My experience with Comcast is that the local customer service reps have zero power. I have never had anything taken care of without contacting corporate (buut I've only had two problems).

The $25 charge isn't for the phone call, it's for Comcast to come out and fix the problem. I try not to call them since I know the first thing out of their mouth is that they want to send a tech out to diagnose the problem and rack up the $25 fee.

Carey,
I would be happy to help. This person has been through too much and we would like to make it right. They should email me directly. The charge itself is for the tech to come out in which the trouble is not our equipment or external wiring, not the phone call.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention!

Frank Eliason
Comcast
frank_eliason@cable.comcast.com

Frank's mailbox, let me introduce you to Frank's mailbox quota.

@comcastcares: Wow...well done, Frank...way to defuse this story.

Agreed well done...Maybe this will get comcast's overall service better...would be nice...

@comcastcares: if i put "cares" at the end of my name can i get a star too? i lie just as much as the next guy..

@Skeetz: While I agree that Comcast has made it's (more than) fair share of gaffs over the years (of which I myself having been the victim on at least one occasion), I think it's a little nasty to abase them when they're actually doing something right.

No, this is not well done. If someone needs to seek publicity just to get their horror story fixed, Comcast has fucked this up many times over. How about the welfare of the vast majority of people who didn't twist their arm by posting on a major blog?

@comcastcares: So, wait... When service that was working before suddenly fails, when is it NOT a fault of Comcast's "equipment or external wiring"? Let's assume that the customer isn't fiddling with anything.

I'd rather use an over the air antenna than do business with comcast.

@legwork: no doubt. I only hope he has a (small) team of people that help him sift thru the rubble of emails.

@legwork:
You owe me a new KB.

I find it interesting the number of companies that seem to have reps posting on the site now.

Why should we all have to resort to emailing one trouble shooter? Why don't they give their customer "service" workers some ability to think and provide service? Until Comcast's financial bottom line is affected by loss of customers to a degree it outweighs keeping customers, they will continue ignoring us.

@pojken: I don't think Frank is saying that this is the case here. But it could be equipment Comcast has no control over that is the source of the problem as well, in which case that fee might be levied.

@pojken:
It usually boils down to the premises wiring. Lots of homes aren't wired to properly pass digital signals. Splitters degrade over time, connections corrode, etc.

Hmmph....it's nice of them to offer to fix it. It shouldn't have come to this, but still.

@dddoistutter: "care" is subjective.. i could say he cares enough to stop a problem from escalating and further disparaging the rep of the company.. "comcastproblemsolver" would have been as apropos a name and not as insulting at the Chevy ads..

@lemortede:
If only more companies did this with the forums that concern their customers. I consistently steer people away from purchasing ANY coolermaster products based on their lack of any sort of response to my emails regarding replacement parts. Prior to doing my best to ensure that others take their business elsewhere I filled out a customer service contact for at their website, then posted in several threads in the hardocp forums.
On the other hand, I'm rather evangelical about corsair products based on help and advice I've received from reps of theirs that often comment and educate people in several popular tech forums. Any tech inquiry to their site has been responded to promptly.

Even if it is a small team, it's good that they have someone out there trying to find people with issues that standard techs don't escalate or won't help. I still hate comcast but kudos to you Frank.

@savdavid: allowing the masses to think is dangerous. doing the right thing threatens the profit margin.

sounds like you've been doing a little too much thinking yourself. tsk tsk

Two weeks ago yesterday, I switched from Comcast to AT&T U-Verse. I haven't regretted it one bit.

I, myself, have way too many issues with Comcast to tolerate dealing with them any longer.

Issues:

- My first call to them, I spent over an hour arguing with the rep that it wasn't my firewall as NOTHING could connect even with all firewalls disabled. Turned out, like I thought, it was on their end.

- When I got Comcast at my current place I constantly lost internet past midnight. If it wasn't completely dropped, it was unreasonably slow.

- When I lost all my services (TV, Internet and Phone) one day, I was transferred back and forth between billing and tech. Because, for some reason, they said they didn't know why the other department would transfer me to their department.

- During the same call, we finally got the cable TV working somewhat. Not all the channels would work. After that was fixed, Tech said that my internet won't work unless I had dial-tone on my phone. Which I found absurd being that my phone is connected through their cable modem.

- I was somehow paying $200/mth for their Triple Play package they advertised for $99/mth. I know that there are surcharges and what not, but I know that I shouldn't be paying double the advertised price. Somehow, no one could explain why.

