There was an Urbanspoon get together at Chai Pani recently, and Grant Goggans of Marie Let’s Eat started teasing me that he’s 500 views from passing me on the Urbanspoon rankings. If he does, more power to him. I’m at a point where between either having a very high stress job situation or no job at all (my present circumstance), I haven’t had the time to eat as I once did. That I’ll get passed is inevitable.
I’ve never wanted to be the conversation around food in this town. I’ve been quite happy just being a part of it. If I can still be a part of that conversation, that’s enough. If I’ve held the ranking for some time, it’s a tribute to the difficulties of the Atlanta commute. I ate in part to deal with the time it took to commute back and forth from work.
~~~
Ok, I’ve been between jobs – still are actually – and I had a job offer last week. In celebration, I decided to do something about those costly cable bills, as my wife had a tech say we could cut the bills. One approach was Comcast Triple play, which would allow us to eliminate phone service bills and the long distance bill. We decided to go that route. So I headed to Grayson kast Saturday, and got a deal, which went something like this:
1. About a $60 reduction in cost once the new service was added. New price good for a year.
2. All my old shows plus HBO.
3. Twice the Internet speed.
4. A service tech to come out this Wednesday to install the phone.
5. I was going to purchase my own cable modem to support, which would be installed this Monday.
So it’s Monday. The modem has arrived, an Arris TM822G. I don’t need more modem, because I have a wifi router behind it. I only need a phone jack for a base set, and we have receivers all around the house.
It’s not easy getting in. I call, find the right spot in the queue, and they offer a call back service, to call me back within “eight to twelve minutes”. Saying yes at this point was my first mistake. After waiting half an hour without any callback whatsoever, I call again and stay on the line, and finally get a tech. So we begin the process of adding the new modem, which in general should be seamless and take about five minutes.
Except of course, she can’t add the modem to the system. She can’t add the modem to the system..
because without informing me, my order was cancelled on Sunday, the day after I made it.
She can’t add my order back because she can’t port my phone number, so I get transferred to Sales. supposedly. The transfer goes on for about 5 minutes and then disconnects. This sets the tone for about two more hours of hell. I call in and get disconnected. I call in and get someone like my first lady, they encounter the same issues, and they transfer me to Sales, and I get disconnected. This goes on and on and on, totalling five disconnections in all.
Finally I call upgrades directly. I get another lady who goes through the same process. At this point, my five minute modem swap has cost me two and a half hours, almost all of it in queue. Then she asks, “did they start the port of the phone number on Saturday?”
“Yes, they did.”
I then go on to say I was called on Sunday to validate that I really wanted my phone number switched.
“Then that’s the problem. We use a third party verification service, and they take 24 to 72 hours to get the confirmation back to us. We’re not going to be able to proceed until that is done.”
Ok, so that’s why the order was cancelled. The phone number transfer wasn’t validated. But it also means I’m in limbo. My new job starts in December. And if this runaround continues, Comcast won’t be able to put in the new phone number until I’m just starting my new job. And out where I live, there is a fair chance that the tech won’t even show, a 100% chance if you schedule them in the evenings.
But the take home for me is that the provisioning system for Comcast is hopelessly broken. The modem add, which should have taken five minutes (and note, while I was on the phone and the new modem connected, my daughter started watching Netflix over our Internet. The modem was working just fine), ended up taking a couple hours and we had to swap back to the old one because the new one couldn’t be added to the system. A software flaw cost me at least two hours.
No one informed me my service order had been cancelled. What if I had taken leave on Wednesday in anticipation of a tech showing up?
Now I’ve lost the appointment I was going to have. The new one? I suspect I’ll get this all set up in December, something that will cost me work time on a brand new job, and if the past is any indication, it will take 2-3 attempts for the tech to even show. As the change nets me $60 a month, this sheer incompetence on Comcast’s part makes them money.
I live tweeted all this. DISH was making offers via twitter as this happened. If I had a satellite view at home, I might have gone that route.
November 19, 2013 at 4:30 pm
Don’t sell yourself short, my friend. All the places that you’ve uncovered and how well you have detailed them has meant that people have talked about your blog in glowing terms for far longer than I’ve known you. Even apart from the Urbanspoon rankings, everybody knows that you’re the tops; likewise, even if you’ll be posting from your kitchen for the time being, the posts will certainly be eminently readable, and what is read is certain to be discussed.
Also, I immediately slipped back from only 500 away as soon as I said that to you. That’ll learn me. Figured the Dawgs would win by 3 over Auburn, too. Bad week to make big predictions.
November 19, 2013 at 5:13 pm
Hi there! work for Comcast. I just wanted to leave a note of apology for the frustrating experience. I’d like to help in making sure that your concerns are addressed. Kindly send us your account info and best contact number so the that we can assist further. Please add a link to this page as a point of reference.
Thank you,
ComcastMark
Comcast Corp.
National Customer Operations
We_can_help@cable.comcast.com
November 20, 2013 at 1:57 pm
I feel your pain. Where we live our ONLY choice is Comcast, do you want it or not. They are THE most craptastic company on the face of the earth. I always hear Ruth Buzzy’s voice in my head, “We’re the phone company. We don’t care because we don’t have to” (insert Comcast in place of the phone company). As soon as there is any other choice, I will drop them like a hot potato.
Shitty, shitty Comcast. I hate you with all of my heart.
November 20, 2013 at 6:17 pm
The moment that cable monopolies are eliminated, and cable service in areas becomes competitive, that’s when service will improve. Then and only then.
FnS.
November 21, 2013 at 8:40 am
There’s nothing more frustrating than connectivity woes. Sadly, they aren’t limited to Comcast. At&t is just as challenging. With Comcast I set an install (when I bailed on a five month uverse experiment) for a Saturday. The next day they called and confirmed my Tuesday appointment. When I finally spoke with a live person, they explained that the online reservation system didn’t connect with their field tech availability. And I was giving them my phone internet AND cable? I must be an idiot…..
January 31, 2014 at 8:34 pm
I know this is off topic, but your contact info via email appears to be out of date. I was wondering if you know what happened to Still Waters BBQ? I know they closed from their last location off 78. I looked on their website which stated they were looking for a new location, but has not been updated in seemingly forever. Do you have any info on their whereabouts, or any contact info for them? Thanks!
February 1, 2014 at 8:03 pm
My contact info is working just fine. Grant Goggans uses that email address to tell me about blogger meetups.
To your question: what is going on with Still Waters? My one source into the issue indicated in his opinion the restaurant just wasn’t competitive with the alternatives. For situations like this, driven by small comments and the like, I’d suggest posting on 285 Foodies and asking the same question. Someone there may have heard something.
FnS
February 11, 2014 at 2:43 pm
Nice blog..Looking forward to visiting some of the restaurants you mentioned.
January 14, 2015 at 5:10 pm
I also miss Still Waters. It sure was good. Latest info I have is that the owners divorced. Whether that was a cause of the closure or an end result of the restaurant not doing well, I don’t know.
Foggy Mountain BBQ in Loganville has great barbecue and nice ambiance as well as reasonable prices. Give them a try sometime but take my word for it, the bathroom door does not properly lock. Whenever you see an additional lock on a bathroom door – in their case, a hook and eye type lock – utilize it.