Comcast Apologizes For Tech's Van Blocking Driveway
Frank Eliason from Comcast Executive Customer Service provided the following statement regarding the San Fransican whose Comcast cable service mysteriously shut off 10 minutes after asking a tech to move his van from in front of his driveway:
I just wanted to provide some clarification regarding Daniel's situation. The technician parked in front of Daniel's house did not disconnect the connection in any way. But we did want to try to resolve the issue for Daniel as quickly as possible. We received the initial call regarding the outage at 11:00 AM. We had a technician at his location by 3:00. The technician verified the connection and identified a network problem that could not be rectified (or caused) on the Customer's premises. We escalated the situation to have this looked into. We also promised to have this resolved within 1 business day. The next afternoon we called Daniel to inform him the network issue was resolved. We have also apologized to him for the problem occurring in the first place. The initial outage occurred on April 8 and it was resolved on April 9. We have also followed up with Daniel to make sure that he has not had further problems.Hooray, we love when things are fixed.It is certainly our goal to avoid outages, but at times they do occur. When this happens we want to resolve it as quickly as possible. This was not related to wiring or connections, so this was not the doing of the technician in question.
We do apologize that the van was blocking his driveway and for the inconvenience of the outage!
PREVIOUSLY: Ask Comcast Tech To Move His Van, Mysteriously Lose Signal
(photo: Spidra Webster)
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Comments:
It's followup, not follwup (in the tags).
There is no way there just "happened" to be a network problem at the exact time the other tech was asked to move that would last for this long. This is Comcast's way of saying "What in the holy hell did we just do? We're already going to win the worst business of 2007 award, cover up, cover up!
In my recollection of Daniel's report on the technician's 3:00PM visit, there was no mention by the technician that there was an upstream network problem. Why wasn't the CSR who took Daniel's initial report of an outage able to tell that there was a network problem. Is Comcast going to reimburse Daniel for the new cable modem and cablecard(s) he bought based on instructions from the Comcast CSR?
Chain of communications break down.. usually happens when you have more than 2 employees :)
A simpler solution would've been to calmly find another parking spot...then call a tow truck to handle the Comcast van.
No explanation as to why the outage immediately after a moron blocks the customer's driveway?
That was not an "apology" or "attempt to rectify". That was a case of petty and vindictive employees abusing their power and the company trying to cover it up.
Fixing it is not enough. Admitting it was improper employee behaviour would be a real apology.
@BillyShears: Vehicles owned by utilities, government agencies, and larger companies are more or less exempt from traffic laws. Now in some cases you have cops and whole agencies that don't get along where it is a ticketing free for all, but that is a rarity. All in all, it is extremely difficult to get anything done against them.
I find it hard to believe a tech would want to go through all that effort to get back at the guy. I think it's just a coincidence since cable does go out a lot. :P
"The technician parked in front of Daniel's house did not disconnect the connection in any way."
Boo-shyt.
@SarcasticDwarf: Even if true, I highly doubt blocking access to someone's property counts as an exemption. I have a medically fragile sister, and if the ambulance can't get in my driveway, or if I can't get out to rush her to the hospital, it's literally a matter of life or death for her. Sorry, but my sisters' life is not worth your damned convenience of blocking my driveway. Park elsewhere.
@snakeuvs: I have no clue why he would even take that advice. The Comcast CSRs I've talked to generally have been beyond incompetent. One time I called them after experiencing a lot of network outages over a period of approximately 2 weeks. My cable modem was connected, but their network was not passing packets (I could traceroute them several hops into their network). The "tech"'s suggested solution? "Buy a new cable modem - they get old and stop working reliably after a year or two". This was AFTER I explained at length that my modem was, in fact, connecting. I just laughed and told them that I was quite confident that wasn't the problem, mentioning the excellent signal quality I was seeing also. I should've asked if that was their standard suggestion for when they don't understand the problem or can't fix it.
@SarcasticDwarf: It is not legal to block driveways or park illegally for any vehicles including police cars and ambulances (who are not in the process of an emergency call) to park illegally. Obviously the police are not going to ticket themselves or a city owned ambulance but I've seen plenty of FedEx trucks, Time Warner trucks and other utility trucks ticketed (usually never towed) many times. I think the only exception is the Postal trucks because they are federal property.
I used to have a roommate who was the Cable guy in Chicago and Indianapolis and in each city he got dozens of tickets each month for illegally parking. The company would pay them but of course they couldn't deduct them under business expenses for tax purposes (illegal acts).
@SarcasticDwarf: Sorry, hate to burst your bubble. But outside of any emergency situation, ALL vehicles and drivers, be state, fed, or gov't, are to obey traffic laws. Meaning if you caught a cop speeding without their lights on, one phone call to the station with their tag # might mean a big ding in the cop's wallet for it. They have no additional rights outside of any emergency condition.
@P_Smith:
Comcast service dropping at any given time is usually an even-money bet. Especially in SF. They were EVIL when I lived there. Thank the lawd that Cox in Vegas is pretty damn good.
@Buran: In other words, your saying we should correct the post name from, "Comcast Apologizes For Tech's Van Blocking Driveway" to "Comcast Apologizes For Tech's Van Blocking Driveway... After The Story Appears On The Internet"?
@Buran: Considering how often my Comcast internet service went down, yes, I can believe it was a coincidence.
At some point I realized it was stupid to be expecting reliable connectivity from a company that can barely manage to deliver a TV signal, and switched my Internet service to Speakeasy.
@plustax:
...used to have a roommate who was the Cable guy in Chicago and Indianapolis...
Well that would explain the poor service we get in Chicago...one cable guy shared between us and Indy....
@Buran: I don't know....I'm sure people's cable go out for various reason all the time, especially if they have Comcast. I'm sure Comcast's vans block driveways fairly regularly.
It was just a matter a time until this both things happened to someone who reads Consumerist.
Bull shenanigans. You KNOW that guy disconnected the line.
I love how the Consumerist punks big corps.
"Say my name, bitch!"
"Hi, Bob? Yeah, some jackass is making me move my van over here on the South side, I want to give him a little 'present'. Yeah, just disconnect the upstream on your end, he'll never know it was me. Hahaha, hey I'll buy you a beer after work, thanks man."
TOTALLY PLAUSIBLE.
It's also TOTALLY PLAUSIBLE that the dude didn't do anything, got reamed out by a supervisor, proved that he didn't do anything, and made the OP, this site, and most of the comments here look incredibly retarded.
Then again, I'm all for cable guy-related conspiracy theories.
It could have been a coincidence...but it also could have been that the Comcast guy is a douche.
Man, Comcast has really learned how to game the Consumerist. They've taken "We're taking the problem seriously" to a whole new level, and you guys are just eating it up.
If I go around punching people in the face, but I set up a Twitter account to apologize for it, do I get a pass too?
If Frank Eliason is reading this, I'd like to thank you for helping all the Comcast customers who get shuffled around and/or ignored. You may or may not be able to empathize with how frustrating it is to pay a large bill each month and to feel like you don't get your money's worth.
A "network issue" that only affected one person?
They self escalated it on their own?
They apologized to him for the problem occurring in the first place?
They followed up with Daniel to make sure that he has not had further problems?
Does anyone see whats wrong here?
.
It seems awfully suspicious with regards to timing, though... I mean, what are the chances? Very odd.