6.12.2012

Comcast - A Customer's Story

The following is my family's current dilemma with Comcast.  I've followed up with 2 e-mails to some of the higher-ups at Comcast.  Whether Comcast will come clean and admit their customer service representative's gross error and honor the original agreement remains to be seen.  My next step is to post my you tube video I created. 

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On May 8th, 2012, my spouse contacted Comcast to inquire about high-speed internet (HSI) and phone package deals. We had been using Comcast HSI at a 12 month promotional price of $29.99, which was expiring that month and we were hoping for another good HSI bargain. We already had basic TV (for years) and wanted to keep that as well. He reached the Beaverton, ORE office and spoke with a young man named Jay. Jay said we could get HSI and the unlimited phone package for $45 a month, plus the $7 modem rental. Combined with our basic TV service of $12.61 a month, our total monthly cost for HSI, phone and TV would be $64.61 a month for 12 months, minus of course service fees and taxes. When my husband stated that I had spoken with a CSR named Maria a few days prior and she quoted me a price of $59.99 (plus $7 modem rental) for HSI and phone, Jay said this was our lucky day.


I stood by my husband as he reiterated the amounts and terms of the agreement and Jay concurred what my husband relayed to him.  My husband also wrote everything down on paper as Jay spoke with him.  (We still have that piece of paper.  It will be shown on my you tube video.) 

We received our first bill. Comcast claims we owe $92.76 – significantly higher than what Jay said our monthly bill would be. Going through the bill, I noticed the only discount we received was for the phone. There was NO discount for the HSI, nor was there any package deal of HSI and phone, again all as stated by Jay would be forthcoming.

So my spouse calls Comcast and talks with CSR billing and gets nowhere. He kept wanting to talk about the discrepancy in what Jay said and what Comcast was now telling us.  The CSR kept wanting to only explain the bill.  So he is finally connected with a manager who says the only discount we received and were told by Jay we would be receiving was the phone discount of $15 (which in and of itself was false in that the discount shown on our bill was higher than that - $26.95 so where this $15 he kept quoting comes from is unknown - likely something he was pulling out of thin air to cover his a$$). Utterly false.  So I got on the phone to talk to the manager. He stuck to his story – in spite of my reading off the piece of paper of notes my husband took that day when he spoke to Jay. The manager said, again, the only discount we would be receiving was $15 and nothing for HSI. (I should also note that Comcast is currently offering that same discount as quoted to me by Maria back in May – but this manager said NOTHING about this. Don’t you think he should have to make SOME attempt at remedying the situation?  Don't you think at the very least he should have said "we do have this one HSI and phone promotion...")  I even went so far as to ask if they record their phone calls, including the one my husband had with Jay.  They do, I was told by the manager.  So I told him to find that taped phone call and listen to it. 

Think he will?

I doubt it.  This manager was truly a bum - a poor poor example of a CSR manager. 

I finally hung up, realizing I was going to get nowhere with this manager. This CS experience was horrible. At the very least, Jay gave us misinformation. At the worst, he mislead us, which is completely deceptive. And either way, as I told the manager today, this is Comcast’s problem to deal with, not ours.

I expect them to make good on the original agreement we had with Jay.

UPDATE:  Spoke with a woman in "Executive Relations" who did what the original manager should have done:  listened to the phone call of May 8th.  "You were right," she said.  We are receiving the original package as offered and agreed upon.  There is some justice afterall in the mega-corporate environment.