I have no issue with the cable or phone services. Those are fine, though the firmware for the cable boxes is unstable. My issue comes with their moronic restrictions on seeding, and their denial thereof. I can understand a limit on seeding; they have valuable bandwidth. However, cutting off seeding altogether and making a program appear to seed is a horrible, horrible thing that makes me consider their administration a living set of errors.

I am a comcast customer only because some idiot at adelphia decided to embezzle millions of dollars. In addition, I live in a small city, where we have no additional services.

I recently visited comcast.com and discovered that on demand was available in my area. When I called as asked for this, I was told I needed to upgrade my converters. I drove 45 miles each way, to an address that was given to me incorrectly (big differnece in Whitehill Dr in Petersburg and the actual location on E. Whithill Rd in Prince George...they are only a few thousand feet from each other, but GPS has no way of knowing where you want to go with out the correct address). I get my new boxes home, get them all plugged in, wait through two phone calls to have them activated, and guess what...ON DEMAND IS NOT AVAILABLE IN MY AREA!

I am waiting for the supervisor that is supposed to call me back in five minutes...been waiting for 45 minutes.

I am calling the FCC and Franchise Authority today, in addition to the State Corporation Commission to complain about the false advertising. I may even print up flyers and hand them out on Main Street. All I want is what they say they offer in this area.

Just in case any comcast executives are reading this, my account number is 02012 100437-03-1, please give me a call and explain to me why I should stay a comcast customer.

We have been up and down ever since they started this "new" service. We can ping out and see that they are dropping us ever few minutes or seconds and the servers we are being sent to are all over the place.

We have had a truck up the road twice, we never got credit for the ice storm outages, AND the last call with customer service the young man left his speaker phone on. He was talking to other "techs" (I suspect they are simply overpaid bullshitters) and one needed a computer. He said, "Here, use mine, I don't need a computer to do my job." Another female "tech" in the background said, "I am not even helping my customer." then laughed. Then my "tech" said that I must be connected because he can see the box. OK, HOW...if you don't have a freaking computer? Then he said that I should replace my ethernet cable to the wireless box and that would fix things. What? (By the way, my boyfriend is a Principle Engineer and can see what they are doing, his complaint and issue is still open and he has heard nothing. He applied for a job with them, but he must be overqualified!!)

I think that they don't like us using networks and wireless hardware to run two or three computers in our homes. I feel they are choking down our signal so we are dropped every time our bandwidth spikes past an internal level and that they have also sold our information. I have been getting more and more spam emails and regular mail. Anything to make a buck....

They are using these "techs" to take information and then noting our accounts of complaints. They are not doing anything for us and they are not listening. I will contact the FCC and BBB and anyone else that I can. I can't even get this email done for being dropped six times!!! I know they are over subscribed and not customer focused. They have a monopoly and are using that to pressure everyone. WE need to contact our representatives and anyone else so we can have REAL opportunities for other services and competition.

I am in Bedford, NH and my account number is: 8773201810090326

My opinion of Comcast..they really stink !! and I will call Verizon on Tuesday if I don't have any internet.

