Futher adventures in Comcast

So my adventures with Comcast continues.... Here is the time line.

Wednesday
7pm
I notice I have no Wifi, turn on TV and am not getting a signal either.
7:15
I call Comcast they tell me there is an outage in my area that I will have service within 24hours. Sucks to be me but oh well.
8pm
Pick up Mel from Back Bay Train Station, we get in fight over something stupid. Not good after not seeing each other for three days.
9pm
Pipes start clanking, obviously landlord did not fix the problem when he was here on Monday.
(two things above non-relevant to Comcast, just saying)
9:30
In bed frustrated.

Thursday
7:15 am
Go to walk Ramona and run in to two neighbors, both informed me they had cable all night. Intersting.
7:30am
Call Comcast on way to work, they tell me there was no outage and that I have to be home to troubleshoot and I should call back later. So this could have been taken care of the night before?
6pm- 6:45pm
Call Comcast and get a person right away. After I give him all my info he transfers me to someone in the internet dept because they might be able to help even though both my cable and internet are out. I wait on hold for 15 minutes before getting a person. After repeating all my information the rep determines that my modem is broken and schedules a service call. The call is scheduled for Friday 11/13 from 12-4pm. She then transfers me back to the cable dept., I have to repeat all of my information again. The rep tries a couple of things and makes a note on my service call that both my cable and internet are out. I re-confirm my service call is Friday 11/13 from 12-4. I also tell them I do not have doorbell to please call. They say they call before they arrive.
7:45pm
I get an email from Comcast saying I have service call scheduled for MONDAY 11/16 from 8-11. WHAT?!?!?
7:55pm
I call Comcast and get a message saying I have a service call from 12-4 on Friday 11/13. I cannot even deal. I leave to drop HC off at Mel's, I pick up a 6 pack.
8:05-11pm
Watch TV at Mel's, we make up from our stupid fight and drink some beer. Life is good.

Friday
7:30am
I call Comcast to confirm my service call that day. The nice rep confirms it is from 12-4pm and laughs after I tell her about the email.
12pm
I get home and wait for me service call.
1pm
Jen calls to chat and confirm weekend plans.
1:30pm
The Globe calls to try to sell me more days of delivery. No dice.
2:15 pm
Jen calls again about bringing the dogs to run in the park. I say I can come up because Comcast is supposed to call me before they arrive.
3pm
I get an email saying Comcast canceled my service call for the day. HELLO? Good thing I have an iPhone because my internet is out I would not have received this email via computer.
3pm-3:15
I call Comcast and am told the service guy tried to call me at 2:30 and I did not answer. After explaining I have been here all day and received other calls there is no way they tried to call. She says she can only tell me what she sees on her screen. They do not attempt to come to the door if someone does not answer the phone. Also, they do not even leave VM. She can get someone out between 4-7. So again I am being held hostage for 7 hours in my apt. waiting for Comcast. There is much frustrated yelling on my part since this is not the first time this has happened. I always feel bad after but I am literally helpless.
3:15
I tweet my frustrations.
3:20
I meet Jen in the park frustrated and angry and she has to listen to me bitch for a good 1/2 hour
3:25
I post a huge complaint status on Facebook and @comcastbonnie wants to know what she can do. We tweet back and forth.
4pm
I hunker down ready to wait for another 3 hours for Comcast to arrive.
4:05
I hear a knock on the door, and it is Comcast. The guy remembers me from when I had 5 Comcast guys in my apt trying to troubleshoot my TiVo and cable card. He is super nice and love Ramona even though she is barking at him. I ask him if he tried to call, he says NO. Interesting.
4:15
Everything is fixed, the connector by the house was corroded. He replaces it and lo and behold my cable and internet are back. I guess my modem was not broken after all.
He asks me if I want 3 months of free HBO and tells me it will just go away after 3 months. Why yes I do. Thanks sir.
He tells me to have a nice night.

So that folks has been my further adventures with Comcast. It is such a mixed experience each time. The service guys are always nice, and I get better response from Twitter then when I call. I wish they would just make the process for service calls better. Call at least twice. If you cannot get through can't you have someone from the office try? If the internet is out then do not send emails, people without internet will not get them. It was not the end of the world not having cable or internet for two days but it would be great if I could get some reliable information so it gets fixed.

Head full of useless knowledge

It is no secret that I have a lot of useless knowledge in my head, mostly having to do with pop culture or entertainment. I am not sure why this type of information sticks with me when a lot of important stuff flies right out of my head but it does and my friends and family know this. It makes me good at trivia.
Last night I was sitting at home catching up on TiVo and I get this text from my friend KS....

Crazy enough I knew exactly that LHOTP stood for Little House on the Prairie, but the rest of the description was clearly not enough to come up with a a plausible answer. I actually paused my TiVo and thought about it for a good 10 minutes wracking my brain. I texted back, "I need more Info"
About 10 minutes later KS called me and said if she had more info she would know who it was as well as to illuminate me on why she was stalking a D- List celebrity at her local corner store. I asked more questions like, can you think of a small role she might have played or any actors who were in the TV show or movie she was also in? Nope. All she could tell me was she was an annoying younger sister type with curly blonde hair and big teeth, kind of goofy. We managed to talk it out some more and landed on the time frame being the 80's. I threw out shows like Growing Pains, the little girl is too young, Rosanne, it wasn't the first Becky but a good guess, Full House etc. Then we started talking movies. I was thinking John Hughes right away. KS said she is definitely a John Hughes type character. Then a light bulb went off. The little sister in Some Kind of Wonderful. Not the youngest sister that was Candace Cameron of Full House but the middle sister....YES!!! That was it. KS was amazed I managed to pull that out of my butt but hey that is the stuff that is burned in my brain. I have a lot of stupid useless knowledge taking up valuable space up there but this time it resulted in an impromptu catch up session with a friend who lives too far away from me these days.
In case you do not remember the little sister here is a picture from the movie to jolt your memory. Ms. Maddie Corman ala Laura Neslon.



and of course you all remember her, Watts...because we all know after HS was over she dumped stupid Keith Nelson went on to become a big old Mo.


and who did not want to be on the other end of this kiss....



enough said.

Peace

I was just as surprised as anyone the other morning when I heard Obama won the Nobel Peace prize. My first thought was, what!?!?, that is weird but then I remembered the day after he was elected and the celebrations held around the world. I was so moved to see people in the streets of England, Germany, France, Africa etc gathering and supporting us again.






Leicester Square England(Leon Neil, Getty)

The last time that happened was the solemn days after 9/11. There are many people in this country who do not want to see Obama succeed. I do not understand this. No matter how I felt about Bush I knew if he failed our country would fail and that is exactly what happened. Do we really want that to continue, it is obvious the rest of the world doesn't. If the good people of Oslo gave Obama this prize for bringing the world together again around our great nation after many years of alienation then I can get behind that. I believe Obama and the U. S. can live up to those expectations. Don't you?

-- Post From My iPhone