Gear Grinding Part 5: The Story of the Broken Tooth

[bigblue_dl]

Re: Gear Grinding Part 5: The Story of the Broken Tooth

My dad. Eats the last Larabar, and leaves the empty box in the cupboard. He also drinks my beer and doesn't understand why he should chip in for the next round.

Poison him, bury him in the backyard, and collect the social security. Wait, what?

 

[The Rube]

Re: Gear Grinding Part 5: The Story of the Broken Tooth

Finally a major beef with Comcast. Tried to downgrade my service today, since I'm moving in Sept and have no need for cable until then. Wanted no cable, and up the internet speed (b/c I will stream more w/no cable channels to watch).

Easy switch. Wait, nope. AS SOON as I hang up, as I was surfing, my modem shuts down. It's a coincidence/it's an outdated modem that happened to give out this exact minute/BS BS BS. Spent 40 minutes with them, getting transferred 4 times to different depts, and even after I said to switch my internet back to what I had...nothing. Ran out of time had to go to work.

Get home from work, call them up. Raise holy hell (while being polite and not cussing). Run all the tests, yep, they fried my modem which apparently WAS out of date, and couldn't handle the increased net speed. 3-5 days for a new one, or pick one up. NOPE. NO WAY IN HELL. I told them I need one by Fri at the latest, it's necessary for (hee hee) "what I do," and I cannot pick one up due to hours of Comcast store and my job. Futhermore, Comcast is the party that fried said modem that was working before I called in the first place. The lady (the first competent employee I talked to in all this, out of about 5-6 people) said they are overnighting a modem at their cost.

The hoops you have to jump through nowadays to get basic customer service....JFC.

We'll see what happens.

Edit: thank you neighbor-that-I-don't-know for not securing your WiFi.

 

[MissThundercat]

Re: Gear Grinding Part 5: The Story of the Broken Tooth

The man is a parasite. He knows he should chip in but doesn't. Why should he. Beer magically appears to replace the stuff he drinks.

It's not so much eating the last Larabar. It's that he left the empty box in the cupboard. Bad move on his part, and I will call him on it when he gets home.

Poison him, bury him in the backyard, and collect the social security. Wait, what?

He's a big, big man... I'd need help burying the body.

 

[bigblue_dl]

Re: Gear Grinding Part 5: The Story of the Broken Tooth

Finally a major beef with Comcast. Tried to downgrade my service today, since I'm moving in Sept and have no need for cable until then. Wanted no cable, and up the internet speed (b/c I will stream more w/no cable channels to watch).

Easy switch. Wait, nope. AS SOON as I hang up, as I was surfing, my modem shuts down. It's a coincidence/it's an outdated modem that happened to give out this exact minute/BS BS BS. Spent 40 minutes with them, getting transferred 4 times to different depts, and even after I said to switch my internet back to what I had...nothing. Ran out of time had to go to work.

Get home from work, call them up. Raise holy hell (while being polite and not cussing). Run all the tests, yep, they fried my modem which apparently WAS out of date, and couldn't handle the increased net speed. 3-5 days for a new one, or pick one up. NOPE. NO WAY IN HELL. I told them I need one by Fri at the latest, it's necessary for (hee hee) "what I do," and I cannot pick one up due to hours of Comcast store and my job. Futhermore, Comcast is the party that fried said modem that was working before I called in the first place. The lady (the first competent employee I talked to in all this, out of about 5-6 people) said they are overnighting a modem at their cost.

The hoops you have to jump through nowadays to get basic customer service....JFC.

We'll see what happens.

Edit: thank you neighbor-that-I-don't-know for not securing your WiFi.

The service, or lack there of, at Comcast is what made me switch back to Dish. It is like they intentionally make it a hassle to do everything, whereas with Dish everything is easy, and you can even do it all online without even talking to one of their people. I still have to pay the ******** for internet, but as soon as I have another option, any other option, I'm dropping Comcast for that too.

