The does not really fit but I had to share it...

A few days ago my ISP experienced a LONG Internet outage. Tech support, not realizing that there was an outage decided I needed a new DSL modem. They sent me one "free." Today I received "Confirmation of Service Order" document which described my whole phone/Internet service (no mention of the modem.

I called customer service to make sure they had not screwed up my service (and several discounts as I have had the same phone service tor 33 years). The representative, was courteous, knowledgeable and sympathetic to my concerns. During the discussion he mentioned that he had Comcast as his ISP. I guess when you have REALLY bad customer service you feel your customer's pain and do a better job

Ken

My take on the situation based on past dealings.

There is some old guy in the area that knows everything about anything. They don't let anyone talk to this guy. He could fix any issue in a matter of seconds. ISP's and cable tv companies feel this guy gets paid way too much and are saving a ton of money hiring monkies to assist what they feel are stupid customers. They give monkies no training, a $5K gizmo that could fix the issue in seconds but they only know one switch setting.

"You ride?"
"No. Can't walk too good neither."
"Why are you here?"
"I know stuff."

4 hours of limited service on my last Unsolicited Modem, I called them and told them to delete the old modem from the database and reset|reboot the new one I just received. Service Restored.

Just sayin'

I once had Comcast, before they started their big national expansion. Back in those days, the customer support was quite acceptable. Maybe it was because I was in the Philly area, where they got their start.

I've had occasion to call my current ISP's tech support of a couple of times and actually have techs on site once (I had a new modem and the telephone person mucked up the provisioning). With the exception of that aforesaid error, the support has been quite good.

I have a beef with a couple of their corporate policies, but all the people I've dealt with, both on the phone or in person, have been quite helpful and most knowledgeable in their spheres of responsibility.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in <General> and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Thanks onebuck!

Ken

/rant on
I hate Charter Cable with a purple passion. A couple years ago my cable box went out on a Wednesday and the rep 120 miles away told me they couldn't schedule an appoint for me till Saturday. That was far from good enough in my book, so I called again the next morning and got in contact with a Supervisor. Once I demonstrated I knew what I was talking about he sat up an appt later that day.

To my surprise, the lady I spoke to the day before called me at home and said Mr. ------ We just CAN"T get anybody there till Saturday. I advised her if someone didn't show up at my door by noon I was going to cancel service with them and hung up.

Cable box in hand, I arrived at the local office at 12:30pm to find two installation workers standing outside smoking a cigarette. When I got inside they were signing up a new customer and advised them they could have somebody there in a hour...

Let's just say I went without cable TV or internet for almost a year and was more at peace with myself than in a long time. Not only that, I cleaned every square inch of my apartment and have a mop for the floor and one for the ceiling. It did get kind of boring at times.

They ended up calling me back months later and shot me a deal so here I am, till my promo ends anyway.
/rant off