I guess this just goes to show online forums are being noticed. I for one hope that all problems found here can be expedited when voiced ( or typed ). Red tape is a bitch and most companies train their employees to follow a strict guideline that discourages independent problem solving. Somewhere in every company is a bean counter setting up guidlines that make it easy to predict future revenue and 90% of the time it works but that 10% can kill a company in the long run. Monitoring online forums is a good start to close that 10% gap.

My apologies if this has been posted elsewhere, but I really enjoyed this month's Wired article on Comcast (including Frank's story!):
[www.wired.com]

@Red Dawn: I can handle most of this one, Frank...

- I wouldn't go out of my way to help an argumentative person, either. Doesn't really matter what industry we're talking about. Have you seen the movie "Waiting..." ?

- If applicable, scale back your torrenting or other bandwidth, and check for leechers. Have a look at their new procedures for bandwidth throttling. I run into this quite a bit, and an unplug of my brother's line or a password change on my router usually fixes it.

- Why would you agree to be transferred to billing if you already know you have a tech problem? My first point may also apply here.

- I'm pretty sure he meant that both of them work on digital formats, and if one doesn't work, the other likely won't either.

- I'm pretty sure they don't do contracts, so have them kill all services and rekey the account. Works for any service I know of that has differing levels of service, when the problem is how it's keyed in. Sometimes, the system is just broken.

From the info and tone you gave above, my first reaction as to the source of the problem, and likely Frank's [though he may not admit it] would be your attitude.

As I've stated in past articles' comments, I don't work for Comcast anymore, and don't particularly care for the way they do business in multiple areas, but showing your stress towards people you want to help you, regardless of their responsibility to do so, is never going to help.

You can tell them you're irate and they'll note the frustration of the situation. Act irate towards them, and they'll note your tendency to be verbally abusive.

@Wild Monkey: I came here to say what Monkey said.

Doesn't make it right, though.

@TaterTom: Maybe you should not be so assuming. Not once have I stated that I yelled at them or had an attitude.

I was arguing after the fact that he repeatedly told me it was my firewall after I repeatedly told him it was disabled. I've spent a majority of my life working as a network admin/engineer. I explained to him what I've done and even followed his advice just to make him happy. I had a non-routable IP address and he would blame my firewall or uncompatible hardware or software. Even when I told him the modem was not syncing he still proceeded to blame my firewall. I spoke to his supervisor who apologized profusely and even admitted that my modem was not bound to the network and that was why my IP address wasn't valid. Which was what I had stated to him at the very beginning of my call.

There is no network traffic other than my attempts to surf. So scaling back anything didn't matter. I have MAC Binding and WPA setup so there was no one unauthorized whatsoever on my network. I check that all the time to be sure. I am fully aware of Comcast policies regarding bandwidth.

I didn't agree to be transferred. They would do it before anything could really be said. And when I would speak up it was always the other departments fault. I did not know whether it was a billing or tech issue. Never did I state that I knew what the cause of that issue was.

He specifically stated that my internet won't work unless I have a dial tone present and that my phone service is what allows the internet to function. He may have been new, I don't know but it sounds like he didn't pay much attention in training or got his connection types mixed up.

I've worked in customer service and I've ALWAYS been polite. So don't assume it was my attitude. I don't yell or scream or curse at them.

Make sure you really read a comment before making assumptions.

Customertroublecall

The newest compound word in the English language, proudly brought to you by Comcast.

@Skeetz: Please be civil towards other commenters, even if they represent a company. Calling the guy/girl a liar for no reason isn't called for.

Hmm, that and they are under fire from the Fed again over QOS and filtering issues. Interference with 3rd party VOIP services while theirs remains unmolested, ham-handed filtering of ports and proxys, jacking with VPN services, the list goes on.

@Skeetz: It seems kind of ridiculous to quibble over semantics when the end result is the same regardless of what his handle is. Frank has a good reputation for getting things taken care of when customer problems come to his attention. I'm sure most of the people that he's helped don't mind if he calls himself comcastcares or quasimodointhebelltower.

Not surprised one bit. Comcast does that all the time here, and when you call to complain about their no show, they'll just say that they always call to say they're on their way and blame you for not answering the phone even when no such phone call was ever made or received. It's absolute BS.

@Red Dawn: I thought about swithing from Comcast to AT&T myself when I bought my condo. Fresh start and all that. But Comcast isn't the only company with its head up its @ss (and my brother works for Comcast!). AT&T's U-verse service doens't work with a TiVo HD. I love TiVo. I have 2, with lifetime contracts on both. TiVO is DVR done right. That AT&T puts out a service that doesn't work with TiVo is simply idiotic.

