Posted by josh at July 26th, 2008

There’s a story on Slashdot right now about how Comcast is reading blogs that mention them as a way to try and improve their image among customers. I guess Comcast has a generally bad reputation when it comes to customer service.

I just wanted to mention that I personally had a good experience with Comcast this week (not perfect, but quite good). I think that if a company is really trying to turn itself around and provide good service, they should be recognized for it, so this is my part in doing so.

This week I needed to move my internet service from my old apartment into my new condo. I called Comcast customer service on Sunday at 6PM (+1 for having 24/7 customer service) to schedule an appointment. The 800 number made me choose 2 or 3 menu options (+/-0) after which I talked to a human being almost immediately (+1). The person I talked to was friendly and helpful (+1), though the first available appointment wasn’t until Wednesday 8-12 (+/-0). The cs rep gave me a discount on the visit which is apparently $100 and cut it down to $10 for me (+1!).

On Wednesday I stayed home from work from 8-12 waiting for the rep. I didn’t wake up until about 8:30am and then I took a shower, so by nine I was slightly concerned by the possibility that I could have missed the field tech. I just didn’t want to find at noon that I had waited four hours in vain and would have to stay home from work for another four hours on a different day. So I called the 800 number again, again was able to talk to a rep almost immediately, who again was friendly and helpful and able to answer my question right away — they could confirm that the tech hadn’t visited me yet (+1). So I waited at home until noon.

By noon the field tech still hadn’t arrived (-1). I called the 800 number, again almost immediately talked to someone friendly and helpful, and the rep said they’d contact the field agent and have him call me. 10 minutes later the field agent calls me and says he’ll be there in 5 minutes. 5 minutes later he’s at my doorstep.

The field agent was also friendly and helpful (+1) — he was happy to explain a lot about what he was doing, he took the time to do the job right, and he even ran speakeasy’s bandwidth test on my computer once he was done. When he left he gave me his card and said I could contact him with any problems.

So it looks like Comcast is really doing the right things to turn their image around. And I think that should be recognized (at least for as long as the level of service is like what I experienced this week).