angle

A friend of mine once said, "So---, you want the big violin or the little violin?".
For the year I had them, they gave me the run around about $99/month billing. My contract shows $90/month in two different places. Now that I am cancelled (can one ever get away from those people?), as of Sept. 2009 (I went to Taiwan), they continue to bill me! I return in March 2010 and called, to which I was assured things would be taken care of. I came back June of this year to find my bill has gone to collections and they are threatening to go to the three credit reporting agencies! Did I mention, while I was gone I had some people from South Korea staying at my house and Comcast came by and managed to get $124 out of them? So, now I am back and I wish I could charge them for all the time I am spending on this most un-American of dealings! I am given a conformation number, it has been "escalated", and I need to be by the phone from Wed. to Fri. in the morning hours. The time came and went to no avail!!! When I called back they were all apologetic, but happy to set me up with another confirmation number for a call back. No thank you!!! Oh, by the way, and this is a dozy, honest! My neighbor across the street, they had them for 1%261/2 months, deciding to cancel. It was easier pulling out your wisdom teeth with a pair of pliers without novocaine!!! The bill reached above $700, so my neighbor made a deal. They said, "split the cost, you walk away, and never bother us again!!!" Comcast accepted this! And now my neighbors do not even want to enter into a class action law suit, should I be able to wrangle one! But, my neighbors stated, if Comcast comes around offering their services for 10 years, and for free, they STILL would not accept!!! They are, by far, the most maddening, irresponsible, inept, clingy, blind, deaf and dumb, ungracious, do nothing, clumsy, muddle headed, two faced, idiotic, right hand not knowing what its left hand is doing company, that has ever spawned a desire to succeed, on the face of the planet, that I have ever had the misfortune of doing business with!!! What makes them think that, once you enter into a contract with them, that they own you for life? I WILL report them and I WILL sue them for all of my time! I will do my best effort to make them blink! How dare they! They are without shame!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS I do not think they have anybody in area code 95116. That is, now that I have quit!

Comcast acct.# 8770 10 014 8623266

I live in Boston, MA where Comcast has a monopoly on all things TV/Internet.

I continue to have problems with Comcast Cable's "quality" of signal for both my HDTV and Internet service. This has been going on for nearly two years. Every 2 to 3 months, the signal quality of the cable becomes horrible and causes huge amounts of pixelation on all the channels - especially the HD channel. Comcast tells me to reset the box and I do. This NEVER fixes the problem. A tech will come out to fix things and blames it on the weather and the signal quality is okay for 3 months then invariable deteriorates again.

This happened again 2 nights ago. I talked to the tech and they sent out a refresh signal. I took this time to go to Whole Foods to get some groceries to make a nice dinner. I came back home and the damn thing is still pixelating. Ridiculous. I was watching Food Network HD and thought that maybe the regular non HD version would be more tolerable. I was wrong. Even the regular channels were pixelating to hell. The next day I had my box reset again. More pixelation.

Today I turn on my TV and within a minute... Pixelation. Then as I'm getting ready to talk to online chat support, the TV simply freezes for over a minute and my internet fails. Excellent.

I talk to Comcast support today and they say:

"As what I have checked in your area the reason as to why you are having the issue is due to the ongoing outage."

Why did I have to come to them for them to tell me there is an outage? They said they gave me a "credit" to my account - but I wouldn't have gotten this credit unless I reported this problem (that they supposedly already know about). Also, no ETA on the fix... But they said it "usually resolves in 24-48 hours." I told them my problem started over 48 hours ago.

I suspect there is no "ongoing outage" in my area. Their infrastructure simply blows.

Any techs care to comment on why my line needs fixing/upgrading every 3 months... and what an "ongoing outage" entails?

Thanks,

I was overcharged for FIVE YEARS by Comcast for equipment returned--I have a receipt for the returned modem and they agree they had a record of it and it was their error. The initial service rep was pleasant but totally uncooperative and would only credit me THREE MONTHS. I wrote division heads and corporate people, who apparently just punted it back to their crappy customer service in my local area. The guy called me ONCE and left a message--I returned the call and left my work phone number 21 TIMES and they never called me again. They sent me a letter that was written one week, postmarked a week later, that stated they would consider the matter resolved if they didn't hear from me TWO DAYS after I received it. I called again during those two days and they never answered the phone or returned my messages. I have never, NEVER received such horrendous treatment from a company. I have been a Comcast customer for many years, and most of my complaints have been minor until this. I'm disgusted by their service. If the corporate officers want to improve customer service they should start with their local customer service offices!

My account number is 09564 110603-01-4

Here's the deal, Comcast only allows 250 Gb total monthly bandwidth usage. No matter the speed level you choose. For example, if you buy the high tier speed service you will blow through this limit in only approximately 3% of the time, something like 1 day in a billing cycle. Go beyond this limit and they cut you off, and refuse to discuss service options for 12 months. So don't bother with comcast if you intend to enjoy any of the streaming video options Hulu, Netflix, etc. unless you really do intend to only watch 21 hours total in a month... Sure a heck don't expect to support any kind of job where you might want to upload/download software, video etc..

