(no subject)

[ex-deliveryboy.livejournal.com]

I'm in the process of moving from Mesa, AZ to Northern Illinois, thanks to promotion at work. Went from tech to shift lead to supervisor and now I'm "Tier 3 tech", (only because they couldn't think of a better title)


Anyways, I used to have cable and broadband service w/ a company called Cable America. rather small company, but excellent service and dependability.

Then they got bought by Cox, and I ended by service shortly afterwards. I switched to Dish Network for tv, and decided not to even have internet service at home.



Anyways, now I'm in Illinois, just got an apartment, and my family won't be coming out for another week or so. Now I do need to have home service for a variety of reasons.


So I get an email yesterday that the requested turn on time isn't available, so I got rescheduled for 1-5pm on a Tuesday. keep in mind, this is to hook up 1 box, and apparently I have to pay $30 to hook up the cable modem myself.


I call up Comcast, spent 10 minutes or so on hold, was never really given the right choice to begin with, and the kid who answered is going to transfer me to "the right department". cool.

I wait another 10 minutes, then a recording comes on saying the number I dialed is no longer in service, and to call a different 800 number.

grr.

Call, wait ANOTHER 10-15 minutes on hold. Finally get the right service. Oh, but apparently, installations are only done until 5:00 pm. No way they can do it after 5:30 or 6 when I'll actually be there.


had to convince them to have the tech call the office, ask them to open the apartment, then just drop the box inside si I can hook it up later, otherwise it'd be another 2 weeks before someone would be available to have them come in and hook up service.




I'm already shopping for alternatives.

Comments

[canray.livejournal.com]

"I call up Comcast..."

Mistake number one.

Honestly, find an alternative.

TRUST ME, find an alternative.

[adamjaskie.livejournal.com]

In many places, your choices are Comcast, satellite, or dialup.

[canray.livejournal.com]

So, no choice at all then. Satellite and Dial-Up.

And that's, "In many places in the US", thank you very much. :-P

[zonga.livejournal.com]

How true is this. Everytime my older router would drop, I'd have to get it reset from Comcast.

"I need you to release/renew my ip. I can't do it on my end, it returns 0.0.0.0 when I release/renew."

"First go to start...run..."

"Yeah, you need to do it there."

"Ma'am, please, I know how to do my job. PLEASE GO TO START, THEN RUN ... "

"Ok, fine."

And I sit and do nothing, BECAUSE I HAVE ALREADY DONE IT, and tell them it doesn't work. At least twice.

"Ok, we need renew your ip on our end, no problem. Please hold."

..You mean the thing I asked you to do when you picked up the call 20 minutes ago? Gee, thanks!

[canray.livejournal.com]

Depending on which Call Centre (And, sometimes, which Supervisor's Group) you're dealing with, they *HAVE* to go in the order given to them.

Tech Support from a Script does not work. Not in the least.

[zonga.livejournal.com]

Very true. I figured that may be the case, so I go along with what they want. But then they ask me to do it again two or three times. Then I raise my eyebrow at the phone.

I think it also confuses them when an end-user knows what needs to be done, sometimes.

[canray.livejournal.com]

Some of 'em, ya. The ones that got the job 'cause "Well, I love talking on the phone all the time, and there's a script to follow.".

Or you get someone at the end of a shift. I know I was thrown for a loop a few times.

Of course, that was at 2:45 AM and I no longer had access to caffiene of any type.

[egearman.livejournal.com]

Ah, the "we don't care about your service, just your money and NO, you don't have an alternative" method of business.

[canray.livejournal.com]

The reasons Monopolies are supposed to be illegal.

[ptomblin-lj.livejournal.com]

Time Warner is no better. I scheduled an appointment, took the day off work, and spent the entire day in a lawn chair on my front lawn. When the time for the appointment came and went, I called TW and was told that the technician had reported that nobody was home. I told them that their technician was a fucking liar.

[canray.livejournal.com]

I can confirm this in so many ways. :'(

[dreamatdrew]

Same thing happened to my sister, but she's just mean enough to argue them into submission...
Also, she got an early apt, so when the guy was 30 minutes late, she had time to get them back out that day.....


my sis = SCARY

[canray.livejournal.com]

Your Sis probably got one of the local people who could contact Dispatch directly.

Most of the folks that you deal with at Comcast are Outsourced to various different places around North America and can't do jack for Local Stuff.

[prozacnation.livejournal.com]

My Time Warner tech was awesome.

I had a 3-5pm appointment but he showed up at 10am and fixed the problem immediately.

But then he's been a tech for 25 years through three cable company transitions.

[canray.livejournal.com]

Most of the bad techs I hear about are Contract Workers rather than direct workers.

But I've heard of some Shaved Apes that were direct as well.

[brothersterno.livejournal.com]

ahh, tech dispatch shennanigans.

