Today, I had to call Comcast to get a charge reversed.

Well, the automated system kept insisting that I use self help and refused
to put me through to an operator. These days, self help requires that I
download a smart phone app which I am loathe to do.

I had to call back multiple times. During the pandemic, they weren't
staffing any of the inbound call centers and the only group answering
calls was subscriber retention. It took a number of tries to get the
call routed to subscriber retention as I kept getting cut off.

It put me in a queue in which I request a call back. I was called back
within the allotted time but couldn't complete the call as audio on
their end went bad and the representative didn't call back.

Finally got through to someone. First things first, I made her write up
a complaint about how lousy their service is. I got the charged reversed
and I told her I didn't care about the explanation, that she was just
going to reverse the charge to displease a subscriber less, given what
my mother spends annually.

(If her monthly cable payments were added onto her mortgage payments,
she could live in a house half again as large.)

I then insisted on a second credit for dismal service, so that's another $10.

On Fri, 14 Oct 2022 19:43:03 -0000 (UTC), "Adam H. Kerman"
<ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

>
>Well, the automated system kept insisting that I use self help and refused
>to put me through to an operator. These days, self help requires that I
>download a smart phone app which I am loathe to do.

And I don't have a smartphone. Last time I needed customer service, it
took twenty minutes of yelling at the AI system before I finally
reached a live person. And that person kept trying to sell me a
"streaming service" instead of working on my problem.

I wrote a review for the Better Business Bureau's page for Comcast.
Maybe you should do the same.

-dan z-

--
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On 10/15/2022 8:21 AM, dyno dan wrote:
> On Fri, 14 Oct 2022 19:43:03 -0000 (UTC), "Adam H. Kerman"
> <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Well, the automated system kept insisting that I use self help and refused
>> to put me through to an operator. These days, self help requires that I
>> download a smart phone app which I am loathe to do.
>
> And I don't have a smartphone. Last time I needed customer service, it
> took twenty minutes of yelling at the AI system before I finally
> reached a live person. And that person kept trying to sell me a
> "streaming service" instead of working on my problem.
>
> I wrote a review for the Better Business Bureau's page for Comcast.
> Maybe you should do the same.
>
> -dan z-
>
>
I have a cell phone and "triple play" service from Comcast. I've never
shared the number with Comcast even though they keep complaining that I
never completed my registration. They've always happily accepted my
payments regardless.

OT - Recently, has anyone without a cell phone or someone with a cell
phone but unwilling to give out their number attempted to acquire a free
e-mail account from any of the most popular e-mail domains that have a
web based interface? It's almost impossible because almost all of them
insist on using text msg to cell phone for 2 factor authentication just
to set up the account. Crazy. I could still hide my identity by buying
a cheap "burner" cell phone and use that number. As I already have a
google account, I also could provide my google voice phone number to
complete the 2 factor authentication. The best provider I found for new
free e-mail accounts with a web interface that doesn't require 2 factor
authentication is proton.me

On Sat, 15 Oct 2022 10:50:43 -0400, Peter
<HapilyRetired@fakeaddress.com> wrote:
>
>OT - Recently, has anyone without a cell phone or someone with a cell
>phone but unwilling to give out their number attempted to acquire a free
>e-mail account from any of the most popular e-mail domains that have a
>web based interface? It's almost impossible because almost all of them
>insist on using text msg to cell phone for 2 factor authentication just
>to set up the account. Crazy. I could still hide my identity by buying
>a cheap "burner" cell phone and use that number. As I already have a
>google account, I also could provide my google voice phone number to
>complete the 2 factor authentication. The best provider I found for new
>free e-mail accounts with a web interface that doesn't require 2 factor
>authentication is proton.me

I have had a Google Voice number that is linked to my cell, number is
set to "Do Not Disturb" so calls & texts do not pass through. I must
log in to the Goog page and read the text message. So anything that
requires a verification by text message gets the number.