Called to downgrade today (Sunday). The option on the "24 hour" line to downgrade gave me a message stating I had to call back during Monday through Saturday business hours. When I hit the option to upgrade I got a person who was more than willing to upgrade me. Upon demanding that she downgrade me she did. The worst part is she agreed with me when I said Comcast is evil and doesn't care about their customers. This is just one more way we are being screwed. If my girlfriend wasn't a T.V. watcher I'd cancel as soon as possible.

starting June 1, 2010 digital cable box fees will increase from $1.99 to $7.99 per month, per box. Lets see 5 tv's + 2 pc's w/tv tuners, great! Comcast Sucks!

I have been a service tech for 2 1/2 yrs with Comcast. I did installs and service work on TV, internet and phone products and services. I was doing a service call at a customer's home on a utility pole about 20 feet up when a ComEd tension line snapped and fused the power line to the Comcast line. Sent high voltage through the line and electrocuted me with over 1,600 volts. Killed my phone and my service meter. Blew out 95% of my teeth, head hit the ladder and broke an artery vein on my forehead. Was out for 38 minutes with lots of blood loss. When I came to, I found myself sitting in a lawn chair still bleeding and spitting out teeth. I called the Stupervisor at that time and he told me I was "shocked a little and you will have a headache for a few days. Clean yourself up and head to the next job." He has been with the company for over 13 years so I took his word. He is also the head of safety in that office. A day later I wasn't doing any better and problems were getting worse by the hour. Was rushed into the ER and they had to repair the artery vein in my forehead and try to fix my heart. It was beating way to much and to hard just to keep the blood supply going. Was in the hospital for 3 months and then tried healing at home for an additional 2 months. After 5 months of being off work, the doctors said I was able to return to work if I could handle it. I was NOT getting paid for any of the 5 months off. With NO money coming in, my wife had to barrow money to help pay the bills and our home. I had to push myself to return to work and start making money again.

The day I returned, I was to help other techs on their jobs. ALL of them happen to be on utility poles for 2 weeks. My nerves were racked and my anxiety levels shot through the roof. I still pressured on for my family's sake. The attacks kept coming back stronger and stronger. I finally had a service job where I hugged the pole and blacked out for almost 2 hours. When I came to, I quickly finished the job and left with the customer working perfectly. I drove away and cried because my head was only a few inches from the power line and I could have died for the second time within 10 months. My HR Manager and Ops. Manager didn't care and told me to suck it up, get a grip on my problem, solve my issue, and get back to work if i still want a job.

Now on Short Term Disability leave, they have refused my Workers Comp. claim, and now my Short Term Disability claim. I have 3 children to feed and house. I have to go through several hours of psycho treatment a week. After two weeks now, they came to my door, collected my tools, meter, and phone and handed me my last paycheck. They told me to have a GREAT DAY! What a way to care about your service techs and treat them with problem that Comcast NEVER settled from the accident. Because of them, I can't go near utility poles or be on a ladder in heights. THANK YOU COMCAST FOR TAKING CARE OF YOUR EMPLOYEES!

READ ME . . . READ ME . . . READ ME . . . READ ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So on March 11, 2010, I submitted complaints to the FCC, FCA, local Franchise Board, and the Better Business Bureau (joke that they are). Today, May 19, 2010 Comcast called, very concerned and wanting to know what was going on because of my complaint to the FCC or FCA (my husband answered the call so I'm not sure which).

After over two years of service not working, lies, billing issues etc., I told my husband we get rid of them or I never have to speak with them again. The last straw that led to his also led to my filing all those complaints. He promised he'd deal with them from now on, in other words let them walk all over us, but that's another issue. They called I refused to talk to the woman, but I was there to give hubby all the information. That one, less than 30 minute call, resulted in him saying the words I've been wanting for over two years "Cancel Comcast". Yay, of course he has to do that when he gets home for work since you can't cancel on-line.

