As I start to stew more about the horrible customer service that Comcast provides with their tech calls, I’m wondering if anything will even come out of today’s visit (assuming someone shows).

The tech coming today is supposed to be someone who has the ability to work on the wiring to my home. You see, not all Comcast techs are created equal. (I’m not an expert on this, but I’ve learned a thing or two from my dozens of tech calls and numerous visits.) The ones who show up at your door are basically there to swap out modems, check very basic settings and generally do one level more than what they can do over the phone. About the only thing productive I’ve seen them accomplish is swapping out a modem.

Then there’s the guys who can work on the wiring. They actually show up in Comcast vans. (The other guys show up in trucks with a Comcast magnet on the side.) They have the ability to pull up the wiring inside your home, outside your home and the stuff coming into your neighborhood. When they finally got me working last time (for a full 3 weeks), it was one of those techs who came out and adjusted my lines.

That’s the guy I need today. That’s the type of tech who is supposed to show up. But now I’m wondering if they are just going to send a normal tech out. If so, it will be a waste of time. (Especially since right now my connection happens to be working.) He’ll walk in and tell me he can’t do anything. I’ve seen it before.

I haven’t posted much in a while because my connection has been so bad I haven’t had the ability to post much. And I haven’t been working in my normal office at work so I couldn’t even copy/paste my notes onto the blog from there.

But here’s the scoop. After several back and forth calls with Comcast’s second-level customer support folks, I was able to get them to come out today (Saturday). I’ve been having to deal with really bad service over the past two or three weeks now because I can’t take any days off to wait for them to come out. They have a three-hour service window, the latest one running from 5 to 8 p.m. Since I work about an hour or so from my house, I’d have to leave work at 4 and I haven’t been able to do that much lately. I did offer a few days in which I could do that, but they were busy those days.

So, Saturday from 11-2 it is. And it’s now Saturday at precisely 2 p.m. Is Comcast here yet? Nope. They just called to say that the tech was running late. I assumed that meant another 30 minutes or so. But the caller continued to say that he would call me with an updated ETA between 3 and 4.

Yeah, you heard that right. So instead of just making sure I’m home between 11 and 2, I have to sit home all day. He could be here at 3, 4 or maybe they will call at 4 to say he’s coming at 5 or 6. Who knows.

On Thursday evening I was able to get through to Cathie, one of the second level customer service people who was able to help me last time. Of course, she didn’t remember my case but said that she would look up the notes and start working on the issue. It was 8 p.m. or so by the time I called so I wasn’t expecting much that evening.

Friday and Saturday went by without a returned call or any communication from Cathie (or anyone else at Comcast). My problems are as bad as ever by Saturday afternoon so I left another message for Cathie. Hopefully something is being done.

Today (Sunday) my service has been down some and up some. I never know when I walk over to my computer whether the service will be there or not. But since it’s been up for an hour or so now, I figured I would take this opportunity to update the site.

I have tomorrow off of work so I’d really like to have a tech come out (assuming that’s necessary) while I’m off. Otherwise, I have to take half a day off since they schedule calls in 3-hour blocks and are usually late anyway. Plus, I live about an hour from my office so I can’t just run out for the tech and come back.

But, since I still haven’t heard anything yet, I seriously doubt that I’ll have the luxury of getting Comcast to fix their issues when it’s convenient for me.

I’m probably jinxing myself by even wondering. I had a technician stop by this morning. As I mentioned yesterday, Rich from Comcast called yesterday and offered to get someone to my house this morning by 8 a.m. to fix the issue. Originally, I was to have a tech swing by on Saturday with a new modem. However, Rich was kind enough to free someone up ASAP.

True to his word, Rich made it happen. At 7:45 a.m. this morning, Scott arrived. He started out by measuring the signal going into my house on his own laptop. Then he made some adjustments to my connection outside and said the signal increased on his laptop dramatically. Scott then showed me some power levels for my connection, explaining that I was barely within range when he arrived and now was much better. He offered to change my modem anyway – an idea that was previously only brought up because we couldn’t come with anything particularly wrong and that seemed like a good place to start.

But Scott seemed pretty confident that his adjustments had fixed the problem and he didn’t appear to be someone who was guessing. He looked like he knew what he was doing and was very professional. Most likely one of their best technicians. So I told him that I trusted his judgment and if he didn’t think the modem swap was necessary I would take him at his word. “If this doesn’t fix it I’ll come back out and switch out the modem,” he said.

