- Jun 16, 2000
- 30,213
- 12
- 81
ok....rant mode on, go away if you don't want to hear me vent. cliffs at the bottom.
So in my little neck of Philadelphia, the only cable company is Urban Cableworks. Yes, in the heart of Comcast, for some reason (monopoly-related I think) they weren't allowed in here. Urban had a partnership with Time Warner, who eventually (last year sometime) bought the company, although it was still operated by the same people. Urban was renowned for poor customer service, but cheap prices (compared to comcast anyway). Well, for whatever reason, the restriction was lifted, and we get word that Comcast will be taking over UCW/TW gradually, starting in October. Yay!
Well, the party ain't over just yet. Turns out we've got some new neighbors in our building, and in mid-September they had cable installed. In doing so, the lazy techs for UCW chose to cut one of the cables going into my apartment to connect theirs, and never spliced ours back in. Awesome, this line connected 2/4 TVs and our cable modem (only place in the house where the router will reach all the bedrooms). So our cable is mostly out, we know what the problem is, so it should be relatively easy to fix. Right?
Wrong. You see, it seems UCW has been laying off employees gradually, anticipating when Comcast fully takes over. Thus, getting ahold of customer service becomes virtually impossible. Over the course of two months, it would take about a week to schedule an appointment (UCW changed the automated system to recognize your phone number and forward you to a 'pay your bill' only section if you were a customer. the only way to avoid this was to call COMCAST, and select 'disconnect service'. it took me several weeks to figure this out). Once an appointment was scheduled, it was questionable as to if they would actually come out. When they came, they would ignore us when we say "the line is cut. i will show you". they'd connect a line-tester, see that there was no signal, say "we need an amp outside your building. they'll do it next week" and leave.
FINALLY, this past Wednesday, someone actually listens to us, fixes the line, admits "yea looks like the tech that hooked up the upstairs cut your line. they'll do that cuz they're paid based on our quick they are". So everything should be all fine-and-dandy.
Still no! Every CSR I spoke to said we'd be getting a credit for the downtime, but they couldn't apply it until it was all fixed, so they'd know how much to credit. Well, because of this, we didn't pay the bill over this time - as we were advised - how should we have known it would take over two months to fix?? So because of this, just yesterday, they disconnect our service. No prob, I'll just call customer service again and get the credit applied!
STILL NO. Turns out, because the problem occured in September, which was before the Comcast account system took over in October, they don't have record of when the issue started. Thus, a regular CSR couldn't give me a credit, I need to talk to a supervisor. Oh, what's that? There isn't one in. They'll have one call me! ha - still hasn't happened.
CLIFF NOTES:
-service is changing from time warner to comcast
-service broke over 2 months ago, cable company's fault
-took them about 9-10 weeks to repair it
-was told we'd be credited for the downtime, but they don't have record of when it started because of the change of companies
-my cable is now disconnected for non-payment, when they told me not to pay cuz i'd be credited
-can't get ahold of a supervisor to fix it
So in my little neck of Philadelphia, the only cable company is Urban Cableworks. Yes, in the heart of Comcast, for some reason (monopoly-related I think) they weren't allowed in here. Urban had a partnership with Time Warner, who eventually (last year sometime) bought the company, although it was still operated by the same people. Urban was renowned for poor customer service, but cheap prices (compared to comcast anyway). Well, for whatever reason, the restriction was lifted, and we get word that Comcast will be taking over UCW/TW gradually, starting in October. Yay!
Well, the party ain't over just yet. Turns out we've got some new neighbors in our building, and in mid-September they had cable installed. In doing so, the lazy techs for UCW chose to cut one of the cables going into my apartment to connect theirs, and never spliced ours back in. Awesome, this line connected 2/4 TVs and our cable modem (only place in the house where the router will reach all the bedrooms). So our cable is mostly out, we know what the problem is, so it should be relatively easy to fix. Right?
Wrong. You see, it seems UCW has been laying off employees gradually, anticipating when Comcast fully takes over. Thus, getting ahold of customer service becomes virtually impossible. Over the course of two months, it would take about a week to schedule an appointment (UCW changed the automated system to recognize your phone number and forward you to a 'pay your bill' only section if you were a customer. the only way to avoid this was to call COMCAST, and select 'disconnect service'. it took me several weeks to figure this out). Once an appointment was scheduled, it was questionable as to if they would actually come out. When they came, they would ignore us when we say "the line is cut. i will show you". they'd connect a line-tester, see that there was no signal, say "we need an amp outside your building. they'll do it next week" and leave.
FINALLY, this past Wednesday, someone actually listens to us, fixes the line, admits "yea looks like the tech that hooked up the upstairs cut your line. they'll do that cuz they're paid based on our quick they are". So everything should be all fine-and-dandy.
Still no! Every CSR I spoke to said we'd be getting a credit for the downtime, but they couldn't apply it until it was all fixed, so they'd know how much to credit. Well, because of this, we didn't pay the bill over this time - as we were advised - how should we have known it would take over two months to fix?? So because of this, just yesterday, they disconnect our service. No prob, I'll just call customer service again and get the credit applied!
STILL NO. Turns out, because the problem occured in September, which was before the Comcast account system took over in October, they don't have record of when the issue started. Thus, a regular CSR couldn't give me a credit, I need to talk to a supervisor. Oh, what's that? There isn't one in. They'll have one call me! ha - still hasn't happened.
CLIFF NOTES:
-service is changing from time warner to comcast
-service broke over 2 months ago, cable company's fault
-took them about 9-10 weeks to repair it
-was told we'd be credited for the downtime, but they don't have record of when it started because of the change of companies
-my cable is now disconnected for non-payment, when they told me not to pay cuz i'd be credited
-can't get ahold of a supervisor to fix it
.
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