As I said before, if you want to Comcast to finally face the long overdue consequences for their unethical, dishonest, and likely illegal behavior you need to file complaints. Yes it was a month and half between my complaint and their call, but the fact that their worried enough to call is a big deal. The last time I spoke with someone it was in their corporate office. She was awful so I asked for a supervisor, who conveniently "wasn't in" but would call me back. I got a call back from that office but they hung up when I answered the phone, hence the last straw. Now, because I complained to the right agencies, they suddenly want to talk to me.

People, file complaints on EVERY ISSUE, EVERY TIME. Comcast will always suck, it will always be dishonest, it will always be an example of unethical, horrific behavior, and maybe someday they'll fold. In the meantime, compalin about every issue to the FCC, FCA, regional Franchise Board, and BBB. It's the only thing we can do that will make them respond. You never know, if enough of us complain, they just might launch a full scale investigation. I'm sure Comcast will be able to buy someone off, but wont it be fun to watch them sweat until they do!

they crased my computer their internet sucked i got all of these viruses!!
and i love this website!!!
i now use att for all its AWESOME!!
so yeah i will tell 50 people that are my frieds that will help stop their stupid rein of ******** and they will not ever be back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:)

I’ve had an absolutely astonishingly awful experience with Comcast Digital Voice in Lakewood, Colorado.

I get video, data and telephone services from Comcast. I pay them about $160 a month for services.

Friday, my phones all went dead, suddenly. Just dead. The handsets all say, “Check tel line.” No signal, in other words.

I spent about 45 minutes online with a technician trying to troubleshoot the system. I got tired of the troubleshooting after that much time, and asked the online technician to schedule a real technician to come out. Apparently, they did nothing. No appointment was ever scheduled.

I know that because tonight I called to check on the appointment. When I found out no appointment existed, I got another technician on the phone. I asked them to schedule a technician to come to my home. They refused until we performed “troubleshooting”. When that failed to resolve the problem, I asked again for a technician to be scheduled to come out. The call cut off.

I called back. The technician who came on the line demanded that we “troubleshoot” again. I told him I had done it twice already, and that I would not do it again. He refused to do anything until I performed “troubleshooting” with him. I refused and asked to talk to his supervisor.

I told the supervisor in no uncertain terms that there would be no troubleshooting, and that a technician needed to come out. After arguing with me for some time, she finally told me a technician could come out Thursday – a full week of no phone service in my home office. She told me that because “many people are having problems,” I should be satisfied with Thursday.

Since the troubleshooters and the supervisors all had Tagalog accents, I’m guessing I was routed to a call center in the Philippines. Nice.

I am astonished at how bad this experience has been…as well as the fact that a service regulated under the state PUC and city franchise law is allowed to be so blatantly terrible.

I worked in the cable business for 12 years. I will likely switch to Qwest and DirecTV this week…but how ridiculous is this for an entity of their size?

Sincerely,

Dave

**********************
note from admim :
That's WHAT They DO ... I know it's NO consolation, but you are in GOOD Company.

Okay, so I ordered online (the only option) a $19.99 for 6m internet option and they billed me over $40 for it. When I called in they stated that they were not aware of this option and could only offer it @ $24.99???!! WTF. Of course I didn't keep the janky internet confirmation of the $19.99 so I guess I'm stuck. Any suggestions?

Account # 02573 005974-04-9

We have been struggling with Comcast for years. Never very good but we
didn't have much of an alternative and they were reasonably nice and
accommodating.

But the service has deteriorated over the last 2 years and enough is
enough!

The latest step in our saga was a bill for some $220 plus tax for "4 wall
fish". I could have lived with it if these were real "wall-fish". But what
they consisted of was replacing the small length of cable between the wall
TV outlet and the TV. $2 worth of cable and, as far as I am concerned, they
don't need to be custom made! Have you ever heard of such a rip-off? We
were of course never given a cost estimate for the job as we would obviously
have sent the technician packing. To add insult to injury, but not
unexpectedly, it made no difference in our TV reception.

