Comcast urggghhhh

[sasywtch]

Well, I may not have internet again for awhile. I had internet/cable turned off to save money until my daughter starts getting her social security (the cable/internet/electricity) was her rent. My friend was trying to figure out what to get me for Christmas since I never want anything, so she went down and paid for this month. I actually was getting stuff packed and cleaned while it was off.

So today, I call to see what we can do to reduce the bill for future months. I get this woman that was hard to understand. She gave me some suggestions so I told her I'd have to get back with her as I had to talk to my daughter. She said, can't you do it now? I told her no, she was recently paralyzed and in a skill facility so I'd have to ask tomorrow when I go to see her. She started laughing. It took me by complete surprise, I didn't know what to say other than I wanted to get off the phone. I had the feeling that she was having a second conversation with a coworker but if so, poor timing. She continued to laugh.

I had an online chat with a supervisor who told me she was sorry for my inconvenience? Really? Not impressed with Comcast. BTW, she's up in a wheelchair and had a visit from a neurologist from Stanford. He was giving her hope with advancements with jobs and driving so that made her feel better. Even if you don't have symptoms, have your blood pressure checked!

 

[vacationer1954]

One thing I've noted about Comcast is that I sometimes hear the conversation that the CSR sitting next to the one I'm speaking with is having with another customer as well if not better than the conversation I'm having with "my" CSR. I've seen some photos of 4 foot square cubicles with 4 foot high dividers, but I've also seen some photos of long tables with five CSRs on each side of the table, so they're basically sitting elbow to elbow with each other. If one has a louder voice and one has a softer voice it's a recipe for trouble. I can barely follow the discussion because half of what I'm hearing isn't part of the discussion. I prefer using the chat system.

 

[bcla]

Depends on who you talk to. I've ended up talking to a call center in the Philippines. While I understood them perfectly (compare this to call centers in India) I didn't get the sense that they were empowered to do much more than follow a script unless the customer specifically says something or it gets bumped up to a supervisor who is based in the US.

The last time it was after my wife had agreed to some service (with limited TV) with a 12 month contract, and we talked to an American CSR. The price wasn't bad, but I didn't see why we needed 200 Mbit/sec internet service. None of our what we use needs that kind of speed, and in any case our WiFi box is only capable of 100 Mbit/sec because it doesn't have gigabit ethernet. They dialed it down to (I think) 50 Mbit/sec nominal, but on a good day I can still get 65 Mbit/sec on Speedtest.net.

 

[vacationer1954]

Guess which months "the girl" was living at home... Guess which months we needed the higher level Internet service.

June
06/01/2017 - 06/30/2017 210 GB
July
07/01/2017 - 07/31/2017 205 GB
August
08/01/2017 - 08/31/2017 116 GB
September
09/01/2017 - 09/30/2017 108 GB
October
10/01/2017 - 10/31/2017 90 GB
November
11/01/2017 - 11/30/2017 59 GB

Even though we had more room in our plan (we get 1 TB before they start charging us for over use), when "the girl" was streaming video, it slowed down whatever else we might be doing at the time.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Do You know what call center you reached? Try calling back, make the same automated selections, and immediately request a supervisor or manager. Every. Single. Call. is recorded. If you can provide the date and time, they can pull the call. That reaction you got isn't just inconvenient(?), it's entirely inappropriate.

As for your future service, I just started some new plan I don't know the name of, but it's fast internet and economy cable.

 

[zoo2tycoon]

Is there a Comcast store you can go to? Or office near you. Each year we just go in and they work with us to lower bill- best of all English speaking with no language barrier ( in no way do I mean that as racist!)

 

[bcla]

Is there a Comcast store you can go to? Or office near you. Each year we just go in and they work with us to lower bill- best of all English speaking with no language barrier ( in no way do I mean that as racist!)

I certainly have no problem with anyone mentioning that overseas call centers can be problematic. It can be really difficult to understand, and often they really don't have much authority to do anything.

I have ended up talking to someone in customer service who was originally from South Asia, but working from a US based call center or otherwise located in the US. He was actually pretty easy to understand, but he spoke in American English and didn't use idioms that were strange to me.

