  aaron8301 I can't get myself to go away.
join:2005-01-03 Clarkston, WA | Not for long I bet these numbers all get changed very soon. | |
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 |   hopeflicker Capitalism breeds greed Premium join:2003-04-03 Long Beach, CA
| Re: Not for long said by aaron8301 :I bet these numbers all get changed very soon. Yep, i bet too. They dont want to talk to their customers, which is very sad. -- Fossils, Not Gospels. | |
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 |  |   Ebolla
join:2005-09-28 Dracut, MA | Re: Not for long I dont think that CC doesn't want to talk to customers, its the fact that dispatchers already have hands full, why should they do there job AND a job for frontline phone reps. | |
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 |  |  |  smcallah
join:2004-08-05 Home
| Re: Not for long said by Ebolla :why should they do there job Where job? Where?!
"Inga: Werewolf! Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Werewolf? Igor: There. Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: What? Igor: There, wolf. There, castle. Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Why are you talking that way. Igor: I thought you wanted to. Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: No, I don't want to. Igor: Suit yourself. I'm easy." | |
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 |  |  battleop
join:2005-09-28 00000
| I think this is going a bit far. If these are Internal use numbers then they will get changed. I guess they wouldn't even hesitate to release an employee phone book either.
If you had a legit problem that couldn't be resolved then I would say use the numbers. Using them because your tech is 5 minutes late? BS. | |
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 |  |  |  |  battleop
join:2005-09-28 00000 | Re: Not for long Oh everyone look at morbo. He is really important. He is so important that he can't wait 5 minutes. | |
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 |  |  |  |  |  |  battleop
join:2005-09-28 00000 | Re: Not for long God forbid you actualy read my post. I said 5 minutes, not hours. | |
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 |  |  |  |  |  |  |   RadioDoc Sortofadog Premium,ExMod 2000-03 join:2000-05-11 Chicago, IL | Re: Not for long God forbid you actually comprehend what you read. By the time the installer is 5 minutes late you've already been sitting around for four to eight hours waiting for him to show up. -- Toolmaster of La Grange. | |
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 |  |  |  |  |  |  |   cdru Go Colts Premium,MVM join:2003-05-14 Fort Wayne, IN
·Verizon FIOS
| At what point does "just a few minutes" become "too long of a period of time"? If 5 minutes isn't enough, is 10? 15? 30? If you can wait 5 minutes, I'd think 60 minutes shouldn't be too much more. It's only cable. It's not like it's life or death.
Comcast made a commitment by specifying a appointment time. The least they can do is honor their commitment, or if they can't give the person ample notice that they are running late or can't make it. -- Go Colts | |
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 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  bicker
join:2007-05-10 Burlington, MA | Re: Not for long And the proper, reasonable response is to call the front-line number for assistance, not to use inside information to bypass normal procedures because you feel you're "entitled". | |
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 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  FusorFodder
join:2002-02-28 Gaithersburg, MD
| Re: Not for long No, it will force Comcast to change the dispatch phone numbers, and it will also cause a severe tie up in other customers being serviced. Having worked for Comcast, I can tell you there will be customers that will refuse to hang up, or will call back repeatedly JUST to tie up phone lines. These temper tantrums will only serve to create a backlog for techs and agents who are legitimately trying to reach dispatch. Dispatchers are constantly busy, they don't have the time to waste on customers who think they are so smart for dialing an internal number.
Hooray, some asshat managed to get Comcast to spend a few extra dollars on changing phone numbers, guess who gets to foot the bill? | |
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 |  |  |  |  |  bigjimc
join:2003-04-21 Middleboro, MA
·Verizon FIOS
| How about an 8 AM appointment and the guy shows up at 1 pm
I am not important, I just bill out at $135 an hour. Who is going to pay me?
An I pay $175 a month to Comcast.
