[subego]

The culprit: Comcast.
The job: cablecard installation.


First install: Tech arrives an hour past the 4-hour window. Has trouble. Calls in another tech. He's flummoxed too. After a call to TiVo, we find out the problem is it needs S-cards instead of M-cards. Too late to pick them up so the appointment is rescheduled.

Second install: 4-hour window passes. I call. They say the tech will be there in 20 minutes. Hour passes. I call. CSR says the tech finished that job, so they need to track him down. They say I'll get a call back in 30 minutes. Hour passes. I call. Tech has gone home.

Third install: Tech calls two hours into the window and says he doesn't have the equipment. Appointment canceled.

Fourth install: Cards are bad. Both of them. Tech admits he really doesn't do many cablecard installs, so he doesn't know what to do.

Fifth install: Cards are bad. Both of them. This tech calls in his supervisor, who comes to the stunning conclusion the cards are bad. Promises someone will come by on Monday or Tuesday. No way for me to confirm since this is just being passed around the local dispatch rather than the main office. Needless to say, it never happens.

Sixth install (today): Get confirmation call that the tech will be in by 10 AM. 11 rolls around, nothing. I call and they say that the appointment had been canceled. First person says the tech called and no one was home (wrong). Second person says the appointment was canceled because it was a repair appointment, and I need an installation appointment.

Now waiting for call back.



Choice conversations...

subego: Is there any way to track this?
CSR: No sir.
s: Nothing? Like a name or something?
C: I'm not sure who is going to receive the email.
s: Okay, can you give me an email address?
C: It's not really email, sir. It's just like email.
s: So there's no way to track it at all?
C: Well I can give you an escalation ticket number, sir.



s: Can I talk to a supervisor?
C: Well, they won't tell you anything that I'm not telling you, sir.
s: I'd still like to talk to a supervisor.
C: They really won't tell you anything different.
s: Well, do you have a escalation number so I can track this.
C: I can't escalate this, sir. You'll have to talk to a supervisor for that.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Seriously, I consider cable companies on the same level of lawyers and used car salesmen.

[subego]

The thing is, I had nothing bad to say about Comcast before this...

Now RCN, I already knew they were the devil.

[Doofy]

Why is it that companies in the communication sector are the worst at communicating with themselves and their customers?

[Dakar the Fourth]

Because they know we have no other options.

[subego]

Update: CSR finally sympathized with my nightmare, and just got a tech out here now...

Who didn't have any cablecards.

[Dakar the Fourth]

This is like something out of a sitcom, which coincidentally, you can't watch at the moment.

[ort888]

Do you work from home?

I have to take a day off to have these guys come out, and if I was in your shoes I might be hiring old women with hammers to visit their office.

Taking a Whack Against Comcast - washingtonpost.com

[vmarks]

It gets better: Do not let them test the cards in their own equipment at the tech center - because it will associate the addresses of the cards with the gear they're connected with, and you need them associated with your TiVo. If they plug them in elsewhere first, they aren't going to know how to re-init them.

Furthermore, just let me say "thank you" to cable labs for deciding that there should be S and M cards. Do you wonder why they chose those letters?

Cable Labs really wants to push their OpenCable standard (which isn't open, and is not a standard) instead of the slightly open and mostly standard cable cards. Heaven help us all if they succeed, things will fail to work even more frequently.

All of this is designed to make you use the Cable provider's equipment, pay the amount they want you to pay, and watch in the way they intend you to watch.

[subego]

Originally Posted by ort888 

Do you work from home?

Yes. Can't say I'm getting much work done tho...

Originally Posted by vmarks 

It gets better: Do not let them test the cards in their own equipment at the tech center - because it will associate the addresses of the cards with the gear they're connected with, and you need them associated with your TiVo.

This is what I'm guessing is the culprit with the bad cards.

Of course, one of the CSRs today tells me I can do a self-install.

Which I ALREADY ASKED IF I COULD DO, and they said no.

I'm going to go for that option, I'm on hold right now and am going to squeeze some free months out of them or something.

And then buy a hammer.

[Oisín]

– and a little old lady?

[turtle777]

Thank God for my basic cable that doesn't need any cards or equipment.

Geesh.

