Comcast Digital Cable and High Speed Internet Service - TV guide programming guide problems - Internet installation problems

# 22 for September 15, 2003

Complaints.com received the following on September 14, 2003:

From:

RE: Comcast Digital Cable and High Speed Internet Service - TV guide programming guide problems - Internet installation problems September 13, 2003

Jason Ash

Tallahassee, FL, 32303

To: Comcast Corporation

I am writing in the hope that you can address problems that seem to be rampant in Comcast's client/customer services. Since signing up for Comcast Digital Cable and Comcast High Speed Internet service in August 2003, the service has never been as described in our agreement and the customer service department has been delinquent in resolving the problems. Particularly, on August 30, 2003, I had previously ordered the ESPN Gameplan. I went to turn the games on, on Saturday afternoon and the service had not been turned on. I had to call and talk to a customer service agent about why my service was not turned on.

They had no records of the ESPN Gameplan package on my account, when I know that I talked to a customer service representative once when I had a transfer done and I also called and just to make sure everything was all setup. Both times that I called they told me everything was fine and that the ESPN Gameplan was on my account. I guess not!! While representatives answering the customer service hotline have been polite and apologetic for the constant problems, none have acted on my request for credit to our bills for the lost service. Surprisingly, they have expected me to go through the 300+ channels to tell them every single channel that has a problem when I call in a complaint. As mentioned above, the scrambled channels change quite frequently. Expecting me to catalogue every single channel's reception is unacceptable. I would like half of the monthly fees I've been paying for digital service to be refunded. In addition, I want Comcast's outline, in writing, of what actions they will take and what compensation I will be given if the breach in service continues. Finally, I want my service to be fixed, once and for all. Two men arrived at my home to install Comcast Broadband Internet service. The closest cable jack was located in an adjacent room. The gentlemen told me I should arrange my room so that the computer would have to be closer to the jack. I told him that was not going to happen so he decided to run an ugly black cable from the existing wall mount, up the wall 3 feet, across the wall and around the corner, and then back down the wall to the computer. I told the technician that this was completely - bafflingly - unacceptable, and I told them to install a new wall mount. Finally, they did just that - by removing the connection to the existing wall mount and connecting it to the new one. Now we have a dead cable wall mount. Thanks for the hole in the wall. These gentleman proceeded to install the modem. They complained about having to move the desk and asked me to pull my computer out so they could access it. They grudgingly acquiesced and moved one end of the desk - the opposite end from where the computer is located - and could not access the computer properly. Because of this absurd procedure, they did not notice that the computer has an open Ethernet port and USB port on the back. They proceeded to install the modem via USB adapter to an open USB port on the front of the computer. This made it impossible to close the door of the compartment that houses the computer.

Add to this the fact that our internet connection would be considerably slower with the USB adapter than if they had utilized the existing Ethernet port, and what you have is a shoddy, lazy and unprofessional installation. They installed the software and left, leaving behind no backup software, service agreement or documentation of any kind other than a copy of the work order. Before they left I asked them if everything was working properly and they sad "No, but they had to call it into the headquarters and then it would be activated." They said about 1 hour until I was up and running, so I went to the grocery store and came back and nothing was working. When I arrived home, I found that the internet connection was not working at all and that the computer had slowed considerably in all of its processes. IE would not access any web page whatsoever. The activity light on the cable modem was not blinking. My firewall showed no activity. After connecting the modem properly to the back of the computer and rebooting, I found that internet access was restored, and it was incredibly slow. Slower than my 56k dialup. I had to call the Comcast office, wait on hold for 30 minutes later after numerous transfers and agents; I finally got to speak to a customer service representative. She thankful walked me through all the steps that should have been done by the technician.

Since Comcast is the only provider here in Tallahassee I guess you just have to live with it and move on. Being a college student, I hear lots of negatives comments about Comcast and their service, but when you are the only provider I guess you can have poor customer service.. Sincerely Jason Ash

JFA