Service This!!!! -- Just my 2 cents...Flame Lightly... | |
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 |  |  |  |  |  |   yambag
@comcast.net | Re: Not for long noone makes u use comcast. dont like it? go back to dial up. | |
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 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  bigjimc
join:2003-04-21 Middleboro, MA | Re: Not for long Nope...Went to FiOS.... | |
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 |  |  |  |   yambag
@comcast.net
thumbs down from: 3SGTE 
| talk to me when you call ronald mcdonald bc ur burger took more than 60 seconds. cry me as river. | |
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 |  |   Phattieg
join:2001-04-29 Jacksonville, FL
| You are so wrong. They don't have time to talk to customers. You don't understand. In many cases, there is only 2 or 3 dispatchers, and 100 to 200 techs they handle. The techs call them to get jobs closed, or correct work orders. It takes a real asshole to call a dispatcher. Just because you call them, doesn't mean they are going to call your tech and get them out there. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't start hanging up on "non-tech" calls, because their job doesn't involve giving ETA's to anyone but the call center reps. Whats sad is this, if you can't get the rep on the phone to give you the same info as the dispatchers. But that comment about them not wanting to talk to their customers is a real asshole thing to say, considering they have nothing to do with why your tech is late. They are only there for employees, hence why the number is INTERNAL. Imagine if YOU ran a business, and staffed your workers accordingly. Did you know that you can get $20 for a late tech. It's called the ontime guarantee. How about REALLY making them feel your pain by hitting them in the wallet, because if you piss off your dispatcher, you might not even SEE a technician. | |
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 |  |  |   hopeflicker Capitalism breeds greed Premium join:2003-04-03 Long Beach, CA
| Re: Not for long said by Phattieg You don't understand. In many cases, there is only 2 or 3 dispatchers, and 100 to 200 techs they handle. [/BQUOTE :And that's the problem right there. This shows the bare minimum staffing that the cable outfits have. Here we have these million/billion $$ corporations and they have bare minimum staffing. And that's the problem. And the asshole comment: No, it's not an asshole thing to say. If these cheap ass companies hired more man power, things like this wouldnt happen. And it's just not the cable companies. it's all about GREED and lining the fat bastard CEO's with billions of dollars and fluffing the stockholders. -- Fossils, Not Gospels. | |
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 |  |  |  |   Combat Chuck Too Many Cannibals Premium join:2001-11-29 Verona, PA
| Re: Not for long said by hopeflicker :And that's the problem right there. This shows the bare minimum staffing that the cable outfits have. The fact that there's only a couple dispatchers doesn't show anything, dispatch is going to be busy but the calls they take are likely short and to the point because the people calling them are going to know the protocol.
Quite frankly if any department is overstaffed it's probably dispatch due to the fact that CC is wasting money paying employees to sit around any time there's a hold que getting thru to dispatch. -- Revolution!!!... or some such nonsense. | |
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 |  |  |  |  |   hopeflicker Capitalism breeds greed Premium join:2003-04-03 Long Beach, CA
| Re: Not for long said by Combat Chuck :said by hopeflicker :And that's the problem right there. This shows the bare minimum staffing that the cable outfits have. The fact that there's only a couple dispatchers doesn't show anything, dispatch is going to be busy but the calls they take are likely short and to the point because the people calling them are going to know the protocol. Let's just put it this way. When i was in the field (when i worked it) I would call in to close out an install and the techs were always on hold. Sometimes up to 20 min. The techs were pissed because it would put them behind sched. -- Fossils, Not Gospels. | |
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 |  |  |  |   marigolds Gainfully employed, finally Premium,MVM join:2002-05-13 Saint Louis, MO
| Re: Not for long I still wonder what happens with the numbers that are not Comcast numbers. As I posted elsewhere in the comments, quite a few of the numbers clearly do not belong to Comcast. Most of these belong to contracting companies of various types, but quite a few lead to cellphones and at least one leads to a private residence (probably someone who works for Comcast or a contractor).
These people are not going to be able to re-port new numbers within minutes and are probably going to have no clue why they are suddenly getting strange calls from irate Comcast customers. -- ISCABBS - the oldest and largest BBS on the Internet telnet://bbs.iscabbs.com Professional Geographer Geographic Information Science researcher | |
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 |  fiberguy My views are my own. Premium join:2005-05-20
edit: May 7th, @02:33PM
| They WILL be changed.
Why? Because they are for technicians only!
I also bet that the consumerist gets their hands slapped too!
Already made sure security knew about this.. don't count on them being the same for too long.
hahahaha... great job, consumerist! not
-- "Complaining is the least path of resistance for the self-reitchous and lazy..." | |
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 |  |  Zoder
join:2002-04-16 Miami, FL
| Re: Not for long said by fiberguy :I also bet that the consumerist gets their hands slapped too! While I don't support those numbers being posted, what can Comcast actually do to the Consumerist? Send a nastygram? They didn't break any laws. | |
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 |  |  |  fiberguy My views are my own. Premium join:2005-05-20
| Re: Not for long You're probably right.. expect for the fact that dispatch numbers have never been for customers..
What could comcast do? They'd probably change them and move on with life.. however, one possibility is sue them for the money it cost them to change the phone numbers - labor and costs incurred, as well as the reprogramming of all the systems.
These are non-published numbers. It would also be very interesting to find out where the list came from. Internal? External? what?
This is actually a malicious attempt to disrupt the internal operations of a company. Any company like comcast spends large amounts of money to ensure that the customer service numbers are published to customer use. Dispatch is just that, for the dispatching of technicians. It's common sense to know that they are not public numbers.
