Tales From The Travels

I’ve been spending some time in South Dakota. I’m fixing my house up for sale and packing my things for the move to Maryland this summer, so I haven’t had time to write any posting. However, I’ll have some things to write soon, so please check back.

I happened to notice that a couple of days ago marked the one year anniversary for this blog. Its hard to believe that I’m still doing this thing. What a journey its been! I actually closed it down at one point, but brought it back after being asked to. Its changed in its nature from me telling stories about my adventures to one mostly discussing various issues. Now, I even have two blogs I’m working on. The Wiccan Scientist is devoted to more serious issues while I’ve tried to keep this one devoted to more light-hearted ones.

Any way, I just wanted to mark the anniversary and thank anyone that’s been reading this blog.

Chris

I’ve been spending my time this holiday season with friends and family and thinking about all the things I’m grateful for. This has been a wonderful year for me and my son. I hope your’s has been, too. Thank you for reading my blog.

Merry Christmas.

Chris

I made a posting last April about my experiences with Comcast. One of the things I mentioned was how, when I mentioned I was having problems with Comcast, other people would go crazy with their own stories. Comcast has a real, serious problem. Take a look at this story about another Comcast customer. They are having such a problem that there is now a website, with the interesting name of www.comcastmustdie.com, devoted to telling stories about how bad Comcast is.

An interesting thing, if you look at the website, is that Comcast appears to be monitoriing it and responding. There are some posts by people talking about how they had problems, but after they made a posting on the website, they were contacted by someone from Comcast and the problem got fixed. Kudos to Comcast if that is true.

From my own experience, I wrote a letter to the Comcast CEO telling him about my experiences. I’ve pasted a copy of this letter at the end of this post for you to read. I was actually contacted by someone about this letter. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out so well. The woman that called me started out by asking me for the names of the people in customer service that I had been talking to. When I wouldn’t give them to her, she said they needed the names so they could discipline the individuals. I said that is why I wouldn’t give her the names. The problem wasn’t the individuals, they were merely doing what they were trained and told to do. The problem was with Comcast. She wasn’t receptive to my comments and I wasn’t in a good mood and wasn’t receptive to her demands, so it didn’t go well.

Maybe Comcast will straighten things out, but I’m still looking forward to the day I can get my service from someone else.

******************
Chairman & CEO: Brian L. Roberts
Comcast Corporation
1500 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102
April 18, 2007

Dear Mr. Roberts,

I just wish to inform you of my experiences with your company. As a preface, I need to tell you that I have had nothing but difficulty with your company since I began doing business with it and I have never had a pleasant experience with your customer service. But, let me relate to you my latest experience with Comcast. It has been a memorable experience.

On the afternoon of April 10, 2007, Comcast turned off my neighbor’s cable service. At the same time, they disconnected my Internet connection (our cable connections are adjacent to each other). When I notified customer service about this issue I was given the basic attitude of ‘tough luck.’ I was told they would have someone come out to reconnect my Internet, but it wouldn’t be for a few days. Then, I was informed that I could only get a block of time and that someone 18 or older had to be there. I pointed out that they had worked on it before without anyone 18 or older being present. I was simply told that this was the company policy and there wasn’t anything they could do about it. So, I pointed out that they were making me take off from work without pay or on my vacation time to fix your mistake. Again, I was basically told, ‘tough luck.’

Unhappy with this answer, I asked to speak to a supervisor and got the same treatment. I asked to speak to this person’s supervisor. I got the same treatment. When I told this supervisor that they had worked on my cable without someone 18 or older being present, he said, ‘I doubt that,’ implying that I was lying. I asked to speak to his supervisor and was told that I was on a list and would be contacted within 24-48 hours. No such phone call was ever received.

An appointment was made for Friday afternoon, April 13, and I took time off from work to be there. I was told that someone would be here between 2 and 5 in the afternoon. So, I left work to make sure I was home before 2 o’clock. When noone had shown up by 3, I called customer service and confirmed the appointment, again being told that someone would be here before 5. When noone had arrived by 5:20, I called again and was informed that there never was an appointment. The appointment had been for Thursday afternoon.

When I was told that the earliest appointment I could now get would be the following Tuesday afternoon I asked to speak to a supervisor again. This supervisor agreed that the situation was unacceptable and arranged for someone to come out the morning of Saturday, April 14 between 8 and 12. This supervisor told me he would call the next day to confirm that I had been taken care of. No such call was ever received.

