Comcast craziness, Last night

So I posted some of my online chat interaction with a Comcast rep yesterday.  This interaction was spurred by my seeing the latest bill from Comcast which had rocketed up to more than $60 for just internet service.  When Ali and I first split I had secured a 12 month promo rate for internet that was dirt cheap, $29.99 although it was for the “Performance” internet which is not as fast as their “Blast” service. So anyway, just as I have done in the past, I utilized Comcast’s online chat system to try to secure a new promo rate, $60 for just internet is pretty outrageous in my opinion.

So as you read the chat log you saw I made no progress with my online interaction with Willmore.  The best he could offer was a measly $5 off the full rate and when I asked to be transferred to his supervisor to further pursue things, he flat out refused.

You keep hearing how Comcast is losing market share by the truckload.  I was sort of surprised Willmore was so willing to piss me off.  His suggestion was that I contact the local office to see if I could get a better deal which made no sense.  Comcast is Comcast, why do I need to jump around the same company looking for a better deal?

So I got off the chat finally after wasting at least a half hour and called up my local office.  I explained that I needed to save money on my internet bill else I would have to look at lower cost alternatives like Century Link DSL.  The guy I talked to said he wasn’t seeing any good promos available but suggested he transfer me to the “retention” department since they supposedly have more flexibility.  I said fine.

I was on hold FOREVER, I bet it was 10-15 minutes until someone picked up.  Evidently Comcast has quite a few people that need to be “retained”.  The woman I got on the phone was nice enough but it became quickly apparent she either was not all that sharp or had just started there and was getting trained.

She had absolutely no grasp of what options she had available to her, she was just flipping through screens and asking me the same questions two, three, four times.  For whatever reason I never flipped the prick switch on for this woman, calling her out for being absolutely terrible at her job.  I guess because I could tell she wasn’t trying to be incompetent. I just patiently hung on the phone for a long, long, long time.

In total I think I spent close to an hour on the phone with this woman, literally smacking myself in the forehead in frustration with the receiver towards the end.  Who knows, maybe this is an intentional maneuver by Comcast, man the phones with incompetent people so you get so frustrated you just hang up and pay the damn bill.

So the end result of all of this was my getting Blast internet and digital cable for 49.99 for 6 months.  As you may know, my house has been running off of an HD antenna for quite awhile, I have no real need for conventional cable tv anymore but if they are going to throw it, fine.  I might hook it up in one room of the house although it will take some creative tweaking of my attic splitter configuration.

Needless to say, the experience yesterday lowered my already low opinion of Comcast.

Yesterday was my last night with the girls, Ali flies home today.  Just as I have many times in the past few days, I hung out in the back yard with the dogs for an extended period of time.  Nicki really seems to enjoy yard hang out time now, as much if not more than anytime I can recall in her life.

She loves to alternate between chewing on sticks, rolling around on and eventually sleeping in the grass.  After Sadie and I went inside, Nicki remained in the yard happily snoozing away.  She particularly loves laying on the St Augustine parts of the yard.

After awhile I went back outside and snapped a couple pictures of her, this was my favorite.

Part of my time outside was spent shooting various footage for this month’s BB forums challenge, take a look at normal mode here if you like.