adventures in customer support

My wife works from home. Her office is on a different floor than our router, and she struggles mightily with speed and connection issues. (All the rest of our wi-fi stuff works fine.) We decided what she needed was a dedicated connection to the Internet. So I contacted Comcast Support via the online chat service.

When asked to categorize my problem, I chose “Internet (Other)”. Here’s how the chat began:

Comcast > I understand that you want to add a internet outlet, am I right?

Steven > I think so :­). Wife needs more speed/smoother experience, wifi is not doing it for her, she works on a different floor from our main router.

Comcast > I see, let me connect you to our SALES Team to further assist you.

After an extended discussion with a member of the SALES team, the following ensued:

Comcast >  Since your wife is getting a slow wifi connection, I will be referring you to our Internet Department. Would that be okay with you?

Steven > ok ... I think they're the ones who sent me to you :­).

Comcast > As I have checked, Steven, the one who sent me to you was from another department but not our Internet Department.

So off to the Internet Department I went (again?). The first thing the new support person said was, “It's a privilege to have you here on chat and I am looking forward to provide you excellent service!” Then:

Comcast > I understand that you are having a slow WiFi connection and want to add a coax outlet to get a wired connection, did I get that right?

Steven > Yes. It may be as simple as my wife's workstation being in a bad position in the house, but she definitely has speed/connection difficulties when she is working. The other wireless stuff in our house works fine. She thought if she was able to get her own wired connection, it would solve the problem.

Comcast > I see, Steven, you are wrongly transferred to Internet troubleshooting department. Let me connect you with our sales department who will set up an appointment for technician visit to add the additional coax tap, however, there will be some charges for the visit. Would that be fine with you?

Steven > well ... I was transferred to you by the sales department :­) ... but yes, it's fine

Finally, this occurred:

Comcast > Let me connect you with the concerned department for best assistance. Please stay connected while I transfer this chat. Please wait, while the problem is escalated to another analyst.

New Comcast Support Person > Analyst has closed chat and left the room.

This took about 45 minutes.

Comments

[Cynthia]

lmi.net

[Steven Rubio]

I hear you. But the problem is this. LMI.net residential speed: 20 Mbps. Robin's speed on her work computer when it's going "too slow" via wifi: 20 Mbps. Comcast speed when connected via Ethernet under our current plan, like with the computer I'm typing on now: advertised 105 Mbps, actual 120+ Mbps. (All speeds download.) I have no great love for Comcast, but I'm a sucker for speed, so I go with the one that is 6x faster. And that speed is what Robin wants. (She's sitting on the floor of the attic at the moment, hooked up to the main router via an Ethernet connection, and she keeps talking to herself about how much better it is.)

I'm pretty sure LMI.net wins on customer service, though ... wouldn't be hard :-).

[Steven Rubio]

I should add a follow-up. After several attempts to reconnect with Chat Support, I gave up. But a bit later, Robin gave it a try and got through. She also knew exactly what she wanted, which made her far more intelligible than I was. Looks like all we have to do is go to the Comcast office, pick up an old-school modem that doesn't have telephony, plug it into a cable outlet that already exists in her office, and have Comcast turn that outlet on. She gets so frustrated when she is working and thinks get sluggish online ... when she brought her computer upstairs and connected it to the router, she doubled her speed and was happy as a clam. The upcoming solution should work even better for her.

[Steven Rubio]

As is often the case with Comcast, I spoke too soon. We went to the Comcast office, following the advice of the online support person, to get an additional modem for the outlet in her office. There, we were told that Comcast would only rent one modem per customer, so we had to buy our own modem for the extra outlet. But, they assured us, once we got the modem and plugged it into the outlet, all would be good ... the outlet wouldn't even need to be "turned on", it already was on. So we went out and bought a modem, plugged it in ...

And, nothing.

So, once again to Comcast support. They scheduled a visit from a tech person to do the installation, i.e. turn on the already-installed outlet. The Comcast guys showed up. We explained what was needed.

And they told us Comcast didn't allow multiple Internet connections on a single account. We either went back to using WiFi, or we added a second account for Robin, which would come close to doubling our monthly bill.

Thankfully, they came up with a kludgy workaround that at least improves Robin's work WiFi enough to make her happy.

So, to summarize:

First Comcast agent, on hearing we had Internet problems that probably required an extra modem, transferred us to Sales.

The sales agent, on hearing Robin's WiFi wasn't working very well, transferred us to the Internet department, which was somehow different from the first person I spoke to.

Third, the Internet agent said we didn't have an Internet problem, and transferred us back to Sales.

Fourth, the connection was lost. End of chat.

Fifth, Robin got through and was told to come to the office and get an extra modem and plug it into the existing outlet.

Sixth, the person at the office told us Comcast didn't rent out extra modems, but if we bought our own modem, it would work in the existing outlet.

Seventh, we bought a modem, and it didn't work in the outlet.

Eighth, customer support schedule a tech visit to connect the outlet.

Ninth, the tech informed us that Comcast doesn't allow an extra Internet connection unless we pay for it. (I suppose we could use a splitter, except the main cable is in the attic, and the place that needs the splitter outlet is on another floor entirely.)