Saturday, November 10, 2007

Comcast



Dear Editor,

I am writing to you as a Comcast subscriber in hopes that you will publish this for the benefit of other Comcast subscribers.

For the past month or so I have been trading letters back and forth with the company, asking to be refunded for downtime which I have experienced on their cable television and internet services, amounting to something along the lines of 10-15 hours. This was mostly during hours after 1 AM. The amount of money calculated out to less than a few dollars, but on principle's sake I should not have to pay for downtime. Comcast seemed marginally interested in determining the nature of the problem in order to solve it on their end, but not in refunding me. They even sent a five dollar registered letter informing me that I was not available to answer their calls during regular work hours. Five dollars which could have easily been refunded to me for the downtime. This stands in stark contrast to businesses like Get Go (Giant Eagle), who went out of their way to correct a problem.

I feel that Comcast is a poorly managed company which owes its subscribers more than this. I can only hope that with additional competition from Verizon Wireless that they get their act together and start serving their customers like they are supposed to. At the very least I will soon have the opportunity to switch.

Sincerely,

Friday, July 27, 2007

Comcast

7/27/07

Dear Mr. Roberts

I have been a faithful subscriber of your service for almost a year now. In that time, I had to receive two additional visits from serviceman to replace faulty devices, one for the cable TV box, and one for the internet.

Within the past month or so I have experienced an unacceptable amount of down time on both services. About a month ago, my internet was down for approximately 10 hours. Irritated, I wrote down the time it was down, intending to write a letter. Once it kicked back on, in good faith and understanding of potential company difficulties, I discarded it and forgot about the incident. Then last week, my internet was down starting at about 10:30pm eastern time-- A completely inappropriate time for routine service if there ever was one. This time the kicker was that the television was down as well. The service began to function again the next day at 10:00am. Again, routine service should have been long over at this point, considering this is during daytime hours when people are awake and using these services. Assuming, again in good faith, that this was due to some kind of accident with a telephone pole or power line or something of that nature, I discarded the piece of paper on which I wrote down the time the service was out and opted instead to ignore it as a one time thing.

Now, I am faced with the same situation. It is 12:30am on 7/26, and both my TV and internet are down. I am assuming this is not due to either my TV or internet box, considering both have been replaced and should be new and in working order. I am also assuming that both aren't failing to work at the same time. I am simply not receiving my service from Comcast.

The synopsis: I am not paying for this down time. If I don't get service, I expect that a sum of money calculated at a per diem rate will be returned to me. Since I don't have the exact times for the first two incidents, I am going to use the conservative estimate of 24 hours worth of service that I have been denied. Please do not contact me in order to send a serviceman to my apartment. This purpose of this letter is financial restitution, not to schedule repair service.

Addendum: Service resumed sometime before 8:00 AM on 7/28).

Sincerely,

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

UPS

Dear UPS,

This is not so much a question as it is feedback on your service, and if this is the inappropriate venue, please forward it to your regional manager.

Your service is a complete hassle. This is the second time in a month a delivery man has refused to leave the package at my door. Naturally, as is true for 60% of the people in the United States, I am not at home during the hours in which you deliver. I have checked the box that says please leave it at my door, only to receive the response that the shipper has requested a signature "In Person." The only way I can get this package otherwise is to drive 15 miles out of the way, wasting more of the precious time I have when I am NOT at work. I am not going to waste my time and 10 dollars in gas to retrieve some $10 item that I already paid to have delivered to me.

I don't care if the seller requested a signature. I am the recipient, and it is my item. I will never send any item through your service, as it is nothing but a complete hassle for the recipient. If you refuse to leave my item, allow me to send you postage so you can send it via the USPS, which I know will actually deliver my items.

Sincerely,