Thursday, May 11, 2006
Catching Up (F Comcast!)
I'm going to write more about our trip to CA, but somebody asked about why I haven't been writing about 24 lately. Well, I haven't been writing about much at all lately. I've been watching all my "stories," especially 24. In fact, I was all stoked to watch it this morning. But when I got home last night, I ran into a little trouble.
As I was playing with Luke (who was SO happy to be home with all his toys), The Wife pointed out that the cable was on the fritz. So I called Comcast. Apparently, my cable bill was past due. Huh? I set it up for automatic payments. I don't like to think about cable at all. I just want it to be there when I need it. Let everything else take care of itself.
So I talked to the customer service rep (I'll call her Bitcharella, even though she wasn't all that unkind). She mentioned that my account was past due. A few months ago, we maxed out our credit card paying for some home improvements. (Don't worry, we're not actually in debt. Just big consumers. I think we're single-handedly keeping the economy (and Home Depot) afloat.) Because of that, our Comcast bill, which is paid via credit card, didn't get paid. I paid it all off the next month. I assumed that our automatic payments would start back up again. Boy, was I wrong.
For some reason, Comcast has this policy that they want to see my ID now before they can resume automatic payments. What? Could somebody please tell me how this makes any sense? They want me to show up at one of their payment centers and present my ID. I can't for the life of me figure out why. It's not enough that I pay them about $150 a month between my cable, internet, and phone. Now they want to see my ID just so I can have the convenience of paying all of that automatically? It just doesn't make any sense.
To make matters worse, Comcast never notified me that (a) my automatic billing was halted, (b) my account was past due, or (c) they were about to shut off my service. How about a phone call? Or an email? Or a letter? Anything? Please?
So now they wanted $2 for the right to pay my now-past-due bill. Then they wanted another $2 to turn my service back on. It's a fucking joke, and so is Comcast. And so I've decided that I've had enough with them. I'm getting rid of Comcast. I'm going with satellite TV (which is actually about $15 a month cheaper with more channels), DSL (which is about $30 cheaper, although a bit slower) and VOIP phone (which is about $15 a month cheaper). So overall, I'll be saving about $60 a month. All because Comcast couldn't communicate with their customers and then took a last opportunity to gouge them with fees. Arrivederci Comcast!
Fortunately, I was able to locate a few key shows that I missed because of the Comcast screw up. I just finished watching The Sopranos, which is having a really good season. I'll be watching (and reporting on) 24 tonight probably. Then it's on to House and Lost. I'm hoping to be all caught up by Monday when I have to report for my new job. I think my blogging might actually slow down for a day or two there. At least until I get hooked up to the internet at work.
As I was playing with Luke (who was SO happy to be home with all his toys), The Wife pointed out that the cable was on the fritz. So I called Comcast. Apparently, my cable bill was past due. Huh? I set it up for automatic payments. I don't like to think about cable at all. I just want it to be there when I need it. Let everything else take care of itself.
So I talked to the customer service rep (I'll call her Bitcharella, even though she wasn't all that unkind). She mentioned that my account was past due. A few months ago, we maxed out our credit card paying for some home improvements. (Don't worry, we're not actually in debt. Just big consumers. I think we're single-handedly keeping the economy (and Home Depot) afloat.) Because of that, our Comcast bill, which is paid via credit card, didn't get paid. I paid it all off the next month. I assumed that our automatic payments would start back up again. Boy, was I wrong.
For some reason, Comcast has this policy that they want to see my ID now before they can resume automatic payments. What? Could somebody please tell me how this makes any sense? They want me to show up at one of their payment centers and present my ID. I can't for the life of me figure out why. It's not enough that I pay them about $150 a month between my cable, internet, and phone. Now they want to see my ID just so I can have the convenience of paying all of that automatically? It just doesn't make any sense.
To make matters worse, Comcast never notified me that (a) my automatic billing was halted, (b) my account was past due, or (c) they were about to shut off my service. How about a phone call? Or an email? Or a letter? Anything? Please?
So now they wanted $2 for the right to pay my now-past-due bill. Then they wanted another $2 to turn my service back on. It's a fucking joke, and so is Comcast. And so I've decided that I've had enough with them. I'm getting rid of Comcast. I'm going with satellite TV (which is actually about $15 a month cheaper with more channels), DSL (which is about $30 cheaper, although a bit slower) and VOIP phone (which is about $15 a month cheaper). So overall, I'll be saving about $60 a month. All because Comcast couldn't communicate with their customers and then took a last opportunity to gouge them with fees. Arrivederci Comcast!
Fortunately, I was able to locate a few key shows that I missed because of the Comcast screw up. I just finished watching The Sopranos, which is having a really good season. I'll be watching (and reporting on) 24 tonight probably. Then it's on to House and Lost. I'm hoping to be all caught up by Monday when I have to report for my new job. I think my blogging might actually slow down for a day or two there. At least until I get hooked up to the internet at work.
