Comcast craziness, Carrabbas cleaned out

So I have had a very odd issue at work that has been going on for over a week that involves our Comcast Business internet service.  I called in about it on Friday morning and was told the issue would be escalated to another group.  I was told I should definitely should get a call back by 3PM that day.  Of course no call came.

On Monday I called again, letting the phone rep know I was promised a Friday call back.  The rep said the ticket shows it is in the queue of this other group and he was sure I would hear back from them shortly.  I expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of urgency in attending to our issue but agreed to wait for the already previously promised call back.  Well the business day Monday came and went with no call.

So AGAIN, I call on Tuesday.  Much more irritated of course as nothing annoys me more than people making paper promises.  I talk to my 3rd support person in as many days and once again get the same basic bullshit.  He tells me he sees the ticket was moved into a different support groups queue this morning but that is the end of the information.  I told the guy this was ridiculous.

I asked him if he has anyway to tell  what action has been taken by these other groups that are now in possession of my ticket.  “No”.  I ask him how do I go about talking to somebody in these other support areas to push for resolution. “You can’t”

I sat there on the other line silent for a few moments as I gathered my thoughts and tried to disarm the verbal bomb that was burning on the tip of my tongue.  I wanted to just rip this guy apart for being part of the Comcast quagmire of poor customer support.  I took a breath and started again.  “You understand why this is so frustrating to me, right?  It seems insane that after three days there is absolutely no documented action taken besides a ticket being passed between queues”  The guy said to me “Tell me about it, I have been dealing with this for four years” indicating he at least understood just how fucked up this process is.

Covering the guy in verbal diarrhea wouldn’t have done me any good so I again agreed to wait one more business day for action to be taken.  Of course, nothing happened.  So today I will be rattling chains in a major way, I will be getting some action one way or another, bet on it.

Last night I had a great birthday evening with Cindy.  We went to the Naples Carrabbas, the restaurant I have frequented more than any other since moving to Florida in 2000. I really loved the lay out, mood and decor of the restaurant, hence why I patronized it so often.

I have lamented repeatedly over the years how they have been systematically changing/removing many of the things I liked about the place.  You can find rants about decor changes, smaller beer glasses, no italian tapes in the bathroom, cheaper bread baskets and many more things buried within the blog.

The last time Cindy and I were at Carrabbas was in June when Randall and Lily visited.  Since then I noticed that they refaced the front of the building, totally changing it’s appearance.  Well I did not realize that at the same time they TOTALLY gutted the interior.  It is 100% different and bears no semblance to the place I cherished a decade ago.

Now to be fair, it looks nice, modern and open.  It just is a totally different place now.  It’s interesting how they changed the eating arrangements.  As you walk in the conventional tables are on the right, on the left side next to the bar are a bunch of additional high top tables that are first come first serve.   Even though there were literally dozens of spots on the bar side to sit, we waited to get a seat on the conventional side since Cindy did call ahead reservations.

Another casualty is the 2 for 1 happy hour that I found so endearing.  There was nothing like having two draft beers shoved in front of you for the price of one.  Instead they now do half price drafts for happy hour which in theory is getting you the same thing without the same visual impact or fun factor.  I used the new system while consuming two Budweisers in the tall but painfully skinny beer glasses.

Throughout the meal I found myself looking around the space, amazed at just how complete the transformation was, it literally involved every square foot of floor space.  Both Cindy and I enjoyed our food and we had a cute, friendly little waitress that reminded both of us of Cindy Lou Who.  I enjoyed my meal at the completely renovated Carrabbas and of course will go there again but I couldn’t help feeling remorseful that my old familiar eating establishment had been completely obliterated, never to be seen again.

When we got home we enjoyed birthday cake and I opened my remaining gift. Cindy had already given me two in the morning, three was just way over the top.  So despite having to put in an 8-5 day at work, overall my birthday, even with it being my 47th, was quite enjoyable.   Of course that is all courtesy of Cindy.  Despite all of the good vibes there was a persistent sad pull on my heart strings not having mom involved in my birthday celebrations for the first time.  It just feels very odd.

Many thanks to all of the people that chirped in on FB as well with well wishes, I know a good portion of them read this drivel.

One side note, yesterday I finally confirmed that another cog in the process of unraveling my mom’s estate was finally put in place.  My beneficiary IRA has been set up and funded.  The only remaining piece are 32 stock certificates that Todd has been working on getting sold and split.  It sounds like we are close to having that wrapped up as well.  I guess four months in the big picture isn’t a bad time frame to get the estate resolved but it has felt like much longer.