But then he went and posted a letter that makes me feel as though Mr. Karinshak might have some 'splaining to do and that makes me question the level of trust I have established with Comcast over the last 15 years. Here is the letter verbatim, with some added commentary from me:
"Hello, I'm Tom Karinshak, Senior Vice President of Customer Experience at Comcast. As a Comcast customer, you are priority number one. LIE #1 We have a dedicated team of employees across the country working hard every day to make sure we deliver the superior experience you deserve. We are here for you. LIE #2 If you have a question or a concern about your service, we have numerous ways you can reach us. LIE #3 Please choose one that’s convenient for you and connect with our team."
When you click on his expanded letter, here's what he adds:
We are constantly working to serve you better. BIG FAT LIE #4
Dear Comcast Customer:
The Best Customer Experience, that’s what we strive for every day. LIE #5 As a company, our job is to make sure every interaction you have with us is a special one. LIE #6 We know your time is important. We know you want answers to your questions quickly and you want issues resolved the first time. We heard you. We are listening. LIE #7 And it’s all about you. LIE #8
We have been making significant progress in transforming the way we do business - online, through chat, on customer forums, as well as in person. LIE #9 We respect your time with innovations to:
- Invest in our frontline agents more than ever, providing them with better tools and processes, so they deliver nothing short of excellence to you. BIG FAT LIE #10
- Develop Self Service features, with more on the way - all of which are sure to enhance your experience, as they have with the millions of our customers already using them.
- Continue our commitment to you with our 2-hour appointment windows, backed by our Customer Guarantee.
- Make it easy to get in contact with us through multiple channels, including social media. BIG FAT LIE #11
This is just the beginning. We will continue to invest in our service to you. Bringing you the best customer experience every time, every interaction - that’s our number one goal. Lie #12
Tom Karinshak
Senior Vice President of Customer Experience
So then Mr. Karinshak very generously has a link to Send Tom Feedback, and that's what this blog post is: feedback for Tom. I will later be linking this post to social media as well because apparently, that's one of the "easy" ways to "get in contact with" Comcast, according to Mr. Karinshak's letter.
First, let me give you the abbreviated version of my Comcast Saga--Comcast breaks, I need it fixed, I call, I get hung up on, I call again and again and again, I get hung up on again and again and again, I cry while talking to Santony in India, he and other agents make promises, they don't keep said promises, Comcast is still broken, I call a fourth agent tonight, Paul promises to call me back--WHICH HE DOES!--but then tells me lies, Comcast is still broken, I sit down to write this blog.
Here are the things that make me question Comcast's competence as a customer-centered company:
1. When I call, I am asked to verify my phone number and am then told I am a special customer; the exact wording is that I am "one of Comcast's most valued customers!" And then Comcast proceeds to treat me like one would treat the exact opposite of a "most valued customer." In fact, if this is the way Comcast treats its most valued customers, how in God's name are they treating the people who are new to Comcast??? Oh, that's right. New customers to Comcast actually pay a lot less than those of us who've been loyal customers for 15 years.
2. Comcast ALWAYS, and I do mean ALWAYS, drops my call AT LEAST once during any call I make to them. Helpful hint: when an agent says, "Let me put you on hold for a second," there is a VERY HIGH CHANCE that you will NEVER, and I do mean NEVER, speak to that same person again.
3. Comcast drops calls, yet they provide my phone service.
4. While you're on hold, Comcast tells you about an awesome new feature--they are now doing Home Security!! Um, I would rather leave all my doors and windows wide open and put a sign in my yard telling people to come burglarize my home than to entrust my personal safety to a company that CAN'T NOT DROP MY CALLS.
5. The Comcast agents are now trained to remind you that because their customers are so important, we can access help on the Comcast website 24-7. Shockingly, that's a lie. How do I know that? Because tonight when I was freaking out, thinking that Paul wasn't going to call me back, I went to the website and did the "Chat with an agent" thing. That was almost 2 hours ago, and I'm still waiting for an agent....
6. Comcast always tries to reboot your system from the call center. I've had them do this remote rebooting probably 20 times in the last 8 years. I would estimate that the number of times this kind of attempt has actually solved any of my problems has been 0.
7. Comcast then tells you that you will need a technician to come out to help you. So let's say it's Monday, like today. I'm a realistic and rational human being. I don't expect Comcast to send a technician today. But I don't think it's unrealistic or irrational to expect someone the following day or maybe even in 2 days. But to have Comcast tell me I have to wait until SATURDAY for someone to come out and fix my cable??
8. When an agent promises you a time slot on Saturday, the call suddenly gets dropped, so you have to go through the entire process again.
