Joys of Having Cable
I spend a lot of time complaining about service-providing companies. I've complained, from my own experience being a customer service rep to being the customer myself, about how much of a pain in the butt these companies can be. I've dealt with "that guy" and I've been "that guy".
Well, my issue was that my cable was all out of whack. I have Comcast HD and found that any channel above 30 was blacked out. I had to power cycle my cable box just to get the stations back. Then the next issue would occur: I would change to a non-HD channel and then the picture would be all garbled and wouldn't go away. It was really annoying.
Anyway, I call Comcast. I dread hold times. I hate calling customer service, but I had to do this. So I call and the IVR says the hold time will be 5-15 minutes. Crappy, right? No! The IVR then gives me the option to enter my phone number and then they will place me in the queue so that when it comes my turn, they will call me. Very cool. So I did it and got the call back in about 3 minutes.
The coolness didn't stop there. I'm talking to the rep, telling her my issue, and she apologized for the inconvience and then asked how long this was happening. I told her about 3 months. She says OK, $33 a month, 3 months, I'll go ahead and credit $99 for you. WHOA! I didn't even ask for that! Freaking awesome. She then says she's going to need to send a technician out to my house to fix my cable box. Coolest customer service rep ever.
Fast forward to today when the technician shows up. He does a couple things on the box and then has me test it all out. While I'm testing it all out, he told me a little trick with HD TVs and basic cable.
Apparently, if you connect the cable directly to the TV (as long as it has an HD tuner built-in) and change the channel to x.1 (so if you wanted to watch channel 13 in HD, you'd change the channel to 13.1), you'll get the HD version. Even better, you will get all the paid channels that you might not normally have. So, I'll get HBO, Showtime, whatever.
Freakin sweet.
Well, my issue was that my cable was all out of whack. I have Comcast HD and found that any channel above 30 was blacked out. I had to power cycle my cable box just to get the stations back. Then the next issue would occur: I would change to a non-HD channel and then the picture would be all garbled and wouldn't go away. It was really annoying.
Anyway, I call Comcast. I dread hold times. I hate calling customer service, but I had to do this. So I call and the IVR says the hold time will be 5-15 minutes. Crappy, right? No! The IVR then gives me the option to enter my phone number and then they will place me in the queue so that when it comes my turn, they will call me. Very cool. So I did it and got the call back in about 3 minutes.
The coolness didn't stop there. I'm talking to the rep, telling her my issue, and she apologized for the inconvience and then asked how long this was happening. I told her about 3 months. She says OK, $33 a month, 3 months, I'll go ahead and credit $99 for you. WHOA! I didn't even ask for that! Freaking awesome. She then says she's going to need to send a technician out to my house to fix my cable box. Coolest customer service rep ever.
Fast forward to today when the technician shows up. He does a couple things on the box and then has me test it all out. While I'm testing it all out, he told me a little trick with HD TVs and basic cable.
Apparently, if you connect the cable directly to the TV (as long as it has an HD tuner built-in) and change the channel to x.1 (so if you wanted to watch channel 13 in HD, you'd change the channel to 13.1), you'll get the HD version. Even better, you will get all the paid channels that you might not normally have. So, I'll get HBO, Showtime, whatever.
Freakin sweet.
Labels: the good things in life
I read an article recently and Comcast was rated in the top 10 for worst customer service. Apparently they are trying really hard to change that image.
Posted by
MGD |
5/17/2007 10:47:00 AM
I bet you're right. I've called them before and I've had major issues. Same with my buddy, he had the same problem I did and they basically told him it's not a problem and hung up.
So Comcast, unlike Cingular, apparently does something in response to these reports. Right on.
Posted by
Rooster |
5/17/2007 10:50:00 AM