How To Succeed As My Cable Provider: Don't Be Scummy
After an outage, cable companies and other utility companies force you to ring them up and spend time on the phone to get credit for the time you were screwed out of -- which either gets you screwed out of more time, or gets them to keep the money for the time they didn't give you what you were paying for.
The thing is, when I pay for cable, I pay for more than the day of cable or Internet service I get; I'm also paying for reliability. So, it's wrong for them to simply credit for the time lost -- usually a pittance, even if your monthly bill is pricey.
Consumerist's Chris Morran asks the right question, per a Fast Company piece by Don Peppers: "Should Cable Companies Credit You For Outages You Didn't Complain About?"
Absofuckinglutely.
Why should you have to jump through hoops to get what you're paying for or to not pay for what you didn't get?
Peppers writes:
The trustable thing for Comcast to do in this kind of situation would be to proactively advise customers that they know an outage has occurred, and tell them that the company will be automatically providing a credit on this month's bill. No call necessary on your part, because we know you experienced this outage, and we're watching out for you. Comcast already has all the data needed to make this happen. If it really does want to be on the customer's side, here's a splendid business opportunity to demonstrate it. A proof point, as we used to call it in the advertising world.And just think how customers would react! How would you react if your cable company sent you a message, by phone or email, saying "Sorry! We'll keep trying to do better, but in the meantime we're taking $x off your bill this month because of last night's outage, and thank you for your continued loyalty."
It may sound like a costly initiative for Comcast to voluntarily give a few dollars back to thousands of customers at a time--customer who weren't even asking for the refunds--but the point is that this policy is inevitable. Whether or not Comcast initiates it, sooner or later one or more of its competitors inevitably will, and then Comcast will be forced to follow suit anyway.
...sooner or later one or more of its competitors inevitably will
But they don't actually have competitors. In most areas "serviced" by Comcast, they have a lock on cable services. Unless you think Dish or DirecTV is an option (not for internet).
I've yet to see them be proactively helpful. I had problems with billing I had to contact the Corporate office over.
We had a recent outage they knew about (recorded message 'we are experiencing issues in [your] area') so everyone here had a total outage for several hours. But credits? No.
The last time I checked, you had to have an outage or 72 hours before they would credit your account.
Apparently Comcast understands 'Always on' the same way the car rental clerk in Seinfeld understood a reservation.
DrCos at May 13, 2012 4:46 AM
The only way to deal with Comcast is to move out of their service area, which I did. My local company (Cox Communications) is MILES better, and they actually do customer service!
Comcast knows that you haven't got any options, so they just don't care.
brian at May 13, 2012 6:09 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/05/13/dont_be_scummy.html#comment-3187977">comment from brianAny service where there's a monopoly is likely to provide poorer service. All they have to do to keep your business is keep their doors open.
Amy Alkon
at May 13, 2012 6:27 AM
How To Succeed As My Cable Provider:
Check the captions and reception on every channel every day. Don't make me go a year without captions on ABC because I didn't know who to contact. Once I have found the engineer on the station who says it's the cable company's fault and gets you to fix it, keep it working more than two weeks. Don't let me call you about it and all you will do is schedule a service call for some guy to drive over several days later and confirm my captions are turned on and they work on the other channels, then shrug because he has no idea why it's off, resulting in me missing 3 shows that week and only fixing it after I finally get ahold of the station engineer, again. Then keep it working longer than 2 days at a time.
PS: Tomorrow I'm getting fiber installed.
nonegiven at May 13, 2012 6:57 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/05/13/dont_be_scummy.html#comment-3188039">comment from nonegivenTomorrow I'm getting fiber installed.
Seems more comfortable just to eat more broccoli.
Amy Alkon
at May 13, 2012 7:12 AM
He doan know Comcast, do he?
(I'm in an area where the _only_ high-speed internet option is Comcast. I'm 500 linear feet (about 1000 all told) from their 100M _fiber_ termination point. Every house around here is connected to Comcast.
