Out on the golf course doesn’t seem to be the greatest pastime anymore. It costs too much and takes too much of your time. Walking and physical fitness seems to have been creeping up steadily. So, in between what you like to do and maybe forced to do is getting some munchies and hoisting a few before a movie-sized TV screen. A great pastime for the Century Village aging community, even with 60% story and 40% ads, or on some shows 50%-50%.
But, how many of you have experienced your TV making weird noises, your picture flutters and then dies right before your eyes. It then looks like your TV went bust, but after a bunch of scuffing noises, and picture interferences, your screen goes blank. If you fool around with the buttons, and that’s probably the average thing that people do, you might get information on your screen that it is re-loading, re-booting or what have you, and it will take five minutes, or a certain loss of picture code that you need to talk to Comcast about and it gives you a phone number, or a half-dozen sets of instructions that cause you to foam at the mouth.
So, you’re watching your favorite program or the news or you’re into a movie and you lose your picture and it doesn’t’ want to come back so quick. Totally flustered, you then pick up the phone and if you have a phone number handy, you call COMCAST. Now, you’re in for an experience.
Of course, you’ve got to have the patience of a 5 o’clock commuter on Okee. Aha, you reach a live person, - a real person who you can converse with you who speaks an unfamiliar dialect. You explain your problem to this person. That person is sympathetic and kind and appears to have a prepared document to read from. If you’re like the average person, you get this TV picture loss frequently. As a matter of fact, some people lose their TV picture 3 or 4 times a day. Others, 2 or 3 times a week. And even others who say that they never lose their TV picture and they’re either lying or they don’t watch TV very much.
You convince the COMCAST person over the phone that the problem you’re having occurs so often that you really need a technician to come out to your apartment. They try 10 or 20 different ways to talk you out of it, but if you hang in there, they’ll agree to send a technician our in 2 or 3 days hence. So, you’ll suffer a little while longer. But, it doesn’t end with that call. Subsequently, you’ll get a call from India, - yes India. And that person - speaking a broken King’s English - is going to try and walk you through getting your TV to work again instead of having a technician come out. Yeah, that’s right, -- from India a person is going to tell a 70 or 80 year old CV resident how to correct the problem.
Then you’ll be inundated with follow-up calls from COMCAST, some of which are electronic, and intimidating the hell out of you. You could get 3 or 4 calls the days before they intend to be at your apartment to be sure that you’re going to be home, and their window is about 5 hours.
Well, it doesn’t work well at all. Your TV will not be fixed. It will happen again and again. Alright, the technician arrives, and he may be at your apartment not on the day scheduled. The tech goes through the motions, looks things over a bit, goes downstairs to their distribution panel box, maybe installs a new resistor or installs a new cable box or tells you that you had a loose wire, or some other cockamamie story that he or she hopes you will accept. COMCAST will even try to bill you about $40 if they determine that it was not their equipment at fault.
We, the people of Century Village, have a continuing contract with COMCAST for over three million dollars a year. And, besides that, - you’re paying monthly. And, believe it or not, if you’re a new owner, you’re expected to pick up your necessary equipment from COMCAST and install if yourself. If COMCAST has to come out to your apartment and install the equipment, including the necessary cables, - then you’ll need to pay for that work. There is nothing in the contract that says otherwise.
Alright, you pay, then, it doesn’t work so good. Then what? Try going to UCO and discussing that faulty TV picture problem, and asking them to resolve the ongoing issue with COMCAST. You are treated like you’re a trouble maker. They don’t know how to handle the matter nor do they want to. The big question is “WHY?” Instead of telling COMCAST that they’re not delivering a service which is expected of them, they choose to back away and do nothing.
Why is the UCO administration (Israel & Black) doing nothing about continuous COMCAST TV problems happening throughout the Village? It’s like the $5.2 million dollar paving job; award it and then do nothing to see to it that it’s carried out correctly. It’s like buying a loaf of bread for 10 bucks and then finding out the bread is stale and you’re doing nothing about it.
From what I have learned, COMCAST does not want to increase their signals or do whatever they have to do in order to correct this ongoing TV picture problem that is happening to many, many people. COMCAST, it seems, has taken a band aid approach with the intention of pacifying CV residents until they “learn to live with it.”
If you have experienced any part of what I’ve spoken about hereinabove, then in order to get this current administration to act, you need to band together and make demands upon UCO to get COMCAST to fix the problems or violate their service contract; in which case monetary penalties may be in order. Demand that UCO deal with the problem because they have the contract with COMCAST not you. Oh, they’ll try to give you a BS story as to why you must deal directly with COMCAST yourself. Don’t let them get away with it . . . make it their problem.
Three million dollars plus, - - one would expect no problems. But, if there are problems, one would expect that they would be fixed expeditiously, without cost to the apartment owner, and the fixes are made permanently. Bob Marshall, -- are you listening and do you care? Are you capable of being able to address this matter prior to your trips to purchase cookie and cake using a permission note?
EDUARDO
Bob Marshall is useless. Never has anything to say and can only do one thing at a time - first waiting for lightning and then about the bar codes and everything else - nothing to report. NOTHING. And that is UCO. They will not do anything about it except to try to tell you that it is the fault of those who opposed his ridiculous and faulty Wi Fi system, the one that did not work in Boca and the next one he was and still is trying to foist upon us. If something needs help - give it, but his behavior is the same as with Sheffield O - nothing until forced to.
ReplyDeleteMY TV GOES OUT ALL THE TIME. YOUR DESCRIPTION OF WHAT COMCAST DOES IS ACCURATE. I AM TIRED OF IT. WHY SHOULD I PAY FOR SUCH TERRIBLE SERVICE. UCO SHOULD BE DOING MUCH MORE TO CORRECT THIS PROBLEM.
ReplyDeleteBOB MARSHALL IS THE ONE IN CHARGE OF COMCAST QUESITIONS, BUT IN THE OCTOBER UCO REPORTER, HE HAS NO COMMENT IN HIS COLUMN. WHO DO YOU CALL NOW,.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Marshall.......... The man goes outside 4 times a day while at the UCO office and stares at the sky. He mutters "IS IT LIGHTNING OUT YET? WHERE IS THE LIGHTNING? I KNOW THERE IS LIGHTNING. IF I GO INTO THE BATHROOM, I KNOW I'LL SEE IT!"
ReplyDeleteThen he utters "WHEN I GO BUY COOKIES AND CAKE USING THE NOTE THEY GAVE TO ME SO I DON'T FORGET TO GET 6 CHOCOLATE COOKIES TOO, I MIGHT GET STRUCK BY YESTERDAY'S LIGHTNING. HUM-HO."
COMCAST gets the "Picture" in dealing with Marshall.