For months I've been getting offers from Comcast Cable to upgrade my current phone service to their new Digital Phone Service. I haven't seen any need. My main resistance is - I just want to go two months without having to deal with them somehow.
Plus, my phone service works fine - when I'm not having an outage. Since all my services from Comcast go down at the same time, I don't think upgrading to Digital Phone Service is going to make any difference for me.
So - today I get an automated phone message from Comcast saying they were "discontinuing" my phone service. But wanted to thank me for being a Comcast customer. Not sure if they were going to transfer me to the new service or just cut my phone, I figured I should call.
When I reach a Comcast support rep., she immediately starts giving me a sales pitch.
At the first point I can make verbal entry I tell her " I don't know why you are trying to sell me on the product - I don't have a choice". She giggles and replies " yeah - thats right.. you don't have a choice". Not in a snotty way..but what else can she say? Unless I want to change phone providers, I don't have a choice.
The phone rep asks me if I want to upgrade to the new service. Which, I know they have to do because of federal law or something. So I agree. She then tells me "well, for you - we are waiving the installation fee". Um yeah. Thanks, but thats a really good thing, because I don't have a choice. When I tell her this, she again laughs nervously, and repeats "thats right, you don't really have a choice". This happened 5 times.
And I will try not to be irritated she asked me what number I wanted to upgrade - when to pull up my account I had to give her my phone number.
Finally she puts me on hold to book my appointment. Yep, thats right. Comcast has to come to my house. I'm overjoyed.
A new interesting factoid is when Comcast comes out now, they apparently ID check you. When I asked why I had to have my ID she asks "this is your account right'?
No - I just gave you the answers to all the security questions because this isn't my account. She goes onto say "well, someone could be at your house and take off with the new equipment, and you would be billed for it".
Really? Someone is going to steal my phone equipment? And BTW - you can see how long I've been a customer. I bet you can probably see my house is jam packed with your equipment. Thats okay...I have to prove myself to you.
Honestly - I don't mind so much proving who I am, but don't give me a ridiculous story about it. Oh yeah, and if the person on the account can't be there, someone else over 18 can - as long as they have a copy of your ID. So much for someone else stealing the equiptment.
But - thats okay Comcast - expect your tech to be unhappy. Because I'm not letting them run the phone line through my carpeted floor like when I moved into this house. Back then I was so stressed about everything else it wasn't work haggling over. This time your tech gets to get into my really tight crawl space.
I might have been a little more flexible if your company wasn't a constant source of irritation.
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query comcast. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query comcast. Sort by date Show all posts
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Saturday, August 17, 2013
I finally got to level up.
After talking to 28 people at Comcast, I finally got access to ftp. I'm still leaving them, but my blog is really old now. I have all the images, but reassembling those images with all the posts would take a really long time. If I can just grab the dir from Comcast, I can just take it somewhere else.
You know, after a while I was sure I just wasn't articulating my problem very well. So, like in video games when you have to replay a level you have to do it slightly differently. Over and over I'd try to slightly change the way I was describing it. Mr S. even starting Googling the exact phrases from the Comcast site so he could make sure there was no misunderstanding.
The insanely frustrating thing was absolutely no one knew was FTP was or did. At one point I was yelling at a guy. I mean, really yelling. It was the only time I was shocked they didn't hang up on me!
I'm here to help you. This is where I had to ask him if he knew what FTP was. Yes, yes. File transfer protocol. In my mind I said at last. Only to realize seconds later he didn't know what it was. Http he said. FTP from the command prompt! I'd have to repeat what is was. I finally started having to ask them prove to me you know how to use FTP. How would you use it? I got the same thing over and over. It's like Yahoo the guy would respond. It not anything like yahoo!
And the complete frustrating thing was no one would admit they didn't know how to use it, and they refused to send me to someone who did. I'd be told I was getting a 2nd level support line, when the level of knowledge was exactly the same. I have probably 7 or 8 phone numbers. I even had to drive down to my local Comcast site and ask them if I could get a phone number of someone who was more technical.
Mr S. finally started dealing with them because he was sure I wasn't saying the right thing. Not that anyone who knew anything about networking would have misunderstood me, but 80% of the time you end up in India.
Eventually I found out there was a third line of support. I was sent over to Security Assurance who apparently was the only one who had control over what might be causing my problem. But they couldn't help me. Finally Mr S. talked to a guy named Mathew (the second Mathew he'd talked to) who looked at the Comcast forums which I linked in one of my other posts. He was the first guy to have any clue or any inclination to try and find the correct person to talk to. I don't remember what number Mathew #2 was. It was somewhere after talking to 20 people. I think he was in the 22-24 range. He actually had to call internally around Comcast to find out how to help, and he seemed embarrassed it was even hard for him internally to find someone.
At this point I'd given up. I'd mentally prepared to just devote a chunk of my life to reassembling my blog. Mr S. was still trying to find the magic power up to get through this level. And I guess he randomly tried to ftp in, and it worked. I immediately started to download my images to at least mirror my stuff so I could take it somewhere else. It was about 30 minutes later someone at Comcast actually called back. Rochelle told Mr S. that my access had been disabled due to a security scare, and that it wasn't her group because they usually try to contact the customer. But someone in the same group (security assurance) had apparently done it. I guess they shut down access if something triggers a security concern.
It looks like my swapping out of the modem was a completely random coincidence. But it would have been really nice if someone would have even notated my account. It would have saved - I don't know, I lost count at 12 man hours. And if I would have gone through the diags the techs wanted me to do, it would have been well more!
Additionally if Comcast wonders why their call volume is so high, it is because their tech ARE dumping calls. If you call from home, and they do not understand how to solve your problem they will just send a reset to the modem. At one point Mr S was "chatting" online with a tech and he started to flip out. Even though he'd specifically asked the guy not to reset out modem, he did. Chat over man. Chat over. My images are still broken, but I don't care. At least I can get at them. I can fix that next week.
You know, after a while I was sure I just wasn't articulating my problem very well. So, like in video games when you have to replay a level you have to do it slightly differently. Over and over I'd try to slightly change the way I was describing it. Mr S. even starting Googling the exact phrases from the Comcast site so he could make sure there was no misunderstanding.
The insanely frustrating thing was absolutely no one knew was FTP was or did. At one point I was yelling at a guy. I mean, really yelling. It was the only time I was shocked they didn't hang up on me!
I'm here to help you. This is where I had to ask him if he knew what FTP was. Yes, yes. File transfer protocol. In my mind I said at last. Only to realize seconds later he didn't know what it was. Http he said. FTP from the command prompt! I'd have to repeat what is was. I finally started having to ask them prove to me you know how to use FTP. How would you use it? I got the same thing over and over. It's like Yahoo the guy would respond. It not anything like yahoo!
And the complete frustrating thing was no one would admit they didn't know how to use it, and they refused to send me to someone who did. I'd be told I was getting a 2nd level support line, when the level of knowledge was exactly the same. I have probably 7 or 8 phone numbers. I even had to drive down to my local Comcast site and ask them if I could get a phone number of someone who was more technical.
Mr S. finally started dealing with them because he was sure I wasn't saying the right thing. Not that anyone who knew anything about networking would have misunderstood me, but 80% of the time you end up in India.
Eventually I found out there was a third line of support. I was sent over to Security Assurance who apparently was the only one who had control over what might be causing my problem. But they couldn't help me. Finally Mr S. talked to a guy named Mathew (the second Mathew he'd talked to) who looked at the Comcast forums which I linked in one of my other posts. He was the first guy to have any clue or any inclination to try and find the correct person to talk to. I don't remember what number Mathew #2 was. It was somewhere after talking to 20 people. I think he was in the 22-24 range. He actually had to call internally around Comcast to find out how to help, and he seemed embarrassed it was even hard for him internally to find someone.
At this point I'd given up. I'd mentally prepared to just devote a chunk of my life to reassembling my blog. Mr S. was still trying to find the magic power up to get through this level. And I guess he randomly tried to ftp in, and it worked. I immediately started to download my images to at least mirror my stuff so I could take it somewhere else. It was about 30 minutes later someone at Comcast actually called back. Rochelle told Mr S. that my access had been disabled due to a security scare, and that it wasn't her group because they usually try to contact the customer. But someone in the same group (security assurance) had apparently done it. I guess they shut down access if something triggers a security concern.
It looks like my swapping out of the modem was a completely random coincidence. But it would have been really nice if someone would have even notated my account. It would have saved - I don't know, I lost count at 12 man hours. And if I would have gone through the diags the techs wanted me to do, it would have been well more!
Additionally if Comcast wonders why their call volume is so high, it is because their tech ARE dumping calls. If you call from home, and they do not understand how to solve your problem they will just send a reset to the modem. At one point Mr S was "chatting" online with a tech and he started to flip out. Even though he'd specifically asked the guy not to reset out modem, he did. Chat over man. Chat over. My images are still broken, but I don't care. At least I can get at them. I can fix that next week.
Monday, August 14, 2006
What did the five fingers say to the face?
SLAP!
This is what AT&T is doing to Comcast at this very moment. They are taking advantage of a devastating (for the company) weakness with Comcast service.
When this happens........
People get really f-ing pissed. What makes them even more pissed? Not being able to use a land-line phone. Doesn't seem like the huge deal I am making it out to be? Be without power for 23 hours and see how far that cell phone battery takes you. Sadly.. I was one of the lucky ones... There were many reports of people being out of power for days.
Unfortunately.... you don't even have to loose power to go technologically dark. So when Comcast called a week after the power outage to sell me services, I was so pissed I told them they were the last people on earth who should be calling me.
Since moving into my new place four months ago, I have had 3 complete Comcast outages. One was do to the heat index and resulting power losses. The others.. who the F knows.
So when Comcast again called yesterday to ask about the nature of my last call, and what my customer satisfaction was. I let loose. I was so pissed about the other stuff that I forgot to even complain about HD content.
Don't I pay extra every month for HD.. yes I do. I have previously blogged about it here.
