Buying Dangerously: Bad Comcast - Comcast is first, Customer... 2nd?

Firm Success & Failure

Fred Reichheld: The Ultimate Question
Reichheld is THE expert on Loyalty. In this third book he gives a blistering indictment of the kind of corporate behavior that leads to what we experience as buying dangerously. Read chapter one and cheer. Read the rest to find out what his somewhat simplistic, but challenging solution is. (****)
Al Ries & Laura Ries: The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR
"Advertising has no credibility - it's the self-serving voice of a company eager to make a sale." But PR, they say, is much better.... (****)
Paul Ormerod: Why Most Things Fail
Ormerod is an economist with serious credentials who has become a leader in the growing mob of non-conventional economists. In this book he presents "The Iron Law of Failure" (according to the cover - actually this is hard to find - its not in the contents nor index, its on p. 222) and applies it to business and governments. From the cover: ".. he also makes it clear how desirable social and economic outcomes may be achieved when individuals, companies and governments adapt in response to the actual behavior and requirements of their customers and constituents." (*****)

Every month I get an email from Comcast telling me my Bill is ready to see online. I would expect to click on the link and see the bill, but thats not what Comcast does. Here's their instruction in the monthly email:

To view your bill, go to http://www.comcast.com/payonline . Enter your User Name and Password, and from the next screen select GO from the VIEW YOUR BILL option.

So instead of one step, they have 3 or 4. Not good.

I enter the name but cant remember the password. It has the usual place to get help if I cant remember my password, and try it. It asks for my secret question and right under it, it says my secret question has expired. Not withstanding this, it wont go on without the password. What has actually happened?

Turns out, I find out later, that in fact I never had one. I DID have a password for Comcast.NET for my Comcast email account but not Comcast.Com, for my Comcast billing account. Oh. It took me 35 minutes to find this out.)

One would think that Comcast had enough information at this point to -
1. know what I was trying to do
2. know that I was not able to do it
3. know that it was suggesting an operation that would not work
4. be able to tell me what I should really do.

But it didnt. Instead, it suggested I call a number to help me. I moaned, 'Not a Customer Service number.....". I called it and the options, as expected, gave no clue how to get the information I needed so I start hitting options to get to a person and ask. From there, countless entering of account info, giving my name, explaining the problem, and new phone numbers where it starts all over again.

Finally, I find out I have no account for online access to my bill (so why did they send it?) and that to sign up I need a PIN number, supposedly sent to me some time ago, and which they will now mail to me, so I can register for online access to Comcast.com, then enter my account in 3-4 steps when I want to see my monthly billing. Another 30 minutes of signing up ought to do it! And they wonder why I want to continue to get my bill be regular mail!

The problem here: Comcast operates as it wants to, not as customers want it to. Navigating their billing process is as bad as navigating the Comcast cable access. Why don't they make their managers, policymakers and IT people navigate the systems they set up so they can see how bad it is? I'd like to see a member of their Board of Directors contact Comcast with a simple question to ask. Watch them to an automated option that doesn't include what they want to do; enter their account number and id themselves again and again, watch the frustration grow. Or even just hand them one of the 50 button remotes and ask them to find a something they would like to watch. Hah! I always say a CEO should be red-faced with rage at the reading of the typical pile of customer complaints. But, of course, he or she never sees them. They have been sanitized into a bullet point or two, with the rage and passion of the jilted customer filtered out by lower level minions. Not the way to run a company. Do you agree?

Comments

We would agree with you regarding that. Because of that we are making many enhancements that will address most, if not all, of the points you mention. I expect these enhancements to be made in the summer. I do apologize for the frustration we have caused.

Frank Eliason
Comcast

Posted by: ComcastCares | May 10, 2008 at 03:02 PM

Well thank you, Frank. Nice that Comcast is listening to its customers. Of course it would have been better if the process was fixed before it was made live, not after. Will Comcast take steps to check that the new process works (as a customer would judge)? That would be a real innovation. Thanks!

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