Comcast and Charter are in a race to the bottom!

My Monday started out pretty well. I slept well, and got up at the customary 0545 to look after Samson our GSD. I let him out, then I fed the beast. While Deirdre was making coffee, I booted up both of our laptops and soon after I sat down for breakfast, I was greeted by an e-mail from Comcast. This is what is said:

from Comcast Customer Centralonline.communications@alerts.comcast.net reply-to online.communications@alerts.comcast.net to "pkratochwill@comcast.net" date Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 1:31 AM subject Your bill is ready Important mainly because of the words in the message.

hide details 1:31 AM (18 hours ago)

Dear Comcast Customer,

Your monthly bill is now available. Please sign in to Comcast Customer Central at https://customer.comcast.com/Secure/Home.aspx to view your bill and other important messages or notices regarding your Comcast services.

Bill Overview
Amount Due: $336.25
Payment Due Date: 10/15/2011

Account Information
Account Number: ****6201

Huh? My bill is normally ~$168 per month. I have our Comcast bill set up to be paid from a credit card as we travel a lot and we no longer receive a paper bill from Comcast. I get an e-mail from Comcast once a month telling me that our bill is due and will be paid by auto-payment.

I did not have time this morning to call Comcast, but I logged into my account to see that for some reason Comcast did not charge my credit card in August for the amount I owed. I tweeted to @comcastbill (a person with whom I have worked with in the past to resolve Comcast issues) that there was an issue with my recent statement. I waited to hear back from Bill Gerth (who is actually a good guy). I did not hear anything from him today. However, when I got home from work ~5:30PM, there was a message from Judy at Comcast at around 0945 this morning telling me that my credit card had expired, so my account was past due. Really? I have had this credit card for over 15 years, a lot longer than I have been a Comcast customer. I used this credit card this weekend to buy groceries. Judy also told me in her call that she would "... e-mail you more information." I have yet to receive an e-mail from her.

Against my better judgment, I called Comcast a little after 6PM to sort this all out. After about 15 minutes of being on hold, I spoke with the first account specialist. He was able to confirm that my account was past due, but he did not know why. He then sent me to an "Account Executive" in Collections to solve my problem. I was on hold for another 10 minutes before someone from Collections was able to speak to me.

From Blogger

This Account Executive was clearly dropped often as a child. After asking me again to confirm my name, phone number, address and the last four digits of my Social Security number (all information that I had given to the first person I spoke to with Comcast), I had to tell him all over again that I had received an e-mail this morning that my account was past due. He put me on hold for a few minutes why he investigated this issue. After a few minutes, he came back on line and proudly said to me, "Sir, I have found out the problem. Your credit card has expired. That is why the payment was not made." Really?

I told this person that the credit card I used was not expired, that I had used it this past weekend. He then said to me, "Well, according to our records, it expired in August, 2011." I then asked him, "How was I to know that you needed me to update the expiration date on my credit card? I have had this card for over 15 years, and I will keep it until I die. How was I to know you thought the card was expired?"

His answer to me: "I do not know. We have no way to tell you anything."

Really? I said to him to repeat that sentence back to me. He repeated the words, "I do not know. We have no way to tell you anything."

Really? Comcast managed to send me an e-mail this morning to tell me that my account was past due, and Judy called me this morning to tell me that my credit card had expired... though it had not. Despite being a communications company, Comcast does not appear to know how to communicate with its customers.

I then asked this "account executive" to find someone who could explain this to me, as he was unable to to so. He put me on hold and a few minutes later told me that nobody was available just now, but someone would call me later. I gave him my phone number once again and I said to him, "You have done nothing to help me solve this problem. You have been no help what so ever to me." He replied. "I can only tell you what I know and I have no way to tell you anything."

My call with this account executive ended about 2 hours ago, and I have yet to hear from anybody. To add insult to injury, when I first called Comcast, I heard a cheery recorded voice say to me, "We are committed to giving you the best customer service possible. If you would like to have a customer service representative call you within 30 minutes after the end of your call, please press 1." I pressed 1, hoping to hear from somebody at Comcast at the end of my call. As I type this, I have yet to get a call from Comcast.

From Blogger

I have yet to understand how long 30 minutes is with Comcast...

To Bill Gerther's credit, he did reach out to me via Twitter. I sent him a few tweets and he said that he would look into this for me. We'll see what Tuesday brings. Until then, Comcast is in a race with Charter for the worst customer service for a communications company. I will let you know how this all sorts out.