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longstreet
join:2004-11-14
Plano, TX
1 edit | reply to MadMANN
Re: Stories like this
Let's refrain from personal attacks then and try to understand each other's situation.
I'm sure you're a real good ________ for Comcast.
I'm certainly not the average guy either.
I visit Cable and DSL forums regularly.
I've had dial-up, cable, and DSL service - even satellite.
At one point in my career, I even worked as a outsourced tech support rep for Qwest and for a major BPS provider (fortune 500) - but I moved on.
(I'm now in software development making 20x the money)
So I try and help with issues, but I will complain about problems. Was the technical problem fixed? Yes, once they got their collective heads out of you know where, the fix was pretty fast. I appreciate that and that's the kind of service I expect. 2-3 days for most problems, OK.
I can deal with that. Even a week -
But 2 months?
Billing was also an issue for me. I had to be very angry and demanding (the kind of call you hate to take) to explain I wasn't going to pay for service because it was broken the entire time.
I had to twist heads and break arms to get them to agree. After they agreed, I received post-dated bills for weeks (not bills prior to my calls) I called and called and called and finally someone made the right change after weeks of begging and yelling.
It took one *GOOD* line tech about an hour to figure what was wrong, after months of a wild goose chase.
But that was after 4 or 5 of them came weeks before and said they had fixed the problem - and hadn't.
20% effective problem solving is dismal - even for a huge ISP like Comcast.
I wired an entire warship with fiber years back when I was an IT in the military. -- Back when alcatel was xylan -
I know a thing or two about DSL, cable, fiber and the Internet.
What really chaps my ass is the frontline technicians trying to come off as some sort of guru - Let me just put something out there -
The real engineers don't work frontline tech support, as you probably know.
Apologies if someone is just making an honest living - but there's too many know it alls - that don't know it all. | |
MadMANN
Premium
join:2005-08-19
 ·Comcast
| Ok. Now that said, I have understood your situation from the start. It was bad. (understatement, but accurate) Ok. Miserable.  If I could apologize for it and make it better I would. Alas, I am not in your area.
Again, if I came off as indifferent or unsympathetic, I apologize. I was only trying to let you know that your situation is not something anyone at the company finds acceptable, which is why they were working to resolve the problem. There are issues out there that do not just pop up and punch you in the face. Those are the ones that may take a few tech visits to diagnose. It's not that the first few didn't know what they were doing, it's just that the problem was apparently hidden and intermittent. The last guy who solved it likely took notes from the other techs who shared what they tried for you and he acted accordingly. Therefore, to you, he is the hero. I am not saying that you might not have gotten a bad one in there somewhere, but the majority of them know what they are doing and have been trained vigorously. Does incompetence exist? Of course. But I can tell you that the ones who can't adjust or do not respond to the ongoing training are weeded out pretty quickly.
As far as frontline tech support, I would challenge anyone with any common business sense to find a way to employ top-notch masters degree IT technicians as phone people without creating double the overhead. Not saying that the ones who are there are not intelligent, just that you can't expect high level NASA techs to man the phones.
Regardless, I hope you can enjoy your services now and put the whole thing behind you. May you have trouble-free service forever.  | |
phattieg
join:2001-04-29
Winter Park, FL
 ·Verizon Wireless B..