-t

[RobOnTheCape]

I posted here a few weeks back about VOIP/fax problems. To get that taken care of required hours of phone time. I used my cell phone so I noticed the minutes used each time. Finally after weeks I got the service working, and breathed a sigh of relief. However, they shut our service off because of non-payment. We called to dispute, and come to find out they took our payment and credited it to an old account of ours. That account was up to date and in fact should have been closed. So we had a credit on the one we don't use, and they shut off our current account service. This shutting off screwed everything up. I don't know how, but the fax no longer works. The tech came out and didn't have a solution. He said he'd call a friend off island to see if he knew what to do. Great huh.

We've just been talking about getting rid of this package and trying satellite.

After hours on the phone and weeks of waiting, success and no nothing, I can't do this again.

Comcast is terrible. Plain and simple.

[subego]

s: So, I feel like I should get a couple months free or something.
C: I can give you a $20 credit.

- arguing -

C: Sir, I can't give you several months credit.
s: I didn't ask for several months credit.
C: [irritated] Then what do you want, sir?
s: How about $150 dollars credit?
C: You already have 80 dollars credit for this situation, so I can give you 60 dollars credit, and that's 150.
s: Your math is wrong.
C: [silence]
s: $80 plus $60 is only $140.
C: So I can give you $140.
s: You can't give me $150?
C: I can meet you, sir, at $140.

Got the asshole's name and reported him. The darling on the phone I reported him to not only helped me with that, but basically waived every fee she could for a whole year.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Oisín 

– and a little old lady?

If she'll wait for the cable guy instead of me.

[alligator]

My Tivo cable cards were installed by someone who took 10 minutes to put them in, then sat on my sofa for an hour while on hold for someone in the main office to "active" them. She had her feet up on my coffee table, and smelled like smoke. Yuck.

[subego]

Originally Posted by alligator 

My Tivo cable cards were installed by someone who took 10 minutes to put them in, then sat on my sofa for an hour while on hold for someone in the main office to "active" them. She had her feet up on my coffee table, and smelled like smoke. Yuck.

Well, I smell like smoke, but hopefully the Chantix will work.

At the least though (and I mean least), all the technicians ave been ridiculously polite.

Every one (except for the supervisor) crouched down at the coffee table until I offered them a seat.

[nonhuman]

I think I can beat that: I was once on hold with Microsoft for over five hours. Turns out they transferred me to a department that was in a different time zone, and they weren't in the office yet. Oh, and the hold music sounded like something composed on the little toy Radio Shack keyboard/synth I had when I was a little kid in the 80s. And when you're paying $300 for a service call you don't hang up and call back later (especially when this is a business critical thing like, oh, I don't know, email).

[Oneota]

Originally Posted by nonhuman 

I think I can beat that: I was once on hold with Microsoft for over five hours. Turns out they transferred me to a department that was in a different time zone, and they weren't in the office yet. Oh, and the hold music sounded like something composed on the little toy Radio Shack keyboard/synth I had when I was a little kid in the 80s. And when you're paying $300 for a service call you don't hang up and call back later (especially when this is a business critical thing like, oh, I don't know, email).

Got ya beat there. I was on hold with Microsoft for an entire working day. Literally - I called them first thing in the morning, and when I went home for the day (after having missed lunch so I could stay by the phone), I hadn't talked to a single person.

[nonhuman]

Ouch. You win. Sorry.

[zro]

Try canceling AOL sometime.

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by Oneota 

Got ya beat there. I was on hold with Microsoft for an entire working day. Literally - I called them first thing in the morning, and when I went home for the day (after having missed lunch so I could stay by the phone), I hadn't talked to a single person.

Damn.

Longest I’ve ever been on hold was about 40 minutes. Then again, that was to dispatch an ambulance, so overall not a good place to be stuck in a line. I was not impressed with their efficiency.

[Arty50]

You think Comcast sucks? Try dealing with Charter sometime.

I used to be an accountant for their biggest corporate customer in one of their regions. They shut us off at least 3 times for non-payment. Funny thing was not only had we paid the bills, after we did an account reconciliation we discovered that we had overpayed.

My home experiences with them weren't so great either. I can't install a dish in my new apartment, so Charter's my only option. Needless to say, I just use an antenna now.

The cable companies are horrible. If ever an industry needed to be regulated, it's them.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Oneota 

Got ya beat there. I was on hold with Microsoft for an entire working day.

