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May 31, 2006

I Hate Comcast

We use Comcast for Cable TV and Internet services. I last paid them by credit card some time ago, and must have forgotten to set up automatic payment (probably because no one on the phone when you call them seems to know how, and their website is mysterious and useless, and as an internet customer you get no information about how to log into it). While we were in New Zealand, they suspended our service for late payment. What follows is the set of steps
we had to go through to get it reactivated. While I understand this is probably mild in comparison to the experiences of some, with a whole variety of service providers, I still think some public shame is required.

DAY ONE (Saturday)

When we arrived back we found a note in the mail with a Comcast letterhead saying that there was urgent information and that I should call some number written in handwriting on the page before 8PM that day (it was dated the day we returned). I called the number and reached a voicemail box which promised I would be called back. I left a message. I was not called back before 8PM.

I called Comcast on 1-800-COMCAST. I was connected to a "customer account executive" who said that the service had been reconnected by having a technician visit and remove a filter somewhere. I was told I would have to be home so the technician could verify that the TV was receiving a picture. I agreed to 8-12 on Tuesday (Monday was a holiday)

DAY FOUR (Tuesday)

I waited at home for the Comcast technician to show up. The TV stayed with "Please wait, channel content available shortly" or some such on the screen. Hours ticked by. Noon came and went. I called and was connected to another "executive". There was confusion. They called "dispatch" and came back to me saying that the technician reported that he had visited the address. I told the person on the phone that no one had come to the door. They pushed a button and all of a sudden the TV came on and started showing content.

I asked if Internet was working now too and they said "oh yes."

I went to work, and when I got home later I checked the internet. It was not working. Any time I tried to visit a page I got sent to some page on Comcast's servers telling me to download a file to install "connection software". Except the file was on http://cdn/ ... which does not exist.

I had a CD from when I got the stuff initially and tried running the installer on that. I ran the installer about 20 times. Almost every time it failed in a unique way. Sometimes it was a JavaScript error. Sometimes it reported that I needed to call Comcast. Sometimes it would show an IE certificate dialog and would then hang. I wonder if anyone actually QA'ed this thing?

In the evening I called back. The first person I talked to said there was a filter on and they'd have to send out a technician on Thursday to remove it. I knew this was BS because I was accessing content off of Comcast's site, just all other sites were blocked. I was sent to an Internet specialist.

The Internet specialist told me that they would turn it on for me, but the database that controlled registration was down for maintenance. Apparently it was down for maintenance every night between 1-4 or something like that.

Think about this for a minute will you. Any Internet company that ran its systems like this would be laughed out of business - and that's web companies that run largely free services! This is a company we pay $50 per month to!

I decided to try again the next day. I asked to be transferred to someone who could set up automatic payment.

The next person said they would forward me to an automated phone system where I would enter my routing number and my account number to set up autopay from my checking account. I agreed. I was transferred. A voice asked me to enter my "sales number". Wtf's a sales number? I pushed #. "That is not a valid Sales Number". I pushed 0#. "To make another call, please hang up and dial again."

So you'd think Comcast would make it easy for people to set up autopay so that situations like this whole ordeal wouldn't happen, but as you can see this is not the case.

DAY FIVE

On getting home from work, tried the internet again. Still no go. Leslie called. After what seemed like almost an hour on hold, she got on to a clueless bottom rung tech support person who said someone would have to come out.

I was listening and told her that the person on the phone was either clueless or lying. We were able to get to comcast's site, so no one needed to come out.

She was transferred to a supervisor. More hold.

More dicking around with the computer (restarting the computer, the router, the modem) and the supervisor pushed a button and the Internet was there.

This is deplorable customer service. Comcast has wasted probably 5-6 hours of our time collectively. Why didn't they just flip the bit in the first place and save everyone the time? The only reason we don't switch to AT&T is that the service there isn't any better.

As an aside, is there any way to communicate to one of these droids that you know what you're doing and don't need to run the script?

Posted by ben at May 31, 2006 9:15 PM

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