Miquel House

Recent dealings with Comcast:

• Jenni called to cancel our account at the old house. She gave the account number, and they transfered her to Cablevision
• After canceling our old account with Comcast, we received a postcard in the mail wishing us luck with our new provider, Cablevision. I really don’t know why Comcast wants us to be a Cablevision customer so badly. I haven’t had any experience with them, but I guess they couldn’t be worse than Comcast. Unfortunately our new house is in Comcast territory.
• We received our first Comcast bill. They charged us for their VOIP phone service, which we never requested. When Italian Joe was setting up our account, he asked me which services we wanted. I told him I wanted TV and Internet, and he quoted the correct promo price for those services, so I assume some other person screwed this up. They also never provided us with any VOIP equipment, so I don’t know how they got the idea that we were using their VOIP service. This means I have to call Comcast. This horrifies me.

Mark from Comcast (or whoever is on Google Blogsearch duty), if you want to talk about how much your company sucks, you can call me at 908 698 4851.

I know Comcast is reading this, because they use Google Blogsearch (which I didn’t even know existed) to search for people complaining about them on their blogs.  Last time I complained about them, they looked up my domain registration information and called my parents - twice.  I guess I should update my contact information.  One call was from their "corporate" office, and the other was from their "executive" office.  Mark from Comcast, pay attention please. 

You see, this is Comcast’s idea of "going above and beyond" and providing excellent customer service.  And that is their problem.  They’re trying to treat a chainsaw wound with a band-aid.  For every person who writes about their bad Comcast experience on their blog, there are hundreds of unsatisfied Comcast customers who aren’t heard.  You don’t fix your company by appeasing the complainers, you fix the problems that make them complain.

Comcast was recently the runner-up in The Consumerist’s Worst Company in America competition.  That’s impressive.  In recent memory we’ve had the following happen -

• A company sold children’s toys coated in poisonous paint
• A company sold poisonous pet food that killed animals
• A company was caught abusing cows in a slaughterhouse, then had to issue the largest meat recall in US history because of inadequate inspections. 

And Comcast was judged a worse company!  In light of these incidents, maybe we should be glad that all Comcast can screw up is our TV and Internet?

Comcast has a corporate culture of striving for mediocrity and failing to achieve it.  And the guy who gets all of the credit (and compensation) for a company’s success deserves the same for its failures. 

As CEO of the second worst company in the US, Brian Roberts receives the 34th highest compensation of all CEOs.  His 2007 total compensation of $39 million could have been spent on letters of apology to the 24 million Comcast customers who are still waiting for Verizon FiOS or AT&T’s U-Verse service to be available in their area.  Your company may succeed at making money thanks to its geographic monopoly, but what happens when you have real competition from companies that don’t suck?

Brian Roberts, you have brought shame on your family.  Seppuku is the only way to restore your family’s honor.

Since I last complained about Comcast on 7/22, there has been some progress. 

7/23 - I got a call from Italian Joe, who I quickly realized was the most competent person I’ve dealt with at Comcast.  I’m guessing he worked for Patriot Media prior to the merger.  I’m using the pseudonym Italian Joe to protect his identity; if word got out that this guy is competent, his job at Comcast might be in jeopardy.  Joe submitted our address to be added to their database and promised to call me back within 48 hours to schedule the installation.  Thanks to Italian Joe and caller ID, I can now call Comcast’s Somerset office directly.

7/25 - Joe called to set up the appointment.  We scheduled it for 7/30 between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.

7/30 - I left work early to be home by 2 p.m.  I waited until 5 p.m., then called Comcast.  I was told that my installer was on the appointment before mine, but they assured me that he would still come.  I declined their offer to have him call me with an ETA.  I’m a laid back guy, I don’t need to nag.  The installer called me anyway and said that he wouldn’t be at my house until 7:30 p.m.  No big deal.  Then he called me again at 6:30 and told me his truck broke down.  How convenient.  He offered to schedule another appointment for tomorrow, but wasn’t able to promise anything better than a 3 hour window.  Hey, it’s not like my time is important, right?  I honestly wouldn’t fault the guy if he just didn’t want to come to my house at 7:30 p.m. - I wouldn’t want to if I were in his shoes.   He shouldn’t have been in that position to begin with.

7/31 - The installer who came to our house was not the guy who was scheduled for the day before.  He was a nice guy, seemed knowledgeable and competent.  The only hitch was with the modem.  We have our own modem that we were going to use, but their computer system gave an unspecified error when they tried to enter the serial number.  The girl on the phone said she had never seen this error in all of the years she had worked there.  That made me feel special.  The installer tried one of their rental modems with the same result.  I don’t know how they worked it out in the end, but we ended up with a rental modem.  C’est la vie, que sera sera.  We have TV, we have Internet.

I’m on the phone with Comcast again.

Operator #1 informed me that I was talking to the wrong call center again.  I assume our Vonage phone number is responsible for the incorrect routing when I call their 800 number (but that doesn’t explain the constant mis-routing by actual people who know my address).

Operator #2 took my information, confirmed that the house has never had cable TV service, asked if utilities were underground or on poles, etc.  Finally getting somewhere!  Then she informed me that Joe the Italian leg breaker would call me in the next 24-48 hours.  This Joe fellow has had his cell phone turned off for the last 24 hours, so I assume he’s hanging out at the Bada Bing.

I found out today why people complain so much about Comcast.  Jenni called them a few weeks ago to set up Internet service.  They said our address isn’t in their database, so we’d have to wait two weeks.  I figured this was because the previous owner of the house never had cable television, so maybe they had to run a line from the street.  After three weeks with no news I decided to follow up.

Comcast operator #1 asked me for my phone number and address, then politely informed me that my call had been directed to the wrong call center.  She transferred me to the correct call center.

Comcast operator #2 asked for my address and was not surprisingly unable to find it in their database.  She put me on hold so she could figure out what to do, then informed me that the reason Jenni was unable to get our service set up was because Comcast isn’t our cable company - Cablevision is.  She was able to transfer me to the appropriate person at Cablevision. 

Cablevision operator #1 took my address and was also unable to find it in their database.  I raised the possibility that it might be because the house had never had cable TV service, but she assured me that it should be there anyway.  After a few minutes she came to the conclusion that my cable company was actually Patriot Media.  Oh how I wish.  Patriot Media was our cable company until Comcast bought them, and they were pretty good.  She offered to transfer me to Patriot Media.

Cablevision operator #2 answered the phone at "Patriot Media."  Figuring there was still a 50/50 chance that Cablevision really was my cable company, I went through the whole address and phone number process again, only to be informed again that Patriot Media is my phone company.  No offer to transfer me, and no response to my protestation that Comcast didn’t want me. 

Comcast operator #3 informed me that I was routed to the wrong call center again, and offered to transfer me to the correct call center.

After going through a phone menu system that clearly wasn’t intended for new customers, Comcast operator #4 informed me that I needed to speak to the sales department, which he transferred me to.

Comcast operator #5 informed me that I was routed to the wrong call center again, and offered to transfer me to the correct call center.

Comcast operator #6 informed me that I was routed to the wrong call center again, and offered to transfer me to the correct call center.  I actually laughed out loud this time.

After I repeated my address for at least the ninth time, Comcast operator #7 informed me that I needed to call a guy named Joe with an Italian last name.  On his cell phone.  She gave me his cell phone number. 

Joe had his cell phone turned off, so I left a message.  I’m kind of concerned that Joe is going to break my legs, because that just seems like something Comcast would do.’