Comcast Outage… the painful truth
| March 2nd, 2009So, we got a snowstorm in Georgia, one that was expected, but dumped quite a bit of snow on our area. At about 6:30pm on March 1st, 2009, we lost our internet and cable tv. We notified comcast, and also found that there were some comcast people on twitter.
I contacted @comcastcares on twitter, and he escalated to the area management as the outage shouldn’t have been > 2 hours. That was last night. I sent him a twit this morning, letting him know that we were still down.
His reply was that we shouldn’t be down for > 13 hours and he was going to look into it further.
I haven’t heard back from him.
I called comcast, and their front line tech was confused, stating, “Well, it’s only been down for 4 hours, it’ll be back up soon.”, to which my wife replied, “No, we’ve been down since 7PM on MARCH 1ST, not 7AM this morning…”
Once they realized their mistake, the story didn’t change. It would be another 2-4 hours… no further information. Then, the comcast first line rep tried to UPSELL VoIP services, making statements like, “It’s battery backed up, so power outages won’t effect your ability to call…” — What about a complete SERVICE OUTAGE?!!?
So, I’ve sent twitters to @comcastBill, @comcastcares, and then got online to their support chat application.
Below is the transcript:
==========================================
user Jim_ has entered room
Jim(Mon Mar 02 2009 12:32:47 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time))>
Internet and Cable have been out since 7PM March 1st… can I get a better idea of the recovery of this service than 2-4 hours from now?
analyst Chris has entered room
Chris(Mon Mar 02 2009 12:42:28 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time))>Hello Jim_, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Chris. Please give me one moment to review your information.
Chris(Mon Mar 02 2009 12:42:45 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time))>Hello Jim.
Jim_(Mon Mar 02 2009 12:44:11 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time))>#CR156620424 – Waiting for service to be reestablished.
Jim_(Mon Mar 02 2009 12:44:20 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time))>Hello Chris.
Chris(Mon Mar 02 2009 12:44:35 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time))>There is currently an outage in your area. It will be fixed as soon as possible. We do not have an estimated time of resolution.
Jim_(Mon Mar 02 2009 12:44:56 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time))>Can you tell me if the trucks are on site?
Chris(Mon Mar 02 2009 12:45:08 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time))>No, I’m sorry we are unable to see that.
Jim_(Mon Mar 02 2009 12:45:21 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time))>can you tell me anything other than 2-4 hours?
Chris(Mon Mar 02 2009 12:45:43 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time))>It will be fixed as soon as possible.
Chris(Mon Mar 02 2009 12:46:05 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time))>I’m sorry for the inconvenience. Once the service has been restored you can chat or call back in and we can apply a credit to your account.
Jim_(Mon Mar 02 2009 12:46:21 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time))>yeah, great… not helpful. Ok. thanks.
Chris(Mon Mar 02 2009 12:46:39 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time))>Is there anything else I can help you with today?
Jim_(Mon Mar 02 2009 12:47:14 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time))>nope, except tell someone that I’ve been waiting for over 17.5 hours to get my service back…
Chris(Mon Mar 02 2009 12:47:36 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time))>Have a good day.
==========================================
Why can’t a service provider give better information? These are services that we rely upon for employment, communications, and in some cases, telephony.
Keep checking back, I’ll add to this post as the SAGA continues….
—- Update —-
We’ve now passed the 20 hour mark… No reply from comcast, and the flashing orange light is starting to mock me.
