Recently, I got the third notice to transfer my email to Comcast since our Adelphia account is going to disappear. The email promised that the process would only take 15 minutes. Since I had already twice unsuccessfully tried their automated process, I should have expected the worst.
Still I had a few minutes to kill while I was copying files before we left town. So I picked up the phone, waded through the customer support tree and finally got connected to a human and convinced them that I was who I said was. It was then that the challenge began.
I explained that when I tried to do the automated process, I was told that I didn't own my account but that it was owned by a neighbor of mine living about a mile away as the crow flies. Of course this created all sorts of problems since they were certain that perhaps I didn't own the account. I told them that when I logged into the web version of my account, it showed that I owned the master account and in fact had the only email address attached to the account. I logged in and read from my screens which didn't impress them. I suggested that they might have a database problem, but that seemed to fall on deaf ears.
I also explained that I had been paying the bill at the same address for years. After much discussion and forty minutes on the phone, the support rep told me that the only way to fix the problem was to delete the account which showed on their end as the master account. She assured me that this would fix the problem.
She deleted the account and immediately I lost all internet connectivity. As soon as she figured out what she had done, she quickly transfered me to someone else without even giving me a chance to protest.
The next person started by saying "What can I do to help you mam?" Given the circumstances that was likely the wrong way to start the conversation. I promptly told him what had happened and suggested he put his phone where the sun doesn't shine. Of course he hung up, and I was back to square one, but I felt a little better, and I had been dumped back to square one anyway.
I picked up the phone and called again. I calmly explained what had happened and the customer support rep assured me that he could have the problem fixed in no time. No time stretched into an hour after which I finally told him that my plans had been to leave town at noon. It was then twenty minutes until two pm. I had not eaten lunch, and I had no Internet connectivity, and was already a couple of hours behind schedule. He assured me that he could fix the problem if I would just leave the phone on speaker until he was done. He said I could run whatever errands that I needed and when I got back everything would be fine.
Around 2 pm hunger got the best of me, and we headed out for lunch and to run a few errands. I managed to go and have some additional less than positive customer experiences at both Best Buy and Ritz Camera, but I kept my cool and got home a little after four. I found that Comcast had hung up after 2 hours and forty minutes on the phone, but I still had no Internet connectivity.
It was now well after four pm and once again I called Comcast support and went through the whole scenario. I explained up front that I did not care about the email. All I wanted was my Internet connectivity back. I explained that theirs was a "pop" email system, and I already had copies of the emails on three or four systems so I did not need anything on their server. Once again the customer support rep assured me that he could fix the problem. About thirty or forty minutes into the conversation, he came back and said they couldn't figure out the IP address of my modem or the router that my modem was using. I told him that I would rewire things in the office and provide him that information.
It took me about ten minutes, but I provided him with both IP addresses and asked how long it would be before things would be fixed. He then told me that they had been asked to log out of their systems and it might be a while before he could fix my connectivity. He told me to give him 15 minutes, and he would go to another system. About twenty minutes later he came back and said that had not worked, and he would have to wait for his system to come back up. I asked him if it would happen before he left work. He said he had no idea.
I then broached the subject of what would happen to my problem should his system not come up before he left work. He hesitated a moment and then told me that I would have to start all over with yet another support rep. He suggested that I had called Comcast on a bad day.
I asked him to send me an email to another of my accounts if he got my connectivity fixed. I never got the email and haven't been back yet, but I am willing to bet that I'm facing at least another couple hours on the phone.
We have almost no choice in cable television which means we have no choice in cable modem Internet providers. Why are we giving these idiots all the market?
My only regret is canceling my DSL with Verizon. Given my customer service problems with Verizon over the years, that's pretty hard to say.
This is a great link for finding the right place to complain. This experience is a good reason to not keep your email with your big name ISP who also provides your television. They haven't a clue what they are doing when it comes to email and apparently are even worse on Internet services.
I stand by my recommendation that this is a good time to look at companies which provide dedicated email services. I have an online article where you can read my comments, assuming you don't try to move from Adelphia to Comcast while accessing the article. If you need more basic information on email, I suggest reading, "Some recommendations on email," which is a post I did last November.
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