My love letter to Comcast. Complete with Dubya reference!

[grace0418]

After years of lousy service, we canceled our cable in May. Yet that hasn't turned out to be the end of the story with them. They keep sending their goons after us to retrieve cable boxes returned over a month ago. Boxes they themselves confirmed were "removed" from our account. Here is my letter to them tonight...

Dear Comcast

If only you'd shown this much interest in us when we needed you to take care of our terrible service. It's funny because we had such a hard time getting anyone to come out on a weekend to fix our cable, yet your representatives don't seem to mind needlessly harassing us on a Saturday.

In case you haven't guessed, today we received **ANOTHER** call from a Comcast representative (a gentleman who's name we couldn't understand from the message he left) asking if he could come pick up our cable boxes.

I mean seriously, what in heaven's name do we have to do in order to stop getting harassed by Comcast? We canceled our service in *MAY*. We sent back the cable boxes on *JUNE 19th* (after a three week delay on Comcast's end getting us the DHL boxes). Your own records state that the boxes were removed from our account on June 24th. SO WHY ARE WE GETTING CALLS ON JULY 21ST–ONE MONTH LATER– ASKING WHEN SOMEONE CAN PICK UP OUR CABLE BOXES?!

What exactly is the issue? And what do we need to do to resolve it? Shall we send a photo of our television, sans cable box, and our new satellite dish? Should we change our telephone number? Should we get the phone number of each of your friendly representatives and call them at home when they are trying to enjoy their weekend and explain to each and everyone one of them why they can't come pick up cable boxes that we no long have? Should we take out a restraining order?

Does George W. Bush actually run Comcast? Because this level of incompetence truly has his name written all over it.

Sincerely,

***MS.*** grace0418 (yes, they called me "Mr. 0418")

[grace0418]

1. Here is their response

Dear Mr. Grace0418 (yes, I'm still "Mr."),

Thank you for contacting Comcast Cable.

I am not sure why your name has not been removed the automated system.

The only thing I can think of is that the box was removed after the new

list was generated to make those calls. However, I have forward your
account information to our Marketing Department to make sure your name
has been removed from the new list which should generate on August 5,
2007.

Thank you for choosing Comcast.

Sincerely,

Comcast Customer Care Specialist





WOW, thanks for caring and the wonderful apology Comcast! I'm having trouble remembering why we gave you up... :eyes:

[trof]

2. "Thank you for choosing Comcast."

Bwaa haa haa haa
:rofl:

Satellite RULES!

We lost cable for 3 WEEKS after Ivan.
Never lost phone.
Had electricity back in 3 days.
Couldn't even see all the coverage of our town on national TV.
I rented a lot of movies.

That's when I got the dish and I love it.

[grace0418]

6. We actually can't have satellite in our building for a number of reasons.

I fibbed to Comcast to twist the knife a little bit (not that they care). We don't watch much tv anyway, although I miss The Daily Show, Mythbusters, and Animal Planet.

[UrbScotty]

26. You should wait until September

...to se if they achieve any of their benchmarks. :eyes:

[Kajsa]

3. If it's any consolation, be glad you

don't have Time-Warner cable.

We have had terrible reception, pixeling, freeze-frames,
loss of color, sound, the list goes on,
ever since the switch. It's not our TV- and the cable techs
can't find the solution.

I'm damn near ready to switch to Direct TV, but I hate contracts.

Guess who was our previous cable co. with NO reception problems?

Yep- Comcast!

Their Customer Service Dept. is very slow, I agree.

[grace0418]

5. "terrible reception, pixeling, freeze-frames..."

That was exactly our problem with Comcast cable. It would work for about a week, then it would get all shitty and unwatchable. Then we'd call. We'd wait all day for a service person who never showed up. Then when he finally showed up (the next day, after I pitched a fit on the phone) he'd say "the box for your building doesn't have the capacity to support all the units in your building". But he could get it working for the time being then promise that Comcast would come out and upgrade the box. Then the service would get shitty again within a few weeks and customer service would have absolutely no record of any service person having said anything about the box capacity. So we'd have to start all over again. This went on for several years. Each time we waited longer and longer with terrible reception because we knew we'd have to blow at least one vacation day to have them accomplish nothing. Then we finally said fuck it and gave up.

