Comcast is the best reason for gun control

I've wasted four of the past 20 hours on Comcast. One of my issues was ultimately resolved, and I did get a discount, but only after escalating twice and more than an hour on the phone. Tech support wasn't. However the reception/technical issues remain. They asked me to take a half day off work to wait for a technician, but I thought it would be much quicker just to switch out the box at a store location. I did not factor in the painfully long wait at the only remaining Comcast office in the entire City, which is of course on the far, far side of town, and stood with hordes of other disgruntled customers all of whom smelled like chain smokers. I finally have my new equipment, which requires me to activate it online. They have my account, they have the serial number of my box, but I have to activate it myself from home? Why can't it just be "active" or activated at the store.

Fine. Whatever. I'll get out the laptop and log in order to simply be able turn on the TV later. But first I have to find old bills to find account number, which is required for activation. I shred those. Must research elsewhere. Fine. Hassle. Done.

Of course.

So now I've dealt with the voice-recognition phone menus, which couldn't recognize my voice. And I speak like the MoviePhone guy. Then transferred to a hold queue, listening to bad "music" and endless ads.

I'm still on hold.

Twenty minutes later.

So I am ranting on the blog.

I am cranky and need a nap before the birthday party tonight.

I am still better off than Jenny, who was just screwed by a bait-and-switch, or the guy behind me in line, who was disconnected on the phone twice he got so frustrated that he started yelling—and he came in to shout in person to get his account resolved. And better than brother Mac, who spent a year just trying to get a Comcast TV signal to work before telling them to fuck off and they switched to Hulu. Or the other brother that had to give up their home phone number and only use mobiles because they tried switching to Comcast Voice (Triple Play!), and spent two months with no home phone service because they kept screwing it up.

So it could be worse. I just wanted to watch Rachel Maddow while I fixed dinner. Everyone else I've talked to about Comcast today has turned the conversation to gun control.

Pacific Gas & Electric Company: Hey you guys!

You hear of all sorts of fraud and shenanigans regarding power companies in general and PG&E in particular.  I remember a tale of a math teaching using an electric bill for math problems and even professors couldn't get the companies calculations to make sense II remember reading the story years ago but currently can't find the article in the amount of time I'm willing to spend looking for it).  It all seems a bit of smoke and mirrors, if not outright malfeasance.

So it came time to pay my bill this month and I decided instead to pay a call on PG&E.  Four voice menus and twenty minutes of hold time later (thank goodness for hands-free), a very polite and affable customer service rep gave me very pleasant replies which amounted to no answers.

Heres' the thing: in October when Dad went in to the hospital and subsequently died, I went home for two weeks.  When the roof was getting torn off in November, I went home for two weeks.  IN December, I went home for two weeks at Christmas.  I may have used up all of my leave, but I spent six weeks out of the past three months in Nashville.  That is to say, not in my apartment.  And yet each month, my utility bill increased over the months when I was actually there.  If I am not running the stove or turing on any appliances, it would reason that my consumption (not accounting for the vampire effect) would drop considerably, maybe even much as half.  But according to PG&E, these are actual readings from a meter reader.   There are no smart meters at my building yet, but we are scheduled for installation...sometime.

They are telling me that when I am gone half the time, I am using the same or as much gas and electricity as when I am there full time.

I'm calling shenanigans on this one.  There is something seriously rotten in the PG&E assessment and billing and it's not the sulfur they add to the natural gas.

I want my data entered somewhere.  These can't be honest calculations.   Surely there is some conspiracy-inclined investigator looking into such things.

Just putting this out there for Google should such be the case.

AT&T employee joins the conversation, wants to make things better

To the kind AT&T guy who wants to make this better:
(see the comments from the previous post)

My emotional state has calmed considerably since Friday evening's fiasco. You have been kind enough to comment and engage and I would like to give a thoughtful response. Unfortunately, my thoughtful response was too much for the Comments section and is now lost. But here are the main points I was trying to make:

Most San Franciscans' hatred of AT&T Mobility comes from the widespread unreliability of coverage in the City. We are a major metropolitan area and one of the most technologically advanced cities in the country. To have a wireless service that is so spotty as to be cliché is immensely frustrating. But the Bay Area is rather Apple-centric, and many of us use the iPhone as a portable computer more than just a phone, so we are willing to put up with the monopoly on service, bad though it may be, in order to use the iPhone.

Years ago, long before the first iPhone, I switched from Sprint to AT&T Wireless for my mobile service. I had to cancel the service in two days as there was no coverage on my block or in my apartment. I switched to Cingular and got full bars everywhere I went. When AT&T Wireless absorbed Cingular, service again went to nil. I live on the top floor of a wooden structure not 100 yards from the geographic center of San Francisco. To have little to no wireless signal is ridiculous.

