Customer Service !@#$%^

Even since I can remember myself growing up in my home country, relatives from the US would always bitch about the bad service, the slow response and the less-than-average quality abroad. So, after spending 20 plus years there, being fed up with all the bureaucracy, delays and non existent service (more about that later), I was thrilled that I would now reside in a system where everybody works to service and support the public/customer.

Well, let me inform everybody in the US and in other less developed countries that things are far away from perfect in the States.

When I first signed up for cable tv from Comcast, the lady on the phone (aka The Stoned) kept wanting me to go 20 minutes drive and pick up the equipment on my own. I called later in the week and another representative had no idea and said that they ship the necessary box to your home address. The Stoned also wrote down an incorrect social security number for me. Two months later, I wanted to cancel some movie channels, so I logged on my account on their website to change this. For my surprise, online you can only ADD and not REMOVE features; of course, why would anybody want to make easy for you to pay less, while the same time they want to make it as simple as possible to pay more. I then called the customer service and The Stoned was no longer working there; the person who I spoke with could not process my request because the social on file does not match the one I was giving them. As if some identity theft would involve me getting 5 less tv channels. I offered to fax them whatever the hell they wanted, but that wasn't good enough. They wanted me to take time off work, take a train and a bus to one of the three ghettos in the area (why are all the Comcast offices in the ghetto anyways?) and solve this in person. This way, the managed to have me pay $30 extra for 10 months. Also, after I moved they were refusing to cancel my subscription and sent me a nice $400 bill, which of course I got back.

Verizon is awesome. I have to admit that their dsl rates make overpriced cable internet look like a joke. And I don't want to hear anything about ping and bandwidth. 5 years ago people had AOL dialup. In my new apartment I wanted to get dsl for internet access, so I signed up with Verizon. In a week, I called to see the update and nobody had any idea about my account or my dsl (note: I ordered dsl without having home phone line). A month later they said everything is ok, but still the dsl modem showed line (not just internet) error. After another month and waiting approximatedly (I did calculate this) 4 hours and 20 minutes on the phone, I managed to cancel as well.

By the way, check the dsl status in other countries to see who is less developed. And, also why the hell do I lag like crazy in Steam with comcast cable?

Customer service = corporate service.