Later that day I told my husband with glee they called to let me bitch at them. Ironically at that very moment we heard an ad on TV bitching about who else? Comcast. It turns out the issue must be big enough that AT&T has run a whole ad campaign to capitalize on the weakness. Apparently that random call wasn't so random. The ad campaign must be making a difference to Comcast. I have never had them call to see what my satisfaction level was.
Unfortunately with so few choices... changing providers is a little like trying to figure out which side of the apple is less rotten.
I'm not just sport bitching. But I'd rather not go through all the trouble of switching only to find myself in a rather similar predicament. Which is why I am not currently at AT&T.
This is what AT&T is doing to Comcast at this very moment. They are taking advantage of a devastating (for the company) weakness with Comcast service.
When this happens........
People get really f-ing pissed. What makes them even more pissed? Not being able to use a land-line phone. Doesn't seem like the huge deal I am making it out to be? Be without power for 23 hours and see how far that cell phone battery takes you. Sadly.. I was one of the lucky ones... There were many reports of people being out of power for days.
Unfortunately.... you don't even have to loose power to go technologically dark. So when Comcast called a week after the power outage to sell me services, I was so pissed I told them they were the last people on earth who should be calling me.
Since moving into my new place four months ago, I have had 3 complete Comcast outages. One was do to the heat index and resulting power losses. The others.. who the F knows.
So when Comcast again called yesterday to ask about the nature of my last call, and what my customer satisfaction was. I let loose. I was so pissed about the other stuff that I forgot to even complain about HD content.
Don't I pay extra every month for HD.. yes I do. I have previously blogged about it here.
Later that day I told my husband with glee they called to let me bitch at them. Ironically at that very moment we heard an ad on TV bitching about who else? Comcast. It turns out the issue must be big enough that AT&T has run a whole ad campaign to capitalize on the weakness. Apparently that random call wasn't so random. The ad campaign must be making a difference to Comcast. I have never had them call to see what my satisfaction level was.
Unfortunately with so few choices... changing providers is a little like trying to figure out which side of the apple is less rotten.
I'm not just sport bitching. But I'd rather not go through all the trouble of switching only to find myself in a rather similar predicament. Which is why I am not currently at AT&T.
Friday, August 16, 2013
Comcast is obviously hiring people who have never heard of the Internet.
Right now I have talked to 11 people at Comcast. They are sending me back to 2nd level support. Which I've been at three times now. My issue is still not resolved. But they have found news ways to hang up on me. My "chat" with Comcast, took 45 minutes and before I could even respond to the last statement she sent a reset to my modem. Which she didn't tell me she was going to do. Chat ended. So I had to call them once again.
analyst Khara has entered room
Khara: Hello (real name here), Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Khara. Please give me one moment to review your information.
(real name here): My Issue: I upgraded my modem a couple of days ago, and the girl who activated it only did the modem. She did not activate my personal web page that I've been using for years.
Khara: Greetings! A pleasant day to you. I look forward to helping you today.
(real name here): Thank you
Khara: You are most welcome.
Khara: I understand that you want to activate your personal web page, am I right?
(real name here): Well, it was activated until I upgraded my modem. So yes. I just want you to turn it back on.
Khara: May I ask if you can access your webpage through this link: publish.comcast.net
(real name here): no
(real name here): I also can not ftp into upload.comcast.net
Khara: Do you receive any error messages when you try to access your personal web page?
(real name here): Yes. It tells me my login is incorrect. I've read on the internet the reason is because my personal web page has been disabled. Or not ENABLED when I upgraded my modem. I can log in via a web browser
Khara: Do not worry, we will check on that one.
Khara: Thank you for providing that information.
Khara: Please allow me a minute or two to pull up your account so we can check it. Is that okay with you?
(real name here): yes
Khara: Thank you.
Khara: Thanks for patiently waiting, (real name here).
Khara: To fully understand and to better assist you with your concern, would you mind if I would ask you some questions?
(real name here): No problem
Khara: Thank you.
(real name here): okay
Khara: May I ask what user ID are you using to access your web page?
(real name here): snarkolepsy
Khara: Thank you.
Khara: May I ask if you are able to log in to www.comcast.net?
(real name here): yes
user (real name here) has left room
Khara: (real name here), I will need to attempt to reset your account password to try and duplicate issue. DO you grant permission to reset password?
(real name here): I'm not sure why you need to reset my passwd to reactivate my personal web page.
Khara: (real name here), I would like to inform you that the ability to activate Personal Web Page has been disabled that is why we need to escalate this one so that the higher fix department can fix the issue good for us.
(real name here): I don't use the web page. I just use FTP for personal image storage. Are you familiar with FTP? File transfer Protocal.
Khara: Yes, (real name here). I understand that. One way of resolving the issue is to reset your password and let you try to log in using the new password.
(real name here): The passwd is NOT the problem! The problem is that when I upgraded my modem the girl didn't activate anything else on my account. Inclusing my phone. I had to call back. I just want you to activate the things I already had on my account.
(real name here): I want you to reactive my personal web page so I can log in via the command prompt using ftp.
Khara: (real name here), everything on your account is in active status.
The analyst has left and your issue has been closed.
Waiting for response from Khara
user (real name here) has left room
Khara: Analyst has closed chat and left the room
analyst Khara has entered room
Khara: Hello (real name here), Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Khara. Please give me one moment to review your information.
(real name here): My Issue: I upgraded my modem a couple of days ago, and the girl who activated it only did the modem. She did not activate my personal web page that I've been using for years.
Khara: Greetings! A pleasant day to you. I look forward to helping you today.
(real name here): Thank you
Khara: You are most welcome.
Khara: I understand that you want to activate your personal web page, am I right?
(real name here): Well, it was activated until I upgraded my modem. So yes. I just want you to turn it back on.
Khara: May I ask if you can access your webpage through this link: publish.comcast.net
(real name here): no
(real name here): I also can not ftp into upload.comcast.net
Khara: Do you receive any error messages when you try to access your personal web page?
(real name here): Yes. It tells me my login is incorrect. I've read on the internet the reason is because my personal web page has been disabled. Or not ENABLED when I upgraded my modem. I can log in via a web browser
Khara: Do not worry, we will check on that one.
Khara: Thank you for providing that information.
Khara: Please allow me a minute or two to pull up your account so we can check it. Is that okay with you?
(real name here): yes
Khara: Thank you.
Khara: Thanks for patiently waiting, (real name here).
Khara: To fully understand and to better assist you with your concern, would you mind if I would ask you some questions?
(real name here): No problem
Khara: Thank you.
(real name here): okay
Khara: May I ask what user ID are you using to access your web page?
(real name here): snarkolepsy
Khara: Thank you.
Khara: May I ask if you are able to log in to www.comcast.net?
(real name here): yes
user (real name here) has left room
Khara: (real name here), I will need to attempt to reset your account password to try and duplicate issue. DO you grant permission to reset password?
(real name here): I'm not sure why you need to reset my passwd to reactivate my personal web page.
Khara: (real name here), I would like to inform you that the ability to activate Personal Web Page has been disabled that is why we need to escalate this one so that the higher fix department can fix the issue good for us.
(real name here): I don't use the web page. I just use FTP for personal image storage. Are you familiar with FTP? File transfer Protocal.
Khara: Yes, (real name here). I understand that. One way of resolving the issue is to reset your password and let you try to log in using the new password.
(real name here): The passwd is NOT the problem! The problem is that when I upgraded my modem the girl didn't activate anything else on my account. Inclusing my phone. I had to call back. I just want you to activate the things I already had on my account.
(real name here): I want you to reactive my personal web page so I can log in via the command prompt using ftp.
Khara: (real name here), everything on your account is in active status.
The analyst has left and your issue has been closed.
Waiting for response from Khara
user (real name here) has left room
Khara: Analyst has closed chat and left the room
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
A sales rant about Vonage.
Tonight I get a call from Vonage. At first I thought it was a routine sales/marketing call.
The sales guy however tells me Vonage is calling customers that have called them recently because they have a sales promotion going on.
All of a sudden I got all exited. Because honestly, I did just call them a few days ago after I had my last customer service rant. Here.
At first I was super impressed because I never gave Vonage my number. Their sales guy had effectively frustrated me enough that I wound up not switching my service to them.
So, the company stripping my number from the sales call impressed me. Okay.. it doesn't take that much these days. To be honest, the sales guy could have had me at "hello".. but this is how he screwed it up:
While giving me the hard sales pitch he says the following:
"Do you have a pen, I'd like to give you some information to write down". Then he says " I'd like you to write down our company name - this is Vonage".
Me - "Um.. yeah, I know." You said you were calling all the customers who had recently called you. I know who you are. Plus, you've said the name like 20 billion times in 3 minutes.
While my husband is trying to find a pen, I figure I'd ask the sales guy about something I read. So I ask "I heard that Vonage uses Comcast's lines, and that Comcast has been downgrading the Vonage signal because they don't want you to enter the sector.
This causes the sales guy to totally ignore my question and tell me about the Vonage services again trying to stay on script. So I say "that doesn't answer my question". I again ask about Comcast downgrading the Vonage signal.
He then tells me he'd never heard about that problem. Then starts backpedaling.
Well, he says - if that does happen you can increase the Vonage signal. But again, he's never heard about Comcast doing that so it shouldn't be a problem. And we can try the service risk free for 30 days without disconnecting from our current service. Then goes onto say, maybe he has heard of Comcast downgrading the signal, but they have a complaint registered with the FCC.
Okay...Comcast is pissing me off so much I might not even care you guys are having a little flame war, but don't fucking lie to me about about it. Either you've never heard about it - or you have a complaint with the FCC. It can't be both.
The sales guy however tells me Vonage is calling customers that have called them recently because they have a sales promotion going on.
All of a sudden I got all exited. Because honestly, I did just call them a few days ago after I had my last customer service rant. Here.
At first I was super impressed because I never gave Vonage my number. Their sales guy had effectively frustrated me enough that I wound up not switching my service to them.
