The Saga Continues...(or how social media gets results...) Part II

So. When we left our charming story yesterday, I had tweeted my annoyance with Comcast's ineptitude, and had received a reply from "ComcastBill." He'd asked for an email of the details of the problem I was having, and I was only too happy to oblige.

Dear ComcastBill,

The installer came today to hook up my new service. It was supposed to have included the following:

1 HD DVR box
1 HD box
1 wireless modem

We received instead

1 regular digital cable box
1 regular modem (with cable - not wireless)

Now we have to drive to the other side of town to pick up the correct boxes and install it ourselves in order to avoid an additional charge for installation. I've already been charged for the installation of the wrong things.

That's it.

I wasn't feeling particularly talkative, especially given my self-induced ban on cursing people out.

Or, as we really say down here in the south...dawg-cussing people.

Dr. SmartyPants was unhooking all the cables that the installer had spent his time hooking up so that he could take them across town to the local office and trade them for the correct things. He was not happy. There may have been some under-the-breath cursing from him, as well. I waited for a reply from ComcastBill.

And waited. And waited.

Then I tweeted again.

A few minutes later, I received an email from Bill, asking for my account number, which I promptly sent because I have nothing better to do, apparently, than to wait around for Comcast all freaking day.

Dr. SmartyPants left, not willing to risk the rest of the afternoon on Bill's prompt reply.

I may have tweeted a couple other uncomplimentary things.

An hour later, I got an email from a different Comcast dude. We'll call him Comcast Mike.

Diahn,

I apologize for the equipment issue.  Please "reply to all" with the phone number linked to your account and your zip code.  We will look into this with our local colleagues, and somebody will contact you to resolve.  Have a good day.

Thanks,

Mike 

To which I promptly replied. Again. In detail. With great irritation.

I was actually halfway through the email when Dr. SmartyPants returned from picking up the correct equipment...

Michael,

The phone number is blah blah blah. Zip code etc etc.

My husband has already headed to the local office to exchange the equipment and get it corrected, so that we can have our cable and Internet access today, as we scheduled. We are very disappointed with the set up process so far.

We went through your online ordering system, and it was so cumbersome and difficult to navigate, that we are not exactly surprised that the order was completely wrong. I tried very hard to get the online chat customer service rep to send me confirmation of what I ordered, but all I could get from him was the confirmation of the install date. I tried to get more information about the chat itself (as in who was "helping" me), but was only able to get the chat script records.

random number sequence signifying stupid chat with Husain.

Your online system is a mess, frankly. I'm astounded that a company that prides itself on its Internet capabilities can have a web presence that is so incredibly ineffective.

My husband just returned from the local office, and the staff there (as well as the installer whose time was wasted this morning) was incredibly nice, sympathetic, and helpful.

And, being fair-minded, I tweeted about the local office...I don't want to be a hater, people...

And he ever so quickly replied thusly:

Diahn,

I am glad that everything is in order now, but am sorry that it has been frustrating to this point.  Feel free to reach out any time should you need any additional assistance.

Mike

I am so glad he thought everything was in order. And frustrating is an understatement.

So, I left the Smarty at home putting the cable and internet in order and drove the boys over to their friend's house for a sleepover, confident that it would all be set up when I got home. I stayed and visited with my friend for a while, and when I got back to the house...

There was a Comcast truck sitting in the driveway.

I walked in, and asked Dr. SmartyPants where this Comcast guy had come from, and he told me that the guy had shown up 15 minutes before I got back, and said he'd heard we were having some trouble.

Mmhmmm. Twitter, anyone? Had to be.

Smarty had just finished setting up the internet, which was working fine, but he invited the guy to come in and help with the cable, since he was there.

Which turned out to be an excellent thing, because neither of the boxes that the Smarty had picked up at the Comcast office were actually working properly - they were still assigned to the old account numbers or something, so they wouldn't have worked if he'd tried to set them up.

Because Comcast is AWESOME like that.

By now, it's getting late. The boys are at a sleepover. The boxes are still not unpacking themselves.

But at least the cable is squared away, right?

RIGHT?

Sure it is...so we decided to go see a movie and celebrate. (Harry Potter...it was wonderful.)

Saga over. Twitter FTW!

Or maybe not quite yet...Part III will tell the, ahem, rest of the saga...