My 3 most recent experiences with customer service people...

[PITTM]

1) Comcast Cable- its been a year and a half now since they "100% guaranteed" to me that i would have HDtv. I have been calling about every 2 months to see what is going on. ive been told wrongly about 3 times that HD was ready and that i should go pick up my box only to be looked at like im an alien for asking for an hdtv box "who told you we had those"...

3 weeks ago i finally get an email saying that comcast hdtv was now available in my area, rad! so i call customer service to have them change the plan, and they change it and tell me all i need to do is go get my box, which is totally available now...right? nope, again, the people at the local comcast store have noooooo [censored] idea what im talking about when i say, "can i have my hd box customer service just told me to come pick up?" so i steam, go home, call customer service and they tell me they must have made a mistake, but to MAKE IT UP TO ME...they can put me on an email list telling me when it will come out...she doesnt realize how ridiculous what she just said is, i hang up. FINALLY, yesterday there is an article in the local paper how HD finally became available, yesterday, may 6th. so again, i call comcast, cool, now its totally available, the customer service person SERIOUSLY tells me that they have 10 boxes in stock at my local store. i celebrate and get in my car and make the drive over there. 10 minutes later, i arrive at the comcast store, at which the lone employee tells me they ran out of hd boxes the day before. i have never had such an urge to go on a killing/burning everything down spree as i did at that moment, but i saved my venting, i had more to do. I called comcast and asked to speak to a manager, and after being on hold for 30 minutes i was connected to one. after listening to me tell him that i wasnt mad at his employees, but that i was mad at him and the other managers because it really has to take serious effort to run a company this poorly. he apologized and put me on hold...10 minutes later...he gives me the "inside deal"...aka they will credit my account with 25 dollars and theyll deliver me a box on tuesday...great, only 2 [censored] years late...i would say there is no company i hate more than comcast at this point.

(note: i live in a condo complex and one of the bylaws of the complex is that you cannot have even the tiniest of satelite dishes on your roof, this is why im stuck with the company most comparable to satans [censored])

and this is only the first of 3 experiences mind you, yeah, it was probably the worst.

2) I decide that since i cant use hdtv for awhile that i should get some component cables to hook my ps2 up to my tv in a more visually appealing manner. so i call gamecrazy(our local video game store) and the following conversation takes place:

"hello, welcome to gamestop, blah blah"
"hi, i was wondering if you had any HD component red, green and blue cables to connect my ps2 to my hdtv?"
"yes, in fact we do, theyre on sale for 14.95 right now even"
(note: i had done some research and i knew these cables usually sold for around 30 so i was pretty stoked)
so i tell him ill be there in a minute and i drive down there and walk into the store and the next conversation(with the same guy and only person working there occurs:

"hey, i called a few minutes ago about the component cables"
"oh yeah, let me go get those for you"
(at this point he picks of those complete piece of garbage stock ps2 yellow, red, white connectors and says,

"oh, it looks like theyre not on sale anymore, theyre 25 bucks now"

"oh, i actually wanted the component ones, those are the ones i asked about, and you said they were 14 dollars..."

"yeah, i thought you were talking about the regular cables, sorry"
(okay, im pretty pissed, but maybe i can get them somewhere else, so i ask)
"is there any place around here where i could get the kind of cable im looking for, maybe radioshack would have them?"

(get ready for a gem here)

his reply:

"i dont really like dealing with stores like radioshack when it comes to video game accessories, they DONT REALLY SEEM TO KNOW WHAT THEYRE DOING" there was really nothing i could do but walk out and reflect on the state of mankind...its pretty pathetic.

3) i take my "waterpipe" to get fixed at the local "glass shop" after i knocked it over and cracked it. its a 300 dollar piece so i was a little worried about it and wanted it in the right hands. last time i had taken it to get fixed, the store ended up telling me it would be fixed the next day for over a month until i told them i would hire an attorney if they couldnt produce the item i had brought them to fix. i learned my lesson and went to a better, nicer shop(that also charged me twice as much) and gave them my piece to fix on wednesday, april 27th and they guaranteed me it would be ready by wednesday the 4th, rad. so wednesday afternoon i call in and ask if its ready, they say no, it will be ready friday, they were just backed up a bit, but he PROMISES me that it will be ready friday. So yesterday i call them and ask if its ready and the guy tells me that it is cooling off from being in the kiln and that i could pick it up later that day or anytime saturday. i was busy last night (thankfully apparently) and so i call again this morning, at which point they cant find my order and have to call the owner of the store to find it, at which point he says it is not done yet, but it probably will be tomorrow.


i swear to [censored] god, NONE of these places took ANY accountability for their repeated "guarantees" and managed to be about 0 for 8 in their combined guarantees. I guess all this has accomplished is that it has added to the list of stores i will never ever go to again, except for comcast, which the city FORCES me to use if i want to watch any non-network channels. what a load of crap...sorry for the venting but is all this not outrageously unreasonable?

rj