Definitely impressive...

But I gotta take points off for getting paid to do it.

[Cipher13]

Couldn't you just change providers?

[subego]

Originally Posted by Arty50 

Needless to say, I just use an antenna now.

I would do this in a second, but the SO is too TV involved. In fact, I had been without any TV for a good 6 years, and was far much better off for it. I got the cable as a present when she moved in.

The only bad (if you can call it that) thing about not having TV was I lost my desensitization to highly refined, day in, day out, emotional chain-yanking.

I actually teared up during the trailer for... The Postman.

Auuugh! I felt like such a douche.

[iranfromthezoo]

Originally Posted by Oisín 

Damn.

Longest I’ve ever been on hold was about 40 minutes. Then again, that was to dispatch an ambulance, so overall not a good place to be stuck in a line. I was not impressed with their efficiency.

Sounds like you were trying to dispatch AMR.

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by iranfromthezoo 

Sounds like you were trying to dispatch AMR.

Right concept, wrong country. I believe it was Coris in Slovenia.

[alligator]

I have used both Comcast and Charter. They are both awful.

When my cable cards were installed, I found a bill on my monthly statement for a TV remote that supposedly went with the "box" I had received. Needless to say, I got this charge removed.

Also, Comcast at least provided a battery for power backup for my digital phone box. Charter gave me the same box, for the same type of service, but wouldn't supply the battery for backup power. They wanted me to pay $30 for it.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Cipher13 

Couldn't you just change providers?

Nope. Apartment has a deal with Comcast. It's either them or bupkis.

Of course, I used to have the competition (RCN) at my old apartment. They've never screwed me over this bad at once, but it was more the death of a thousand needles.

Buying my old ISP and then killing IMAP and shell access. Letting their usenet feed fall to ****. Then they stopped supporting my old ISP's domain, effectively borking everyones' email. Along with all the usual screwed-up billing, techs missing appointments, bad equipment, etc.

To top it off with a cherry, they reneged on their contract with the city by refusing to make the agreed upon payments to the local cable access network.

City hall ended up squeezing it out of them, but only 2 days before the place was going to have to go dark and run test patterns 24-7. To be honest, I thought Comcast was a dream compared to these people. The only thing they had done to me was to be horribly mistaken about how soon they could roll out cable modems. I ended up getting DSL.

Okay, now that I think about it, the two months I had dial-up expecting they would come through on the cable modem was pretty miserable.

I think I may have repressed the memory.

Thanks a lot.

[nonhuman]

Ugh, thanks for reminding me about Charter, guys... Briefly (for as short a time as absolutely possible) I was in charge of the Charter account for the house I lived in my Junior year of college. At one point we needed to replace our cable box (I don't remember if it was because the cable box broke or because they changed something and obsoleted it, but knowing them I'm inclined towards the latter). In order to get it replaced we had to drive 45 minutes to the nearest Charter office. Once there we had to wait in line for another 45 minutes just to give them our old cable box and have them tell us they didn't have any replacements in stock so that we'd have to drive home and then drive back up again at some later date. And all this so we could watch cable TV that went out every time there was a storm. Cable TV! And how the hell do you have a 45 minute line at a regional office in rural Minnesota? How are there even enough people living in rural Minnesota to form a 45 minute long line in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday?

Compared to them Comcast is a ****ing dream.

[BasketofPuppies]

I can't match it, but I also had an issue with Comcast recently.

I called Comcast to have a high definition cable box installed and to upgrade my cable television package.

During the window during which the appointment is supposed to occur, I get a call from from the person who is supposed to install my high definition cable box, who is apparently just outside my condominium complex, telling me that high definition cable is not available for my building, and that it is up to my building to decide that it wants high definition cable before I can get it.

I tell him that it would have been nice to have known this before I set up an appointment.

He explains that when you call to order new services, Comcast's database shows the person on the other end which services are available in general areas, but not specific buildings.

Granted, this is not entirely Comcast's fault, but if Comcast would improve its database, it could save customers and itself time, money and frustrations.

Regardless, why is high definition cable not an option in my building? It is 2008. High definition television sets are no longer luxury items, and have not been luxury items since 2005. And this is one of the wealthiest, most densely populated neighborhoods in the United States. Presumably the number of high definition television sets in this area is significantly higher than in most parts of the country, and has been for years.