We actually have no cable or dish right now (I fibbed to Comcast about having the Dish) because Comcast is the only cable choice and satellite doesn't work in our building. We're just waiting until we move out.

The CS department is very friendly and polite, but nobody has any idea what the hell is going on over there. And they don't seem to care. I don't want to be apologized to any longer (although in the last correspondance I posted above, he didn't even apologize), I want the problem fixed. And Comcast can't seem to do it.

I'm sorry to hear Time Warner cable is just as bad.

[KitchenWitch]

14. We had Time Warner in the Twin Cities when we lived there

Awful awful service.

Weird thing: Right after we moved here Comcast became Time Warner out here and Time Warner became Comcast in the Twin Cities.

We have Direct TV. In our area, Cox has the contract for cable, we decided to go with the satellite because we get more for less money.

[Kajsa]

25. Thanks, KitchenWitch.

I'm getting closer and closer to switching
to Direct TV. Your post puts me further
in that direction.

:hi:

[tool_of_the_people]

4. Uh-oh.

Mr Comcast has "forward" your account information to Mr Marketing Department.

You're screwed, Mr Grace.

[grace0418]

7. I know, right? I'd be worried if I thought that anything ever got from one person to

the next at Comcast. But it looks like all interaction with that company ends up in the ether somewhere.

[graywarrior]

8. I had the same problem with Verizon, so I wrote a letter to the Better Business Bureau

sent a copy to Verizon and Senator Nelson in FL. I received responses from both Nelson and the BBB. Verizon just sent me a letter telling me they have been trying to reach me---liars. I have voice mail and have received no messages from them after I made several attempts to call them and left messages on the customer service vm.

They tried to double bill me after I cancelled their service. Now they are all over me because I complained to the BBB. Before I wrote that letter, I could not get anyone to call me back about that bill.

Write to the BBB. Companies freak out when you do. Seriously.

[grace0418]

11. I've done the same. One time I wrote a letter to the CEO of

Commonwealth Edison's parent company. Actually got his personal secretary to help me after that. Of course, that was after 4 months of dealing with terrible customer service reps.

[skygazer]

9. Nice letter - I like it

I had a sort of similar problem with my bottled water company. In that no one seemed to know what was going on anywhere.

I sent them a check which they submitted to the bank for the wrong amount. A matter of 50 cents. Then they started sending me letters telling me they were going to send my account to collection. For fifty cents. Unbelievable.

I finally sent them this -

Dear Water Company,

Today I've received a letter from you entitled SECOND NOTICE in which you threaten me with suspension of service because my account # is "severely past due."

I've never seen anything so ridiculous in my life.

My account is, by your reckoning, past due in the amount of FIFTY CENTS!!! Not only that, but that .50 is due to an error on the part of YOUR bookkeeping department, an error I pointed out when I mailed in my last payment. Here is the text of the letter I sent which was accompanied by a copy of my check that was made out in the proper amount -

_______________________________________________________________________

18 May 2007

To Whom It May Concern:

Please find enclosed a copy of my check #1460 which your billing department erroneously documented as being in the amount of $5.00 when it was in fact for the full amount due of $5.50 as detailed on the enclosed invoice.

I am including my check for an additional $5.50 for this month's payment and ask that you correct your books to show that I am paid in full.

__________________________________________________________


I would appreciate it if you would either correct the mistake in your books or write off the .50 which was due to YOUR error, not mine and cease and desist sending absurd and insulting letters like the one I'm looking at. While I realize they're generated automatically by a system that does not recognize the difference between fifty cents and three hundred dollars, it still makes for lousy customer service.

sincerely,

skygazer


They finally did write it off some four months after it all began. :banghead:

[grace0418]

10. Thanks!

I know your frustration. I've had that with Commonwealth Edison. Over a bill they listed as paid right on the statement, but then carried over the balance anyway. It was incredible.

