UPDATED Update …

There are two bright rays of sunshine within the Comcast organization.  One is @ComcastMattV who pointed me in the right direction, the other is named Candace.

 @ComcastMattV got the ball rolling, pointed me in the right direction which started the initial conversations I needed to have with Comcast.  Thanks for paying attention and protecting your brand.

Candace on the other hand, let me just say this, whatever she’s paid, double it.  Quite honestly she is the only reason I am sticking around.  She called me on National holiday.  She heard my concerns, offered solutions, and followed through and exceeded expectations.  She was professional, courteous, humorous, and left me feeling happier after her call.  I can state unequivocally, that is a rare feeling for me.

Odd day for me.  Odd day indeed. 

UPDATE: Contact with Comcast

I was finally able to speak to a very pleasant Comcast customer account executive.  The net-net, apparently they were trying to contact us by phone.  Their phone system is essentially a war dialer masked behind “UNKNOWN” and is configured not to leave messages if an answering machine picks up.   

I route ALL UNKNOWN numbers directly to voice mail figuring if it is important, someone will leave a message.  You know, the reason answering machines, and their now modern day equivalent of voice mail was invented in the first place.

There is a rant brewing inside about how all the great technology advances we are taking advantage of individually, corporately, and beyond does nothing more than fog our collective conscious, impede our productivity, and get in the way of ourselves.

In the end I’ll attribute this failure mutual.  Comcast for their decision to not leave messages on voice mail or contact us via the contact email address listed in our account and ours for not paying attention to the monthly bills. 

The only thing that is still bothering me, is even though my conversation was pleasant, professional and to the point, I never once had the impression that Comcast could care less about us not being a customer anymore.  They offered to expedite our refund since we apparently over paid for services we didn’t receive.  Never once asked me about reinstating services, and when only when I inquired was basically told we’d be treated like third class customer, ineligible for any promotions, pay premium for whatever service opted in for and require us to pay a month ahead.  

Certainly not feeling any warm fuzzy.

Back to researching options … 

Rarely

do I have interactions with customer service departments.  When I do, they usually end well.  In the past 24 hours I’ve dealt with two different companies customer service teams and have experienced both spectrum’s. 

First the good.  Yesterday my web hosting company, Squarespace.com (the folks powering this site), was the target of a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. 

DoS is nothing more than a bunch of douche bag script kiddies using tools they didn’t create to overload web server connections to the point where no one can access any web site hosted by the target.

All throughout this DoS, Squarespace support  provided periodic updates apologizing for the service interruption, thanking me for my patience
and stressing they were working as hard as they could to reinstate
service.  When they had finally restored services, they sent me an email
explaining that it was a Denial of Service
event and posted a public status update of the event: http://status.squarespace.com/

Can we say exceeded expectations.  I can, and Squarespace.com did!   

COMCAST, the contrast.

The only ISP providing decent broadband internet connectivity in my area, Comcast, disconnected my account on 6/28 due to non-payment.  In fairness, there is a back story that involves a certain credit card company with whom our automatic payments were tied to and said credit card companies inability to prevent unauthorized charges to … but irrespective of this wrinkle, I honestly believe Comcast has us failed miserably.

Saturday, 6/30/2013, we received a letter stating service disconnection.  Saturday entire past balance was promptly paid in full.

Tuesday, 7/2/2013, I spend my lunch hour trying to contact Comcast to get a status update of account. 

I called three starting @ 1:06pm, 1:13pm, and
1:15pm.  Each time as it sounded like my call was getting put through to a
“Customer Account Executive”, the line went dead. I was finally able
to contact someone via the chat interface who stated my account was cancelled
on 6/28 do to lack of payment. I asked how best to speak to a supervisor, was
told to call customer service … <headslap>!!</headslap>

A colleague at work shared a similar story and how their issue was resolved by submitting a note to their VP of Customer Service, a Tom Karinshak, and I submitted the following:

“I have been trying all day to contact Comcast by phone to
understand the status of my account.  I called three times today @ 1:06pm,
1:13pm, and 1:15pm.  Each time as it sounded like my call was getting put
through to a “Customer Account Executive”, the line went dead. I was
finally able to contact someone via the chat interface who stated my account
was cancelled on 6/28 do to lack of payment. I asked how best to speak to a
supervisor, was told to call customer service … <headslap>!!</headslap>

1. Why does comcast discconect a long standing customer without
attempting to contact us?  No email received, no phone call
received.  Only a letter indicating past due received after the date we
were supposedly disconnected.

2. How do I talk to a real life human being via voice? 

3. Just because comcast owns the broadband market in Utah doesn’t
give you liberty to treat customers like we are a burden or somehow undesirable.

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4. Is it worth engaging comcast to reinstate service, or am I to
expect the same substandard communication and customer service I’ve swam in
today.

Hopefully someone reads this …

Eric” 

The sweet and sour …

We pay Comcast ~$1000/year x 7+ years and get treated like third class citizens. 

I pay Squarespace ~$250/year and treated like a First Class valued customer.   

Tell you what Squarespace, get in the broadband ISP business and you have my business for life.