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Comcast Disconnected My Verizon, What Should I Do?

consumerist.com — Here's an odd situation: Man says that Comcast (his old cable company) disconnected his new Verizon cable. He's not sure what exactly he should do about it and would like your advice.

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  • bornahokie, on 08/19/2008, -1/+38don't call comcast .... their employees will apparently cuss at old men ... i read that other article!!
    • Amazetbm, on 08/20/2008, -0/+1Those types of employees get assaulted for such behavior, in my area.
      • otbeverly, on 08/20/2008, -0/+4Old lady with a hammer FTW.

        I don't know what ever happened to her, but she should have a holiday named after her where everybody goes to their local Comcast office and vandalizes a few keyboards with a hammer.

        Long before this happened, a co-worker and I were talking casually. Somehow the issue of Comcast came up. He said -- and this is by all means a reasonable person -- "If something ever happened and there was a state of anarchy, Comcast would be one of the first places to burn." Considering the ill will this company has brought upon itself from the public (and I don't condone violence against anyone), whenever Comcast receives its just deserts -- whatever they may be -- will be a good day for all mankind.
    • soupdawg30, on 08/20/2008, -0/+2Legally they can't touch the other companies wires. So as outlandish as it sounds they can't send anyone out to fix it. Verizon has to fix it.
    • tacochampion, on 08/20/2008, -0/+6This reminds me of when Qwest was having a really good special in my area and I was thinking about switching from comcast. I tried to call their 800 number from my 'comcast digital voice' line, and it just kept telling me the number was disconnected. Every other number I tried worked just fine, and the qwest number worked just fine on my cellphone. Tech support called me a liar, and then refused to admit that it was just that one number. I sat on my cellphone and tried various other 800 numbers on the comcast line with a tech on my cellphone, every single number worked except QWEST.

      Oh, and the day after the promotion ended, the number worked just fine.

      Comcast can eat my feces.
      • tacojohn48, on 08/20/2008, -0/+1Things like this are why network neutrality is so important.
    • datastorageguy, on 08/20/2008, -0/+1I had Comcast send an install technician out to my house to hook up my internets. The guy shows up in an old white van with a "Comcast" sticker on the side. He proceeded to take 2 hours to finish and, apparently, cut off cable service for customers on a street parallel to mine. To top it off, lets just say English was not his first language.
  • merlin484, on 08/19/2008, -2/+71This is America - sue them
    • Klowner, on 08/20/2008, -0/+9Or go down to their offices with a hammer and start breaking windows!
  • Fangsinmybeard, on 08/19/2008, -0/+75Have Verizon sue for interference with a subscriber, then sue Comcast for loss of service. Comcast is already on the ropes with the FCC.
    • centran, on 08/19/2008, -0/+26Nah just take comcast to small claims court. If you take them to small claims court then you will probably win. I highly doubt comcast would send their lawyers out as it would be less money just to pay out the small claim.
      • CrazyDave303, on 08/20/2008, -0/+6Most places you can not bring lawyers to small claims court. And trust me, it's worth every penny to them to not pay, because if you do it others will, and then others. Sooner or later they will have a major issue for all the dirty ***** they pull. Funny enough stuff if you or I did we'd go to jail.
    • DeathfireD, on 08/20/2008, -0/+6It sounds like a bit of a misunderstanding on both ISP's parts and the guy's. It sounds like this guy canceled his Comcast account via phone. Then immediately got Verizon to come set up their stuff, presumably because the Olympics where starting and he didn't want to miss anything. Then Comcast sent a tech to come disconnect their old stuff without knowing the guy had just gotten Verizon set up as an ISP. So Comcast's tech cuts the wires thinking their Comcast's lines and leaves. Guy notices he can no longer do anything and calls Comcast. They even tell him that they disconnected the lines "I am told that I shouldn't have received a bill for the month of September since my Comcast service was physically disconnected the evening of Aug 8." and the 8th happens to be the day he noticed he could no longer do anything cable related.
      • pyronik, on 08/20/2008, -0/+3very logical, but your not on a haters band wage so WTF?
      • DeathfireD, on 08/20/2008, -0/+3I don't like to join the sheep of haters. In all honesty, there's no need to hate when it may not even be their fault. I agree that Comcast sucks but in this situation it's hard to say it was 100% their fault for this guy's problems. It just seems like one big misunderstanding. Hopefully this guy gets some kind of compensation though.
  • cdawzrd, on 08/20/2008, -1/+6Not to belittle the man's unfortunate situation, but this made me think of that short clip of the UPS and FedEx men facing off :-)
  • LavaWarrior, on 08/20/2008, -13/+38***** THE RIAA!!
  • BigLLamasHouse, on 08/20/2008, -2/+21find a clocktower and bring a gun to the top of it...
    • smrekar, on 08/20/2008, -25/+4this is not funny - 2 of my Effing friends died on a clock tower!
      • solidus636, on 08/20/2008, -2/+12Shut the ***** up with that stupid meme. It's not funny anymore.
      • Shirleycakes, on 08/20/2008, -0/+10Nor was it ever.
      • Idietired, on 08/20/2008, -3/+0I dunno, I think it's funny ...

