My letter to our District Sales Rep:
Jason,
You recently visited our home and left your card with my wife. I wanted to write you and inform you about our experiences with Comcast over the last five days. I would also ask that you share this with your supervisors as well.
First, I would like to emphasize that every single Comcast employee I have spoken with this last week (except for one) has been extremely kind and attentive, and they have worked very hard to resolve our many issues. Unfortunately, due to the fact that I have had to spend the last five days just getting some basic services set up, this leads me to believe there is a systemic dysfunction in the way customers have to work to get issues resolved. Below is my story:
We had arranged for a tech to come out and install internet and cable service on Monday between 2:00 and 5:00. That morning when we arrived at our new home, we discovered we had zero cell coverage. My wife called 800-COMCAST and asked if the tech could add phone service when he arrived. She was assured this would not be an issue.
The tech arrived a little after 7:00. In one of the mailers I received, it says that if a tech does not arrive within the two hour appointment window, our account will be credited $20 or we will receive a free premium channel for three months. I would like our HBO for free for the next three months please, as a result of his missing his appointment time.
Upon his arrival, he informed us no one had notified him to set up phone service. He also indicated he could not do so since we had our own cable modem, and it did not have a phone jack. Lastly he said, he could not set up an appointment for another tech to come out because if he put the request into the system, at midnight it would be wiped out. I found this hard to believe, but since it was already past 8:30, I agreed that I would call 800-COMCAST and make an appointment myself.
The next morning, I called 800-COMCAST and spent over 30 minutes on the phone with a young lady trying to set up an appointment for another tech to come out and set up our phone service, and to provide cable to an additional TV in our home. I did not think it would take that long, so I ended up having to get off the phone before she could complete the work ticket. She suggested I simply visit our local Comcast store and pick up a new modem ourselves. This was obviously 30 minutes of my day which was wasted. I think a common theme you will see throughout this is that calling the 800-COMCAST number ranks slightly above getting a root canal, but slightly below visiting the local DMV.
My wife and I stopped by the Comcast Store in Prince George. The service representative was exceptionally helpful and friendly. She gave us a starter kit for hooking up our other TV, made an appointment for a tech to come run another coax line, and gave us a new modem for phone service. She said I just had to take it home, plug it in, and everything was set up to work. She also informed us our phone number would be XXX-XXX-2619. Please note this as it becomes important later on. Lastly, she told us the new cable box would be an additional $1.99/month. Again, please note this.
When I got home, I installed the new modem and our phone. Unfortunately neither worked. I called 800-COMCAST and the tech informed me it had not been configured properly. He sent a signal to the modem, and the internet began working properly. He informed me that he could not activate the phone, but that he would give me the number of the people who could.
When I called that number, the lady who answered was not trained very well at all. She would ask me for information, but not confirm she had heard it - there would just be silence on the line, which would prompt me to ask if she had heard me. Without fail she would answer, "Yes. One moment." I'll say here that if expectations had been managed properly, this call would have gone a lot differently. If she had told me up front, that this would take about ten minutes, and that she would need to keep me on the line while she performed actions on her end, it would have helped immensely. Instead the line would go silent for 20-30 seconds, and I would have to ask if she was still on the line. She would answer "Yes. One moment." I had no idea what was happening. Finally after she said, "One moment" for the seventh or eighth time, I laughed. She asked if I was laughing, and I said, "Yes, because you always say, 'One moment,' but it's obviously taking longer than that." Shortly after that, the line went dead. That's pro!
I called 800-COMCAST again and a very helpful young man helped me activate the phone service. He was the exact opposite of the previous woman. He would say things like, "Mr. Smith, I have to send a signal to your modem and wait for a response. It may take a few moments, but please stay on the line, and I'll let you know when we're ready to go on." This was fantastic customer service. Except...
At the end of the call, he informed me he had made a test call to my wife at home, and our new phone number would be 804-668-2697. Please note the difference in numbers. When I got home, I used the phone to make several calls. Everything seemed to be working fine. Until...
I got online to set up our online bill paying. The site asked me for a login and password. I had never been given one, but using the "I Forgot My Login" tool, I was able to obtain it. I could not use the "Recover Password" tool because it asked me for the answer to a security question that I had never set up. When I tried using the online chat feature, the analyst informed me that for security purposes he would have to call my Comcast phone number at XXX-XXX-2619. This is where I discovered that in the Comcast system it had us as XXX-XXX-2619, but our phone was actually set up as XXX-XXX-2697. We'll return to this issue in a moment.
