dslreports logo
Comcast To Credit Customers For Major Outage (If You Ask)

Comcast suffered from a mammoth nationwide outage Monday that impacted both TV and broadband services, while also bringing the company's phone and website support systems to their knees. For its part, Comcast is apologizing to its customers, and in a blog post states that the company will be doling out refunds to those impacted by the company's President's Day implosion. You'll need to contact Comcast and ask for the refund, either because Comcast doesn't know exactly who was impacted, or it knows having customers ask for refunds will be less expensive than automated ones.

Click for full size
"Unfortunately, we did not live up to expectations around 100% reliability with your TV service," states Comcast Senior VP of Network Engineering Kevin McElearney." We’re sorry for that, and we will be crediting customers. Just reach out to us, and let us know you were impacted, and we’ll credit you, no questions asked."

Comcast still isn't specifically saying what caused the outage outside of a "configuration error in a network device." Nor is the company explaining why redundancy didn't prevent the problem from occurring, especially in regards to the company's support websites.

"Our national video infrastructure is fully redundant, and our back-up systems normally operate successfully when unexpected issues happen," states McElearney. "This specific issue caused national cable channels to reroute, which resulted in a service interruption."

While Comcast isn't saying how much the credit is, one user in our forums says customers will get $2, while another customer says they saw a credit of $9.50. Yet another user wrote me to state Comcast support had no idea what he was talking about.

"I called Comcast for a credit after you posted the article," writes in DSLReports.com reader Zoder See Profile. "The rep had no idea what I was talking about. Definately wasn't a "no questions asked" experience."

Let us know your experience and the credit amount in the comment section below.

Most recommended from 24 comments


grabacon9
join:2013-08-21
Newark, OH

11 recommendations

grabacon9

Member

$2?

Lol. I Lol'd at that.
EnerJi
join:2011-02-19
Pacific NW

9 recommendations

EnerJi

Member

Not even worth the time to call it in...

And I expect that's exactly what they hope.

camper
just visiting this planet
Premium Member
join:2010-03-21
Bethel, CT

2 edits

7 recommendations

camper

Premium Member

Not enough to be worth the time, but enough to say there's a credit ...

...you'll be getting a $2 credit for your time. ...

The $2 is not worth the time I'd have to wait on hold in order to ask for it.

But the fact that Comcast is giving out a credit if you call in, allows Comcast to say that they gave a credit to affected customers.

The credit should be automated.

 

[ update at 15:30 ET ]

I decided to give it a try and call in. Once I mentioned the outage and credit, it seems I was shuffled to another call-response area. The agent was on the phone within a few seconds. Asked me for some info, including the time I experienced the outage. Then she said she'd give me a $8.50 credit. She also asked me if I wanted to upgrade my service, I told her "no thanks" and she didn't push that.

So the phone time went quickly, no waits, no hold times.

Credit was $8.50.

I still think it should be automated, though.

Morac
Cat god
join:2001-08-30
Riverside, NJ

1 edit

6 recommendations

Morac

Member

I got $9 credit

I called in for a credit last night and they gave me about $9.50 credit (don't remember the exact cent amount, but it was $9 and change). I didn't ask for that amount, that's what they gave me.

Edit:

I see the article links to my post already. Sorry for the "double" post.