So, the company stripping my number from the sales call impressed me. Okay.. it doesn't take that much these days. To be honest, the sales guy could have had me at "hello".. but this is how he screwed it up:
While giving me the hard sales pitch he says the following:
"Do you have a pen, I'd like to give you some information to write down". Then he says " I'd like you to write down our company name - this is Vonage".
Me - "Um.. yeah, I know." You said you were calling all the customers who had recently called you. I know who you are. Plus, you've said the name like 20 billion times in 3 minutes.
While my husband is trying to find a pen, I figure I'd ask the sales guy about something I read. So I ask "I heard that Vonage uses Comcast's lines, and that Comcast has been downgrading the Vonage signal because they don't want you to enter the sector.
This causes the sales guy to totally ignore my question and tell me about the Vonage services again trying to stay on script. So I say "that doesn't answer my question". I again ask about Comcast downgrading the Vonage signal.
He then tells me he'd never heard about that problem. Then starts backpedaling.
Well, he says - if that does happen you can increase the Vonage signal. But again, he's never heard about Comcast doing that so it shouldn't be a problem. And we can try the service risk free for 30 days without disconnecting from our current service. Then goes onto say, maybe he has heard of Comcast downgrading the signal, but they have a complaint registered with the FCC.
Okay...Comcast is pissing me off so much I might not even care you guys are having a little flame war, but don't fucking lie to me about about it. Either you've never heard about it - or you have a complaint with the FCC. It can't be both.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
How making me happy can save you money.
Dear readers... I have to make an admission. I used to work in Tech Support. You would not be reading my blog if it weren't for one of the companies I used to work for. But that was in the long, long ago times. Now I am just a frustrated consumer.
So you see.. I understand how hard customer support is. Which maybe is why I get so completely pissed by how inefficiently customer support lines are run. You see - in tech support - you can tell within seconds who the clueless bastards are who will do nothing but drain the life from you. I am not one of them. Usually. So why does it take me 5 interactions with customer support to get my problem resolved?
Little background:
Over the weekend my network connection to Comcast Cable kept dropping in and out. About the time I would become frustrated enough to call them, my connection would magically heal itself - until this morning.
Confident enough in the idea the 2 lights on my cable modem would not increase to 4, I felt maybe I could just have Comcast reboot my modem from their side, and we could all live happily ever after. After all - it was only an intermittent problem up until that point.
With call #1, after going through all the menu's - I was exiled into a phone state filled with static. I could neither tell if I was on hold or had been disconnected.
Call #2 brought me fear that I may never actually get connected. The Comcast automated system repeatedly kept informing me that it was "trying to connect my call". I eventually did reach a support rep, and it immediately started off badly. Despite clear enunciation - it took 5 tries for the rep to get my phone number down.
Once we get through that - I describe my problem, and she begins to ping my modem. Which by that time had regained its connection. Luckily within seconds it dropped back out. This obviously perplexed the support rep. Completely incapable of diagnosing an intermittent problem I could hear her start to stutter. In my head I am starting to scream profanities, and she informs me that she doesn't see any outages in my area. Well I ask " can you reboot my modem from your side"?
A moment of brilliance pops on in her head and she asks" Oh - you want me to reboot your modem"? In my head " No- I was just hoping to chat with you about your day, and maybe diagnose my own problem" - but I only muster a sarcastic "yes". This only results in my connection fluctuating in and out.
She asks "do you have a firewall'?
At this point I'm getting pissed but I know my chances are slim of getting anyone better. This is Comcast after all. I just hope I can get her to do what I want her to do. I reply " Yes I have a firewall, but that won't make the lights on my modem show I don't have a connection".
Then she tries to punt me hoping I would go away. She asks "Do you still have the install disk the modem came with"? You have got to be joking right? So "you don't see any problems on your side" I ask?
At this point she offers up sending out a support Rep. Which makes me freak out because this means I will be without service for several days. I tell her I will take the modem down myself and swap it.
So - a half an hour later I get home with my new modem - plug it in and still no connection. The lights on the modem are reporting a fantastic connection though. I start to think "maybe those f-ing cd's do have something on them the modem needs". I install the CD, and still no connection.
Call #3 to Comcast. The automated operator again informs me she is trying to connect my call - which by the way was the message I got each time I called. Eventually I wind up being dropped.
Call #4. I get a girl named Samantha. But by this time I'm sure my voice has a mixture of pleading, and irritation. I tell her that all I want is to get on the Internet, and that I just swapped out my modem. Then something magical happens. She starts talking to me like a peer. And she knows stuff! Within a few minutes after her sending resets to my modem.. I'm able to get to Google.
At this point I am just gushing about how much I appreciate her. I tell her I have a crush on her. Yeah.. thats right. I can have a non-sexual girl crush. Chicks who know technology rock.
At any rate.. I hope I don't have to call Comcast again - for at least 30 days. But I sincerely wish they would hire more Samantha's. It is just ridiculous for it to take that amount of customer service time for a someone who is reasonably technically literate.
So you see.. I understand how hard customer support is. Which maybe is why I get so completely pissed by how inefficiently customer support lines are run. You see - in tech support - you can tell within seconds who the clueless bastards are who will do nothing but drain the life from you. I am not one of them. Usually. So why does it take me 5 interactions with customer support to get my problem resolved?
Little background:
Over the weekend my network connection to Comcast Cable kept dropping in and out. About the time I would become frustrated enough to call them, my connection would magically heal itself - until this morning.
Confident enough in the idea the 2 lights on my cable modem would not increase to 4, I felt maybe I could just have Comcast reboot my modem from their side, and we could all live happily ever after. After all - it was only an intermittent problem up until that point.
With call #1, after going through all the menu's - I was exiled into a phone state filled with static. I could neither tell if I was on hold or had been disconnected.
Call #2 brought me fear that I may never actually get connected. The Comcast automated system repeatedly kept informing me that it was "trying to connect my call". I eventually did reach a support rep, and it immediately started off badly. Despite clear enunciation - it took 5 tries for the rep to get my phone number down.
Once we get through that - I describe my problem, and she begins to ping my modem. Which by that time had regained its connection. Luckily within seconds it dropped back out. This obviously perplexed the support rep. Completely incapable of diagnosing an intermittent problem I could hear her start to stutter. In my head I am starting to scream profanities, and she informs me that she doesn't see any outages in my area. Well I ask " can you reboot my modem from your side"?
A moment of brilliance pops on in her head and she asks" Oh - you want me to reboot your modem"? In my head " No- I was just hoping to chat with you about your day, and maybe diagnose my own problem" - but I only muster a sarcastic "yes". This only results in my connection fluctuating in and out.
She asks "do you have a firewall'?
At this point I'm getting pissed but I know my chances are slim of getting anyone better. This is Comcast after all. I just hope I can get her to do what I want her to do. I reply " Yes I have a firewall, but that won't make the lights on my modem show I don't have a connection".
Then she tries to punt me hoping I would go away. She asks "Do you still have the install disk the modem came with"? You have got to be joking right? So "you don't see any problems on your side" I ask?
At this point she offers up sending out a support Rep. Which makes me freak out because this means I will be without service for several days. I tell her I will take the modem down myself and swap it.
So - a half an hour later I get home with my new modem - plug it in and still no connection. The lights on the modem are reporting a fantastic connection though. I start to think "maybe those f-ing cd's do have something on them the modem needs". I install the CD, and still no connection.
Call #3 to Comcast. The automated operator again informs me she is trying to connect my call - which by the way was the message I got each time I called. Eventually I wind up being dropped.
Call #4. I get a girl named Samantha. But by this time I'm sure my voice has a mixture of pleading, and irritation. I tell her that all I want is to get on the Internet, and that I just swapped out my modem. Then something magical happens. She starts talking to me like a peer. And she knows stuff! Within a few minutes after her sending resets to my modem.. I'm able to get to Google.
At this point I am just gushing about how much I appreciate her. I tell her I have a crush on her. Yeah.. thats right. I can have a non-sexual girl crush. Chicks who know technology rock.
At any rate.. I hope I don't have to call Comcast again - for at least 30 days. But I sincerely wish they would hire more Samantha's. It is just ridiculous for it to take that amount of customer service time for a someone who is reasonably technically literate.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Haps.
Today was sort of an interesting day for me. It started out at the vet. I had to pick up some crap for Paisley. The allergy queen. Which is also where I ran into a 200 pound Great Dane.
If you don't know how much I love dogs - you should. I know I bitch about them a lot. But, I really do love dogs. Always have. Except those yippy kicking dogs. Mr S. is allergic ironically. Which is why we don't have a dog. And I most especially love Great Danes. This one was one of the biggest I'd ever seen. He was an older dog. 10 years the owner had told me. I loved on him, and perhaps it shaped the day.
Earlier in the week I'd been knee deep in building the bomb shelter. I'd thought we were going to get out of this whole economy thing by summer. Lately I'd grown pessimistic. We figured it was time to dig in deeper. So our premium cable was on the list of items to save money on. You can download everything now anyway. Plus those comcast guys had so frayed my last nerve for many many years I was done with them. So I called to downgrade.
Now, let me preface this by saying - I'm sure you guys think I'm some bitchy old hag that bitches all the time. Which may or may not be true. I feel bitchy a lot of the time. This however doesn't translate to anyone I come into contact with. As a matter of a fact, I'd love for someone someday to tell me what it is in my personality that makes people feel so comfortable - they spill their entire life stories to me. I never tire of marveling at the disconnect I feel between how I think I'm perceived, and how people must actually perceive me.
Anyway.. back on the phone with the comcast guy. What I thought would be a 5 minute call, turned into a 35 minute call. And I'm not even complaining about it. Normally I hate to take up so much time on a support line. Other people have problems too. But this guy was so completely friendly and helpful. So totally unlike anything I'd ever experienced with Comcast. (Except for the on site techs) Previous rants here.
He starting talking about the shows he watched. Which made me laugh at him, and call him hilarious. I didn't want to engage him too much because I'm never talking to that guy again. But he was pretty funny. He also watched pretty much all the same shows we did. Except for Red Eye. Which I insisted he must watch. He talked to me about his family. I was still trying to be mindful of not taking up too much time. He got into a political rant. Again. Odd. Considering he was a California local boy, and he quite obviously was not a liberal. We non liberals like to hide under rocks. We are outnumbered you know. It was the oddest thing ever. Yet not bothersome.