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| reply to longstreet
The point you have tried to make just now is not the case. Verizon has been at their money making before they were even named Verizon. Comcast, however, has grown by purchasing other companies who were down and out, almost out of business, and has turned them around. Maybe you can point out a situation where a franchise agreement was lost due to this so called "customer dissatisfaction" level, because you know the FCC and the BBB will not tolerate customers being stuck with the short end of the stick when it comes to service. Now I have heard of Verizon getting in trouble with the FCC for numerous reasons, one of them being just that, customer service. It has been a while, but you know, at this point, bickering back and forth is pointless, and tiresome. I showed you the numbers, and you aren't budging. Even if I went through the figures with you on net income per company, you'd find another thing to make me dig for. I am not a PR person, so I honestly don't care enough about the situation to keep arguing with someone who obviously has their own issues. I just know from experience that the telco is dirty, and low down, blatantly, yet they manage not to get in the hot seat. I know the real deal, having worked for both telco's and cable companies. I have found more "lets dance around the red tape" issues with the telco than with the cable company (except the disgraceful Adelphia, for which I've had to take calls from those poor folks and discover how low down that company was, even to the point where the FCC AND Comcast told them to notify customers that EFT payments will stop after XX/XX/2007, and they lied to us and told us it was sent, yet none were ever received by the customer. I was hired when my area wasn't called "Comcast" it was called "AT&T Broadband". Now there's an ironic situation, because AT&T Broadband had the worse reputation EVERYWHERE, and in my city, they were about to have their franchise agreement pulled (Jacksonville, by square mile is the largest city in America). The City was ready to pull the plug and force the company to cease operations, but Comcast took over, paid close to $10 million in fines that AT&T was suppose to pay, and within one year, they went from 40% digital and high speed internet ready, to 80%, 3 months later they had HDTV, and then 6 months later deployed VOD. After that party of a time, 8 months passed, and VoIP was being used, which reduced the MAJORITY of the peoples bills. The other people who are griping about the changes (about 4% of the left over customers) griped about the change, were told they could still port their number away from our network, yet they hung on, and were very pleased about the new service evidentally, because they still use the service. The problem here is that has nothing to do with "customer service", but still, the numbers show they are the 2nd largest ISP, why? Because Kevin Martin is just as ridiculously biased as this site can be sometimes, and said "sure, you can buy Bell South". Fact is, people dropped their land lines by the millions because of price, service, and satisfaction. I honestly lost respect for some of these rating firms, like JD Powers and Associates, etc... I say this because they are the ones that chose what is good and bad, yet their information contradicts the big picture... At any rate, I no longer care enough to keep arguing with you. It's to the point where you're defensive, and think I'm trying to change your mind. You even got pissy/rude with me with the GTFO comment, but you didn't post anything I lacked. You should have known right there that I didn't care to "knit pick". But you, instead, asked for proof, and I did, and now you're saying "money should make everything better". Well, smart guy, explain why Bush has paid over 10 trillion of our money, and yet the war situation in Iraq is still going on? That should tell you that money has nothing to do with the satisfaction of customers (who are citizens in this analogy). So post away now, because nobody else has bothered to chime in to agree with your "point", yet I seem to have a thumbs up from another member in this forum about the points I've made even before we got down to the numbers. It was the comment about "nut job who has nothing better to do but be a Comcast customer, still have alternative ISP's, and still sticks with Comcast. I hope you have a different provider, because if not, you need to SHOW the company you're dissatisfied with them. Simply cancel if you don't like it. I have canceled services I didn't like, and even took the big hit of "early termination fee" when I got rid of Verizon Wireless, AND AT&T. I now have Sprint, which is ANOTHER company who people seem to hate, yet I love everything about my service. It's more reliable than AT&T has ever been to me, and VERY MUCH cheaper than Verizon. Ironically, their roaming buddy is Verizon, so I get the same awesome coverage as I did with Verizon anyway, only I pay half the price. Unfortunately, I've never dealt with so many foreign countries who have no idea what CDMA, or EVDO is, due to them outsourcing to countries who don't have CDMA available. So thats my only complaint, and only because they are less knowledged, but even more importantly is they are not anywhere my service area, so they take jobs away from the USA and send them to places that don't have towers to support CDMA. Now THAT'S not good. I don't agree with that one bit, which is why I am glad the majority of Comcast customers talk to inhouse, corporately hired represenatives. At least I can report complaints direcly to the reps supervisor when I get them. Anyway, how about you do ME a favor this time, post net earnings of both companies as a whole, and tell me who is worth more, instead of assuming that 24 to 1 means a company has more money. Because if I have to prove you incorrect again, then I am going to really think you're the biggest load of hot air. And please leave the Google linkk you used to find this info. Thanks.
-Rob
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SIPPhone/Gizmo # 17476200648 / PIMPNET Chatline / Ran by Asterisk & Slackware 10.1. | |
longstreet
join:2004-11-14
Plano, TX | I don't know what you're talking about, imo go back to your phone support. | |
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