Customer Service

[Tony_Dean]

I don’t know if I can detail all the troubles I have had recently but I will try:

A couple weeks back I came home and only had channels 2-13 and the digital QAM channels working on my TVs. This was due to your digital migration. I called and each time I would go through the IVR and it would eventually go to a busy signal and have hold music in the background. I called several times spending hours trying to get through. I eventally went online and was able to get a chat agent to have someone call me directly. They agreed to send 2 free DTA boxes and a replacement box for my Comast Digital Cable box by mail.

I received this equipment minus the Comcast Digital Cable box. Neither device worked out of the box and had to be activated. I called to activate and the automated system “reset” the boxes but never activated them. I called in several more times and would get the same busy signals after going through the IVR as listed above. I finally went to online chat and was able to get an agent to activate both boxes successfully.

During the issues I was upset and found I could call through to the disconnect department when I could not to talk to anyone in any other department due to the busy signals. I was very upset and ready to disconnect due to all of the issues. I found out the "promotion” we were on had expired for the Internet side, it had been sold to us last time because the rate had increased to an unaffordable rate a few months ago. The agent told us the new rate/promotion would last for a year.

During the last 3 weeks I have been upset the whole time because I had 4 tv’s that had worked just fine before the digital migration but now only have 2 that work. Comcast wants me to rent equipment at a minimum of $2/mo to get me back to what I had pre-migration. This is not fair and is effectively a rate increase. I was without service on all tv’s for several days and have been out on the 2 other tv’s the entire time since the migration. I have lost service yet I am getting rate increases.

I had called 3-4 times to the disconnect department and they told me a supervisor would call me back. It never happened. Today I woke up to find both of my DTA boxes were not activated again. Comcast had deactivated the 2 working boxes! This took me back to zero service at the one thing Comcast is getting paid for... Cable Television! I called back in as before and got the same busy signals after going through the IVR. I finally got through to an agent in the Disconnect Department and she was going to transfer me to a supervisor, the phone rang out to someone then disconnected me after 1 minute of dead air. I went online and chatted with an agent who reactivated both boxes but could not tell me why they were deactivated. I called back to the disconnect department (1 hr long call) and the associate found Supervisor Dorothy at the RSC in Jackson, MS who pretty much told me that she couldn’t help me other than to lower my internet speed or take a higher service that would be at a lower rate for 6 mos then go up $20 then go up again $40 after the year and she could not provide me with free DTA tuners. I cannot understand a package that has 3 tiers of price escalations.

I also told Dorothy about the busy signals and how several people I know have moved to another service (mostly Dish) because they could not get through. Dorothy said this was not a known issue but I had noticed it for almost 3 weeks. I conferenced her with the 1-800 Comcast to show her what happens and she said she would get that issue escalated. She acted like this was not a known issue. I had reported this issue every time I called in and to every agent on chat.

I have lost several minutes (around 500) of cellular monthly service use dealing with Comcast on this issue and will likely go over my limits and have to pay a fee just for trying to get service with Comcast. I have lost service on 2 televisions. I have suffered a rate increase that was not supposed to go into effect for 7 more months. Also I must mention that I have Centurylink DSL as a secondary backup service ($29/mo) as a backup service to Comcast Internet because it goes down often after thunderstorms with lightning. Several customers in my area lose service for 1-2 hours after a thunderstorm then it works again.

All I had asked for was 2 additional receivers or 1 additional receiver and a replacement Comcast Digital Cable box to replace the bad one I have for no extra fees to get things back to the pre migration state and to have the rate honored for the entire year as the agent in the Disconnect department had sold us some 5 months ago. I get flyers in the mail weekly and oftentimes several a week showing promotional rates of as low as $19 for the same services I have.

Thank you,

Tony Dean

[madylarian]

I've asked the Comcast administrators to look into this situation.

mady

[Tony_Dean]

Had a call back but it looks like we're not getting anywhere with the rates and boxes. They are sending out a tech to check our wiring but I really don't want that and wish I hadn't agreed.  I don't want anyone out doing anything if we can't get the rates right. Its so much simpler moving over to Dish which is giving out 4 receivers and a locked in rate for 2 years.