I had to run to work so I couldn’t test the connection all day, but it seems good now. I don’t think it will take more than a couple of days to tell whether or not the problem has been resolved.

If these changes don’t turn out to be the fix, though, I am not concerned about being able to get someone back out here. Rich called me back this afternoon to make sure the problem was taken care of. After describing the visit from his technician he confirmed that I had his direct number and said “if you have any more problems, you call me and I’ll have someone out there in less than 30 minutes.”

Wow, now that’s the way to make someone feel good about your service. And when I returned home this evening I had a note on the door from Scott. He left a copy of the work order along with the message “don’t hesitate to call the Maintenance Supervisor” (that’s Rich) if I have any more problems.

So far, I’m impressed. Knock on wood … hopefully the problems are all behind me now.

Got a call this morning from a man named Rich at Comcast. I’m not sure which department he’s in, but he sounded like someone with the power to get things done. He asked if my problem had been resolved and I explained how Doug would be stopping back by on Saturday to install the new modem. Rich said “I want to get this taken care of today” and said that he would have someone at my house by 8 a.m. tomorrow (Thursday) with a new modem.

Like I said, he didn’t seem like the normal Comcast people I’ve talked to. Not that they haven’t been nice, but it usually takes someone with some decent pull to guarantee that a tech would be at my house by 8 a.m. the next day. Not between 8 and 11; 8 a.m.

Works for me. I must say, I think Comcast is doing everything they can to fix my issues. Hopefully the new modem will do the trick.

I wonder if they have made any other changes. I have to admit that the connection has been better the last day or two. It slowed down yesterday a couple of times, but didn’t really drop. And today it’s been fine all day.

Ran a speed test on a site I saw on Digg. It saves your tests and allows you to save PNG files of your results. I’ve been testing a few times a day just to see what I get. One thing I noticed is that my latency varies greatly. Don’t know what a good or bad number for latency is, but I got a 66 (ms) around the time it was running slow. Later when it seemed fine, I got a 13. This evening I got a 36.

Don’t know if any of that means anything, but I figure the more info the better.

Well, we’re making progress. I had a technician visit today. Doug and Chris arrived this afternoon and checked out a few things, but couldn’t find anything wrong. Luckily, the connection was dying when he arrived, so they could see the trouble I’m having. We decided to try swapping out the modem, at least eliminating one possible piece of the puzzle.

Unfortunately, the only modem they had left didn’t work. To Doug’s credit, he offered to stop by on Saturday with a new one. (He actually offered to stop by sometime during the week, but I get home too late in the evenings and I said Saturday was fine.)Even though we weren’t able to get it fixed today, I am satisfied that they are doing all they can. It can be difficult to find a problem like this when there’s no rhyme or reason to it.

I also received a call from Angie at Comcast, who was just checking in to see how the visit went. A nice touch. I explained the visit and how Doug was going to stop back by on Saturday to try the new modem. She thanked me for my patience and said that they would call back on Saturday to check in again. Then, assuming the modem could be installed OK, she would check in a few days later to see how the new modem was working.

All in all, about as good of a job as I could ask for.

Today started off the same as last week with no connection when I woke up. But today instead of calling Comcast, I emailed them a letter. I believe the letter was professional and mature, simply requesting someone help me with my ongoing issues. I described my recent troubles and suggested that they check out this blog for a more detailed account of my problems. I then sent that letter to a few people in Customer Service and Communications for Comcast.

Those emails went out at nearly 4 p.m. and by 5:30 I had received three calls from Comcast. At 8 p.m. this evening I received my fifth call from them. I must admit I’m impressed. I received calls from Cathie and Andrea, who I believe work in Customer Service. I also received a call from Angela. I’m not sure which department she works in, but she said that my modem had not be properly configured on their end and she fixed it. Wayne, who works with the field technicians, called to say someone would be coming out tomorrow to look over everything and find the problem. He also apologized for the past issues with the technicians and – without me asking – said I would be credited for the days I was out of service. Andrea bookended the calls with a follow-up to make sure that I was aware of my technician appointment tomorrow and to say she would check in with me after the appointment.

Very good customer service from all of them. They all were very professional and sincerely seemed to be disappointed with how my case had been previously handled. I was promised follow-up phone calls after tomorrow’s tech visit and I was even given direct numbers to call back should I have any further questions.

