Comcast Rant
…apparently it is rocket science…
With my recent move to Massachusetts, I signed up for Comcast for cable tv and internet. I arranged for them to install the internet and cable cards for my HD Tivo last Wednesday from 3-5pm. So, that’s not so difficult, right? Well…the tech showed up without a cable card. Sigh. Ok. He read through the install notes, and finally found the note that said to bring two cable cards (I need a single multi-stream cable card or two single-stream cable cards). Oops. We’ll have to reschedule. Great.
So, let’s reschedule for Friday from 8am-12noon. Hrm, no tech shows up by 12:30pm. Wonder what’s up? So, I call in, well the work order shows it’s something we can do from outside. No, you have to have a tech come into my apartment. Sigh, again. Let’s try this again for Saturday from 12-4pm. Ok, on Saturday, a tech shows up–but guess what…wait for it…no cable cards.
Ok, why is this so difficult. Well we can reschedule for next week? Um, no. The reason I’m trying to get my Tivo setup is so I can record shows while I’m gone! Call your dispatcher and see if they can work something out for tomorrow, Sunday. Ok, we have another appointment setup for Sunday from 8am-12noon.
Cut to 11:55am on Sunday, hrm I don’t think they’re coming. tap…tap… Was that my door? Yep, there’s the tech. And lo and behold he has two multi-stream cable cards. OMG they got it right. On the fourth try, I got my HD Tivo up and running, and it’s merrily recording shows while I’m away at a conference.
P.S. Yes, you’re right, I should not be surprised that I had issues with Comcast with this installation. But hey, I could hope that they improved since the last time I had their service in 2005. Right?
I received this email from Comcast:
Hello Brandon,
I read about your recent experience on this URL: http://www.mura.org/about/.
I decided to send you and email to extend my apologies for the frustrating experience. I would like to share your experience with our local leaders to find out why we have failed to accommodate you. Most importantly, we would like to address the issues to prevent any recurrence in the future.
If it is not so much of a trouble, will you please let me know the phone number associated with the account? This will help us with our investigation.
Thanks for sharing the post and I look forward to your reply!
Mark Casem
Comcast Corp.
National Customer Operations
@Brandon Muramatsu
And here was my reply to Mark.
Interesting.
First, one thing I didn’t include in the post, every tech was very understanding and professional. They all couldn’t figure out why the need for cable cards were in the notes and not listed as a specific work order item.
Also, I did not mention that originally I asked for: HD-Tuner (in case my HD Tivo did not arrive in time, a digital tuner for a second TV, and two cable cards for the HD Tivo). The original tech only brought the HD-tuner as described in the blog post. The second tech (third appointment), did bring the digital tuner, but no cable card(s).
@Brandon Muramatsu
I searched the web and found Mark’s name before I sent that reply. He’s shown up on other people’s blogs and made similar offers of help.
I did ultimately get things set up properly.