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Why can't any utility company get it right | by frizzgrig | 2005-08-04 12:11:44 |
| I feel your pain. *warning, long* |
by talon0720 |
2005-08-04 14:58:13 |
An excerpt from an email I sent out a while ago. . .
. . .
Now, fast forward to the end of the week. Comcast was scheduled to be out on Friday to set up our cable and broadband internet access, which I need to set up a VPN connection into work for middle of the night support. So the guys from the company Comcast contracts out to get here and cannot find the drop point for the cable.
This is around 7:00 pm.
They check the box by the building, but the numbers don't go below 518 and we're in 512. They walk around the building, but can't find another box. They are outside with flashlights, now 8:00 pm, checking the box across the street, and *they* *can* *not* *find* *the* *friggin'* *cable* *drop* *point* *for* *this* *stinkin'* *place*. Not good. I am supposed to be taking over the primary support position and I don't have a way to connect from home. So not
good. They call in to have their supervisor come out Saturday and tell us that someone will call to let us know when they will be out.
11:00 Saturday morning rolls around, and no call. I call Comcast, and they tell me that someone will be out between 11:00 and 2:00. Don't you wish you could tell them "I'll pay my bill sometime between May and July." 2:00 rolls by, and no call, no installation Tech either. I call Comcast, yet again, and this time they tell me that no one is scheduled to be out. Me = Not Happy. I tell her that there had better be someone out here and she says she'll try to get someone from dispatch to call in a half hour.
After 30 minutes, I call a competitor and ask the guy if he would like to steal a customer away from Comcast. He doesn't have a clue and when I explain to him that if he can get an installer out that day, he'll have stolen a customer away from Comcast. He can't, so I thank him and hang up. Long shot = well, Long shot.
So now I'm back to square one, calling Comcast to get someone out here. Again, I get the run around, "Someone will call you in 15 minutes." Fifteen minutes and no call later, I call Comcast *yet* *again*. Someone once told me I had the patience of Job, but I'm tellin' ya that my patience had worn thinner than the hair on Mr. Clean's head. So when this guy asks if he can put me on hold just like *every* *other* *person* had so far, I said "No. I'm staying on the line until I have someone at my door. Conference them in, I don't care, but you're staying on the line." He then conferenced in a guy from dispatch and then I think he dropped off, cause I didn't hear from him for the rest of the call.
The dispatch guy tried to get me off the line a couple of times, but I refused and repeated that I was staying on the line until there was an installer at the door. Finally the installation supervisor arrived, I apologized to the dispatch guy for acting like a jerk and let him off the phone.
Don't think that this story is over yet.
Now it really gets good.
This guy knows what he is doing. Withing a few minutes of breaking out the toner (for those who don't know it's a handy dandy device that sends a signal down a wire with one part, and another picks up the signal along the wire) he finds where the cable drop is at, and that it had the old building numbers on it. We then find out that my old trusty cable modem is more old than trusty and can't pick up the signal. Luckily, he has a cable modem that does work and the added bonus of a 100 MB ethernet connection rather than the old 10 MB connection my old modem
had. So, now, after 24 hours, I finally have a cable modem connection in my home.
Almost.
It won't register. The install tech calls in, and they can't get it to work. He tries for a while, gives it a pretty good effort, but to no avail. He suggests using a different computer (the work issued laptop is locked down pretty good, even though I have admin priveleges) to eliminate that possibility.
After getting back from dinner and grabbing a few things, I try a few more things, and call back *egnegf* Comcast again at 9:30.
No luck.
Nobody there can help. I try bringing down a computer from upstairs and hooking that up.
No luck.
I try taking out the access point and connecting the computer directly to the cable modem, which I tell people NOT to do.
Doesn't work.
In fact things get worse.
Now I can't even get to the server to do the registration. I'm still getting an IP address (tech speak for "The connection is good and it is connecting to their equipment") but I can't register the modem so their system will let me get out to the Internet.
11:30, I call again, and now they tell me that the server is down for maintanence and to try again in 2 hours. 1:00am and I try again with no luck, so I went to bed.
Sunday morning I try again with, are you ready for the surprise? no luck. Another call to Comcast proves pointless, as yet again, I get someone who is completely clue deficient. I kept persevering, but I could not get the server to run through the registration without an error. So I called Comcast again and, hold on for the big surprise . . .
are you ready?
I got someone who had absolutely no problem whatsoever getting the account built by hand, and got me online before I hung up the phone.
WOOOOOOOT!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you $NAME_REMOVED (or however his name is spelled) for having a clue. I thanked him so profusely that he told me I made his day. I told him he made mine, thanked him again and then proceeded to get my VPN connection to work up.
Getting this connection up was like pulling teeth.
Out of a rabid wolverine.
From the *back* end.
Boy am I glad that it's over.
Thank you for reading through all of this. My fingers are tired and
I'm going to bed. |
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