Bob and I did the first radio call in on Comcast on a cold December night two years ago. We had an all star line up on the show including Mona “The Hammer Lady” Shaw, My Damn Channel’s Harry Shearer, In January, I think it’s time to see just how much progress Comcast has made. Are they COMCASTIC? Is your Dish service DISHriffic? Let’s find out.
I am proposing we invite a few Comcast Executives to be on the radio show, which will give some of you a chance to call in and ask them questions about your Cable service, your Triple Play Package, or just to vent or rant about how good or bad you’ve been treated, over-promised or lied to.
Please blog your comments below and let me know some of the questions you want me to ask on the next radio show.
I’ll email everybody a few times in advance to let you know of the call in date for the radio show.
Remember; If you’re Fed Up with Crappy Customer Service, if it’s Smelling a lot like Customer Circus… then Talk Back until you hear back.
– bart
January 20th, 2010 at 8:14 pm
Hell NO!!!!! I went through a nightmare experience with Comcast back in August, when my cable wire was ripped from the street pole (for the 2nd time as it was improperly repaired a week earlier) and watched with great interest, all the commercials citing their new “customer service” guarantee. Well, low and behold the wire was again ripped from the street pole, and the pole in my backyard at 5:15 on Friday the Jan 14. I immediately spoke to the lovely Comcast woman who assured me that a tech would be out immediately–anytime day or night–and if they were unable to resove the problem that night, I’d be the first appointment in the morning. By 10:00 Sat. morning, 1/15 I had not heard anything and called to investigate. After remaining on my cell phone for 35 minutes 45 seconds, and speaking to 2 individuals (one who identified himself as a supervisor) I was given a ticket number and assured a tech was on his way with the necessary bucket truck and multiple techs. Then within the hour someone showed up in my yard to access the situation and confirm the need for aforementioned equipment. He left after seeing the problem saying he would return shortly with a bucket truck/help….When no one appeared by 1:00 I phoned again, spoke with another person apologizing effusively, given another ticket number and assurances that the equipment/personnel would be there by 3:00 pm…3:15 I called again, received more apologies, a minor $20 credit…and told I would hear from someone giving me a time for the tech’s arrival. (This call eclipsed another 20 minutes of cell time) I then got 2 calls citing the tech’s delay of 2 hours and was assured I was next….5:38 pm Chris the aforementioned supervisor, called reiterated the above info, I specifically asked whether the promised tech would have the bucket truck and additional help and was assured once again that he would have whatever was needed to fix my service…5:49, over 24 hours later, a tech showed up in a small pick-up truck, alone, stating he was never informed he needed the bucket truck/help…at this point I attempted to call Chris back at the number he called from, and was unable to locate him spending another 15 minutes on my cell…the tech called for help and the job finally was completed at 7:57 pm after help and a bucket truck was brought on site!
My cell phone was now dead, and my day shot, I was livid and wrote to the customer relations person, Rick Germano, and have yet to receive a reply e-mail!
They are wasting money on their advertising campaign, since the service is still in complete and utter disarray! Why when a customer gives the exact nature of their outage problem and thus knows the necessary repair equipment, does it require someone to come and take a look to give the same information some 12 hours after the problem arose….why wasn’t a customer who called the previous evening moved to the first job of the day?…why wasn’t any of the information given to the customer reps relayed to the supervisor at the repair company? Why can’t a service caller be assigned a single customer relations person to handle their service call to completion–thus assuring that the proper information is disseminated the technicians???? Lastly, why can’t Comcast run their own repair department when they charge me almost $200 a month????
I have endured the last service fiasco with Comcast and if I ever need to call for service in the future I will immediately call Verizon to replace Comcast as I’m unwilling to be harassed and harangued by their horrific service people again!
January 11th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
I was pleasantly surprised that my second technician fixed the problem that Comcast themselves screwed up with my second DVR when I had attempted to bundle my services with comcast to include phone, internet on top of my existing cable and DVRs. Well at least they restored my service to how it was originally, I do not have confidence in going all-in with them yet as I have heard my facebook and other friend’s horror stories. Upon getting my new bill, turns out comcast needed to charge me even more for an additional outlet they had neglected to charge for earlier – I stated my case to Forest in Customer Service in Southeast Michigan. I was upset to be getting charged over $140 for my cable with no premium channels and he was so helpful and articulate that I was turned back into a pleased customer (albeit still only with cable) when he had suggested a more cost efficient package saving me 45% for a year’s worth of cable. At least he made the effort to keep me sold for another year. Issue resolved – at least for a year until I decide to try to bundle again. – Un-bundled Comcastic (formerly Bombastic) in GP
January 11th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
I am disappointed and frustrated with the Comcast customer service and the process of reconciliation.
In October 2009 my husband canceled his digital voice service and deposited the module at our local Comcast location.
It is now mid January and he has called customer service a total of 5 times, each time waiting 15-20 minutes to speak with someone only to have that person tell him the same thing… we are sorry we keep billing you for the service and we will adjust the invoice. For Oct-Jan, Comcast owes me for paying for a service I do not have.
