Demand Satisfaction!

I have a confession to make. I sent Bob Garfield a vigilante postcard.

Garfield is the abrasive and acerbic co-host of NPR’s “On the Media” radio program. He’s also a take-no-prisoners Advertising Age editor and critic who also keeps a blog called Comcast Must Die, where he rants about his ongoing hatred of all things Comcast. He’s tough, if not lovable, and I admire his chutzpah. But sometimes he makes me want to yell in his face.

So I did, sort of. Six years ago, after listening to him lambast the publisher of Loompanics (now out of business) for peddling controversial books that show you how to make bombs, I decided I had had enough of Garfield’s contrarian, mister-smarty-pants attitude. I grabbed a postcard — I think it was a GoCARD — and fired it off right then and there.

I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize for that rash act: Mr. Garfield, if you received a postcard in the mail six years ago that simply said, “You suck, Garfield!” — well, that was me. It was a one-sided and not at all polite act, and I probably did it because I felt powerless to reach you or argue with you. I’m sorry. I was a complete cad.

I was reminded of Garfield’s blog when I sent off a few slightly cranky e-mails to Comcast this past week. My Internet service had gone down. (Thankfully, my favorite neighbor I’ve never met hasn’t figured out how to password protect a router, so I could at least get a limited Wi-Fi connection.) Perhaps I’ve grown a little wiser in the last few years because I put forward a less rowdy demeanor. I told them — in numerous phone calls in tandem with my e-mails — that I understood that Comcast was having a tough time dealing with the massive storms that were hitting San Francisco, but that I was dumbfounded as to why I couldn’t get a consistent response or updates about my outage. Was it the storm? My modem? Why was I getting completely inconsistent (sometime opposite) responses to my questions from different support folks? Why couldn’t I get a technician at my home? The standard answer I got: Try again in four hours.

Then, late one night after spending hours testing my modem, cables, and connections for the fortieth time, I found a customer support Easter egg on the Comcast site: an invitation from Senior Vice President of Customer Operations Rick Germano to e-mail his office with questions. This program is apparently called “Ask Rick,” and it’s designed to be some sort of special operations customer service force. Although I was skeptical that it could make a difference, I figured I had nothing to lose. I restated my case in my e-mail to “Rick.” I got another “thanks for your e-mail, we’ll get back to you” message. I went to bed angry.

The next morning, I received a phone call from Lola Gill, a representative from Comcast. She apologized for my service being down for nearly a week, and she helped me get a technician on-site within 24 hours. She was incredibly nice. She promised to call back the morning after a technician had visited my apartment. It got fixed (thanks technician Bill!). She called back the next day. And, she apologized when she called because it was after noon — not the morning as she had promised.

Having my service interrupted for a week sucked. Wading through the mess of phone and e-mail support was tedious and frustrating. Paying Comcast a fortune to support my Internet habit hurts, as always. But that personal contact made a heck of a difference.

I wonder if Bob Garfield gets those calls.

[ Comcast is on Get Satisfaction. ]