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Where Is the Love: UC to Call Center?

Having spent time in Florida with my family recently, a discussion arose with a family member as to why the Comcast bill increased when services were reduced and equipment for recording movies was returned to the company.

The bill was about $68 monthly, and after deciding that the DVR wasn't needed and the equipment was returned to the local Comcast office, the monthly bill increased to $131. The fiasco started a few days before Thanksgiving when the service was disrupted during the holiday, followed by the unexpected rate hikes.

After calling on customer service, the frustration level grew, so another trip to the Comcast local office seemed in order. The representative promised the bill adjustments, and an email confirming the new rate of $47 arrived in my inbox. However, shortly afterwards, the billing statement showed a new monthly payment of $131.

When I reviewed the bill, it didn't match the confirmation email, and the Web portal for customers didn't match the paper bill. In fact, voice services were activated in early January, and installation and delivery fees were tacked on too. The customer service portal doesn't allow for "self service" and, at best, it is cumbersome to interact with.

The next call with the two of us to customer service lasted more than 33 minutes and the account authentication process (name, address, phone number) was repeated twice--once to the first agent and again to the next agent. After moving from these agents, the same information was repeated again to another representative in the "retention department," since the prior agents could not adjust the billing to reflect the changes. While waiting on hold for the agent in the retention department, our call went silent and then dead. Wishful thinking for a callback after giving our number out three times ended up landing us back at square one.

Calling back again, naming the agent and department still required that we authenticate the account by repeating the essential information once again (name, address, phone number).Then we had to go through all the facts, dates, changes and prior attempts to resolve the billing dispute yet again.

We spent over an hour on the phone and repeated information numerous times to resolve the billing nightmare and remove the services that were not only never ordered but also never installed, since voice services require a visit by a Comcast technician. The next day we logged into the Web portal and happily found that the online information reflected the new rate of $47, with details of the charges matching the original confirmation email. However, this process became complicated once more when we demanded backdating of the credit to the original date in November.

Whatever misfortune a company can lay on their customers usually originates from interaction with the call center, and in this case, not only did the call center process fail but the Web portal didn't function or sync with Comcast field offices. Self-service, in this case, translates to pushing until you get the promised results, giving up and living with the problems, or disconnecting completely.

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@telecomworx
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