We checked with them and this is indeed what they call a "Wall-fish". We
haven't paid the $220 and they are going to disconnect us which is just as
well!

Account # 02573 005974-04-9

The usage meter and cap seem stupid to me, but were never an issue as I have never even come close to the cap.

Then I signed up for Netflix. If the kids are looking at a screen, there's a 95% chance it's on Netflix streaming.

That, and the fact that I never see commercials on Netflix turned me into a daily user of the service as well.

We'll be getting rid of comcast soon. There's no other option for us.

Sure, I could explain this nonsense to my 12 year old, but I can't tell two screaming two year olds that they "can't watch any more calliou or thomas the tank engine this month because we'll hit the cap."

One comment on another forum stood out to me while reading about this, and he said something along the lines of "That's like going to an all you can eat buffet, only to find out after eating 5 plates, that the typical buffet customer only consumes 2 plates and they're kicking you out of the restaurant for a year as a result."

I was reading that if you pass this cap:
1st time - a phone call to warn you.
2nd time - termination of service for one year.

So this is how May 2010 will most likely end up for me..
Warning call, with my reply being "Go fuck yourself. Now I'm going to leave uTorrent on all times of the day and night, and hire someone to come here at night and watch Netflix all night while I sleep. By the way, go fuck yourself."

And once I do it again within six months they'll be doing me a favor by shutting off the internet service. Awesome!

My hours got cut at work by 10 a week. I call comcast to see what they can do to help me out, they say they can only take off 20 bucks off my next bill and thats it. They do not care about the customers unless you cancel for fiOS which is pathetic.

I turn on Windows Media Center last night (It's how I watch tv now since the digital upgrade) and low and behold channels between 26-29 and 30.8 are now all scrambled. I thought to myself Microsoft must have screwed up an update last night so I looked all night on forums everywhere and couldn't find anyone who had the same problem recently. So then I knew......Comcast does it again. First it was the switch to digital cable requiring everyone to have a digital set top box or one of their DTA boxes (which are free oddly enough) but I choose to buy a ATSC/QAM tuner card for my pc. Anyhow..... now they are messing with the channels on digital cable without even a notice as to what they are doing or no info on why or when they are doing it. I have never seen a company who cares so little about the customers who keep them in business. As soon as this most recent contract is up.....this house is switch to ATT for sure. COMCAST SUCKS!!!!

Hi, I was checking out your website and it's really funny! I can't post on it because my company forbids posting negative things about the competition but I was wondering if you could help me spread the word about a new TV Company that is launching this summer that will compete with Cable/Satellite companies. It's REAL competition and I think within' 10 years it could do to cable companies what Netflix did to Video stores. It's called Nuclius TV and it's not your free IPTV. It's the real deal that streams HD to your TV. The website is

http://
nucliusiptv
.net

Check it out!

Hi, my name is David Foxworthy and I have confirmed a revealing of comcast
selling fake technology. Comcast has 3 DVR models, each of a varying quality
level. The default DVR that they sell without informing u of the other more
-costly to manufacture- DVRs has a large plethora of Inputs and Outputs,
making it seem like the god of all DVRs and beating Verizon Fios. However, I
decided to test the quality of each in/out and right off the bat I noticed
something. The optical spdif out port was not glowing red inside like the
technology is supposed to, it was a plastic box with no cabling. I then
tested the two RCA (yellow-red-white) inputs and neither of them were able
to receive signals of any sort, rendering them fake as well. The hdmi out is
fake. The Y-Pr-Pb out is fake, all USB ports only have power pins no data.
Firewire ports are fake. With some boxs a DVI port is present....a type of
port reserved for the highest end PC graphics cards and monitors, this too
is fake. I could go on, but the message is clear. The only REAL
inputs/ouputs are comcast coax-in, RCA out, coax-out. Thus their ultra high
end top of the line looking setup is nothing more than a set top cable box
with a hard drive in it. This is downright illegal in advertising and
product marketing. Equivalent to selling a car with an engine that looks V8
but is a V4 with snap on metal block models. Also, Europe has the same DVR
box yet some of their peripherals arent fake! How is this even fair!? The
other two DVR models that comcast not so knowingly sells do have hdmi and a
few more active peripherals but look 100% different than their public DVR
model. As a last note, a comcast technician who was rather friendly and
AGREED that comcast sucks and ought to change informed us of the two not so
well known DVR models we can request and that the mainstream DVR model is
dying for people all over the nation (like ours has, it was the reason he
was here). This false product needs to be reveiwed by government officials
and ultimately would result in comcast being wiped out due to costs for new
DVRs that WORK being sent out to all customers and the fines they will
receive. Spread the word of the two other DVR models that people can upgrade
to! We are already having to re-record the shows off of our current one to
not lose them. If you want to test this yourself all that you have to do is
plug any game console or camcorder or anything that uses RCA out into the
front RCA in ports of your DVR. Press the TV/VCR button on your comcast
remote thats supposed to "switch inputs" found on the bottom left of the
remote. Nothing happens.