I can also see that the consumerist was trying to be clever by saying that these numbers were intended for that use. I can tell you that any memo that was ever distributed always includes the standard statement about "for internal use only"... -- "Complaining is the least path of resistance for the self-reitchous and lazy..." | |
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 bogey780
join:2004-03-19 Covington, LA | go ahead... Go ahead and clog their internal system with calls they're not staffed or prepared to handle. | |
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 JSRoman Premium join:2005-03-10 Callahan, FL
| Don't know what is worse Consumerist posting or BBR adding to stupidty.
1- Not all corps/sysprins are listed 2- Numbers wil be changed rather quickly 3- Influx of sub calls to dispatch will just clog the system, since dispatch isn't set up for 1000's of call a minute. 4- To Comcast employee who leaked this, you are a jackass and just made your co-workers job in dispatch much harder. -- www.seabee.org | |
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 |  See 29 replies to this post |
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  Surfinusa Premium join:2001-02-08 | wow I got deleted ... I still think this is a dumb thread... | |
|
 deoptima
join:2003-03-15 Old Hickory, TN clubs: 
| Why its a bad idea Really guys if you call these numbers there is only a few dispatchers and think of it this way they have around 100-300 techs trying to call them too. Techs call in to get YOUR accounts fixed and to close out jobs. The more people that call in the longer the wait and if youre a customer you will probable get transfered back to the call center and have to wait on hold yet again! So whats the point of even calling? there are only 15-25 people in dispatch in Nashville dealing with all of middle tennessee think of the hold times! there is on any day at any given time there can be a 3-45min wait for the techs when its just TECHS! just think about this before calling these numbers please | |
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 |  madrhino
join:2004-07-03
·Verizon FIOS
·Comcast
| Re: Why its a bad idea I spent an hour and 17 minutes on hold with Comcast yesterday,then was told a ticket would be generated.The issue is still unresolved. It's good to know it's going to get even more screwed up now. -- Get Verizon FIOS,The Anti-DIOS | |
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  Hall Premium,MVM join:2000-04-28 Dayton, OH
| How dispatch can deal with it When a customer calls into this number, the person should calmly but firmly tell them this is an internal number and they need to contact normal support channels ... "hold on while I transfer you" ... and send them into the same queue as everyone else calling in. | |
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 |  RoCJester
join:2006-12-20 Pottstown, PA | Re: How dispatch can deal with it But that is NOT their job. They are there for tech's, NOT Customers.
Get real people. I agree, whomever sent comsumerist those numbers is gonna hear about it. | |
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  wee96 Your Local Confederate
join:2000-04-12 Clinton Township, MI | Christ Gee, its no wonder it takes 30 minutes to reach a dispatcher to get a simple box update, they are busy listening to people whine on the phones which they are not supposed to be calling. | |
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 |   w0lfie
@comcast.net
from: koma3504 
| in our shoes if this is really about being late ? I invite anyone to ride along for a day,.....then you morons will realize why techs are late......you are comepletly clueless, as to what a techs day consists of....... | |
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 |   FiL Premium join:2005-08-16 Silver Spring, MD
| Re: Christ wait, was taht before or after these numbers got posted?
I already wait an hour on hold while comcast does whatever they do on the other line. Plus, why kill the messenger? No laws were broken, and its entirely plausible why the topic was posted.
If the numbers will change, whys it matter? Yall 'act' like yall know WHY Karl even posted up the article... | |
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 |  |  RoCJester
join:2006-12-20 Pottstown, PA
| Re: Christ The numbers will change because of someone stupid thinking they'd be cute. The problem is is that these are internal numbers, not public. How would YOU like it if we gave your information out to the internet and you didn't want it out there? My point exactly. | |
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 |  |  |   ArgMeMatey
join:2001-08-09 Milwaukee, WI
·AT&T Midwest
| Re: Christ The numbers can be dialed from any phone. They're public. Saying they're not public is just talking about their intended use, not defining them in some quasi-legal sense.
If they don't want any old joe calling these numbers they can take steps such as giving techs SecurID cards, assigning PINS and so on. (But who wants people they're actually PAYING to wade thru a phone tree? Better to have people who are paying YOU to navigate that stuff.)
Journalists have a right to publish the info as long as it's true.
Employees, however, have probably violated their employment agreements by revealing the info. The only case to be made here is Comcast, plaintiff, vs. Employee John Doe, defendant.
The real problem as previously stated is that managers have every incentive to reduce service to the minimum required by law and pay occasional penalties. These things are all calculated by cost accountants or Excel jockeys.