        but only because two of my friends died "effing" on a clock tower.

        Like that scene from Back To The Future ... the porno/snuff-film version.
    • sockpuppets, on 08/20/2008, -2/+7You'd get better reception with a coathanger.
    • brutalentropy, on 08/20/2008, -1/+2If you bring the gun, I'll bring the DeLorean and the strike of lightning.
  • Dylson, on 08/20/2008, -1/+10I wish I could beat every comcast worker with a realy big branch full of really spiky thorns.
  • ZackScott, on 08/20/2008, -7/+1I think a situation like this would make me never use either. Maybe you should find a 3rd cable company? Does one even exist there? I know sometimes around where I live there is one cable cable and one dish company, but now we have a second cable company. It is kind of weird, and I would rather gargle with saltwater than try it out. So I'm sticking with my current cable company. Of course, I have not had problems with mine.
    • Ajajadude, on 08/20/2008, -0/+3Yeah, dammed Verizon having their service cut by Comcast, what was Verizon thinking...?
  • ClarkLab, on 08/20/2008, -1/+21It seems like every single day there is a story about lame cable/cell companies. Why can't they just get their act together, it couldn't possibly be that hard to quit sucking.
    • psion01, on 08/20/2008, -0/+2Because when your company gets big enough, it is impossible not to hire jerks. Official policy might be not to act like a jerk, but when you have enough jerks working for you, you can't avoid behaving like a jerk once in a while. And I doubt Comcast execs care about acting like jerks in the first place. Couple that with human nature to complain louder and more often than praise, and you get social sites like Digg and Slashdot and Reddit plastered with stories about Comcast jerking people around and no mention of good things. Eventually, when it becomes a big PR issue and stories about your company acting like a jerk are starting to effect the bottom line, you might make an effort to institute a no-jerks policy and salvage your reputation. Time will tell whether this will happen with Comcast.

      Alright, I'm done jerking off.
      • pyronik, on 08/20/2008, -0/+1I've delt with comcast for the last couple of years. My feelings are neutral. The guy who switches my plans every year is ***** awesome. The tech's have been pleasant and nice. The service is... what I would expect. There "system" of how they do things is slightly retarded. And their bandwith filtering sucks but whatever... All in all they are a 7-8/10 company.... and as far as a business model goes. Thats probably going to be the most efficient/cost effective model. Anything more and my prices go up.
  • DeuceDiggalow, on 08/20/2008, -9/+1Comcast.... SUX!!!111111111111
  • ballardr, on 08/20/2008, -0/+4Here we don't have a choice. Only Charter cable or Satellite. And Charter Really sucks.

    And Satellite doesn't work in the rain. Or when a squirrel eats the cable from the satellite.
    • schnikies79, on 08/20/2008, -1/+4Our satellite (DirecTV) has went once 3 or 4 times in the 10 years we have had it, and just for a few minutes. It wouldn't matter anyway since we have no cable tv service.

      It takes one hell of a rain to knock out the satellite. As for squirrels, there is only about a foot of exposed wire, and I've never seen a squirrel messing with it, even though our house is in the woods.
      • Ajajadude, on 08/20/2008, -0/+3Thunderstorms in Tampa, Florida knock out DirectTV quite quickly.
      • cgruber, on 08/20/2008, -0/+1 As does heavy snow.
    • ISurfTooMuch, on 08/20/2008, -0/+6Any satellite installation that causes the signal to disappear in anything less than a torrential downpour was a poorly-done installation. If the dish is aimed correctly, and unless you have an extremely long cable run (something like 150 feet with no amp to boost the signal), you shouldn't lose signal in 99% of weather. The only time I've seen it happen is if there is a very heavy thunderstorm between your dish and the satellite. Yes, it happens occasionally, but these things last maybe five minutes. After that, the signal pops right back in.

