Someone Else's Wisdom... and a Rant

I have a big nasty rant brewing for my not-so-friends at Comcast.  But first...
there's something important anyone who knits, or who knows or loves someone who knits should read.  Go on... I'll wait.  If you read it a day or so ago.... read it again.

It's hard to type with the welling up thing my eyes are doing after reading that.  Franklin's right.  What we do IS important.  And we ARE beautiful.

And since that's true.... why does Comcast have to treat anyone who is stuck with it's services so damned badly!???

I have had connectivity problems with my comcast email since they bought out my former ISP.  (We're talking months here) The server times out.  Over and over again.  But not ALWAYS... so it's an intermittent problem.  So I get to call them.  A lot. Sometimes, they tell me that it's a known problem and they're working on it.  Sometimes they write up a "ticket" and tell me that a tech will call me within 24 -48 hours.  Until yesterday, no techs ever called.  When I got peeved with the shitty service (that included reports logged on my account saying that the problem had been resolved even though no tech ever contacted me, and the problem was still very much there), I asked to speak to a manager type.  Here's what they do for that.

1) The person you're on the phone with logs into his/her computer, and tries to log into a "chat system".  You wait while this happens.

2)  When the person finally gets into the chat system, he or she then has to explain what your problem is, what he or she has done about it, what anyone else has done about it, and why you want to speak to an "acceleration agent".  You wait while this happens.  No matter how long this takes, you wait.

3) Eventually, this request gets sent to someone who decides that you can speak to an acceleration agent.  They then send a telephone extension number to your "customer service" person.  You wait while your person gets this extension number.

4)  The customer service person then attempts to conference you in on a call with the acceleration agent.  But first, you wait while he or she explains stuff again.

I'm not sure what really happens next, because this process takes at least 1/2 an hour.  By the time I got to talk to the acceleration agent I had been on the phone for a total of 50 minutes, and was too angry to speak rationally.  I explained this to her, and asked her to return my call in a couple of hours when I'd be able to behave civilly.  She promised to do so, but seemed to want me to stay on the phone while she put a bunch of stuff in a form.  I hung up.

I hates Comcast.

And they wonder why I don't want to add their phone service to my account.

I likes the tech fellow who came out to my house and solved some of the problems, but he hates their system too.

Oh -- if you're talking to SALES, and not tech support.... you can get a manager almost right away.  I know this because sales keeps calling to try to entice me to add their phone service.  I'm so up for having my phone line be intermittently available.  NOT

And while I'm ranting about folks not doing their jobs..... today I had an appellate argument.  Yep, I got all dressed up in my lawyer suit and drove for an hour an a half to defend an appeal on a case DH had won on summary judgment.
I'd done my homework.  I was primed and ready. 
Opposing counsel (who, it turns out, was in my first ballroom dance class) was primed and ready. 
It didn't seem to me, however, that the panel of judges had done their homework.  I'd be very surprised if they'd read the briefs (why do we write them if they're not going to read them??).  The questions they asked made me wonder if they had any idea what the case was about, who the players were, or what the real issues of law were that they were there to decide.  They'd have known if they'd read the briefs.  I can't say that they were either primed or ready. Either that or they were trying to trip us up somewhere. Harumph. 

I lost a lot of good knitting time preparing for that case.  (But they do allow knitting needles into the appellate court building.)

But tomorrow .... tomorrow I might get to go hang at the yarn shop with Janna, who is in the area for sadder things (and thus safely away from the floodwaters in Iowa), but thinks she'll be able to squeeze in some time for blogger meet up fun.  And better yet.... one of they LYSs is having a 40% off sale on some of her stuff tomorrow.....

Comments

[joan]

I think you need a vacation.

[Cookie]

I think smacking someone at Comcast might make you feel better, however, I think a vacation might be easier.

[D]

They wonder why I don't want their phone service either.

In their defense (shudder) they did do a big email upgrade thing very recently that absolutely borked stuff up for a few days. I couldn't get my email from my iPhone at all & heard it was the same for all mobile devices. They got that fixed right quick, but perhaps something is lingering & affecting you. I've not had any trouble with my email since they fixed the iPhone thing, so it may be a local problem...

[Nora]

OK, it's a vast telecom industry conspiracy. We just switched our cell phone service from Sprint to AT&T to save a few sheckels. I wish I could come up with a metaphor sufficient to describe what making the change was like. The customer service thus far has been the worst I have ever encountered. Beyond ridiculous. Utterly appalling in its incompetence, stupidity, nonresponsiveness, and inefficiency. Honestly I think they must have to actually strive to be this bad - you just couldn't do it by accident.

As to unprepared judges. I've been there, but here's what you need to keep in mind: If they're as lazy as it sounds, you'll win, because it's easier to affirm the lower court and borrow its reasoning than it is to actually reason your way through a reversal. Fingers crossed!

[Datagoddess]

We ditched Comcast when they gave us a week-and-a-half away appointment to fix our service and I work from home, so that wasn't acceptable. I had a tech call me a liar when I told him what was happening. We were switched over to Comcast from Insight, who had issues but never treated us like dirt the way Comcast does.

See if you can get AT&T U-Verse. I swore a few years ago I'd never go back to AT&T, but their customer service when I was working a DSL issue for my mom encouraged me to try, and since they installed the service we haven't had any down time more than a minute or two (which a modem/router reboot cleared right up). It's a full TV package as well as fast DSL - we have nothing from Comcast anymore. The installers were all AT&T employees, no contractors, and the few times I've called tech support with questions I've been taken care of on the first call.

I have a friend who switched over on my recommendation and has had more issues, but they've all been resolved fairly quickly and I know she's happy, too.