all. Ignoring her? Right.

    It is sad that whenever ONE person has a problem that isn't solved immediately, they whine abut it (or have their mommy's whine about it) in hteir diary and then submit it to Diogg, and even sadder than it is guaranteed to make the front page.

    You know...LOTS of people have had problems with Apple that weren't solved in as son as they wanted it. I guess they IGNORE their customers too.
    • qbyte, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Fanboy?
    • gromnie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Nah. Comcast customer service rep.
    • Agret, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"It is sad that whenever ONE person has a problem that isn't solved immediately, they whine abut it (or have their mommy's whine about it) in hteir diary and then submit it to Diogg"
      You're not looking at the big picture, if everyone who has problems submits their problems then it's suddenly not just ONE person, just have a look at the comments on this story.
  • wolferz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Honestly I've never had a problem with comcast in my area. I average 12megabit downloads and peek at 14megabit, outages are rare. Rarely use the tech support and have yet to get one of the dumb ones.

    Also you may not realize it but the people comcast and most other services send out don't actually work directly for said companies. They are a third party that has a contract for that area. This may change from area to area but thats how it is done where I live and the surrounding areas. Even still never had to walk them through anything except in that my main desktop has a very unusual lay out that I wouldn't expect any one of any level of experience to just sit down and know where stuff is. In fact thats part of why I did it. Other than showing them very briefly how to get around my desktop I usual go sit and watch tv till they are done; usually 15-30 minutes.

    Cable internet regardless of company really depends on where you live as to the speeds and reliability you can expect. If you have a 7megabit package and usually get about 14.4 kbit download chances are the node your on is over loaded. Nothing your provider can do except add additional nodes, something that costs huge sums of money. Upgrading service package or getting a better modem will not fix this problem. Your best best in most cases is to switch to dsl. Odds are if you live in an area where cable nodes are over loaded then you likely live close enough to the telco to use dsl with no problems. This is the major draw back to cable. It is not a comcast only thing. If the node isn't sufficient for the number of users on it it slows down dramatically.

    I can not read this article because the site is down and dugg mirror doesn't seem to have the site. However I have heard so many people complaining about comcast and I have a very hard time reconciling what I'm told with my own personal experience. The service itself is easily explained by overloaded nodes or poorly trained on site techs, but the bad customer service should be universal. I don't know how to explain this one.

    Based on the summary of this article I would say this woman has a valid complaint against comcast. None the less I can't help but be skeptical given that this is so heavily at odds with my own experience. Perhaps some one could shed light on how this would work?
    • evilmnky, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I've had comcast in two areas, and had different experiences in both. The first time it was bad. They had just rolled out service in my area, and the connection was horrible. There were only two other houses on my node, and it would take serveral minutes to load google. Every time I called in, they would give me a ticket number, and when I'd call back, that ticket number wouldn't exist. Eventually, I switched to dsl, and was happy until I moved.

      When I moved, I wasn't close enough for dsl, and comcast was the only choice. This time around, they set it up within a few minutes, and I never had to have them come back again, which is how it should be.

      Onsite service will depend on your location. Phone customer support will depend on what your problem is, and what their training says about it.
  • flessa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Comcast sucks. I will refuse to give that company business. Verizon Fios for me :)
  • JustAFleshWound, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I found that CYA doesn't work all that well with Comcast. Shortly before moving I returned the cable box, modem, etc. to one of their service centers. I made sure all the paperwork was in order to close my account and to get a receipt from the counter jockey for the returned equipment. All the i's were dotted and the t's were crossed. Two months later Comcast comes after me for the equipment. They said pay up or we will turn our collection department loose. It took another month of phone calls and faxes to finally get the record straight.
    • MonkeyMCSE, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0cox did the same to me over a cable modem, fortunately after moving I found the receipt I was given in a box. I faxed them a copy and within a week there was an apology letter in the mail. It's always good to keep tabs on what you've returned to these companies no matter what it may be. Took me 3 months of arguing with them and some mouthy collections agency worker to finally get it fixed. You'd think they would keep tabs when they input the information into the computer upon return and be able to call up that information.

      For those of you who think i'm just badmouthing them, I'm again a cox subscriber, now spout your BS all you want.
  • astrotrain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Yeah back when they started out I was told by Comcast that I could not use their service since I was not using their hardware and never heard of the store where I picked my modem up at (CompUSA).

    Then the Comcast CE wanted to crack open my boxes to put 'their' NICs in. Thats when I showed him the MAC, requested he just enable the service, and leave my equipment alone. He did, while some woman named "Flo" was getting bent because Comcast couldn't get into my boxes or Comcast equipment was sold / rented to me.

