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).
This final one is actually a Time Warner (or AT&T, I forget) cable that seemed to be an "innocent" casualty.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteThis is very unfortunate and deeply concerns me. We'd like to look into this further. Please email my team at We_can_help@cable.comcast.com so that we can assist with any local investigations. Please include your address, the original post, and the best number to reach you.
Best regards,
Detreon Roberts
National Customer Operations
Comcast Digial Media Outreach
We_Can_help@cable.comcast.com
wow, I'd like to see how this one works out....
ReplyDeleteDirty dogs. Bad business starts at the top.
ReplyDeleteHow is your relationship with your neighbours, if this happened to me I would be interested in their involvment. Perhaps they decided you were fucking with them in the first place... I was climbing those poles at 12 with my dads bucking gear to hook our house's cable up for some free TV. I think a comcast technician could come up with much more clever ways then cutting the line over and over.
ReplyDeletelol "I dear you"
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't seem like it's "Comcast" that's bad this time. (Not saying their customer service is great, because it's not, and quite frankly I don't support a company that uses a prejudice asshole as spokesperson.)
ReplyDeleteIn this particular case, it seems it's the employee alone who is responsible. I think Comcast should find out who this person is and either send him to anger management with furlough, or fire him.
This deeply concerns you Comcast? Why don't you guys get decent employees and maintain your craptastic network.
ReplyDeleteThat low-life can't even write at a 1st grade level and you expect him to operate a motor vehicle and use power tools?
You know, Comcast has a history of employing idiots. Just today I had some bozo in a Ford Econoline full size van make a crazy left turn in front of me (without stopping) onto a gravel road, spraying rocks everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI've actually seen several cases around me where WOW (a local competitor of Comcast) customers' cables have been cut during comcast service calls to adjacent properties in condominium or apartment complexes.
Hey this is Nate with DISH Network. I ran across your post and it is not surprising that Comcast did that. I read that you have RNC as your provider which I am assuming that you are happy with but for those who are reading this and they do have Comcast you should really look into DISH Network and what we have to offer. DISH Network is #1 in Customer Satisfaction among all cable and satellite providers. Customer service doesn’t just stop with the representative on the phone but our technician as well. DISH Network beats Comcast in customer satisfaction ten years in a row. DISH can also provide you HD free for life and the most HD channels than any other provider. Come check this out at www.dish.com
ReplyDeleteHa! I know this thread is old but I will post anyway. Almost same thing happened to me today! There was a Comcast guy working in the alley who pulled the RCN and Comcast cable off of the wall of our building, and they were drooping low over a car. I assumed he would fix it before he left. I went to take a nap and woke up to find the Comcast guy gone and that he went up to our buliding and simply cut both the RCN and Comcast lines. Called RCN, but they might not be able to fix it until next week. I called Comcast to complaint about it too, and they did offer to pay for any charges to replace the line. But I still can figure out why the Comcast tech would do what he did
ReplyDeleteWhen we moved into our house 10 months ago, Comcast "accidentally" cut our neighbors service... They were out for 2 weeks. They had Comcast! We had new neighbors mOve in yesterday, and now Comcast cut OUR cable. They are not criminals, just incompetent. They probably sent the same lousy technician who thinks he's doing a great job, because you have to talk to 10 different people to get it fixed. But NO ONE speaks to the original incompetent technician!!
ReplyDeleteJust had the same thing happen in our building. Neighbor was having Comcast installed. Our RCN cable goes out. We go talk to the tech and tell him he just cut our line. He acts all apologetic goes back downstairs again and suddenly we are back in business. He also knocked out our downstairs neighbor who uses DISH. Got her back up too. So everything's okay right? The tech goes back to installing the neighbor, we start dinner and go upstairs on the roofdeck for 30 min +/-. Come back downstairs. No cable. No internet. No Comcast van. Go back downstairs to the cable room and see our units wire disconnected. Try to get it back working by plugging it back into something. No luck. Another neighbor with RCN comes downstairs, his cable is out too. We actually have the techs cell phone number because we wanted it the first time he knocked us out and call it. He says theres nothing he can do he's already gone home. Really?!!!. This happens too often that there must be some company incentive/ policy to justify it. I reported the incident to 311 and the City of Chicago's Cable TV complaint department. They said they would investigate. We'll see. Now just waiting for the RCN tech to come out over the weekend to hook us back up.
ReplyDelete