      The cable companies have repeated the lie that you lose service in the rain so many times that some people believe it.
      • wazzledoozle2, on 08/20/2008, -0/+1You may not lose service, but it ruins the image quality. Back when I had satellite, I could always tell when it started to rain because my TV would also rain static.
      • scott1, on 08/20/2008, -0/+1It's kind of Ironic how the cable companies say that satellites won't work in the rain since they transmit a single to a satellite dish and then distribute the singles in the area by cables.

        For more on how cable works:

        http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cable-tv.htm
      • cgruber, on 08/20/2008, -0/+1scott1: That used to be true, quite often now the signal is still recieved by a dish but it can be carried hundreds of miles away as an IP stream over fiber. Those are also different dishes, they are not geosynchronous and do not necessarily suffer the same issues that a home dish does.
      • ISurfTooMuch, on 08/21/2008, -0/+1No, the satellites the cable companies receive their signals from are in geosynchronous orbit, but they transmit on a different frequency. Those satellites transmit on the C band, while DBS satellites transmit on the Ku band, which operates at a higher frequency and is therefore more susceptible to rain fade. However, since the Ku band birds are spaced farther apart in orbit, they can operate at much higher power, which is why you don't need a 10-foot dish to get a usable signal from them.

        Still, even though Ku band satellites' signals are more susceptible to rain fade, a properly-installed dish shouldn't lose signal on a regular basis. Someone in Tampa might have more of a chance of this happening because they're pretty far away from the center of the satellite's footprint, but it still doesn't happen as much as the cable companies want you to believe.

        FWIW, the only satellites I've heard of that have transmitted TV broadcasts from a non-geosynchronous orbit were some Soviet satellites that fed programming to communities in northern Siberia. This was because these places were too far north to be able to point a dish at anything in the Clarke belt, so the only option was to use satellites that circled Earth in an orbit that brought them over Siberia. The receiving dishes had to constantly move to track the satellites, and they could only get a signal from any one of them for a short time. Then they'd have to wait for the next one to come within the part of the sky that they could see.
  • Typhoon2009, on 08/20/2008, -2/+9Nuke comcast! I should join the Air Force just so I can go down in history as the man who defeated Comcast.
  • stagmire, on 08/20/2008, -0/+5Sue Comcast for tortious interference with a contractual relationship.
  • aznpwnzor, on 08/20/2008, -2/+24DO A BARREL ROLL!
  • tomarocco, on 08/20/2008, -7/+2Anything you try to accomplish is going to be a complete waste of energy and nothing productive or lucrative will come your way from the effort. Sometimes life just sucks and this is one of those times for you. Suck this one up.
  • oneredeye, on 08/20/2008, -2/+1Sue Comcast into oblivion.
  • justinglen, on 08/20/2008, -2/+15go outside.
  • JohnILM, on 08/20/2008, -2/+6How do you know it was a Comcast tech that unplugged the connection? Unless you have some good proof, I'd just give up on it and be happy you've gotten your TV working again.

    I know it sucks, but it's just an inconvenient truth about the little man against big corporations.
  • imitokay, on 08/20/2008, -5/+1he should celebrate.... ***** comcast ... and ***** VERIZON!
    • imitokay, on 08/20/2008, -0/+2-1 diggs? really? you guys actually support comcast?
      • iamnobody8614, on 08/20/2008, -0/+1Well, I've had pretty good service from Verizon. FIOS is awesome. But I would agree that Comcast does indeed suck ass.
  • DivisibleByZero, on 08/20/2008, -0/+9Don't deal with anything on the Comcast side. They have lawyers and you don't. Tell Verizon that you're very unhappy with the way they handled the situation (as well you should be), and threaten to move to Dish until you get enough free ***** to make you stop complaining. At the minimum you shouldn't have to pay Verizon for the service during the times that you weren't getting it. You could fight that part in court if you had to.