    Important Fact: Comcast is not responsible for breaking or screwing up your equipment. Yes, so dan your cable man can come in, and break your mobo trying to fit a ISA into PCI slot, and then walk away and tell you to take it to your PC manufacture ... because its broken.

    Another Comcast instance, was when they sent out eight CEs to a clients house, and told him it was his NIC, hic PC, his RAM, his CPU that was causing the periodic drops in service (every other hour for about 10 minutes). None of them bothered checking the line outside the house or underground box connector. And they could not do a thing and told us to go get the PC repaired.

    The eighth one came out, and we told him not to bother with the house coax, and check the coax from the underground junction box to the house. And low and behold the cable was bad and had to be replaced.

    So Comcast had to flip the bill for excavating and replacing the underground coax cable. Since this
    replacement no issues with connection brownouts.

    So the moral of these two stories is, Comcast is not IT savvy, and you have to watch what the CEs are doing
    or your gonna get a bigger bill then anticipated.
  • ronsta, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2ok this is not an example of comcast reaching an all time low. they reached an all time low when they started to convert existing screen space to advertising space. now, on the tv guide, an entire 1/5th of the screen is dedicated to a banner ad that changes each time you cycle through channels.

    alright, fine, that isn't as bad as what is spoken about here! but still!

  • ArmchairAthlete, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Doesn't surprise me at all. Comcast customer support is abysmal, as well as the quality of their connection (tons of downtime). I dropped them.
  • haggie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I hope they get Comcastigated for their poor customer service...
  • qbyte, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Putting this up on Digg for exposure was the right thing to do. I will seriously reconsider doing business with Comcast out of respect for this poor customer.
  • ComputerDudes, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7I LOVE Comcast. They give me lots of business. The guy comes out to hook up the Internet and it does not work. I come out and get it working in 10 minutes.

    $75.00. I've done this at least 5 times.

    I would never use Comcast myself, but everyone else can!!
  • 022A, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Not at all suprising.

    Back in '02 Comcast charged me $275.00 for a modem that I returned for a replacement and recieved a receipt for. They didn't put this charge on my bill or attempt to notify me in any way. The first news I'd heard of it came as the result of a bad credit report showing 523 from one agency while the other two were clean and a few hundred points higher.

    In the end, it took me several months, half a dozen faxes an in person visit and multiple letters to Comcast, the collection agency and the reporting agency to get it removed. By the end, I felt like the woman who sorted things out at Comcast did it out only out of a combination of pity and annoyance that I had hounded her like a PI for 3+ weeks to get it done.
  • vicaya, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1It's good that her voice is being heard. OTOH, my 3 comcast installations in 5 years have been satisfactory. They've been upgrading the bandwidth while I pay the same monthly fee ($42 including basic cable TV). I consistently get 10-28Mbps (26269kbps (3.283MB/s) right now according to http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/) downstream, which is close to the 30.72Mbps limit of DOCSIS 2.0 cable modem (I have a Motorola Surfboard SB5120). Still only 384 kpbs upstream though.

    As they say, YMMV.
    • bokchoy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+142 dollars including cable? where do you live? It's 60 here in Seattle just for internet from them. For a non-intro price of course. They advertise way less but after the myridad of fees and taxes its easily pushing 60. I paid 40 for @home 6 years ago...
    • 022A, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0WTF!

      I pay the same price you do for 6M/384K. I've been with them since the day they showed up in my area and took over the local @Home provider. They have upgraded the speed from 2M/128K -> 3M/128K -> 4M/384K -> 6M/384K in that time.
  • smergs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I've got an interesting story to add. I moved and the comcast guy came out and hooked everything up for me. He brought me a brand new Motorola HD DVR box saying that the one that I had from one year earlier was now outdated. The only difference I could see between the two boxes was that the new one had HDMI instead of DVI. At the end the guy says he needs $25 cash for the installation. My dumb ass was just ready to get on the internet and I wasn't thinking when I said but I don't know if I have $25. I said I could write a check and he said we can only take cash. I had like $23 and he said that is fine, he'll pick up the extra $2. I thought to myself, what a nice guy. About 30 min's later it dawned on me that I had just given the thief $23 for nothing.

    Now, at the same time I realized that he said he would have to trade out the cable boxes. Speaking of dumb asses, he made me sign something saying I traded the box and then he took off and left the old one with me. They never called or asked me about it again. So I've now got an extra (working perfectly) Duel Tuner HD DVR cable box. I was thinking about trying to sell it on ebay but I figured it would easily be traced back to me. I might just pull it apart and use the Hard Drive for something else though. Or I could just use the box in an extra room. I don't have another tv that can take advantage of the HD though. Still good for DVR I guess though.
  • bokchoy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1comcast + lobbying = crappy price and no competition.

