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What's with Comcast's HELPLESS DESK

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8 replies

by mjd420nova

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Every month on the 14th, 15th and 16th my cable internet dumps just before noon and returns just after 8PM. I've contacted their help desk and met with no help. They want to send a tech out to check out my system, but the problem is not at my end. I would think that after a number of calls from the same area they would catch on that it is a gateway failure. My last cal was taken by a Phillipino in Toronto. I'm sure he knows where I am and really cares. I'm not even sure that any info gets passed from that remote center to the center here that would have to fiels all those calls in a smalll area and a light would go on somewhere.

8 replies

by stress junkie

I think that the training that Comcast gives its help desk techs is like that given by all computer support companies. I think that they are trained to solve user created problems. That probably covers a large percentage of their trouble calls and managers are probably not willing to spend more money on training a wider scope of problems due to the laws of diminishing returns. In other words they are more interested in saving money than in being able to address the last 5% of trouble calls. Unfortunately all American businesses are like that. They are all inclined to save money at the expense of quality.

by onbliss

...on the numbers and percentages. If that is true, I wonder how the last 5% of the calls are resolved.

Sometime back, I had trouble with Comcast internet cable service too. I could not just connect to the internet. I did few things that I could do, then called the support. He made me do some of the things I already did, then finally tried sending signals to reset the cable modem (which failed). Finally, he discovered that there was a problem in our area.

by stress junkie

I was experiencing an intermittent failure with my cable modem service. I used Ethereal to see what was happening. I found that there were numerous packets being retransmitted and out of order packets. I eventually formed the opinion that the problem was with Comcast's equipment. It took several days and more than one technical team coming to my house before the last team admitted to me that they had a piece of equipment that wasn't working properly and that was going to be replaced within a couple of days. They were waiting for the equipment to arrive. A couple of days later my cable modem service was okay.

In my original post the percentages that I quoted were off the top of my head. They may have originated a bit lower on my anatomy. Anyway I was just trying to make the point that managers tend to think that if they can effectively address the majority of calls with a given level of training they will often be satisfied to stop at that level.

:-)

by jmgarvin

I had problems with DNS resolution...I called support and got NO help...Finally, after multiple calls an engineer discovered that my DHCP/DNS server was and "old" server and that it wasn't "in use."

For some reason I was stuck getting IPs and DNS info from this old server...

Thanks Comcast!

by mark

In every city there is an office that is setup to help with Comcast problems. This office is part of the City Managers responsibility. If you call them and tell them what kind of problems you have been having with Comcast you will be moved to a high level priority call.

by crabbyabby86

Well guys, at least comcast will admit it's their problem eventually, as I am understanding from your posts.

Mediacom serves cable Internet to the outskirts of my small South Dakota town. They require multiple calls from the same area before they'll even consider it their problem. I once had to walk door to door down my street, asking if anyone else had cable Internet and to PLEASE call in. My neighbors, it seems, have mostly become accustomed to what I would consider unacceptable interruptions, and I had to beg. It was disgusting.

I think they (mediacom, I mean) have gotten a little better about not having the interruptions in the first place--but then again I spent most of the last year a couple towns east going to school, so I don't know. I think I'll ask my family today yet.

by thesaint007

Comcast help desk is worthless. I was at my mothers home trying to trouble shoot thier connectivity issues. Get this, the cable TV goes out (i.e. no siginal), we call it in and comcrap schedules a tech. We then call the internet HD. The rep there said that the internet was out due to the cable router. Now I not a networking guru, but if there is no siginal to the house, then it is most likely not the cable router. What a total waste of money!!!

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