On the mend

For those of you who are not aware, I was in a kinda’ nasty bike wreck on Jan 4th.

I broke my nose, bone under my left eye, ripped up my arm and shoulder, got a concussion, and beat up my head in general.

Luckily I just got insurance a mere few DAYS before the accident.

But here is the worst photo I have as no one (thankfully) took pics when I was REALLY beat up.

Comcast customer “service”: A corporate culture of active deception?

Issues with Comcast customer service people and truthfulness

TEXT BELOW IS EMAIL SENT TO COMCAST

Let’s start from the beginning for this account.

A little over a year ago I moved to a place in Oakland and called to get Comcast cable and broadband.
When I signed up I asked if the rate was introductory.

I was told that it WAS NOT an introductory offer/price.

Six months later my bill shot up and I called to see what was going.
I was told it WAS indeed a 6 month introductory offer.

The person I talked to when I signed up had lied to me.

I used your CHAT service to talk to a rep (see blog post copy of transcript from July here)
The rep was no help and at the end of the chat told me to call.

I talked to the retention department via phone after my wasted time in online chat and was the person tried to offer me something to make up for the lie about pricing.

The deal was that I would upgrade to HD TV and get a DVR for about the same price we were already paying.
Sounded good to me, but because I had already been burned before by lies from Comcast, I asked point blank if THIS was an introductory offer and was told that it WAS NOT.

Skip ahead another six months: I got my most recent bill and it had jumped over $20 per month.

I called and was told that the price WAS an introductory offer.

This is the second time (for this account, 3rd from Comcast overall) I have been told this SAME lie to get me to either not leave Comcast or to signup for service.

This is the 3rd time this EXACT thing has happened to me with Comcast.
The first time was with an account in Indiana.

I should have learned my lesson after the 1st, perhaps the second time a Comcast employee blatantly lied to me, but I honestly didn’t think it would happen again.

Every time I call Comcast I feel like:

1. No one actually cares about my situation.
2. They will tell me whatever they think I want to hear to get me off the phone.
3. Customer service people seem to know that they can say whatever things they want and I will have little ability to find the person who lied to me.
4. I have to talk to 3 or 4 people to get anywhere as no one on the phone seems to have the ability to actually address any issues.

Right now I just want the price I was told 6 months ago.
I really don’t know what it is with your company but you seem to have institutionalized a culture of lying and that is NOT good.

On top of this all the HD DVR we have from Comcast is just a horrible device.
WHEN it works it has the worst UI I have ever seen.
It crashed constantly, doesn’t record shows properly (my two attempts to record the season finale of Mad Men both failed), and looks like it was cludged together from very disparate software.

I have also been trying to use the new computer-based webTV streaming service and for some reason it keeps telling me I need to sign up in order to access HBO, but we pay for HBO already.

Here is my info:
Matthew A Meyer
317.288.1763

My bill needs to be adjusted so that it is $90.34 this and all subsequent months.

Regards,

Matthew Meyer

12.27.2009 The Colts game where the crowd acted like children

full set here

3D pictures from my trip

Entire set here
Break out your red-blue 3D glasses and these images should do that whole fancy 3d thing

Click on a picture for a larger version which will look better with glasses.

Some surprisingly cool looking pics of terrain from my flight 12.31.2009

The entire set is here

Pacific Coast Brewing Company Holiday party 2009

Full Photos set here
My video on YouTube
My video on Vimeo

Select Photos

Blushin’ Roulettes

VIDEO
TV Mike and the Scarecrowes

12.12.2009 071 from zebtron on Vimeo.

12.12.2009 129 from zebtron on Vimeo.

12.12.2009 130 from zebtron on Vimeo.

12.12.2009 131 from zebtron on Vimeo.

12.12.2009 Pacific Coast Brewing Company 001 from zebtron on Vimeo.

12.12.2009 Pacific Coast Brewing Company 002 from zebtron on Vimeo.

12.12.2009 Pacific Coast Brewing Company 003 from zebtron on Vimeo.

Santafriends

Internet video for 11.19.2009

FLAIRS – TRUCKERS DELIGHT

FIRST VID

Warning: This is VERY NSFW! and you should watch it if explicit cartoon bizarre sex offends you either

The Pop-up Book of Phobias

The Pop-up Book of Phobias from donvanone on Vimeo.

The (jet-powered) truck I want for the zombie apocalypse!

The Frictionator at La porte Indiana Monster Truck show

Some old animation

Trans Face.divx from zebtron on Vimeo.

Exploding Skull.divx from zebtron on Vimeo.

South Park S13 Episode 12: “The F Word” (taking away the nasty meaning)

I have to admit early in the episode I almost turned it off because they were using the word “fag”, but I stayed with it and am glad I did if only for the google adwords buy that southparkstudios made (go to the very bottom of the image)

How about we take some sting out of a word.  Makes sense to me.

Dolores Park

Full flickr set