Well in that case I hope he actually said The Weather Channel Local on the 8 other wise why should he assume they just knew what he was talking about.
Per his question though the call center reps dont just have a TV sitting there for them to check if the channels working. Also how do they know what headend you're coming out of if you don't give them your account info? DirectTV is still going to ask for account info.
The OP do you realize that the programming is injected at different headends and could be a local issue? Thus the comcast rep needs to lookup your account to speak to the correct person on the backend to check the status.
Sounds to me like someone else who gave the rep a hard time for no reason.