I'm sure most Kossacks unfortunate enough to have ever dealt with Comcast customer service (they've been ranked worst in America on multiple occasions with good reason) have some inkling of what a nightmare it can be.
Last year our problems with Comcast went from being frustrating to terrifying when we weren't able to communicate with 911, because our Comcast phone and internet service was suffering yet another interruption.
More below the squiggle.
My parents left Comcast for a few brief years around 2009/2010, because they were having constant service interruptions. Looking to reduce their bills, they were lured back to Comcast by a Triple Play offer in early 2013. That's when all the fun started.
We have had endless problems with their company, ranging from lengthy service interruptions (no phone, no internet, sometimes no cable, either, for 12 to 18 hours at a stretch for several days each month) to repeatedly inaccurate billing.
My mother is in her sixties and suffers from increasingly ill health. Between 2003 and 2007 she suffered a series of TIAs (transient ischemic attacks). In 2007, she suffered a "mild" heart attack. To make matters worse, while hospitalized with the flu in the spring of 2013, she contracted a C. Diff infection that it took over a year to get rid of. She was hospitalized three times during 2013-2014, and her health remains fragile. Cell phone reception is unreliable in our neighborhood. For this reason, my parents depend on home phone service. They made this very clear to the Comcast Representative they spoke to when they discussed returning to Comcast in March 2013. They were assured that they would have uninterrupted phone service, that their internet connection would be stable, and that their modem would have a backup battery to ensure that even during power outages their phone would still function. This assurance proved false on every count.
In June 2014, because of her recurrent C. Diff, my mother had to be transported (again) by ambulance for emergency treatment to our local hospital. Imagine for a moment that you are watching someone you love, who is in ill health, becoming horrifically sick and dehydrated and you can't manage to contact 911 to get them assistance.
That's what happened to my family in June 2014.
The first time we called 911 we were able to hear the 911 operator speaking, but the operator couldn't hear us. We tried calling again. This time the phone was dead. I checked our internet connection -- we were experiencing yet another phone and internet disconnection. Our Comcast home phone was useless. I had to use a neighbor's phone to call 911. Thankfully, they were home.
That was our worst experience with Comcast, but it wasn’t the first or the last time our Comcast services have failed to function. Customer Service was of no help. We called, we tightened wires, we used different wires, we had the boxes and modem reset and rebooted a million times, we had them come out and switch modems, we chatted on the phone a few times and endlessly via live chat - in short, we tried everything, and nothing worked.
Finally, after my father filed a complaint with the BBB late last year, he was contacted by someone from Comcast's corporate office. After a lengthy email correspondence, this gentleman was kind enough to arrange for us to receive a credit for the many days and weeks my family went without phone or internet service in 2013 and 2014. He also promised to arrange for a tech to come out and fix our wires in January.
We hoped our problems with Comcast were over. Fat chance.
On November 10, 2014, my parents renegotiated their ever-increasing bill with Comcast. For once we managed to get a very helpful customer service rep on the phone. He told us that if my parents dropped HBO they could keep everything else in their current phone/internet/cable package and the price would be reduced to $159.95 a month. They were told that this price would include all taxes, fees, and other charges, that it would be "locked in" for two years, and that they would never increase it for any reason during that two-year period.
You can imagine their surprise when they received their bill for the month of December and discovered that they had been charged $221. This was not only around $20 more than their previous rate, but over $60 more than the price Comcast had agreed to charge them on November 10. A relatively small amount of money, perhaps, but over time small amounts of money add up.
They contacted Comcast and were told, "I'm sorry, but we can't adjust bills after they've been printed." We knew this wasn't true, because the Comcast executive had changed our bill in November two weeks after it was "printed" to add the promised credit, but the customer service rep promised that my parents January bill would be prorated to reflect the overcharge and apologized for the inconvenience. My parents, exhausted from their previous experiences with Comcast, reluctantly agreed.
January rolls around, and instead of being credited for $61.05, as promised, they received a credit for just $10. Annoying, yes, but they didn't complain because they knew what a nightmare Comcast customer service is to deal with, and at least the bill ($149) was closer to the agreed to rate than the $221 they were charged in December.
Now it's February, and my parents discover that they are being charged $178.24 - not the $159.95 that was agreed to. My father contacted Comcast Customer Service via live chat. The agent Dad communicated with was not able or willing to explain why they are being charged almost $20 more than agreed to this month or why they were never fully refunded the $61.05 they were overcharged in December.
Receiving no help from live chat, my father emailed Comcast at their "We Care" (insert laugh track) corporate email address. It's been nine days. During that time, they have chatted with customer service reps, been contacted by two different people at Comcast's corporate office, and have received multiple phone messages and emails promising that the matter will be "looked into". In spite of this, no one has managed in nine days times to either adjust my parents' bill or explain why they have been overcharged.
Unfortunately, my father works long and odd hours. He is not at home during regular weekday business hours and he can't make personal calls while at work. My mother is too ill right now to deal with them on the phone. Her doctor has ordered her to avoid all stress (she has high blood pressure) and communicating with Comcast is nothing if not stressful. Comcast will not deal with me on the phone, because I am not on the account. As a result, all my Dad's correspondence with them has to take place either via email or live chat on weekdays or by phone on weekends (and, of course, the guys from the corporate office who contacted him are not available on weekends).
Inconvenient for Comcast, perhaps, but frankly, it shouldn't be that difficult to solve a simple billing error in a short time period via email or live chat. If Comcast is truly incapable of doing this, why do they offer live chat and email as customer service options?
My father has forwarded them copies of their user agreement and the confirmation emails he received confirming the price of their Triple Play package, all to no avail. They are still waiting for an answer of some sort from Comcast.
To make matters worse, my parents are still experiencing service interruptions, but they will be moving across town in a few weeks, and don't see the point of trying to get a tech out to a home they will soon be leaving. We are all looking forward to the fun of arranging the service transfer with Comcast. We can't wait to see what our bill for March ends up looking like!
Thankfully, the cell phone service in the area we are moving to is substantially better. So at least we won't have to worry about being unable to contact 911 in an emergency should Comcast fail us again.
You may be wondering why my parents don't just cancel their Comcast service. Good question. Have you ever seen the fees they charge for early termination? It would be cost prohibitive for my parents, and sadly, even if it wasn’t, Comcast has a monopoly on high speed internet service in our area. There is nowhere else to go and they know it. End result, they treat their customers like dirt because they know they can get away with it. That's what monopolies do.
Why am I posting this rant? Because I’m frustrated that my parents, who are getting on in years, are being treated this shabbily, and because I would like to offer a heads up to all Time Warner Cable customers. If that merger goes through, you too, may one day wake up to discover that in spite of your sky-high cable bill, you can't even dial 911 when your relatives need emergency medical assistance.
Welcome to Comcast.