Comcast: Signing Up

I called Comcast on a Thursday to get information. The customer service rep (CSR) that I talked to told me internet service would be $23 per month for the first year and then $43 per month after that. I could install it myself or I could have them send a technician out to do it for me for $50. I could supply my own cable modem or they would provide one for $3 per month. I would need to supply my own networking equipment.

The very next day, Friday, I went to Best Buy to price a wireless router and adapter and wound up buying those plus a cable modem as well as a splitter and some coax cable so I could do the install myself. I then called Comcast to tell them to sign me up. The CSR, a different one than the previous day, proceeded to quote me a price of $19.95 a month for the first year and then $42 per month after that. I thought it was odd that their pricing had changed from the day before but since it was cheaper I told her to go ahead and sign me up. She proceeded to put the order into the computer or rather she proceeded to try to put the order in but she didn't know how to do it and finally had to call her supervisor over to do it for her. I thought this kind of odd given that her job was to take orders but whatever.

She then asked me when I wanted to schedule an installer to come by and I explained that I'd been told the day before that I could just do the install myself. So she tried several times to put it into the computer but couldn't figure out how to do it and rather than call her supervisor back again instead insisted that we had the wrong kind of services for a self-install and said that we would have to have an installer come out. So I said alright and set up an appointment for Monday figuring I could have the installer look at the cable outlets scatter throughout the house and see if they were usable instead of having to have the cable modem with the television which is at the extreme opposite end of the house from where I want to put the computer.

So Monday rolls around and the installers show up. They're nice and professional and quickly determine that the other cable outlets aren't hooked up and consequently can't be used without doing a lot of work so I tell them to just put the cable modem with the television and I'll deal with it. They then proceed to connect a splitter and hook up both cable box and modem. The only thing they do that I couldn't have done for myself is install a Comcast cable modem since I didn't have one. They explain that they can't use my cable modem because I bought it from Best Buy instead of Comcast and so I'll have to call Comcast tech support and give them information from the modem and after about three or so days they'll put the modem information into their system and then I can use it. In the meantime I've got to rent a modem from Comcast.

There's absolutely no reason why I couldn't have done the install myself as the first Comcast CSR told me I could. The second Comcast CSR just didn't know how to enter stuff into the system despite it being her job.