I was honest in my complaints and I want to be fair on the other side. Today I was very impressed with the quick turn around and the sincerity each Comcast representative conveyed. All I’ve asked for is someone to fix my service – or tell me what’s wrong with my computer or equipment if the fault lies with me. They now seem willing to do that and I am very appreciative.

Tomorrow between 2 and 5 p.m. my technician should arrive. I look forward to then and hope that I can report tomorrow on this blog that the problems have been fixed.

There were a few things that were actually comical about my tech visit today.  I left them out of my previous entries from today in trying to keep my rambling posts as short as possible.

The first thing that I found really funny was his suggestion that I get rid of my wireless network.  He said that I should wire my house with Ethernet outlets.  Perhaps that would solve my problems.  Yes, 30 minutes into his visit – the same one where he said there was nothing he could do about my constant connection drops – he suggested that the wireless signal might be to blame.

Let’s break this down.

I have a router attached to my cable modem about 10 percent of the time.  It generally only serves to provide my two TiVo boxes with a way to get updated programming information.  I make sure the router is hooked up at least once every two weeks so that my TiVos don’t quit working.  Most of the time, however, I keep it unplugged because it’s one less thing I have to reset every time the signal drops.  Plus, when I call the tech support folks they get distracted when I mention the router.  It’s always the first thing they blame.

My computer – the one where I keep losing my Internet connection to – is hardwired to the router even during the 10 percent of the time when the router is hooked up.  I’m not sure how he thinks the cables running upstairs to the TiVos would somehow be able to pull a non-existent signal out of the Ethernet cables any better than through the wireless signal.

The other thing that I found hilarious was what he called “the best thing I can tell you.”  His final suggestion before driving off was to switch to BellSouth.  I said that I’d rather not pay for a phone line that I don’t need and BellSouth won’t let me have DSL without a voice line.  Besides, BellSouth is horrible.  He agreed, but said his neighbor has BellSouth and never has any drops.  He, on the other hand, has Comcast and his service is terrible.  And he said that if you worked for Comcast it was worse because you couldn’t really complain.

Who knows whether any of that was true, but I thought it was pretty funny coming from a Comcast technician.

As of 4:55 today, the person Stephanie said would call me back still had not. I really wanted to give him/her more time to return my call, but I was afraid that anyone with any power who just happened to be in on the weekend would certainly be gone by 5.

So I called Comcast again.  I again tried to get through to someone in Georgia by choosing the cable TV department.  I didn’t catch the name of the person I ended up with because she quickly cut me off by saying she didn’t work with the Internet service division.  I repeated what I had told her 10 seconds earlier about how I didn’t want to talk to someone in FL, but she transferred me anyway.

And suddenly I was speaking with Edward Hill, who was from … say it with me … Florida. I spent quite a while talking to him. I described the frustration that I’ve been feeling, the situation I had went through earlier, every option that I could think to do.  I told him everything.  He talked me through how the call centers work, how they dispatch the techs and a number of possible issues that might be causing my problems.  But as with all of the rest of the Comcast support people I’ve spoken with, he admitted that he had no way to help me.

Edward said the best that he could do was open another ticket, and try to speak with someone in the dispatch department to tell them the trouble I’ve had with previous appointments.

He put me on hold for a few minutes and then said that he couldn’t schedule another call because today’s call had not been closed yet.  He went on to say that he was very concerned because today’s call – the one where the tech came out and said he couldn’t do anything to fix my issue – had been marked as “customer not home.”  Edward said it best: “that’s a lie.”

The best Edward was able to do was give me a job number and transfer me back to the Georgia cable TV division.  He said said the job number (639509) was “infinitely important.”

But that didn’t turn out to be true.  I was greeted by another person from the TV side who seemed confused as to why I would call his division.  He did promise me that when he transferred me I would get someone from Georgia.

So now I’m at Comcast support person number four, Annie, ON JUST THIS ONE CALL.  I had literally been on the phone for more than an hour straight.  And to top it off Annie didn’t care about job number.  She said it was of no use and just wanted my telephone number.

Sigh …

I was out of bed and downstairs before 10 a.m., prepared to sit at my computer and keep an eye out on the driveway through the window next to my computer desk.  The tech was supposed to arrive between 11 and 2.  By 1:30 I was getting nervous so I called Comcast.  I’ll probably butcher the spelling of this name, but here goes … Condaway was the tech support person who answered.  As expected she said that she didn’t see any notes that would indicate my technician would be delayed.  I thanked her and hung up.

