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Last week the @ComcastCares @Xfinity_TV debacle finally concluded. Yes. It took that long.
4Some of you may remember when I started dealing with Comcast (Xfinity) back in early November. For those of you that don’t, here’s a recap:
November 2, 2011: I value the time of others, but it appears that @XFinity_TV & @ComcastCares do not. #Service #Fail
http://www.tomcroom.com/?p=8305
November 5, 2011: Good morning. My @ComcastCares hell continues & why I now regret getting @Xfinity_TV
http://www.tomcroom.com/?p=8329
What happened after that:
- I got a call from Comcast/Xfinity customer service. They offered to waive my bill for two months in order to offset the time I had spent dealing with the issue.
- I took a morning off from work so an alarm repair person could stop by and check out the alarm a couple of weeks later. (That was the soonest they could get someone over.)
- The alarm repair person confirmed what we had all assumed… my alarm was toast due to the cable installation.
- A couple of weeks later, another alarm repair person came to my house with the needed parts and repaired the alarm. Total bill: $501.
- I then contacted the local cable contractor and met him at a Starbucks in town to give him a copy of the bill.
- Last Thursday evening, I picked up a check from them reimbursing the $501 repair bill.
That’s right, folks. Fifty-one days to get my household back in order once Comcast/Xfinity came into my life.
Fifty-one days.
To their credit, they have done a lot to fix the issues. My concern is while some compensation was given for lost time, even MORE time was lost on the back end repairing the issues they created.
This is one of those moments when I really wish things like cable television existed in a more competitive market. Where I live in South Florida, Comcast/Xfinity is the ONLY choice – so, regardless of service, you’re kind of stuck.
So it goes.
Good morning. My @ComcastCares hell continues & why I now regret getting @Xfinity_TV
0Before reading this post, you should take a moment to review how this mess started:
‘I value the time of others, but it appears that @XFinity_TV & @ComcastCares do not. #Service #Fail’ (http://www.tomcroom.com/?p=8305)
Wednesday’s fiasco cost me a half of day out of work spent at home waiting for a Comcast installation person that never came. Count it as three (3) hours of my life wasted waiting around and another three (3) on the phone and Internet getting it sorted out.
WASTED TIME SUBTOTAL: 6 HOURS
(So far.)
Let’s pick up from last night.
4:45 PM – I arrived at home early since the replacement appointment from Comcast Cable was set between 5:00 PM and 7:00 PM. The technician is already there. He was a nice guy and he reminded Shannon of the dude from the “Every Day I’m Shufflin’” song. The Cable Install Guy got to work around the house getting everything put in… Phone, Internet and a new cable box for the bedroom.
6:15 PM – This happens:
That’s right. The alarm continued to go off. Luckily, we don’t have it hooked to the phone lines so police, etc. didn’t show up. The alarm guards the house by alerting us to an intrusion and waking up all our neighbors. It’s LOUD.
Around this time Shannon gets home. We have to take Karma the Dog outside because the noise was stressing her out (see photo) and start looking for solutions since the Cable Install Guy can’t seem to figure it out.
Shannon tries the alarm’s manufacturer who stated that powering it off “should have” reset it. Obviously, that wasn’t working. The phone rep gave Shannon the phone number to a local alarm contractor. She calls them and (of course) they closed at 4:30 PM. Dead end.
Meanwhile, I went online from my cell looking for specs and information about the alarm (since, you know, the Internet in my house wasn’t installed yet.) Not much luck on the small screen, either. Another dead end.
A couple of the @ComcastCares Twitter reps halfhearted tried to “see what they could do.” That got nowhere.
I tried calling my contact at Comcast Corporate. The offices closed at 6:00 PM.
8:00 PM - The single most important employee of the Comcast XFinity TV Corporate Empire stepped in to help… @ComcastWill. I’m sure at some point this blog post will get forwarded to someone in a Comcast office showing the nightmare of customer service I have dealt with. Should that happen, it should be noted that @ComcastWill (Will Osborne) was the exception to the rule.
In short: he was awesome. Through a masterful use of conservation of characters (140 on Twitter!) and email, he took the time to understand and research the issue we were dealing with and ACTUALLY HELPED. He found the correct coding sequence to reset the alarm and and stop it from going off by using photos of the system I emailed him.
If Will’s boss ever reads this: give that man a raise. He deserves it.
9:45 PM – The Comcast Install Guy leaves. I eat cold pizza that Shannon brought home over an hour earlier. The cable isn’t completely fixed yet, though, so Comcast is scheduled to come back this morning.
NOTE: While I’m writing this – someone is here working on this.
So that’s five (5) more hours of my life from last night and I’m still not up and running with all my new Comcast services.
WASTED TIME SUBTOTAL: 11 HOURS
Which brings us to this morning. Here are the issues at hand:
- PROBLEM A: My phone will dial out, but not dial in.
- PROBLEM B: The Living Room television set will not get HD channels.
- PROBLEM C: While the alarm has been reset, it’s now stuck in “reset” mode. It won’t activate.
9:45 AM - A supervisor is here working on it. (Like I said, I’m typing some of this in real time.)
- PROBLEM A: solved – it was a faulty phone cable that was shorting out when you call in. I have a ton of spare parts lying around thanks to Wasabi Anime. Thus, fixed.
10:45 AM - New box is in the living room.
- PROBLEM B: solved – there is HD in the bedroom and the living room.
- PROBLEM C: Unresolved.
The supervisor was very polite and professional and explained that the alarm issue was completely out of his expertise. I will have to make phone calls on Monday to get yet another technician out here to get things working again.
