perldiver

On Feb 25, Comcast lost points with me.
Later that day, they got most of them back.
Today, they have again lost all the goodwill points they started with, all the ones they earned back, and a whole lot more besides.

What I wanted from Comcast:

• A phone line with a 415 number that forwarded all calls to my cell phone.

Personally, I don't think that's terribly unreasonable, and I think it should have taken about 5-10 minutes to set up. Had I been smart, I would have just added an extra number to my existing TossableDigits account--shoot, I could have signed up for a brand new account and had the number set up and calls being forwarded in under 5 minutes. But Comcast was already running an Internet connection in and they said they could bundle phone service for me, so I figured it would be easy. Turns out I was wrong. Here is where they've dropped the ball:

• When the account is set up, you need to dial *99 from a physical phone to activate the phone line. They did not tell me this when I purchased the phone service.
• The installer tech did not do it when he was here to install the modem.
• They never stated that the phone (which I borrowed to do this) needs to be plugged into the modem, not the walljack.
• They told me that this is "a security feature" because "otherwise someone else could hack into the website and redirect your calls". When I pointed out that this inconveniences the customer without security benefit (someone could just as easily hack the site the day after I activate the line), the representative completely did not understand my point. This shows poor security comprehension at the policy level and a lack of attention to, or a lack of employment of, competent security people. Not reassuring.
• The guy on the phone told me that their phone service is "not VOIP" despite the fact that it's plugged into the modem. I'm prepared to be proven wrong by someone more knowledgeable, but thinking about the wiring and the data being transmitted, I find it highly dubious that a single coax cable is supplying both Internet and phone service without using VOIP. It leaves me thinking that their staff don't know what they are talking about, which shows poor decisions at policy level.
• I have called them twice to set up call forwarding and been given contradictory information ("dial *72, go to the website, fill in number to forward to, wait 12-24 hours" vs ("*dial *72, enter phone number to forward to on handset, answer that phone, it's set up instantly").  As of this morning (granted, not quite 24 hours) it wasn't working, hence my stress.
• They have no way to activate an account or turn on call forwarding remotely, or to assist in any meaningful way remotely.
• Their website is extremely hard to navigate. Key links are tiny and not in the expected places, services are divided between two separate domains (comcast.com and comcast.net), and a lot of it is counterintuitive...why do I set up call forwarding under the Preferences tab in my Comcast email box?

Remember, the reason I need this set up is because the buzzer on my building connects to this phone number; if it doesn't ring to my cell (my only phone), then I can't get deliveries, which is important right now because all my stuff is being shipped here via UPS. I have a package being re-delivered today and if delivery fails it gets returned to sender, so there is some pressure on me.

The customer service rep I spoke with today was a very nice guy named Dave--I will give Comcast this, their service guys are very nice and really try; pity that they are picking up the pieces for such a clusterfud organization. Dave heard me out and then told me that he was getting the same complaints from multiple other customers.
So, here's my final question: Comcast,  if you've been hearing these complaints from multiple people, why aren't they fixed? All of this grief could have been averted by giving the initial installer a short checklist to run down. Had he asked me:  "do you also have phone service with us? Yes? Ok, let me set that up...ok, do you want call forwarding? Yes? Ok, let me set that up. [etc]", then none of this would have happened. 10-15 minutes of his time a week or so ago would have saved 1-2 hours of your customer support peoples' time since then. Multiply that out by lots of customers and it means you need fewer customer reps, fewer phone lines into the call center, etc.


Final wrap up: call forwarding finally ended up activated, so the buzzer is working. It's been such a negative experience, however, that I am seriously considering canceling the Comcast phone service and getting a TossableDigits number--it would also be significantly cheaper ($7/month as opposed to (IIRC) about $20), and the overall experience would be enormously better.  I'll wait until at least tomorrow though, after UPS delivers today.