That Was Weird

So, something happened to me yesterday that I’m having a difficult time understanding. Unfortunately, I have to be quite vague about this because I don’t understand the long-term ramifications of what happened (and what didn’t happen) yet to put any details into a public forum such as this. I probably won’t ever detail it much here.
The problem is that I’m very disturbed about what happened and I get to think about it for the entire long holiday weekend now. Since this happened yesterday, each time I try to calmly think through the event I get angry, saddened and frustrated to the point where I have to distract myself and go on to something completely different.

So, I apologize for being so very vague about what happened. I hope that someday I can speak of it publicly… but not today.

More Comcast Fun

You just thought my issues with Comcast were in the past, right? I was concerned that the multiple people at Comcast Support who promised me that I would be fairly compensated for my outages and the billing would be correct would in fact be speaking the truth, but of cource since this is Comcast it isn’t that simple.
I’ve been tracking my Comcast account online through the “Customer Central” web site and as of yesterday it had the following posted at the very top of the page:

Total due $33.51

What would you think is meant by “Total due by 05/22/2012: $33.51” when you read that? Yep, that’s what I thought, too. However today I checked my bank’s online account system and see that Comcast’s AutoPay charged me for $93.51. Hmmmmm, that’s strange… it doesn’t match what it says it the “total due.” In fact, it’s off by exactly sixty dollars. Remember that number.

So I look at the account online and see a bunch of generic charges and credits — none are itemized to reflect what they’re actually for so there is no way to tell. At the bottom of the page is a section called “Pending charges” that lists a $60.00 amount, again with no way to determine what these charges are:

Pending charges

There is a link on the page to download a copy of my paper statement, but it was generated on 27 April and does not reflect any of the credits (and apparent charges) on the online account activity page. So I called Comcast billing support and got the BIG RUN-AROUND.

I first called in and got “Tommy” (OPID 19392). I asked him a simple question: “Why does the amount due listed on my online account page not match what I was actually charged?” I hoped that he could get access to specific itemized charges and credits that added up to $93.51 and tell me why the top of the page says $33.51 instead. Tommy didn’t understand, and I suspect people like Tommy are kept on to frustrate and confuse honest, hard-working customers who need specific information. He placed me on hold four different times for multiple minutes to “verify” something (he never said what he was verifying) and then he still did not appear to understand my original question. I asked him for his operator ID because I try to document all of my conversations with Comcast with specific names or ID numbers and he was very hesitant to provide me his ID number. I had not yelled, insulted or demeaned him during our conversation; I had only explained that I didn’t think he understood what I was asking about. I wanted to document the call, not file a complaint against him. Begrudgingly he finally gave me his ID number. I then asked him to escalate me to a supervisor so I could explain why question.

After over four minutes on hold somebody answered and quickly told me her name, but the person speaking apparently had a bad or malfunctioning headset because there was a lot of static whenever the person was speaking. I couldn’t even understand her name, and then when I explained that the static was preventing me from hearing anything she was saying clearly and was distracting me when I was trying to talk she said nothing. Eventually I asked that she call me back on the number on my account because the call quality was untenable. I hung up at the 21 minute mark. No one called me back.

I called back into the main support number again and was eventually connected to “Kenneth” (OP ID 33715). He seemed to sort of understand my question, but he wanted to explain to me the entire billing and statement process, which was not my original question. I point-blank asked him “Why is the number on the account page say $33.51 when I was charged $93.51?” He again wanted to walk me through the intricacies of my bill, when the statement is generated, etc. I again asked for a clear and current statement that itemized all of the charges that added up to $93.51 because that is what Comcast billed against my AutoPay bank account today, but he said that I did not understand what he was saying. I then asked him to escalate me to somebody who could provide me with the itemized list of charges and credits and he said “they will tell you the same thing.” I finally asked him, since I had now spent most of my lunch hour on the phone, to have somebody call me back to explain the charges specifically. I honestly doubt anyone will call, based on past performance from Comcast.

My biggest gripe at this point is that the only up-to-date information about my bill that I can access online says the total due on 22 May is $33.51 but Comcast took $93.51 from my bank account. If they cannot provide itemized documentation for the charges when I request it I feel they have committed theft. Until they they attempt to explain it to me I will tell everyone I know (including the investigative teams at the local TV channels) about Comcast’s despicably-low level of customer support and their THIEVERY.

