Comcast *Literally* Cut My Cable: July 2009

Hello everyone! I have had a fun experience with a Comcast technician that I'd like to share with everyone. You see, my building has three units. My unit has subscribed to RCN (a local competitor in Chicago with Comcast) for several years; the two other units below have both recently begun subscribing to Comcast since they are fairly new residents.

A quick note: You can skip the narrative below and just go to the pictures, or watch the videos, as it recounts most of what you need to know.

It seems around July 20th our neighbors downstairs began having cable problems. The Comcast guy comes on July 26th (Sunday) but apparently is unable to fix the problem that day. He returned on Tuesday, July 28th, around 12:30-2:00 (according to my downstairs neighbor who had the appointment). I left for work that morning at 8:15 with all of our cable services functioning, and returned at 4:00 with all of our cable services completely dead.

At this point I immediately called a RCN and scheduled a service time. They came out on Thursday, ran some tests inside the apartment on our equipment, and then went outside. Around five minutes later the RCN guy, Marty, returns saying he won't be able to fix it because it looks like there has been vandalism and it will take a couple of people to work out the repairs. He says it was likely a Comcast technician who did it due to where the cuts where made and the message scribbled on our cable box outside.

At this point, I grab my camera and run outside to photograph it all. I even take video of it just to have it. As you'll see in the pictures, the cuts look quite clean and deliberate. So I e-mail my roommates the situation, ignorant to the fact that Comcast had recently been to our place. One of my roommates calls me and tells me that the Comcast rep had just come a couple of days ago, and had even said to our downstairs neighbor something to the effect of "I think those RCN guys are messing up the line on purpose." It is important to note that no RCN tech had been to our building since we set up our cable years ago.

So I contact the neighbor and this is when I find out for sure that the Comcast rep was there during the hours that our cable ceased to work. So now, feeling pretty confident about what happened, I contact Comcast and speak to a really nice representative named Jason, who connects me with his kind and receptive supervisor, Sheila. She seems concerned with the situation, encourages me to file a police report (which I did immediately after that conversation), gets my e-mail address so she can e-mail me with her contact information and I can give her the photos I have, and promises to start an investigation. I send her the photos that night.

And that leads us here. I'm going to contact the Better Business Bureau tomorrow and the Consumerist in a couple of weeks when I have some more updates. I hope you enjoyed reading. Please check back for updates as they come! Photos and video below.

Video - Part 1 (sorry I'm disheveled, I just got back from a bike ride)

Video - Part 2

Pictures:

Please take note of this first one, my favorite. I think the Comcast guy likes us!!! My heart is a-flutter.

Sorry, messed up writing on this one at first (too small) so I did it again. These wires are in our alley pretty high up, whereas the rest of the cables that were cut were behind our house. The guy really was motivated, right? I circled where the four cable ends are (two in each circle).