Comcast's horrible customer service rides again

I sometimes wonder why Comcast is still in business.

After my last go-around with them, when they randomly gave my phone number away to someone else for no reason and professed to be unable to fix it for several days, you'd think nothing would surprise me.

But after Rawley, my dog, took my remote control out into the woods in a snowstorm, I contacted them about getting a replacement, a ten buck purchase. They informed me I'd need to provide them the following to buy -- not be given, but purchase -- a replacement remote:

1. Name on the account,
2. Address,
3. Telephone number associated with the account,
4. One of the following:
4.1. Last four digits of the Social Security Number of the account
holder,
4.2. Security Code,
4.3. Account Number,
4.4. Amount and date of most recent payment on the account, or
4.5. Services that are listed on the account.

Really, Comcast? Are you out of your mind?

It's not that I don't have all that information; I do. It's that it's the most ridiculous piece of overkill I've ever seen.

And it's worth noting that the people at Comcast are all very pleasant and nice. It's not rudeness that's the problem. It's the actual systems at Comcast that are broken, and the fact that their employees are not empowered to help customers. Being polite is not a substitute for having genuine customer-friendly policies and procedures.

Comments

[Gina Spadafori]

When a similar dog-remote incident occurred here (hello, FAYbee!). I called Surewest, and a nice lady told me to go to my nearest service center, and looked up which one that was. And to take the chewed remote with me, because it cracks them up.

Got there, new remote had a post-it with my name on it. Counter guy laughed and admitted Faith had done a really good job destroying the old one. Asked what the replacing cost ... "Nothing!" he said. "Thanks for being a Surewest customer."

I KID YOU NOT!

Now if they'd only dump the horse-racing channel I don't like for the one I do, I'd be totally happy.

[Arlene Clarke]

Ummm--didn't Comcast HAVE all that information anyway? I'm not sure why they needed anything more than your name and account number.

I'm in California and have similar Comcast problems. I have Comcast for internet, phone, and tv. They never seem to understand why I can't call them when I have a problem!

[H. Houlahan]

Yep. Lurve my little rural independent cable/internet/phone company. (Armstrong.)

When a dropped sofa smashed a remote, they just gave me a new one. And they give me new ones at random intervals because they have 'upgrade.' But the old ones still work, and they say 'keep it, now you have a spare.'

They DO have empowered employees. And, FWIW, their systems have *improved* in the past decade as they expanded from just cable to internet and phone. I used to have lots of problems with their billing system, and this is now fixed.

[ComcastMark]

I apologize for the experience. I work for Comcast and I’d like to look into this. We do require information for verification for our customers' security but it looks like you were asked for numerous infos.

So that I can look into this, will you please contact me; provide the phone number associated with the account and a link to this page? I know you've provided us with the phone number info numerous times, but I will need this info to look into your experience.

Thanks in advance,

Mark Casem
Comcast Corp.
National Customer Operations
[email protected]

[Gina Spadafori]

Surewest is local, too. Used to be "Roseville Telephone" (Roseville being an affluent bedroom community of Sacramento.)

[straybaby]

I've got a spare! I quit CC and my new Dal puppy hasn't seemed interested in the remote that is still sitting on the coffee table :)

[Maenad]

Comcast sucks. They lie. I have a list of nice Comcast reps who told me everything would be taken care of after their latest appalling customer service screwup, including a period of comped service, and every word was a lie. They are rated one of the worst employers. That's why everyone is so nice, they're either terrorized or new or paid off.