9. When the second agent promises you a Saturday slot, he puts you on hold, and that call gets dropped.
10. When the THIRD agent promises you a Saturday slot, he tells you that his computer is very slow.
11. Comcast's agents' computers are ALWAYS slow, yet they provide my high-speed internet service.
12. Then this third agent tells you that his entire system is rebooting, so he will have to call you back. You say to him, "No offense, Paul, but I don't believe you will call me back." (Nor do I believe your name is Paul because I can barely understand you, and I think you are calling me from a different country, but I will continue to play along because I HAVE NO CHOICE.) So Paul says, "I understand, ma'am, but I am a customer, too, and I promise you I will call you back." Then I reply, "Paul, you're saying all the right things, and I really do want to believe you, but I'm scared to let you go." (At this point, I realize that Paul and I are obviously in some kind of relationship that transcends that of caller-agent and that I'm being clingy, but again, I HAVE NO CHOICE.) Paul promises he will call me back by 10 PM.
13. I am forced to watch 24, my favorite show of the week, on a non-HD 25-inch TV in my bedroom, like the pilgrims or Laura Ingalls Wilder had to. It is weird and upsetting.
14. Halfway through my favorite show, I get anxious because I'm fairly sure Paul is not going to call me back because I'm fairly sure Paul is not real. So I call Comcast back. I get Jeff. Jeff is American. And I realize it's going to sound racist or wrong for someone whose maternal side of the family is not American to say this, but when I talk to Jeff the American, I feel a sense of utter relief. Jeff will understand me because he's American. As an American, Jeff understands things like the importance of cable TV and good customer service.
15. But no, Comcast makes even America let me down.
16. Jeff is the bearer of bad news. He tells me that there is no record of a Saturday appointment slot and that the only thing that's now available is Sunday. Well, Sunday is the day that I'm going out of town, and THREE AGENTS have promised me Saturday. Jeff understands but tells me, basically, that while I've been waiting for Paul to call me back, Saturday has filled up.
17. Naturally I'm feeling betrayed by Paul, but I accept Sunday because I HAVE NO CHOICE. Jeff tells me he will email dispatch to see if Comcast can get to me before Sunday, but that sounds like an empty promise.
18. Paul does call me back. It's pretty surprising, but it's nice to know that not everyone in the Comcast universe is corrupt. He tells me that Saturday is now unavailable. I take the news pretty well because A) Jeff has already broken the news to me, B) I don't want Paul to know I cheated on him with Jeff, and C) I HAVE NO CHOICE.
Now I do have to say that the vast majority of people I have ever spoken to at Comcast have been cordial and as helpful as they can be before they put me on hold and drop my call. I understand that it's not their fault that they work for a company that puts them in a position in which they have to make promises they can't keep. It's not their fault that they work for a company that can get away with the Worst. Customer. "Experience." Ever. because their customers HAVE NO CHOICE.
And yes, I understand that I technically DO have a choice. I could go with AT&T or Direct TV, but the reality is that they don't offer the channel package that I have. I'm not willing to give up my channels, and Comcast's internet is actually good. So yeah, most of the time, I'm happy with my Comcast service, so I stay with them. That's why it's so frustrating that when I need help from Comcast, it's practically impossible to receive that help. I don't want a form letter back to me which ensures me that Comcast cares about me, nor do I want a gift basket. Been there, done that. My needs are simple: I just want someone to show up at my house by Wednesday to fix my cable so that I can watch the World Cup which begins on June 12.
Seems simple enough, but I'm not going to hold my breath. After all, last week when I was having trouble with Comcast billing and kept getting hung up on by Comcast, I tweeted something about it to the Twitterverse. Within seconds, I got a tweet back from AT&T, offering me the moon. Three days later, I got a tweet back from @ComcastOrlando asking if my situation had been resolved. So yeah, Comcast, through Twitter--a practically instantaneous form of social media that Tom Karinshak says I should use to enhance my Customer Experience--made me wait THREE DAYS for a response. THREE DAYS. While I appreciate @ComcastOrlando's tweet, it was too little, too late.
To quote my dad, "It takes Comcast 6 whole days to correct a problem and enable you to watch Jack Bauer save the world in 24 hours. Hmmmm."
Indeed.
And while I realize Jack Bauer isn't real, just now when I had a problem at amazon.com that I needed resolved, I went to the website which very easily led me to the Contact Us form that allowed me to ask for a call-back from amazon. Within TWO SECONDS, my phone rang, and it took the very nice amazon agent maybe 30 seconds to answer my question to my satisfaction. And then she told me to have "an awesome day!" Now that, Tom Karinshak, is what the "Customer Experience" should be.
Conclusion: #ComcastFAIL
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