Comcast cares? Not from where I sit.

So, the "journey" began on April 23rd 2008 when I was forced to move to Comcast digital voice from Vonage. The tech came and installed the all the needed equipment and the 2 phone lines - one which would eventually be my current home phone number.

The tech did an excellent job and was done in no time and I twittered it. I called Comcast the same day and let them know that it was done and that I wanted to port my number over from Vonage and I was connected to the third party transfer voice prompts which I answered and said yes I wanted this done. With that done I settled in for a wait - thinking it would be 15 days or so.

Cut to June 3rd, when I realized that, not only is my Comcast voicemail broken, but my phone number had not been transfered. I called and received a nice person telling me that they would contact the porting group and get this solved. I actually believed her.

I believe I called again before my 4 calls starting on the evening of June 13th. Here's how that went:

1st call: I asked the tech to find out what was going on with the porting - she said she would get the porting group on the line with us to figure it out. I was then put on hold and 1 minute later I was disconnected - please note I was calling from one of the Comcast phone lines.

2nd call: more frustrated, I asked to speak with a supervisor - I spent some time railing about my problem - I was put on hold so she could find out more and again, I was disconnected.

3rd. Call: called again, this time from my Vonage line, got a supervisor, went over the whole story yet again and received no help, no explanations and only a weak sorry. No "I'm really sorry and I'll make this a personal mission to make sure you get credited for the inconvenience" just more, we'll look into it. I would have even been a little happier if she had accepted blame for the problem. She also did not know why this was happening. Please note I did NOT get disconnected... hmmm coincidence?

4th call:
Ok, I was done - I'm sitting there talking with my wife about how poor /non-existant their customer support is and I get a call from Stacey, a Comcast person in the porting department. She tells me they have no record of me going through the third party verification test back on April 23rd (So, this must be my fault, right?). She does see a note that says transfer number from Vonage but I guess that's too vague, so it was ignored.

I try to get her/Comcast to accept responsibility for this fiasco but again, that's not happening. "we don't know exactly what happened", is what I hear and have heard all night. I ask about being credited again and I am told, "I don't work in the billing department, but I can transfer you." - that's what I need, to argue with yet another Comcast employee that won't care or accept blame for their screw-up. I say, "no, I don't need the hassle, why can't you take care of this for me" - what follows is pretty much the same answer, in various forms. I give up.

She says I have to go though the 3rd party verification again. Fine, I'll do it again. I go through it again and hear the thanks for choosing Comcast at the end and want to shout at the phone.

The next day - June 14th, 2008, I get a call from a tech at comcast asking if I have an appointment for a phone problem - I tell him no, and the problem I have isn't with the physical phone equipment - it's just the porting of my phone number I'm having problems with. This guy, it turns out, is the same one who did the original install and is amazed that I'm still waiting for the port . Me too. Me too.

I've also sent an email to the Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, but don't expect to hear an answer because, when you're a monopoly like Comcast, your customers don't have to like you, they just don't have much of a choice.