Keep my Comcast appointment or cancel?
February 19, 2017 5:38 PM Subscribe
My intermittent internet has been working fine since I called yesterday and made the appointment for tomorrow morning. Should I cancel or keep the appointment?
Comcast, SE Pennsylvania.
Last week, starting on around Wednesday, I had terrible intermittent internet. Pages wouldn't load for 5-10 minutes at a time. It was frustrating to say the least; I almost missed out on an Amazon lightning deal! I googled around (when the internet was working) and it looked like other people had a similar problem, (there was something about a large wire being cut in the south and general sluggishness everywhere), so I put up with it. The internet would go out and when I picked up the phone connected to the modem (landline, not cordless) I got a fast busy, so that wasn't working either - but like I said it was intermittent. I have had horrible dealings with Comcast in the past and I sincerely get anxiety when I even think about calling them.
Friday night, the remote in the bedroom wasn't working; I couldn't bring up the on screen guide or the last channels I watched. I unplugged and did a reset. Didn't help.
So yesterday afternoon, the intermittent internet problem started again and I finally went to call Comcast and got a fast busy again. A few minutes later it was working and I called and made an appointment for someone to come out Monday morning (tomorrow). I was surprised how fast I got a person, and she was very nice which was great. She said she'd send a tech and we would deal with a credit for the days of bad service when it was fixed. I was satisfied.
Well, as you know it would, my internet (and bedroom television) has been working fine since I called - absolutely fine. I don't want to waste their time and feel odd having a tech come out and telling them, "well, yeah, it's working now", but I don't want this problem to show up again.
So should I call and cancel the appointment? And if I do have them show up, and everything is still working fine, is there anything I can tell the tech to help them to figure out what my problem here is?
Thanks in advance for any help!
Comcast, SE Pennsylvania.
Last week, starting on around Wednesday, I had terrible intermittent internet. Pages wouldn't load for 5-10 minutes at a time. It was frustrating to say the least; I almost missed out on an Amazon lightning deal! I googled around (when the internet was working) and it looked like other people had a similar problem, (there was something about a large wire being cut in the south and general sluggishness everywhere), so I put up with it. The internet would go out and when I picked up the phone connected to the modem (landline, not cordless) I got a fast busy, so that wasn't working either - but like I said it was intermittent. I have had horrible dealings with Comcast in the past and I sincerely get anxiety when I even think about calling them.
Friday night, the remote in the bedroom wasn't working; I couldn't bring up the on screen guide or the last channels I watched. I unplugged and did a reset. Didn't help.
So yesterday afternoon, the intermittent internet problem started again and I finally went to call Comcast and got a fast busy again. A few minutes later it was working and I called and made an appointment for someone to come out Monday morning (tomorrow). I was surprised how fast I got a person, and she was very nice which was great. She said she'd send a tech and we would deal with a credit for the days of bad service when it was fixed. I was satisfied.
Well, as you know it would, my internet (and bedroom television) has been working fine since I called - absolutely fine. I don't want to waste their time and feel odd having a tech come out and telling them, "well, yeah, it's working now", but I don't want this problem to show up again.
So should I call and cancel the appointment? And if I do have them show up, and everything is still working fine, is there anything I can tell the tech to help them to figure out what my problem here is?
Thanks in advance for any help!
Best answer: Definitely keep the appointment. This kind of stuff is more complicated than it seems these days and there's lots of things involved. Your appointed tech might see that everything is fine but still swap out some of your old equipment for new things, or they might explain to you what was happening down the line that made it wonky so you can better understand if it's your connection or something wider in future instances, thus minimizing similar incidents in the future, or they might find something wrong even if things are currently working and preemptively fix a problem waiting to happen. Also, like, Comcast is a terrible beast and I'm of the opinion that you should get every single moment of service and assistance that you possibly can out of them. Even if the tech just shows up, pokes around, and says "everything's fine here", you aren't wasting their time - they are still getting paid and you're being treated with respect as a customer, and you can take the opportunity to ask them questions so you can feel less anxious in the future. My dealings with Comcast techs have almost universally been that they are the most capable and knowledgeable folks at the company and can actually explain things and be helpful, and meanwhile you call to ask a question and it's an hour of condescension and misinformation. So like, by keeping the appointment you are doing this tech a solid by justifying their job, and you get logged officially as having been visited by one which will bump you down the bureaucratic line if you have continuing issues, and hopefully they will be able to help you out. (And probably you'll end up with a new cable box or at least a new remote.)
posted by Mizu at 5:53 PM on February 19, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by Mizu at 5:53 PM on February 19, 2017 [5 favorites]
As long as you're not at risk of getting some kind of "incorrect call-out fee" if the tech finds no fault on service, I'd say let the tech come out and tell him it's an intermittent issue. If there could be some kind of fee, maybe you could call Comcast and get them to re-test and work out whether the tech is necessary.
posted by kinddieserzeit at 1:10 AM on February 20, 2017
posted by kinddieserzeit at 1:10 AM on February 20, 2017
Response by poster: Thanks Mefites for your advice - I kept the appointment.
The tech arrived late (yay, $20 credit from Comcast) and he did say my signal had been poor, but after he replaced a splitter and some other things, he said I was good to go. So apparently, even though it seemed fine on my end, it really wasn't.
Thanks again Mefi!
posted by NoraCharles at 10:23 AM on February 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
The tech arrived late (yay, $20 credit from Comcast) and he did say my signal had been poor, but after he replaced a splitter and some other things, he said I was good to go. So apparently, even though it seemed fine on my end, it really wasn't.
Thanks again Mefi!
posted by NoraCharles at 10:23 AM on February 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
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posted by fixedgear at 5:49 PM on February 19, 2017