WASTED TIME SUBTOTAL: 12 HOURS
So I’ve spent 12 hours of my life trying to get set up to pay Comcast for a service. The services promised have been installed as of this post: I have phone service; cable TV in two rooms; and Internet. My home (the alarm) is still not working, and won’t be for a few more days.
I can’t wait for my first bill.
*sigh*
The good news? I have 30 days to change my mind (and, luckily, I have not cancelled my Bellsouth account yet.) Let’s review: The Comcast Customer Guarantee to close off this post, shall we? You can find it here: http://www.comcast.com/Corporate/Customers/CustomerGuarantee.html
From their list:
1. Good to know. I may drop you a line in a couple of weeks.
2. You weren’t on time for the appointment. As a matter of fact, I had to do the due diligence to discover what happened when no one showed.
3. You did not resolve the issue in one visit. Or two.
4. You didn’t treat my home with courtesy and respect. You messed up my alarm system.
5. Not true. The HD issue couldn’t be fixed because the Comcast people “went home at 8:00 PM.” I also tried to call Comcast Corporate to get help. They closed at 6:00 PM.
6. Not true. The package was so confusing that the Install Guy was told to bring the wrong boxes. (“Digi” instead of “HD” or something.) I can’t wait until I try and decipher the bill I’m sent.
7. I’ll have to do research on this one, if only to look for alternatives.
So it goes.
I value the time of others, but it appears that @XFinity_TV & @ComcastCares do not. #Service #Fail
4I don’t know what my percentage is. I’m not the 1% since I drive a Ford and not a Ferrari. I’m not in the 99% because I don’t feel entitled to my “fair share” based on my years spent in college which (for the record) are few, scattered and involved a lot of parties.
I’m not a “percent.” I’m a person that expects companies (large and small) to respect my time as much as I respect theirs. With that in mind, here’s the situation I am dealing with today:
MY HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION PLANS TO DROP COMCAST (XFINITY) in order to lower our monthly fees. It all comes down the current state of the economy and I (for one) see how this is a good idea. As a result, Comcast/Xfinity has has been flooding my house via US Mail and flyers in my door over the past month about the change happening and how they’d like to offer a special package for the neighborhood. Some of the deals looked pretty good… good enough to have me leave AT&T.
I AM A WHORE FOR NUMBERS. As a result, I usually let math make my decisions when looking for service. I revisit the cost of the needed phone lines and Internet along with Shannon’s want for cable television about once a year. Each time the numbers have proven that I should stick with:
- Cable – Comcast
- Phone – AT&T
- Fax – AT&T
- Internet – AT&T DSL
(Cell phone lives elsewhere… I’m an Android, not an iPhone)
COMCAST/INFINITY makes an offer that is really good. It takes a two year agreement and my fees go up $20 after the next year, but for Cable, Phone and Internet it’s still a great offer. I speak to my rep (who I met walking my neighborhood and then via phone later) and set up the deal. Scheduling was difficult because (for those that read my blog) I am constantly on the road for business, I am booked SOLID between now and mid-December.
LUCKILY, I NEED(ED) TO GO TO THE DENTIST. This was to make some long overdue wisdom teeth go away. So I worked with Paul (my Comcast rep) to get it scheduled the same day. PERFECT. I even took time to purchase an updated wireless router to set up during the installation. We confirmed the date.
THIS MORNING, I HAD A DENTIST PUMP ME FULL OF DRUGS AND KNOCK ME OUT. All I know now is that I have a bandage on my hand and my mouth feels sore. Talking hurts.
THIS BRINGS US TO JUST A FEW HOURS AGO… At 3:15 PM, my wife roused me from my drug induced slumber and stated that Comcast/Xfinity never showed up. Groggy from pain killers, I asked her to bring me my laptop. I found this email to double check:
SO I STARTED TO MAKE PHONE CALLS. This is, of course, the single worst thing to do after having teeth extracted. In the world of Comcast/XFinity, though, getting a quick answer is impossible.
Here, in order, are the excuses:
- Paul didn’t know why they weren’t there and would call back.
- Comcast Customer Service stated that the appointment had been moved to Saturday. They didn’t know by who or why. They just knew it was moved.
- Paul called back and claimed it was his mistake and had to due with another house in my neighborhood with a similar account number. Someone could come out Saturday.
I am not in town Saturday. I am not in town for weekends until December. True story.
- Paul said he would try to see if someone could come out. I told him I’d be up late. Anytime before midnight would befine.
- I called Comcast Corporate. Same non-answers as the Comcast Customer Service.
- @ComcastWill got involved via the @ComcastCares Twitter account. He asked for Paul‘s phone number. I gave it to him.
- Paul called and said there was no way to get someone to my house as promised.
- Comcast Corporate called and had a WHOLE NEW STORY! It seems that the reason the appointment was moved was because my phone number from AT&T wouldn’t be ported until Friday and (therefore) the installation couldn’t happen until then. ALLEGEDLY this was the actual reason.
I expressed my disappointment and the Comcast service rep agreed that there was a failure of communication on their end and that, yes, I should have been notified. I let her know that I would change MY travel plans this weekend to leave town on Saturday morning instead of Friday so I would be available Friday from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM.
She said she couldn’t confirm that.
WHY?
Because that office had now closed. I had been trying to get answers since 3:15 PM and it took until 6:00 PM for Comcast to “solve the mystery.”
So here’s where things stand: Comcast will call me tomorrow to let me know if it is convenient for them to have someone to my house Friday night. If not, I will find it inconvenient to do business with them.
AT&T and anyone else in the Indian River County area? Now’s your chance to contact me for why to switch: me@tomcroom.com. I prefer companies that work for their customer’s business… not vice versa.
So it goes.