 

[Slap Shot]

Re: Gear Grinding Part 5: The Story of the Broken Tooth

I don't see anything wrong in that Comcast scenario. Yes it was kind of their fault that after you asked them to up your internet speed the modem fried, but everything besides that was par for the customer service course.

 

[The Rube]

Re: Gear Grinding Part 5: The Story of the Broken Tooth

I don't see anything wrong in that Comcast scenario. Yes it was kind of their fault that after you asked them to up your internet speed the modem fried, but everything besides that was par for the customer service course.

I did leave out some details for brevity. First, I was told on the call back (the first time) that they should have checked to see if my modem (rented from them) could handle the upgrade. They didn't do that. Then, depending on which department I was talking to on the first callback, I got 3 different statuses of my modem (it's fine, it's fried, it's just outdated but still works). Finally, on the last person (the first time I talked to), after switching back to my original net-speed, somehow couldn't transfer me to the billing dept to pro-rate the lost service they caused. Every other department (including billing) could transfer me to any other department during this time (and in the past, when I've called them) but now that I'm actually asking for something from them, they can't do it. It was either BS or incompetence.

 

[aparch]

Re: Gear Grinding Part 5: The Story of the Broken Tooth

It's Comcastic!


I hate dealing with Comcast, and only have them because FIOS isn't available where I am now renting; ATT only has DSL, no TV service; and I don't have a clear view of the southern/southwest sky for Dish/DirecTV.

When I called to set up our service in October, the online system crashed twice trying to make a reservation. Call the 800 number to find out that they "don't honor the deals provided on the website because those are two year commitments provided by independent contractors for my area," but could get me a similar (actually better) deal with no commitment.

So I have them set it up so I just have to pick up my equipment, I'll wire it up and activate. I then spent three hours between the internet and TV services getting HD and internet activated. Neither side could see the other service on their end and would have to keep transferring me (even though online, I could see my double play account just fine, just couldn't make changes/activate it).


Then in November, my internet went to sh*t for three weeks. Fastest service I could get was 2 mbps down and 500 kbps upload. This site showed Chicago as having a massive outage at the time. The Xfinity website even reported "an outage of TV and internet in your area." Called and talked to a representative who said "We show nothing being wrong on our end and there are no reports of any outage in your area."


There is a special place in Hell reserved for any career Comcast/Xfinity employees.

 

[The Rube]

Re: Gear Grinding Part 5: The Story of the Broken Tooth

To be fair, when I moved into this place about 7 years ago, and scheduled an installation for the day I moved in (so I could watch Gophers hockey) they were all on it, and the technician was awesome. And until this last thing, Comcast has been great about any problem. This last thing was anything that could be screwed up, was screwed up.

 

[bigblue_dl]

Re: Gear Grinding Part 5: The Story of the Broken Tooth

Anyone that thinks Brent's Comcast Customer Service experience is ok in terms of customer service, has some seriously low standards. Yeah, it is par for the course for Comcast, but that doesn't make it ok. Any company that gives me Comcast level service does not deserve my business.

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Gear Grinding Part 5: The Story of the Broken Tooth

Must be a slow news day....

From the New York Post: 12 Ways [that tourists] Really Tick Off a New Yorker.

A few gems....

6. Driving your car into the city and getting really angry about the traffic.

10. Asking for directions, without knowing where you want to go.

11. Brandishing your umbrella like you hate eyeballs.

# 11 is really the worst of the 12 for me and I don't even live there, I only commute back and forth for work. There is definitely an etiquette about how to handle your umbrella when walking through crowded sidewalks and plazas, and holding yours at someone else's face level is not part of it!

 

[MinnesotaNorthStar]

Anyone that thinks Brent's Comcast Customer Service experience is ok in terms of customer service, has some seriously low standards. Yeah, it is par for the course for Comcast, but that doesn't make it ok. Any company that gives me Comcast level service does not deserve my business.