At 2:00, he had still not arrived.  I called right at the hour and spoke to Michelle.  She said that he had an ETA of 22 minutes.  “Sounds responsible,” I thought.  “Too random to make up.”   I thanked her and hung up.

The techician showed up about 2:20 or so.  That 22-min estimate was right on the money.  But that was where the good times ended.  The tech asked me what trouble I was having.  When I described my problem, he looked at my modem and asked me if the lights usually stay on when I’m having outages.  I said yes and he immediately said “then there’s nothing I can do.  That’s a problem with Comcast’s servers and until they fix them, it won’t get any better.”

I was momentarily stunned.  Did the tech really just show up after all of this and say there was nothing he could do for me – without touching a thing?  I hadn’t mentally prepared for that.  I figured he wouldn’t show up, or perhaps throw a couple of fake solutions my way and leave knowing that his work wouldn’t change a thing.  Maybe put a “booster” on my line, as a couple of the tech support people I’ve spoken to have mentioned.  I had even thought there was a chance the technician would even fix the problem.  Never had I contemplated this happening.

“Um … OK.  So, what would you suggest I do?”

Blank stare … “well, I mean … until they fix their servers, you’re going to keep having trouble.”

I wasn’t really sure what to do with that answer.  “OK,” I said.  “Well, if you can’t do anything for me, my only option is to call Comcast back and tell them their technician showed up and said that he couldn’t fix the problem, so what should I do.  Is there anything we should look at before I do that?  Do you have better suggestion?”

He thinks for a second and says  “I’ll take a look at the line strength and see.  Do you have a minute?”

I thought that meant he wanted me to follow him outside, but he said that I didn’t need to come outside, he would be right back.  Still a little confused at the “do you have a minute” question, I just sat down and waited to see what he would do next.

A moment later he came back inside with some sort of testing device that he hooked to my cable outlet.  He pushed a few buttons, read some numbers to me as if I might know what they meant, and said that my connection was fine.

I then spent a few more minutes trying to pull a solution out of him like a bone of out a pit bull’s mouth.  Finally he said he would go check my “tap”.  Whatever that was, he was back in a few minutes.  He came in and said “is it out”, looking at darkened lights on my modem.

“Uh … you never plugged my modem back in,” I told him.

He then walked over and reconnected my modem and watched the lights come back on, looking at me as if he had just fixed my problem.

I tried one last attempt to try to get a solution from him before I finally let him go.  I explained that I had tried calling Comcast over and over, and they had painted him as my savior.  He was the one who was supposed to take care of all my problems.  Was there nothing he could do?  I went on to describe how I was detailing my experiences in a blog so that I would have a record of everything that has happened to perhaps put in a letter to whomever I could think of.

This caught his attention.  He laughed and said, “can I see it.”

“Uh, sure.”

He looked at it for a second and then asked me if I could print it out so that he could take it with him.  He said, “I’ll take this back to the dispatch office.”  Though, I’m not sure if that meant to show someone who could help or merely so that he and the boys could laugh about it over drinks.

As he drove away, I picked up the phone and called Comcast back.  Feeling pretty defeated, I waited for them to pick up my call for several minutes only to suddenly get a beeping sound as if their line was busy.  That’s the second day in a row that’s happened.  I called a second time and was able to get through to Mark, from Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  I told him what had happened and he suggested that I call the local dispatch, but choose the cable TV option.  He said that if I chose the Internet service option I would just end up with a random person, but the cable TV people were local.

Sounded about as good of an idea as I had heard today, so I tried that.  Unfortunately, the “local dispatch” number he gave me was the same number that I always call.  (I didn’t realize until after I hung up because I had programed Comcast into my cell phone long ago and had forgotten their number.

I had to take my best guesses as to which options to choose, but I eventually did get through to a rep, Stephanie, from Georgia (where I am).  She listened to my pleas for help and said she was emailing a collegue in “HSI”.  Then came back and said that person wasn’t going to be in the office until later today, so she was going to walk over to the office of someone else and have that person call me.  Stephanie was very patient and understanding.  Hopefully she will be helpful as well.  We’ll see.  I’ll be waiting by the phone.