Want to tell comcast what you think?

[TheGeek]

This is a rare opportunity. The director of the twin cities customer support is baffled on why we (twin cities comcast) have the LOWEST customer support in the nation. So she gave us a job. Come up with two ideas on how to improve customer service.

 

I can easily think of 10, but I want to get your guys input. Even if you don't have comcast cable, or even if you don't live in the twin cities, let me know why you're mad at your cable company. And let me know how you think comcast as a company can fix that problem.

 

Please don't post things like, 'customer service sucks, fix it'. I'm looking for 'customer service sucks because they didn't fix my problem the first time, give incentive based revenue to tech's who fix the problem the first time'

 

Keep in mind that this is going DIRECTLY to the customer service director of the twin cities comcast company. Be brutally honest. I'm not going to censor anything, I'm going to copy and paste it.

 

I'm looking for you guys to tear into comcast. I need to turn it in by the 6th at 6pm.

[stutters]

what kind of customer support? hsi? i'm assuming that's what you mean...

 

1. why would i want to tell you (or anyone locally) when i can tell http://twitter.com/comcastcares or http://twitter.com/comcastbill? those get me straight to escalation, and usually with white glove care.

2. kill the calling tree prompts, especially if the first line tech is going to tell me the same thing. "did you know most problems can be solved by restarting your modem?" yes, i did know that, because i heard it the last 6 times i called.

3. having to talk to different people about hsi, digital voice, and cable.

4. promotional pricing periods. shove em up yer, uh, nevermind. that's the best way to destroy brand loyalty.

5. don't tell me about how your kids are doing when i really just need my hsi fixed. yes, i already restarted my modem. sure, small talk is great when you're waiting for a report, but i don't want to open the conversation with that. happens more times than not.

6. help me, not the company. if i'm having connection problems, don't wait for me to ask for a service comp, offer it without being prompted. (see #4, customer loyalty)

7. don't tell me to reset my modem.

 

[anonymo]

Compress my HD programming and I will rain fire and brimstone from the Heavens.

[Bewildered]

When we got married 4 years ago we updated all the accounts that were in my wife's name. The vast majority of the stuff was in her name since I sold my house six months before we got married. Out of at least 10 accounts, Comcast is the only one that wanted to charge us money to update our information. Sure it was only a dollar, but we weren't gonna pay it. That really p1ssed me off. We wasted more than a dollars worth of their time complaining about it on the phone, they could have just updated it like every other company.

Edited February 5, 2009 by Bewildered

[TheGeek]

This is for the residential customer service. It is funny that the director doesn't just go on that website. And to be honest, I'm not 100% sure she will take any of us seriously. But its worth a shot.

There are good ideas so far. I'm typing them into my giant paragraph now. Keep them coming!

[Bush]

Pretty much everything that SJ said. I currently have Qwest up here in the hinterland. I only called in one time for a tech problem and the first thing she ask me how would I rate my computer skillz beginner, moderate, or advanced. I told her and she said ok so I take it you restarted your modem, and router.

[TheGeek]

Pretty much everything that SJ said. I currently have Qwest up here in the hinterland. I only called in one time for a tech problem and the first thing she ask me how would I rate my computer skillz beginner, moderate, or advanced. I told her and she said ok so I take it you restarted your modem, and router.

 

So they automaticaly think you don't know anything about technology? Or were they just rude?.

[boiler]

Here's my Comcast rant after an absolutely HORRENDOUS CS experience. It's a bit long, so please bear with me. Let me first preface this by saying I have myself been a Comcast customer for 3 years, and indirectly (through my parents) for roughly 16+ years before that.