Customer service is getting worse everywhere, because the lower price is more important than customer service, no matter what most people say.

The only thing wrong that Comcast did was not offer to send him a new modem right away, at their expense, and installed as soon as possible. Though, I can tell you from experience, they probably wanted to, but needed approval from a manager, who has been told when to do it and when not to do it, and how many hoops the customer has to jump through to get it.

 

[bigblue_dl]

Re: Gear Grinding Part 5: The Story of the Broken Tooth

Customer service is getting worse everywhere, because the lower price is more important than customer service, no matter what most people say.

The only thing wrong that Comcast did was not offer to send him a new modem right away, at their expense, and installed as soon as possible. Though, I can tell you from experience, they probably wanted to, but needed approval from a manager, who has been told when to do it and when not to do it, and how many hoops the customer has to jump through to get it.

No, the first thing they did wrong is not have an option for him to go to their website and drop services without talking to one of their idiot "customer service representatives".

 

[jen]

Re: Gear Grinding Part 5: The Story of the Broken Tooth

No, the first thing they did wrong is not have an option for him to go to their website and drop services without talking to one of their idiot "customer service representatives".

Time Warner is the same way. You have to actually speak to a person to drop anything, and you spend 10 minutes telling them no while they try and convince you to keep it. Also, after they hike up the bill to ridiculous amounts because your "promotion" is over, you call and ask for them to lower it, they will find a new "promotion" that is better than what you're getting, but not as good as what you had. I wish they would just set an effing price and keep it.

 

[bigblue_dl]

Re: Gear Grinding Part 5: The Story of the Broken Tooth

Time Warner is the same way. You have to actually speak to a person to drop anything, and you spend 10 minutes telling them no while they try and convince you to keep it. Also, after they hike up the bill to ridiculous amounts because your "promotion" is over, you call and ask for them to lower it, they will find a new "promotion" that is better than what you're getting, but not as good as what you had. I wish they would just set an effing price and keep it.

And also, Comcast calls me regularly, asking if I want to add TV and phone to my services. Good idea you stupid ****s, annoy the hell out of me by going all telemarketer, that will make me want to give you more money.

 

[unofan]

And also, Comcast calls me regularly, asking if I want to add TV and phone to my services. Good idea you stupid ****s, annoy the hell out of me by going all telemarketer, that will make me want to give you more money.

My favorite are the monthly centurylink ads telling me I can get $10 to let them directly debit the monthly bill from my bank account. Fark that, direct access to my bank account is worth way more than $10.

 

[MissThundercat]

Re: Gear Grinding Part 5: The Story of the Broken Tooth

I'll be... my dad actually did something good and bought the next round of beer.

 

[dxmnkd316]

My favorite are the monthly centurylink ads telling me I can get $10 to let them directly debit the monthly bill from my bank account. Fark that, direct access to my bank account is worth way more than $10.

Really? That's the only way to do it. That or auto bill to the credit card.

I have automatic withdrawals for water, gas, electricity, garbage, and used to have Comcast until I found out I could use my credit card without a fee. I earn points that way.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: Gear Grinding Part 5: The Story of the Broken Tooth

Resubscribed.

Mobile really grinds my gears. What a sh**y implementation.

 

[unofan]

Really? That's the only way to do it. That or auto bill to the credit card.

I have automatic withdrawals for water, gas, electricity, garbage, and used to have Comcast until I found out I could use my credit card without a fee. I earn points that way.

I've got no problem with credit card billing (in fact, I pay my bill by cc). But fark you if you want direct access to my bank account. Put it this way, would centurylink let me have access to their accounts to collect overbills?

 

[MinnesotaNorthStar]

Re: Gear Grinding Part 5: The Story of the Broken Tooth

No, the first thing they did wrong is not have an option for him to go to their website and drop services without talking to one of their idiot "customer service representatives".

So use his internet that didn't work?