After spending almost 4 months trying to get Comcast to fix the signal problems with his cable, reader William, who lives in an apartment building that only allows Comcast, has decided to just cancel his his account and go without.

William cc’d us on his email to Comcast’s Twitter team, who despite a series of chipper emails, weren’t able to get William’s cable working.

William says (to Comcast):

I am tired of dealing with this… While I love to watch cable and have a few series that I don’t want to miss, I have decided to cancel my cable, phone, and internet and go with AT&T. ComcastBill, thanks for your help before, unfortunately the issue was never resolved completely. I have already signed up with AT&T and my service with them will start soon. I am very disappointed with the quality of service I have received from Comcast as a whole.

William also included the notes he took during his 3 months and 26 days as a Comcast customer.

Our favorite part is where a tech shows up 6 hours late during William’s SuperBowl party and wants to disconnect the cable so that he can figure out what’s wrong with it.

Enjoy.

To Whom It May Concern:

11/16 Service was installed with the wrong package on the account. I didn’t have HD channels and was given a DVR that I did not ask for but was being charged for it. (I decided to keep it.) Called and things were corrected before the installation tech left.

11/18 Had problems with the picture becoming pixilated/digitalized. Call CS and they told me to reboot.

11/19 Same problem as the day before called for a second time. I talked with four people and none could help. I talked with someone who said they were a CS supervisor and they had the Mt. Pleasant tech supervisor call me. I talked with Chris (the tech supervisor) and he sent a tech out that day. They gave me a new box and there were still problems. I was told they would have to get maintenance out to check the lines because of a bad signal. They came out and said that the lines in the house were good but the signal from the pole to the house was bad and they would have to get construction to replace it. I asked for a call to let me know when this would happen and was told I would receive one.

11/20 Have note on the door from maintenance tech Greg [redacted] 107 that has a box checked stating that the problem WAS found and FIXED from outside the house.

11/21 Called CS and no one could tell me when the line would be replaced but I was told that I would be getting a call back from a supervisor to let me know within 24 hours. I spoke with a CS rep named Amy, because I was told there would be a credit for all my troubles, she let me know that I would receive a month’s credit of $115.95.

11/25 Still no call from a supervisor even after three calls from me requesting one to let me know when the line will be fixed. This day I had no HD channels, interactive guide, and my DVR did not work. No one would send a tech out and I told them that I needed it to work because I was having family in for Thanksgiving. The services started working later this day. I talked with a CS rep named Jennifer and let her know that I wanted to talk with a supervisor and she told me that I could not hold for one but would have to take an escalation # and wait for one to call me back within 24 hours. The # is [redacted] Talked with Cita via online chat and he gave me a # to call corporate (215) 665-1700.

11/26 The escalation ticket did not work either. Still no call back. Called CS (the number I use here is (843) 554-4100) talked with Shelia gave her the escalation number and told her that I would hold for a supervisor because they never call back. Transferred to Ben when I asked if he was a supervisor he said no I told him I would hold he said that couldn’t happen. I was adamant that I would not get off the phone until I talked with a supervisor. I was transferred to Suzzanne who acted like a supervisor and after talking for about 5 minutes I asked if she was and she let me know then that she was not and I requested to hold but she told me that she had just sent an IM to one and they would call me back but that there was no way to find out when the line would be replaced. She also put in a request and told me that I would receive the call back before 3 PM on 11/27. After I hung up with her, I called the corporate # and they were closed. Supposed to close at 6 PM (the message said) but it was only 4:55 PM and were already closed.

11/27 No call back all day.

11/28 Called the corporate # and talked with Nichole who said I would receive a call back from an Executive Tech by Monday 12/1.

12/1 No call from Executive Tech. Talked with supervisor named Julia [redacted]. I was told that the new line would be put in that week but that it wasn’t put in before because of Thanksgiving and New Year’s.

12/6 New box installed and lost all of my recorded programs. Even after still having same problems.

12/10 Still having digitalization of picture and freezing of picture/audio. Called the tech supervisor Adam [redacted] and also called Julia. Neither of them returned my call that day.

12/11 Called Julia she did not answer. Called CS and talked to Phyllis who sent an email to Julia. I finally received a call back that day and confirmed that the line had been replaced but I was still having problems (the picture/audio problems but also the box would reboot at random times and when I would turn the TV off the box would reboot without being touched or the power being turned off) so she scheduled an appointment for a tech to come out once again. Also, waived the rest of the charges for the service (taxes) for the first month.