    Let Verizon's lawyers fight Comcast's lawyers if they want. Either way, you got what you wanted out of Verizon. If your motive is purely to punish Comcast, I'd say posting on Digg accomplished that... but everybody here hated them already.
  • cheez124, on 08/20/2008, -0/+6i hate comcast, we have had the worst problems with them.
    • OswaldKenobi, on 08/20/2008, -2/+2I love Comcast. I've never had a problem with them. And...
    • DoTheFandango, on 08/20/2008, -0/+3But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Comcast.
    • datastorageguy, on 08/20/2008, -0/+1Same here. Apparently their customer support cannot fathom the notion of a mac address. Took me 2 days to finally talk to someone who understood that all they needed to do was register my mac address so I could connect to the internet.
      • OswaldKenobi, on 08/20/2008, -0/+1Wrong. You don't have to register your mac address with Comcast to connect to the internet.
  • Kannebas, on 08/20/2008, -0/+2Use the boost to get through!
  • digitallysick, on 08/20/2008, -1/+3You call verizon back, and explained what happened. Get the tech to come out and sign a paper explaining what he sees (comcast hooked up and them disconnected) take his name, keep a log of names and dates. Call comcast, ask them what happened, take names and dates. Then file with the PUC (you can do it online), you will be entitled to damages.
    • CrazyDave303, on 08/20/2008, -2/+1the people of Pacific Union College, or taking a Pre University Course will do nothing. But I suggest finding out more info from this list of actually useful government organizations:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Utilities_Comm ...

      Some one from that list will help more then keeping your Pollution Under Control.


      BTW IHA
  • Koushiro, on 08/20/2008, -1/+4"This was not really that acceptable considering all of the Olympics I missed"

    What the hell? DIAF.
  • Vorphlack, on 08/20/2008, -0/+7This is exactly why I feel absolutely no guilt about stealing my cable.
  • CrazyDave303, on 08/20/2008, -0/+3If I mess about with people's cable I'd go to jail... If they mess about with people cable you have to spend hours of you day/life fighting it.
  • wyzzerdd, on 08/20/2008, -0/+3I wonder how he figured out who was able to gain access to the box and disconnect him from Verizon cable tv service.
  • professorfurley, on 08/20/2008, -2/+2satelite?
  • Pusod, on 08/20/2008, -3/+1Switch to Time Warner Cable!

    /sarc!
  • RickoSicko, on 08/20/2008, -1/+4Guys, this happened to me too, but it was actually VERIZON that disconnected me from my current DSL connection (DSLextreme). After 3 days of no service, I contacted DSL Extreme, and they usually could tell what was wrong just by looking up my phone number. No luck. So they issued a call tag to hit me back with a solution by the next day, only for some jackass to tell me that I deliberately called and "discontinued/cancelled" my DSL service. I hung up, and dialed back the next day (4 days pass), and this very helpful chick found out why my modem wasn't working because Verizon's NEW FIBER OPTICS DSL (FioS) that my brother had installed in his room.

    To make a long story short, I have no connection now. I was told that It's not allowed to run in the same "household" that has Fios running AAAAND that there wasn't any thing that can bar Verizon from doing so to MY TELEPHONE LINE. My brother even told those customer service ***** if it will interfere with my connection and they said "no".

    As common courtesy to help me out due to this unsuspecting event, DSL Extreme waived the termination fee and charged me for one months worth. I have yet to call up Verizon and bring up my issue. I'll repost to this very message and let you guys know what resolves from this matter. This sucks. I'm using my bros Fios on my laptop for the meantime. *****-N-A.
    • Portfolioso, on 08/20/2008, -2/+2You are officially a moron. There is no such thing as "fiber optic DSL." Obviously, if your residence had FiOS installed, DSL will not work - they are two completely different and unrelated technologies. If your brother had FiOS installed, you will have received a router. Why not just connect wired or wirelessly to the FiOS router?

      What are you complaining about, anyway? People would kill to have FiOS. It's the fastest, most advanced internet access and is available in a limited market.
      • RickoSicko, on 08/20/2008, -2/+3Hahhaa listen here man. Cut me some slack, TechSupport.
        Besides the fact that FioS is fast (which it surely ***** is), I'm just a little upset that I had it taken away without notice for *****. I am not a GAMER, nor am I tech savvy like you. I just hope I can come up with a sweet ***** deal with Verizon because of this. Or just go halves on the *****.

