Does Comcast Care, Part 3

It’s 5 months and 6 days. I’ve been assured that the refund check has been cut and I should have it this week. Here’s what happened late last week.

12/10/09:
2:42 PM, I returned the call from Mary, an Executive Support Specialist in Oakbrook, Illinois. I got someone else, and was told that Mary wasn’t taking any calls because of computer problems. The person was going to walk my information over to Mary so she could return my call later.

3:10 PM, Mary tells me that they are “working to get the refund out” and that they are “hoping to have resolution today or tomorrow.” She can’t really tell me anymore, but mentioned that she knew I’d been told a lot of things by a lot of different people and she was working to figure out what was going on.

12/11/09:
11:22 AM, Mary, the Executive Support Specialist in Illinois, calls again. Mary tells me that they are getting the check out in the next few days and that I should have it this week. She says she has checked and the process for the check has been released (whatever that means).

She also had an explanation for what caused this nightmare. Apparently someone in the Urbana office has been out on extended sick leave for three and a half months. The customer-savvy Comcast people in Urbana have just been piling things on this person’s desk and no one is taking care of them.

In other words, anyone looking for a refund or whatnot from the Urbana Comcast is probably in the same situation I am. Every time I called and asked for my refund, they just added another request to this huge pile that no one is taking care of.

Of course, that only explains 3.5 of the 5+ months delay, but it’s better than no explanation.

The conclusion so far
Comcast’s corporate office may care, especially if you splash a lot of complaints all across the Internet.

Comcast’s Urbana, Illinois office doesn’t care in any way at all. No company that cared could allow customer service requests to sit for 3.5 months.

Does Comcast Care, Part 2

It’s now 5 months and a day. Still no $300 refund check. Still no explanation for why.

12/08/09:
After I tweeted and blogged about the situation, Detreon, the most recent Comcast rep I’ve communicated with, left a comment on my first blog entry about the problem:

Our regional offices were closed yesterday evening when we last corresponded, but I’ve asked that someone reach out to you this morning to make this right. We will be in touch!

Okay, I figured I would give them time to make this phone call or email contact. They seemed to be trying.

Detreon tweeted at 3:15 pm to ask if I’d gotten the message. He misspelled my first name. I didn’t reply. I was hoping to hear from the regional office, as he said, and I got busy with other things.

Sadly, there was no contact from the regional offices.

12/09/09:
5:24 PM, I get an email from an Oakbrook, Illinois rep, Mary:

Thank you for contacting our executive office with your questions and concerns. We value your business and appreciate the opportunity to resolve your issue as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, our attempts to contact you at (217)***-**** have been unsuccessful. At your earliest convenience please contact us to address your service and billing concerns to ensure efficient resolution.

Office Contact number: (800) 630-2140 ext. 82334
Office Hours: 8:00am – 5:00pm, Monday through Friday

We look forward to hearing from you.

Right. There’s a shock. You cannot reach me at the phone number that is no longer mine. Please note that I have given them the correct phone number every time I’ve talked to someone, including in my last message to Detreon.

Of course, by the time I get home and find this message the office is closed.

5:26 PM, More confusing, Mary has left a message on my phone here in Virginia as well, also. So she has the right phone number and after sending her email, she called the right number.

Her message refers to my “refund request.” Why can’t they just tell me if this check has been cut or will ever be cut? It’s still a “request” so I’m assuming there’s no check yet.

Again, they’re closed, so there’s nothing I can do right now.

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Sigh. I have a receipt that shows a $300 credit. I have been told over the past 5 months by repeated customer service reps that there is indeed a credit on my account.

Yet 5 months and 1 day later, I still have no indication that Comcast has any intention of sending me this money. How can $300 be so precious to a company that is making a $37,000,000,000 bid for NBC? Just 300 little dollars. 0.0000000081081% of your bid.

To me however, $300 would be a 535% increase in my checking account balance. It matters desperately to me.

I know that my account with you has been messy with you Comcast. My life was turned upside-down last fall when I had to move to Virginia to help take care of my mother. My finances got very confused, and I was late paying you. But you have your equipment back, AND you had me pay for that equipment. I don’t have a job right now. $300 matters to me. You said it was due to me. Over and over, you have told me a check would be on the way. Will it ever be?

Does Comcast Care?

The issue is very simple. I am due a $300 refund on equipment that I turned in July 8, 2009. Everyone who actually looks up information on my account says that yes, I am due the money and yes, they have the correct mailing address, but no, the check has not been sent.

It’s not that I disliked Comcast service. Heck, I’m using it now. It’s that I had to quit my job and move home to help with daily care of my mother. Her home already had Comcast service, so mine was discontinued. It’s as simple as that. Granted the cable box I now have does not receive all the channels it’s supposed to, but generally speaking, this service is fine.

Comcast customer service and business managment are not however.

It’s now December 8, 2009. That’s five months since I turned in my equipment. Five months of Comcast sitting on $300 rather than cutting a check. Since I keep having to explain the same thing over and over, I thought I’d just post the history for the world to see.

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07/08/09:
I returned two cable boxes to the Comcast office in Urbana, IL. I was told at the time I would receive a $300 refund on the equipment in 4 to 6 weeks. I confirmed that my mailing address had changed to Virginia, as I had moved.

