Chat with a Comcast agent ...

I went outside today and saw that the cable lines were not attached to the poles and were just resting on branches in trees ... so I decided to call the company, then e-mail them, then finally to go on one of their live chats, just to tell them that they should send someone out to fix their lines ... here is the transcript ... it would be comedy if it wasn't so depressing ...

Comcast Live Agent Chat
Chat History
Alberto has entered the session.
DG: I need help
DG: HI
Alberto: Welcome to Comcast Live Chat Support. I will be assisting you throughout this chat session.
Alberto: I am sorry, but I do not completely understand your request, could you please clarify?
DG: Ok ... in front of my house your wires are hanging in the trees
DG: They seem to be loose, not supported by anything
DG: I tried to phone & email, but they wanted to schedule an appointment, and frankly, I don't care, I just am telling you that you have a problem
Alberto: I understand you want us to schedule a technical appointment to fix a problem outside your house. Am I correct?
DG: No, I DON"T Want your freakin' appointments!
DG: I want you guys to fix your lines
DG: They aren't even on my property
DG: Can you understand that your lines are not secured and I am telling you that?
DG: ???
DG: R.U. there?
Alberto: In order for us to fix this issue, we need to schedule a technical appointment.
DG: So schedule it, send one of your trucks out and fix it, not my problem. If you don't care if your cables are lying unattached on the neighbors trees, just hanging there waiting to break, that's not my problem.
Alberto: To better assist you, I will need the following information:

1. The 10-Digit Phone Number as it is listed on the
account.

2. Your full name as it is listed on the account.

3. Your complete home address where the service is located.
DG: Get your manager or someone who has a brain to read this, please
Alberto: As mentioned above, I can set up a technical visit.
Alberto: And I need to access an account in order to setup that visit.
Alberto: May I have the information requested above in order to setup the visit?
DG: Good bye

I live in a townhome where comcast is provided as part of the association fee. Their customer service is so bad, I paid to have verizon fios installed.

I'm pretty sure Alberto isn't a real person....

Actually, maybe I am pretty hopeful Alberto isn't a real person, but he probably is...

Obviously what you wanted to do is outside of their canned script. They do not understand your request and have no instructions to think outside of the box. This is what you get when you pay someone in another country $2/hour.

It sounds to me like "Alberto" was not really a person, but some kind of bot programmed to detect certain words, with automated answers based on those words. Just the fact that he said "Hello" and then immediately said he did not understand your request, when you didn't even have time to make any request, sounds very suspicious.

"He" read "wires", "hanging", and "loose" and based on those words determined a service call was necessary. When you did not supply the correct information "he" didn't know what to do, so "he" asked for them again. When you still didn't give them to "him" "he" got stuck in a loop, and asked the same thing over and over.

I've done live chats with AT&T personnel and it seemed like there was a real person on the other end because he addressed my specific questions and used regular language in his answers. Your experience sounds more like the 2nd circle of techno-hell.

I wonder if there is a way to verify that "live chat" guarantees that there's a human being on the receiving end of the conversation, and that it's not just an alternate version of an automated menu.

Quote: DorothyGale

... here is the transcript ...

Check the "Not Always Right" website. You may be featrured in an entry shortly.

Quote: tsmith

I wonder if there is a way to verify that "live chat" guarantees that there's a human being on the receiving end of the conversation, and that it's not just an alternate version of an automated menu.

Sure. Just ask who is the President of the United States. If the answer is "what are you smoking, sir?", you are talking to a human. If it is "I am sorry, I was unable to understand your request", it's a bot.

Quote: tsmith

It sounds to me like "Alberto" was not really a person, but some kind of bot programmed to detect certain words, with automated answers based on those words. Just the fact that he said "Hello" and then immediately said he did not understand your request, when you didn't even have time to make any request, sounds very suspicious.

Actually, I knew a lady once (about 3 years ago) who worked at Comcast doing just this. She was a real person and she was in the United States. There were times I called Comcast and I actually spoke with people in Denver.

Sounds like a speech recognition bot:
Sometimes a live person comes in at the end to confirm things and types as if he were the "person" who had answered the preliminary questions.
Ireland used to be a great source of customer service departments because of their fibre optics systems there. US Companies still outsourced but no longer to India. Then the economic revolution made it too expensive.

These programs used to be used for Rogerian therapy and one licensed therapist could have several simultaneous clients each of them thinking he was in a private chat with a person.

I don't know which is more maddening a computer program that doesn't realize it has to schedule the appointment with itself not you or a dumb person who doesn't realize that you don't care when they show up to fix their own lines outside.

Please say your grandmother's maiden name or press the pound key for more options.

Yeah, it was obvious it was a computer.

I've had similar conversations. I forget the type of company, but I was left unsure if I was talking to a computer or a person.


At any rate, I would have gone ahead and scheduled the appointment. When the tech arrives and finally reads the job order, he probably won't even knock on your door.