When I had not seen any sign of anyone by nine, I once again called customer service and was again told that there was an appointment scheduled and someone would be there before noon. When no one had arrived by the middle of the afternoon, I again called and was told someone would be there. Finally, about 4:00, a representative showed up and fixed my Internet connection. When I told him what happened Monday he told me he didn’t understand why no one had called him because he was on call and would have come out and fixed it.

Having been stuck in my house waiting for someone to show up all day, I had not been able to get my chores done. After the service representative left, I ran my chores, only to return home to find out my TV cable had been disconnected. I called customer service and was told they couldn’t get anyone out to see me before Sunday morning, April 15. I pointed out that the service rep was on call and asked why they didn’t call him. I was told they didn’t have his phone number and didn’t have anyway of getting hold of him. Somehow, it apparently makes sense to your company to have someone on call but to have no way to actually call them.

I made the appointment for Sunday morning, but I also asked to speak to a supervisor to see if it would be possible to get the on call person. I was told he was on the phone line with another customer, but would call me as soon as he was done. I said he wouldn’t. The customer service representative assured me he would. I asked him if he would like to place a bet. Too bad he didn’t bet me, I would have won. The supervisor never called me.

When noone had arrived by nine Sunday morning I called customer service and was told someone would be there. I asked if they could confirm this. They placed me on hold to call the dispatch office and when they came back they assured me that I was scheduled and someone from the dispatch office would call me. No such phone call was ever received. In case you’ve lost count, this is the fourth time representatives of your company told me I would be called without receiving the promised call.

When noone showed up Sunday afternoon, I called customer service (again!) and was told that there never was an appointment scheduled for me that day. When I was told I would need to make an appointment, I asked to speak to a supervisor (again!). This supervisor agreed with me that this situation was unacceptable, but he couldn’t fix it from where he was. He told me that he would fix the problem and call me back. When I told him how I had received that promise four times without getting a call back, he assured me he would call me. He gave me his name and extension number so that I could call him if I didn’t hear back. He told me to just call the customer service number and ask for him by name and extension and I would be transferred to him. I never received a call back (number five!)

I called the customer service number and asked for the supervisor I had spoken to by name and extension. I was told that he wasn’t at that particular service center and no one knew how to get him. I was told I should just keep calling the toll-free number until I finally got a service center where they knew this guy. This suggestion was made in all seriousness without any hint that the individual had any idea of how preposterous it was.

So, I spoke to another supervisor and was told there was a ‘glitch’ in the system. And a hurricane is a little rain and wind. This supervisor said he would work the issue and he promised to call me back. I told him that no person with Comcast had ever kept their promise to call me back. He gave me an earnest promise he would call back within a half hour. I confirmed with him that my number in my account was the correct number and it was. I never received a call back. We’re up to six, now.

I called the toll-free number again and asked to be transferred to the service center of the last supervisor I spoke to. It took fifteen minutes to transfer me, I spoke to three different people, had to enter my phone number seven times, and then I was disconnected. I called the toll-free number again and was put on hold for nearly 45 minutes. I didn’t want to hang-up and have them call me back because I knew they wouldn’t. Finally, after all that waiting, the only thing they could do for me was to schedule an appointment for Monday, April 16, a time when no one would be home. Needless to say, my faith that the problem would be resolved was minimal. During this last phone call, I was told that someone had tried to call me and didn’t get an answer. That was because I was on hold for 45 minutes. My phone probably beeped at me, but I wasn’t able to hear over the horrible on-hold music you play.

When I got home Monday evening, my connection still had not been repaired. I called customer service and was told that someone had tried to call me at 7 that morning. I said this was not true, I was up and at home at that time and no one had called me. They agreed to get someone out to my house and someone finally showed up about 6:30 that evening. I went out to watch him, which I’m glad I did because he was about to mess up my connection again and I had to point it out to him. But, finally, after all of this, my connection is back to the way it was originally.

So, why am I writing to you? It is not that I believe you will do anything about the situation; this is obviously a deep-rooted problem in your company. I just wanted to vent so that you can never claim that you didn’t know. This experience has been simply mind-boggling. I would think that there are some simple, fundamental things that would be in place, but I find lacking:

• When you tell a customer you will call back – call back!

• Set a way of prioritizing calls. Not all calls are equal, so stop treating them as if they are.

• Have someone on call to handle high priority calls – and have a way to call that individual.

• Make appointments after hours when people don’t have to take a cut in pay to fix your mistakes.

