Comcast service truths

So I’ve scheduled Comcast twice to fix the internet at my house — it’s now been down for a week.  Here’s the simple truth of how Comcast is scheduling service calls, which I was able to pry out of one of their people:

Due to high gas prices, Comcast dispatch is calling the number on your account prior to a technician visiting your house — if you do not answer the phone for Comcast, they leave you a message telling you that they have “missed you” and leaving you the main Comcast number to reschedule your appointment.

Here’s my story:

Last weekend I noticed that my cable modem was not “online” with Comcast; the “send” light was blinking, but I had no connection.  I followed the procedure for resetting my modem, had no success, so I called and scheduled a service appointment between 8AM and 10AM on Monday morning.  At 8AM, I opened my front door so that I could see the street and read a book on my couch that faces the street — by 10AM I had yet to see a Comcast vehicle.

At 10:05AM I called Comcast and was connected to an operator who looked at the notes and said that the service order was still open and that it was “weird” that I had not heard from a service tech.  The operator put out a call to the dispatch office, verified my cell phone number, and told me that I should hear from someone in 20 minutes.  Finally at 10:45AM I called Comcast back only to have the operator tell me that the notes in the record claimed that there was a service call at 8:32AM and they were unable to reach anyone, so I needed to reschedule; I explained that I had not seen a single Comcast vehicle in the last 2.5 hours and she had no explanation.  When I arrived at work, I had a voicemail on my work phone stating that they had missed me at 8:32AM (even though the message was left at 10:22AM) and gave me the main number to reschedule an appointment.

Yesterday I called Comcast to reschedule my service call and they gave me a window of 10AM to 12PM today.  I specifically asked the operator what phone number was in the file and she read my cell phone number back to me and told me that there were no other numbers in the file.  Once again, I left the front door open to view the street and never saw any Comcast vehicles.  Just in case, I called my office voicemail every 15 minutes, and at 11:45AM found that Comcast dispatch had called at 11:42AM, told me that they had “missed me,” and gave me the main number to reschedule.  My wife immediately called Comcast on her cell phone and I retrieved the caller ID number from my voicemail to call back — Comcast in Denver has their system configured to give (303) 248–4431 as their caller ID, which rings through to a disconnected line when you try to call it back.  I then called Comcast on my phone and sat on hold while my wife got someone on the phone and explained the story; the person that my wife called told her that the main number on my account was the office number and that my cell number was listed as secondary and that the notes showed that dispatch had called both numbers — my cell phone never rang.  It was that person that told my wife about the fact that due to gas prices, Comcast was only calling people, not actually showing up at addresses.  The person that I talked to told me that I needed to reschedule my appointment; when he checked my file, he told me that the only number on record was my cell phone.

I asked for a supervisor and after 15 minutes was connected to a supervisor that told me all she could do was reschedule on Monday to which I replied that I wanted a service discount and someone back out to the house in 30 minutes.  The supervisor told me that she had put in a discount, but that she could only guarantee that someone would be out some time today — it is now almost 7PM mountain time and I have yet to have a Comcast service tech show up at the house nor have I received a call from anyone, leading me to believe that it’s not going to happen today.

I’ll be signing up for Qwest naked DSL on Monday, which will not only save me around $20 per month, but also can be self-installed.

Future Comcast buyers beware.