blindfly

This reminds me of a lone developer who balances hundreds of clients, where each client expects same day personalized replies with nothing but the right answers.

To be fair to Comcast you're running into a few things. In a non-technical kind of way and in no order...

Comcast.com is (stop laughing) a high value domain. You're not likely to get any CA to just hand over a certificate in 2 seconds. It will get flagged for manual inspection and further details will be required.

Large companies like this aren't as simple to handle. If it were a small startup with 3 people you want to bet your pants it would be fixed right away. But I bet you there are e-mails flying around into underpaid mailboxes waiting for a response. Not every corporate office is a well-oiled machine.

But on the flip side it is unfortunate they're struggling with it. The poor front line customer service rep (Carole) has no choice but to assure you they're currently working on it and move on to the next squeaky wheel. Like any person in customer service, her job is to assure you and move on.

Full disclosure: I work for the aforementioned. Much of this stuff doesn't appear to make any sense from the outside, and sometimes puzzles those on the inside. I'm not company PR nor am I trying to be. Actually, to be honest as I'm disgusted by the company for how they are handling things. Morale is in a slump and pressure from above to cut costs and increase profit is insane.

But to get back on topic: The policy this blogger has encountered deals with how a dealer must authenticate a customer before making any financially-impacting decisions or contractual obligations. As far as the lawyers are concerned this is to protect the company. If we mail out a new iPhone 5 and charge an account $100, then when it turns out you are not who you said that's simply too bad for us. We just lost an expensive phone. Arguably, it appears to make no sense in some scenarios like the one mentioned (where one could reasonably assume they are speaking to the correct person) but the reality is the person calling you has no bloody clue who you are. The account likely came up on their screen and the system dialed your number. You could be the account holder or a kid holding the phone.

The poor sucker calling you is likely sitting in a mile-long row of phones tethered to the desk by cords forced to listen to people complain all day long. Really, that's no different than just about every call centre. You asked for a manager... now guess what? You (if you're lucky) just got transferred to another call centre. Go figure.

Sales and service isn't all about money but that's all these big blind companies are able to see. You can complain about it all day long and it doesn't change a thing. Call up and cancel your service, perhaps then one of the dolts overseeing operations will see the light.

Have you seen the Yubikey NEO yet? http://www.yubico.com/yubikey-neo

There is nothing private about facebook. So, no.

medhack, are you able to tell a little bit more about what you're scheming? I am trying to understand where you're going with this. Web-based application, Windows-based... whatnot.

I think the website should tell me about the product before asking for my e-mail address. I visited and the only thing I saw the a box begging for my address. As of now I still know nothing about the product.

It's not that you're actively doing anything wrong it's merely the market. People want everything for nothing. I've seen people shop at Wal-Mart for $1 items only to return them because they weren't the quality they were expecting. Society, blah.

You simply offer them a discounted rate to sign up for the premium service. Those who are willing and able to pay will, and those who would have never (knowingly) given you ten cents will enjoy reduced service.