[ComcastLarry]

Tony_Dea

Thank you for the email and post. I'm truly sorry for all the inconvenience with this issue. A escalated ticket was setup to our local management team. If the scheduled tech visit to your location does not resovle the issue please let me know.

[Tony_Dean]

A comcast technician is not going to magically make 2 TV's without DTA boxes receive digital channels.  The only technical issue I reported is outside my home.  When we have thunderstorms we often lose internet for a couple hours and several people around us also lose it.  When we call in they report they are aware of the problem in the area.  

The other 2 tv's are working fine except for both of the DTA boxes were deactivated Saturday morning and we had to have them reactivated. I don't want to pay $4+ per month as an additional fee to have the other 2 TV's working that worked fine prior to changeover.  I'm betting this will end up in some Class action lawsuit because the consumers shouldn't have to pay a fee for Comcast to reclaim bandwidth.  Those mini boxes should have been free for all existing tv's that were connected to the service. 

The other issue is that I still cannot dial through for customer service.  I call in and go through the prompts 2 times, once selecting the correct options it rings to a busy signal and plays hold music intermittently until it finally hangs up. This has been going on for weeks. This has been a huge waste of time for me and it would be much simpler to go totally off of cable.  You all need to get your end straight before a technician comes out.  It will waste your time and mine because I have not decided to keep the service.

[Tony_Dean]

I made another test call to 1 800 COMCAST.  I go through the options, selecting 1 for trouble with my service and 1 again for Cable, it loops back to the main menu then asks if the last 4 of my phone number are correct and I select 1 to confirm.  Then it prompts me that I owe > $200 with > $90 past due and a $55 pending credit which is incorrect.  Then I am able to select again option 1 for trouble with my service and option 1 again for trouble with my cable tv, then I select option 3 for I have called before and it rings to the slow busy signal.  After a bit the comcast hold IVR speaks over the busy signal, after even longer it hangs up.  Now this happened for me from 3 different phones, with different primary acct phone numbers. This also happened when I was calling in as a new customer wanting service with no phone number.  

Pam Mullins with Comcast  ************ called today and I called her back.  She asked me what I needed help with to start.  I directed her to my email and she briefly read it.  It seemed like she was covered up with people with issues more important than mine. She did not address the other 2 televisions that do not have service.  She only wanted to get a technician out.  She coldn't explain why the 2 DTA were deactivated Saturday morning. She also argued that there was no annual discount.  I had my wife call her back as I was @ work during that call and not able to argue my case. Pam told my wife that we were on a promotion but it was one of those promotions with 3 tiers of pricing, starting low and going to too high in 6 months then going to outrageous in 1 year.  All Pam wanted to do was schedule a tech which I was able to cancel just a few minutes ago even though I couldn't get through to an agent.  

I should go back further in the history with Comcast.  I had the same email address for 8-9 years when comcast gave it out to someone else.  I was able to get it back but comcast had already reassigned another email address to my account so my original email address wasn't primary.  I had to fight extremely hard to get my email address back. In the past, we also always got jacked up rates for service we barely used. We do not watch much tv but when we want to watch the random event we like the service to be there.  We were told by Comcast to call back in at the end of each promotion and they would always put us on their latest promotion.  Also in the past we have had technicans come to the house and test. They reterminated each end more than once, they replaced splitters.  At one time we were having trouble with signal to our cable modem, I suggested they run a dedicated cable from the pole to my cable modem but they said the signal would be too good which I understand.  But I finally have the cable modem working really well and reliable for a long time,  I really do not want anyone messing around and taking that a step backwards. The last time they were here they put their tester on my internal run @ the cable modem and they said the signal was fine and there was no issue inside. 

Is this the end of the road for my Comcast service?

You tell me.  Lets get it right or tell me you can't do it.

[Tony_Dean]

Oh yeah and ever since comcast killed my promotion they have been charging $13 in late and reconnect fees.  That's more charges that need to be credited back.  I couldn't figure out why I was getting billed $102 for my normal $67 bill.  We never can call in to iron it out and that cost at least $26 in fees. 

[Tony_Dean]

Update...

Comcast has refunded some charges and that is the only ray of hope in this debacle so far... 

The bad news is there is still a rate increase.

Comcast bumped up the price from $65 to $79 but it is still better than the $102 they had me billed for over the last 2 months.  

