LETTER: Des Moines Mayor Dave Kaplan upset with Comcast customer service

Well, my “friends” at Comcast sent their standard email with a link to a customer satisfaction survey. On their open-ended question (limited to 4000 characters), I had to whittle down my nearly 4800 character response. Here’s the text in its entirety:

“It should not have taken 6 weeks to get my service installed. The lack of communications from the person who was supposedly my point of contact for everything related to my account (Christopher Archeletta) was HORRIBLE. Some 18 phone calls (I am not exaggerating) unanswered with no return call.

With a few exceptions, every step forward was as a result of my having to call Comcast customer service to get something done or to find out something, simply because of lack of communications from your company.

First came the week-long wait to find out why no one had emailed or called to let me know when someone would be out to install my service, only to find out that I was supposed to sign a contract that had never been sent to me. Then came the contract that had the name of the business misspelled and had to be redone before I would e-sign. At least a week and a half after I had agreed to the service on the phone before the correct contract was sent and signed.

After that, the first installation visit was quick (the following Tuesday), but failed to take into account what I told the account rep which was that the office space needed to be wired from outside the condominium building (it’s a home office.) While the building was built with wiring (in 1979) on the south side of the building, not so on the north side. That service tech indicated that he would put in a request for someone to come out and do that external wiring work. After three days, I called to find out when someone would be out and was told one week later.

So, a week later, you sent a service tech out … to do the inside install, NOT the external wiring necessary to make that room pre-wired. After a round-about way of reaching Mr. Archeletta via the regular customer service line, I came to find out that no one had been scheduled to do the outside wiring, and that the wireless modem I expected was not included with the package I had been sold. (He attempted to sell me a higher level service that included the wireless modem, and in frustration I agreed … but thankfully never received the new contract to e-sign.)

In the middle of this frustrating experience, I went out and purchased a modem and router. Why? So I wouldn’t have to lease it from Comcast. I decided I wanted to give you as little money as possible.

The following week I called to find out when the external wiring people would be out to do the work. Ms. Amber Day-Spring (the one customer service person who actually was of help to me a few times during this episode) called and emailed to let me know that the pre-wire people would be out on Monday, July 7 and that the internal install people would be back on Wednesday, July 9th. On July 7th, I waited not only the four hour window that the pre-wire people were supposed to be out, but an additional three hours and they didn’t show up. At least they never called, knocked on my door, or left a note that they were here … though they apparently put in a slip to Comcast indicating that they had been. After I called to demand the work be done before Wednesday, I was told they would be out July 8th. July 8th turned out to be another 4 hour waste of my time as no one showed.

That afternoon I received a call from a guy named Ryan (who works for one of your contractors.) That was the first REAL conversation I had with ANYONE to talk about how to try and address the wiring issue for the office. He indicated that someone would be out on Wednesday to do that wiring work in advance of the internal install. But no one showed to do the external wiring that was needed. I managed to talk someone else into doing the external wiring work, since Comcast apparently can’t seem to get the job done.

Your contracted installer Justin made everything happen, and he was also one of the few bright spots in this otherwise crappy experience.

I’m a pretty understanding guy, but frankly, on the whole, this is the shittiest customer service experience I’ve EVER had … from any service provider. This was a business install, and if any of my business constituents had suffered through this same situation I would have been even more angry than I am now. And they HAVE BEEN suffering through this!

I am the Mayor of Des Moines, Washington (a city councilmember) and I talk to our local businesses (who are located both at home and in their own shops/stores/office buildings) and they universally have complained about your service leading up to installation, and (in some cases) the services itself.

I’m not done with this issue, and neither is Comcast. I assure you, things are going to change.

Please expect to hear from me in the weeks and months ahead.

Dave Kaplan
Mayor & Councilmember
City of Des Moines, WA
(reluctant and pissed off Comcast customer)”

On a related note, here is another Comcast-related rant that has gone viral:

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