When I arrived home, I noticed that I had no cable TV, phone service, or wireless internet. Being that this was an important night (vice-presidential debate), I called Comcast (1-800-COM-CAST) immediately. I pressed �1� after dialing the number and reached a representative in their cable-TV department. I did not understand his first name, but continued to tell him of my problem. I first asked if there was any information in my record of the cable to my house being buried, since this was an initial problem when I first moved in (after having no Comcast service, a technician in 2007 replaced the cable after he noticed that the cable was exposed, and was cut by apparently the lawn service). He did not have any information on whether or not the cable was, indeed, buried. After a short conversation, he said that he could send a technician out the next day between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm. I told him that was not acceptable and wanted to have a technician out this evening and asked to speak to his supervisor. I was put on hold for a short time, and then he came back on the phone and told me that there was an outage in my area, and that the service technicians were �on the problem.� I asked again if there was indeed a problem in the area, and he said �yes� that service technicians were on the problem.
I waited about 10 minutes and called Comcast back, and this time pressed �2, � which was the internet service department. I spoke with a Katrina (last name not known). I asked Katrina if there was an outage in my area. She responded �no.� She noticed in my records that I had just called in earlier, and I told her of my conversation with �unknown� telling me that there �was� an outage in my area. Once again I asked to speak to a supervisor. I told her that the outage story was apparently just a blatant lie, because I asked that a technician be sent out that night. Katrina was helpful, in that she tried to send signals to my modem to fix the problem, however, when that failed, she returned to tell me that there was, in fact, a problem outside, and that she was going to see if a technician could come out to fix it that evening. Unfortunately, I was put on hold, and then disconnected.
Third call: This time I called Comcast back and, once again, pressed �2� for internet service hoping to speak with Katrina. I reached a �Marie� who I told my story to for the third time. She said that the quickest way to get service out to me would be to transfer me to cable-TV department, which she did. �Victor� answered the call. After repeating my story for the fourth time, Victor assured me that there was no outage in my area. I asked to speak with his supervisor, apologizing to him that I was just getting frustrated, and wanted to get the problem resolved that night. I was put on hold for a short time, and Victor returned to tell me that there was a �general problem� in the area until 11:00 PM that night. I asked if I could �still� speak to the supervisor, and he said �he� was unavailable. I then asked what his supervisor�s name was, and he said �Ruth.� I have no idea whether this was a first or last name, but Victor said his/her employee ID number was RYG0608. Strangely, I could hear the supervisor �Ruth� giving Victor his/her ID number in the background (even though this supervisor was �not� available to speak with me).
Friday, October 03
Since I still had no cable TV, internet, or telephone service at 6:30 AM, I called Comcast back to schedule a service appointment on my way in to work (approximately 8:30 AM). I was told that no service technician was available until Saturday. I initially scheduled my appointment for Saturday between 9:00 AM and noon. The representative asked if I wanted a 30-minute call before the technician arrived, and I declined. When I arrived at work at 9:00 AM, I called Comcast back and told [name unknown] that I would prefer the 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM service call, and that I would indeed like the technician to call before his arrival. The representative told me that if I did not answer the phone when he/she called, they would not show up. I asked what number they would be calling, and he said my home number. I reminded him that since I did not have any service from Comcast, how could I possibly answer my home phone, if it was not working? I then gave him my cell phone number for the 30-minute advance call.
Saturday, October 04
8:30 AM, Bill, the Comcast service technician, called me on my cell phone and showed up at my house within five minutes. I showed him the �box, � which is located in my neighbor�s back yard, and also the exposed cables located in the common area. The first thing he noticed was that my temporary cable installed a year ago (September) by Comcast was never replaced, nor was it buried. He also said that my neighbor, who has Comcast internet only, was sharing my line.
When he was done with his repairs, I was told by the technician that the Comcast repairman that repaired my neighbor�s internet connection, cut my line intentionally, so that my neighbor could not receive free cable-TV or phone service, thus cutting off my service entirely.
First of all, the deceitful responses that I have experienced from the Comcast�s representatives after my initial service calls are revolting.in addition, to not be able to speak with a supervisor, who was �never� available (even though one was apparently standing next to the representative, giving him his/her employee ID number) is very poor judgment on Comcast�s behalf and bad PR. I have all intentions to report this to every governmental agency to expose Comcast�s conniving methods to deceive their customers.
I would also recommend that Comcast hire more �intelligent� people in their call center. It is obvious, that the most common response that their employee�s are taught is �I am sorry�but that is not possible��. They obviously have no idea what they are talking about. However, this is not �their� fault, this is the fault of their supervisors, who should be reprimanded.
I can only assume that because Comcast has a monopoly in this area, that they feel they can do whatever they please. Common Virginians�stand up against this monstrosity. If you have (or have had) an issue such as mine with Comcast, please voice your opinion.
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