Another Comcastic Experience...

I have to give myself props for posting my conversations/frustration with Comcast back in July of 2008. And why is that? Oh, well, you'll have to read further for an explanation.

I recently moved into a basement apartment of my friend Mike's house. He already has Comcast, so as a result, I just called into Comcast to get my account at my in-laws cancelled. Let the rigmarole begin.
First, I called into their toll-free number from my work phone. I went through the prompts to cancel my account. Something like, option 4 for downgrade/cancel, then option 1 for cancel. It then asked me if my account phone number ended with 2252. That isn't my phone number, and I assume that someone else at my company has called comcast from before. I hit option 2 because it wasn't my number. It then asked me to enter my phone number, which I did. It then kicked me out to the main menu again. So I again had to hit option 4 for downgrade/cancel, and this time it said option 2 for cancel, which I hit. About 10 seconds later... Dial tone. Here we go.

So, figuring that the agent answered and accidentally dropped the call, I repeat the process. Same result. That reminds me of a definition that I once heard. To repeat a process that you know the result of expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. Call my psychiatrist, I'm sure he'll be happy and mutter something about "I told ya so..."

So, still needing to finish the process, I decided to go in and just hit option 1 to confirm my phone number was what I was calling from instead of going into my phone number. After I hit 1 to confirm, it asked me to confirm the digits of the address where the service was located. Well, since it wasn't for my account, I tried to enter my work's address, but that didn't work. After 3 failed attempts, it sent me to an agent. Finally!

I spoke with an agent who gathered some information about what I was trying to get completed. I told her what was going on, to which she asked for my phone number. Which I had to provide several times before she got it right. Then she asked what city I was calling from. I wasn't sure whether to say the city I worked in, the city of my previous residence, or the city of my current residence. I decided to go with the latter. She then asked what state that was in. Utah, I replied. She then informed me that she couldn't access my account and that she would have to transfer me to an agent in my "market." So.. she transferred me back to the IVR. Le sigh.

So I followed the prompts to cancel my account, then entered my phone number, but instead of hitting option 2, I went with option 1 to downgrade my service, hoping that the individual I spoke to could either help me, or get me to someone who could. It asked me for the last 4 of my SSN (No dial tone! Woot!) which I entered. It then told me 2 times in quick succession that there was high call volume and extended wait times. There was no hold music or anything, so I thought that maybe their IVR had put me into another loop. But, after hearing the message twice, a nice agent answered the call.

The cancellation conversation was fast, thorough and he was sharp as a tack (Cake), which was appreciated. He then said that everything was set, but I would have to return my cable modem to the nearest service center to avoid being charged an equipment charge. *Screech* Hold the phone.... Wha?! "Oh, but sir, I own that modem," I responded. "Ahh, but it says in my system that you don't," he replied. Oh no. Here we go again.

Now, to complete the full circle, you'll have to return to my July 2008 blog posts about how this happened when I first got the account setup, and it took several painful chats/emails/phone conversations to get the situation resolved then. I was able to tell the agent about my previous experience, exact dates, names, etc. Unfortunately, that didn't exactly solve the situation. He opened a ticket with the equipment investigation team to have them figure out whether I owned it or not. The agent guessed that the person who "solved" my problem a couple years ago, likely just took off the charge for the modem lease, but didn't in fact, "solve" my problem.

So. Now we wait. Wish me luck.