From the beginning I have had problems with Comcast, but the other day they actually did one thing right...
When I was still living with my parents, my brother and I decided to go halv-ies on internet. We both agreed that Comcast had the best "bang for our buck." So I went to Best Buy to get us signed up. I was told by two different employees that I could get $19.99 for the first 6 months, even if we didn't have the cables run, or Comcast tv or anything, if I signed up. So I did the pre-registration thing, and called the next day to get it set up. After being told three different times to call another number, I finally got to talk to someone who could get us signed up. However, the $19.99 for the first 6 months only applied if we were current cable tv customers. Even though I explained to the store guys (two different ones...) that we didn't have cable, that was the quote they gave me. So this lady said she couldn't do it, but could give me $24.99 for the first 6 months. Well, I was irritated with them, so I told her I'd call back tomorrow if my brother and I were still interested.
I talked it over with him, and we decided that it was still our best bet. So I called back the next day to take them up on their $24.99 deal, to which they told me that that deal expired yesterday. Of course, that made me even more irritated. They finally agreed that I could have $34.99 for the first 12 months. I set up a time for them to come out and run the cables and get everything installed. They said it would be sometime between 1pm and 5pm. I told the lady that I didn't get off work until 3pm, so she said she'd make a note that it should be the guy's last stop.
That day I was getting ready to leave work and, I checked my cell phone to see that I had a call from my mom. I checked my voice mail, and it was a very panicky irritated voice mail from her saying that the Comcast guy was there to install the internet and she didn't know what to tell him or where to set it up and what-not. I in turn left a nasty voice mail for the lady that had set up the appointment.
When I got home, the guy who came, upon seeing the 4 computers in the basement, the modem and the wireless router, had decided to install the internet in such a way that only my laptop could be connected. So I spent the next hour or so waiting to hear back from the lady and re-setting up the entire internet at our house. She eventually called back and said she would send someone out to fix it. I told her she needed to refund our installation fee, since A) the guy didn't show up when asked and B) I had to re-do everything he did anyway. So she agreed to credit our account, so that for the first 2 months we didn't have a bill at all.
At the townhouse where my husband and I live, we had the internet set up through Comcast despite all the problems we had with them at mom and dad's house. Even though we had our own modem that they, themselves saw when they set up the internet, they still decided to add on a $3 modem rental fee. I caught that right away and instead of calling and sitting on hold forever, I used the message center to email them. Of course they sent me a message back saying that I needed to call or use live chat (which also takes forever). I told them they better fix it, cause I wasn't wasting MY time on THEIR mistake. And so they did.
Back to my parents' house... they didn't receive a bill for 2 months, and so didn't pay it. Once the bill finally did come there was a late fee attached to it. Again I used their email messages to tell them to fix the problem. And again they told me to call or chat live. In response I told them they better fix the problem, or I would be writing to the attorney general. After reading the exact same message for the third time I put at the top of my next message ACTUALLY READ THIS, because obviously they weren't. This time I got a message back saying that they were refunding part of the fee. I told them they better have the correct amount, so they said they'd correct their mistake.
After that I signed up for automatic payments, then tried to pay the next bill, but couldn't. So I figured that it was because the automatic payment was set up. But about a month later, I got a phone call from mom saying that the internet wasn't working. I called up Comcast and they got it re-connected and paid the "unpaid" bill. The guy I dealt with told me that he would waive the late fee as he saw that I was signed up for automatic payments.
But then the next automatic payment came up and they charged us too much, apparently for a re-connect fee. So again I messaged them, telling them they needed to credit our card for the full re-connect fee, or if they decided to hold our money and take it off of our next bill, that they could credit our account for the full amount plus the same 20% late fee that they tried charging us before. If it wasn't taken care of I would contact the attorney general. Of course they didn't, so I ended up filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. After which I received a phone call from Comcast, and they credited our account for the fee +20%.
Once my parents' 12 month-intro rate ran out, they decided to switch it to my brother's name. So him and I went down to the store to have it switched. No problems there... until the next day... My mother tried to access their account to enroll in automatic payment. It wouldn't let her in since the account was closed and a new one opened in my brother's name. But somehow, she was able to access the account at our townhome and enroll in automatic payment. So when I got home from work, I had to deal with that, of course, I spent over a half hour on the phone with the guy un-enrolling and resetting my username and password.
Now here comes the part when they actually did one thing right...
At the end of our conversation, he asked if there was anything else he could do for me. Starring out my patio window at my neighbor's unburied cable that has been laying in our yard going on 3 months, I told him to send someone out to bury it. He told me someone would be out in a week to check it out. I told him that wasn't good enough, as it has already been there for quite some time, and whoever "checks out" the cord, it going to say, "Yep, someone does have to come out and bury it." And then it would be another 3 months before they got out here to bury it and by then the ground would be frozen, so they couldn't. I told him I'm sick of starring at it and tripping over it on the way to the mail box. Plus, the lawn crew that mows has been dealing with it for way too long (frankly, I'm surprised they didn't just cut it to be rid of it!)
Are you ready? Cause here it comes...
He told me that he was sorry for the inconvenience, and would credit my account a $20 inconvenience credit.
HOLY CRAP, I thought! I told him he better do the same thing for my neighbor!
Still though $20 doesn't make up for all the other crap they've thrown our way, but it sure is a start...
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