Customer = trouble for Comcast. They won't be trouble free until the last one of us is gone. Only a gone customer is no trouble.

Along with a bunch of other Comcast troublemakers, I'm having pixelation issues on my HD channels.

I've had pixelation issues for weeks now. Freeze-ups, too. Then came a $50 rate increase. Called "customer service" and was told I could either pay more or drop some services.

Asked to be transferred to customer retention and was told "we don't have customer retention."

In a sadly funny way that might even be true; however, the next customer service person I spoke to about the rate increase offered to transfer me to customer retention where I was told, essentially, to suck it. That the service I was getting was worth it, and, besides, that Comcast had to recoup the losses from the hurricanes.

When mentioning the pixelation issues, I went through the reboot "solution" about three times, then was offered a service tech to come out. The day before the service tech was to arrive, I received a call from Comcast a) to confirm the service call, and b) to notify me that if I had somehow "messed up/with the equipment" I'd be liable for a $29 service charge.

When asking about pro-rating the days I was unable to watch my premium channels due to the pixelation issues, my request was received with near hysterical laughter.

Comcast is the only game in town vis a vis broadband services, so I'm stuck with them for now, but at the first available alternative, I'm going to be an ex-customer.

@twritersf: I can see where that might be frustrating.

I don't use TiVo fortunately. As I am self-employed, I work from home, so I'm generally able to watch the shows I want; if not, the DVR they provide pretty much takes care of the issues of unavailability.

I did a lot of research with UVerse. I had AT&T DSL for a period of time between having Comcast and Insight and it was a wretched service.

Uverse rocks because it has TV Japan(I love NHK) and other international channels. The HD channels for me are superb in quality compared to Comcast. Also, I've yet to have an issue with my internet. That and the 18 meg line they offer is beautiful since I do alot of Netflix Streaming here and there now.

Can you explain to me why TiVo is so great? I honestly don't know since I have never used it.

@blonderengel: Did you have issues where the box would just lock everything up?

I had that and when I would call them, they would send a reset signal. If that didn't work, they'd have a tech give me a new box. Only for it to do the exact same thing.

Rinse and repeat but never solved. :(

@Red Dawn:

TivoToGo is a great feature. I can grab stuff
off my Tivo easily and get it onto my laptop.

I can schedule shows from Tivo's website.
The interface is slick, easy and compelling.

I can watch any of the Netflix instant choices
on it -- instantly.

I can rent (or buy) unboxed movies from Amazon.

Hmmm... It's got other features like watching youtube or ordering a pizza that I'm not concerned about...

@Consumerist-Moderator-Roz: you're right.. my appologies.. i do hope it sorted out i just lost focus in my comast-bashery.. sorry Frank

@pojken: Internal wiring is the responsibility of the homeowner. In most cases we did not do the wiring within the home. We do offer an internal wire protection plan, they can do the work themselves, or hire an electrician.

@legwork: @savdavid: Actually we are working to improve the service to our valued Customers. We know it will take time to change the perception we created, but we are working on it!

@comcastcares: @Skeetz: No need to apologize. I know that it is just venting based on your prior experience. I look forward to the time where we change your perception. Until then you can call me anything you want. I have been called much worse ;-)

Sadly, I have heard more problems than praises when it comes to Comcast and their customer service. Their lack of customer service as well as their tech service fees were enough for me to switch to DirecTV. 5 years later I'm not looking back as I'm totally happy with my non-Comcast alternative.

Sadly, I have heard more problems than praises when it comes to Comcast and their customer service. Their lack of customer service as well as their tech service fees were enough for me to switch to DirecTV. 5 years later I'm not looking back as I'm totally happy with my non-Comcast alternative.

Comcast outsources most of their customer service to dispassionate third party call centers such as Convergys who also handle calls for Charter, AT&T, Palm, NetApp as I remember. Their only interest is getting you off the phone as quickly as possible so the call can be logged as having met a service level agreement that is no more than a call-per-hour tally sheet.

People who work there are micromanaged for every second they are there, every minute is logged and scrutinized and deviations are punishable. Basically it is an extremely unpleasant place to work with hostile management and filthy working conditions so when you get one of these phone reps on the phone more often than not they are not interested in your problem, they're interested only in getting you off the phone and they'll navigate their scripts in whatever way possible to to so as quickly as they can. They are also not empowered to make decisions. I'm a retiree and took a job there for extra income. I went through the training but after a few weeks on the floor I left because the work environment was so hostile and there was too much stress from the management for what they were paying me.

Unfortunately this is unlikely to change in our lifetimes, so your best bet is to try and use companies that don't outsource, but since outsource is a (justifiably) dirty word you're not going to find a company that will admit that they do it.

