Oh why?
Comcast and customer service occasionally have the same word association as White Castle and fine dining.
The company worked hard to improve, but just increased cable and internet prices, just as people are working from home.
This is not so friendly. And it’s not like other small customer service issues don’t happen, as I just discovered.
My wife and I were a little mesmerized, you see, for The flight attendant. We got HBO Max as part of our Comcast plan (also known as Xfinity).
As soon as it was over and Kaley Cuoco was still alive, we found Industry, which is about young people using drugs and having sex while they should be at work.
Naturally, we thought it was the perfect view for dinner. But after the first episode, the HBO Max app wouldn’t let us in. He claimed that he could not verify our Xfinity subscription.
It was annoying first world. I could log in via Xfinity, but no, I was not allowed to watch any programs.
In a fit of ingenuity, I tried the Xfinity chat service. After an hour of lots of questions, restart, pauses, more restart, it was clear that the chat person had no idea what the problem was or how to fix it.
The next day, I remembered that the most effective customer service tool is Twitter. Comcast has a direct messaging service on Twitter, victoriously called Comcast Cares.
So there I went to explain my situation.
Comcast Cares. It really is a wonder.
Comcast Cares tries to be very friendly.
Now, this conversation with DM started with the Comcast representative offering, “What do you like to watch on HBO Max. My girlfriend and I just broke up Wonder Woman last weekend and it’s amazing to be able to see new films there. You have arrived at the right place. I am more than happy to help you gain access to the application. “
It was a Friday at 3:30 pm. 30 minutes later, no solution.
“I’m going to have to open a ticket for this problem,” said Comcast. “Our fantastic member of the advanced repair team will contact you on this matter. I’m glad it’s just an application that is causing problems.”
Do you see how warm and human it was?
I promised to contact the fantastic and advanced repair team in 24 to 72 hours.
Comcast Cares. But maybe not much.
The next morning, at 10:01 am, a call from a 1-888 number. I tend not to answer that. It went to voicemail. A seven-second message said something about pressing 2 if the problem was fixed, but it was a bit garbled.
I sent a DM to Comcast Cares to ask me if they called. The response was, like last time, very friendly: “Thank you for letting me know that the technician called. I understand perfectly that it is not possible to answer calls that arrive as strangers. I also do not answer.”
You do not want?
Are you admitting your calls, coming from an unknown number, not worth taking? It was, in its own way, a lovely human confession.
Unfortunately, things took a worrying turn. The representative said: “I cannot guarantee that the technician will call back.”
Not at all? Ever? No more sex and drugs at work? So, what should I do?
The representative tried to reassure: “It may have been a pre-call to find out if the problem is still present. We are still showing the ticket to the technical team still open, so they are still working to resolve this.”
This representative promised that he would follow up during the week to check that everything was fine.
You are going to turn into a purple fig tree when I tell you that the annoying HBO Max thing wasn’t resolved that day, the next day, or even the next day.
Comcast Cares. HBO Fixes.
Then, on that Monday night, I had another idea. Perhaps HBO Max could do something about it. Perhaps there was also a friendly service.
I talked online with a friendly Max representative who tried to solve the problem, but whatever he suggested I already tried. I managed to get in, but I couldn’t watch any programs.
Still, he persisted.
He made one last effort. He suggested that I use a different browser on my laptop to perform the TV login process. Lo found and saw this dark and cold night and everything was fine instantly. The problem was not HBO Max or Comcast. Apparently, it was Firefox.
We are happy. More drugs in the workplace and sex instead of chicken with rosemary and fennel.
Comcast Really Cares. About some things.
The next day, a Tuesday, the loyal member of Comcast Cares sent me a DM again.
“Good Morning!” they started. “I hope your week started off well! I wanted to check that your HBO Max is working. I’m showing that the ticket we issued has been resolved.”
Naturally, I was bordering on enchanted. I explained that no Comcast engineer had contacted me, fantastic or not. I explained that HBO Max had fixed the problem.
The representative offered, “I’m sorry to hear that it was your experience. In some cases, they fix the problem and send you a confirmation email that the problem has been resolved.”
So, that personal touch practiced: “I know it took me a while to set up my HBO Max in my boxes, even though I already had the app on my phone.”
It was wonderful to know that. Still, I couldn’t help asking the one question that inevitably tortured my head: “When, in fact, was the ticket marked as resolved?”
The answer came quickly: “I am showing that the fine was settled on Sunday morning.”
Which was a little strange, since I only contacted HBO Max on Monday night. Comcast was offering a blatant falsehood. The personal touch was lovely, but the factual absurdity was worrying.
The representative insisted, “What I see is that the problem has been resolved and added to your system for [give] you a call to inform you. I’m sorry we didn’t connect when our service team got in touch, but I’m happy to hear that you can now watch HBO Max. ”
I didn’t have time to say “Please excuse me, but what are you talking about?” before being flooded with another personal touch: “My family and I watched Wonder Woman the other night. It was fun to watch the stunts in this movie for us because we got to know one of the incredible stunts in this movie. “
Amazing.
What, then, can be concluded?
Was Comcast having a bad day or two? Their engineers can sometimes claim that they fixed a problem, even though they didn’t. Their customer service on Twitter is delightfully human and attentive, although they are on the verge of being somewhat inaccurate and powerless because they are all too busy watching Wonder Woman?
Maybe it was all of that.