At any rate - he managed to talk me down from the ledge, and transfer me to an introductory plan. Which is quite a savings. Maybe that guy is the best sales person on earth. Mr S. and I joked about the guy later. Something along the lines of comcast being able to look at our viewing habits and personalise his sales pitch. Perhaps the next call the sales guy got was a sports fanatic. And then the sales guy was too. I don't know. I only know that I'd never once had the support line at comcast ever seem to care if they had a customer or not. Clearly today it seemed like they were making an effort.
If you don't know how much I love dogs - you should. I know I bitch about them a lot. But, I really do love dogs. Always have. Except those yippy kicking dogs. Mr S. is allergic ironically. Which is why we don't have a dog. And I most especially love Great Danes. This one was one of the biggest I'd ever seen. He was an older dog. 10 years the owner had told me. I loved on him, and perhaps it shaped the day.
Earlier in the week I'd been knee deep in building the bomb shelter. I'd thought we were going to get out of this whole economy thing by summer. Lately I'd grown pessimistic. We figured it was time to dig in deeper. So our premium cable was on the list of items to save money on. You can download everything now anyway. Plus those comcast guys had so frayed my last nerve for many many years I was done with them. So I called to downgrade.
Now, let me preface this by saying - I'm sure you guys think I'm some bitchy old hag that bitches all the time. Which may or may not be true. I feel bitchy a lot of the time. This however doesn't translate to anyone I come into contact with. As a matter of a fact, I'd love for someone someday to tell me what it is in my personality that makes people feel so comfortable - they spill their entire life stories to me. I never tire of marveling at the disconnect I feel between how I think I'm perceived, and how people must actually perceive me.
Anyway.. back on the phone with the comcast guy. What I thought would be a 5 minute call, turned into a 35 minute call. And I'm not even complaining about it. Normally I hate to take up so much time on a support line. Other people have problems too. But this guy was so completely friendly and helpful. So totally unlike anything I'd ever experienced with Comcast. (Except for the on site techs) Previous rants here.
He starting talking about the shows he watched. Which made me laugh at him, and call him hilarious. I didn't want to engage him too much because I'm never talking to that guy again. But he was pretty funny. He also watched pretty much all the same shows we did. Except for Red Eye. Which I insisted he must watch. He talked to me about his family. I was still trying to be mindful of not taking up too much time. He got into a political rant. Again. Odd. Considering he was a California local boy, and he quite obviously was not a liberal. We non liberals like to hide under rocks. We are outnumbered you know. It was the oddest thing ever. Yet not bothersome.
At any rate - he managed to talk me down from the ledge, and transfer me to an introductory plan. Which is quite a savings. Maybe that guy is the best sales person on earth. Mr S. and I joked about the guy later. Something along the lines of comcast being able to look at our viewing habits and personalise his sales pitch. Perhaps the next call the sales guy got was a sports fanatic. And then the sales guy was too. I don't know. I only know that I'd never once had the support line at comcast ever seem to care if they had a customer or not. Clearly today it seemed like they were making an effort.
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Dealing with Comcast is worse than getting butt raped by the IRS.
I'd love to tell you why my RSS feed is broken and all the images on my blog are broken. But I can't. I can't upload any images to Comcast through FTP. I can't log in at all. It says my login is incorrect, but if I go to a browser window I can log right in. But that doesn't allow me to upload images.
I've just spent over 2 hours on the phone with Comcast. I've talked to 8 people including a manager. Not one single person at that company has ever heard of the word FTP. NOT ONE. F-t- what? What is it? Since none of them know what this is - I get stuck on hold, only to be hung up on. Even the manager did this! I even managed to get to 2nd level support. You'd think that back line support would be well, smarter. They had never heard of FTP. They had never heard of the concept of uploading images to Comcast. So trying to find out if a server was dead out there was an impossibility. I can't even get my images off so I can tell them to eff off.
It takes 15 minutes to even talk to someone. All the while, the phone system tells me they are experiencing unexpected call volume. Maybe it's because their reps are dumping calls. I've read on another forum that customer service reps get reprimanded for staying on calls to long, and so a lot of them just hang up now to not get into trouble. And I suspect this is what Comcast is doing too.
Dealing with the government is a blessing over dealing with this company. I hope some trader comes in and shorts the hell out of this company.
I've just spent over 2 hours on the phone with Comcast. I've talked to 8 people including a manager. Not one single person at that company has ever heard of the word FTP. NOT ONE. F-t- what? What is it? Since none of them know what this is - I get stuck on hold, only to be hung up on. Even the manager did this! I even managed to get to 2nd level support. You'd think that back line support would be well, smarter. They had never heard of FTP. They had never heard of the concept of uploading images to Comcast. So trying to find out if a server was dead out there was an impossibility. I can't even get my images off so I can tell them to eff off.
It takes 15 minutes to even talk to someone. All the while, the phone system tells me they are experiencing unexpected call volume. Maybe it's because their reps are dumping calls. I've read on another forum that customer service reps get reprimanded for staying on calls to long, and so a lot of them just hang up now to not get into trouble. And I suspect this is what Comcast is doing too.
Dealing with the government is a blessing over dealing with this company. I hope some trader comes in and shorts the hell out of this company.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
The Comcast Battle Rages On.
About a week ago Tivo stopped recording some of our premium cable channels - like Showtime.
The first sign that something was wrong was when "Penn & Teller's Bullshit" failed to record. But we wrote it off as a glitch, and told Tivo to re-record the next showing. But when that failed too, we started to try and figure out what was going on. We flip over to Showtime and realize we are getting a cable card error and no picture. This of course results in us needing to call Comcast tech support. I can hear you regular readers gasping. No I didn't freak out. Yet.
As many of you probably guessed - we were not able to fix the problem on the phone, and an on-site service visit was scheduled. Still no freak out. We called on a Monday and the tech was supposed to come out today (Thursday).
Okay.. here comes the irritating part. Yesterday, my husband emails me this link from the Tivo forums. Apparently a ton of people in the Bay Area are having the same problem. We are all in a 50 mile radius. You'd think our support people might have gotten the news of the problem. At any rate.. I think "there is no way I'm calling Comcast again - I've already talked to them this month".
My husband and I debate whether we are going to let the tech come, or sit on hold for however long it takes to get support to fix the problem. Because it doesn't require a tech to come out at all. Neither solution seemed great. Some people on the Tivo forum have had support come out up to seven times. They don't bring the right cards, or not enough cards. On the flip side, people have had to call support back many times too.
Being the calm person he is.. my husbands decides to call. He walks the support person through getting the box to work. And he gets them to give us one week's credit for the time we have been without our channels. It was effortless. Amazing in fact. Even though I was still a little irritated that we have to walk a company through fixing our problem.
When he got off the phone I asked Mr Snarkolepsy how I got so lucky to have such a patient husband?
Him - Process of elimination.
Me - What?!
Him - A man who wasn't patient wouldn't marry you.
Me - What does that mean?
Him - You made all your boyfriends jump thru hoops, and were always giving them little tests. Most guys would have given up, so by default any man who passes all your tests would have to be patient.
Me- Well, maybe I wouldn't have married them.
Him - Yeah.. that's just another way of saying it.
Me - Shut up!
Me - Comcast was lucky to not get your "don't fuck with me" voice. How come you didn't yell at them?
Him - This was just another way to get them to do what I wanted. It was a "win/win".
Me- But Babe, its suppose to be a "when/when". When do I get to yell at them?
For the record - I never wind up yelling at anyone. Except inside my head.
The first sign that something was wrong was when "Penn & Teller's Bullshit" failed to record. But we wrote it off as a glitch, and told Tivo to re-record the next showing. But when that failed too, we started to try and figure out what was going on. We flip over to Showtime and realize we are getting a cable card error and no picture. This of course results in us needing to call Comcast tech support. I can hear you regular readers gasping. No I didn't freak out. Yet.
As many of you probably guessed - we were not able to fix the problem on the phone, and an on-site service visit was scheduled. Still no freak out. We called on a Monday and the tech was supposed to come out today (Thursday).
Okay.. here comes the irritating part. Yesterday, my husband emails me this link from the Tivo forums. Apparently a ton of people in the Bay Area are having the same problem. We are all in a 50 mile radius. You'd think our support people might have gotten the news of the problem. At any rate.. I think "there is no way I'm calling Comcast again - I've already talked to them this month".
My husband and I debate whether we are going to let the tech come, or sit on hold for however long it takes to get support to fix the problem. Because it doesn't require a tech to come out at all. Neither solution seemed great. Some people on the Tivo forum have had support come out up to seven times. They don't bring the right cards, or not enough cards. On the flip side, people have had to call support back many times too.
Being the calm person he is.. my husbands decides to call. He walks the support person through getting the box to work. And he gets them to give us one week's credit for the time we have been without our channels. It was effortless. Amazing in fact. Even though I was still a little irritated that we have to walk a company through fixing our problem.
When he got off the phone I asked Mr Snarkolepsy how I got so lucky to have such a patient husband?
Him - Process of elimination.
Me - What?!
Him - A man who wasn't patient wouldn't marry you.
Me - What does that mean?
Him - You made all your boyfriends jump thru hoops, and were always giving them little tests. Most guys would have given up, so by default any man who passes all your tests would have to be patient.
Me- Well, maybe I wouldn't have married them.
Him - Yeah.. that's just another way of saying it.
Me - Shut up!
Me - Comcast was lucky to not get your "don't fuck with me" voice. How come you didn't yell at them?
Him - This was just another way to get them to do what I wanted. It was a "win/win".
Me- But Babe, its suppose to be a "when/when". When do I get to yell at them?
For the record - I never wind up yelling at anyone. Except inside my head.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Another Comcast Rant.
I swear to you - Comcast will not rest until they have you resent every experience you have with them.