    Recently canceled Comcast.

    I now have 1.5/64 (something like that) DSL for $25 a month and watch much less TV.
  • blastquake, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I have Speakeasy for internet access - we moved into a new apartment in June, lo and behold the cable was already active. Since we didn't sign up we just watched tv a couple times a week and viewed it as a gift. 2 months ago Comcast was in our complex advertising thier 3 for 99 deal. Cable was shut off that day, no biggie we didn't pay for it anyway. Fast forward 3 weeks and cable is once again active.

    Sometimes Comcast can screw up in your favor after all ;).
  • Geist89, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Sounds like something she should take legal action upon...
  • gnychis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1this is my first ever post to digg, and I've been a member for months with no posts and plenty of topic views, however this is a subject I feel strongly about

    I live in a heavy college area and my service with comcast was fine over the summer, but as soon as school started I was getting horrible service during peak hours that dialing up with a 56K was a viable solution. This is not where I became frustrated with comcast the most though.

    When I finally gave up with their service, I went to their center and returned my modem. I received a receipt that shows I turned it in and went home. I then had to call in to discontinue my service. I did this a day later. When I call in, they insist I did not turn in my modem and they were going to continue to charge me until I did so. I fought with two service representatives before I was passed higher up. I had my receipt and they kept insisting I did not turn it in. The third person finally accepted the fact that I turned it in and discontinued my service.

    Before I canceled my service, bonus story:
    I had a technician come out twice to do "tests" because they didn't believe me. The first technician came and here were his words, though I am glad he was honest "look, our lines simply cannot handle peak hours, we have a work order in but they're being slow about it... all I can say is keep complaining." Heres the great thing... I get a bill in my mail a week later that says "Our technician determined that your problems were due to your internal networking or setup and therefore we must charge you a fee of $15 for our visit." WHAT? I flipped out when I called them and had the fee removed. Thats uncalled for and they likely send it regardless to make money off of those who simply don't know any better.
  • rowlodge, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2cable installers there called are just just a guy with a pair of wire crimper's they carry around and crimp cables, thats if they remember to bring them with them like my cable installer did, i let him use some pliers i had laying around. i wound up going to walmart buying a part for it. yes they were the only choice we have.
  • lizcaffe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1i work for comcast...i'll see if i can get this problem to someone who can help resolve it
  • proggieus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2count yourself lucky most people only have to deal with them on one house.
    I have probably close to 300 accounts i have to deal with them on

    I own a Home Theater/ Home Automation company. no com-cast guys touch my systems ever. i am there for every cable company install. every so often i am late or they are early or whatever and they get there before i do. This has led to some interesting phone calls from my clients. "Hi Proggieus, the cable guys are here and are telling us that they need to put new ends on all of the cables because yours are not approved ends and will most likely cause the cable system to go down. In fact they are not allowed to connect to your distribution box either and will need to put in their splitters. I calmly tell the client that i will be there in five minutes and to not let the cable tech touch anything.
    When i show up i start grilling the Installer "how long has this policy been in effect?" about 2 years he says.B.S. I have been an Installer for over fifteen years(A/V not cable) and i have never heard of this policy. i ask why are your hex crimp ends better then my compression ends?" he has no answer so I then go on a lenghty speech on how RF travels down the dielectric and depending on frequency will actually get messed up by having to jump the flat spots in the dielectric caused by his hex crimps. Finally just as he is ready to just pack up and leave i have the customer get on the phone to com-cast and ask the installer for his dispatch office Mgr's name. He starts sweating and fidgeting after i get his sup. on the phone i put it on speaker and start asking about these policy's. Non of them are true and he instructs the Installer to just get me service to the side of the house and to hit the boxes so they are activated and to let me finish the install. The installer goes on his way to finish up and my customer goes back to being rich. I take the Speaker phone off and ask the sup. whats was going on.It seems that this installer seemed to be getting allot of terminations for the area he worked(million$+ plus brand new neighborhood) and he suspects he was pulling this little stunt to drive up his pay.

    Most of these guys are paid for the job not by hour. A simple hook up might be $15 dollars whereas if he has to terminate the system it would be $30 dollars( i don't know the real amounts) If he spends 5-10 extra minutes putting on new ends he doubles his pay. What makes it worse he was not even using the "com-cast" connectors supplied to him. I suspect they may have let him go as i have never seen him again in the area.

    I really enjoyed being told that my $30,000 CRT projector was not capable of HDTV because it used BNC fittings instead of RCA.

    Or After calling to get a box re-hit for authorization being asked if "hooked it up using the yellow cable or the mouse cable because i could not get HD without using the mouse cable" i never said anything about not getting HD i just asked for a re-authorization. Not to mention you cant get HD from from S-vid.