During this weekend's experience I found myself checking out Android phones at Verizon because in this city their service is the best. My digital life is so integrated with Apple products, however, that I need to stay with the iPhone and that means AT&T Mobility.

I wish AT&T had allowed Cingular's cell sites to continue operating. I understand the complexity of cell sites and licensing and site rents and city ordinances and such, but it would have been nice if AT&T had integrated existing cell sites where their service was weak. I called customer service repeatedly in the beginning and was assured that AT&T knew of and was working on the problem. Years later with still little to no service, I feel lied to.

You asked what I would request specifically to improve my AT&T experience. You asked thoughtfully and I would like to give a thoughtful answer:

(1) Please reset my "eligibility" so I can go ahead and buy the iPhone 4 from the Apple Store. This status correction needs to be set not just in whatever database AT&T clerks use, but in the system that AT&T requires Apple to use for verification in their checkout/activation process. Even though the AT&T representative reports that their computer indicates that I am eligible, AT&T's system continues to block my transaction at the Apple Store. It should not take me a week and three trips downtown just to buy a phone.

As a greater request, you might want to implement a system to address the issue on an ongoing basis. I am not the only one experiencing this frustration. If AT&T is going to be Apple's partner in iPhone exclusivity, their computers should be able to talk to each other. And if there is a customer service department whose job it is to reset customer's eligibility, that reset should not take three business days.

(2) Last year AT&T released the "Mark the Spot" app for the iPhone. This is a wonderful mechanism for soliciting customer feedback on dead zones. But there is no indication that anyone is listening to us. The customer's perception of AT&T corporate is that you know you have bad service, but because of iPhone exclusivity, you don't care. AT&T rate plans continue to shift and increase, but without a perceptible improvement in services.

The Mark the Spot app is a great tool for soliciting feedback from customers. Why not use that data to provide feedback to customers? Provide an interactive map of this online. Imagine a company that had the balls to say, "Hey, we know we have service problems. And here they are." The benefit here is that you would not be addressing some nebulous perception of spotty service but actual, identifiable issues. "AT&T Mobility has a strong network, but it does have specific weak coverage points. Thanks to cooperation with our customers, we know exactly where these are, and here is what we're doing to fix them."

AT&T could provide an online interactive map of reported and known problem areas. Every time a user reports a dropped call or no service, its location shows up on the map. Honesty from a corporation? Who would believe it? But click on any part of this map and AT&T can provide their plan to address these weak spots in the network, with a deadline.

Knowing that you know where the problems are, and that you plan to fix them, would go a long way toward addressing customers' frustrations. Including a plan to address the problems with a deadline for completion shows the consumer both integrity and accountability. There should be real accountability for fixing these areas as well. If a deadline is not met, or if the expected "fix" is more than 12 months away, users living in those affected areas could get some sort of recognition, say $10 off this month's bill, an iTunes gift card, something.

Right now, iPhone users feel used and abused by AT&T Mobility and the poor service quality has become a running joke on both coasts (NYC and SF). Responding to customer concerns with a commitment to providing reliable service (what, in theory, we are already paying for) would significantly improve the company's image and may increase customer retention/loyalty.

Admit the problems. Identify them. Tell us what you're going to do about it.

It's the sort of character we demand from our own employees and our own companies. Imagine if a customer could feel the same way about their service provider.



P.S.
And seriously, stop using San Francisco as an example of your service in your television ads. Or in the "more bars in more places" campaign. It just really, really pisses us off. We know first hand how bad AT&T's wireless service is here, so the company just comes across as big fat liars, adding to that whole frustration and perception problem.

Apple/iPhone/AT&T FAIL

So I headed down to the Apple store in downtown SF this afternoon to get an iPhone 4. I've been on the wait list for months with AT&T and RadioShack, who will buy back my old phone on the spot, but I'm still months away from fulfillment. I was talking to the Apple store on another matter and was told they had the iPhone 4s in stock right now, so I left for the Apple store and planned to meet Skot Land for happy hour. Multiple Muni fails delayed me by an hour, and Skot was kind enough to wait in line for me.

When it was out turn, the Apple dude rang me up in about five minutes, but the discount to Mobile Me didn't register, so he canceled the transaction, and tried to ring me up again. But according to AT&T I just got a new phone (the transaction he just canceled) and so am not eligible for another phone for another two years.

Then came lots and lots of calls to AT&T. AT&T/Apple partners. AT&T Corporate. AT&T local stores. An hour passed. AT&T refused to be helpful and reset my eligibility. The Apple/AT&T liaison spoke to me, and said that there is an entire customer service department at AT&T set up to do nothing but reset eligibility in cases like this, which are common (why they can't just fix their checkout system is beyond me). However, this "customer service" department can't reset eligibility for at least 72 hours. OMFG are you kidding me? AT&T actual can't affect their own records for three days?