Bad news item #2 is that I still cannot call through and speak to a person at 800 Comcast. I couldn't even speak to someone in billing, it prompted for all the buttons and info as listed in paragraphs above and it went to a busy signal and eventually hung up. An online chat agent was who told me about my current package and how they are setup. 

Bad news item #3 is that noone has said they are shipping 2 more DTA boxes or 1 DTA and one Comcast Digital Cable box free of charge to get my other 50% of my televisions working back at the pre Digital Conversion status.  

Effectively comcast is billing me $14 more per month with no different services. Paying any rental fees for the little DTA boxes adds insult to injury.

Here's a consumer complaint to follow up....

When you log into comcast's website and look at your billing you can only view bills.  There is no option to see your plans or rates or even select plans and rates.  It is likely because there are too many convoluted pricing plans to list on the website and it would be very hard for them to add this information.  I should have a list of products and services and should be able to pick and be done with it.  If I want stripped down basic cable with no boxes, I could select it.  

I think it is strange that there are promotions out there like giving away ipods and visa preloaded cards. I don't understand where the money for these promotions comes from. Is it from overcharging for services?

[Tony_Dean]

Also every post I replied to that contained the phone number for Comcast Corporate HQ have all been removed.  I am not sure why this has happened as this is a public number.

[ComcastLarry]

I only removed the one telephone number which I verified was not a corporate number. The ticket I submitted has been updated and it seems the local rep is working with you to resolve this issue.

[Tony_Dean]

Yeah I am talking about other threads where I mentioned the 215-665-1700 number which is corporate. The recording even answers with "You have reached the corporate Headquarters of Comcast Corporation..."

The number you removed may have been the one above for Pam Mullins who is regional person and the number 423-791-2543 is not Comcast Headquarters.  I only noted this number for appropriate reporting for how the situation was handled.  

I have not heard back from Pam since my wife and I both contacted her after she left the message.  Hopefully I hear back from her soon. We were waiting to see what she could do for the rates and extra receivers. She was pushing hard to have a technician out.  I cancelled the scheduled visit for 2 reasons: 1. I will not be there at the time 2. My internal wiring is fine.  

Yesterday about 9:45 AM the power went out about a mile from my house towards Glade Spring where the signal originates.  Our power didn't go out but that power outage took out Cable Television and Internet for about 2 hours.  This is exactly what I report during the lightning storms, a power outage in a neighborhood where you have some equipment boosting cable or converting fiber to coaxial is getting powered down and may not be coming back up on its own or breakers or an arrestor is blown.  

[Tony_Dean]

Is anyone from Comcast actually watching these forums?

[i-am-nerdburg]

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Tony_Dean wrote:

Is anyone from Comcast actually watching these forums?

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Sometimes. I see Comcast Larry posted in this thread a few times. You can always contact him directly by sending him a private message (click on his user name then select  "send user a private message").

[Tony_Dean]

Thanks, yeah. I am going to make some phone calls today to try again to get this resolved.

[Tony_Dean]

The issue with calling in to 1-800 COMCAST remains. I still cannot talk to an agent in either trouble with my cable tv service or billing.  Both still transfer me to a busy signal.  This is now a 4 week long issue.  

[CCCarole]

Did you send a PM to ComcastLarry?

[Tony_Dean]

No.  Larry probably did all he can do.  From what I see in this forum, Larry reaches out to a rep in the customer's area to have them call and then washes his hands of it.  I think I'm going to record my attempts to call comcast and throw them on Youtube and link to them to help detail my experience and see how many others are having this same trouble.

[Tony_Dean]

I think the agents did all they could do. Pam was helpful and nice and probably exhausted all she could do as far as the rates and info.  Now I have to decide, the rates are temporary and I'm going to have to pay rental to have the extra receiver(s) monthly.  The satellite competitor provides 4 receivers and a dvr.  

The 2 major issues I have concerns about are 

1) I cannot call 800 comcast for service because it sends me to a busy signal

2) I have to back up my internet with another service to make up for outages external to my home and affecting a neighborhood

[ComcastLarry]

Tony_Dean-

I do contact the local area for resolution. We have a procedure setup to have all local areas reps to resolve the issues in there area.

You can always contact me like previous stated.