The one with a lot of swears

If you don't like swears, then click away and please don't tell my grandma about my potty mouth. I apologize for not posting in a long time (I have no good reason, really) and now that I'm back it's going to be full of swears. I had a totally shitty day today. Who's to blame??

Comcast.

I fucking hate them.

(sorry about the f-bomb, but it's truly how I feel)

The hatred actually started 11.5 years ago when I bought my house and wanted to get cable. Comcast is the only non-satellite cable available in Baltimore, so there is zero competition here (though I would love for someone to prove me wrong!). I was told they did installation appointments on Sundays. Perfect! I waited and waited and called and was told there's a technician out and waited some more and called again to be told he's still out on a job and waited some more, and finally at 8pm I called 'uncle'. I called one last time only to be told that he wasn't sure why someone scheduled an appointment for me on Sundays since THEY DON'T DO APPOINTMENTS ON SUNDAYS! Well, neat. That guy got an earful. His apology was so bloody patronizing that it just made me more and more angry.

When we moved in June we looked around to see what we could find, but Comcast was the only option for cable. I don't want a satellite hanging on the front of my house, so Comcast it was. We priced it out to see if we could get our internet, phone (we need a land line for the international calls), and cable from different providers, but it seemed that buying a bundle from Comcast was the cheapest. Plus, they were running an internet special that if you bought the bundle online then you'd get a $100 prepaid Visa card in return. Great! I started the process and for some reason it didn't work. I'm fairly certain (this was June) that the reason was because they wanted a land line number as part of the registration (at least that's the only thing we could figure out) and we didn't have one (since we were ordering it from Comcast). I ended up calling the help number on the website and we placed the order over the phone. We were assured that we'd still get the deal, no problem, they were happy to have our business! Well, of course they were. About 2 months after we ordered I called to find out when we'd get the Visa card. I was told that we had to make 4 on-time payments and at that time we would get the card. Okay! I even put a reminder in my phone to call back in October!

I made the mistake of calling first thing this morning. I was on hold for about 30 minutes, finally to be told that 1.) she couldn't find that promotion for June; 2.) if that promotion ran, then it would have been a more expensive bundle available to get the Visa card; and 3.) the marketing department would have to call me back to confirm the promotion. I pointed out to her that the promotion they're offering on their website right now is the same exact one that we bought, so I'm not sure about the more expensive bundle thing.

I get a phone call at 4:40, right when I'm getting ready to walk out the door. I answered the phone and she stammered that she was from Comcast, but didn't even have the name of the person she was calling about. This should have clued me in to how this call was going to end. This woman tells me the reason we didn't get the promotion was because there is an outstanding balance from the last tenant who lived here. I asked what his account has to do with me and she said the accounts are tied to the property, not the person. This is what prevented me from successfully placing my order online. I ask why no one told us this 1.) when we ordered this originally and 2.) when I called the second time and was told about the 4 on-time payments. Queue the patronizing apologies. Then she blamed it on me calling the wrong number when I placed my order. I pointed out that I'm fairly certain I didn't go searching around the website for a  new number and would logically use the phone number that they list on the page if you need help. Then she blamed it on them using a non-Comcast call center to take these orders. What?? Shouldn't they all offer the same thing?? I am 100% certain I was reassured that I would still get the online promotion, because that's the whole reason we were going with this plan at Comcast! It's pretty obvious to me that they'll tell you whatever it takes to get you locked into a contract, but when it comes to them honoring their end of the deal they'll find whatever loophole they can to get out of it. If they truly cared about the outstanding charges from my previous tenant, since "the account is attached to the property, not the person" they would have actually mentioned them to me, not use them against me. I don't need to tell you this is absolutely shitty customer service.

My poor colleague got an earful of me telling this woman, in a not so nice way, how disgraceful their customer service is when it comes to the actual customer. I just told her that I hope she tells her supervisor about my call and that they're going to lose a customer who is paying $130 a month over a $100 prepaid Visa card. How pathetic is that?? Comcast is notorious for their horrible customer service (just google it!) and it's pretty sad that the powers-that-be truly don't give a shit. Once we are finally able to cancel, I have erroneous charges to look forward to. They're notorious for that too and I'm fairly certain this is what has happened with my previous tenant and it's no wonder he hasn't paid. I wouldn't either.

In the profound words of my friend, Steve:

SUCK IT COMCAST!!!