 

The problem was at my parent's house last fall. It started with the simple desire to have a signal problem fixed so that I could hook up our modem on the same "line" as our HD DVR box. The cable modem had previously been connected in a different room, and I wanted to move it into the same room as the DVR for wireless purposes. When I split the line to hook them up, either the modem failed or the TV signal was bad. I called CS and told them my problem and specifically asked that they send out a tech to help me with the problem. I stepped them through EVERYTHING I had done troubleshooting-wise, so I had established that I was NOT a novice in these matters. The CS rep was very pleasant and scheduled an appointment for the following day "between 8am and noon". I took (what I thought would be) a half-day off work and waited at my parent's house for the tech to show up. 11:30 rolls around, I call CS to inquire about the status of my technician. I am told they are running a little behind and to expect them by 2:00. No one shows by 2:00, I call again and get a different CS rep. After I explained the ENTIRE situation again (they had no clue what I was calling about even after pulling up my info) they said they weren't sure where the tech was, then had me on hold for 20 minutes while they tried to reach someone in dispatch. They finally came back and told me they couldn't get ahold of anyone over there and would call me back by 4:00pm. I called back at 4:00, spoke to yet another person to whom I explained the whole thing AGAIN, and was told they would have to call me back in an hour so they could check with their supervisor. 5:00pm rolls around, I call again, wait on hold for 20 minutes, and after explaining everything for what I believe was the fifth time that day the CS rep finally told me that my appointment had been canceled since "it was determined that it wasn't an inside problem". That sent me through the roof, although I never lost it to the CS rep. I calmly but extremely sternly expressed my extreme displeasure that I had been effectively jerked around for an entire day, even though I had EXPRESSLY stated the purpose of the service call at least four or five separate times. The problem was eventually fixed another day, but I was offered absolutely NOTHING for my wasted time, day, and frustration. I was told to call so-and-so the next day to discuss this issue and how they can "take care of me", but when I called they forced me to leave a message then NEVER called me back.

 

Here are my biggest beefs with Comcast customer support from this incident:

1. There appeared to be ZERO documentation of my original problem, meaning that every time I called I got a different CS rep who had no clue what the problem was, how many times I had already called that day, and why I would be so upset at the end of it.

 

2. I was promised a call back THREE separate times by THREE different people, and received NONE of them. Each time I waited 20-30 minutes past the time they said they would call before I called back.

 

3. There was ZERO respect for my time, and NO effort on their part to correct these mistakes or compensate us for this massive screw up.

 

In the positive column though, all of the representatives I spoke to on the phone were polite and attempted to be apologetic to my plight even though none of them actually fixed anything.

 

I am paying way too much damn money per month for cable TV with HD DVR and high speed internet service to have to deal with this. Comcast has been on VERY thin ice with me since that incident last fall, and I will be giving VERY serious consideration to switching to AT&T Uverse when my crappy $10 promotional discount expires. (Don't get me started on the whole promotional rate garbage either - when I called and specifically asked for NO PROMOTIONAL RATES when adjusting my service, then found out 6 months later they gave me one anyway when my bill was $20 higher)

[samurai nightling]

Pretty much everything that SJ said. I currently have Qwest up here in the hinterland. I only called in one time for a tech problem and the first thing she ask me how would I rate my computer skillz beginner, moderate, or advanced. I told her and she said ok so I take it you restarted your modem, and router.

 

So they automaticaly think you don't know anything about technology? Or were they just rude?.

I think his point is not that they were rude or assumed anything, his point was that they wanted to know what level of experience the customer has so they dont have to talk down or dumb to them because they dont know anything, at which point people like us get mad because we are being treated like we are dumb. They want to be able to talk at a certain level with the customers own understanding of the problem i think. I'd rather them ask me my computer skills right away every time than assume I know nothing and be like, "Ok now can you locate you modem? It should be a little plastic box that your internet cable goes into, you know what the internet cable looks like?" At which point i rage and go, "AHHHH I'M NOT dumb!!"

[Unclean]

I feel your pain, boiler. I went through a similar ordeal recently. What seemed to be a turning point to get my issue resolved was starting off the phonecall by getting the Comcast rep's name and employee ID number, then explaining the situation. I then said that if we got disconnected, I expect a call back from that rep specifically, or I'll cancel my service and refer to that representative specifically. I held him *personally* responsible for resolving my issue. And guess what? We got disconnected, and he was the only one (out of 4 reps) that called me back, and he was able to solve the issue.

 

I had to act like an ahole to get the issue resolved. The other times, when I was polite as can be, nobody was able to do anything.

