About Me

nerd.of.steel: Rocco Augsuto

I am a Web Developer, Consultant, and Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) based out of the City of Roses - Portland, Oregon. I have over 15 years of education and experience in the art of Web Design and Development and have no plans to stop my quest for knowledge anytime soon. Over the past year I have been moving into the mobile Internet space and started developing applications for the Google Android platform.

Comcast+Twitter=Fail

Posted: Jul 15, 10:18 PM

I was on Twitter today complaining about a problem I have been having with Comcast’s Internet service for a little over a year now. When it works it works great, but several times an hour I lose service completely. As a professional Web Developer you can imagine how frustrating this is. After making numerous complaints to Comcast over the past year, switching out my router, going through several new cable modems, asking them to send out repair technicians that never arrive, and bashing my head against the wall – I have just decided to live with this annoying problem and complain about it every now and then on Twitter.

Comcast decided to take notice of my complaining today and tried to help out…. that is if you call trying to get me to send my personal account information over Twitter to them helping out. When I did not agree to do that their crackerjack staff of social media experts then decided to access my account anyways, without my permission, and brag about it on Twitter as if they did a good job.

After spending over an hour being completely disgusted by their lack of privacy measures, I decided to compile the whole Twitter conversation into a neat little dialog that you could enjoy. Below is a copy of that transcript.

therocco: I love how without fail my Internet dies for 5 minutes everyday at 6:15PM. I hate you #comcast.

ComcastBonnie: @therocco can i help?

therocco: Unless you have a magic switch you can flip to not make my service blow, I highly doubt there is anything you can do @ComcastBonnie

ComcastBonnie: @therocco you’d be surprised :)

therocco: @ComcastBonnie I would be surprised as my neighbors and I have been filling complaints for over a year and service STILL drops constantly

ComcastBonnie: @therocco DM the phone# we have on file for you so i can check the node you’re on. prepare to be amazed ;)

therocco: While I appreciate your good intentions @ComcastBonnie… there is no way I’m DMing my phone or any information to anyone over the Internet.

ComcastBonnie: @therocco google me :) “bonnie smalley” check nytimes article

therocco: I shouldn’t have to Google you, @ComcastBonnie. If the problem is so easy to fix I shouldn’t have to turn to a public forum to get help.

therocco: @ComcastBonnie If #comcast cared about fixing the problem it would have been fixed a year ago, not when I complain on Twitter.

therocco: @ComcastBonnie and if Twitter is the key to getting help with a #comcast problem, why the heck do you have a support line?

ComcastBonnie: @therocco if you don’t want the help, you can just say no :/ i’m here to fix the weird issues, which sounds like your node’s problem

therocco: @ComcastBonnie If getting help from #comcast means sending my personal information over Twitter’s insecure network, I’ll pass. Thanks anyway

ComcastBonnie: therocco so email it to me bonnie_smalleycable.comcast.com

therocco: I really don’t think you understand, @ComcastBonnie. I will NEVER email or send any personal information to anyone I don’t physically know.

ComcastBonnie: @therocco so you’re telling me you wont give a phone rep your information either?

comcastcares: therocco This is just another communication method some prefer, not 4 everyone. If change opinion comcastbonnie or any of us happy to help

ComcastBonnie: @therocco it’s ok, i have your information up right now. you dont even have to send it ;)

ComcastBonnie: @therocco you and 24 have a huge signal problem, rest of road checks out fine. FYI, you need a new battery for phone modem

therocco: @ComcastBonnie I would give a phone rep my information because I would have called them, not because they’re trolling Twitter.

therocco:comcastcares I didn't ask for the communication method nor did I ask ComcastBonnie to access my account and publicly state it on Twitter.

First things first – What the hell is a matter with you Comcast?! Is this your first day on the Internet?! Have you never once stopped and read any Internet code of conduct and safety that states you NEVER give out personal information over the Internet. Do you not realize that a majority of Twitter communication is not done over a secure Internet connection? Have you never stopped and thought you yourself, “Hm, maybe it isn’t a good idea to have our reps ask for that information since anyone could create a Twitter account and pretend to be a Comcast rep.”

Now I am also seriously confused to your Twitter customer service methods because every time I call your customer support line trying to get assistance for any problem, I have to verify my physical address, my phone number, and the last four digits of my social security number. However complaining about how much I hate your service, that you refuse to send a repair technician out to fix, on Twitter seems to enable you to not only pull up my personal information without verifying that it is indeed my account, but pulling up my neighbors account as well and then posting their address number for the world to see on your very public Twitter account!… Followed by a bunch of emoticons non-the-less! You’re suppose to be a fortune 500 company, not a 14 year old girl chatting with her friends on MySpace! How the hell can you call yourself a respectable company and then winkyface at me after you invade my privacy in the most disgusting manner possible?! I just don’t get it!

Is this a sign that if any customer has a complaint about Comcast and publicly states it in an open forum that your customer support reps are going to access our accounts without permission and post details about them online? Does this mean that your customer support centers are useless and now if anyone wants help with a Comcast problem they have to use Twitter instead?! Please Comcast, for the love of god, explain to me how this cluster **** is in any way acceptable what-so-ever!

