MM#7: Internet/Cable Issues Part II

Many years ago, my internet provider was Comcast. I can't remember how long I'd had them before I started having issues, but it was at least a couple years and probably closer to five. Actually, now that I think about it, it had to have been a decent amount of time. I distinctly remember customer support's favorite fix-all for any issue I had was for me to buy a new modem. They kept saying that mine was “out-dated.” No, my modem wasn't the newest model, but it was perfectly fine. It certainly wasn't going to hinder my speed as I was only using their slowest/cheapest plan.

Honestly, service was pretty decent for most of my time with them. I don't recall experiencing anything out of the ordinary until my final year as a customer of theirs. That year, the quality didn't decline; it fell off a cliff. Two words: intermittent interruptions. Without warning, as service failures often go, internet access was gone... and then it was back. Sometimes the little lights on the modem would reflect the service interruption; sometimes it looked perfectly normal. Sometimes it'd last an hour; sometimes it'd last all night. Inconsistency was the hallmark of the failures, and it was the noose around the neck of the technician.

After the service interruptions became a regular occurrence, I called customer service to set up an appointment for a technician to come out and have a look. Naturally, the problem didn't last that long, nor did it act up when the technician was present. Rinse and repeat; call after call; appointment after appointment.

I'd have switched providers, but like I said in Part I, there is no other provider. My three choices were dial-up, cable through Comcast, or satellite. Dial-up isn't a reasonable option these days (or even back then), and satellite has its own problems. I was stuck with Comcast. I had to grin and bear it.

At that point, I'd accepted it as the reality with which I'd have to live. Since I enjoy venting through the written word far more than the spoken variety, I decided to begin a correspondence with Comcast. The back-and-forth between myself and various members of their support staff is what follows (I took the liberty of changing some names). Part III of this post has a much more formal letter that I emailed to customer support as well as Comcast corporate offices. Yeah, I actually looked up the head honchos and put them on the list as well. Unfortunately, I can't remember if I sent that email before this series of emails (it may be the one I reference in the second sentence of the first email below) or if it was the coup de grace that I sent when I had finally had enough. I believe it was after, but I can't be sure.

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I just talked with customer service about the crappy internet service you all provide. I'm not going to get all into it on here as the last time I did that, I never got a response email. You'll notice that I've made many complaints about service under this account and I've had enough. As a result, I'm going to call billing every time I lose connection, which I'll warn is quite frequently, and demand that that day's service is not charged to this account. I tried to call billing tonight, but they said they were closed and to call back tomorrow. Well, I'm sending this instead. The ticket number I was just given to refer to this problem every time is: cr076******. Today is November 23rd, and I've barely been able to use the internet all day. Therefore, I don't feel we should have to pay for it. Please take care of this.

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Thank you for calling Comcast.

MM,

I understand you are having some problems with your Comcast High Speed Internet Services. I have gone ahead and credited your account for a full days service. I do note a technician having come out to your location in September to correct some internet problems. If this has been a continuous problem I would like to have someone out again to check the line and correct any problems. We strive to provide the best service possible to all of our customers. Please reply to this email should you like for a technician to continue to follow through on these problems. Please note a time frame and day of the week that is most convenient with your schedule. Thank you for your patience in this matter.

Sincerely,

Jake

Comcast customer Care Specialist

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Thank you for your reply, Jake, and for your compliance with removing that day's charge from the bill. While I understand your desire to have a technician come out to check the line, the simple truth is that this will accomplish nothing and will, in effect, be a complete waste of a morning/afternoon. You see, I've had technicians come out before, and has anything changed? No. Why? Because they can't fix or find a problem if it doesn't exist when they are here. They come out, plug the cable into their little diagnostics machine and say that everything seems to be running fine. It's quite exasperating when you've had to sacrifice an entire morning (because you cable companies give 5 hour windows) in the hopes that this problem will finally be resolved, only to remember that you've balanced your hopes on the promises of a *gasp* cable company. We should all know better.

Perhaps the most frustrating part about this is that, to everyone else, it appears to be working fine. For example, two nights ago when I called customer support, she told me that my modem had been online for 4.4 days continuously. Through that same time frame, the lights on the modem indicated activity as well. The reality, however, was that I hadn't been able to be online for more than a total of 3 minutes that entire day. Appearance is one thing, functionality is another... and isn't that the most important part?

There's no set pattern to the interruptions of service. That's why it's impossible to predict when it's going to go "offline" and when it's going to work fine. And that's also why I've all but given up on trying to fix the problem. Instead, I'm resorting to the method I described in my first email. Everytime the service fails me, I'm going to call, or write (if I can get online for a moment), and refuse to pay for that day's service. If you all would like to send out a technician, be my guest, but it's not going to be on my time.

