Why spend the money and risk the toxicity of ipecac when a simple phone call to Comcast or Time Warner or whatever label of evil it wears this week. If anyone has ever tried to cancel an AOL account, by comparison that's a nice message and spa retreat next to the horror that laughingly calls itself "customer service." It's much the same as pretending Baby Face Nelson was "bank security."
It all started when I discovered the basic cable that was supposed to be part of my lease was actually bootleg, after several years. Being an honest sort of idiot, I called and asked the rates for a legal hookup, requesting digital basic cable and being quoted a price. (They had a special deal on the market less than 48 hours later, but sure didn't offer it to me, gouging me for installation as well as a crummy monthly rate, and it was nearly a week's wait to hook up.
The "technician" who showed up seemed to be part of some ill-conceived program to hire the mentally deficient and seemed puzzled by a rather simple task. (Cable ready TV, coax already in place.) He kept going outside and each and every time had to be reminded to close the door to prevent letting the elderly indoor-only cat out. Before he was done, he did let the cat out and it took a couple of hours to coax him back inside. He brought fleas with him.
At one point, this fool simply left, installation incomplete, and drove off. I was furious, even with his explanation he had to go climb a pole to connect something. Also, the contract had a different price than quoted and for regular, not digital service. I would have to pay even more for that and would go back in the waiting line for an installation so I decided to give up. No negotiations were successful in getting them to honor the quote, despite many calls. No one even bothered to apologize for the simian installer, either.
He insisted that some channels had poor reception "because it's not a real new TV" and nothing could be done about it. TV reception here is nearly impossible without a thirty foot antenna or cable, so I was stuck. Since I don't own, satellite was a hassle, too. The last straw was deleting some of the channels and requiring a premium service to get a TV guide listing!
Fortunately, AT&T fiber-optic service became available, a way around the neighborhood monopolies of cable providers with twice the channels for the same rate. I jumped at the package along with internet and phone. A couple of days later two squeaky clean and polite installers set up the wireless hub and control boxes quickly and efficiently. The channels my TV supposed was incapable of getting were oddly crystal clear.
It took exactly 21 calls to disconnect the Comcast service. Their automated "service" should you ever actually reach it requires about 12 layers to get to an alleged human being. Seven times I was disconnect while on hold, and the person reached seemed to have difficulty understanding it was already "unhooked" and replaced and I just wanted the billing ended. Previous calls to customer torture, er, service had been to report outages which were always greeted with "we don't have any outages in your area" as if I called simply to amuse myself.
Once I was told that squirrels were probably chewing on my wires! I couldn't help wondering if these were two legged rodents on the Comcast payroll. You are supposed to receive billing credit for any day with an outage, and outages are very common. They'd tell you a credit would be issued, but it never appeared on the next bill. Each time except one fluke required another encounter with their office the next month to demand the credit.
Every contact with AT&T has been efficient and professional. They even send out a "satisfaction rep" a few days after installation to answer any questions and make sure you are having no problems, actual customer service that makes Comcast look even worse by the comparison.
If the circumstance ever are accepting Comcast or doing without cable, I'll be the person outside erecting the antenna.
