Okay, I said. I’ll be able to connect in a couple of minutes – this often happens. I’ll call Jean in the interim. I picked up the phone and got that fast busy signal – no connection. And then I turned on my TV only to see the “no internet” message across my screen.
Comcast was out – again.
A half-hour later, my husband, who was working in his office upstairs, said he just received a notice from Comcast that they will be doing maintenance work in the area and we should expect some interruptions the next few days. They were right about that. Twice more that afternoon, three times Wednesday, four on Thursday and two on Friday – all during working hours.
Well, maintenance is understandable and needed, but couldn’t they have given a forewarning on Monday, as a courtesy to customers?
Why my complaint? Because one of Comcast’s unannounced interruptions came five minutes before I had a scheduled virtual meeting with my physician, which can take weeks to get. When I didn’t appear, the appointment was scrubbed. And on Thursday I was trying to make an appointment with my dermatologist whose assistant told me that the office was now booking for September. She paused, and suddenly said, “Oh t here’s a cancellation for this Thursday at 4 p.m. Can you make it? “Yes, I quickly said.” “
“I can’t hear you. Are you still there? Can you make it? Guess not. Sorry,” and she hung up.
The very next day, I had a different video meeting with two physicians at a Stanford clinic that disappeared midway. Comcast disconnect again.
This intermittent lack of service problem has continued for the past ten days.
In another matter, I tried to contact Comcast about a minor problem I had the past two weeks in reaching a friend: My call to her cell phone doesn’t ring, but goes immediately to voice mail. She told me I’m the only one who has this problem.
Enter the Comcast online robot: The voice wrote, “Which of these best describes your problem?” a) billing, b) my phone doesn’t work c) call blocking or d) call forwarding.
None of the above. So I write “agent” to the robot – and I get the same four options once again. And the third time I press (b) hoping to talk to someone. After 15 minutes with a useless back-and-forth semi-dialogue with the robot, I write in caps, “I WANT TO TALK TO A LIVE AGENT!”
Soon I am in a “live” written chat with a person named Erin who can’t seem to understand my problem. In frustration, I again ask in writing to talk to a live agent, this message in caps, bold faced and underlined, and Erin replied she will work on it. Late Friday afternoon I got I get a phone call from Susan: “How can I help you today?”
Can you read the conversation I had with the robot and Erin? No, Susan said, but added she would call me back. And now it is Thursday and no call back.
Back to go, I guess. The problem is still not resolved.
But a couple of days earlier, one of the Comcast reps did call and said in that because of my difficulties, they would give us faster service for only $3 more a month. Very nice gesture, I thought. I thanked the rep.
When the new Comcast gateway package arrived, along with the agreement, at the bottom of the page, in fine print, it said by accepting this, I have agreeds to a two-year automatic extension of Comcast services! That was NEVER indicated in the phone conversation.
My husband tried to install the new software they sent, but ran into problems so he contacted their help team.
This time their PR team got ahead of the help response. They sent him this message:
“Thank you so much for the verification !
From Agent,
Comcast appreciates your business and values you as a customer. Our goal is to provide you with excellent service.
From Agent,
It is a pleasure to chat with a customer like you. You have been amazing and very patient with me, probably the best customer I had today.
It was a pleasure chatting with a customer like you! You have shown utmost cooperation and it was heartwarming. Thank you for your time. You be careful and take care of your family, you make a difference in the world !!”
Yesterday, I was into the first 15 minutes of a 1-1/2 hour Zoom meeting when my screen disappeared. Comcast was down for the next 75 minutes. I missed the entire meeting
I started screaming at the phone, with a few loud dammits delivered to Comcast in the process. How can they do this to a faithful customer!!!!!
The problem is they can – and they did.
I am writing this because I know I am not the only one who is going through these “communication” problems with telephone trees, robots, inevitable long telephone waits. They are in control, not me.
What’s the solution? I simply don’t know.
I do know I am now at the point that when another no service thing happens, I immediately get angry remembering all my previous problems.
What is wrong? This never used to happen? Does Comcast even care about us?
