Comcast doesn’t have the best command structure

Update: it’s in interesting tale, so feel free to read. Issues resolved, thanks Benny and Kirk and whoever else was involved for their quick work on this. Hopefully this situation won’t happen to anybody else.

So Stephanie and I got our new house built and we finally moved in in April. Our new house is a little over 500 feet away from where the cable line stops. We understood this might take Comcast some time to do so we first told them about it in February. At that point we didn’t think there would be any problems.

In March we call to check in. Comcast sends out a technician who runs a line from the closest electric pole to the house. He says he doesn’t know why they haven’t run the line yet and resubmits the request.

When we move into the house in the beginning of April we call Comcast and they send out the install tech again. Of course there is no line so there is nothing to install.

A bit later we go to Comcast’s local office in Knoxville and find out that our request has been moved into the second quarter budget which started April 1. We are told at that we should have cable in 4 to 6 weeks and we should cancel our service and re sign up when the new cable is installed.

May 12, which is 4 to 6 weeks after we were told 4 to 6 weeks, we go to Comcast’s office again and they say someone should be at your house today. No one was. We start calling. We are always told, after much time on hold, that “We have emailed the construction department, someone will call you back”. No one ever calls us back. Last week we were told that we missed several appointments for an install. Which is odd because no one has ever called us.

We are told that our cable would be installed yesterday, Monday June 2. I take that day off work and wait. and wait. and wait. Stephanie calls and is told our appointment was moved to an all day timeframe, someone should be there by 4 p.m. So I wait. No-one comes.

So Stephanie calls again and talks to a supervisor. The supervisor says that our request has been moved to the 3rd quarter of 2008 and we might get cable by October. They also say that the people have been scheduling things and saying people will show up are wrong and this should never have happened.

So Comcast never had any intention of giving us cable. And AT&T doesn’t offer DSL where we are. So satellite internet is our only remaining option.

Anybody have any opinions on HughesNet or WildBlue?

Stephanie and I really didn’t like getting jerked around by Comcast. Comcast if you’re listening we really want cable, just tell us what animals to sacrifice or who to bribe.