I love the one where the customer expects a phone call to their cell phone from the phone company tech who is on his way to repair a problem for the third party reseller. But it gets better: The customer is not onsite, and is at least 45 minutes away, and wants 45 minutes of warning from the tech before dispatch. Luckily, most seem to understand when I ask them if they've ever dealt with the phone company before, and point out that if they miss the tech that their service will be broken for another day, at least.

I also love the people who think that the vendor tech dispatch is at their whim. I'm sorry, but the tech has a family to go home to, and is a part of a union, and they just don't dispatch out after about 5pm because the company does not want to pay the overtime. I'm sorry you have to take a half day off of work to have the tech plug in a DSL filter for you, but we did try to have you do it yourself, and now half the extensions in your house don't work, so you're gonna have to suck it up and pay a little for your lack of basic wiring ability.

Wow, I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.

[ghostdandp.livejournal.com]

The best is "We have appointments available at 8, 1030, 130, and 4" "Well I can't be home till 4:30" "We don't have any appointments then" "Can't your tech just come at 4:30?"

We had a few dispatchers tell the customer yes. I'd show up at the house at 4. 7 times out of 10 they were already there. Other times I'd wait 15 minutes, sometimes even the 30, if they weren't there exactly at the time they were supposed to be they were put down as a "no call, no show" and I went home.

[brothersterno.livejournal.com]

yeah, I love the no call no show. I've talked to techs at closed businesses, obviously closed, 10 minutes after the owner assured me that yes, someones there, and now they aren't answering their phone.

Of course, sometimes we get really egregious tech problems, too, like a tech reporting no access at a small brown house in a residential neighborhood. Unfortunately, the dispatch was to an oil pipeline company located in an industrial area right next to the great big giant oil tanks clearly visible from space on google maps, at least 2 miles from the nearest house. Or verizon reporting no access, when the customer was able to provide security camera footage of the tech driving onsite, locating the customer's location, turning around, and leaving, without actually making an attempt to contact the customer in any way or even getting out of his truck.

6 of one, half a dozen of another, and I'm caught in the middle.

[canray.livejournal.com]

Actual call I took: "I watched the Tech! He parked in my driveway behind my car, got out of the van, walked around it twice, PEED on his passenger-side rear tire, walked around the van again, and drove away as I came out the door screaming at him!"

Welcome to the flatness!

[samwize.livejournal.com]

Damn, you have good timing. You showed up just in time to experience The Great Mugginess! At least the skeeters haven't been too bad yet.

And I'm sure you already know this, but don't even think of plugging in a swamp cooler in this state. (You'd just cover your house with mold in about two minutes. Hot, wet, sticky mold.) Here, air conditioning exclusively refers to "refrigerated air".

Oh, and Brood XIII of cicadas are bursting out of the ground as we speak. So get ready for some earbursting nature-love.

And yeah, our cable and internet companies suck. Sorry.

Re: Welcome to the flatness!

[ex-deliveryboy.livejournal.com]

LOL, yeah, I've been here a couple of months, but it definitely beats the heat in AZ.

I've always hated swamp coolers. always.

Its funny, Phoenix gets cicadas every summer, and I was soooo looking forward to not having to hear them this year. Then of course they are up here, but so far, still haven't heard them.

Yeah, I'm gonna be looking into setting up my Dish Network again, then see what kinds of alternatives for broadband I have to choose from.

Re: Welcome to the flatness!

[canray.livejournal.com]

Good luck for broadband!

Re: Welcome to the flatness!

[liber-cogito.livejournal.com]

See if there's Clearwire in the area?

[snarl817.livejournal.com]

When I got my cable modem, I went to the cable office (down the street from me), picked up the kit, took it home, and installed it myself. No charge. I purchased the cable modem myself at a store.

[canray.livejournal.com]

If the house is set up properly for the Cable Modem, Signal Strength is good, and they didn't put a filter on the pole outside, then this is a good option.

I'd suggest a self-install and if it doesn't work, book a single appointment, and when (Alright, *IF*) the tech doesn't show, find an alternative.

[kallell.livejournal.com]

welcome to the midwest!

[billysapphire.livejournal.com]

It has been my experience from dealing with 2 different satellite companies, numerous cable and several dial up providers...There is no such thing as decent and prompt customer service. You really are shafted as there are really few alternatives for home....

[phaedra-13.livejournal.com]

Comcast blows. Depending on where in IL you've located to, you might be able to snag DSL from AT&T or WOW. Assuming, of course you can tolerate anything slower than cable/TS3. :)

Welcome to the one of the most boring states on the planet!

[jesus1310.livejournal.com]

WOW is cable, but SBC is decent out here (chicago area). For some reason, our comcast support techs all seem to be mildly retarded.

Also: having lived in both northern IL and Mesa, AZ, they're on about the same level of boring. That is to say, the same level as everywhere else in the US. The place is what you make of it.