@Red Dawn good luck getting anything pro-rated. Comcast really doesn't like to issue credits of any type, regardless of if they might be legally required to do so.

I am a former comcast contract installer, I had the pleasure of doing cable & cable modem installs for several years, at a time when comcast was not nearly as evil as it currently is.

So, I really expected no issues when I ordered service after my last move. I requested a self install, but was told because I had ordered their phone service, they wouldn't allow a self install.

Fast forward two weeks to when they do finally install my cable. House is prewired, tech replaces a splitter that didn't need replaced (I had put it on, less than two weeks before, it was the same brand), and then can't activate the internet service because I have a mac & a linux laptop, and he doesn't know how to use either. I work through this, and finally get the internet activated using the mac.

After the tech left, we noticed at times some analog channels were a bit fuzzy and some digital channels were pixiliated, or freezing. So, I check the SNR using our cable box's diagnostic menu, and see that it's awful. I personally wired with RG6, so I know it's not the house wiring. So I go out and look at the splitter, and find that he hooked up the 1 line that was actually in use to a high-loss lead (7db instead of 3.5db), and then used a 2 way splitter inside, resulting in 10.5db of signal loss before it ever hit the modem or TV. I moved the line to a 3.5db leg, and all of our TV issues cleared up.

Now our phone service still didn't work properly, for the first two weeks, we had no voicemail, and at times it wouldn't ring. I went into my local comcast office, and called, quite a few times, but couldn't get anyone to look at it. The modem's diagnostic page looked good, and it passed tests when I was on the phone with them, meanwhile, my internet service & cable tv were working fine.

So then I get an insane bill for all of the installation charges. I request a credit for the installation, I can't have it, I request a prorated credit for the phone problems, I can't have it. They finally gave me like a $10 dollar credit.

I informed them I wasn't making a payment until they credited my account for the services that were not working. I had no problem paying for what was working, but I wasn't going to pay for digital voice that didn't work, and for the installation charges. They then disconnected my service and sent me a collections letter.

I'm thinking the only way I am going to get through to them is to pro actively sue them in small claims court, and announce it to all the local news media. If a couple of them run it, comcast may actually care. It seems media attention is the only thing that can get them to care any more, and sueing them is really not a bad strategy.

It's really kind of sad, all I wanted was a couple of service credits, and my phone service fixed (probably just deleted and reprovisioned) and I would have been a happy customer, they really do have the best value for TV service here, but their phone service is awful. I now have DSL & an antenna it's not the same variety of programming, or speed, but it doesn't have the customer service issues.

@richcreamerybutter:Well I for one had not seen that, so thanks, it was interesting.

@RidleyDaimon: Hear, hear!

As a former Comcast customer, and current Verizon customer, I can say without a doubt that Comcast has a long way to go. When I first moved into my residence I was informed by the tech who came out to hook us up that we had a broken line buried from the box to our house.....all of 25 feet(which NEVER was replaced). This past summer we (and I mean my whole street) experience SEVERE service problems. At one point we had 6 Comcast trucks on our street, and they wanted to send techs into each house. I refused, and I told the person on the phone it wasn't in the house(although they wanted to check for themselves).....come to find out, it was a "feeder" line.

Since switching to Verizon, we don't need an amplifier in the master bedroom(same in house wiring). The picture is brighter, quicker channel changes, On Demand responds quicker.

Draw your own conclusion from that.

As a former Comcast customer, and current Verizon customer, I can say without a doubt that Comcast has a long way to go. When I first moved into my residence I was informed by the tech who came out to hook us up that we had a broken line buried from the box to our house.....all of 25 feet(which NEVER was replaced). This past summer we (and I mean my whole street) experience SEVERE service problems. At one point we had 6 Comcast trucks on our street, and they wanted to send techs into each house. I refused, and I told the person on the phone it wasn't in the house(although they wanted to check for themselves).....come to find out, it was a "feeder" line.

Since switching to Verizon, we don't need an amplifier in the master bedroom(same in house wiring). The picture is brighter, quicker channel changes, On Demand responds quicker.

Draw your own conclusion from that.

Instead of asking for a refund, tell them you want to cancel your service. Then when they ask you why, inform them of the unfair charges.

I cancelled my service a year ago and when they asked why I told them I was paying too much just to get The Discovery Channel, TLC, and Food Network.

Then when I brought my box in, the person at the counter recognized my name, and got the manager, who offered me one of those introductory rates for a few months.

They're not going to take you seriously unless you actually ask to have your service disconnected.