The final call to customer service was made when I refused to pay the December bill and my account showed as late. We have been waiting for a reimbursement from Comcast for the past three months.
I was hoping I’d get a call from someone who could make something happen… but no call came so my husband called again. This time someone was sent out to our home to verify that we weren’t still using the module (really, shouldn’t there be another way to check this…) and gave us a copy of his visit and findings. No one called to follow up so called again. This time we were told that we had to go to the location and present this paper to them before we could get our account fixed. My husband was assured that the location was open on Saturday.
So as lemmings, we both went to the Comcast location on Saturday morning and they were closed. The entire day. Their hours posted on the door didn’t have hours for Saturday.
As a company who promotes the speed of their product… My husband and I both agree that no matter how fast it is there is a higher importance on being treated better.
I am disappointed with the overall treatment we have received as a tenured customer. We have all three services under Comcast. Well, we had. I am now seriously looking for another alternative.
I reminds me of the current events of the recent airline bomber in which the President mentioned that we had all the information but we just couldn’t put it together.
Because this is my money and my choice where and who to spend it on I think they should be doing a better job with the information they have.
I feel like an unpaid employee instead of a customer.
January 8th, 2010 at 5:37 pm
We picked up a new HDTV for a bedroom in late December. On the 19th of December I spent 2.5 hours in line at the Comcast store to change the DVR for an HD DVR. Reminder, that was 12/19. We finally got it working right on Saturday 1/2. Between those dates we had 5 visits from their techs, one more when they didn’t show up, 5 different DVR boxes, 2 remotes, 3 cables, too many calls to them and their annoying voicemail with Ben Stein to remember.
We did get some credit to the next bill but if you do it right the first time (or 2nd or 3rd) we are not without the service as long and there’s no need for a credit.
January 6th, 2010 at 8:38 am
I have a business related issue with Comcast. I am new to my position and trying to get ANYWHERE with Comcast is impossible. A request for a new contract with them was mad in May 2009. It is now Jan 6, 2010 and I still dont have it. As a business, I have 2 separate accounts and nobody can tell me why. All I get is “We’ll look into it and get back to you. My predicessor spent over a year trying to fix the account as we were being charged at a residential rate for YEARS and was told they would look into giving us a refund and am still waiting on that. The person handling my account-Denise doesn’t return calls and her Supervisor takes a week to also return calls and again a promise to get back to me and then nothing. If anyone has names or numbers of corporate people that have been helpful in the past, or other webiste I can post my complaints-please let me know. I am so frustrated with all of this. Whatever happened to customer service?
January 4th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
While my problems with Comcast go back much earlier, let’s focus on just the past month. We have noticed that the picture quality (resolution) seems to vary between very good to, as is more often the case, less than desirable. It tends to vary widely with the same movie which might look good one day but not the next. Also, the HD movie channels have sound but no picture and some other channels had issues. After Thanksgiving we had a technician come out to inspect the signal. It should be noted that the repair technicians have all been unfailingly polite. He inspected the wiring in the unit, checked the signal, but in the end concluded that there wasn’t much he could do at that time.
About two weeks ago, we were watching the cable news in the morning, but when we came home, there was no signal at all to our modem (no internet or cable). Once again we appealed to Comcast for help, and were given the standard tag line of the “two hour window” for a technician. I explained that our wiring was just checked and that given the sudden outage, I was willing to wager that the problem was outside (we’ve seen this same scenario before) and rather than having to take time off from work to meet them, I asked that they check their records to see if there was a service call to our condo complex in the last 24 hours. They said they could not check the records and insisted that we had to be there for the technician to get inside to check our cabling. After arguing our point, which fell on deaf ears, we requested that they ask the technician to call us when they had a more definite time of arrival (30 minutes notice was all we requested) so we could try to take care of other things. Once again a long argument about how the service rep on the phone “was not going to guarantee a call” when the reality was we just wanted a note in the record. If the technician did not call us we couldn’t or wouldn’t hold the service rep accountable. The service rep finally relented. The technician DID call to let us know he was on his way and after arriving, BEFORE even coming in to the unit, he went to check the wiring outside the building and (isn’t this a shock?) found that OUR wiring was disconnected. It appeared that another Comcast technician had made a mistake given that he found a tag with the wrong building/unit number attached to OUR cable. He re-connected us and problem solved. We left town for the holidays thinking that we at least that our only misery was crowded airports and shopping malls.
I realize that Comcast has policies but there is a point where common sense, not to mention the courtesy of listening to customers, needs to be followed. This is not the first time I’ve had downright rude, inattentive customer service reps when dealing with Comcast. I called several months ago to complain about the picture quality and the rep actually had the nerve to say “well the picture looks great in my house”. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
If I thought that it ended there, I probably would consider myself lucky, I called a couple of days ago to request another service call (same problem with the HD movie channels again). This would be the 3rd service call in a month. At the same time, I mentioned that I would be talking to the billing department about an adjustment (credit) to the bill once we resolved the service problems. At this time we have an outstanding balance but given the problems of the past month we felt at the very least we deserved a credit for the past bill or on a future bill. I asked the service rep if before we scheduled a technician they could try shutting off the service remotely and turning them back on over the phone. Once again a long argument with a rep who insisted that they couldn’t do anything when in fact on previous occasions, that was the FIRST thing that they would do. Finally convinced her to try resetting the service from her end and told her I would let her know if it made a difference when we came home that evening. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any change when we tried the set that evening.