    • Dohko_Xar, on 08/20/2008, -0/+3Why is using FioS a loss? FioS is damn fast.
    • maxgoedjen, on 08/20/2008, -0/+2Seriously, you have a chance to leech some FiOS and you're bitching because you can't use DSLextreme?
    • diemunkiesdie, on 08/20/2008, -0/+2Why did you need two internet connections in once house? If anything FiOS is fast enough to handle anything you were doing on DSL and more!
    • RickoSicko, on 08/20/2008, -0/+2Yeah, I know FIOS is pretty fast. As to the message I wrote in reply to Portfoliosos message, I'm just upset at how much time I've wasted trying to find out what the ***** happened to my connection. Now all I can hope is for a better deal, or I'll just own up and go halves on my brothers connection.

  • gotacalc, on 08/20/2008, -1/+1If I were you, I would try talking to your landlord about getting the box open. It sounds like Verizon doesn't have the means, and who would trust Comcast?
  • bmfrosty, on 08/20/2008, -0/+3Every time you speak with a representative from a telecom/cable/satellite company, ask for their name (first and last), userid, and direct callback number before they hang up, but not at the start of the call. If you ask at the start of the call, you'll put them on edge, and they may just hang up on you. Don't expect to get more than 1 of the 3 most of the time, but the further up the chain you go, the more info you're going to get. Keep notes, and if you do get a direct callback number, don't be afraid to use it.

    Don't be afraid to display your anger, but never direct it at the rep that you're speaking with. This will be counter productive. Also once you've let them know that you're unhappy with the service and angry about it, back down. Let them have a little victory because they calmed down the angry customer. Appeal to their egos.
  • PhilLesh69, on 08/20/2008, -0/+1What's funny is that two and a half years ago when Verizon came out to install FIOS, and I asked them if they had to cut my twisted-pair copper wires completely, one of the guys said "Yes. But don't worry, once you get fibre for phone and internet, you'll never want to go back to the twisted pair. What you need to worry about is someone from Cox coming along and cutting your fiber line." He did say that a lot of the cable installers are independent contractors, and some of the service techs are new employees, and neither of them know what they are doing.

    I asked the guy "do you think that might be an unspoken, unofficial policy?" and he said, "well, it certainly seems like they'd want to undermine FIOS, but I think it all comes down to pure incompetence."

    The previous 6 years of cable internet service was miserable. I had to reset my cable modem at least weekly, and the signal strength would degrade to the point where my modem couldn't initialize about every two to three months, and they would have to come out and either dig a new coax line to my house or do something at their tree to boost my signal strength. Since having FIOS installed in late 2005, I have not had any connectivity issues other than some problems with my gateway router, but that's only because it's a belkin.

    Not to mention, the 50/20 Mbps service really is 50/20. Most speedtests show 53,456 kbps and 22,551 kbps, but I tweaked my TCP/IP settings with DrTCP.

    I will give Comcast some credit. When I lived in Bethesda, they were much more reliable than Cox here in McLean. They still weren't as reliable as FIOS has proven to be, but they were much better than Cox.
    • diemunkiesdie, on 08/20/2008, -0/+1Forgive my ignorance, but why do they have to cut your phone line to give you FiOS? How are those two related? Fiber is a completely different wire so they would need to make a new connection to your house, right?
      • PhilLesh69, on 08/20/2008, -0/+2They do it because there are very tight regulations on copper wire phone service.

        By clipping your copper, they ensure that you can never go back to copper wire.

        That was why I asked if they had to clip it.

      • diemunkiesdie, on 08/20/2008, -1/+1The regulations for copper wire phone service state that you can't have copper and fiber at the same time? But what if you decide to go back to copper wire? Or maybe you want internet from them and you want phone service from a local company, is that not offered?
  • samimnot, on 08/20/2008, -0/+0I would suggest you ask for a copy of the Comcast technician’s paperwork (stating the actual disconnection date) and pay them for their service, up to that point. Verizon just got you as a customer and it’s “to their advantage” to continue working with you. Especially since a Verizon tech. actually saw that their line to your home had been physically disconnected (definitely get this paperwork from Verizon also).