PS: Feel free to point me in the right direction if this is not the right
email address. Also, feel free to reply back with any questions u may have.

Saturday, I've purchased HD box from Comcast, paying over $14 extra every month because we kept the old box for second TV, Sunday morning, I've noticed that some of my channels, witch we hade for years where all of the sudden not authorized. I called Comcast immediately, what a shock! After seven or eight years of using their digital packages, we are not 'digital' customers anymore. I'm being bullshit in to my ear that they have changed there packages (this was not a first time) couple of months ago and that they fixing this mistake now. Of course my statement never mentioned anything about it, but exact opposite happened when I talked to some other person couple of weeks ago to downgrade the service (got rid of HBO) who told me how much will I pay when I'll purchase the HD box. They disconnected all the channels we where paying for ever and just left us with the 'basic', expecting us to give them even more money than they've been collecting. I'm on the phone with this supervisor Max U2WU2W who's 'multi tasking', not paying any attention to what I'm saying (You dude, you can be really working for such a fucked up company as Comcast) basically laughing to my face.



This dirty business of theirs must go out, I hate Comcast and their monopoly, to hell with you Comcast, people are fed up with your bullshit!!!



Account # 81552003100605

In the 10 years of having ATT standard POTS I have never had my line down even after multiple hurricanes. Now here I am 1 week into my new comcast service using digital voice for the first time and 1 week now its down. I feel very confident that If one day when I am not home my sevice will be down, someone will break into my house and no one will know because no phone line will be available to notify the monitoring service or the Police and god forbid someone is home NO 911 for you. GO F*#KING SUCK IT COMAST, I am cancelling this Digital Crap Voice Tomorrrow.

I use to work for comcast too as an installer, sometimes service and most of the time disconnect. The worst thing that goes on in there is each dept. don't know what the other dept is supposed to be. If sales gets an open call (service call) They just open it as a trouble call and let the customers wait for a day or 2 to fix the problem, but guess what, all it takes for them to hit the box (restart) cause the customer just went to get a box replaced. There is a big communication gap between each department. And now as a paying customers and I pay extra $$$ to get an international channel which is being down for more than 24 hours, now here is the funy part, It's firday 6:30 pm April 30, 2010, I call the 800 comcast and fucking call centers are closed and no one will pick up the phone. LMAO. The Roberts doesn't care, He makes a million $$ a month what the fuck does he care.

Apparently we are getting this Xfinity thing. No idea what it is exactly but reading here and other places its not good. If its anything like their current services..... its going to be horrible and have constant drop outs.