Listen.. one of the few - and I stress FEW - good features Comcast Cable had going for them was the ability to watch trailers for movies. I have purchased a lot of movies I would have never chosen to buy if I hadn't been given the choice of watching a trailer.
With so much media choice I forget what a movie is about by the time I get around to viewing it. Yes.. I'm ADD to the hilt.
So this week - while wanting to figure out if we wanted to buy a movie - we were greeted with this new gem.
You can not turn it off. And it is really f-ing annoying.
I can only guess they did this because the menu system for buying movies through Comcast is really cumbersome. So.. why fix that? Just make it so your customers have a hard time trying to actually view the preview. Oh.. or make it even better by letting this fuck-tard talk about 2 minutes before letting you see a 1 minute clip.
Listen.. one of the few - and I stress FEW - good features Comcast Cable had going for them was the ability to watch trailers for movies. I have purchased a lot of movies I would have never chosen to buy if I hadn't been given the choice of watching a trailer.
With so much media choice I forget what a movie is about by the time I get around to viewing it. Yes.. I'm ADD to the hilt.
So this week - while wanting to figure out if we wanted to buy a movie - we were greeted with this new gem.
You can not turn it off. And it is really f-ing annoying.
I can only guess they did this because the menu system for buying movies through Comcast is really cumbersome. So.. why fix that? Just make it so your customers have a hard time trying to actually view the preview. Oh.. or make it even better by letting this fuck-tard talk about 2 minutes before letting you see a 1 minute clip.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Comcast... AGAIN.
I have had to deal with Comcast six times this month, and let me just say... it is pissing me the fuck off. I apparently have nothing better to do than sit on hold with Comcast. Let me just start out by saying I understand outages and equipment failure. Stuff breaks down.
Apparently all the time.
If you have read this blog, you know it is an ongoing issue with us. I don't know what the fuck it is. My husband and I do research. (pre-shopping) We don't buy bottom of the line....
Anyway... I digress.
If hadn't had to deal with them 4 other times this month I would be less close to the road called livid when this morning my net, cable and landline went dead.
Let me just say again... I understand outages.
What pisses me off to no end is that they refuse to tell you when they have an outage, system convert, or whatever. A customer likely will still be pissed off, but they will pissed off and go away. Instead they insist on having you call back on average 2-3 times. Then come up with creative ideas on how to get the support people to just tell you if there is a widespread problem.
I will admit, when my house goes technologically dark, I'm going to be surly. But at least I haven't lost time on hold. Wasted a chunk of time playing guessing games with support, and generally livid in the end they just didn't say there was an outage.
It isn't like we really have a lot of choices, so telling customers they are having a fucking problem wouldn't make that much of a difference.
I know... I know.. I am being overly sensitive. Maybe someone hit a pole down my street. Playing 50 questions is appropriate.
There must be a lot of people in my small town plowing into underground cable lines. I also find it totally unreasonable when they have a failure that all their services fail. Again, not an isolated incident.
In another event earlier this month our HD cable box starts acting up. As you can see here, this also is not an isolated incident. So we take the box in and swap it out.. really thinking nothing of it. Because we have been through - I don't know, close to 4 HD boxes since my entry on 10/9/05. Since we were still getting digital static with the new box I called customer service.
After being on hold 40 minutes or so, the support guy comes on, and I say in a jovial tone "Hi (whatever the support guys name was) you guys have to be having a system wide problem". I was on hold for 40 minutes". To which I get an uncomfortable laugh. He then takes me through the motions of rebooting my box. Finally after about 10 minutes he says " you asked if we were having a system wide problem, last week they switched everyone over to a fully digital signal and lots of people are having problems".
Well.. okay. I am a little surprised this would be our problem, because half of the house is working fine. We set up an appointment for 3 days later because if I have to swap out another box, I am going to freak out.
When they tech comes out, she is about ready to slit her wrists. She confirms that the system switch has made her life completely miserable. Comcast apparently didn't inform any customers of the switch, and anyone with copper coax needed to be restrung. Which apparently half my older house was wired with.
I understand I would have had a tech come out, but it would have been nice to get that handled on the 1st or second calls.
Then... I just have to bitch again about the f-ing HD situation. It has been 10 months since we got HDTV. They still have the same f-ing 20 channels. Roughly half of them still sports content. At least half of the time, what is listed to be on - isn't. It would be super out of this world, if they added one channel every 6 months. That is all I ask.
Apparently all the time.
If you have read this blog, you know it is an ongoing issue with us. I don't know what the fuck it is. My husband and I do research. (pre-shopping) We don't buy bottom of the line....
Anyway... I digress.
If hadn't had to deal with them 4 other times this month I would be less close to the road called livid when this morning my net, cable and landline went dead.
Let me just say again... I understand outages.
What pisses me off to no end is that they refuse to tell you when they have an outage, system convert, or whatever. A customer likely will still be pissed off, but they will pissed off and go away. Instead they insist on having you call back on average 2-3 times. Then come up with creative ideas on how to get the support people to just tell you if there is a widespread problem.
I will admit, when my house goes technologically dark, I'm going to be surly. But at least I haven't lost time on hold. Wasted a chunk of time playing guessing games with support, and generally livid in the end they just didn't say there was an outage.
It isn't like we really have a lot of choices, so telling customers they are having a fucking problem wouldn't make that much of a difference.
I know... I know.. I am being overly sensitive. Maybe someone hit a pole down my street. Playing 50 questions is appropriate.
There must be a lot of people in my small town plowing into underground cable lines. I also find it totally unreasonable when they have a failure that all their services fail. Again, not an isolated incident.
In another event earlier this month our HD cable box starts acting up. As you can see here, this also is not an isolated incident. So we take the box in and swap it out.. really thinking nothing of it. Because we have been through - I don't know, close to 4 HD boxes since my entry on 10/9/05. Since we were still getting digital static with the new box I called customer service.
After being on hold 40 minutes or so, the support guy comes on, and I say in a jovial tone "Hi (whatever the support guys name was) you guys have to be having a system wide problem". I was on hold for 40 minutes". To which I get an uncomfortable laugh. He then takes me through the motions of rebooting my box. Finally after about 10 minutes he says " you asked if we were having a system wide problem, last week they switched everyone over to a fully digital signal and lots of people are having problems".
Well.. okay. I am a little surprised this would be our problem, because half of the house is working fine. We set up an appointment for 3 days later because if I have to swap out another box, I am going to freak out.
When they tech comes out, she is about ready to slit her wrists. She confirms that the system switch has made her life completely miserable. Comcast apparently didn't inform any customers of the switch, and anyone with copper coax needed to be restrung. Which apparently half my older house was wired with.
I understand I would have had a tech come out, but it would have been nice to get that handled on the 1st or second calls.
Then... I just have to bitch again about the f-ing HD situation. It has been 10 months since we got HDTV. They still have the same f-ing 20 channels. Roughly half of them still sports content. At least half of the time, what is listed to be on - isn't. It would be super out of this world, if they added one channel every 6 months. That is all I ask.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Please let this be three.
Remember when I told you my crap always fails in threes. Well, today I was going to write about #1. Which happened on Friday.
Instead I'm going to tell you that I went technologically dark today.
I'm used to my net connection going down all the time. About 6 months ago, I would get booted every single day for about an hour. Today though - everything went down. And, it almost wouldn't even be a big deal - but when I called the Comcast tech support line I was almost completely sure that they'd outsourced it to India.
It used to be that you could tell easily. Now they put the most American sounding reps on them, and there are only subtle differences which make you strongly think you aren't in this country anymore. Like needing to have them repeat what they are saying twice or even three times. And I live in the Bay Area. There are more foreign dialects than you can shake a stick at.
I texted Mr S. who was immediately glad he hadn't worked from home. Then offered that I should ask them for the recipe for Roti bread. Which is my new favorite thing. Although, that might be Thai rather than Indian. But it was funny anyway.
Tech support said it might be 24-48 hours before service came back up. Which flipped me out.
I decided I might as well go to the DMV because I wasn't getting anything done anyway. Oh yes. You have to cram all your bad shit in on one day. You can't spread it out. Get out all the poison. You will feel better.
I was immediately greeted with a sign that said their computers were down state wide. Which is like the third time I've heard of this very recently. Maybe the third time this year.
My whole life - I've never heard of the DMV having these problems. Now their computer system goes down every other month. Luckily, the sign was from the morning. And, much to their credit - I've never seen the DMV work that fast. The fear of Gawd - translation - budget, must be in them. No slackers there today. About 50 people in front of me - I got out of there in a little over half an hour.
No.. Serious.
I get back to the house. Everything still down. I drive to the local Comcast brick store. Two of the three people in front of me were returning all their cable boxes. I take this as a sign. Of what, I'm not sure. Still it can't be good. They refuse to give me any timeline of when it will be fixed. I'm surprised they even told me there was a problem in the first place. Normally Comcast will refuse to even do that. Taking the "It's fine. Everything is fine" routine.
Everything is normal. Now.
Some days though - it's just becoming such an embarrassment what our world is turning into. Pretty half assed if you ask me.
Instead I'm going to tell you that I went technologically dark today.
I'm used to my net connection going down all the time. About 6 months ago, I would get booted every single day for about an hour. Today though - everything went down. And, it almost wouldn't even be a big deal - but when I called the Comcast tech support line I was almost completely sure that they'd outsourced it to India.
It used to be that you could tell easily. Now they put the most American sounding reps on them, and there are only subtle differences which make you strongly think you aren't in this country anymore. Like needing to have them repeat what they are saying twice or even three times. And I live in the Bay Area. There are more foreign dialects than you can shake a stick at.
I texted Mr S. who was immediately glad he hadn't worked from home. Then offered that I should ask them for the recipe for Roti bread. Which is my new favorite thing. Although, that might be Thai rather than Indian. But it was funny anyway.
Tech support said it might be 24-48 hours before service came back up. Which flipped me out.
I decided I might as well go to the DMV because I wasn't getting anything done anyway. Oh yes. You have to cram all your bad shit in on one day. You can't spread it out. Get out all the poison. You will feel better.