12/14 Tech came out and said that the only problem was with my HDMI cables so I tried another one that I had and it did the same thing. So he gave me some component cables and I hooked them up.
From this point, my service worked ok with only a few minor annoyances that were fixed by the rebooting of the box. This, while annoying was better than the picture messing up and me not being able to watch shows. Also, the sound quality is diminished because of the RCA cables that I have to use there is also a slight buzz in the sound.
1/3 Freezing of the picture/audio starts again. I didn’t call just rebooted and it was fine for a few days.

1/12 Called CS because the picture/audio freezing was happening more often. Spoke with Carol and she “sent a hit” to the box. I asked her to explain what that did and she said it did nothing. I asked the significance of sending the hit if it did nothing and was answered rudely that it was to “fix the problems with the box”. Also called Julia to let her know of the problems and requested a call back to talk to her about Carol but still, as of 1/18, have not received a call back.

1/17 Called CS again while the problem was happening (as it had happened everyday at least once and on different channels since 1/12). Spoke with Laquanda ext. 2486 (who was very nice and helpful and should be commended for her customer service) and she scheduled a time for a tech to come out on Tuesday 1/20 to see if he could fix the problem. I asked not to have a box replaced as this is the fourth that I have had and they all do the same thing and she told me that she has put in a detailed ticket for the tech.

1/19 Joshua [redacted] called and left me a message. I returned his call and he sent out a tech named Victor. He re-terminated the connectors for the wall jacks and in the panel.

1/20 Spoke with Leigh [redacted] she sent out two techs who replaced my component cables. They then went outside and found a bad place in the brand new line that was installed, and spliced it. After this, a guy named Mike called to follow up.

2/1 Fox and Friends (channel 428) was having the digitalization problem. I called and left messages with Leigh and Julia. I finally reached Josh and he said that he would send a Tech out at 1pm. I was happy with this because I had people coming over to watch the Super Bowl. 1pm came and went and there was no tech and no phone call to let me know he would be late or not show. At 7:15pm, while my friends, family and I were watching the Super Bowl, a tech showed up and wanted to disconnect the cable to see if he could determine the problem. I told him he should have been here on time and he informed me that he was not even given the assignment until 4pm. I told him sorry and sent him home.

2/2 Leigh called back but the problems had seemed to clear up so I told her just to wait and I would try to record the digitalization as it happened.

2/14 USA HD was doing the digitalization so I recorded it, and called and left a voice mail with Leigh. A few days later (she was on vacation) she called back but the recorded program had been deleted.

At this point, I decided that the fight is not worth my time, the cable still messes up with the digitalization I have a few recorded programs but have not felt like it is worth it to report it. I am tired of having problems and will just have to live with the picture that messes up because I have no other options as I live in apartments that will not allow satellite dishes. I am tired of having techs come out only to leave with everything working and then after a few days or maybe a week and a half it is not working again.

3/13 I received my bill for the month and noticed that my DVR was $9 instead of $7 so I called and was told by a CS rep named Aaron that the price increase was because of the switch to digital cable. I said that doesn’t make sense because I have had digital cable the whole time. He responded saying that it was complicated and hard to explain but that it was because of having to push more data over less bandwidth.

I asked for a credit and to keep the $7 price he said he couldn’t do that. I told him to cancel the DVR and he said he would and I could bring the box by the local office to finish the cancellation process.

I told him that he should send out a tech to pick up the box because I was not the one who changed the terms and he told me that there would be a $30 charge. I said that I did not agree with that and was not going to pay it. He said that he would note that on the account and I would have to talk to a supervisor when I was billed for it (as he was snickering).

I asked to speak with a supervisor then and he said he would have to put me on the list for a call back. When I mentioned the names of Leigh, and Julia he acted as if he did not know them and I gave him the ext. so that he could contact them. He talked with Julia then put in an escalation and said she would call me back within an hour and a half (by 7:15pm). I received a voice mail and called back but it was after she had left. I left her a message asking for a call back on 3/14.

3/14 I have called AT&T and scheduled service with them. I am still waiting on a call back from Julia as she will be in the office later today. I will let her know then to schedule the cancellation of my service with Comcast for the date when my home phone number is ported to AT&T.

This is all that I have documented on paper. I believe there may be other calls to CS that either were reboots or just to call in and let them know that my service wasn’t working correctly to have it documented on my account. I was with Time Warner while in Columbia, SC and never had problems like this. I have never been more dissatisfied with the customer service at a company I was paying to provide a service that was not working. I am very disappointed with the quality of service I have received from Comcast as a whole. I thought that you may like to have this document to help in future training or maybe to develop new ways of dealing with issues such as this that may arise.

Sincerely,
William

(Photo:cmorran123)

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