caddyroger
Premium
join:2001-06-11
clubs: 
 ·Comcast
| reply to comcrap90
Re: Pay to Pay?!?!?!
said by comcrap90 :that sucks too..i go to the comcast office and did you notice at my comcast office . there are no chairs to sit down .have to wait in a line to process the bill . i guess thats why every one around me has satellite,,  Where the chairs at the post at? where the chairs at the bank. best buy ,in line at McDonald's?
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Caddy |
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goober22
Resident Duh-Huh Member
join:2001-12-28
Panama City, FL
1 edit | reply to Greg_Z
said by Greg_Z  :The CSR is hired to man the phones, not take bills. I remember walking into a Call Center once, where the window is now shut, and you have to drop your bill in the drop box by day's end to be credited for your bill. Call Centers are not Payment Centers. Matter of fact, when I go to drop off my power bill, the girl in the Customer Service Center is there to answer questions, not take payments. There is a drop box on the wall that is collected from during the day. I'm not talking a call center location but a standard office center. Both Comcast and Knology here have 2. The city side centers each have a 24hr drop slot. Comcast has an inside drop as well. They have 3 windows (usually 2 staffed) to deal with customers (call center staff is in the back). Knology also has 3 desk folks PLUS a drive-thru window for payments!
Now you say these folks that answer walk-in questions, connect new customers, cancel existing accounts, issue equipment, modify existing accounts, accept equipment returns... should now charge $1.99 for accepting a payment?! None of the other items are charged, other than the normal new install fee.
So far, here, there is no charge for changes or cancellations or payments. The install fee can usually be waived as long as the outlets are currently active with another provider or have been previously active with Comcast
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Certified Jenius! |
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quatrix
Premium
join:2005-02-11
Davie, FL
| reply to goober22
said by goober22 :Agreed. There would be CSR sitting there being paid regardless if anyone at all every came in. Do they charge $1.99 to setup an account? Wrong. If there weren't as many people walking into the service center, they'd have fewer CSRs (there were two at mine when I went to swap cable boxes) or cut down on hours. And "setup" is two words.
Sorry for not being politically correct, but anyone paying by cash is just plain dumb. Whether they don't have a checking account (there are plenty of free ones), they're paranoid about sending things by mail or using credit, same story. |
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Insider101
join:2006-09-19
Brooklyn, NY | reply to Greg_Z
Wrong.
We are already in the digital age. Welcome to 1999. THIS MOVE WILL RESULT in a reduction of reps needed. It has nothing to do with helping the customer thats why its called a FEE. |
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| reply to Zoder
Well, the way you put it now is more respectable/understandable... however, if I can add to what you said "...the people most impacted by this fee are the customers who could least afford it." .. those are the same people that use more/cost these companies more money too. These are the people that use the more expensive routes to deal with a company and usually go past due, require collection actions, often require disconnects, generate more phone calls to said companies, and never pay anything close to the actual cost that it takes to deliver these resources.
Everyone else ends up paying the costs to handle this type of customer.
(FYI: back when I was doing in home services, I can tell you that a good portion of my routes were the cut off/restore game.. same people over and over and over.. it became a joke.)
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"Complaining is the least path of resistance for the self-serving, the lazy, and I’m told it’s a woman’s prerogative..." |
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atticinsane
join:2000-06-27
Pasadena, TX | reply to perfimage
Time Warner started doing the same thing since Comcast is the one really implemented this.. Charging a $1.00 fee for paying your bill in person. It is said that it was done to discourage crowds. (If truth be told) |
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Chris 313
Come get some
Premium
join:2004-07-18
Houma, LA
clubs:
·Comcast
·Comcast
·Charter Pipeline
 ·Comcast Digital Vo..
·AT&T CallVantage
| said by atticinsane :Time Warner started doing the same thing since Comcast is the one really implemented this.. Charging a $1.00 fee for paying your bill in person. It is said that it was done to discourage crowds. (If truth be told) Yes. I completely agree with the crowd bit. My Comcast center, when I go pay my bill every 3rd, is packed out the door sometimes.
Screw the charge, I'll just pay through my bank and be done with it.
Hope everyone effected by this finds an alternate means of paying that works for you. |
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AnnaS8
join:2005-05-26
Annapolis, MD
| reply to perfimage
Used to be if I wanted to pay my Comcast bill by credit card I would have to call them up and talk with a CSR and would cost me a $3.00 processing fee. The only options they had online was to setup automatic payment by credit card. Which I am not a fan since they take the money out before you even see your bill. I like to be able to look it over first. Not to mention it is easier to have them adjust what I owe then to get back what they already took.
I am happy to see now they have the capability to take one time credit card payments. It never made sense to me how I could pay all my bills online through their company websites but the one I couldn't pay online was my internet service provider. LOL Go figure... |
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TOPDAWG
Premium
join:2005-04-27
Midland, ON | reply to perfimage
That is a retarded fee. I don't care WTF other options you got that is still a retarded fee no matter how you slice it. |
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| reply to Chuckles
No.. I know why... it's not only the lack of chairs, but also the lack of a local presence. Not to mention, THEIR cash payment option is Western Union Quick Collect.. and that cost about $15.00 to make a payment. I bet that's why everyone has satellite in his area.
Poor people, just like anyone else, has satellite as well. And you know what?? I've seen enough people making Quick Collect payments at $15.00 a piece too.. guess that $1.99 isn't so bad after all.
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"Complaining is the least path of resistance for the self-serving, the lazy, and I’m told it’s a woman’s prerogative..." |
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20 | reply to CableTool
no no.. there is that $15.00 Western Union Quick collect fee for making payments in person by cash. |
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| reply to Chris 313
There is NOTHING worse than going into a customer service center to swap a box, because you don't want to wait a few days for a tech, and when you get in side, you have to wait behind a line of 10 people there to pay their bill. And, not just pay their bill, but argue about their bill too.