But I can't get a line run. The next door neighbor is close enough we could run to his "hard line" termination point and connect - with an easement - and if Comcast ever managed to say that, they'd at least be _correct_ - but they can't.
I did get one eager beaver "Customer Service Executive" who logged multiple violations of the Service Agreements - assuring me that they'd HAVE to escalate and get back with me.
"How long have you worked there?" "Three months". "When you get tired of working there and getting abused, lemme know, you've got my contact info. I know people in your city, and I promise you, they'd like you to work for them with your drive and promise."
They never got back with me, never escalated.)
but the point is that this policy is inevitable.
I'll take that bet, and he's gonna regret.
sooner or later one or more of its competitors inevitably will
There's a reason Comcast doesn't buy out companies in competitive areas... They're a monopoly in most all of their cable areas. Because they have to be.
Unix-Jedi at May 13, 2012 7:20 AM
Luckily there is competition here in my small town and the phone company is a cooperative with a local office. When I ordered the fiber install they came and wired (fibered?) my block and installed the boxes on the outside of my house. Tomorrow they will come and put in my TV outlets.
I've had cable for ~35 years. When we first got cable we signed up and the local guy who started the company hooked people up as he wired the town. We had 12 channels plus a box to turn on HBO. Two company buyouts later, I'm ready to bail. The office manager and the part time guy both retired and they closed the local office so they have to send a guy over twice a week with a truck.
nonegiven at May 13, 2012 8:05 AM
Not a commercial, but props to a company that deserves it.
I pay $4/month for Slacker Radio, which gives me as much commercial-free music as I want in any genre, and lets me listen to it at home and in the car (via my smartphone). Last week they sent me an email saying they'd had a brief outage - it was so brief I hadn't noticed - and as way of apology I would be getting a free month's premium service.
Of course, they have competition with Sirius/XM, Pandora and a number of satellite and Internet radio companies. But that gesture did more to build my loyalty than any ad they might have taken out.
Kevin at May 13, 2012 10:30 AM
Seems more comfortable just to eat more broccoli.
I thought the humor post was a couple down. But hey, your blog, your rules :)
DrCos at May 13, 2012 4:26 PM
They don't call them "Commie-cast" for nothing.
SM777 at May 13, 2012 4:31 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/05/13/dont_be_scummy.html#comment-3188768">comment from DrCosAs with bacon, there are few occasions that humor doesn't improve.
Amy Alkon
at May 13, 2012 4:31 PM
I hate Comcast. I HATE them. They used to have a monopoly here, but now they're finally getting competition.
When we first got Internet, we had saved for months for it. We wound up getting the package deal (cable, Internet, phone) because I'd gotten a raise and it was something we'd wanted for years. It was a huge disappointment. Our Internet would go out about once a week, the phone would only work half the time. The cable, at least, was reliable, but every six months or so we'd lose a channel. The best was the time we'd gone out of town for a short weekend and came back to a message on our answering machine saying "We're sorry, but your phone service will not be working from Thursday to Monday." WHAT?
When we moved, we decided to try AT&T, who were just setting up cable and DSL. It's been fab. I'll tell anyone who will listen about the fact that we had one outage (EVER) and it lasted a whopping minute. One minute (admittedly, it was the climax of the Dr. Who season finale). Customer service has been prompt and the 'Net has been fast and consistent. Eventually, I will convert my dad to switch, and he has had even more problems with Comcast than we did!
cornerdemon at May 14, 2012 8:44 AM
You mean something like this email that I received from my video service provider, without any complaint or contact initiated by me?
Bob at May 14, 2012 9:25 AM
I consider cable a rip-off anyway, since I only crave one or two channels. One is TCM.
And we all spend too much time online anyway. Why pay for more? I get free Internet time, and I don't have cable.
lenona at May 15, 2012 8:38 AM
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