To whom it may concern, my recent experience with Comcast has been nothing short of a disaster. It literally was one headache after another. It started July 12th. My girlfriend and I were moving into a new apartment and we had previously been using ATT-Uverse for cable/internet. We decided to go with Comcast in the new place. I researched online the service availability, pricing, and packages. I apparently found a 3rd party vendor that offered a promotional package (out of bridgevine) that was $100 rebate plus a modem/router rebate that expired on July 16th. They set me up with the package and rebate over the phone. Keep in mind our move in date to our new place was July 14th. I paid for the modem/router up front and then they transferred me to the installation dept to setup a date and time for the install. I was told once they looked up my account that they could not setup my service because an active account still existed at that address from the previous tenant. So that was the trip before the fall into a whole lot of mess. I knew it was a long shot to order service on a Thursday and try to have it installed by Saturday but what I was being told even though I already purchased this upfront promotion I would not be given serivce to use it. I then asked what exactly I could do to bypass the fact that service already existed at the address I was moving into in two days to make sure my girlfriend and I would have service. I was told that I could send in a copy of my lease with the move-in dates and address as proof to the local Comcast office. I was given the number of the "office" (think it was a branch in Fishers, IN) and I asked about faxing the copy in and was told sure. I did that around 3:30 still on Thursday. Was told they would call me back to verify everything. Around 5 I still had not heard anything and called them instead and found out the person I was dealing with had left for the day and the person I ended up talking to said even if they were able to use the lease they "technically" wouldn't be able to cancel and start my service until the day I move in, the 14th. Okay... I was not told that before hand but alright. So on that Saturday, I called in again to make sure that everything was in order to proceed with the service and the person I talked to then told me that they "legally" cannot cancel anyone's service in this circumstance until the previous tenant called in to cancel or transfer their service. With that, it really sent me over the edge. I tried to explain that, that was not what I was told twice before and now the only way this was going to be solved was if this other account at where I was living now called in to cancel. She of course said she had already called and left messages for that account holder to call in to cancel. So basically in the meantime we were to just wait on that. As a potential new customer you could understand how everything that lead up to that was simply a terrible way of managing expectations. I asked about if and when we got service would someone come out to install or if I could do it. She said someone could come out with the equipment and install it then. Or they would have to mail the equipment. Well I didn't want to wait any longer for the equipment to be mailed and told her I prefer to actually have someone there but if I would be charged an installation fee. She said I would be. I asked even after all I've been through already and there was nothing she could do for me simply just not charging an install fee and told me she could not. At that point I was over everything and told them I wanted my money back from the promotion. This is when I found out it was through a third party and she said she would put me through to the "rebate department" and when she transfered me that office was close on Saturday. So I had to call back Comcast only to find out the confirmation number this third party gave me did not work on your end and I had to contact them directly. I had to look up my bank statement to find the phone number. I was able to call and cancel my purchase but of course it would take 3-5 days to see it refunded. Okay whatever. After all that I spent that weekend on moving and looking into ATT and the local company only to find out ATT was not offered at that address and the local company charged way more. My girlfriend and I talked it over Monday the 16th and decided to call back to check if service was now availble at our new place and low and behold it was! So we did the whole setup this time with Comcast DIRECTLY. I handled everything over the phone and when it came time to do the credit check my girlfriend was going to do that. It was going to be in her name at that point and we would need to pay the $100 deposit. She first said she could do an install date for Tuesday the 17th, but then it came back unavailable and said the earliest was Thursday the 19th. I asked about installing it myself because I didn't want to be charged an install fee. She explained that I could not do the self install kit because of something to do with not having the correct equipment. So it was left to no other choice but to have someone come install it for us and they would only charge $34 and that there wasn't any deposit anymore. She said it would be July 19th between 2-4pm with a 30min call ahead. She confirmed the phone number and everything and I even mentioned to her well we both would be at work during that time but since you would call ahead I could take a lunch hour whenever I got the call. Wednesday I got the automated call about confirming my appointment for Thursday and I confirmed it over the phone. Thursday came and I got no phone call. At 4:04 I called Comcast to inquire on what was going on and the person who I talked to said they would put a notice through to the dispatch and credit my account $20. At that point I would receive a call back from either the dispatch or tech about 30-60min. I was even given a ref number and tech number. Well I was still at work and I did receive a call about 30min later but was busy and could not answer the phone. I checked my voicemail about 30min after the call and barely could make out what the person said. I called Comcast back around 5 to tell them that I was on my way home to allow them to contact the tech to inform them I was going to be there. He said he'd credit my account but I told him someone already had and he said there was nothing there showing that. I got home and no one was there or had been there. I then called Comcast back at 5:45 to explain again my appointment was missed and she would push through another inquiry to try to have someone out there by the end of the shift. Well a little after 7 I called Comcast back to say no one was there and the guy who helped me said that the earliest install date for me would be the July 25th. Of course that was totally unreasonable at this point. I wanted service that I signed up for that Comcast missed. He told me that orginally there wasn't any info in the file/notes that they were supposed to call ahead! He would put the notes in my file and send it to dispatch to try to get someone to come out the next day Friday July 20th. But of course he couldn't gaurantee that but I told him to make sure they call ahead. Friday at 5 I call Comcast inquiring if I was going to get anything installed and she said that my account had been closed since service was not setup on Thursday. What, you cannot be serious because we could of waited until the 25th for installation and would of never gotten it because the account/service was cancelled. I DIDN'T CANCEL IT, SO COMCAST HAD TO OF CANCELLED IT WHICH WAS MY VERY FIRST PROBLEM FROM THE START WITH COMCAST SAYING THEY LEGALLY COULDN'T CANCEL SOMEONE'S SERVICE! Anyways, she said all I had to do was go into the local office. She set up my service as pending and pick up the equipment and self install kit and I would have cable and internet that day. Wow, really that's all it took after all this time? I refuse to believe this is typical of when a new customer signs up for cable and internet. At this point I do not expect anything in return but any kind of explanation would be much appreciated.
