Here's yet another one-in-a-million blog post by an angry American on the state of customer service and overall product delivery by gigantic corporate America. It is 3am on a Thursday morning, and I am often up at these hours cranking out work for my design business. The last thing I need is halfway through coding and template research online for my internet connection to just go bunk. I have software installed that refuses any software updates, I haven't put any new hardware in my computer, yet the customer service guy Robert ends up talking to me
on the phone for 45 minutes and decides to simply suggest I call Apple. When I inquire as to why he's asking me questions about words within my Network Preferences that I simply don't see anywhere, I decide to ask him where he is getting his knowledge from. He tells me he's using an online site for Mac tutorials and simply going down the list. He also tells me Comcast in all of their billions of dollars of profits, charging me over $140 a month for TV and Internet, that
they're not responsible for problems on my end as long as they can detect a signal coming to my computer. When I ask him why he's walked me through this Apple tutorial yet is not responsible for my computer, he tells me it was only advice. When I finally ask him what the next solution is, he tells me he can send a tech out but it will cost me. I'm thinking "Fine, do it, as long as I can send him back to their offices if I fix it between now and then..." When I ask him if I'll get charged for him just showing up, he says "He assumes (blah blah blah)." So I get his ID# and hang up left to either call Apple (God Forbid) or take care of it myself.
Take care of it myself I did after realizing this guy, or rather his online tutorial's method's most likely just skipped a step or two, and fix it about 10 minutes later on my own. When I go to Comcast's site, their entire layout has changed saying that Firefox, Safari, and ANYTHING Mac related, is not good enough to view their site. Firefox 2.0 apparently is no longer "standards-compliant" in their terms and "It's Time to Upgrade" in huge Comcast Helvetica letters. They have a disclaimer then saying "Comcast Customer Care Account Executives are unable to answer questions or provide support for these browsers."
When I finally click the tiny little "Contact Us" at the bottom and click on Internet (because there is no usual Customer Service feedback), the only options I get are these:
Other companies I've used who offer massive technological services with customer service reps of either GED level educations, if that, or can barely speak English and end up disconnecting or pointing me to non-existent or completely unaffiliated companies:
- Apple
- Cox Communications
- T-Mobile
- Verizon
- Memorial Hospital (most hospitals and insurance companies)
- Entergy
- ComEd
- Mazda
- (Any other company you'd like to add, I'm sure)Granted, I rely on these companies, but somehow the profits they make is obviously not going to training their employees. If I didn't run a tech business myself, I'd consider moving to a cave to become a hermit to escape it all.
...Friggin Robert ID ##8312745
Brenda's good friend and old roommate Michael Stahl-David is starring in an upcoming major motion picture clouded in secrecy, with previews in theaters only showing the opening date as the title, up until recently "1-18-08". The title is finally here as well as the official name of the movie and it looks SICK. I believe the whole thing is shot similarly to Blair Witch using amateur, handheld cameras but the production value is obviously top-notch and put out by Paramount Pictures. It's also produced by the director of Mission Impossible III and several episodes of Lost, J.J. Abrams.