[AllegroRondo]

12. My cable horror story

what fun...


We moved into a new house 2 years ago. Took two weeks off to move in and get everything set up. The Cable was supposed to be installed on a Wednesday morning - one of those "he'll be there between 8 and noon" things. Noon comes, no cable guy. So we call the company. "He was out there, but couldnt find the house." I give detailed directions, he's supposed to come by that afternoon.

Again, he doesnt show up. Call again. "He couldnt find the place." WTF??? Its a new street, with only 2 houses on it. We're the second one. How hard can that be?
The problem, they typed the wrong address. We're at 3010, he's been looking for 3100, which doesnt exist. So we get that sorted out, and a real cable guy shows up to install on Thursday morning. End of story? no way....


Next month, we get TWO cable bills. One for house number 3010, one for 3100. At least the mail carrier can find our house, even with an off number.
So I call the cable company. Why am I getting billed for two addresses? "well, our records show that cable was installed at 3100 on the 8th, and at 3010 on the 9th."
It took two months of phone calls to get that second bill dropped. I finally ended up talking to the head of their customer service and challenging him to come out and find a house at 3100.

End of story?
nope...

then, we start getting the phone calls to pick up the cable box at 3100. the house that doesnt exist. more calls to head of CS. more challenges to come out and see if they can find a house there. "sure, come out and pick it up any time you like - THERES NO HOUSE THERE!!!"

[DUlover2909]

13. I had a worse experience

This was AT&T cable in 2001 Dallas. I played Everquest and I kept getting kicked off the server due to link termination. I called customer service and they ran me through the basic stuff like rebooting the modem, checking connections, etc. When the problem continued I called again (and keep in mind that every call takes me 10 to 20 minutes before I get someone on the phone). Being a technician myself, I diagnosed the problem for them: the problem happens alot during wind and rain, so the connection on the outdoor telephone pole must be bad. I told them to send a crew to check that. Instead they chose to have me take time off from work 13 TIMES in one month to be home during their 4 hour windows they always utilize. Only then did they fix the cable on the telephone pole outside which resolved the issue. I felt like strangling them.

[grace0418]

15. That was like our problem too. When the technician would finally show up, he

would invariably say that the box for our building was not the right capacity for the number of units. So he would put our cable in the spot with the best reception and tell us that he'd put in a work order to have the box replaced. Which was something we didn't need to be home for since it was outside. But then, as soon as someone else in the building got new cable service or called to complain about their lousy service, we'd get bumped. Then we'd call Comcast and they would have absolutely no record of any such "diagnosis" from the technician. And they refused to take further action until we scheduled another technician (which meant blowing another vacation day waiting) to come out and see what the problem was. Then the technician would say the same damn thing. It was like being in the twilight zone.

This went on and on. I would get the technician's name, I would ask them to give me something in writing, I would ask who I could call myself to request the new box. Nothing worked. Maybe one out of every 10 conversations and service calls would even be logged in their system. Even when we called to cancel our cable, the customer service rep said that she only showed something like 2 service calls on her records for us. WTF?

The part that sucks is that I don't even watch much t.v. But when I do watch I like the Travel Channel, The Food Network, Animal Planet, science shows and the Daily Show. All cable stuff. We can't get satellite service in our building so we're either stuck with Comcast or no t.v. at all. We finally decided it wasn't worth the money since none of the cable channels we watch were coming in anyway.

I completely agree with your strangling impulse. It's absolutely maddening.

[grace0418]

18. Holy crap, did you and I talk to the same customer service people?

I didn't even tell the whole story. When we canceled our cable in May (I won't even go into all the crap that forced that decision), Comcast promised to send DHL shipping boxes to us so we could just call for a pickup. It took THREE WEEKS for them to send the shipping boxes. Two days after we got the shipping boxes, we got a threatening letter in the mail telling us that we've had three weeks to return the boxes and we would be charged $250 or something if we didn't return the cable boxes immediately. Naturally I pitched a fit at them and they apologized profusely, saying it was an automated letter.