UPDATE (7-17-2009): I got a call this morning from Comcast’s Executive PR Department regarding the recent Twitter snafu. The person I talked to was incredibly charming and apologetic and offered to send over one of their Executive PR Repair Technicians to come out and fix the problem right away. We also had a nice discussion regarding Comcast joining the social media world and how this is an incredibly new world to them, so they’re learning as they go along. Instead of being angry and asking me to take the blog posting down, Cindy Wood owned up to the privacy concerns and even requested recommendations from me to help make the service they provide better through Twitter better and safer for their customers. As unhappy as I have been with Comcast over the last several years, Cindy was totally classy so I wanted to give her a “Thank You” for finally helping me get this year long problem taken care of.

4 Responses to "Comcast+Twitter=Fail"

  1. Asciidan said:

    Jul 21, 12:09 PM

    Hey. Just wanted to tell you how seriously off base you are on this.

    I’m a Time-Warner subscriber, and have been fighting them with a service issue for over six months. Finally, someone has helped, but it took a lot of wrangling to get it done. Had someone like Bonnie offered help via Twitter, I would jump at the chance. And while I agree that perhaps sending a phone number across the Internet isn’t the smartest idea in the world, the fact is that both your name and your city of residence are listed on your Twitter page, along with a link to this site. A quick search on 411.com or something similar finds you…plus two businesses I can only assume you own. I can’t imagine it would be hard for ComcastBonnie to put your name and city into the Comcast database and find you.

    The point is, before you get too worked up about privacy, look at how much you’re actually putting online. And next time someone offers help, ask them to DM THEIR phone number to you.

  2. Rocco said:

    Jul 21, 12:49 PM

    There are several things wrong with your statement

    a) Comcast’s various Twitter accounts are not printed on your bill sent every month directing you to Twitter if you need assistant, instead there is a call center phone number. I have been calling that number for more than a year and should have had a technician sent out the first time they told me there was a problem with my lines – not a year later.

    b) I never verified any information with ComcastBonnie, she had no way of knowing I was actually who I claimed to be and in no way should have pulled up my account and Tweeted about this. This is something that even Comcast has admitted was terribly in the wrong and an invasion of privacy.

    c) The information that is available about myself online is information pertaining to the one company that I own that I want online. Not my personal and private information, such as my home phone which is connected to my Comcast account.

    d) Until this whole situation started, I never heard of ComcastBonnie. For all I know she could have just been a person trolling Twitter looking for information. I also do not have the time to research my customer service reps, thats why I call the verified number on my bill.

    e) I was never seeking out ComcastBonnie’s assistance on Twitter. I should be allowed to vent when I dislike a company or product and not have to worry about them contacting me online and continuing to pester me when I obviously do not want their assistance. Sometimes the best form of customer service is to let the dissatisfied customer rant and complain. If a person is at the point of complaining, sending out snide and cute remarks to them then telling them to charge a battery in piece of electronics in their living room, that they should have no business looking at, is not a good way to defuse a situation.

    Besides that I really am sorry you had to deal with your Time-Warner situation for so long. It is incredibly frustrating thing to deal with since their whole business model revolves around entertainment and we pay a lot to be able to access that entertainment.

  3. Asciidan said:

    Jul 22, 07:49 PM

    There is actually nothing “wrong” in my post; rather, you disagree. That does not make me wrong.

    There is, however, something very wrong with your entire argument. In fact, it goes to the very heart of your argument: There was NO invasion of your privacy. You are a Comcast subscriber in Portland. Bonnie is a Comcast employee. Your Comcast subscriber information is between you and Comcast. In fact, you have LESS a right to that information than Comcast does. Your subscriber information belongs to THEM, not YOU.

    Bonnie saw your complaints and offered help. When you acted belligerent, she gave you the option to turn down the help, which you did not do. So, trying her hardest to be helpful, she went ahead and dropped your name into the Comcast computer. Not too hard, and certainly not even close to being outside her duties.

    I hope everything’s cool for you now. Sorry you had a bad experience. I do agree that you shouldn’t expect better service from someone on Twitter than you’d get on a customer service line, but I also think you should give Bonnie a break. She was trying to help. That should count for something.

  4. Rocco said:

    Jul 22, 08:35 PM

    Accessing the information was not the invasion of privacy but instead posting information pertaining to my cable modem as well as my neighbors street/house number was.

    If doesn’t matter what information Comcast owns, Comcast DOES NOT reserve the right to post that information in a public forum. It doesn’t matter how much you feel otherwise since Comcast agrees that it was wrong and called and apologized for it.

    Since I agreed that it was wrong and Comcast agreed that it was wrong, by extension of the majority vote from both parties involved in this conflict, that means that you are wrong in your statement that I am “seriously off base you are on this.”

    Also, trying to help and making matters worse doesn’t count for anything – no matter how good intentioned someone was trying to be.