I was immediately greeted with a sign that said their computers were down state wide. Which is like the third time I've heard of this very recently. Maybe the third time this year.
My whole life - I've never heard of the DMV having these problems. Now their computer system goes down every other month. Luckily, the sign was from the morning. And, much to their credit - I've never seen the DMV work that fast. The fear of Gawd - translation - budget, must be in them. No slackers there today. About 50 people in front of me - I got out of there in a little over half an hour.
No.. Serious.
I get back to the house. Everything still down. I drive to the local Comcast brick store. Two of the three people in front of me were returning all their cable boxes. I take this as a sign. Of what, I'm not sure. Still it can't be good. They refuse to give me any timeline of when it will be fixed. I'm surprised they even told me there was a problem in the first place. Normally Comcast will refuse to even do that. Taking the "It's fine. Everything is fine" routine.
Everything is normal. Now.
Some days though - it's just becoming such an embarrassment what our world is turning into. Pretty half assed if you ask me.
Friday, August 16, 2013
How can Comcast stay in Business?
The last person I talked to said I needed to talk to signature support and gave me a number. When I called that number it was for phone support. Where I promptly freaked out.
I've talked to 11 people at Comcast and spent 3 hours. I've been to 2nd level support 3 times - I said. I'm just trying to find out who can help me. What does it take?!
I'm sorry Mrs. Snarkolepsy. This is the last time you will get transferred I promise.
She transfers me. And since there is no hold music - I'm sure I've been disconnected. But the line stays open for a few minutes. Guess what happened. Guess!
The line disconnects.
P.S. The number she gave me in case I got disconnected is not even a valid number. Says my call can not be completed at this time.
I've talked to 11 people at Comcast and spent 3 hours. I've been to 2nd level support 3 times - I said. I'm just trying to find out who can help me. What does it take?!
I'm sorry Mrs. Snarkolepsy. This is the last time you will get transferred I promise.
She transfers me. And since there is no hold music - I'm sure I've been disconnected. But the line stays open for a few minutes. Guess what happened. Guess!
The line disconnects.
P.S. The number she gave me in case I got disconnected is not even a valid number. Says my call can not be completed at this time.
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Everyone at Comcast should fear for their jobs.
I have now talked to 25 techs at Comcast. And spent 10 HOURS on the phone. Of those 25, only three actually understood what FTP is. Which is confusing because they are a network company. THAT SEEMS PRETTY BASIC. Even more troubling, all the way up the ladder - listen I've talked to 8, 9, 12, 15, 23 people - not one of the techs are shocked. No sign of surprise at all actually. Not even an OMG.
I do not believe a company can survive with this kind of customer service. At this point I'm only in it to really find out how deep the level of dysfunction is. They've worn me down - which means they have lost my business.
They tranfer you to departments that can not help you, who then try to transfer you back. I've lost count of how many telephone numbers they've given me. I've been to 2nd level support 8 times.
I do not believe a company can survive with this kind of customer service. At this point I'm only in it to really find out how deep the level of dysfunction is. They've worn me down - which means they have lost my business.
They tranfer you to departments that can not help you, who then try to transfer you back. I've lost count of how many telephone numbers they've given me. I've been to 2nd level support 8 times.
Friday, July 09, 2010
Closer....little closer.
When I got up this morning, almost all the lights on my modem were out. I call out to Mr S.
Sooooo... are we just completely off the net this morning?
Him - I don't know.
He'd just gotten up too. Then I saw the modem was cycling. I had a truck coming to my house this morning. So, I figured they flushed the connection so the tech could make sure everything was clean on their side. Then he could blame everything on my side. Namely my modem.
My connection got vastly better.
I really like the truck techs. The minute they walk into the office they can see it isn't an ordinary AOL style call. It cuts through one level of bullshit right away. You just don't normally walk into a house that has a data closet. It immediately signals them that it might be more than the basics. Not that techies don't make idiot mistakes. We do.
He did find that the connection at the house was corroded. If you just talk to them a little you can glean a lot of information they don't just volunteer. He said they are suppose to change those things out like every 3 years. Good to know. It does make sense. The sprinklers hit the outside box.
I did have some data "ingress" at one of my outlets. At the TV. But, it's really nothing I can do about it. When I rip the area out, I will have to fix it. Until I'm able to do that.. it stays like it is. As its behind a wall. You can't easily re-run the wires. It's been like that for a few years. But, he was insistent on doing something about it. Apparently that kind of data loss interferes with airplane traffic? I'm guessing the FCC has some special hardcore rule they have to abide by.
He just wanted to run an external coax, but I refused. I have to keep the cables to a minimum around here. It's a constant battle. Finally he relented and put a filter on it.
So, whatever they did at the home office fixed most of it, and he cleaned up all the rest of the data leakage.
When I get a little more energy, I'm going to try Vonage and see if they piss me off less. To at least pry some of these features away from Comcast's grip.
Seems like I do this every six months, and "the other guys" piss me off right at phone contact. They loose a sale each and every time. And Comcast wins by default essentially. Some day they will learn how to take customers away from the bigger guys.
Tomorrow I have to devote the whole day to getting my drive thing handled. So probably nothing exciting. But, ya never know.
Sooooo... are we just completely off the net this morning?
Him - I don't know.
He'd just gotten up too. Then I saw the modem was cycling. I had a truck coming to my house this morning. So, I figured they flushed the connection so the tech could make sure everything was clean on their side. Then he could blame everything on my side. Namely my modem.
My connection got vastly better.
I really like the truck techs. The minute they walk into the office they can see it isn't an ordinary AOL style call. It cuts through one level of bullshit right away. You just don't normally walk into a house that has a data closet. It immediately signals them that it might be more than the basics. Not that techies don't make idiot mistakes. We do.
He did find that the connection at the house was corroded. If you just talk to them a little you can glean a lot of information they don't just volunteer. He said they are suppose to change those things out like every 3 years. Good to know. It does make sense. The sprinklers hit the outside box.
I did have some data "ingress" at one of my outlets. At the TV. But, it's really nothing I can do about it. When I rip the area out, I will have to fix it. Until I'm able to do that.. it stays like it is. As its behind a wall. You can't easily re-run the wires. It's been like that for a few years. But, he was insistent on doing something about it. Apparently that kind of data loss interferes with airplane traffic? I'm guessing the FCC has some special hardcore rule they have to abide by.
He just wanted to run an external coax, but I refused. I have to keep the cables to a minimum around here. It's a constant battle. Finally he relented and put a filter on it.
So, whatever they did at the home office fixed most of it, and he cleaned up all the rest of the data leakage.
When I get a little more energy, I'm going to try Vonage and see if they piss me off less. To at least pry some of these features away from Comcast's grip.
Seems like I do this every six months, and "the other guys" piss me off right at phone contact. They loose a sale each and every time. And Comcast wins by default essentially. Some day they will learn how to take customers away from the bigger guys.
Tomorrow I have to devote the whole day to getting my drive thing handled. So probably nothing exciting. But, ya never know.
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Oh - the whole best of the worst trick.
As if I wasn't already completely agitated by my disk problems. Do you know how long it takes to virus scan a terabyte drive? Multiple times?
My net connection started acing up again last night. Trying to put myself on zen, because I'm already not at full capacity I tried to ignore it.
So, I decided to call Comcast and just have them send a truck. Well... let me back up. First I called Verizon to see what FIOS had to offer.
I get to the call menu - which has the options of add account, or tech support.
What? Companies don't have sales service anymore? I just don't effing get it. Like the cell phone companies who think you don't have to see a cell phone before buying it. Sure, you can get most of your information from the Internet, but you want to see how it feels in your hand. See how the features actually work in real time.
I want to talk to one of their reps before they hose me into some effing 2 year contract that makes me want to jab straws into my eyes for ever considering their crappy service. But no. I jump off into tech support. Somehow.
No big deal. I immediately tell them I want sales support. He asks - can I have your DSL number. Me - I don't have one. I just want sales support. If you just give me your DSL number. Me - I don't have one. This happened about 5 times before I had to raise my voice and clearly say "I AM NOT A CUSTOMER - I JUST WANT TO TALK TO A SALES PERSON". Where he then asked me if I knew what state I was in. It was a pissed off state at that point.
Now listen people. I get the whole Indian support thing. They are cheaper. And they are just trying to make a living like the rest of us. But honestly - they just have cultural difference that make them process data different than Americans do. It's just a fact.
Like for example Mr S. came home a few weeks ago after being in some insufferable meeting. The speaker asked if they had any questions, and the new Indian gal shook her head from side to side. Not rotating at the neck like we do in the US, rather tilting the top of her head towards the floor. Since the person holding the meeting had just spent time in India, he immediately recognized this gesture.
I've worked with Indians from India forever, and even I'd never seen them do this. Apparently because all the tech companies send them all to acclimation camp. I think they call it "fitting in" camp. Whatever.
It is just the nature of cultures. It doesn't mean it is right or wrong. It just means everything takes 5 times longer on an Indian tech support line. And who's effing idea was it anyway that a phone company - like Verizon - can't have a fucking proper phone line to India? I get the call lag. When I worked at Silicon Graphics a billion years ago - I got used to phone lag. Savage phone lag. But what? They can't have an effing clear phone line. Every call has to be filled with static? Really?
He does eventually transfer me to a sales rep. And I admit I'm thread bare at this point. I wound up aborting the call.
I break down and call Comcast. I just want them to send a truck at this point. But, oh no. Today they don't want to do that. Whatever I want, they seem not to want to do. I take a deep breath and go with it. Which involved me having to reboot my machine. This gives him ample time to poke around. All of a sudden he says - Oh.. about 7 days ago your connection became completely sporadic. Which I believe is what I told him when I first called.
I have a program that is constantly sending data. So, I can see the data stream in, them choke off. Then flood in, then choke off.
He says... huh. You are getting about 25% packet loss.
I wish. It seems more like I'm loosing about 75% of the data I am suppose to be getting.
What does this mean for you guys? Posts will probably be sporadic, rage filled, and otherwise surly for the rest of the week. Good luck.
