Verizon came by today to repair the fiber that was ripped off the pole. As much of a pain as it was to schedule an appointment and then get any information regarding said appointment, I was assured that they were “committed to having the issue resolved by 4PM Wednesday”. That’s why the trucks showed up at 3:30PM. Fortunately I was smart enough to say screw ’em and just went to work like normal – I would have pissed if I wasted an entire personal day waiting for them.
But what I don’t understand, is why I still don’t have an HDTV cable box or a DVR. Several weeks ago I complained that I got no HDTV service on my brand new, totally awesome Visio. No, I’m not an idiot. I know why I wasn’t getting it, but I also understand that you have to act like an idiot to not get screwed by these companies. Regardless, they insisted that I needed to pay to have a tech come out to drop the new box off and pick up the new one – unless I was willing to swing by one of their service centers.
That trip, unfortunately, ended with me swearing at their voice prompts for 15 minutes and nearly throwing the existing box through the doors of their office that was magically locked with all lights turned out at exactly 6PM. My, what convenient hours you have…
But what I want to know, is why didn’t the techs have a box? Why are these guys not carrying around extra equipment with the idea that they can upsell home customers with better products? If you come to someone’s home to install a service, and then he or she decides to pay you more money for better service, wouldn’t it make sense to not make said homeowner jump through hoops again to go through this exact same process?
Verizon, however, is far from the worst when it comes to dealing with techs in the field. That distinction rests with Comcast. There is a reason why I will never use them again, no matter where I live in the future. When we first moved into this house, I had the usual problem of scheduling a time for cable installation. Why? Because they won’t let you schedule installation until the previous occupant – who has no interest in living without cable for their last few weeks of occupancy – cancels their service.
With the timing of our move, that meant that we would have no TV during the Super Bowl. Why? Because we couldn’t schedule an install for a few weeks since no techs were working weekends. Super Bowl Sunday rolls around and, what do you know? A Comcast truck rolls into the neighborhood. The tech comes to speak to me and asks if I want to sign up for service. I explain that I already have, and was wondering if he was doing the installation early. Nope, he’s here to disconnect me – well, disconnect the previous occupant. And, since I already signed up for service, he couldn’t leave it on. I would have to wait for the previously scheduled appointment…
Please, think about that for a second.
Think about it a little more.
Let me clarify exactly what Comcast did. They were unwilling to pay techs to work on weekends to setup new customers. Instead, they were paying a tech double or triple overtime to go around on Super Bowl Sunday and disconnect customers that were trying to pay them for service… Can you think of anything more anti-consumer than that? Well, aside from suing your customers like the RIAA…