48 hours with no phone

Posted Tue October 3, 2006 11:52 am, by Christina K. written to Comcast Corporation

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My phone service stopped working this morning at the worst possible time. I heard some noises out in my drive way and when I went to check, I found my car door open, my stereo and some other things stolen, and a man with a backpack hurrying off in the distance looked really suspicious to me so I ran in to call the police, this is when I first noticed my phone didn't work.

I had a dial tone, but when I dialed the numbers, it was just silence. The calls would not connect. I tried some other numbers to see if it was my service or that particular number and it happened no matter what number I called, including the operator.

I tried calling customer service, but ofcourse that wouldn't work either, so I had to log onto the tech support online.

First I had Eileen instruct me to reset the eMTA, and I had no clue what it was. She had a difficult time explaining it to me, and when I finally figured out what she was talking about and followed her instructions, it disconnected me from her and took the dial tone away from my phone for several minutes. When I finally got the dial tone back, I tried my call again and got the same result.

I had to log back onto the online tech support, and this time I had a long wait. I got Michael, and I explained the situation to him. He created a repair ticket, informed me that I could not receive incoming calls either, and told me it would be 48 hours for my service to be repaired.

Each person I spoke to was informed of the situation with my car broken into, and none of them seemed to care about the urgency of the situation. I felt as if Comcast didn't think my issues with the Comcast service was their problem.

Michael even made it a point, when I tried to explain to him that I couldn't be without phone service for 48 hours, that he'd been assisting me for "17 minutes". I felt this was very rude and inconsiderate, especially considering my circumstances at that time, and the fact that most of the 17 minutes was spent waiting for his response, as he seemed to be in no hurry at all. I thought it was very unprofessional.

I requested to have my issue escalated to a manager, understanding that Michael did all that he was authorized to do, but Michael told me to call customer service. I reminded him that I could make no phone calls, and he told me to use a payphone.

I definitely do not pay over $120/month to be told to use a payphone, and my family has no other phones. I need my phone service to be reliable, and if something happens to it, I expect the company that charges me for the service to treat it like an urgent matter.

I would like to see Comcast make an attempt to show me that the reliability of my service is important to them. I would like to feel as though Comcast took responsibility for all of the inconveniences that this has caused.

I would like to be reimbursed for the time that I am unable to use my service with Comcast, because I don't think I should have to pay for something I can't utilize. This, however, will not make up for the inconveniences caused by my sudden lack of service, without enough notice to arrange for another service.

I am pregnant, have a 2 year old at home, and should not have to go to a pay phone when I pay to have phone service in my home, nobody should have to. I was very upset at the way the respresentative informed me that it would take this long, as if it was no big deal at all.

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Re: 48 hours with no phone by supercomcastgirl Posted Wed October 4, 2006 @ 8:30 PM Okay Okay, I feel your pain, and as a person who does work with comcast I would like to say sorry for the inconvience and to give you some trouble shooting steps that you should always do if your servive happens to go again. first of all, if you can't make or recieve calls, more then likely or at least most of the time it is your phone. but there are steps you can take to get DT back. first of all, unplug all the phones in your home. the emta (the modem usually called an arris modem) check to see what lights are flashing. try to do what you said Eileen told you to do. using a pen or some small object, stick it in the reset hole. this doesn't always work, so hardreset it. this means, unplug your modem, remove the batter from the side and wait approx. 30 seconds. but be sure to remove the battery, this is the powerback up that ensures you have a phone when the power goes out. and if it's still there and you inplug it, then nothing. theres still power in the modem. doing so I will warn you will turn off the modem and id yuo have HSI also and someone is surfing the web then they will get bumped as you did. okay so now your plugging in your modem again. take a corded phone (reg phone) not a cordless phone and plug it into the back of your modem. it should go into the first port.( the phone plug on the back of the modem) if by chance you have two lines, plug another phone into the other port. (once again the phone plug on the back of the modem) check for a dial tone. if at first you don't have DT hit the reset button using a pen or bobby pin ot even a tooth pick. the reset button is the little hole in the back of the modem, check for DT again. try calling out then. 99% of the time when you lose DT or even your internet doing this simple step is usually guarenteed to work. hope this helps you in the furture. oh and as for the way Michael helped you and told you it would be 48 hrs. well that is the time frame that we are given for no dial tone issues, well actually we are told when opening your ticket 24-48 hrs, depending on your area. I know some places or markets have a mean time to repair (MTTR) of 98-132 hrs. you will be reimburished for the time you were without service and most times when you call, you are given a $20.00 customer first credit on your acct. if you did not recive this when you esclated this issue then if and when you call back in ask for it!!! have a comcastic day! Reply Actually... by TattleTale Fri October 6, 2006 @ 1:17 PM Re: 48 hours with no phone by Jeffrey Posted Tue October 3, 2006 @ 2:25 PM This is terrible. With VOIP (such as Comcast is providing), always have a backup. A regular (non-cordless) phone is best. A cell phone. Do not rely on these VOIP services, since they don't work when there is no power. They don't work if there is extraordinary network traffic. Reply ACTUALLY.. by TattleTale Wed October 4, 2006 @ 5:28 PM Great! by Jeffrey Thu October 5, 2006 @ 10:39 AM Switch Glitch by TattleTale Fri October 6, 2006 @ 1:21 PM Hard Wired Phone? by Harleycat Fri October 6, 2006 @ 3:27 PM Re: 48 hours with no phone by Starlight22203 Posted Tue October 3, 2006 @ 2:04 PM I'm curious if the cops ever got called? That is horrible. I hope they help you. Reply They finally did by TattleTale Wed October 4, 2006 @ 5:30 PM