High-speed to no-speed
Montpelier man has a not so 'Comcastic' experience
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Bo Muller-Moore, creator of the Eat More Kale slogan, sits next to his laptop where his business e-mail has been disrupted since Comcast became his high-speed Internet provider. Jeb Wallace-Brodeur/Times Argus |
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By Rachel Feldman Times Argus Staff - Published: November 25, 2006
MONTPELIER – Adelphia cable's high-speed Internet users were promised a "seamless transition" when Comcast Cable took over from bankrupt Adelphia. Well, it seems the seams are bursting.
"They switched us to Comcast without even a heads up," said Bo Muller-Moore, owner of the T-shirt company eatmorekale.com in Montpelier. "The day they switched, the Internet was down completely. I couldn't get e-mail or get online. Two days into the problem I received a mailing that discussed how to deal with the upcoming transition."
He said the mailing read: "Your Adelphia service is now Comcast. Welcome to a world that's ComCASTIC!"
It's been anything but.
Comcast's switchover of its high-speed clients in Vermont began Nov. 15 in the southern part of the state and then in the north the following day. The Vermont Public Service Department, which oversees cable utilities, reported it was "swamped" with complaints from users who could not get online or do business on their Internet connection.
While hundreds were reported affected, Comcast officials said by last Friday that most were back online. Muller-Moore was not one of them – and he still isn't.
"Last week I had no Internet access," Muller-Moore said. "I got it back on Saturday, it was normal until Monday, and then things went screwy again." Muller-Moore, though able to receive e-mail, couldn't send outgoing mail from his Comcast account.
Eatmorekale.com, like most retailers, does more business during the holiday months. Muller-Moore's sales are conducted entirely online and through e-mail. He averages 10 T-shirt sales a week this time of year. "This month, very specifically, I do national business," he said, "which has to be conducted completely through e-mail."
Over the past week, Muller-Moore has had inquiries from England and the West Coast, but since he has been unable to respond, he chalks them up as lost sales.
"Comcast couldn't have had worse timing," he said. "People can still place orders, but the people who have inquiries must think I'm blowing them off. It's really important to be able to answer questions about sizes, delivery times and exchange policies; those are the things people think about when they decide whether or not to support a business."
Muller-Moore also likes to offer a level of customer interaction that the e-mail failure has left him unable to do.
"Every time I receive an order I like to immediately respond and thank the customer, tell them when they can expect their shirt, and in this case I can't give them anything," he said. "Right now I'm just leaving people hanging in cyberspace."
When Muller-Moore called Comcast to try to get the problem fixed on Monday he found that the help desk was anything but helpful.
"I was on the phone with Comcast for an hour, thinking the problem was just with my machine," he said. "They said the problem was that I hadn't changed all the settings on my e-mail account, but at the end of the hour is when the guy said 'Whoops, there's a problem in your whole area, let's change the settings back.' An enormous waste of time."
"In this age of technology they should have seen that I was from Montpelier and known that there was a problem in this area, but to have me go through all those steps only to reverse it doesn't make sense."
A visit to Comcast's Web site only turns up one contact number, for the 1-800-COMCAST help line.
"The days of local offices are gone," Muller-Moore commented. "We end up having to call India when it's a specific and local problem." Muller-Moore found himself getting increasingly frustrated with what he called an "out-of-touch" support team, none of whom were clued in to the fact that the entire Montpelier area was experiencing difficulties.
"There's no way to get in touch with the New Hampshire office. The closest I got to the local office was St. Louis."
Muller-Moore called Comcast on Wednesday to check when full e-mail access would be restored. "The first thing I asked was if they were still having issues," he said. "They said yes. I asked when it would be fixed and the lady hemmed and hawed and eventually said '4:52.'" But at 5 p.m. on Wednesday his e-mail still would not send outgoing mail.
"I'm paying $120 a month for Internet and cable," he said. "Wouldn't you think for such a premium price you would get premium service?"
Comcast acknowledged Friday that the Montpelier area is still experiencing a "major outage," which has had customers calling for days. As of Friday night, notwithstanding promises to the contrary, Muller-Moore's e-mail still had not been fixed.
"At least now though they aren't just pulling times out of thin air," he said. "But that doesn't make it any less of a pain in the you-know-where."
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