    Or the Time that i simply could not make to an install so i left a note in the distribution box explaining that i could not make it but i had all the cables terminated in the equipment cabinet and to just follow the standard color code and he(installer) should be fine but i left my cell phone number just in case. I figured no call must of meant that he figured it out, nope. I finally get back to the house about a week later after the customer called because he was not getting surround sound in the great room only to find the cable box sitting on the mantle with a premade composite A/V cable going to the TV and a Cable snaked out the door of the cabinet to feed it from Distribution. I could go On and On and On.

    The good news is i am billing close to a hundred an hour to deal with them
  • ettin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Heres my story:

    My internet had randomly been shutting on and off throughout the day, i had called comcast to send a tech over to resolve it. Now i was only 14 and really just started to learn about computers and how they worked. Every time the tech came over it was working fine. One time he sat there on my computer and started browsing through some news site, like sitting there reading stuff like he was at home or something, and of course you dont want to say anything cause you want the guy to actually try (just like you dont give your waiter a hard time), and i said something to him about what might be wrong and he responded "i have a degree in physics you dont need to tell me how to do my job". I was like, omg, what the *****, then what the hell are you doing as a computer service tech? ......Yeah for all you getting your fancy $50,000 'degrees' or whatever the hell corporate education calls em, this is for future if you think its going to get you anywhere.
    So anyways i had figured out on my own that the problem was external to the house and i kept telling comcast that and they kept testing the cable box on the phone/electricity pole or whatever its called and were telling me there was nothing wrong. Then finally one day i get a notice saying that they found a problem with the cable box.

    14 year old tech ignorant kid = 1
    30yr cable tech w/physics degree = 0

    Despite how retarded they are, all corporations are corrupt, greedy, customer hating instutiutions. Its just a gamble if you will end up as one of abused ones, doesnt necessarily mean one is any better than the other. Ive had more problems with verizon than comcast but when it comes down to it, ill probably go with the fastest best product out there, cause i like my porn at lightspeed.
  • loker269, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2It is a contractor.....this is not linked to Comcast directly other than the fact that they provide the service.....

    If you were a service provider who had a contractor tell you the modem was installed and then later the person cancels service and does not return equipment and says oh I never received it sorry.....what would you do? say oh thats alright I believe you......
    • mousky, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I was under the impression that the modem must be registered (or recognized) by the ISP when it is installed. The ISP should have a record of that registration and can confirm the installation by the contractor.
    • 022A, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"I was under the impression that the modem must be registered (or recognized) by the ISP when it is installed. The ISP should have a record of that registration and can confirm the installation by the contractor."

      Yep.

      You aren't getting anywhere without someone doing provisioning for that particular modem. Unfortunately, front line phone techs read a script and aren't likely to have any concept of such things. It takes effort and a little luck but you *can* get yourself transferred to an upper tier tech.

      Last time I had to do it I called during mid-morning (Everyone is at work/school) and explained my problem and what I believed had to be done to resolve it in terms clear enough that the Tier 1 guy was willing to forward me up the chain and let me explain it to someone above him.

      (Turned out that whatever they use for managing the dynamic boot of their modems allows duplicate entries and I was stacked with another user.)
  • flaminio, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I used to work for a cable contractor. Comcast has few actual employees in the field. The contracting company can be a mixed bag, the sub-contracts can be a step above vagrants. They're paid by the job, not by the hour. Clearly, it's easy to see how something can get screwed up between the sub-tractor, contractor, and Comcast. That doesn't surprise me. What amazes me is how Comcast can be surprised by what their customers tell them and dig in based on what their contractor says. Who are you going to believe? The guy giving you money or the guy taking your money?
  • ravens326, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Comcast can go ***** themselves. They have no idea how to communicate within their company, and nearly everyone that works there is an idiot. I have had signal problems on my internet connection for months now, and everytime I call they give me a different answer. One person told me they have to install and amp outside in the closet, and yet another told me that the drop box is screwed up and they need to replace it. Comcast is seriously retarded, and it's gonna be hilarious when they start to lose money because of fios. I cannot wait until they need to sell their precious newly built skyscraper in Philadelphia to cover their bankruptcy. You hear that Mr. Roberts, you crooked piece of *****. I can't wait until your crooked ass company goes belly up. You run a disgustingly incompetent company, and you deserve to go out of business you ***** *****. All of the ***** that has been dished out by Comcast customer support is going to be spit right back into your uncooperative, selfish, money grabbing face. If I could, I'd make it my personal mission to see you rot in hell, but I'm not like you. I will never sink that low. You will get what's coming to you Brain, oh you will. ***** Comcast!


    http://www.dpodgor.net
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