Ok. Normally I don’t flame service providers because a) I like to stay positive, and b) we’re a service provider and sometimes we make mistakes and have outages, too. In this case, however, I feel obligated to the community of Comcast subscribers to point out something that Comcast *really* needs to fix if they want to provide support commensurate with what is otherwise a great service.

Monday, August 11, 2008: From approximately 8:55am until 9:35am, our cable TV is up and crystal clear, but our Internet connection was down. It appeared to be a problem between the “node” (the next networking hop up the chain from our cable modem) and the switch or router at the CO or POP as our cable modem and the attached router was getting a DHCP IP address that was correct (not the default 192.168.*.* IP that indicates something has gone haywire at the node or in between). To me, it looked like some scheduled (or unscheduled) maintenance in the area, and nothing to be too concerned about. When I called in, I got the “we are experiencing unusually high call volumes” message that would seem to indicate that there was an unusual situation happening (i.e. an outage). I stayed on hold for about 25-30 minutes and by the time I get through the queue, we had connectivity again. When I spoke with the CSR, I got the standard answer which was that they could not confirm or deny that there were any problems. Naturally, I was somewhat uncomfortable with the fact that the only folks I can actually talk to, customer service, had no idea what was going on with the network or whether this was an isolated or widespread problem and apparently had no way to find out. No worries, though, because we were back on line with no problems.

Tuesday, August 12th, 2008: First thing in the morning, our Internet connection is down again and this time down hard. Our cable modem is sometimes getting a real IP, sometimes getting a 192.168.*.* private subnet indicating that something is wrong. When we get a real IP, we sometimes get sporadic connectivity, but it’s usually for a fraction of a second to several seconds and then goes away. We call back in and speak with a very nice CSR that says she does not see widespread issues, but can tell our modem is offline and recommends that we have a technician come out. I agree as it is well past the 9:35 window, and we’ve again got pristine analog cable, but no Internet. The service call is scheduled between 11am and 2pm on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008. We are down all day long and at least until 12:30am after I finish watching the U.S. Olympic Relay team on the podium with gold medals – Again, perfectly clear cable (except on CNN, which has fairly regular digital drop-outs).

Wednesday, August 13th, 2008: Still down in the morning, so we’re all working remotely and waiting for the Comcast service appointment at a local café with Internet access. Shortly after 11am, I get a call from Comcast confirming our service call and letting us know a technician is in our area – I again tell the Comcast rep. that I’m working remotely due to lack of Internet access at our address, but have left instructions on our door to call this number (the number the rep just called) when they arrive. Upon hanging up with Comcast, I see that I’ve missed two calls from a number in the 404 area code (metro Atlanta) and a new voicemail. The voicemail is a message from Comcast saying that they attempted to reach me and were unsuccessful, so I should call in to reschedule the appointment. I immediately call the number on my caller ID and find that it’s not a call-back number, but the “catch-all” number for the Comcast call center (i.e. the same number you call for new service, billing, outage, etc.) I navigate the touch-tone menus as quickly as I can and finally get to a Comcast CSR. The person I speak with tells me that they will try to get a service person back out today, and that they apologize for the confusion. At this point, trying to get somebody back out today doesn’t seem adequate – We’ve already tried, this time we need to succeed in making the service call happen. I ask if we can get a 3-way call with someone in dispatch to see if we can catch the technician that made the original call (after all, it’s only been about five minutes on the wall clock since Comcast called me to confirm my appointment) and get them to turn around and come back. I’m informed that nobody in Customer Service can “call” Dispatch in this way – They communicate with Dispatch strictly by email. After pressing further and communicating my displeasure with this answer, I ask to talk to a supervisor. After a brief hold (about five minutes), I’ve driven back to our office and I’m back on the phone with the original CSR (not the supervisor yet). I’m told that they will have a person back out during the original window, but I again insist on speaking with a supervisor to ensure we don’t have the same mix-up with this new “attempt”.

After another short time on hold, I’m speaking with Tina and letting her know that I appreciate the effort to get a tech. back out today, but I’m trying to find some way to ensure that I actually get to see the technician this time. I tell her that it’s really ridiculous that I can miss a call from a tech/dispatch while on the phone with someone else from Comcast dispatch, and when I return the call that I just missed, I go to customer service and not dispatch. To add insult to injury, when I finally do reach someone, they have no way of reaching the people who just called me!!! (Basically, this guarantees that my appointment will be cancelled). She gives me the official scripted response, but informs me that she can reach dispatch, but that there is no way for us to do a 3-way call with them. I ask if there is a way I can get a call from dispatch, and she offers to have a dispatch manager return my call. I accept her offer and get off the phone.

Within thirty minutes, I get a call from a manager named Keith in dispatch who seems to know a good bit about operations and who has been with Comcast for quite a while. He explained that, with the exception of the simultaneous call mix-up, the lack of ability to communicate between Customer Support and Dispatch is actually intentional and condition normal. I understood the premise for this answer (if overall throughput and protecting groups like dispatch from support-related chatter was a primary goal, and customer service was secondary), but that I felt there should be a way to notify CSRs calling and taking calls from customers when someone else in Comcast was actively trying to engage the same customer at the same time – You know, a “busy signal” or voicemail when you’re making a phone call, or a queue to ensure that two people don’t work the same ticket. After some discussion he mentioned that there is a DOC (Day of Commitment) group that should have been engaged to coordinate activities between Customer Service and Dispatch on a day like to day that services were scheduled to be delivered. He further indicated that I should not have been forwarded to Tina (actually a sales manager) when I called Customer Support and wanted to escalate. While I was on the phone, a Comcast technician drove up (about 12:45pm), so I ended my call with the Dispatch Supervisor, and thanked him for his time.

All told, Comcast seems to be making an effort to improve quality of service, but there is still an enormous lack of visibility between departments which keeps the customer very much in the dark about what’s going on. When I call and say my service is down, I should get a crisp answer as to why (or at least some information about what may be going on). If there is a widespread outage, CSRs should be able to tell me a) that there actually is an outage, and b) why – It’s pretty basic stuff I’m asking for, but I would feel so much better if I knew a router was down and network Admins were working on it, or a cable was cut and we could expect a longer outage. I would gladly go away with a best-guess ETA and would inflict no further call-center overhead on the organization while they were trying to fix the issue. When a problem is resolved, CSRs should have access to information explaining what was done to resolve the issue, so we know if we’ve got a flaky node that will eventually need to be replaced or serviced (i.e. we can expect more outages until then) or if the outage was due to an environmental condition. When a tech is coming to my house, or dispatch is calling me, they should be able to tell if I am already on the phone with someone else from Comcast instead of terminating my service appointment with extreme prejudice.

Resolution:
As I write this post, the tech is gone, I’ve got a replacement cable modem (bad equipment was the root cause), and we’re back online. Total outage duration: One day of brownout, one and a half days of blackout. Total time personally invested: Four hours. If history is any guide, we should have flawless Internet service for another six months or so and the next time we have an Internet connectivity problem and I call, I should expect the people I speak with at Comcast to be pleasant, but not to know what’s going on.

tags: Comcast, Internet, cable, broadband