Comcast Screw-upFiled Under: Personal

Two weeks ago, I contacted Comcast asking them to establish service here for cable TV and broadband internet. They informed me that they’d be out to our residence in a few days. True to their word, they showed up the day after I contacted them. After a cursory examination of our house, the technician informed us that our house was not hooked up to the main cable outside – as a result they could not install cable at our house. They also added that they’d send out a crew to hook up the house to the main cable outside, and that it’d be done in one week. We sighed, but we accepted it since the house *IS* an old house – it wasn’t a surprise to us.

One week later, the crew came out here, and did some work and then left. Not one word was spoken to us. They didn’t even come to our door or anything. We were confused, but we didn’t worry since they did say they’d be hooking up the house to the main cable, which meant it’d be outside work. We figured they’d come back in a few days to do the install.

Fast forward to one week later (now totaling two weeks), a technician came out here yesterday. The technician did a light examination, then bluntly informed us that the house was never hooked up to the main cable, that he would have a crew come here on the 25th to complete the job BEFORE the technician would do any work. At this point,  we got angry at the constant delays, so I called Comcast.

I explained the situation to them.

Comcast then proceeded to check our account, and then informed me of the problem: the crew who had done the outside work had screwed up the work, therefore preventing the technician from doing his job. So they were sending the construction crew back on the 25th to do the job properly. I told them that the screw up wasn’t our fault, that they needed to come back today or tomorrow to complete the job. We were tired of the constant delays, especially since my videophone needs broadband to work; I’ve been without a phone for a very long time and have been relying on my girlfriend for making phone calls. We explained the urgent need for broadband, due to my phone requiring it to even function at all. The representative phone told me he was tired of going around in circles trying to explain it to me, that we’d have to wait until the 25th, that they would do nothing to speed up the process and that was that. I got angry and told the representative that the call was being recorded (which it was, but I stupidly forgot to save the recording), and that I would also report this to the BBB (Better Business Bureau) (which I won’t since I don’t have the recording to prove it). The representative sighed, told me once again that he was tired of dealing with me, that he didn’t want to go in circles trying to explain to me why that was that, and also told me that recording the call and threatening him wouldn’t help. I then told him that I agreed that we were going in circles and going nowhere due to his implicit refusal to do anything to attempt to speed up the process. So I asked to speak to his supervisor.

He said he’d put me on with his supervisor, and put me on hold.

After couple of minutes of being on hold, the representative came back online and informed me that I was better off speaking to the field supervisor since he’s the one who in charge of the installation here. Sounds logical. He then added that we should give him our name and phone number and the field supervisor would call us back. I immediately recognized the brush off for what it was, sighed in resignation, and gave him the information. He thanked me, and hung up.

And no, the field supervisor never did call us back. We’re stuck waiting until the 25th, and won’t be surprised if on the 25th they cite some more delays.

How Comcastic of them!

And yes, this means the Viable VPAD review I promised you guys is postponed to the 25th since there’s no broadband to test it with. My apologies!