lcplwan
join:2002-12-25
Sacramento, CA | reply to epm
Re: I work for comcast
Hey is it possible for someone to write a letter and have tons of comcast customers sign and say we demand a refund?.. this is seriously stupid.. lucky that we can use other DNS servers... we should get like a free month or something.. |
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epm
@68.42.x.x
 from:
jkj860 
| Well for one they usually only credit per 24 hour period. But if you want to be credited for the time you were down by all means have at it.
About $42.95 /month for CHSI and $3.00 /month modem rental gives you $45.95 a month for internet. That's a $1.48 a day and since the outage was for maybe 9 hours (7pm to 4AM) that's a whopping $0.56 for tonights outage. If you want to expell all that energy in a written petition go for it, you're certainly entitled to it, but I'm not sure it's worth it. |
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luckylar
join:2002-01-29
Hixson, TN | It may be only $.56 BUT if Comcast's 9 million customers demand that, it's NOW 4 1/2 MILLION DOLLARS!!!! |
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J1000
@comcast.net
| reply to epm
epm, while I'm not the kind of guy to call up and demand a credit, I do feel the need to point something out (just FYI I'm not irate at all here, just being philosophical).
When you pay a monthly fee for service you are not agreeing to outages. Regardless of what the fine print might say, customers expect constant access (and rightly so). If they were told ahead of time that service would be down at random once a week or so, they would probably just choose another provider who promised more OR they would expect to pay a lot less.
When service stops without notice that violates the customer's expectations and you can't break that down into a per-hour dollar amount just by dividing the monthly cost into minutes. Maybe Comcast isn't legally obligated to give a credit of any sort, but to rebuild goodwill with the customer they are going to have to do that and more. Even if I'm not the kind of guy who complains to the help desk I'm definitely going to remember outages the next time I choose a service provider. Heck that's why I'm not with SBC anymore! Generous credits are one of the only ways to restore the relationship with the customer. |
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Confusatron
join:2002-01-03
Ypsilanti, MI
1 edit | reply to luckylar
said by luckylar :It may be only $.56 BUT if Comcast's 9 million customers demand that, it's NOW 4 1/2 MILLION DOLLARS!!!! LOL!
I usually take the "my time is not worth the $1.50 or whatever they will give me", but I think I may call in on that idea alone 
said by BudBob :If I ran a business like that I would not have too many customers after this. The key is to run the only business in town. That tends to limit customers' options... |
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Blam
Penguin Power
Premium
join:2002-02-06
Philadelphia, PA
| reply to J1000
Sortof along that line of thought that you posted, a couple months ago, Verizon's connection went down in the local area here for a bit. It made the news and Verizon was out there with a P.R. person talking to the local news media and apologizing for the outage. I didn't even notice because I normally use my Comcast and the DSL is a backup. I never called in a problem because I wasn't really using it at the time and never knew until I heard it on the news. Then as a followup, after everything was fixed, I got a phone call from Verizon (they do this often) to again apologize for the outage, with a brief explanation on what happened. And in general, about once every couple months, I get a call from their customer service asking if my service (both phone and DSL) are satisfactory. This with me having their lowest tier DSL and basic phone, with a few add-ons. At this point, thank goodness I have the DSL because I am using it right now. I have yet to have 2 consecutive 24-hour days of service in the past 2 weeks with my Comcast (and this having nothing to do with the DNS problems of late but I do truly believe it is a routing issue related to the CRAN).
Here in Philly, the local Comcast used to be very involved in the community, etc. They recently had a ceremony for the ground-breaking on a new corporate HQ that will be in a 55-story skyscraper 2 blocks down from where their current skyscraper is. It just seems that they are now caught up in the same sort of thing that companies like Time-Warner-AOL or Viacom have gotten caught up in - eat or be eaten, where they buy up everything around them or get gobbled. And that has and will continue to impact on their service and just plain running of their businesses, IMHO. It's really a shame.  |
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jakoe420
join:2003-09-05
Knoxville, TN
clubs:
| reply to J1000
said by J1000:
When you pay a monthly fee for service you are not agreeing to outages. Regardless of what the fine print might say, customers expect constant access (and rightly so). If they were told ahead of time that service would be down at random once a week or so, they would probably just choose another provider who promised more OR they would expect to pay a lot less. ugh
that is ignorant
if they were told ahead of time?? wtf |
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epm
@68.42.x.x
| reply to Confusatron
I hope you're not bringing up the flimsy excuse that Comcast has a monopoly or something. in addition to comcast in this area people have a choice of Charter, Wide Open West, SBC Yahoo and about 4 other local high speed services....hardly a monopoly. |
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imrf
Premium
join:2002-06-06
Utica, MI
 ·WOW Internet and C..
| said by epm:
in addition to comcast in this area people have a choice of Charter, Wide Open West, SBC Yahoo and about 4 other local high speed services....hardly a monopoly.
Charter does not overlap in any Comcast market that I am aware of in MI. They are in Almont and north and to the west of them as well towards Flint. |
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skelet0r
Premium
join:2004-04-26
Florence, AL
| reply to epm
I am sorry, but you are incorrect sir, or maybe thats all that you can give, but when I called they gave me $20 dollars off next months bill. However, I was very nice, calm, and simply explained how I had been paying for the Gold Tier and did not appreciate multiple outages, whether I can fix the problem (change DNS servers) or not. I actually only asked for $10, but that sweet honey gave me $20 and gave me her extension so that I could reach her if I ever had a problem. Seemed like a real cool person. |
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outraged at comcast
@comcast.net
| quote:
I am sorry, but you are incorrect sir, or maybe thats all that you can give, but when I called they gave me $20 dollars off next months bill. However, I was very nice, calm, and simply explained how I had been paying for the Gold Tier and did not appreciate multiple outages, whether I can fix the problem (change DNS servers) or not. I actually only asked for $10, but that sweet honey gave me $20 and gave me her extension so that I could reach her if I ever had a problem. Seemed like a real cool person.
This has been my experience as well. I aplaud your ability to stay calm. I do most of the time. I am just really starting to feel that I have a second job which is keeping comcast honest. As a paying customer, I should not have to call up twice a month to see why their service is down. |
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Newegg
Supreme Ideology
join:2004-11-14
Atlanta, GA
1 edit | reply to skelet0r
But some of the time talking to a tech is like talking to a brick wall and in the end they end up doing nothing when they promised you something just to get rid of you. So in the end you might not see $20 of your bill next month.
--
30Mbit makes 6Mbit look like dialup around here. |
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somebodeez
Premium,MVM
join:2001-09-24
here
 ·Verizon FIOS
·Comcast
| reply to epm
said by epm:
I hope you're not bringing up the flimsy excuse that Comcast has a monopoly or something. in addition to comcast in this area people have a choice of Charter, Wide Open West, SBC Yahoo and about 4 other local high speed services....hardly a monopoly.
Wow! 
Around here, Comcast is it unless you happen to live close enough to a CO to get DSL. |
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