4 day fail

On-Demand not working again today.  4 days of operation after tech visit, then CL-7.

new cable...

Extremely helpful tech "Adam" came out this afternoon, 1/2 hour early (remember that the scheduled time slot is a crock).  Pulled lots of new cable around the house, but says the cable going underground from the street to the house needs to be re-done, as one wire is completely shot and the other is noisy.

So, going to schedule a work order to get that done.  Gave me his name and phone #, and his supervisor's name and phone #.  We'll see what happens with that.

Meanwhile, he patched up the existing cable, and On-Demand is back.  Now I can catch up with those back episodes of "Hawaii Five-O"!

the appointment time-slot

What I really appreciate about these Comcast "appointment slots" is how carefully they're structured.

"Between 2 and 4" in the afternoon doesn't sound bad, does it?  However, they'll start calling you an hour earlier, and if you don't pick up, or are talking to someone else on the phone, they'll silently cancel your "appointment".  Moreover, "from 2-4" means that you can't schedule meetings from 1-2 or 4-5 at work, because if you do, that tech (or his call!) will occur while you are commuting between work and home, due to Murphy's Law.

So, "between 2 and 4" really mean, "all afternoon" -- spend it at home, and don't use the phone!  And if you don't already have Caller-ID, get it -- so that you can only answer calls from Comcast!

letter to Rick Germano

Just for fun, I wrote a letter to Rick Germano tonight.  Rick's the Senior VP at Comcast in charge of Customer Operations.  Here's a slightly improved version of it:

Rick, 

My so-called "On Demand" hasn't worked for three weeks.  I dread contacting your customer service operation -- they waste one's time so politely and so ineffectively -- but the simple basic cable signal seems to keep getting worse, and eventually a friend convinced me to try, so today I called in to see if I could get service.  Sure, said a helpful voice, they'll be out between 2 and 4. 

I spent all afternoon at home waiting for the service tech to arrive.  He never showed.  I got a voicemail later saying that he'd tried to call me, and couldn't, so he didn't show up.  I was talking to my boss on the phone at the time he called.  What, they can't knock on the door? They can't call back if they get a busy signal?  What the heck?  If a condition of getting service is to both stay home, and not take any phone calls, why not tell me about that?  (But then, how would I answer the tech's call?   Hmmm...) 

So, I called customer service about 4:30, and explained the problem, and was told someone would be out at 5.  I waited some more. 

At 10 to 5, I got a call from "Mario" in the local field office, saying that they were sorry, but they couldn't come today, and could I please stay home from work again tomorrow, so they could come out tomorrow afternoon, instead.  I told him I couldn't, and that I could perhaps do it on Friday.  I asked Mario what his last name was, but he couldn't tell me.  I asked him what the designation or number of his field office was, but he couldn't tell me.  I asked him for the phone number of that field office, but he couldn't tell me.

I then called "Customer Service" to complain, got put on hold for 15 minutes, and finally talked to "Charlie".  He blew me off (politely). 

You guys are incredible!  No HD, no DVR, haven't got the Weather Channel for 7 years, no last names, the street box on my street has been open to the elements for years (crushed by a root of the big tree standing next to it). 

And you want me to sign up for cable Internet?  Wow, tempting offer!  Really interesting idea!

the street box, October 1 and October 19

I'm a Comcast customer who's been having spotty service for years.  Here's what the Comcast box in front of my house looked like on October 1:

Got home to find that cone sitting there.  Notice that the large tree by the curb has cracked the box, so the lid doesn't fit, so when it rained on October 3rd and 4th -- and 10th -- the wires in the box got soaked.

Here's what it looked like on October 19th:

Notice the difference?

No?  That's because there isn't any.