Ask Comcast Tech To Move His Van, Mysteriously Lose Signal

Reader Daniel lives in San Francisco, where parking is notoriously impossible. He came home one morning to find a Comcast van blocking his drive way, and politely asked the driver to move. Ten minutes later he lost his internet and TV signal. Mysterious coincidence, or malevolent tech? Check out the details, inside.

So up until this moment, I had no issues with Comcast (other than occasionally having to switch out my cablecards). This morning around 8am, I was returning home from the gym and there was a Comcast truck blocking my garage. I was very polite (no horn or anything) and asked him to please move his truck so I can get into my garage. He said something about it being a 1 lane-1 way street and he couldn’t park anywhere else. I told him that he can’t park in front of my garage, so he moved.

About 10 minutes later I mysteriously lose both my internet and TV signals. I call Comcast who tells me they show no trouble on their end so it must be my equipment. They can have a tech out tomorrow. Unfortunately, I do not have another day off until next Monday. She suggested I go purchase a new Cable Modem and get replacement cable cards. I do just that. I own the cable modem, so I purchase a new one for $80.00 and stop by Comcast in Potrero Hill to get a new cable card.

I get home and install them, call Comcast to fix the issue and of course, they don’t work either.

I call Executive Customer Service and explain the situation – some Comcast guy was mad that I asked him to move, so he cut my cable line. I’m not off until next Monday (6 days from now), I explained. She said, “I’ll call you back in 15 minutes”. It’s now 4 hours later, she has not returned my call, so I call her back, she’s gone for the day.

I call Comcast Service Center again, now they’re telling me I cannot have a tech until Friday.

I am totally shocked at how poorly this company treats it’s long time customers! I’ve been with them for almost 12 years and I’m subscribed to their highest level of cable programming and the new Blast internet service so I spend around $180.00 a month. Now I understand what all of the bad publicity is about.

If it’s not fixed by 5:00pm, I’m canceling Comcast and switching to Dish Network and AT&T DSL.

The irony of the situation is, Comcast just called and asked me to sign up for their digital voice service. YEAH RIGHT!

Daniel
San Francisco, CA

Daniel later sent us this update:

It’s still not working. Comcast sent a rep who was in my house for maybe 5 minutes and said it’s hooked up correctly, so you’ll have to call and get a 2nd level tech out here.

Comcast clearly doesn’t want your $180.00 each month. Time to cancel. Why not drop CEO Brian Roberts a line first, and tell him why you’re unhappy?

(photo: Spidra Webster)