Comment by pivo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by pivo | Hacker News Reader

Here's how my interaction with Comcast went when someone called and got me to sign up for the deal:

Comcast: You can have double your current internet speed plus HBO Go and some other junk for only $4 more per month.

Me: <after a while> ok, but I don't need a cable box because I don't have a TV. I'll just watch online. I can do that right?

C: Yes, but we need to ship you a cable box anyway.

Me: why?

C: because

Me: ok but I'm not at home much and packages left on my stoop get stolen. Could you ship it to my office?

C: <after a while> oh all right we'll ship it to your office.

(Ships to my home anyway and the box gets stolen)

C: Sir, please check to see if your doorman accepted the package before we charge you for the cable box.

Me: I don't have a doorman and I told you not to ship the box to my home. The cable box that I didn't want was stolen like I said it would be.

C: We can only ship it to your home. We will ship you another one.

Me: I don't want another one, I just don't want to pay for the one that was stolen.

C: Ok, we'll cancel your new package then.

Me: Can't I just pay for it and not have the cable box? I don't have a TV.

C: No. I will cancel your new package. Is there anything else I can help you with?

It was like talking to a robot. I dearly hate monopolies.

Please do not insult robots by comparing them to Comcast customer support.

Strong agree. Most robots are programed for contingencies and edge cases. Comcast drones are most decidedly not.

You were talking to a low level employee, who doesn't know a great deal about the company he works for, and is just following a script with a specific set of rules.

I get confused when people try to reason with these guys, they can only do what they are allowed to do. They aren't going to make an executive decision and break the rules for you. You need to feel around what they can do, and don't expect miracles.

The one time I got angry at customer service was when I cancelled a mobile broadband contract and then several months later noticed I was still being charged. Apparently there was no record of the cancellation or indeed my original call at all (despite the original operator confirming that the cancellation had went through on their system). All the latter operator would do was simultaneously assert that their system was infallible and that, no, they didn't believe I was lying or otherwise confused. An unstoppable force was meeting an immovable object, both of the operator's own construction, and they refused to acknowledge that. The frustrating conclusion was that it was strictly impossible to refund me the money. Of course, they couldn't even keep that straight: some time later and out of the blue, a full refund showed up in the mail with no explanation attached.

Not cancelling service and quietly billing you until collection departments are harassing you months later seems to be standard procedure at all carriers/ISPs.

Did you deal with Megapath (formerly Speakeasy) too? I will never get internet from the scumbags who bought out that once great service again.

They won't cancel you over the phone, only via the internet. And their internet thing didn't work any of the three times I tried it until (miraculously) it worked while I was telling the lady on the phone that I wasn't about to give them my new credit card number because I had not authorized the previous charges and their own cancellation page had "failed" on multiple occasions. Yet, when on the phone yelling at a supervisor, I got a confirmation that I had cancelled immediately.

I do have one possible explanation--after cancelling, it claimed that I would receive a call. They never even attempted to call (per my phone logs), but I have to think that some customer retention person somewhere had a quota that was easier to fake if you simply didn't call the customer and claimed that they had changed their mind about cancelling. I bet someone could figure out the truth by examining how many people miraculously change their mind regularly before finally cancelling....

It's been several years and I'm still mad at them. If you ever do have to cancel that service, make sure you log the exact dates and times that you cancel and document it.

It was a European outfit I was dealing with. You reminded me of another frustrating aspect of it: I could give them the date and time down to the minute of the original call that their infallible system was unaware of.

Towards the end, I asked if it was really worth losing all my potential future custom over $SMALLISH_SUM and apparently the answer was yes. Complete cretins, all!

I've had plenty of fine experiences when trying to get something unusual out of first-line support. They can't handle everything, but they should be capable of understanding that and handing you off to the right people when necessary. Plenty of other companies do fine with this, so why can't Comcast?

There is no excuse for making me deal with some gigantic company's internal structure. You hide that from the outside world, you don't force people to navigate it.

I thought everyone knew these days that you have to talk to a manger to get anything that's not in the script?

>>C: [...] Is there anything else I can help you with?

A: Yes, I'd like to speak to your manager, please. Thank you.

You should attempt to escalate at least once by asking for a manager. If you're bothered enough to initially call in and spend the time anyway with the first level support person, the marginal cost in time to ask for a manager is probably worth it.

My conversation spanned several calls with different people who claimed they were escalating my problem to "specialists" who could help me, and me waiting on hold for hours. The last call, starting with the offer to send me another box, came from a an escalation to a "Customer Retention Specialist". At that point I no longer cared to pursue the issue.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com