    Good luck…because at this point I’m sure both companies involved are wondering if you’re just a “problematic customer”. Support your claim with something much more then just words. Have paperwork; keep a log of dates and times, etc…BACK UP YOUR CLAIM.
  • memetomancer, on 08/20/2008, -1/+1as someone familiar with both cable and telephone networks, and who actually read the story, i can easily explain what happened here. the customer ordered verizon service, had it installed and then called in to disconnect his cable service. the cable company got the instructions to come disconnect his cable service without knowing or caring about the verizon. they went to the lock box. they found the cable leads with the tags for his apartment and disconnected them, just as they normally would.

    the only real problem here would be that the verizon installers failed to tag his apartment runs correctly, which really wouldn't be the cable company's problem.

    you people are so hysterically eager to complain about cable companies, i just gotta say: don't use them. wtf?
    • PhilLesh69, on 08/20/2008, -1/+2You are not that familiar with either networks, apparently.

      Have you ever seen the difference between a fiber optic cable and a CAT-5 coaxial cable? Coming up to the demarc is a black, flat shielded fiber cable that looks distinctly different from the typically orange CAT-5 cable.

      From the demarc to the ONU, there's what could be mistaken, by an amateur, to be coaxial, unless he actually touches it and can feel the insulation is loose, as opposed to coaxial cable's tight insulation.

      Have you ever seen the FIOS ONU (Optical Network Unit)? There's a big beige box with the word "Verizon" right in the middle of it, and another box nearby that plugs into a 110v outlet.

      Your claim that Verizon failed to tag their "runs" correctly is about as logical as if the gas company didn't tag their "run" correctly, and some cable moron came in and cut my 1/2" copper tubing that serves as my natural gas feed.

      If you can't tell the difference between a black, flat cable that almost looks like romex, but smaller, and an orange coaxial cable, you have no business with a pair of wire cutters and a crimping tool.
      • PhilLesh69, on 08/20/2008, -0/+2Oh *****, I didn't mean CAT-5. I meant RG-6.

        CAT-5 is 8 wire copper twisted pair used in ethernet networks.

        It's been over 12 years since I had to pull cable for networking and telecom.

        My bad. My mistake gives anyone who disagrees with me a free pass to digg me down so they can feel better.
      • memetomancer, on 08/20/2008, -1/+0in other words, you didn't read the story. but that's cool.
  • TonyTheTerrible, on 08/20/2008, -1/+1but can it run comcast?
  • mayihaVaproverb, on 08/20/2008, -0/+1RUN!! Get out of there! You've seen Tremors haventcha? Okay, well don't worry - just a rumor. But still, Comcast is still trying to eat you! (Said in Dirk Diggler 'our stuff's that good' tone of voice)
    • PhilLesh69, on 08/20/2008, -0/+1Umm, I've seen Boogie Nights.

      I'm not sure what you are referencing from Boogie Nights.
  • deadbaby, on 08/20/2008, -1/+1My advice would be to act like a grown up and realize mistakes happen. It's entirely normal for Comcast to have access to apartment lock box keys in a building they service. Your Comcast disconnect date was after your Verizon install date so obviously they made a mistake. Perhaps the Verizon tech did not tag the line. It's really hard to say who is to blame. The fact Verizon wouldn't send out a tech promptly definitely created a big problem -- the Comcast tech disconnecting the wrong line caused a big problem, scheduling your disconnect date AFTER your Verizon install caused a big problem. MDU's are a challenge for any communication company. Mistakes happen. The world isn't always a wonderful happy trouble free experience.
  • soupdawg30, on 08/20/2008, -0/+1Legally they can't touch the other companies wires. So as outlandish as it sounds they can't send anyone out to fix it. Verizon has to fix it.
  • Slungsolow, on 08/20/2008, -0/+4This story is about me. Comcast apologized and did say that they may be responsible for my cable service being physically disconnected. They are (at least according to consumerist) investigating what happened. Verizon has credited me for the outage on their end and also apologized for their horrible customer service.

    The reason this happened is I followed Verizon's advice and did not have my cable disconnected beforehand. I doubt it would have made a difference either way since it's Comcast's policy to physically sever the connection to close out the account and this can take weeks to occur. Was my Verizon service cut on purpose is the bigger question, and no one but the technician who disconnected me can answer that honestly.
  • azhura, on 08/20/2008, -0/+1Yeah, Comcast disconnected our RCN service twice, the bastards. They just started cutting wires in our building's basement, probably not caring that what they were cutting wasn't for the condo that had Comcast service. After the second time of this happening, RCN roped our unit's wires off to the side and put a big RCN label on it. They probably should have done that in the first place since it seems that the Comcast people don't have a ***** clue.
    Whenever I see the Comcast van, I shake my fist at it. Stupid Comcast. I will never subscribe to your idiocy.
  • spurtle, on 08/20/2008, -0/+7"UPDATE: Comcast says they're sending someone out to Stephen's house to investigate."