There are people that religiously pay their bill in person every month and they clog up customer centers all the time. There are also those that pay their bill in person from time-to-time as well. That $1.99 fee should be a no issue for them. But seriously... the majority of these call center transactions have become nothing but payment centers. It's a pain in the ass to walk in and have to wait because someone is there to pay their 3 month old bill and want a live person in their face explaining to them what they were already told on that paper bill.
I wouldn't mind a tiered fee.. First time, $1.99, second visit $3.99 and see that fee continue to rise $1.00 each time. Then, maybe people who need to do things like swap or pick up or drop off their equipment can actually do so in under 40 minutes.
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"Complaining is the least path of resistance for the self-serving, the lazy, and I’m told it’s a woman’s prerogative..." |
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sansri88
Go digtal you analog laggards
Premium
join:2005-12-17
New York, NY
clubs: | Hehe, our local payment center is empty most of the time. Like, I'll go there around 5pm if I need to exchange my box (happened more than once) and there's one person sitting there reading the paper and another person in the back room. |
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TOPDAWG
Premium
join:2005-04-27
Midland, ON
 ·TekSavvy Solutions..
2 edits | reply to fiberguy
Wrong it won't be any faster all comcast will do is fire the extra window workers.
Also god learn to wait WTF is wrong with people everyone acts like they're all important and can't wait for anything. If you got a real issue with waiting then you should be mad at comcast for not making a window just for bill payments.
One reason it takes long is cause one rep does not know the system or is not sure about something and has to wait to ask the next rep next to them what to do. With my way the the bill payment rep can know the system inside and out and be faster.
Hell I've had to return a box and had to tell the person there mine was broken and I needed a new one. She said it's the same as the ones they already have I said well the ones you got are undated plus this one is not working and she did not know know where the things were at. I also had to wait while she called a guy from the back to make sure everything was in the box I had returned. |
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
1 edit | Not quite sure what you are saying.. but, since you are in Ontario, I'm guessing you don't have to deal with Comcast at all. Also, maybe life is a little different up there in Canada, but down here, we work hard. We don't have many things provided to us by big brother. We work 8 or 10 hour days which really turns out to be 10 and 12 hour days with lunch and traffic.. we have families and kids that play sports and other things we try to do with our time. The last thing any of us want to do is stand in line for 40 minutes to do anything when there is no reason to.
One thing I was able to gather form your post was the part about adding a line for payments only. Well, if they were to do that, I am CERTAIN you would see a payment processing fee as that only stands behind their reason for adding the fee.
If there is something that people haven't noticed is that not all service centers are adding this fee. Where it has been added, I'm sure, is where it has become a problem.
It's simple economics. The fee was added because it's exceeding the reasonable cost. When you purchase cable service, or phone, or what ever, it doesn't come with 24 hour use-all-you-want customer resources. If you are in the service centers all the time making payments and talking face to face, if you are on the telephone all the time for unreasonable needs (like asking how much you owe when they send you a bill) and other wasteful reasons, you can believe they are going to encourage you to avoid abusing the system.
Yes, you get to use customer service.. no, you don't get to over use and abuse it. For this, I also applaud Sprint for cutting off customers who have called, what was it?? several hundred times? Customer service is a finite resource. Those who hog the resources actually cost these companies money..
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"Complaining is the least path of resistance for the self-serving, the lazy, and I’m told it’s a woman’s prerogative..." |
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TOPDAWG
Premium
join:2005-04-27
Midland, ON
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| I'm a proud American thank you very much lived there for 25 years and had comcast. I lived here for 2 years now cause well I'm not saying why it's a story nobody cares about.
Also learn to wait life will be better if you do. You got time to waste on here you got time to waste at the comcast office. |
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| hahahah.... oh.. funny.
Ever heard of multi-tasking bud? Can't really do that standing in a line behind someone wanting to ask about why they owe some much money because they 1) can't read or won't read their bill 2) can't pay their bills on time (maybe people should think twice about buying something they can't afford) 3) refuse to put their credit card number into a phone system to make their payment.
Learn to be less extreme in your examples.. you may make some sense. Just because I have time to post doesn't mean I don't have time elsewhere. However, I, nor more people, would rather not spend a huge amount of time standing in ANY line to do necessary things while waiting for other people who ...
.. oh why bother. If you think everyone's lives would be better spent in line, why not go stand in one yourself and tells us all how wonderful it is. I would rather spend my free time "wasting it on line" or spending it with my family.. spending precious time with my dogs who only have about 12 years on this earth, or doing something that betters my own short time on this planet.
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"Complaining is the least path of resistance for the self-serving, the lazy, and I’m told it’s a woman’s prerogative..." |
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mikedz4
join:2003-04-14
Weirton, WV
 ·DIRECTV
·Verizon Online DSL
·Comcast Digital Vo..
·Comcast
| i go to my local center to ask questions, like when is such and such service coming out, do you have such and such box, when will I get such and such channel, etc. Occasionally I'll pay a bill there but very seldom, mainly to ask questions and swap boxes because they don't have a direct number. |
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sansri88
Go digtal you analog laggards
Premium
join:2005-12-17
New York, NY
clubs: | We sort of have a direct number, but you have to know what to choose in the menu: for us we have to go to the billing option and it goes to the local office. But yeah I'll go to my local office to find out about new channels and stuff. |
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HappyBunny
Hi. Cram It.
Premium
join:2001-06-23
Long Beach, CA | reply to perfimage
You think that is bad, Chase Auto Finance charges me $15 to pay by phone and $10 to pay via the web! |
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