A story about good customer service

After encountering the sports fan's worst nightmare (needing to watch two sporting events simultaneously) on Thursday night, I decided Friday was the day I would finally break down and get Comcast's DVR service.

I had called the Comcast dude that services our apartment complex a week ago in anticipation of the multiple sporting event night. Dude said he was out of DVR boxes but that I could pick one up at the Comcast office across the town and easily hook it up myself. And because I am the Modern Gal and by definition handy when it comes to figuring out electronics and power tools I figured why not if it saved me time and from having to wait on the Comcast dude to show up at my house.

I did what I was told. I unscrewed the cables out of the old non-DVR box, making a mental note of which one went with which outlet. Then I screwed them into the new box and plugged it in. Of course it's never that easy, though.

What I got was a black screen with a message that read "this channel will be available shortly." I figured it just needed time to get itself situated. Thirty minutes later, still the same and on every channel. I tried what usually fixes my Comcast cable modem: unplug, rest, plug back in. Same, same, same.

Then I had an idea.

Knowing that Comcast has a customer service Twitter account, I tweeted about it. Granted, I would have tweeted about it anyway because I was pissed that once again a Comcast function was not working as advertised, but because I knew @comcastcares would be listening, I tried to be nice about it. Sure enough, within about two minutes @comcastcares had twittered back. He tried a few things on his end, and I ended up with the on-screen program info and guide but still no channels.

It was time for me to go out for the evening, so I sent him a message that I'd call customer service sometime the next day. Well, I didn't have to because the local customer service rep called me. I guess they got my number from my account. That dude tried a few things to little avail and asked me if he could call me back. I agreed, he called back and POOF!, everything was working.

Twitter and Comcast, I've said some ugly things about you both. I know I've called you both the devil several times over just in the past week. While I'm still not thrilled I had to seek out Comcast customer service to begin with, I still apologize for calling you both names.