Comcast brand trips on customer service
I’d just hung up my shingle for the day when my office phone rang. I had my hands full of mail, so my husband answered for me. I listened as he chatted politely, and then he told the caller to phone back next week after he checked some figures.
When he hung up, he asked me what we pay for phone service. “Who was that?” I asked.
“Comcast,” he said.
I immediately thought of those cute little turtles, the Slowskys. “No way,” I told him.
No way I would trust my phone line to a company that despite my repeated calls and repeated trips from technicians, cannot keep my service running smoothly. I spent a small fortune trying to set up a wireless network. Paid Comcast to have their techs come out after paying Dell to have their techs come out. Never could get it to work satisfactorily. So I ended up acquiring a second modem. That way I have one in my home office and our college kid has her own. Should mean everything goes smoothly, right? I mean, I pay these people $91.90 a month for modems. The truth is the service will work well for awhile, and then it returns me to dialup days. I could file my nails sometimes waiting for a page to load, not a good option for a freelancer.
And don’t even get me started on the On Demand channel. We pay for a movie, and if you pause it or sometimes even if you don’t, an error code pops up. Movie gets zapped. Then you can’t do a thing. Half a movie is like half of a car.
Comcast is obviously pushing the phone service with massive marketing efforts. But until the company works out serious issues with other services, I’m not biting. Even a major brand can be held accountable by the consumer. I firmly believe customer service can trip any brand eventually.
The Slowskys? I’m on their team, but not by choice.
Technorati Tags: Technorati, Kay B. Day, Beneath the Brand, Internet service provider, Digital Phone Service provider, customer service
Filed under: Advertising, Branding, Miscellaneous, Personal Opinions
I have had awful experiences with Comcast, as well. I think that at some point, every customer has wanted to throw an angry fit with them.
As one of the consistently lowest ranking companies in customer service surveys, you’d think they would try to do something about it, but the marketplace (and the lack of real competition) favors their presence.
I suppose at the end of they day they could give two shits about their customers, as long as they pay their bills.
Funny thing…I’ve had great customer service with Comcast. Let’s see how the next few months go. I’ve only been with them for 5 or so months.
Kelliann, good luck. When mine works, it works great.
A new tech came out this morning (really cool thing because the tech was a female, first time I’ve seen a woman do this work. She told me there are only a few women in our city, among approx. 300 techs.)
Anyway, she determined my office connection was on some kind of multi-split, and there were some corroded wires in our outside box. So far, this is the best my connection’s ever been.
The problem with customer service right now is that (1)It can be very hard at times to understand the person helping you on the phone. Some accents are easier to understand (and most of us have at least a passing familiarity with Spanish), but when it’s a far Eastern accent, it can be really challenging, possibly complicated even more by my own Southern accent. (2)Sometimes you feel as though you’re not taken quite as seriously as you want to be.
Yesterday, I simply demanded a tech come out rather than Comcast trying to fix me up with signals or tech walk-throughs.
I stick with the company because it is my best option–the only thing that might be another option would be going through Sprint, since I work on a laptop. We’ll see.
Thanks for weighing in, though–best, Kay