I enjoy writing positive reviews when I find something I like or receive good service. I also try to downplay occasional frustration with a product or service. In general, try to say good about things I like and say none about the ones did not like. But, from time to time, there comes a company or product which thoroughly disappoints me that I must have to write about them so that public is aware of their poor performance.
Comcast - my cable service provider. This company has not been my favorite any time. I have used their service for cable internet for most of my 11+ years in the US. Cable service is mostly a monopoly business. It appears like 5-6 companies have divided the entire US into exclusive domains. In a given domain, if you want cable service, you need to get from one of them. This probably is the root cause for their poor service.
I had Comcast cable in my previous apartment too. In San Jose. A few months back I moved to my new place in Pleasanton. Since no other cable service provider was available, I had to continue with Comcast. I had hoped that I would just transfer the service to new location without any changes in service and everything would continue without a hitch. How wrong I was.
First, the transfer process itself was pretty painless. I was able to complete the transfer process online after chatting with one of their reps. I provided the date by which old connection should be terminated and new one should begin. I was under the impression that once the old connection was terminated, nothing will transact on the old account. Since I was on auto-pay, they used to bill my credit card on a monthly basis. I thought everything will transfer to my new account.
First disappointment was that they gave me a new account. If I were to know this, I would have opened a new account myself thus allowing myself some nice discounts for first few months. Leave aside discounts. They even billed my old account instead of closing it. Remember it was on auto-pay. Frustrating but I thought a phone call would rectify that and they would refund me. Once again, how wrong I was.
When they set up connection at my new place, the technician who had come to do installation replaced the modem and took away the old modem. For some reason, that was not recorded at all. I kept getting irritating calls from Comcast asking me to return the modem. I called them up multiple times to inform them that their technician has taken the old modem and they should record it as such. Every time I was told that they would take care of it.
When I called to have the charge on my old account refunded, once again they brought up the fact that they have not received my old modem. Gosh, so frustrating. I explained once again and same response. All set. We will take care of it. Somebody will call you next 4 days to arrange for your refund.
No news for next month or so. I send e-mails to inquire about my refund and believe it or not - same old tune. Modem not returned. So, I call up again. Same story repeats. The rep talks to me, says they will record that modem has been returned, somebody will call me in next 4 days.
Nothing happens for another month. By this time, I have given up on these losers at Comcast. I called my credit card company and had the charge reversed. At least, I have got the credit now. It's a different matter if Comcast chooses to refute that and I have to engage in a different battle. If it comes to that, let me see. But, what a frustrating experience.
Now that I have learnt this lesson, I disabled my auto-pay. I still pay online but I manually initiate the payment. At least with Comcast, I am not going to let them have access to my credit card at their will. It's for them to loose. Earlier I had set it up so that they could debit my card as soon as the bill was generated. Now, I take my time and pay them a day or two before the deadline. Who is losing? They. What way? Don't have access to money sooner.
What a horrible company - Comcast.
Only positive thing I can say is internet service is reliable. Very few times, it's been down in all the years I have had to endure them.
Cheers!
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