• Have a way for customers to be able to call back customer service representatives when they give you their names and extension numbers.

• And, most importantly, take responsibility for your own actions. My experience with Comcast has always been that your attitude is that it’s the customer’s fault, not yours.

My experience with Comcast reminds me of my experience with another monopoly, AT&T. I lived in College Station, Texas in 1977. College Station is the home of Texas A&M, but I wasn’t a student. My roommates left at the end of the spring semester and the phone was in their name, so I was left without phone service. When I went in to see about getting some service they told me I had to make a $100 deposit. This was a substantial amount of money in those days and I certainly didn’t have that much to spare. I was working at sub-minimum wages and simply could not have produced $100, no matter how badly I wanted to. When I asked why they needed so much, I was told that they required it of all college students. I said I wasn’t a college student, I just happened to live in the area. I was then informed that I was the same age as a college student, therefore the policy applied to me. When I complained, the lady just smiled at me and said that if I didn’t like their policy I was welcome to get my phone service from someone else. I gave her a hard look and told her, ‘I don’t have any other option today, but someday I will. And, when that day comes, I’ll remember this.’

Years later, after the breakup of AT&T, there really were options and I went elsewhere with my business. One day I got a call from someone with AT&T trying to get me to switch my business. I told him I had no desire to, and when he asked me why, I told him the story of that lady in College Station. He told me that I wouldn’t believe how many times he had heard similar stories. He was wrong. I did believe.

This is a similar situation. I don’t have any real options to Comcast today, you are a monopoly for cable Internet and TV service in my area. But, some day I will. When that day comes, I will dump you as quickly as I can. And, I will do my absolute best to convince everyone I know to dump Comcast, as well.

Most Sincerely,

Christopher Keating

I’ll be in Newport for my monthly Navy Reserve duty this weekend. We’re going to be doing something a little different this month. We’ll be spending Saturday in fire fighting training and Sunday doing damage control training. This is routine training for active duty personnel, but reservists don’t get the chance very often.

I’ll have some stories next week when I return about the training and some experiences I had while on active duty.

Until then, enjoy the weekend. The weather is just beautiful here in New England and I’m looking forward to a night out in Newport.

I just read that Brian May, the lead guitarist for the British rock band Queen, has been awarded his Ph.D. in astronomy by London’s Imperial College. It took him 38 years to finish his studies.

Well, blow me down!

Congratulations to Dr. May, and well done!

Here’s all nine of us with the Princess. I’m the one in the back to the right with the blue shirt.

Here’s just the two of us. I’m the one without hair.

I’ve been putting some work into my Blogroll (visible to the right side) and thought I’d make some comments. As you can see, there is certainly a theme going on with my favorites. Although this isn’t an all inclusive list of blogs I look at, it’s a good start to ones I think are share worthy.

I like to have balanced viewpoint. I’m a very definite independent and I am a really stickler for the facts, so this means I have a difficult time with most viewpoints. Face it, we are all biased, including me, and that bias shows up in all, supposedly, ‘fair and unbiased’ reporting. But, some of us try harder than others. Some people just don’t try. They are on a mission to convert the world. It’s important to recognize this.

Some comments on some of the blogs on my blogroll:

Scholars and Rogues is a very liberal blog. Much of what they say is pure garbage and silliness, but they also make a lot of good points.

JunkScience is a very conservative blog. Much of what he says is pure garbage and silliness, but he also makes a lot of good points.

Bad Astronomy is a mostly science oriented discussion of mostly astronomy-related issues. He will, on occasion, digress into some political issues, but mostly not. This is a pretty good site for discussing current events in science.

How I am Becoming an Astronaut is an enjoyable blog by a woman working with NASA and trying to become an astronaut (surprise!). She has some good insider info from her job. If you’re interested in the manned space program and/or becoming an astronaut, this is a good blog to read.

The View From Taiwan is a personal blog that takes me back to my days in Taiwan. It gives a good picture of what its like to be in such a different culture, something most of us have a hard time picturing. No matter what culture you grew up in, that is the one you understand and anything else can be very alien and unimaginable. Here’s a chance to expand your horizons.

The other blogs are exactly what they seem to be: science blogs on certain topics. I find them to be informative and worthwhile, while not getting too involved with political issues. If you are looking for some entertaining science reading (Images from Mars is a really nice blog with some amazing images), try these out.

Keep an eye on the blogroll and I’ll add good ones as I come across them. I would enjoy hearing about any blogs you find particularly worthwhile.