Then the Apple/AT&T rep told me they just usually work the the AT&T store down the street, because from the store level computers, they can reset eligibility instantly. WTF? My Apple guy kept trying to call the local store but they would not answer their phone. Other stores refused to assist and only referred him and me to the national call center, who can't make changes for three days. Again, AT&T service FAIL.

Ultimately, the Apple guy decided to just take my ID, new phone, secret info and everything down the street himself and get it done. They do this all the time, no problem. (It seems this eligibility snafu during the purchase process is common.) He said we could just chill around the store or meet him back at the count in 10-15 minutes. Skot had already been kind enough to wait through my Muni nightmare, and wait in line, and wait though all of this crap, just so we could go for 2-4-1s, so I offered to get him a drink in the neighborhood while we waited. Apple dude had my number and would call or text when all was good.

Skot and I went down the block to a dive-ish place advertising cocktails, in theory to avoid hotel bar price points. We stopped into Jack's Grill, which was packed with tourists and claims to be "The Home of the Maltese Falcon."


.
My phone had no service, less than a block from the Apple Store. Again, more frustration at AT&T. We came back to the Apple Store around 8:00.

Apple dude doesn't seem to be back yet, no one can tell me anything other than that AT&T is an uncooperative partner, my phone is dead, and I am approaching rage levels. So Skot and I sidled up to an iMac to blog this, and express my frustration. It's been two hours. The process from front of line to exiting the store could have been five minutes without the frustration from AT&T.


Grr.

Update: Dude is back. The manager at the local AT&T store refused to help him. First he service-blocked to keep another employee from helping him. Then flat out lied saying they can't do that or access my account from there. They do this all the freaking time. I spoke to a half-dozen Apple employees who have dealt with this same issue at that same store repeatedly without incident. The AT&T employee even started to show the manager how to fix it and was shut down. Then the manager said I had to be there in person, even though there was an Apple guy, done this before, in uniform, with my ID and papers and everything, and the AT&T online account notes indicated all of this, with my permission and the manager continued to refuse service. The Apple guy tried to call and text me to come over in person, but by then AT&T had deactivated my existing phone because the system thought I was using the new one they wouldn't let me purchase! Again, AT&T FAIL!

Is having an iPhone really worth suffering through AT&T? No, clearly it's not. Sure, our experience in SF is that their actual phone service sucks beyond all competent measures, but to add the insult to injury of aggressively offensive customer service? If so much of my life weren't so fully integrated with the Apple platform, I'd be out in a heartbeat.

Just yesterday some frustrated iPhone users were saying that we use the iPhone less as a cell phone and more as a portable computer so that AT&T's miserable service was just an annoyance rather than prohibitive. Now I'm rethinking that assessment.

Especially when I heard that one of the reasons the Manager refused to assist was that it was quarter to closing time and he wanted to leave. He actually said as much. So that when I met up with Apple guy at 8:03, it was too late to do anything about it.

So now my levels of frustration are off the scale-incredibly frustrating trip downtown, hours wasted in the store, missing our happy hour appointment, spending $20 for two vodkas while waiting to fix a $30 error, and having a simple electronic switch turned into a bureaucratic nightmare by a behemoth tech company that seems to, from the CEO to the personal level, make it their stance to screw their own customers at every turn because they can.

Finally (finishing this at home now): I have to go down to AT&T in person, myself tomorrow and argue that they reset my iPhone eligibility. Then go back to the Apple store, where they said they could not hold a phone for me but there "should be enough," and pay through the nose for the new iPhone 4 and go through this process again. I was hoping for an iTunes card, and asked for a magic trackpad, for all of this hassle. They threw in a year of AppleCare for the phone, which I wasn't going to buy anyway. Meh. (And the trackpad even costs less.)

The worst part of all this though is that it ruined a perfectly good Friday night. I got my wrist and jankle worked on and was feeling good, was excited about a new toy, and looked forward to some cheap TGIF drinks with friends, instead I spent three times as much as I would have, missed the Friday after-work fun altogether, and multiple muni rides. Now my association with the product is nothing but bile.

But at least I got to have fun Skot times and he was great company throughout even though I could not set aside my rage enough to ever relax.

Maybe the shiny new features, once it's all installed and crap, will snap be back to a good mood.