As a very recent former employee who left voluntarily, I can tell you the number one thing Comcast cares about is profit and the only people they care about is their board of directors and shareholders.
In the past year they closed multiple call centers with the reason that they were small, inefficient and non productive, which resulted in the unemployment of thousands of employees. The calls that used to be handled by those call centers have been routed to other areas, but Comcast did not hire additional people to handle the increased call volume; instead employees were told to increase their productivity or they could lose their jobs to another call center too. Comcast also outsourced all incoming Spanish calls to Mexico and the calls for internet and telephone support for field technicians (as well as many of the customer calls) has been contracted to an outside company in the Philippines. Comcast does not have to pay for employee benefits for “‘outsourced” jobs. Shortly after the layoffs, the media broke the news that Comcast was planning to merge with NBC Universal. Coincidence? I hardly think so.
Want to know why customer service is so horrible? For one thing, reps are so burned out they don’t care. This company takes the definition of micromanagement to a whole new level. Management places the emphases on productivity and sales rather than customer service. Phone reps are allowed to spend an average time of 5 minutes per call. If the call lasts longer than 10 minutes, they receive a message reminding them that they are over their 5 minutes, so reps will say anything to get the customer off the phone. The standard response to a customer who has an issue with their cable box is to unplug it and wait 45 minutes. In other words, get the customer off the phone as quickly as possible and pass the problem onto the next rep the customer talks to. I was told by several different managers that the company would rather make the customer schedule an appointment for a service call instead of a rep spending time on the phone trying to fix the problem! In other words, they would prefer a customer take time off of work or from other duties to spend time waiting at home instead of spending a few extra minutes on the phone to get their issue resolved right then. After a certain amount of time, if the reps’ average time spent with each customer goes over 5 minutes, they are written up. If they do not make the daily sales goal, they are written up, so reps will say anything to customers in order to get "a sale". After a specific amount of time if reps still have not met their goals, they get fired. In the sales department I saw a sign posted stating one of the daily goals is "customer mind control"! During new hire training, an entire day is devoted just on overcoming objections from customers who don't want additional services or channels. If the local market sales goals are not being met, managers will walk up and down the aisles asking who is meeting their sales quota and who is not. Phone reps are not given incentives to provide good customer service, however there are plenty of incentives to sell services. Policies and procedures can change daily and reps are informed (if at all) of those changes via email, so if they don't bother to read their email, they give customers the wrong information (ever wonder why every time you call you get a different answer?) A standard joke amongst the employees is that for a communication company, Comcast sucks at communicating information within their own organization. Ongoing training for reps for new products and services is not held in training rooms, but on their computer. It's called Comcast University and each course lasts an average of 5-20 min and is similar to a slideshow presentation. (And customers question why employee’s knowledge about their own products is so poor)
As far as installation and service appointments go, in many of the call centers jobs are not pre-routed, so technicians usually have no idea what type of work they will be doing ahead of time. Many technicians restock equipment on their truck once a week, so they can run out of certain types of equipment by the end of the week. Because the reps have a limited amount of time to complete the work orders, they cut corners such as not listing what equipment or services the technician needs to install and on service orders, many of them are setup incorrectly or don’t even state what the problem is. The technician may have no idea what the customer is expecting until they walk in the door. The reps are required to-but in many cases do not- advise customers that technicians can show up anytime during the scheduled timeframe or what the timeframe is, someone 18 or older must be home and that there will be a pre-call before the technician arrives. On service calls for technical problems if the customer does not answer the phone after two attempts are made, the job gets cancelled. This policy was put into place because of the high number of times technicians would drive to a customer’s home and no one would be there. A very common problem is that when reps setup appointments, they don’t always verify what telephone number the customer can be reached at, so when dispatch calls, they may not call the correct telephone number. Customers should not assume the correct contact information is listed on their account.
The stress the company puts on each employee is unbelievable. Not only do the employees have to deal with the constant threat of being fired for not meeting their goals, but also put up with verbal abuse from customers throughout the day. Have you ever asked for a supervisor and felt like you got the run around? That's because supervisors are hardly ever at their desks, or they are busy writing up employees. Supervisors HATE taking calls from customers. Phone reps are told to advise customers of a 24-48 hour call back time frame if they insist on speaking to a supervisor. Many times when customers think they are talking to a supervisor, they are actually talking to "floor support" (level below supervisor). Management has very little respect for customers OR employees.