StevenKarp's dashboard

Comcast is working to improve the quality of tech support, they talk about it all the time. The main thing is they need to hire employees that actually care about helping customers...many of them come into the job thinking its just a paycheck and they do everything possible to avoid helping customers...those employees seem to be quickly weeded out but then that's why we hear these horror stories about bad tech support agents, trust me, those employees do not last very long. It's sad that there are so few jobs available yet Comcast is always hiring new people -- and these people get hired and don't even try to do their job, which is not hard at all! When I got hired there was nearly 50 others that started training the same day as me, and within a week, about 5 of them had already been fired.

When you call and input your phone number, 90% of the time the correct account will pop up on my screen, but I still have to ask you to verify the account info because it's the rule and because sometimes the wrong account comes up. We can see your modem and can get a pretty good idea of what it's doing at the time. I don't think the process is slow, at least for me, I can have your account up and be running a ping test on your modem in less than 20 seconds.

As for the technicians being fully trained before starting field work...I can't really answer that question, I don't know why they do it, I can only guess that they figure that video repair is the easiest of the 3 so they want the techs to get out there and get a feel for what the job will be like and to see how they handle it, that way, if they aren't capable of fixing or installing video service, they probably don't keep the job :)

If you are switching over from analog (coax direct to the TV) to digital (using a set top digital box, like the DTA), you could potentially have some problems...if you have never had a digital box in that room then you won't know how good the signal strength is...an analog hookup requires much less signal strength than a digital setup...and it's not necessarily Comcast's fault, you might have a cheap splitter, bad wiring, etc in the house. Just because the wiring hasn't changed in 5 years does not mean the wiring is in good shape!

Why do you have to splice it so much?? I don't think it's Comcast's fault that YOU are splicing the coax so much, everyone knows that too many splitters will degrade your signal.

is the modem going offline? When the internet is working fine, look at the lights on the modem...now, when your internet is *not* working, look at the lights again...are they different?
When you can't get online, call tech support, ask them if the modem is online. If the modem is online then it's your computer or router or a bad ethernet cable...if the modem is offline, then the signal is not good or the modem might be defective. Check for loose wires, bypass any splitters in the house.

its simple, look at your cable box, does it have HDMI or Component outputs on it? If not then how do you expect to get a HD picture?

what is the error number? the error number you are getting will tell me exactly what the problem is, Usually it is one of the e-mail addresses you are sending to is no longer valid (it has to be a comcast.net e-mail account though).

No BET at all or no BET in the package that you have?

Sorry that happened but they'll fix it for you, Just wait to hear back from the tech ops supervisor. Did they give you an escalation reference number?

Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Mac Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird? Or how about a nice Yahoo or Gmail account? Why is everyone so dependant on Comcast e-mail accounts? What happens when you move to a non-Comcast area? Your e-mail account is gone!

I have used Yahoo for over 10 years, I have moved several times, changed ISPs several times...never had to change my e-mail address.

I don't know much about the online chat support but I know that those agents deal with several chats at the same time which can really slow down the process. I work in phone support and I know that a lot of my coworkers are not very good. They like to say there is a problem in the area even if you're not affected by it...and many of them take pride in the number of times they set up a trouble call for a technician even when it's something that can be easily fixed over the phone (we're supposed to avoid tech visits...I schedule about 5 per week).

The account verification issue...if you call up and say, "My internet isn't working", then first of all, we need to access the account in question so we can see if your modem is online or offline (or in standby!)...so we need to make sure we are looking at the correct account. Also, if we fail to verify you and later on have to book a trouble call, then we will have to still go thru the verification and only the account holder or any listed, authorized secondary people can request a trouble call or make any changes to the service. If you are not an authorized person on the account, we can troubleshoot only.

As for the actual technicians...the new hires are trained for video repair...then as they work their way up they get into internet then finally phone...so if you request a trouble call for an internet and video issue, then we have to book that as an internet problem...if we did it just as a video repair call then they might send out a new guy that doesn't even know what a modem is.