    TRANSLATION: Comcast will be disconnecting his Verizon service again.
  • gkiltz, on 08/20/2008, -2/+0Keep your head here!
    Did you order your Verizon service disconnected? No?
    Here is how you approach it!
    Call Verizon, with a copy of your last statement(whether paper or electronic) either in your field of vision or a quick mouse click away!
    WHEN YOU CALL VERIZON, SIMPLY REPORT TOTAL SERVICE OUTAGE, ALL ASPECTS OF YOUR SERVICE! AND TELL THEM YOU NEED THE SERVICE REPAIRED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! NOT A PEEP AS TO WHY YOUR SERVICE IS OUT! Let them figure that out for themselves! Go through the ***** trouble shooting they put you through. Sound a little ornery and impatient but not too obnoxious!
    DO press them for as much specifics as possible on when the technician will be out. Then shut up! Call back ONLY if the technician runs more than 20 minutes late. Again be a little impatient, but DON'T be an *****! If you're reasonably sure the disconnect was done at the NID, or the pedestal (or on the pole) try to get them to send a technician. If they threaten to bill you insist that they send one anyway and fight that battle later!

    Once the technician shows up, be as nice to him as you can! He's the one you need to be on the good side of! And stay on his good side! Most technicians pride themselves on their own ability to diagnose problems. Stay out of his way. Cooperate with what he asks you to do but let him work! If he asks you "Did you go into the NID yourself?" or "Was Comcast out here?" Tell him the truth then shut up! Only call the office if he either is buffaloed by the problem and takes too long, or if he cuts a hole somewhere he clearly shouldn't or is drunk, or is totally rude or something equally egregious, and warn him first. Let him check all the services he wants to! If he asks"Did the service go out while Comcast was here?" again, tell the truth and then shut up! Keep your eye on what he's doing, and where he is, but don't dog him, and don't let your dog and or kid hover over him!
    DON"T be smarmy, with him, try to bribe him, or anything like that. If it's a hot day, you can offer him some ice water, but that's about it.

    Do NOT let him leave until you are convinced that ALL ASPECTS of your service ( wireline, Internet, basic cable, and premium cable) are working like they're supposed to. TEST THEM ALL, YOURSELF!!! Then thank him, profusely, even if you feel like kicking his ass, and hustle him out the door as fast as you politely can!

    Depending how long it was out, whether you should be a pest about adjusting your bill! Just NEVER raise that issue until the service is back up! Don't pay the bill while the service is down! If they say anything explain why! Else, set that money aside, and don't spend it. pay as soon as the tech is out the door, but not a second before! Again, if they ask, make it sound obvious, but NO VENOM!!!

    If there are further problems, call back immediately, otherwise leave them alone. If you do have to call back, ask for a supervisor, and politely explain what exactly the tech did and did not do, and say, and only get obnoxious if he says something completely insane. DON'T fo through the same over the phone ***** troubleshooting again, unless it has been more than 30 days since your last call, just explain as politely as you can that it has already been done, and would be pointless! Insist on a resolution, but don't lose your temper. There is a difference between not being nice and being an *****! Be nice the first time you deal with each person, but not the second, get more ornery each time, but never be an *****!

    You do these things ANYTIME there is a problem, I don't care whether it's Verizon, or whether you got the wrong soda at Wendy's, handle it the same way, but don't give up until it's FULLY RESOLVED! Take it to the legal process only if you don't get resolution.

    My experience has taught me that this works every time, and 90% of the time, it works on the first try!
    • Mithivh, on 08/20/2008, -0/+1You're getting digged down because you typed so much :)

      Quality or not, most people are too lazy to read that much in a comment.
  • Verugan, on 08/20/2008, -0/+0I called comcast to report an outage in my area, which they confirmed on the phone. My service never came back so I called the next day and there was no outage. Had to wait a week for a comcast tech to come to my aparment and who basically told me that whoever came out to fix the outage disconnected me because my cable didn't have a "tag".
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