Ever since the economy went ka-flooey, I’ve had this suspicion that companies are more interested in customer service. Case in point, our local utility recently bailed on providing cable TV and internet service.
Our local utility entering the internet and TV business was controversial from the get-go, about a decade ago. Then they lost oodles of money, sucked profits from local electric utility (one of the oldest in the country), sparked angry letters to the editor, but nevermind the outrage.
After hemorrhaging money, Alameda Power & Telecom’s internet and cable TV service was sold to Comcast. So we all have to switch over.
Our end of Alameda island has been selected for early conversion (oh, joy), and Comcast sent out mailers and door-hanging flyers and seemed eager to please. I figured now was my chance to add a couple cable outlets, called them up, got some options for an appointment to meet them and have the outlets run (free of charge), got the time off from my boss, and scheduled the appointment for January 14th.
And then they converted us on January 8th, ahead of time.
Oooh-kay.
So for the past couple days my wife and I have been learning the new cable channels, and today found out that we have lost internet access. It would be foolish to expect a seamless conversion, right?
So I called and spoke to a guy who spoke to other guys and we discussed my configuration, I explained about my modem and router, and they put me on hold then said “try it now” a few times, and it didn’t work, so I shut everything off and disconnected it all and re-connected it in the sequence they specified and we tried it again and it all (45 minutes later) worked just fine, thank you very much, and then I asked to talk to someone on the cable TV side about renting a video recorder, a DVR.
And here’s where it got weird.
First of all, a confession. I’m late to the hard-drive-wired-to-the-TV revolution. But I’m all for zipping past commercials, also recording two programs at once, as my three favorite news programs (The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, the Deutsche Welle Journal, and the BBC World News) all come on at 6:00 PM here. (Don’t even get me started on how absurd it is that these PBS broadcasts aren’t staggered, and how at 7:00 PM the news options disappear. Let’s not go there.)
So I went to Best Buy shortly before Christmas and flailed at salespeople to get some customer service and ended up with a hard drive that only works with DirecTV. Okay. My goof. I went back and once again struggled to get sales assistance, and this time bought Tivo before learning that you have to get a subscription. Ah, well, me in a big box store: innocence abroad.
I went back a third time and insisted on speaking to someone who knew the field and found out that Best Buy no longer sells DVRs that don’t require a subscription service. So I figured some divine power was telling me it’s simply time to rent a DVR from Comcast and be done with it.
A couple people had recommended renting, as the field changes so quickly, anyway, so why not?
Now flash back to my phone call: I politely ask the young kid at Comcast what it would cost to rent a DVR and can they bring it next Wednesday, when I’ve scheduled an appointment to run the new cable lines.
He tells me my conversion is now completed so it will cost me to get the new cable outlets.
Say, what? (Bear in mind, I’m an hour into this Comcast phone call now.) I explain to him that I had already scheduled this appointment, and the new lines were to be free, and he tells me I have to pay for them now, at which point my voice got a bit louder and I asked to speak to a manager.
So he put me on hold.
And he kept coming back on to tell me he was waiting to talk to his “lead.”
Then put me on hold a while longer.
So I stewed, and about the fourth time he came on to thank me for my patience and tell me he was waiting for his “lead” to approve waiving the fee, I told him in detail how I had called on the 5th and already set up this appointment for the 14th, gotten my boss’s approval for time off to meet the technician here at my house and get switched to Comcast then, and how this phone call was becoming a great sales pitch for me to switch over to a satellite dish with DirecTV.
We did some talking past each other for a bit, too, but nevermind about that. And he put me on hold again and thanked me for my patience. I held my tongue and declined to point out that it wasn’t really patience, it was more endurance, but the next time he asked me if I would mind being put on hold I asked, “what are my choices?”
He put me back on hold.
So an hour and a half into the whole internet and cable TV phone call he told me they would waive the fee, and I said great, so he will still come when I had set it up next Wednesday, the 14th, right?
And the kid put me on hold to see when the next time was available.
And came back on to thank me for my patience and tell me they couldn’t schedule anyone until January 24th.
What happened to my first appointment, for which I had gotten time off from work?
That time was lost, sir, when your order was completed.
But it was not completed now, was it?
It was deemed completed, sir, when they converted you over to Comcast.
But without me being here to let them in to run the new cable lines, it couldn’t be completed now, could it?
But it was logged in as completed, sir, when they converted you over—
But it couldn’t have been completed, could it?!
The kid finally said he understood my point.
So the first time they can come is the 24th, a Saturday? He put me on hold to confirm that January 24, 2009 is, indeed, a Saturday.
At which point we were over an hour and a half into the phone call. I gave up on the appointment for which I’d scheduled a day off. They’ll come on the 24th now, possibly with a DVR box, and perhaps they will run two new cable lines for us, if I haven’t ordered DirecTV, first.
And about the notion that companies, during the recession cum depression, might be more interested in providing customer service? I can say the efforts are uneven. They still seem eager to please. I am getting cable lines added for “free” (ignoring that our rates are going up, for fewer channels than we had with AP&T). And they will thank you for your patience as they put you on hold and try to find someone who knows what the hell they’re doing.
OmbudsBen 
Ugh. You’re giving me flashbacks.