Had another spirited phone call when today when I called back to schedule a service call. I was told that we would have to pay the outstanding balance before the service call. Finally convinced the service rep to schedule the technician first then I would talk to the billing department about how much of a credit we would receive. I think what most annoys me is that I’m a consultant and every hour I take off to deal with these problems, I’m losing money — a point lost on Comcast. We finally arranged an appointment (you guessed it, New Year’s Day) and right before I get off the phone the service rep says “well I see you already have a promise to pay arrangement” to which I said huh? She then informed me that I made arrangements to pay such and such amount by a certain date and it was in the record by the service rep I spoke to the day before. I explained that I never made any arrangements, we never even discussed my bill the day before, and I certainly made no promise given the issues were were having. (I almost always use the automated bill pay over the phone for payments). When I told her that this was incorrect she rudely insisted that I had made arrangements and they had the recording to prove it, At that time I insisted that she play back the “quality control” recording of the conversation but of course she said that couldn’t be done. End of conversation.
New Year’s eve rolls around and my girlfriend and I are wanting to meet friends out of town for the holiday weekend but we have the looming service call with Comcast on the following day. Having my suspicions about the operator and whether the service was reset as instructed, I decided to give Comcast service a call to try while I was on the phone. The nice gentleman (for once) agreed to reset the service. The converter box went dead and then lights came back on and viola! — we have picture and sound on all stations including the HD movie channels. I thanked him, canceled the service call for New Year’s Day, and noted that we would contact Comcast on Monday to discuss our bill (primarily what they would be doing for us). Coincidence or did the service rep never actually reset the service earlier in the week? Draw your own conclusions.
THESE PEOPLE HAVE NO MORAL CHARACTER. Now it seems that they have imaginary records of conversations. I should mention that the details of one of the service calls (the disconnected wiring) were conveniently absent from my service record which I found strange.
The problem with Comcast is that they want to offer bistro service at five star prices. I’ve complained about their lack of HD programming for the past year. Only a handful of HD channels (ON DEMAND does not count) compared to SD programming. Yet they only add the HD package on the SD package so you end up paying for all the SD channels, which are of no use on HD sets. To add insult to injury from the interruptions of our already inadequate service, we have to endure rude behavior.
January 4th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
No, it hasn’t improved. I just got back from dropping off a cable box for my elderly and disabled mother-in-law from her old residence, and requesting a new (basic SD) box for her new location (Nursing Home).
Not only did the customer service rep state that she had to be there to switch out boxes (she’s elderly and disabled!), but when I complained that Comcast is difficult to work with and does not listen to it’s customers, he sarcastically replied “That’s your opinion”. I simply walked out. The irony being, he wouldn’t even listen to ‘my opinion’ as a customer, which is just more evidence that they not only *don’t* listen, but that Comcast doesn’t care how their employees treat customers.
I wish that employee would be reprimanded for his attitude, but I’m sure that there is no one at Comcast willing to listen to customer complaints. They probably don’t even have a feasible feedback system. I’m sure complaints are filtered and the complainers service is degraded.
Having been a triple play customer, each contact I have with their front line encourages me to cancel whatever service I can do without. I will try to influcence my condo board to drop Comcast altogether every chance I get. And I won’t be paying for any additional service. Yes, my self respect and dignity is worth more than dealing with a crappy and rude company like Comcast. This rude customer service rep costs Comcast $$. Directly and indirectly. Too bad they will never figure it out.
Write to congress, Cable TV and broadband connectivity should fall under the jurisdiction of the FCC just like broadcast TV and telephones.
January 4th, 2010 at 9:08 am
Comcast just had a big outage in DC at around 11:00 on New Year’s Eve. We had people over and while watching the festivities on TV, tour cable service went out. Within 90 minutes the Comcast truck was in the neighborhood looking for the trouble.
The following morning when we turned on the TV to watch the Bowl games, and still no service. On Sunday, Jan. 3rd at 6 pm, service was still not restored, and Comcast had no ETR (Est. Time of Restoral) on the fixing it. That was after 67 hours Comcast had to determine (and fix) the problem. The last call last night we were told “it was still an undetermined service issue.”
We can’t wait for Verizon FiOS to be available in out area and crush Comcast’s revenue stream.
We suspect Comcast’s next outage will occur on Super Bowl Sunday.
January 3rd, 2010 at 9:18 pm
my free notebook that was promised comcast?
January 3rd, 2010 at 6:52 pm
Comcast that land of no support. 4 calls to CS for a simple wireless router order and they insist that I drive 30 miles to their “local” service center. HMMMM Just like ATT i will leave you “comcast” once verizon LTE gets going as their panels are being installed last week. Their service may be a little slower and more expensive but they still have SERVICE