Anyway, I ordered an antenna so that I can at least get local channels in high definition, which should have been redundant. Everyone in this building gets cable television from Comcast, whether or not they want it.

[CMYKid]

Originally Posted by subego 

Nope. Apartment has a deal with Comcast. It's either them or bupkis.

I'm not sure exactly where you live, but in more than a few places thats not legal, just like they cannot prevent you from installing a dish, etc.

[Aquataris]

Cox Cable here in Oklahoma is pretty good with appointments and speed. The worst I've had to deal with is the receiver in my bedroom going crazy and losing certain channels, but even that is fixed with a 5 to 10 minute call.

[OldManMac]

Originally Posted by Cipher13 

Couldn't you just change providers?

In most cities in the U. S., cable providers negotiate deals with local governments, and thus often are the only ones available in an area. They effectively have a monopoly.

When I moved last year, I had to go Comcast, so I called them to come out and hook me up. After connecting the cable and installing the cable modem, I couldn't get online. The guy they sent knew nothing about Macs, but I knew that it wasn't my Mac but rather their problem. I could get to their activation site, so I knew I was on the web, but I couldn't get any further, so I told the guy I wouldn't sign the work order. After a bit of arguing, he told me he would take the cable modem and unhook the connection if I didn't sign. So I signed the work order, with a note on it that the job wasn't done properly. He did give me a number to call, at which I left a voice mail. About 20 minutes later, another guy shows up my door, who claimed he knew Macs, and told me that I would have to pay for the professional setup, which would cost me another $60. At this point, all I wanted was to get on the internet, so I agreed. He looked at my iMac, spent a few seconds putzing around with Network preferences, realized that I had set them right, and called Comcast tech support. He mumbled something to them about "hitting a wallgarden." He then spent 1/2 hour on hold, and then, after entering some code on their activation site, I was suddenly online. The "wallgarden" was their code for a block on the activation screen. They never charged me for the pro setup, which I wouldn't have paid anyway, as it was their fault.

About a week later, web use became extremely sporadic, with frequent dropouts and lockups, so I called them, and they gave me the usual mumbo jumbo about clearing browser cache, checking my settings, etc., which I knew was ridiculous. I put up with this crap for about a week, and it suddenly resolved itself, which indicates that they were having problems on their end. I must admit I have had reliable service, save for one or two several hour outages, for almost a year since then.

[phantomdragonz]

when I upgraded our comcast service to the DVR (which was also HDTV) it was a piece of cake... took about 5 mins... the office is 5 minutes away and the wait was like 10 minutes, swapped out the box came home and powered it on... found out I was missing A LOT of channels... called them, got transfered to a knowledgeable tech. he sent a "signal" to my box so i could get digital channels and I was golden... I was on the phone for about 15 mins (most of that being the initial call routing, and waiting on the re-boot)


my ONLY complaint is I have to re-start the DVR every so often... it reads full when there is only about 5 hours of video saved... a re-boot fixes it all though...and for some cool reason I get the hational geographic channel in HD (along with all my local channels) for free, we have not paid the $10 more a month for HD programming (local channels must be broadcast by law)

-Zach

[goMac]

Originally Posted by subego 

After a call to TiVo, we find out the problem is it needs S-cards instead of M-cards. Too late to pick them up so the appointment is rescheduled.

Your TiVo support is incorrect. M-cards (multistream) work with TiVo. In fact, if you have an M card, you only need one, and not two, to do dual recording.

Sounds like Comcast is screwing something up.

[subego]

Originally Posted by goMac 

Your TiVo support is incorrect. M-cards (multistream) work with TiVo. In fact, if you have an M card, you only need one, and not two, to do dual recording.

Sounds like Comcast is screwing something up.

I have a Series 3, not a TiVoHD.

They work on the TiVoHD, not the Series 3.

[Teronzhul]

Well, I'll give you a horror story for a customer, but from the point of view of the DirecTV technician. On occasion I have to go behind guys who have done terrible jobs, because they're either lazy or stupid.

One particular situation was for a fairly well off couple, who lived in an expensive neighborhood across the street from waterfront property on a Florida bay. In 2004 their house was severely damaged by Hurricane Ivan, and was mostly repaired and rebuilt by 2006. In 2005 they had gotten their insurance check, and went on a shopping spree buying new tvs, and DirecTV HD equipment along with who knows what else.