My net connection started acing up again last night. Trying to put myself on zen, because I'm already not at full capacity I tried to ignore it.
So, I decided to call Comcast and just have them send a truck. Well... let me back up. First I called Verizon to see what FIOS had to offer.
I get to the call menu - which has the options of add account, or tech support.
What? Companies don't have sales service anymore? I just don't effing get it. Like the cell phone companies who think you don't have to see a cell phone before buying it. Sure, you can get most of your information from the Internet, but you want to see how it feels in your hand. See how the features actually work in real time.
I want to talk to one of their reps before they hose me into some effing 2 year contract that makes me want to jab straws into my eyes for ever considering their crappy service. But no. I jump off into tech support. Somehow.
No big deal. I immediately tell them I want sales support. He asks - can I have your DSL number. Me - I don't have one. I just want sales support. If you just give me your DSL number. Me - I don't have one. This happened about 5 times before I had to raise my voice and clearly say "I AM NOT A CUSTOMER - I JUST WANT TO TALK TO A SALES PERSON". Where he then asked me if I knew what state I was in. It was a pissed off state at that point.
Now listen people. I get the whole Indian support thing. They are cheaper. And they are just trying to make a living like the rest of us. But honestly - they just have cultural difference that make them process data different than Americans do. It's just a fact.
Like for example Mr S. came home a few weeks ago after being in some insufferable meeting. The speaker asked if they had any questions, and the new Indian gal shook her head from side to side. Not rotating at the neck like we do in the US, rather tilting the top of her head towards the floor. Since the person holding the meeting had just spent time in India, he immediately recognized this gesture.
I've worked with Indians from India forever, and even I'd never seen them do this. Apparently because all the tech companies send them all to acclimation camp. I think they call it "fitting in" camp. Whatever.
It is just the nature of cultures. It doesn't mean it is right or wrong. It just means everything takes 5 times longer on an Indian tech support line. And who's effing idea was it anyway that a phone company - like Verizon - can't have a fucking proper phone line to India? I get the call lag. When I worked at Silicon Graphics a billion years ago - I got used to phone lag. Savage phone lag. But what? They can't have an effing clear phone line. Every call has to be filled with static? Really?
He does eventually transfer me to a sales rep. And I admit I'm thread bare at this point. I wound up aborting the call.
I break down and call Comcast. I just want them to send a truck at this point. But, oh no. Today they don't want to do that. Whatever I want, they seem not to want to do. I take a deep breath and go with it. Which involved me having to reboot my machine. This gives him ample time to poke around. All of a sudden he says - Oh.. about 7 days ago your connection became completely sporadic. Which I believe is what I told him when I first called.
I have a program that is constantly sending data. So, I can see the data stream in, them choke off. Then flood in, then choke off.
He says... huh. You are getting about 25% packet loss.
I wish. It seems more like I'm loosing about 75% of the data I am suppose to be getting.
What does this mean for you guys? Posts will probably be sporadic, rage filled, and otherwise surly for the rest of the week. Good luck.
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Is the madness beginning to end?
I've been trying to stay out of the news cycle, but I did hear that Sprint is bringing jobs back to the USA. Which I had to laugh about. You see, a few months ago I starting posting about how Trump knew he didn't really have to threaten companies to stay in the US. It was my firm belief that companies were already dieing to come back before Trump was even on the radar.
If an administration stopped being so rough on them they would come back in a heart beat. Trump could act like he was a tough guy, but these guys wanted to come back more than anything in the world anyway. Outsourcing was killing them. Trump would win without having to do almost anything. Can you imagine how bad you have to make conditions that it's less expensive to ship your products from another country into your own country? I was talking to a guy a few months ago who made radio controlled Caterpillar. You know - the earth movers. Not the tiny bugs. Which I thought was sort of meh at first. But when he started talking to me about all the regulations companies have to go through - it's no wonder why all of a sudden you don't want a guy getting his insides jigged every day. Your going to make it so a guy holds a video game controller instead. He told me that just to turn on one of those machines you need a 10,000 dollar permit for clean air rules. For each machine!
I mean this outsourcing experiment has reached it's natural end. I don't believe outsourcing saved companies that much money. Customer support outsourcing basically killed Dell. They were one of the top computer makers and then they outsourced tech support. They soon fell of a cliff. They never ever recovered from that and then the recession hit.
For a little while at Comcast the Indian tech support dudes figured out they could just drop calls and their numbers would look good, but I'm sure Comcast call volume went through the roof. I bet there are tons of these stories. I mean, everyone used to have an Indian tech support story. Right? And then on the manufacturing side if you aren't big that is just lunacy. The stories I hear out of startups.
All Trump needed to do was to act sorta tough on a couple of people and all the sheep come prancing home. Google it. It is funny to watch though.
If an administration stopped being so rough on them they would come back in a heart beat. Trump could act like he was a tough guy, but these guys wanted to come back more than anything in the world anyway. Outsourcing was killing them. Trump would win without having to do almost anything. Can you imagine how bad you have to make conditions that it's less expensive to ship your products from another country into your own country? I was talking to a guy a few months ago who made radio controlled Caterpillar. You know - the earth movers. Not the tiny bugs. Which I thought was sort of meh at first. But when he started talking to me about all the regulations companies have to go through - it's no wonder why all of a sudden you don't want a guy getting his insides jigged every day. Your going to make it so a guy holds a video game controller instead. He told me that just to turn on one of those machines you need a 10,000 dollar permit for clean air rules. For each machine!
I mean this outsourcing experiment has reached it's natural end. I don't believe outsourcing saved companies that much money. Customer support outsourcing basically killed Dell. They were one of the top computer makers and then they outsourced tech support. They soon fell of a cliff. They never ever recovered from that and then the recession hit.
For a little while at Comcast the Indian tech support dudes figured out they could just drop calls and their numbers would look good, but I'm sure Comcast call volume went through the roof. I bet there are tons of these stories. I mean, everyone used to have an Indian tech support story. Right? And then on the manufacturing side if you aren't big that is just lunacy. The stories I hear out of startups.
All Trump needed to do was to act sorta tough on a couple of people and all the sheep come prancing home. Google it. It is funny to watch though.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Reflections on CES 2013 - part 2.
This year CES could be marked more by what was not there - than what was there. How many more years can you push 3D TV's? I have a 3D TV. I didn't buy it for that. But it is 3D capable. I believe there is only one 3D channel on Comcast. Even after all these years. And you have to switch out to a "black box" Comcast box to even receive those channels. I forget how much it costs now, but one for channel it's way too much.
So understandably, I don't even think I saw one 3D TV there. Never fear though, new TV's are arriving that your cable company won't have the bandwidth for either.
The Robotic zone was basically gone too. And for good reason. It's also a sector that failed to rise to expectations.
There was a company selling robotic mowers. But it was obviously they had never used this product in a real world environment. You know how I know? I have two of them sitting in my garage. Here and here. The company had managed to make their mower the worst of both worlds. You had to install a perimeter wire, and it had three tiny blades not much bigger than blender blades running the thing. I laughed inside when they turned it over. Mine had a normal blade, and even I am back to mowing the yard the old fashion way. Mowing in a "random" fashion (which is what they do) winds up taking a lot longer than it needs to, and misses spots all the time. It's just easier to do it the old fashion way.
I asked a lot of questions about containing the mower, and interactions with people. Because there is still some fear of this product. While there has never been an accident with these mowers, even I was always concerned that some hyper curious kid would walk up and try to touch it while it was running. People were exceedingly curious about our mower. Sometimes it almost was a spectacle. People would stop in the middle of the road to watch it.
After talking to the company for a little I could tell they had no concept of this running in a front yard. Which is weird for the US. We have both front and back yards. This became obvious after I asked if it had security bumpers that stop the mower when it encounters people.
Irobot was there with a much smaller booth. Those robotic vacuum's break down so much, I'm back to vacuuming the old way too. These items in the end turned out to be more of a hassle than they were worth. And to be quite honest, it is these two products alone that make me convinced that rechargeable cars are bullshit. The batteries pretty much fail every year or so. And they aren't cheap.
IRobot did have their remote presence bot, but even I find it chunky compared to other medical bots. Although not the worst I've seen by any measure.
The company that sold that Robotic seal was there. Which honestly made me completely lose hope. In 2008 I talked about this product in my post A Solution In Search of a Problem. I believe I first saw this product at Robonexus 2004. And the seal hasn't been updated in all that time. I honestly don't know how they are staying in business.
The only robotic company at CES that was of any interest was this one from muRata. And it wasn't because it was a robot, it was because it was able to roll on it's own and be perfectly balanced. The gentleman with the dark glasses was controlling it with that wand thing. That technology was pretty impressive.
Cont...
So understandably, I don't even think I saw one 3D TV there. Never fear though, new TV's are arriving that your cable company won't have the bandwidth for either.
The Robotic zone was basically gone too. And for good reason. It's also a sector that failed to rise to expectations.
There was a company selling robotic mowers. But it was obviously they had never used this product in a real world environment. You know how I know? I have two of them sitting in my garage. Here and here. The company had managed to make their mower the worst of both worlds. You had to install a perimeter wire, and it had three tiny blades not much bigger than blender blades running the thing. I laughed inside when they turned it over. Mine had a normal blade, and even I am back to mowing the yard the old fashion way. Mowing in a "random" fashion (which is what they do) winds up taking a lot longer than it needs to, and misses spots all the time. It's just easier to do it the old fashion way.
I asked a lot of questions about containing the mower, and interactions with people. Because there is still some fear of this product. While there has never been an accident with these mowers, even I was always concerned that some hyper curious kid would walk up and try to touch it while it was running. People were exceedingly curious about our mower. Sometimes it almost was a spectacle. People would stop in the middle of the road to watch it.
After talking to the company for a little I could tell they had no concept of this running in a front yard. Which is weird for the US. We have both front and back yards. This became obvious after I asked if it had security bumpers that stop the mower when it encounters people.
