IÂ needed to sign up for Internet and perhaps some Cable TV services, so I contacted Comcast Xfinity. A sales person helped me select a reasonable package for my needs. They had a decent package for new customers that included Interent and basic cable with HBO included for a year.
I had specifically asked the sales rep if it included HD channels probably 5-6 times. He confirmed that it did all 5-6 times. I agreed and a self-install kit was shipped to my home.
When this magical kit had arrived I began the set up and activation process. Though I had requested just a modem with no router built in, they did ship me a modem/router combo. I really prefer to use my Apple Time Capsule for my routing needs, so I’m still working on getting around their setup. Haven’t seen a way to disable their router just yet.
Activating the Internet took close to an hour on the phone with someone with a very heavy accent and poor grasp of the English language. While she was polite, the language barrier did make the task a lot more difficult than it probably should have been. It took them numerous attempts and resets to get it working, but after an hour I did have Internet. Yay.
Cable TV was a bit more of a mess. Despite me asking and the sales rep confirming multiple times that I was getting an HD box, I had received an old analog box. Which of course took another hour or so on the phone to get activated. The tech support really didn’t seem to have any idea of what they were doing.
I was then transferred to another department regarding the lack of digital cable box for the HD channels. I was told it would take 3-5 days for a new box to arrive or I could swap it at a Comcast Service Center. I was told that there was a Comcast Service Center in Northfield and that they were open until 6:00 pm on weekdays.
So after work the next day I headed their on my way home. Much to my surprise the Comcast Service Center has not been in Northfield for quite some time. This was pretty frustrating, and it was too late to go to any other one’s at this time. I’m still a bit puzzled as to how they got that one wrong, you’d think they just had to read off a location from a computer.
So the next day after work I went to the Comcast Service Center in Absecon. There were probably 20 or so angry people in line when I arrived. These people were miserable and it was a fairly uncomfortable situation. I work hard so that I can afford to not be around such unhappy folk, but every now and then find myself amongst them. I can’t imagine being that unhappy and spending that much on their monthly bill if they are as broke as they proclaimed. Read a book, get outside or do something else instead of watching hundreds of channels!
So, I waited to exchange my cable box for well over an hour. When I finally did get help, the woman at the center was extremely helpful. She did her best to fix my account and also went out of her way to see if she could find me a better deal. She was really great and the only positive experience I had with Comcast to date.
I did learn that HD was not included in the package and would cost more. I’m still bummed that the sales rep misinformed me regarding this, but it was still a reasonable deal for me with the added expense.
When I got home with the new cable box I had to have it activated. This took at least 45 minutes on the phone to get done. For reasons unknown to me, they had to continually reset and reattempt to get my service activated. It was a real pain, and I was more than tired of dealing with Comcast at this point.
All said and done I do believe I have spent over 6 hours dealing with Comcast just to become a new customer. I’d say that was quite unsuccessful and I can’t imagine I’m much of a long term customer with them. Very, very poor customer service and I’m not one who typically complains much.