I look forward to your response.

MM

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Dear MM,

I can certainly understand your frustration at the issue not being resolved yet, and your unwillingness to have 5 hours at a time interrupted from your schedule. I know that technical issues can be very aggravating. They are not often fixed on the 1st try. Troubleshooting is a process of elimination.

While we certainly do not have any issue in refunding you for those outages, we care about you as a customer and we really would like to do the right thing by you and get the issue resolved for you. Just so you don't have to call in every time. I know the issue is sporadic, but I believe we can get it fixed.

I can readily understand that a 5 hour block of time not being acceptable to you. We can offer 2 hour, weekend, or night appointments as well. We can even have a technician call you 30 minutes before they get there so you can just meet them. We can also label the call as a repeat trouble call and then the tech would have to read over what was done before him by other techs so he could try the next approach.

If this sounds like something you might be willing to consider, please reply to this email. One of us would be happy to give you a call and work out something more acceptable to your schedule.

Thank you for choosing Comcast.

Sincerely,

Shari

Comcast Customer Care Specialist

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Let me begin this email by saying that this reply would've been written much earlier, but a funny thing happened yesterday. You see, I kept getting this white page that would pop up on my screen everytime I tried to load a page. You may be familiar with it... "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage..." with the #1 'most likely cause' listed below as, "You are not connected to the internet." Oh yeah, that's right... that's not a funny thing. Frankly, that's about as funny as puppies being put to sleep because no one's adopted them. Poor puppies ... and equally poor Comcast customer. Come to think of it, though, maybe I shouldn't be looking for sympathy. I should probably be avoiding any human contact for fear of being the subject of mass ridicule. Ridicule for putting up with this crap for this long and STILL trying to make it work. Sarcastically speaking, please accept my apology for taking an extra day and a half to write this.

In your last reply, you say that troubleshooting is a process of elimination. Well, if that's the case, what would an effort in futility be? Because that's what we're dealing with here, as it's certainly not an issue of troubleshooting.

Now, you must be thinking to yourself, "Well, he sent this email, so his internet must be working fine again." The sad part is that you'd be absolutely spot on. Disturbingly enough, however, is that it comes only a few hours after having called customer support (again), giving in, and setting up an appointment for a tech to come out... FOUR days from now. One day, I'm going to find a way to prove to the world that you all have a magic button that you press to turn a customer's connection on and off at your whim. I'll also prove that that little button (which is probably brown, symbolically the same color as feces) has a smiley face on it... because who doesn't like to keep pushing a button that has a smiley face on it?

Also in your last reply, you said that you can label the call as a "repeat trouble call" so that the tech will have to read over previous reports from other techs. I find it quite disappointing that this step is even necessary. How can you expect your technicians to give the best service if they don't ALWAYS read the previous reports from other techs? Shouldn't it be standard protocol to perform proper research on a call before attempting repair? It's a good thing this sort of thing isn't acceptable in other situations, like say... going to a new doctor.  How unfortunate would it be if you made an appointment for an upset stomach, but your new doc treated it without noticing that your medical history states that you have a penchant for chasing shots of tequila with a swig of Drain-O? Well darn it... if only he had been told that this was a repeat case and that he should check your medical history.

So, as it stands, I have an appointment between 10-2 on Thursday, Nov. 30th. I also would like to have these two previous days (25th, 26th) removed from my bill. I look forward to your next reply.

MM

ps *sigh* Please go ahead and amend the appointment to read "repeat trouble call."

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Thank you for choosing Comcast.

MM,

The appointment information has been amended and a credit has been added to your account for two days of service. We can certainly of course understand your continued frustration. If there was an option to simply press a button we of course would. This would save everyone a great deal of inconvenience. Unfortunately this is simply not an option as internet connections are complicated technical services. Thank you for your patience in this matter.

Sincerely,

Jake

Comcast Customer Care Specialist

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Thank you for your continued prompt and courteous replies, and for crediting my account for lost days. For all the faults that I've mentioned in these emails and in previous ones as well, one good thing that should be noted is the continued ease with which my account has been credited for lost or bad service days.

With my internet service experiencing no interruptions for the last day and a half, I anticipate that my appointment with a tech on Thursday will be another wasted effort. I look forward to telling you all about it. Whether I decide to write about it on Thursday or the next time my internet goes down will depend on my mood at the time. A response to this email is not necessary, but I recommend that you keep the ticket number handy as I'm sure we'll be revisiting it soon.

MM