Aug 2, 2008

I recently read in the New York Times that Comcast has a group of people whose job is to monitor cyberspace, including such insignificancies as this blog, for angry references to the company. They then personally contact the pathetic whiners and try to mollify them, or at least give them the feeling that Comcast is not all a huge unresponsive monolith, but that it is made up of human beings who feel your pain. Well, having recently emerged myself from over 5 weeks of Comcast Hell, the details of which I will spare you, let me just add my pain: FOR A COMPANY IN THE COMMUNICATIONS BUSINESS,YOU DO A CRAPPY JOB OF COMMUNICATING AMONG YOUR OWN VARIOUS INTERNAL PARTS. That is in capitals because if I were saying it, I would be saying it VERY LOUDLY.

We had multiple visits from multiple Comcast contractors, each with an opinion different from the last, and multiple phone calls to Comcast employees and each and every time was like beginning anew. There was so much misinformation, miscommunication and malfunctioning that we sometimes thought that we were part of a CIA experiment testing the limits of human endurance. The CIA should use these people to do enhanced interrogation of the prisoners at Guantanamo -  Osama himself would say anything to make it stop.

The bright spot is Comcast's well-trained customer service reps - the folks you get forwarded to when the other folks detect the trembling in your voice that is about to explode into CAPITALS. They are polite, patient and often even helpful. But, if you're listening Comcast, you could save a lot of money hiring and training (and no doubt replacing) those customer service reps if you just figured out HOW TO GET THE CUSTOMER SERVICE RIGHT IN THE FIRST PLACE. This rant is over, Are you listening, Comcast??