The tech to run the line to our second TV was supposed to arrive Thursday between 10:00 and 12:00. He actually arrived after 1:00. Due to this, I would please like an additional 3 months of HBO for free due to his missing his appointment time. He did successfully install our second TV. Except...
He informed us that the small box we had received from the Prince George location was faulty. He gave us a larger box to replace it. I specifically asked if this would be an additional cost. He said, he would call his dispatcher and find out. He informed us the dispatcher indicated there would be no additional charge. I would say he did a fantastic job all around except...
On our way into town, we stopped by the Prince George location to see if there was anything they could do about the disparity in the phone numbers. We had discovered we could still make calls, but anyone trying to call the 2619 number would go straight to voicemail, and anyone trying to call the 2697 number were informed the number had been disconnected.
The representative indicated there was nothing he could do, but he would set up an appointment for YET ANOTHER tech to come out and look at it. You can understand my level of frustration at this point. Again, he was exceptionally friendly and helpful, and even went out of his way to get us an emergency visit for today instead of having to wait until Sunday (the first available regular appointment). While we were there I asked how much our monthly bill would be. He informed us, and went through the charges line by line. I was fine with everything until I found out there would be a $9 ADDITIONAL CHARGE FOR THE BOX WE WERE TOLD WOULD BE $1.99! The rep must have sensed I was a little out of sorts by this point, because he quickly fixed this error. Under normal circumstances, it would not have been a big deal, but after everything else we had gone through, it was (to me) indicative of the kind of company I was dealing with.
The tech arrived this morning to fix our phone service this morning within the two hour window - miracle of miracles! He did manage to fix our phone service by giving us a new modem necessitating changing the wireless networks on all our devices. Since your wireless keys are about 20,000 characters long, this is more than a small task. With phone service restored (after five days), I was now able to use online chat to reset the password on our online Comcast account. However...
I was then notified by the website that I could do nothing with online billing until I received a security PIN which I could obtain by...calling 800-COMCAST. I. Almost. Killed. Myself. However, I made the call. The tech and I spent about 15 minutes working through all the normal protocols. You know, where you have to say your phone number at the beginning of the call, and then the first question the tech asks you is "May I ask what your phone number is?" All that fun stuff. He informed me I should have been given a security PIN. I informed him I had not been given one. He asked if he could call me on our Comcast phone and give me a PIN. I said yes. He asked to put me on hold for one moment. I had no choice but to agree. Instead of putting me on hold, he transferred me back into the main Comcast help line, where I had to repeat my whole sad story to yet another hapless tech, who informed me I should have been given a PIN. I politely informed the lady that I could upon request spend the next hour relating to her all the things that "should have" happened over the last week with regards to Comcast service but suggested that she most likely did not have the time to hear the whole story. Five minutes later, she informed me she could not give me a security PIN (as is indicated online), but that someone would call me later to inform me that they would be mailing our security PIN. Does this make any sense to you? Me neither.
So, five days later, I finally have working cable, internet, and phone. I still can't do anything online with my Comcast account with billing, but hey, the other stuff only took three tech visits, two visits to your Prince George store, and well over two hours of phone time with the pleasant folks at 800-COMCAST. Oh, and two online chat sessions. So, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get a security PIN somewhere around the 33rd of Never-ary.
I'm not angry anymore, having given up on that oh, about three days ago. I've had ample time to move on from "anger" through "bargaining" and "depression" and have accepted that this will just be the way things are whenever I have to deal with Comcast. I'm not trying to get anything from you (except for my six months of free HBO). I do want you to be aware of how ridiculous this whole experience has been in an effort to prevent some other poor soul from having to endure the never-ending bureaucratic maze that I have been navigating this last week. Something is very very wrong with your customer support system. I can say that with confidence since everyone tried as hard as they could to help us and (except for the lady who hung up on me) they were all very apologetic for what we've been going through. That means it's not the people, it's the system.
Again, please forward this to your supervisor for their situational awareness. I thank you very much for taking the time to read this. Please confirm that we will receive six free months of HBO in a reply e-mail.
I have cc'd my family for their entertainment, and because this story can only make one think, "Hey, today was pretty crappy, but at least I didn't have to talk to Comcast!"