 

[sasywtch]

I got a call from an executive manager (whomever that may be) and she listened to the recording and said the lady definitely was laughing but made a lot of excuses for her. I got, sorry and that was it. Even though I didn't want HBO or anything like that, I really thought they would offer me some add on that I was going to deny but didn't even get that. Oh well. I've been calling AT&T as I just can't get beyond this. Funny thing when something like this happens, you start noticing things more now and being a little more tolerant

 

[vacationer1954]

Do you mean "less tolerant"?

 

[sgc]

Might try dropping into the local office and see what can be done.

Or might try "Customer Retention" can give you some discounted rate plan as compared to regular list prices. Get it by saving downgrade or cancell in the phone tree

Most of them are based in USA but if you can one thats overseas and hard to understand ask to be transferred to usa based one and they will.

You have 30 days to cancell a plan no charge if you change your mind or whatnot.

They usually have FREE HBO/Showtime if not included in package for 3 months trial Just confirm when expires it expires and you dont need to contact them.

 

[vacationer1954]

Has anyone who recently renewed their contract with Comcast got them to include HBO/Showtime for free? I wasn't able to.

 

[SharonZ]

OP, I totally understand your situation - usually, you don't get anywhere with customer service. You need them to give you the number of customer retention (and that number usually changes), that's where you "might" get a discount. It helps that you are an established customer, with a good payment record. If you want to try a new carrier, you might need to agree to a 1 or 2-year contract to get a better rate. Why worry about an add-on, if you were going to refuse it anyway?

 

[Kaytie]

Has anyone who recently renewed their contract with Comcast got them to include HBO/Showtime for free? I wasn't able to.

I dropped from a triple pay to something like performance economy or performance plus. High speed internet and digital economy cable. No sports, a lot of other channels gone - FX, TNT, TBS, Freeform, HGTV - but $70/month for a year. I realized this past weekend it includes FXX and all the HBOs.

And I switched my landline to xfinity mobile. So far, so good.

 

[manning]

I called one time to reduce service. So what did he do? Sell more.

Finally told him NO is a two letter word. Which letter don't you understand?

 

[kaytieeldr]

One time when? My experience was just a couple of months ago, and I didn't get any upsell at all.

 

[vacationer1954]

Finally told him NO is a two letter word. Which letter don't you understand?

Of course, it isn't his fault: It's his job to follow the script more so than it is his job to do precisely what you asked for. Declining one or two or three upsell attempts is just like one or two or three buttons you have to press to get a coffee machine to make coffee.

 

[sasywtch]

Do you mean "less tolerant"?

Actually, more tolerant. May not seem like it here but in real life....more tolerant of people. Since my life was turned upside down, I figure you never know what is going on in someone's life.

To the pp who mentioned why I expected an upgrade if I was going to deny it anyway, I wasn't really. I was just surprised at their nonchalant manner I guess. I'm guessing I was naïve to think I would get, we at Comcast are really sorry. Instead I got, well, sorry with no sincerity at all. Live and learn.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

Depends on who you talk to. I've ended up talking to a call center in the Philippines. While I understood them perfectly (compare this to call centers in India) I didn't get the sense that they were empowered to do much more than follow a script unless the customer specifically says something or it gets bumped up to a supervisor who is based in the US.

The last time it was after my wife had agreed to some service (with limited TV) with a 12 month contract, and we talked to an American CSR. The price wasn't bad, but I didn't see why we needed 200 Mbit/sec internet service. None of our what we use needs that kind of speed, and in any case our WiFi box is only capable of 100 Mbit/sec because it doesn't have gigabit ethernet. They dialed it down to (I think) 50 Mbit/sec nominal, but on a good day I can still get 65 Mbit/sec on Speedtest.net.

I couldn't handle 50 Mbps anymore.

AT&T Fiber Tonight is 826 Mbps Upload, 833 download, 0 pings. That's running 3 computers, 2 cable boxes, and at least 2 tablets. During the day, I tend to hit 900+ download, 850+ upload, 0-2 pings