Last week, I posted about an odd experience I had with the “Live Chat” functionality on Verizon’s plan comparison web page. I was looking at Verizon’s offerings because of an extremely poor experience I had with arranging a Comcast service call, and it was sufficiently frustrated to check out alternative internet providers.
I specifically did not set out to write about my customer service problem with Comcast. I recognize that even the best companies will not have a 100% satisfaction rate, and the internet is full of horror stories about customer service problems for virtually every company; I didn’t see the need to add mine to the mix. Part of annoyance was not what happened, but the lack of acknowledgement of the company’s errors when talking to their customer service manager about whether my $20 credit (that I had to ask for) was sufficient.
To understand the context, the short story is that I stayed home from work to have a service tech come look at my cable modem, which was repeatedly failing. However, the visit was automatically canceled because I did not answer a blocked call from Comcast while I was on my home phone with work. Comcast had not told me to expect any call, and the contact number I had left was my cell phone number, not my home number. I was mad, particularly because after arguing with the customer service manager, they felt it was my fault for not answering the phone call. It made me mad enough to look at Verizon, which in turn led me to post about my suspicions about Verizon’s Live Chat.
To my amazement, the next day I found a comment on the Verizon post from Comcast’s consumer satisfaction group. They wanted to “make it right”:
ComcastMark said…Hi Jeremy – I work for Comcast. I am truly sorry to learn that the appointment was cancelled. I will definitely share your experience with our local leaders so that this is addressed. We’d like to make this right for you. If you are willing to give us another chance, we’ll make sure that the service appointment is expedited successfully.
You can contact our team at the email provided below. We are here to help! 🙂
Mark Casem
Comcast Corp.
National Customer Operations
We_can_help@cable.comcast.com
Part of what really amazed me about the response was that the post actually had nothing to do with Comcast directly. I made a brief reference about the problem to explain why I was looking at Verizon, but it wasn’t the main topic. Nonetheless, Comcast found the post, recognized that they were in danger of losing a customer, and responded.
I spoke with Comcast the next day, and they offered to send a tech around my schedule to look at the problem. It turns out that they offer Sunday appointments (who knew?) and could send someone to my house in the morning, which was most convenient for me. Most importantly to me, they took the mistake seriously, apologized, and were focused on making sure I was getting good service. They also promised to call me the day after the appointment to make sure everything was working right.
I even got an automated message on my home answering machine that I might receive a call, which I must answer, before a rep would arrive. If only I had been told that originally!
A Comcast representative did indeed show up on Sunday morning as announced (without calling beforehand). With no questions asked, he checked the line on the street and replaced it, saying that it was not in good shape and probably the source of the problem. However, he said that just in case, he would swap out the modem, particularly since it was an older model. He was friendly and chatted with my daughter, who was very interested in watching him work.
Within 45 minutes, our old chunky modem was gone:
Replaced with a sexier, slimmer model (amazing how technology gets smaller over time):
Our internet has been working flawlessly every since. The service tech’s manager even called later that day to check how everything went, giving us his direct number.
I’ve been pretty down on Comcast lately, between what I feel are anti-competitive practices around Net Neutrality and my service issues, but I feel like they have taken care of me now. I will not be looking for a new internet service provider. I am still planning on cutting my cable TV, but this never had anything to do with dissatisfaction around Comcast’s service; it’s just the reality of changes in our TV viewing habits.
Thank you, Comcast, for taking the time to see what people are saying, and following up. I will still continue to be a (now more loyal) Comcast internet subscriber.
Verizon, on the other hand, hasn’t contacted me 🙂
Jeremy Rothman-Shore Blog 