Comcast is one of my perpetual dilemmas. One one hand, the service is pretty solid (and certainly better than anything AT&T could manage), but on the other they are such a terrible company to do business with. Then there is their telephone support, which takes appalling customer service to record breaking lows, but is contrasted by their Twitter based support team which are among the best support people I’ve ever worked with.

Tonight’s frustration is a letter stating that they believe the cable modem I purchased from Amazon is theirs and I should be paying rental on it.

Amazing huh? But it gets better. I call that number and it took three attempts to get to a human; the first two attempts their phone tree just hangs up on me. The person on the phone insisted that the modem I am using is Comcast’s and I need to pay rent on it. She even had the audacity to say that I should take the receipt I have from Amazon to one of their stores to prove the modem is mine. How about she proves that the modem is Comcast’s. Especially since I have never paid them, nor Alameda Cable for modem rental, and never had a rental modem. The economics of renting it don’t add up: they cost less than 10 months rent, and I have only bought two of them in the last 6+ years.

Giving up on her, I asked to speak to her supervisor. Two sessions on hold later, I get told the supervisor will call back after the call he is currently on (I guess lots of people need to escalate to get anything done). That was almost four and half hours ago; I guess I am not getting a call back.

Unfortunately for them, I have already emailed all the details, including the Amazon receipt, to the national customer care team (the team that runs the Twitter support too) and copied to the exec in charge of customer care in California. If any of them wish to come out & check, they are welcome to set an appointment. Exact time only though; none of the four hour or eight hour window nonsense.