Often it's not the fault of the tech or dispatcher that they're late or no-show, either. When setting appointments they can only guess how long something will take, and those guesses are programmed to be optimistic because no manager wants to have a "Maytag Man" sitting around waiting for a call. The customer always pays, until they get tired of it and sign up with the competition. Don't get me started on that. -- USNG: 16TDN2870 Find your Lat-Long: Geocoder | |
|
 fuego24
join:2005-05-23 Jackson, NJ
| This posting will only hurt the Comcast customers in the end Dispatch is there to support the technicians by assisting them add equipment to accounts, process changes to the accounts, assist them provision equipment, etc... Yes they do talk to the customers. Their main responsibility is to help the customer.
The longer the techs have to wait, the more time they will spend at one house, and then the next customer has to wait longer.
Comcast is not holding back with hiring. They have added to their workforce. According to the financial reports they've increases their workforce from 80K to 90K in 2006. | |
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 |  See 8 replies to this post |
|
 ffink20001
join:2002-12-18 Norwich, CT
| Lets post the Authers Phone number Lets post the Artur's Private Phone number on the internet so when somebody doesn't like a story he posts they can call him and complain. Nothing wrong with complaining to the source and since his phone number can be dialed from any phone there is nothing private about it. And just in case he is working we can provide his work number as well so he doesn't get any work done | |
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 |   nipseyrussel Nipsey Russell, yo
join:2002-02-22 Philadelphia, PA | Re: Lets post the Authers Phone number uh....most peoples' phone numbers are posted on the internet, genius | |
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 |  |  larwilliams
join:2007-04-30 St John'S, NL
| Re: Lets post the Authers Phone number Working for a Comcast subcontractor formerly, I can tell you that dispatch is intended to assist the tech mostly. They are not there to discuss billing and service issues with customers, which unfortunately will be expected by Comcast's neandratalic(??) customer base who will now have these numbers and not fully (if at all) understand what they are intended for. | |
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  marigolds Gainfully employed, finally Premium,MVM join:2002-05-13 Saint Louis, MO
edit: May 10th, @05:24PM
| Some reverse lookups Trying to do lookups on a lot of these numbers, I could at least narrow all but a few down to location. A lot of them appear to be contracting companies or cell phones (likely also to contractors). A very large number of them are for Virginia and Maryland.
Universal: Comcast Corporate HQ (not a dispatch) 1105: Comcast emergency response, Lehigh Acres, FL 1108: Operator at Comcast Elizabethtown, KY 1110: Cell, Johnson City, TN 15010: Manassas, VA 15011: Manassas, VA 15012: Cell, Arlington County, VA 15515: Sarasota, FL 15552: Comcast Human Resources, Charleston, SC 15557: Little Rock, AK 1603: Adelphia internal number, Old Forge, PA 1619: Staunton, VA 1620: First three Tom's River, NJ. Last is the franchise manager of Comcast of Long Beach Island, NJ (Not Long Island) 1626: Greenville, TN and Staunton, VA 1641: Delray Beach, FL 1643: Stuart, FL 1668: Manassas, VA 1673: General and Sales Managers, Susquehanna Communications of Lawrenceburg (Aurora, IN) 1684: Richmond, VA 1710: Vero Beach, FL 1713: Richmond, VA 1714: Richmond, VA 1715: Staunton, VA 1722: ? matches 15012 though 1864: Richmond, VA 19204: Fort Myers, FL 1925: Vineland, NJ 1864: Richmond, VA 20001: Camden, NJ 2012: Richmond, VA 25201: Comcast Cable Repair (Customer Service) Chattanooga, TN 2573: Dorrs Corner, MD 2904: All from Hattiesburg, MS, the last is a home phone number 32007: Nashville, TN 3402: Camden, NJ 4418: Cell phone, Camden, NJ 5012: Dover, DE 5014: Silver Spring,MD; Millennium Cable Services of Clinton, MD; Pinkerton Security of Hyattsville, MD or Damron Accounting of Lanham, MD 5613: Alexandria, VA; Communications Unlimited of Woodbridge, VA; Silver Bullet Cable Services of Falls Church, VA 5620: Tuscon, AZ; Metro Cable Services of Tuscon; Allied Communications of Tuscon 8695: Richmond, VA 8696: Richmond, VA 9513: Cell phone, Philadelphia, PA 9517: Warrington, PA 9519: Baltimore, MD 9529: Beltsville, MD 9534: Comcast of Delmarva Customer Service 9562: Richmond, VA 9568: Cell phone, Lakewood, NJ; Fairfield, NJ 9568: Camden, NJ 9569: Rockville, MD 9586: Memphis, TN 9592: Richmond, VA Minneapolis: Yep, it's in Minneapolis, MN St Paul: It's a cell phone in St Paul, MN -- ISCABBS - the oldest and largest BBS on the Internet telnet://bbs.iscabbs.com Professional Geographer Geographic Information Science researcher | |
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