So whatever, I called DHL and scheduled the pickup. Luckily I wrote down the package id numbers. I tracked them and they arrived at Comcast's mail room on June 19. I got the first call from a Comcast rep on July 1, asking if she could come by and pick up the boxes. More irate emails ensued (I email with Comcast now so I know there will be SOME kind of record since they rarely seem to log my phone calls). I got more apologies from Comcast, telling me that indeed the boxes had been removed from my account on June 25–hmmmm, a full 5 days BEFORE I got that annoying call on a freaking Sunday.

By the time I got that last phone call on July 21, I was ready to spit nails. I seriously don't know what to do. They confirmed they have the boxes. I have the tracking information. I get apologies up the hoo-hah. But I'm still getting these damn phone calls. What's worse is that I wouldn't be surprised if it somehow affected our credit rating or we got accused of "stealing" their stupid fucking worthless cable boxes.

I hope no one ever builds a house at 3100, they'll probably get told they already have cable and they own $8,000,000. Well, I hope they stop calling you soon. It's so freaking frustrating isn't it?

[AllegroRondo]

19. Its Charter here, but service seems about the same

I still remember my wife talking to the head of CS, telling him she wanted him to come to our house (at 3010), and they could walk together to 3100 so he could see the dead end street and cornfield where 3100 should be. "You're can go into the corn and look for a cable box, but I dont know if the farmer will approve."

[Firespirit]

16. I am still going through misery with this company

I have cable and broadband Internet, and the Internet is obscenely inconsistent. I have my own modem, which has never given me trouble. Standard cable modem with an Ethernet port and a USB one. The connection is reset on Comcast's end about every half hour, like clockwork, which means that I cannot even attempt to download anything that'll take more than 30 minutes, and I can count on having any instant message conversations interrupted frequently.

They are insisting that they must send someone out to my place (for a maintenance fee, of course) to mess around with my computer and my modem to see "what setting I have wrong." It's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard -- I can WATCH the lights on this modem as the cable is dropped and the connection gets reset. It's nothing whatsoever to do with the computer. They somehow just can't run diagnostics on their lines to see if that's the problem. I have posted about this on their customer support forums, have gotten pretty nasty about it, and have had numerous people from my area saying they had the same problem. The official line is still that it's somehow my fault and it'll cost me a maintenance fee for them to come out here and look at my computer. I don't want these incompetent, arrogant fools within 20 feet of my computer.

I am at the point of canceling the service, only I live in an apartment, and as a result, my only other option for Internet is to go with Verizon DSL... which I've heard is even worse in this area.

[grace0418]

17. Yeah, and if you *did* schedule a tech to come out. You'd waste two vacation

days while they blew you off. Then when they finally showed up, they'd tell you that the problem was something they couldn't fix but they'd "put in a work order" to have it done. And nothing would happen, and nobody at Comcast would have any record of this.

I hate Comcast soooooooooooooooooo much. Can you tell?

[underpants]

20. Comcast sucks- we currently are 50/50 with being able to log on right now

We have had THREE service calls. Same guy each time-nice guy even he has a hard time getting anyone on the phone without waiting for 30 minutes or so. Oh and as soon as he finished his service call to us, our DSL blinked back off --actually while he was standing there!!!! He said it happens all the time.


We have had it. We are going to switch when we get back from vacation.

[grace0418]

23. Thank maude we don't use Comcast for our internet. I can live without cable

but I am a total internet addict. So far *knock on wood* our internet service has been fine, even though it's AT&T/SBC/Yahoo so I expected problems.

[Lisa]

21. Bush's legacy to pop culture? His name as a byword for incompetence?

I like that. (Picturing small children on the playground, screaming, "last one in is George W. Bush!".)

[grace0418]

22. LOL! I couldn't think of a worse insult really.

I hope kids aren't *that* cruel to one another. :)

[Lisa]

24. or if they're older -- "Oh, that is SO Bush! " (voice of teenaged scorn)

My suspicion is that this will rattle GWB more than all the social science and history books critiquing his administration, the sly in-jokes in movies and TV for generations to come, and rubber Halloween masks (like Nixon, still on the shelves, decades after he left office).