Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Godot Works for Comcast
I spent my entire morning today waiting at home for a cable man who never came.
My appointment was for between 8 and 10 am. Of course I understood that the time of cable company employees is infinitely more valuable than that of everyone else in the world (do you think they give the Pope a two-hour window, or can he get an actual arrival time?), so I didn't expect anything more than a range of time during which a company employee might or might not drive by and toss a cable box through my front window. But when 10:15 rolled around and I hadn't seen anybody yet (and I'd watched most of She's the Man, starring that icon of cinema Amanda Bynes) I got a little worried. So I called the helpline.
Fifteen minutes and three soft jazz background melodies later, I finally got in touch with a real person, who assured me that, though late, a technician was "on his way to my house right now," so I should just "sit tight."
Of course no one ever arrived. So my second conversation with Comcast was much less pleasant, and involved a lot of me saying "I know this isn't your fault, but..." The customer service rep opened the call by announcing that I had in fact canceled my service appointment, a point I disputed gently by suggesting that I might not take the morning off from work to wait for an appointment I had in fact canceled. She then shifted tactics to claim that all service appointments in my area had been canceled (apparently without telling the appointment holders) due to a service outage. I pointed out that the shining face of Amanda Bynes in the She's the Man replay told me otherwise. She then helpfully offered to schedule me another appointment, which I agreed to do on the express condition that they not cancel it without telling me. She thanked me for my patience, to which I truthfully replied that I hadn't in fact been very patient at all.
So the bottom line is I'm going yet another week without cable in my bedroom. WGN in the Morning better really pull out the stops for me, that's all I'm saying.
I spent my entire morning today waiting at home for a cable man who never came.
My appointment was for between 8 and 10 am. Of course I understood that the time of cable company employees is infinitely more valuable than that of everyone else in the world (do you think they give the Pope a two-hour window, or can he get an actual arrival time?), so I didn't expect anything more than a range of time during which a company employee might or might not drive by and toss a cable box through my front window. But when 10:15 rolled around and I hadn't seen anybody yet (and I'd watched most of She's the Man, starring that icon of cinema Amanda Bynes) I got a little worried. So I called the helpline.
Fifteen minutes and three soft jazz background melodies later, I finally got in touch with a real person, who assured me that, though late, a technician was "on his way to my house right now," so I should just "sit tight."
Of course no one ever arrived. So my second conversation with Comcast was much less pleasant, and involved a lot of me saying "I know this isn't your fault, but..." The customer service rep opened the call by announcing that I had in fact canceled my service appointment, a point I disputed gently by suggesting that I might not take the morning off from work to wait for an appointment I had in fact canceled. She then shifted tactics to claim that all service appointments in my area had been canceled (apparently without telling the appointment holders) due to a service outage. I pointed out that the shining face of Amanda Bynes in the She's the Man replay told me otherwise. She then helpfully offered to schedule me another appointment, which I agreed to do on the express condition that they not cancel it without telling me. She thanked me for my patience, to which I truthfully replied that I hadn't in fact been very patient at all.
So the bottom line is I'm going yet another week without cable in my bedroom. WGN in the Morning better really pull out the stops for me, that's all I'm saying.