Irobot was there with a much smaller booth. Those robotic vacuum's break down so much, I'm back to vacuuming the old way too. These items in the end turned out to be more of a hassle than they were worth. And to be quite honest, it is these two products alone that make me convinced that rechargeable cars are bullshit. The batteries pretty much fail every year or so. And they aren't cheap.
IRobot did have their remote presence bot, but even I find it chunky compared to other medical bots. Although not the worst I've seen by any measure.
The company that sold that Robotic seal was there. Which honestly made me completely lose hope. In 2008 I talked about this product in my post A Solution In Search of a Problem. I believe I first saw this product at Robonexus 2004. And the seal hasn't been updated in all that time. I honestly don't know how they are staying in business.
The only robotic company at CES that was of any interest was this one from muRata. And it wasn't because it was a robot, it was because it was able to roll on it's own and be perfectly balanced. The gentleman with the dark glasses was controlling it with that wand thing. That technology was pretty impressive.
Cont...
Friday, July 02, 2010
It is like a scab that never heals.
Last night my Internet connection started acting up. It was like I was getting throttled. Stuff was still getting through, but slowly. Really, really, slowly. I figured the problem was my virus protection. Sometimes when it wants to update - it goes a little crazy.
Can I update now? Now, now, now, NOW? It gets stuck in a bit of a loop until you finally give in.
So I tried to install the update. At two hours, I went to bed and figured it might be done by the morning.
This morning, both of the computer connections were still running slow. On my trade window, I could see the data stop, then flood in. Then stop again. Then flood in. It pulsed like that most of the morning. I'd already reset the router and the modem. So I figured I'd call Comcast to have them reset the modem on their side.
The automated message tells me they are having technical difficulties - yet the tech says - no.. No problems. She resets the modem, which immediately kills my phone line. Because, they are all connected. I already know this is the case. Yet it pisses me off every single time. My office has really bad reception on my cell. The land line is really just a fax line.
Things get a little better for a little while. I figure, I'm going to trust the automated message and just wait a few hours.
Not better. I call again. Still get told there are no problems. They think it is my modem, and want to roll a truck. Which pisses me off. First, I'd have to wait a day - but what kind of dumb ass company needs to roll a truck to your house to swap a modem?
I tell her, I can just take this thing down to the local brick and swap it out. Oh no - she says. You can't do that. They don't carry them. I'm sure I've done this before - I respond. I make the appointment. "Just in case". Run down to the local brick store, and sure enough. They won't swap it.
I get back to the house and realize my modem is still blinking. Even though it's been with me for 20 minutes without power. And I think - goddammit. That's right. These things have batteries that you have to let discharge. Sometimes rebooting isn't enough. I plug the fucker back in. My connection is completely fine.
Now - how fucking hard would that have been for the tech to know. Comcast always thinks they need to roll a fucking truck for everything. And to be fair - the guys who in the trucks are really good. But their tech support won't tell you if there is an outage like what happened two days ago. They tried to roll a truck on me that day too.
They aren't critical thinkers and can't figure out who is a dummy, and who actually knows even a little about technology. I'm not saying I'm smart. I'm not. But for shits sakes, I've worked tech support - you get an idea with people who you need to run a script with.
I wonder how much money they waste rolling trucks when the the support people just aren't trained well enough.
I swear, this is the time I have to find another solution. I pay too much to constantly be irritated by these guys.
Can I update now? Now, now, now, NOW? It gets stuck in a bit of a loop until you finally give in.
So I tried to install the update. At two hours, I went to bed and figured it might be done by the morning.
This morning, both of the computer connections were still running slow. On my trade window, I could see the data stop, then flood in. Then stop again. Then flood in. It pulsed like that most of the morning. I'd already reset the router and the modem. So I figured I'd call Comcast to have them reset the modem on their side.
The automated message tells me they are having technical difficulties - yet the tech says - no.. No problems. She resets the modem, which immediately kills my phone line. Because, they are all connected. I already know this is the case. Yet it pisses me off every single time. My office has really bad reception on my cell. The land line is really just a fax line.
Things get a little better for a little while. I figure, I'm going to trust the automated message and just wait a few hours.
Not better. I call again. Still get told there are no problems. They think it is my modem, and want to roll a truck. Which pisses me off. First, I'd have to wait a day - but what kind of dumb ass company needs to roll a truck to your house to swap a modem?
I tell her, I can just take this thing down to the local brick and swap it out. Oh no - she says. You can't do that. They don't carry them. I'm sure I've done this before - I respond. I make the appointment. "Just in case". Run down to the local brick store, and sure enough. They won't swap it.
I get back to the house and realize my modem is still blinking. Even though it's been with me for 20 minutes without power. And I think - goddammit. That's right. These things have batteries that you have to let discharge. Sometimes rebooting isn't enough. I plug the fucker back in. My connection is completely fine.
Now - how fucking hard would that have been for the tech to know. Comcast always thinks they need to roll a fucking truck for everything. And to be fair - the guys who in the trucks are really good. But their tech support won't tell you if there is an outage like what happened two days ago. They tried to roll a truck on me that day too.
They aren't critical thinkers and can't figure out who is a dummy, and who actually knows even a little about technology. I'm not saying I'm smart. I'm not. But for shits sakes, I've worked tech support - you get an idea with people who you need to run a script with.
I wonder how much money they waste rolling trucks when the the support people just aren't trained well enough.
I swear, this is the time I have to find another solution. I pay too much to constantly be irritated by these guys.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Dear Tivo.
First, I want to say that I can now watch my television shows in crystal clarity without having to suffer though media advertising. For that I am grateful.
However....my euphoria from smelling the factory air has worn off.
Dear Kind Tivo Management,
I know you think all of us rabid fans are just sitting around in our underwear watching television all day. You probably think since we never leave the house we don't really want our things to be nice. I'm guessing you think we are all just one step away from spilling bong water all over our components, and you are scratching your heads trying to figure out how we managed to scrape up a few thousand dollars for a plasma TV. Much less paying to be an early adopter for one of the new Series 3 boxes.
How else could you think having to do this to our brand new.. did I mention really expensive box.... would be okay with any of us?
Please Tivo Management, help me understand how you could not take into account there would be IR bleed-off from a television you specifically made a product for. Engadget blogs about it here.
Now onto my next complaint. We decided we wanted a larger drive, so we purchased a modified Series 3 though Weaknees.
When the box came my husband and I noticed that the unit was extremely loud. So he sent an email to Weaknees. You can hear the drive seeking over pretty loud television volume. I know it sounds like I am being just too bitchy about this. But I will tell you. I have two frikin' huge drives in my PC. One is 500gig. My husband once worked as a terrain modeler, so you know his machine is jacked up. The Tivo is louder than both of our PC's put together. That actually isn't the most irritating part. What is most irritating is Weaknees doesn't know when they will have a fix. Could be up to 7 weeks.
I know this is a Seagate problem because I just went through trying to get a replacement drive from them, and Seagate is having some serious failure and supply chain problems. Blogged about it here. But this isn't really new news.
The problem is that I don't think I can return my Comcast cable box for which the Series 3 replaces. I'm not sure if Weaknees is going to want the whole unit sent back so it can be fixed, or if they will just send out a replacement drive. So essentially we are in limbo for up to 7 weeks. If Seagate stays on schedule.
Yes, I know I can turn the cable box in and get a replacement if the Tivo needs to be sent back, but running down to the cable office is not always convenient.
It isn't the end of the world that the machine is loud... but when you pay a lot of money for something you expect not to have quite so many major problems with a product. Even as an early adopter.
Additionally it took 5 interactions with Comcast to get everything working. And we were lucky that it only took 5. One of the cards was DOA. Interestingly, there are 7 different types of cable cards. This guy had only brought one card. If the card he brought hadn't fixed it, another tech appointment would have to be made, and they would have to figure out which card worked.
However....my euphoria from smelling the factory air has worn off.
Dear Kind Tivo Management,
I know you think all of us rabid fans are just sitting around in our underwear watching television all day. You probably think since we never leave the house we don't really want our things to be nice. I'm guessing you think we are all just one step away from spilling bong water all over our components, and you are scratching your heads trying to figure out how we managed to scrape up a few thousand dollars for a plasma TV. Much less paying to be an early adopter for one of the new Series 3 boxes.
How else could you think having to do this to our brand new.. did I mention really expensive box.... would be okay with any of us?
Please Tivo Management, help me understand how you could not take into account there would be IR bleed-off from a television you specifically made a product for. Engadget blogs about it here.
Now onto my next complaint. We decided we wanted a larger drive, so we purchased a modified Series 3 though Weaknees.
When the box came my husband and I noticed that the unit was extremely loud. So he sent an email to Weaknees. You can hear the drive seeking over pretty loud television volume. I know it sounds like I am being just too bitchy about this. But I will tell you. I have two frikin' huge drives in my PC. One is 500gig. My husband once worked as a terrain modeler, so you know his machine is jacked up. The Tivo is louder than both of our PC's put together. That actually isn't the most irritating part. What is most irritating is Weaknees doesn't know when they will have a fix. Could be up to 7 weeks.
I know this is a Seagate problem because I just went through trying to get a replacement drive from them, and Seagate is having some serious failure and supply chain problems. Blogged about it here. But this isn't really new news.
The problem is that I don't think I can return my Comcast cable box for which the Series 3 replaces. I'm not sure if Weaknees is going to want the whole unit sent back so it can be fixed, or if they will just send out a replacement drive. So essentially we are in limbo for up to 7 weeks. If Seagate stays on schedule.
Yes, I know I can turn the cable box in and get a replacement if the Tivo needs to be sent back, but running down to the cable office is not always convenient.
It isn't the end of the world that the machine is loud... but when you pay a lot of money for something you expect not to have quite so many major problems with a product. Even as an early adopter.
Additionally it took 5 interactions with Comcast to get everything working. And we were lucky that it only took 5. One of the cards was DOA. Interestingly, there are 7 different types of cable cards. This guy had only brought one card. If the card he brought hadn't fixed it, another tech appointment would have to be made, and they would have to figure out which card worked.
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