Comcast Kills Woman

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Please help me. Comcast is killing me."

    Dear Consumerist,

    Please help me. Comcast is killing me.

Why is Comcast killing this nice woman and how can you help? Find out, after the jump…

Sherri writes:

    “I am currently (as we speak) on the phone with Comcast’s customer service line. I’m on hold as a customer service rep emails dispatch to find out why they haven’t arrived. They have to email as they can’t actually call dispatch. I know this because I do this all the time.

    I had cable and internet reinstalled back in March (I’m going through a divorce and I had to have a new account set up). It took a month to get a DVR and it hasn’t worked since I got it. In total, I have set up six appointments, five of which they have totally not shown up for. They are absolutely making me crazy.

    My first appointment was from 2:00 – 5:00 on a Thursday. Took a half day off from work. Had a call at 5:30 that the technician was running late, and when he hadn’t shown up at 7:30 I called them. They apologized and rescheduled for that Saturday from 8:00 – 11:00.

    That Saturday at 1:30 I got a call. The dispatched told me that they hadn’t come because they were out of DVRs and they needed to reschedule. I lost it and said I didn’t care about the damn DVR at this point. If I didn’t get internet I was going to seriously lose money and my mind, plus I really wanted my bloody cable TV. After I got really (really) angry they contacted dispatch. Finally at 4:00 or so, an angry tech showed up, which… sorry.

    Had to wait three more weeks to get my DVR. Made an appointment for a Saturday, 11:00 – 2:00. I hated to do it as I had a guest in from out of town, but I couldn’t miss more work. We sat around until 2:00, at which time I gave up. They called me an hour or so later, but this time they were helpful and rescheduled for that night… and actually showed. DVR obtained.

    And then… the new DVR doesn’t work. It freezes and crashes in both live and recorded. Recorded shows… don’t. Or they cut off the last ten minutes. You can’t pause live tv, which the machine helpfully notes is an error. In short, it doesn’t work. And just for the record, my old DVR and the previous cable box worked perfectly.

    So… I rescheduled on a Thursday, and took another half day off from work (I know!). I called before the appointment to ask customer service to email dispatch to tell them about my missed appointments, and to please show up, and to bring a DVR.

    The tech showed up promptly, to my shock. Yay! He had, however, no DVRs.

    He swore up and down that it almost certainly wouldn’t be the DVR as they don’t have any problems with them. So he found a splitter he says is the problem. I let myself be persuaded and he left.

    That night it started crashing again. Last week, every single tv show I tried to watch crashed out. So I called AGAIN. And set up an appointment AGAIN, for this past Friday. I was going out of town for Easter, and really didn’t want to wait another week for a weekend appointment, so I decided to take a full day off Friday rather than a half day to fit in the appointment. It was scheduled for 11:00 – 2:00. Nothing. Finally at 3:00 I had to leave for my trip.

    At 3:30 I got a call that the tech was in front of my house. I had to tell them I was about forty miles from my house at that point, so what the hell could I do about it? I rescheduled AGAIN for Tuesday (today), and they actually had a night appointment available, so I took that.

    Later that day, though, I got another call, this one saying that I had missed my appointment. I think I was a wee bit snippy when I told the person that it wasn’t me who had missed the damn appointment. This person didn’t know about the new appointment that the other rep had set up, so I had to set it up again.

    Yesterday, I took the precaution of calling ahead and asking customer service to email dispatch with what’s been going on, and asking them to call me in advance if they didn’t have a DVR. I’m so naive.

    I had to leave work an hour and a half early today if I wanted to be home at 5:00 for the appointment (Atlanta traffic). My boss, at this point, is as over it as I am. Got home. Waited. Then I got an automated call at 6:00 informing me that my appointment has been cancelled and I need to call Comcast to reschedule.

    This time I really lost it. They actually had me crying.

    So I called Comcast again. I waited while the nice rep (they’re almost always nice. just utterly ineffectual.) wrote the usual emails. This time, though, she promised to call back after she finds out from dispatch what’s going on. That’s a new one. I’m still waiting.

    I don’t want to start over and get a dish. Even if I cancel cable, I still have to have internet from them unless I get a land line and DSL. I really wish there was some bloody competition. I think that’s the worst part. I just want to get my damn cable to work, and I feel like a hostage.

    PLEASE HELP ME!!! Anyone? (I’m totally serious)

    -Sherri”

We think Sherri needs to contact the Atlanta, GA Information Technology Bureau, but can’t find their number, does anyone have it?

Related: Shopper Sinks Teeth into Cable Company

UPDATE: Sandra writes: “She needs to contact her county Board of Commissioners; they should handle this sort of thing.

Fulton County — http://www.co.fulton.ga.us/commissioners/commissioners_home.html
Cobb County — http://www.cobbcountyga.gov/boc/chairman.htm
DeKalb County — http://www.co.dekalb.ga.us/commission.htm

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