Well, the equipment sat a year until their house was finished, and then when they were ready an installation contractor was dispached to install the equipment in the newly renovated home. I don't know the specifics of his work, or the span of time involved until the customers demanded a different and "senior" technician, but he went to the house no less than four times and succeeded in getting one of four televisions functional. I had been an installer for approximately 3 months when I got the work order to go upgrade their system.

A senior tech I was not, but I'm not a complete idiot. I couldn't do the "upgrade" listed on the work order, but the customer obviously wanted his TV functional so I took the steps necessary to make it work. His wife was the only one present, but she knew well that she wanted her televisions to work and knew where they were supposed to be etc. She was also very nice to me since she knew nothing that had transpired thus far was my fault. About halfway through the job she was to leave, and the husband arrive to be present for the rest of the work I had to do. There was a lot to clean up from the first guy and it was going to take several hours to get it all done.

Now it gets fun for me. She gets ready to leave, walks out the front door, and then comes back in screaming. Apparently someone stole her truck in the evening, and her husband didn't notice when he left the house that evening. Her husband arrives, the police are called, and soon enough I'm installing sat tv on a crime scene.

While the police are coming and going it starts to rain, and soon enough there is a full on Florida summer thunderstorm. Constant lightning and thunder made my work difficult, but doable as I dashed inside and out in lulls between the lightning. As the cops began to filter out, it was obvious that there was another problem as it began to get quite smoky outside. A lightning strike had nailed a pine tree just down the road, and it was burning vigorously and spreading the fire to a couple of nearby trees. Firefighters were dispatched and dealt with the situation.

Now, I got everything working as it originally should have been, but I wasn't in a situation to do the upgrade as listed on my work order originally, but I was out of time and had to get to my next job. They would eventually need this done, but I don't really know the outcome.

Now, their problems weren't all caused by DirecTV as yours were by the cable company, but they had to deal with a hurricane, at least 6 installer visits (including at least one by the guy who had to come after me for the upgrade), a stolen vehicle, a fire, and a thunderstorm slowing and delaying the installation.

Beat that.

[Oisín]

Since we’re veering away from just customer service horror stories to generally bad days, I’ve got one (from work).

Family of four go on holiday. Drive from Sweden, plan is to stop in France for a day or two and then continue on to the south of Spain where they have a cottage.

On their merry way in France, they stop at a layby restaurant somewhere to have dinner (perhaps 10 PM or so). Mom goes out to the car to get something from the trunk and surprises two guys trying to get into the car. She shouts out, they take their crowbar to her leg and beats her up, though just enough to keep her from walking/running, not enough to really mess her up. They run off, never made it into the car.

Dad and kids come out, take mom to the hospital, and she gets a cast (it seems they’d broken her leg when they kicked her to the ground). The following morning, they head for Spain (very determined family). Around Barcelona, the car breaks down. They have it towed to a garage and get a rental to their cottage.

After two days at the cottage, there’s a huge storm and they lose all power. They go to the ‘shelter’ local government has set up for all the people who have no power. The power problem is solved quite quickly, in two or three days. A day or two after getting back to the cottage, and the day before they’re about to set off for Barcelona to pick up their car and go back home, they get a call from the garage: there’s been a pro heist, eleven cars (I think) stolen, including this poor family’s.

They set off for Barcelona to get police papers sorted and everything, and then buy some RyanAir plane tickets to go home from Barcelona, via London. They end up being late taking off from Barcelona, narrowly missing their connecting flight from London.

And this is the point where I first hear about this (amazingly), working at the alarm central that handles claims and emergencies for their travel insurance company. I receive a call from a sobbing mother with a cast-fitted leg, sitting in a London airport where they’ve just missed their flight, and of course RyanAir refuse to help them (they are RyanAir, after all). And worst of all: her purse, in which was all their money and their credit card, has just been stolen. They’re now pretty much stuck, with no tickets home and no way of buying new tickets.

We were able to help them get home later that day (bought them new tickets—their passports had thankfully not been stolen), but as she was telling me this whole story, I couldn’t help dropping my jaw a number of times. Worst holiday ever? I think so.

[turtle777]

That is just unbelievable. Poor family.

-t