 

Here are my major beefs, based on what's happened to me personally:

1. Phone system - too long, too much basic/useless information

2. No "supervisor" structure. A "supervisor" is actually level 2 support. Don't call them "supervisors" if we all know they're not.

3. Canceling work orders without notifying the customer

4. Cable TV pixelizes frequently - the comcast service techs tell me this is from overloaded circuits. Comcast needs to have the proper infrastructure to support their paying customers.

 

A few pluses for Comcast:

1. All reps have a friendly demeanor (even if they don't help 1 bit)

2. Price is decent

3. Retentions is flexible

[TheGeek]

More awesome ideas! Unclean thanks for mentioning that thing about the call back. Whats funny is that in the twin cities market, the internet and phone tech support cannot make outbound calls unless our LOQ (Line Of Questioning) program tells us to.

Which is the PERFECT thing to put in my recommendation. I have had people do the same thing to me. But I couldn't call them back, and we lost a customer.

 

And the documentation thing, that is also a BIG problem. I could totally screw your situation up, but if I make a sale, I'll get praised. Another good recommendation.

 

Keep them coming.

[Bush]

Pretty much everything that SJ said. I currently have Qwest up here in the hinterland. I only called in one time for a tech problem and the first thing she ask me how would I rate my computer skillz beginner, moderate, or advanced. I told her and she said ok so I take it you restarted your modem, and router.

 

So they automaticaly think you don't know anything about technology? Or were they just rude?.

I think his point is not that they were rude or assumed anything, his point was that they wanted to know what level of experience the customer has so they dont have to talk down or dumb to them because they dont know anything, at which point people like us get mad because we are being treated like we are dumb. They want to be able to talk at a certain level with the customers own understanding of the problem i think. I'd rather them ask me my computer skills right away every time than assume I know nothing and be like, "Ok now can you locate you modem? It should be a little plastic box that your internet cable goes into, you know what the internet cable looks like?" At which point i rage and go, "AHHHH I'M NOT dumb!!"

 

 

what he said...

[Bush]

I have to add that Qwest is awesome. I get 5 down and a little over 1 up. And I don't pay crap for it, not like Michigan that is. $30 bucks or something like that. Acs is offering 30 down and I'm not sure the deal is, but it's cable for the same price. But I had a lot of problems with them in the past, I live in a 100 unit condo so the connection kind of sucked, and I always preferred DSL over cable. I get pretty much no choke on Retro with DSL, with cable i would run in the 30's. In Michigan with AT&T dsl I was under 15ms to Retro but i still had choke problems, and it wasn't my configuration.

 

 

reason for edit is that I can't type well. Normally I can but I've had six beers..

Edited February 6, 2009 by Bush

[NOFX]

When I split the line to hook them up

 

There was your problem....

 

I have no issues with them, because I have never used them.

 

although I did call Cox to turn off my TV service, i still wanted the internet, they wanted to charge me $26. I refused to pay, she spoke to a manager.. Within the next few days someone came out and put a filter on my line. I don't get TV upstairs, but it still comes in downstairs. Although I don't watch it much, occasionally when people come over we chill in the living room and turn on the TV. Thank you Cox.. For the first time I feel like I'm getting a fair deal.

Edited February 6, 2009 by .fx

[boiler]

I had been running a split line in the other room where the cable modem had previously been with zero problems for several years. The problem was the signal was way over-amped to the room where I moved it with the DVR, so it was messy and wouldn't work. The service tech that I eventually got said it was no problem at all to split that line for cable/internet with the DVR once the signal was in the proper range.

[stutters]

btw, this is a total waste of time.

 

your supervisor either doesn't know what they're doing, or they're making a vain attempt to show initiative.

[mookie]

Tell them I want ATSC over the wire so I can watch it without a box.

[TheGeek]

btw, this is a total waste of time.

 

your supervisor either doesn't know what they're doing, or they're making a vain attempt to show initiative.

 

Its going to my supervisor's superior. She is the one who doesn't know what she's doing. And yes, I think not much will change. I just want to tell her what she is doing wrong as many ways I can before I put in my two weeks.