Many years ago, perhaps 15 or 16 years ago, I lived in San Francisco, and we tried getting a cable package with ‘the box’. Well, I didn’t know that having ‘the box’ meant that you could not watch one thing and tape another, so once I discovered that, I discontinued the service. That’s fine, they said, we’ll come pick up ‘the box’, but there will be a fee for us to come out. Oh, no problem, I say, because your people will be here on Thursday anyway, installing DMX (remember that? Digital music that you could listen to instead of the radio?), so there’s no need to charge me a fee.
Back and forth with that idiot, putting me on hold, talking to his supervisor. On and on and on. He was so stinking stupid. Finally I offered to throw the f’ing ‘box’ out my 3rd story window, and they could pick it up off the sidewalk at their leisure.
Suddenly, there was no charge, and they would be happy to pick it up when they were here anyway.
Oh. My. God.
That kind of conversation, on that kind of subject, just makes me want to weep.
I have a crappy old 14″ TV with only the 4 terrestrial channels and a cheap DVD player. I keep meaning to get something ‘more’ and ‘better’ but everytime I go into one of those stores I come out more confused than I was when I went in.
Maybe I’ll look into renting…
I apologize for the unacceptable experience. I work for Comcast and I will be happy to reach out to my contacts and see if we can schedule you on the original appointment date you requested. I will also make sure that your experience is communicated to my contacts for evaluation.
If you are interested in my assistance, please feel free to contact me. Again, I do apologize for the experience.
Best Regards,
Mark Casem
Comcast Corp.
National Customer Operations
We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com
Wow. Looky dat. Comcast really does care . . . about public perception. Gee, now I wish I had blogged about my Comcast installation nightmare instead of just Yelping it (though if you want to read about it, here ’tis http://www.yelp.com/biz/comcast-san-francisco#hrid:JtyM2i8uRFSJ2nXWyi1f6A ).
I’m sorry you have to go through this, but know you are not alone.
J, I like the offer to chuck the box out the window; good for you.
Trucie, there are maybe half a dozen channels I watch with any regularity, and maybe a dozen more I check in on, but there is so much drivel. (I have to confess to an odd obsession with baseball, which keep sme hooked on a few of those channels, and thus cable TV.) In some way, you might want to count your blessings. I have such immense ambivalence with American TV. So often there is great stuff, and other times it’s so appallingly bad. The DVD player is key — you can rent what you want and ignore the silliness.
Yes, LB, I was somewhat surprised! And it seems to have worked. I have a phone mesage asking me about restoring that original appointment.
So I guess there is renewed interest in customer service, after all.
Now the confession — I submitted a pared down version of this letter to a local newspaper, The Alameda Sun. They’ve confirmed my name and that I live in Alameda. I’ve asked them to include an update saying Comcast is restoring the original appointment time, but so far have not heard back …
It shiouldn’t take a blog past to accomplish. But I think they deserve some credit.
Most of us have been in the same situation with some customer service rep or other, but in this case All that hassle is worth the glory that is the DVR.
Zipping past commercials, all the recording and watching later.Recording those marathons on USA channel and watching at your leisure. For any boob tuber it’s a real must.
Holy moly! You got a response out of Comcast! I’m big-time impressed.
Way to go, Ombudsben!
I’m glad I’m not dealing with Comcast anymore, but I have to admit that the company we have now isn’t any better. It’s just that there’s less hassle these days since we’re pared down to internet service only. With an antenna and an HD converter box, we can pick up enough television to keep us sitting on the couch for far too long. 😉
Thanks, Robin. I think putting the words “Comcast” and “DirecTV” in the title helped.
Personally, I wish we could select the channels we buy, rather than so much of the dross we get.
With any luck, some day TV will have something as easy as the open architecture of the internet.
At this point, I’m just hopeing we can hold on to net neutrality …
More Comcast frustrations…..
It’s kind of funny to hear people complain about dealing with government. Now adays it seems that dealing with big companies is much more frustrating.
Case in point Alameda Power and Telecom, a city owned utility you could call with questions and talk to somebody (in Alameda I think!) Comcast buys them out- prices go up, service is a disaster.
I found out our internet had been switched when I couldn’t connect. I restarted my computer (connected by wireless) and no luck. Then I thought I’d try my wife’s computer: a message came up insert your Comcast disc!!!!! What?? Well guess what, there was a Comcast disc in the mailbox that day. So I tried their software, which didn’t work. Then I called Comcast- after several minutes I was hung up on. Then I called again, and was hung up again, after waiting a substantial amount of time. The third time I pleaded with the woman to take down my number since I had already been hung up on twice. Ultimately she was very helpful. But having my internet connection abruptly cut off, then being hung up on twice left me very angry!!!
The woman then asked me if my cable TV was working. I never thought of checking. Indeed it too wasn’t working and she transferred me to somebody who fixed that remotely too.
To add insult to injury, the prices appear to be much higher with Comcast, both for cable TV and internet.
And what other choices do we have? Is there a competitor for Cable in Alameda? I don’t want to ask my landlady to put a dish on the house, or add DSL setup. For TV, I think we might just go back to antennae.
But simply put, I wish we could have our AP&T back! Dealing with these huge corporations is constant frustration. Hours on the phone, blatant dishonesty and misrepresentation, deceptive pricing is a way of doing business for such companies.
Well put, man!
I have a whole lot more faith in the government than I do in Enron, Exxon, or a number of the private companies I worked for, and saw how rapacious they could be, from the inside.
I miss AP&T, too. We miss several of their channels, and you’re right, Comcast is more expensive. We’re going to give it a go for a while … probably long enough to re-program my brain to the new channel numbers.
Your hassles sound worse than mine — good luck, Mike!