Alpharetta Councilman Takes Issue With Customer No Service
D.C. Aiken relates tale of three days without cable TV, Internet or phone service.
Alpharetta City Councilman D.C. Aiken wasn't pleased with his Internet, TV and phone provider over the Memorial Day weekend, and he thinks the utility's customer service said and did all the wrong things.
Aiken bundles his television, Internet service and home phone with the same provider, in his case, Comcast. His home in a Kimball Bridge Road subdivision was fairly isolated with this problem, because he knew his neighbor across the street still had his service from the traditional cable TV provider.
Share your tales of woe–or of excellence–about customers service by your utility providers in the comments below.
He was using his pulpit as a City Councilman during a City Council meeting at City Hall for a specific reason. Alpharetta has franchise agreements with utilities such as Comcast.
"When we do an agreement with large companies, there should be some kind of customer service level," Aiken said.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, he said that was lacking.
He couldn't believe the customer service representative told him a technician wouldn't come to his home until Tuesday between 2 and 4 p.m. He asked the woman on the phone–and fortunately he had a cellphone–if the entire city of nearly 60,000 people was without their cable service, would all of them have to wait until Tuesday? Yes, Aiken said she told him.
He couldn't believe he was hearing this, so he asked for a manager. The manager promised to get a technician to contact him on Sunday for an earlier appointment. But that time on Sunday came and went, and no call or visit was made from Comcast. So he was back on the phone. That's when he got the customer service rep to admit that no technicians were working over the holiday weekend, which explained the Tuesday service call.
Aiken said if Georgia Power had just a single house without power, "Do you think Georgia Power would take four days to come put the power back on? Or Atlanta Gas Light?"
So the next time franchise agreements come before City Council, Aiken said he'll be thinking about the customer service city residents deserve.
Just Deb
7:13 am on Wednesday, May 30, 2012
I lost cable service yesterday. It lasted several hours and in to the night. The service is from Comcast. I don't bother calling because the service folks are clueless. Now, you know why they are referred to as Crapcast. I hate them and I only have cable with them.
Bob Pepalis
10:19 am on Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Another reader–whose comments will be posted later today in full as a Letter to the Editor–made this editor realize I left out one major concern expressed by Councilman Aiken. That was for the employee or business person who depends upon the Internet service for his or her job, which was a major point in his comments Monday night.
Comcast Mark
12:54 pm on Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Hello Bob – I work for Comcast and I’d like to look into Councilman Aiken’s experience. Please feel free to forward my information to him.
I will reach out to my local colleagues to make sure that his experience is addressed and ensure that any recurrence is prevented.
For the readers here, you may also reach out to me if you need further assistance from the recent outage.
I apologize for the trouble.
Mark Casem
Comcast Corp.
National Customer Operations
We_can_help@cable.comcast.com
Bob Pepalis
1:50 pm on Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Thanks for reaching Patch and our readers today.
Jan Laketa
10:08 pm on Wednesday, May 30, 2012
I have always found Comcast customer service to be anything but customer service. Once I called to ask about setting up service for HD television. The customer service rep didn't know the answer to my questions. I asked if there was someone else there who might know the answer and she said she didn't know. When I asked to speak to her manager she hung up on me. We were it disconnected. She hung up!
I have had so many bad experiences with Comcast customer service that I have cut all ties with them. I'll never go back!
Travis Allen
7:23 am on Thursday, May 31, 2012
Granted, I only use Comcast for internet service, but I've never had any issues, not even once, in over 6 years.
I tried switching to AT&T DSL, that lasted about 22 hours before the huge discrepancy in speed made me rethink my decision.