I've been out of commission on here for the last week, trying to move, find a job, decorate for Christmas, etc. One of the biggest hassles has been getting the services at the house up and running. But actually it comes down to one incredibly inept company- Comcast. Let me tell you about my experience.
From my prior use at my apartment, I knew any contact with Comcast was likely to result in problems and the need for further service calls. Since I was moving in on Monday, I scheduled them to come Tuesday and had a 8am- noon window. They were to install my cable tv, internet, and phone (which they were to transfer from AT&T).
My boyfriend, who shares my disdain for Comcast, predicted they would not show up before 11:30am. He was right. They showed up at 12:10pm. Ugh. (Of course, later in the day, my son went to the apartment and got the phone and answering machine I had left there until the phone number was moved to the house. The idiots had left a message on that machine, telling me they were running late. Hmmm....now, since they knew they were moving that number from my old residence, and they knew my service window was 8-12, how exactly was I supposed to get that message? They had my cell phone number, and I had it on me at all times. Nope. Didn't call that.) Strike one.
When they arrived, "they" were a team of 3 Comcast workers. When I mentioned that in booking the appointment I was told it would take 2-3 hours to set everything up, I was told, "No, with 3 of us, we will be out of here in 45 minutes!" Shortly, a second truck arrived and a fourth worker joined in. My house had been remodeled from top to bottom by the seller, and the team appeared perplexed that there are wires in so many different locations. They went into my crawl space, my attic, and every room of my house trying to figure it all out. In the process, they tracked dirt everywhere and left insulation bits all over my closet. They moved furniture out to mess with all the cables. Did they clean up any of the mess, replace any of the furniture they moved, or apologize for any of that? No. Strike two.
Eventually, they did get the phone line working, and later, the internet, though they misspelled my network name even after I had deliberately spelled it out loud and slowly for them. I use my last name as part of the name and really did not want it spelled incorrectly. I should not have been surprised. No attention to detail is standard for Comcast. Strike three. But it continues.
They were not able to get the cable tv box working. They kept blaming it on "bad boxes" and "bad wires". It did not make sense to me that the working box which I moved from my apartment would suddenly be "bad", or that each of the next 3 that they tried could also be bad. After 2.5 hours, they gave up and told me their supervisor would be out soon to see if he could find the problem. If he couldn't fix it but knew what the problem was, he would apparently call the team right back to take care of it.
THREE HOURS later, at 5:45pm, I got a phone call from Comcast saying their supervisor was on his way. I asked when he was going to be there because I had been forced to sit around all day waiting for them and was leaving in 15 minutes. I told them I would be available from 2-5pm on Wednesday. Nothing better than letting Comcast keep you captive for an entire 10 hours.
The next day I was home earlier than expected from moving some more items over from my apartment when Comcast called. I told them the supervisor could come earlier since I was already home. He showed up around noon. It took him about a half hour to discover the cable lines had been damaged when the seller put in some additional drains in the yard shortly before escrow closed. He ran some new line, hooked up a new box and had it all working in a relatively short period of time. Why the team of 4 idiots did not figure this all out in 2.5 hours, I have no idea.
He called his guy who buries cable lines and I spoke with him and told him I did not care how he did it as along as any plants that were affected were replaced and the yard looked the same afterward. He asked me if I minded if he had his team come out on Thursday morning to do the work. I said no. First thing on Thursday, this team showed up and buried the line in my yard. They did a nice job and when they finished I could not tell they had disturbed any plants, so I was happy with that.
About 30 minutes later, my doorbell rang. When I answered the door, a man who appeared to be a country bumpkin greeted me. "Hi. I'm from Comcast. Did you order cable? I'm here to set it up for you." I kid you not. I wanted to scream. "Um, they have spent the last 3 days trying to get it installed and working. DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING!"
How can a company be so disastrously poor in their service and survive? I have no idea. All I know is if there was another viable option, I would take it. Comcast sucks!
Labels: Rants