08/17/09:
The refund still shows on my account, but it will probably take 6 weeks, not 4 weeks. Should receive the money in a few more days.

09/15/09:
The refund hasn’t been issued because I moved and the check needs to be approved by the Blacksburg, Virginia Comcast office. I was specifically told:

Rosal> Traci, since you have moved to new address, we need to set up an agreement with the local office since they will be the ones who will send the check to your current address.

This absurd explanation was that I needed to contact a cable office that I had never had service with and ask them to issue a check that a cable office in another state should have sent 10 weeks earlier.

Rosal insisted however that he would take care of it and that there were extensive notes on my account. S/he added:

Rosal>
I am also processing a follow request to have it mailed to you the soonest possible time.

I have the log of this contact (with addresses and account numbers removed) since I used the online chat.

As the local office would have been closed, I could do no more, but believed that Rosal was taking care of things.

11/20/09:
Reread log and realized that I needed to call the local office myself, that Rosal clearly did not follow up as promised.

I called the number Rosal gave (1-888-375-4888). The rep, Shirlane, said she could not help me because she was a local “authorized Comcast retailer” (not Comcast itself) and that I needed to try Comcast’s toll-free number.

I called the Comcast number she gave me (800-266-2278) and talked to Louis, who said that the information Rosal gave me was incorrect. He said, in fact, that the previous rep, Rosal, was “crazy.” He could see that I was due $300 and could find no explanation that I had not been sent the check. He said the address to which the check was sent made no difference.

Louis transferred me to someone named Tracy. Tracy agreed that there was no reason that I had not received the refund. She said the computer showed that the refund was due but the check had not been cut. She could find no explanation for the delay in sending the money, but said that the information Rosal gave me was incorrect. She said checks could be sent anywhere, and that they often were.

She checked with a supervisor and said that she was expediting the request for the check, and that she would see I had the money before Christmas. She was to speak with whoever handles such things and call me back the next day (11/21). The next day was a Saturday, but she said she would be in and worked till 5:30 PM. She never called back.

12/07/09:
I have not heard from her or anyone else. Even allowing for the weekend and the Thanksgiving holiday, it seemed like Tracy could have made a return call or that the check would have arrived since it was expedited. Neither has happened, so I turned to Twitter:

tengrrl @ComcastBonnie Can you check on my refund from July? Was on 11/20 I’d get a callback the next day. More than 2 weeks later, still nothing. Mon, Dec 07 12:46:19

ComcastGeorge @tengrrl @ComcastBonnie if off today, may our team help? Mon, Dec 07 12:56:50

ComcastGeorge @tengrrl please email our team, we will review, we_can_help@comcast.coom Mon, Dec 07 13:00:47

tengrrl .@ComcastGeorge I returned 2 cable boxes in July, and have been waiting on a $300 refund ever since. Can you check its status? Mon, Dec 07 13:01:11

tengrrl .@ComcastGeorge Last rep I talked to said she would call me back next day and that I would have the money before Christmas. That was 11/20. Mon, Dec 07 13:02:45

tengrrl .@ComcastGeorge She never called back. Refund is on equipment turned in nearly 5 months ago. The delay in sending me a check is absurd. Mon, Dec 07 13:04:25

ComcastGeorge @tengrrl our team can work with the regional office for a update, yes, we_can_help@comcast.com Mon, Dec 07 13:12:03

ComcastGeorge @tengrrl agreed Mon, Dec 07 13:12:37

1:24 PM, I sent an email to we_can_help. Nothing happened. I expected an auto-response telling me that the message was received, but got nothing.

4:15 PM, I received a reply from Comcast’s Detreon asking for the address included in the original email.

7:18 PM, I replied and pointed out that they had the address already.

I returned to Twitter:

tengrrl Emailed Comcast, as instructed. 3 hrs later, response asks for my mailing address. I included it in my original email. Seriously people. Mon, Dec 07 19:11:24

ComcastMelissa @tengrrl sorry 4 the mixup. Mon, Dec 07 19:24:08

tengrrl .@ComcastMelissa If only this were the first mixup . . . Mon, Dec 07 19:44:55

ComcastMelissa @tengrrl :( about 14 hours ago

7:23 PM, Detreon’s email reply: “Thank you. I apologize for the oversight.” No information about the refund or when I could expect to hear anything again.

Back to Twitter, very frustrated at this point:

tengrrl So replied to Comcast with address & got this back: “Thank you. I apologize for the oversight.” That’s right. Nothing about the REFUND. Mon, Dec 07 22:37:08

12/08/09:
Overnight a friend twittered to ask about progress on the situation, and I reply:

tengrrl @Freekie Still waiting. Today makes it exactly 5 months waiting for a $300 refund. If @comcastcares they certainly don’t show it.
Tue, Dec 08 04:41:20

So this morning there were fresh new tweets from Comcast:

comcastcares @tengrrl email us the details we_can_help@cable.Comcast.com Tue, Dec 08 05:30:13

ComcastSteve @tengrrl can i help? Tue, Dec 08 09:01:00

ComcastBill @tengrrl email us details we_can_help@cable.comcast.com Tue, Dec 08 10:02:30

10:31 AM, Still no email or call from Detreon. Am now posting this history publically. Twitter seems to be the only thing that gets any real response, but all they do is tell me to email, which I already have.

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Oh, by the way, a Comcastic day to you!