strange bedfellows

It seems the vast majority of our Comcast problems are finally resolved. I could write a post that would take me days to finish describing the 15 or so hours we've collectively spent on the phone in the last few weeks trying to straighten out everything from signal to converter box to billing issues, the fact that for three different TV converter boxes they've sent out they've had to replace all but the last one at least once and had to replace the next-to-last-one twice, that I've had over $120 credited back to my account in the last few weeks for everything from $45 service calls (I can't be billed for service calls because I pay $3.95 a month for a Service Protection Plan - and thank God I do, because there's been a tech in my house every week for the last month now to straighten out everything from shipped-broken converter boxes to the day multiple techs falsely accused me of no longer having Internet because our privately-owned cable modem was broken - which turned out to have nothing to do with our modem and everything to do with a downed above-ground line at least a mile away from us!) to charges for shipping us converter boxes to replace the broken crap they sent out in the first place (I have a general rule that you won't be charging me shipping to replace anything YOU sent out busted in the first place, but nice try, guys) to overcharges for all kinds of channels I don't want and don't get to...my God, it's been endless.

I could write that post in all its gory details; how bad the customer service was at times would shock anyone. For instance, after sending us a new DVR/HD/DVD converter box yesterday they told us last night it didn't work so they'd have to send us out another tech to fix it. That would be the fourth tech I've had here in a month. My fiance was on the phone call and went ballistic: "I'm sorry ma'am, but with all due respect that is BULLSHIT. How come every time you send us a box we need a tech out here? How come every box you've ever sent us has been broken right out of the box? How come even after you send us new boxes to replace the broken boxes we STILL need another tech out here to make the box work or to get another box that does work? I'm sorry but this company has been nothing but problems since the day we signed up for service with them." Of course that tirade resulted in the box working no more than - I'm not kidding - 30 seconds later. That's the sort of customer service we get: perfectly unreal.

Upshot is that for all the bad ('bad' mostly in the range of unhelpful to falsely accusatory) customer service we've had, we get, despite what the body of the following email calls it, Internet Plus (25MBs) with Expanded Basic (77 channels), HBO, Streampix, and a freshly added DVR/HD/DVD converter box for just $44.99 a month, base charge (this is the replacement makeup offer for the one I rejected after multiple techs accused us of having a broken modem: that offer, which I turned down immediately, was for them to add a phone line to our service for "just" $10 more a month. I don't want their damn phone.) There is a modem rental they're still charging us for, but they've already credited my account $50 for renting it for nothing each month for the last year - simply because we never used it nor even took it out of the box it shipped to us in - and they claim they will back credit all additional monthly modem charges by next month when the returned modem is finally fully processed on their end.

This is the account as it stands now:

XFINITY Bundled Services
Internet Plus Includes Limited Basic note: that's Expanded Basic, HBO, Streampix, a standard definition digital converter note: that's an HD/DVR/DVD converter and remote for the primary outlet and Performance Internet Promotional Rate.
Promotional Rate for 12 months $ 44.99

Additional XFINITY TV Services
Addl Outlet $ 0.00
Digital Converter $ 0.00
Digital Adapter Additional Outlet $ 0.00
Digital Adapter Additional Outlet $ 1.99

Additional XFINITY Internet Services
Modem Rental $ 8.00 note: this charge will eventually be credited
Additional Products & Services
Service Protection Plan $ 3.95
Other Charges & Credits
In-Home Service Visit $ 39.95 note: this charge got credited
Install Fee In-Home Service fee $ 0.00
Broadcast TV Fee $ 1.50
Taxes, Surcharges & Fees $ 7.24

Grand Total $ 107.62 67.67

The reason the account is listed as Limited basic is because in my area of Florida Comcast has not yet added rate codes into their computers that allow me to have the actual package they offered me on the phone, so I had to spend yet another afternoon with a service tech last week to straighten that out. After he determined the problem was not with the converter box (for once!) nor with our lines nor cables (though while he was here, he did give us a much needed signal amplifier because our cable runs over 330 feet from the house out to the nearest tap across the street, which causes us to lose 5dB for every 100 feet of line we're running, or something like that, which was messing up our TV signal big-time) I had to spend another few hours on the phone with reps who ultimately claimed the problem could not be addressed until the following Tuesday because 'weekend' and 'go screw yourselves', apparently. It was Friday night by then. So I got my fiance on it that night and whaddaya know, the reps he spoke to got it straightened it out within minutes. Sometimes...I'm not trying to be sexist, but sometimes I think female call reps take men's complaints much more seriously than they take the same exact complaints when they come from women. So when things go south for me with Comcast - which, on average, is once a week - I'll just sic him on the reps and bam! Damned if everything I could not get through with them because it was like an endless morass of bullshit just smoothes right out with him on it.

So yeah, I could go on and on (the day they accused of us of trying to connect with a broken modem - about two weeks ago - was the worst thing I had to go through; literally exhausting and very frustrating every step of the way; we spent four hours collectively on the phone over that and had maybe six so-called techs swear that they could see no Internet signal on our end simply because our modem no longer worked - the damn thing still works fine to this day and the problem, as I said, turned out to be a snapped cable line at least a mile away, but we now own - not rent, own - an Xfinity modem that my fiance found on the job a few weeks ago, so it supports DOCSIS 3.0 and all that good stuff so we don't have to worry about using a non-supported modem anymore) but I can't because I don't really hate Comcast. Or big companies, as a matter of routine. To get me fired up enough to make the rest of you think it's a terrible company by way of simply describing how bad it's been to be their customer, I'd have to feel that way very deeply (thus my anti-AOL and anti-Google tears over the years: I feel that way very deeply, so much so that to this day my feelings about AOL remain completely unchanged). But Comcast is more mismanaged and misguided than truly a threat to anyone's pocketbook or peace of mind so I just can't muster up enough 'give a damn' to go on and on about all the problems we've had with them - I've given a lot of thought to it, but I just don't see the point.