Miquel House

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.

The 26th Annual Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning was last weekend.  Being just a few miles from the airport where it’s held, we should in theory have a pretty good view of the balloons. 

 

Friday night I got a good view of them as I was driving home.  They flew right over our neighborhood and toward Bridgewater.  Jenni had the cameras down the shore with her, so I wasn’t able to take any pictures.  No big deal, it’s a 3 day festival.  Unfortunately on Saturday the wind blew the balloons to the north, and we didn’t even see them.  I guess they didn’t fly very high; they were pretty high on Friday night, so we just kept waiting and watching until we realized we had missed it.  Sunday it rained pretty hard all day, and we weren’t sure if they even launched the balloons.  They definitely didn’t fly in our direction.  So unfortunately we didn’t get to take any pictures of the balloons, but this is what it may have looked like if the Darth Vader balloon had flown past our house:

Today I took the day off to go down the shore for something fun, although I was still “working” I guess. I had a photo session on the beach with a family that I did a wedding for in 2006. It was a large group of about 10 adults and 10 kids, 4 of which were under 4, which made it a little challenging. I am still learning how to handle and pose large groups, especially with small children. But I took a lot of pictures so hopefully I got some good expressions out of the little ones. The weather and lighting were perfect which helped ease my fears of doing the large group.

Back to work tomorrow. The plumber is coming so hopefully we will have hot water again. The balloon festival is this weekend and I am excited to see the balloons take off. Brandon said it looked cool tonight, so we will see. I will try to snap a few pics.

So it’s been a rough couple of days. We spent the weekend clearing all our junk out of the house and moving it into the new place. We are still carpetless so all our stuff is umm…everywhere. I called lowes and they said I should hear from the installer by the end of the week to set up the install date. So we were going to do the “big move” Saturday, but after a scorcher of a day, we just locked up the kitties and enjoyed our last peaceful night in the a/c.

Sunday we moved out more junk and brought over the kitties. I was fearing the worst, but surprisingly it wasn’t so bad. Kramer meowed the entire time in the car and jumped right out of his carrier when we opened it up in the masterbath. He was excited to explore the new place. He was so worn out from meowing in the car, that he was panting. I have never seen a cat pant, but it was hilarious. We have it on video, but B will have to post it. Little girl on the other hand did not do as well. She stayed in her crate all night and finally came out in the morning. She was pissed. She hissed at Kramer and at me a few times. Once she found the tub, she seemed to do much better. Now they appear to be fine, but seem bored with the bathroom. For now, we are keeping them in the bathroom till the carpet is intalled, then they will be confined to our bed/bath till the downstairs floors are done (another 4 weeks or so).

Now onto the real saga, after we got the cats settled, it was time to fire up the water heater. Why we didn’t do this before…got me, but since we weren’t showering, it didn’t really come accross my mind. Anyway, we tried to start it, but no dice. So after a nice sweating day of moving, we were hot water-less and therefore shower-less. It was a grueling night and I ended up on the sofa under the ceiling fan. I got about 3 hours sleep and some how woke up at 5:30AM. I guess it’s the whole “sleeping in a new place” thing because I was so tired. I stayed home from work Monday b/c I was waiting for the PSE&G guy to come to get the water heater started. He informs me at 1pm that we need a new water heater because ours is rusted…yet it’s new. Yet another possible victim of the “flood” that wasn’t disclosed. On the phone again with PSE&G to get a new water heater installed on Tuesday.

Tuesday comes and I take yet another day off of work. PSE&G comes and installs the water heater. Yay hot water. You would assume at this point that I jump right in the shower, but of course, I just keep working. So I work all day and Brandon goes to disconnect the dishwasher as Uneeda was coming to take it Wednesday. After what we thought was a successful “disconnect”, we turn the valve to turn off the water that flows to the dishwasher. Then we turn the water to the house back on and things look good, then all of a sudden I hear water on its way. The valve didn’t hold and water came gushing out. So off with the hot water once again. To top that off, we had an awful night of bad storms that kept me up all night. I was barely functional today and stayed home again to try to find a plumber and be there when they came to deliver the washer/dryer and dishwasher. The appliances were delivered without a hitch and they look cool. Although I miscalculated the depth of the washer/dryer and the amound of space you need behind the units. Hopefully the doors to the laundry room will fit. I tried to find a plumber to come today, but same day service was a bit overpriced so we are waiting for mom’s plumber who we can trust to fix the valves and the other plumbing issues we have. He is coming Saturday which is fine because I need to go back to work.

So after three hot, tiring days of no sleep or showers (although I did take one yesterday at mom’s), I am spending the night at mom’s to get a good night’s sleep. I am also going to take advantage of her jacuzzi tub.

I will post pics later, my laptop doesn’t recognize the stupid card reader right now.

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.’

Today was a very busy and tiring day. We have just about everything out of the house. We even had a chance to purchase our new washer/dryer and dishwasher. We went to Uneeda Appliance Store (local store) and they had great prices. The guy threw in free delivery and the appliances will be delivered on Wednesday.
We went with whirlpool 9200 washer and dryer set and the whirlpool gold 2700 dishwasher. All three were rated well on consumer reports and by users on several websites. Hopefully we will get a good set that will last.

Tomorrow is another busy day. We have to get out the rest of our stuff, organize the stuff at the new house so we can walk around and move the cats over.

Detective John Kimble died yesterday after a long battle with swim bladder disease.  He is survived by the black moor goldfish, Jenni’s two ugly Walmart fish that just won’t die, and a little tetra with a red tail.  Services were held over our trash can immediately after the discovery of the body. 

Video of Detective John Kimble while he was still alive.

Side note: I don’t approve of ANY of the furniture in Jenni’s previous post. Someone has some ’splainin to do.

I’m taking a little break and window shopping for furniture. Here are some of my finds. Now it’s back to packing.

Berkley Sofa - in dark brown

Preston Sofa in dark brown

Fontana Sofa - this color

Possible Chair

Bar Stool

Bar stool

Console Table

Here is a pic of my new tub. I love jets.

Lighting
Not sure about this. I want to find one without glass–less to clean.

Notice anything different in the first picture? No trees. Yay, the house looks so much better sans ugly, nasty, oversized trees. I painted the hand rails on the stairs and it made a huge difference, at least in person. It looks less spectacular in the pictures. We are still deciding to paint the posts brown or white. I can’t tell yet. We did one to see how it would look. Back to packing up the house. So much to do.