Comcast is Craptastic, not Comcastic.

I know that my blog is supposed to be a place for healthy living but in order to be healthy, you shouldn’t have that much stress or aggravation.  And this is an outlet for me to vent.   So while this upcoming rant doesn’t have anything to do with gluten-free living, it does have to do with the industry I work in (telecom).  Here goes:

A little over a year ago, we switched our cable service at home to Comcast due to we were trying to cut down on expenses, and they offered us a really good deal for 12 months.  After the 12 months, our prices did go up as expected.  When I called Comcast to find out what could be done about lowering our bill, I was told we could bring in our DVR and swap it out.

See, it turns out that Comcast isn’t as Comcastic as they advertise and want you to believe.  When they installed us, they gave us a HD DVR, even though we don’t have an HD set, or requested an HD DVR.  But that’s what they gave us as now I was told, that’s all they had at the time.  So when I was on the phone with the Customer Service Rep about how to lower our bill, she told me that we can bring in our HD DVR to get a regular one, and they’d then charge us for the regular DVR.  I was also told that they would give us a second standard DVR free for one year, to replace the second digital box we have in our house.

Great – I thought! Two DVRs means I don’t have to miss ANYTHING!  Trust me, it’s not as if we watch THAT much TV, but there are always those Fall premieres overlapping, and it’d be great to have two boxes.

So a few weeks ago, I cleared out the content of our DVR, schlepped down to the local Comcast office on a Saturday, waited in line for 30 minutes only to be told by the incredibly rude worker named Roma, “We’re out of standard DVRs.”  I was offered six months discount on my HD one at the regular standard price.  “So what happens after six months?”, I asked Roma.  I was told I can either bring in my box and not have a DVR, or pay the HD price.  Roma (who seriously needs some training) told me that Comcast doesn’t have any standard DVRs in Colorado, and she doesn’t even think they’re getting any ever.

Craptastic!  As if it’s my fault that Comcast gave me a HD DVR when I didn’t need one?  And why should I be paying for a level of service I don’t need?

I called the local Denver call center to complain, and was given a ticket number and told someone would contact me regarding this issue.  Not so much as it turns out.  I never heard back from anyone. 

After two weeks had gone by, I called back and asked for an update. Turns out they “addressed the situation internally” and that was that.  I said I wanted to speak to a supervisor about the issue, as it’s still an open issue for me.  I was told by the agent (Maria) that she would have a supervisor call me within 2 (yes, two!) hours.  That was 168 hours ago as of this posting.

So, me being me, after two days had gone by and I hadn’t heard from a supervisor, I wrote Comcast a letter and sent it to their SVP of Customer Care. 

This week, I got a call from Gwen, on their “Escalation team”.  She left me a voicemail on Tuesday.  I called Gwen back on Wednesday, left her a voicemail and clearly stated I would not be around from 2 – 3 and what do you know?  That’s when she called me back.  BRILLIANT, Gwen. I’ve tried calling her back four times now and haven’t heard back from her.  Again, Craptastic.

I think Comcast has one of the worst service experiences customers should ever have to go through when they have problems.  I’m waiting to hear back from my last voicemail to Gwen, stating, “This is the fourth time I’ve called you.”  If I don’t hear back from her by end of day, I am going to call the SVP of Customer Care directly.

Comcastic = Craptastic.

And that, dear readers, is my gluten-free rant of the day.

8/6 Update -  I did end up calling the SVP of Customer Care at our local office, and that took care of the problem.  Three people from the call center called me within the hour.  I got my new DVR installed yesterday.   If they ever call me for follow up (I know, pick yourselves up from laughing and read on) here were two issues:

1)  When the rep called me to tell me she found me a DVR, she told me she had it sent to our local office, it has my name on it and I can go pick it up.  I told her after all the trouble I’ve been through, you actually expect me to take my time and drive to your office to get it?  I told her I want it delivered and installed.

2)  After it was installed and loaded, the DVR memory was 49% full of someone else’s stored saved programs, and had 16 season passes already set.  So clearly they don’t clean out the memory of these boxes when they swap them around.

Comcast still gets an F.