Update 2: Went down to AT&T store today (painful way to spend a sunny Saturday), waited in line, and was finally assisted by a manager who was nothing but smiles and controlled demeanor while dealing with frustrated customers (he has been trained very well, and never once cracked under the unpleasant pressure—I say this to his credit.). However, it really doesn't matter how pleasant the manager was when all he could tell me was that he was incapable of actually fixing my problem, a problem not caused by the customer mind you, but by their own systems. It basically felt like someone was saying, "fuck off and die, we don't have to care because you don't have any choice," but saying it with a smile and a pat on the back. With all of the teabaggers and militia and gang crazy people out there, and the United States' inability to deal with meaningful gun regulation, I am genuinely surprised there is not more bloodshed at AT&T storefronts. And I worry for the few friends I have who are employed by AT&T. Is their corporate plan to inspire so much ire as to create a violent response? Is that some sort of corporate/Republican regulation conspiracy? What the hell is with these people?

I was assured that while they could send a request to reset my eligibility, there was nothing they could do to actually remedy the situation for three business days. Apple has to use an AT&T database to authorize iPhone purchases. But AT&T only updates that database over three business days, and Apple doesn't have any access or authority to override any of the shit it spews out, regardless of circumstance. Some partners.

So now, the AT&T computers at the AT&T store say I am back to being eligible for an upgrade. The AT&T servers required to be accessed by Apple do not. I went back to the Apple store as instructed. My new Apple Dude, Tomas was exceptionally understanding, kind, articulate and competent, and he really spent the better part of an hour trying to do whatever he could to remedy my situation and let me just freaking pay for and leave with an iPhone 4.

AT&T servers repeatedly refused to allow the transaction to continue, claiming I was ineligible. I witnessed this myself on their screens.

Tomas then spent another 15 minutes on the phone with their hotline to AT&T.

Best they can do: I have to come back THURSDAY—yes, a feaking week after I waited in line and tried to buy one the first time, just so AT&T can have time to update my status and allow me to spend my hard-earned dollars on the damn new phone.

If AT&T presumes to be a competent global tech company, they should be able to update their own databases in less than 72 hours three business days.

Oops, I said "competent." Actually, I typed it. If I said over a phone call it would have been dropped by now. Ever since they scuttled Cingular's towers there has been no coverage in my neighborhood. Every time I call or write customer service, I am assured "they're working on it." Empirical evidence does not support that assertion, rather the contrary.

Based on their customer service assertions, I have been conditioned to perceive every communication from AT&T to be not something honest-but-erroneous, but an intentional lie.

Rumors of potential availability of the iPhone on other carriers are just that: rumors. And often easily dispelled. I wonder how many will jump ship, and happily pay for the termination privilege, just to deal with a carrier, any carrier, other than AT&T. And honestly, if fat Luke Wilson shows up talking about AT&T wireless coverage in San Francisco one more time, the nearest San Franciscan will be serving up a bitch slap right quick.

just when you thought AT&T couldn't get worse

It's no secret that AT&T's mobile service is crap, enough that it sullies the good name of crap.

They admit that their network can't handle the traffic of their own subsribers, much less new subscribers, and the concentration of iPhone users (AT&T customers) causes brownouts or blackouts whenever there are large gatherings of creative or tech professionals. The network is so inadequate, AT&T has forced Apple to cripple certain network-intensive apps for the iPhone. The required AT&T service contract is universally seen as the worst feature of the iPhone.

So AT&T proposes this fix: They sell you a box—not provide mind you, sell— and for a month fee—again, for a free— that you can install where AT&T's service is lacking that will reroute your cell calls through your internet connection, an internet connection you are already paying someone else for.

So to actually provide customers with the service they've already paid for once, AT&T wants their customers to pay them again for the same service they are supposed to be receiving, and even then, pay them twice (first for the equipment and then for the service).

This is called "MicroCell 3G." (And here.)

And tech and consumer sites are rightfully shouting WTF?

slingbox's outrageous fortune

The Slingplayer app is out for the iPhone, but AT&T's 3G network is so substandard, and the iPhone is so popular, that AT&T forced the company to prevent the application from using the 3g network to stream videos, despite the fact they allow it for other smartphones on the same network.


AT&T's move to block iPhone SlingPlayer from 3G is poppycock
Slingbox owners can now access their content from the convenience of their iPhone. The only problem is that AT&T has killed the app's access to its 3G network, hobbling an otherwise useful app and making its $30 asking price a little hard to swallow

From the article:

AT&T itself has repeatedly credited the iPhone for driving up its ARPU and wireless revenues for the last few quarters. In a sense, AT&T seems to be telling its most lucrative customers, "Thank you for paying us lots of money to use our network—just don't actually use it too much, mmkay?"

AT&T's goal of maintaining a good minimum service level for all 3G users is a laudable one, but cutting off 3G access to useful apps for its highest-paying customers (while allowing it for others) is a pretty lousy way to do it. AT&T needs to work harder on increasing the capacity of its 3G network to avoid having to cripple the functionality of the devices it sells.