Update 25 May 2012: I’ve just noticed that Comcast has not adjusted the amount I was charged and it was still $93.51 as noted in my bank’s online account info page:

When I access my Comcast online account page I see that I currently have a credit for $60.00 on my account, which jives with what I was told on the phone. It appears that Comcast cannot or will not remove the $60 charge for May and has credited to my account for June. Meanwhile, they have $60 of my money for a whole month that a) they do not deserve, and b) could not adequately explain. I won’t get my formal statement until the 27th so I STILL DO NOT have any type of itemized explanation of the amount I was billed on the 23rd of May. Again, unless they can explain to me in detail what they charged me for I consider it theft.

Update 2 for 25 May 2012: I had a voicemail from “Heather at Comcast Corporate Escalation” confirming that I had called and requested more information about my billing. She also told me what I had already gathered, that I was erroneously billed for a technician visit and something called a “HD Technology fee” (WTF does that mean) which accounted for the pending $60 charge. She said she had credited my account the $60 and it would appear on my next billing cycle. Way to call late on Friday afternoon before a long holiday weekend — that’s shows lots of guts.

So, Comcast, you’ve already told me the original issue was not in any of the cable or equipment on my property yet you’ve billed my twice for technician visits at $50 each and some mysterious “HD Technology fee” even though the problem was caused by a damaged trunk cable in the alley? And you’ve bungled the billing where I cannot even determine what these charges are and your representatives are unwilling or unable to explain it to me? Oh, you’ve managed to charge me for items that were not appropriate for the problem anyway and took the money from my bank account? You’ve now issued a credit to my account but you’ll go ahead and keep my $60 for another month until the next billing date?

I’d be in jail if I did this to somebody. What a crock. After the weekend when I’ve had a chance to calm down a bit I’ll be finding a new broadband provider and canceling my TV and internet service as I don’t appreciate being overcharged and robbed.

That Same Old Song

As I sat outside on the front porch the evening with the dogs my neighbor across the street came over to chat. He had been working on his front windows all day and said that earlier he noticed a red SUV parked along side my truck for a few minutes. He said they apparently did not notice him on his porch, but they sat there for a while before taking off. He thought it was odd and since he knew about the multiple break-ins in the past he thought he would mention it. Sounds like they were casing my truck.
I assume this means means I should expect a visit from the stereo thieves again soon. Yay.

I really don’t have time for this crap again: I had a pretty bad week and just found out my camping plans for next weekend have been cancelled. Try finding an available campsite in Colorado less than a week before Memorial Day weekend. Well, you can but it will be a five-hour drive at the best. Also, other stuff happened. I’m glad last week is over.

Another Fabulous Saturday

With a forecast of cool, rainy and gloomy for Saturday the girls and I headed up to play in the mountains. We didn’t have a specific plan for the day, but I knew what would make at least one dog happy: water.
Our first stop was the whitewater park at Lawson. There was no one there again (it was cool and rainy), so the girls had free reign. Lucy waded in a bit but she’s smart enough to know she can’t swim in the strong current. Fabi was in the water and crashing over the rapids as usual.

After an hour in Lawson we hit the road again. I thought taking the girls to Loveland Pass but I suspected that it would be packed with day-trippers again, so I kept on I-70 and exited in Frisco. After a quick tour of the town we were headed south to Leadville. I had never taken US 24 back north from Leadville so off we went. After passing through Ski Cooper we stopped at Camp Hale, site of the 10th Mountain Division. The dogs were more interested in digging through the brush and rolling in grass (hopefully on grass) so we headed back into Leadville where there didn’t appear to be much going on. I like Leadville but they’ve recently become rather unfriendly towards dogs by banning them from their big festivals and events. CDOT had updated their signs to indicate that Independence Pass was already open for the summer so I decided the girls would get a new sign photo opportunity. First, however, we would stop at Twin Lakes for a swim.

They were in the water before I could get down the hill

Next it was on up to the top of Independence Pass. The light snow of the winter and the unusually hot spring had left their marks on the pass: there was almost no snow to be seen on the way up and everything was already fairly green. There was, however, enough snow at the pass to make it an interesting proposition getting from the parking area to the observation overlook over the ridge but some creative snow sliding across a few drifts got me through. I had visions of getting the dogs to pull me out of the drifts if they proved too deep; luckily I did not have to rely on their lighter weight on the crusty drifts.

Independence Pass

After ninety minutes or so at the pass I was ready to hit the road and we continued west towards Aspen. Again, there was almost no snow at all on this side of the pass — but there were some really awful “Sunday” drivers in front of me riding their brakes all the way down. We passed a small herd of deer in the road just outside of Aspen before hitting the sprawl. It was getting late at this point so I just continued through to Glenwood Springs where we briefly stopped at a rest area along the Colorado River. Fabi has scratched another river off of her list of major rivers in which to swim, but I kept her close as the river was rolling pretty hard and fast. We finally made it home after 10 PM and several light snow storms where we all crashed out for the night.