{"id":22996,"date":"2011-10-07T13:22:54","date_gmt":"2011-10-07T19:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=22996"},"modified":"2011-10-07T13:22:54","modified_gmt":"2011-10-07T19:22:54","slug":"dear-comcast-phone-solicitor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/07\/dear-comcast-phone-solicitor.html","title":{"rendered":"Dear Comcast phone solicitor …"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Couple of things:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You are not a “customer service\u00a0adviser,” or some other fancified title like that. \u00a0You are a salesperson. You are not interested in making sure I’m getting the best deal for my voice and data and video services. \u00a0You are interested in making sure Comcast is getting a maximum amount of money from me. I am not stupid, nor looking for a friend. Don’t treat me like a mark.<\/li>\n
  2. Yes, you are correct (duh) that I am getting cable TV and Internet service from Comcast. \u00a0You are also correct that Comcast would be more than happy to sell me voice (telephone) service as well. \u00a0But when I tell you flatly that “I am not interested in getting voice service from Comcast,” do not verbally nod and say you understand I have “hesitations” and then give me your canned pitch for why voice service from Comcast is so incredibly keen. \u00a0Because then I will say the same words again, add a thank you, and hang up.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Now, if you’d actually asked <\/em>what my concerns and reasons (not “hesitations”) were, then I might <\/em>have told you. Perhaps it is Ludditism on my part, but I kind of like having simple POTS lines into my house for voice service, from a different vendor than my cable vendor. \u00a0Given that our data and video services both have occasional hiccups and outages (sometimes lasting for a prolonged period), running the risk of my voice service suffering from a similar problem (especially at the same time) does not sound like a great idea. \u00a0Power outages, too, make things problematic.<\/p>\n

    (Yes, I could use a cell phone in such a case. \u00a0But our cell phone coverage at the house is irritatingly poor.)<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) works. \u00a0It works both technically and this arrangement has worked quite nicely for me for some time. \u00a0So any proposal also needs to overcome the idea of if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.<\/em><\/p>\n

    (Just to show I’m \u00a0an equal opportunity curmudgeon, I give Qwest — now CenturyLink — the same cold shoulder when they suggest I sign up for DSL on our phone line + a Dish TV deal. For most of the same reasons.)<\/p>\n

    Given that I have received many, many, many emails, fliers in my bills, mailings, and even salesfolk at my door every six months or so, and have never once taken Comcast up on this offer may in fact indicate that I am not interested.<\/p>\n

    Now, if you’d actually asked me, and I’d told you that, perhaps, just perhaps, I might have been willing to listen to your pitch to my points. \u00a0I might have become interested. \u00a0You could have touted impressive system uptime figures, answered questions about how\/whether VOIP works when the power is out, given me what the actual costs were in a way that I could compare to my POTS cost and decide if the cost differential was worth the added risk. \u00a0Maybe.<\/p>\n

    But you handwaved my statement, stuck to your script, and got (politely) hung up on.<\/p>\n

    Oh, well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Couple of things: You are not a “customer service\u00a0adviser,” or some other fancified title like that. \u00a0You are a salesperson. You are not interested in making sure I’m getting the best deal for my voice and data and video services. \u00a0You are interested in making sure Comcast is getting a maximum amount of money from … Continue reading “Dear Comcast phone solicitor …”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-big-business","category-hi-tech"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/candlestick-phone.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":131905,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/11\/01\/comcast-says-well-all-have-gigabit-internet-by-and-by.html","url_meta":{"origin":22996,"position":0},"title":"Comcast says we'll all have gigabit Internet by and by","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-Nov-16 9:47am","format":false,"excerpt":"I think I'm going to hold off on the loud huzzahs until it actually start rolling out and I hear what people have to say. I don't necessarily trust Comcast to provide actual full gigabit service, vs. \"up to\" service that never quite gets up to. Comcast promises widespread Colorado\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135901,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/02\/16\/squeaky-wheel-gets-grease.html","url_meta":{"origin":22996,"position":1},"title":"The squeaky wheel gets the grease","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 16-Feb-18 11:42pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Mom's new phone system is VOIP via Comcast \/ Xfinity. But from the time it was hooked up, despite the fact that she doesn't have Comcast Voice Messaging on her account (answering machine!), her phone line had the stutter dial-tone that modern phones use to detect if there's a telco\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/qualitysurvey5B15D.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/qualitysurvey5B15D.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/qualitysurvey5B15D.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":131002,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/07\/06\/netflix-will-show-up-natively-on-comcast-cable-boxes.html","url_meta":{"origin":22996,"position":2},"title":"Netflix will show up natively on Comcast cable boxes","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 6-Jul-16 5:19pm","format":false,"excerpt":"We actually access Netflix presently through a native app in our Sony BluRay player, but having it added seamlessly to the Comcast X1 box is even more convenient. Now if we can get Amazon streaming in there, I'll be really happy.(Yes, Comcast, this is a way to stay relevant --\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133888,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/19\/comcast-tells-one-story-to-the-fcc-a-different-story-to-its-investors.html","url_meta":{"origin":22996,"position":3},"title":"Comcast tells one story to the FCC, a different story to its investors","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 19-Jul-17 8:04am","format":false,"excerpt":"Did Title II and Net Neutrality reduce Comcast's capital investment in telecommunications?If you look at what it's saying today to the FCC, then, yes, it led to fear, trembling, apprehension, and a massive scaling back of spending because who would possibly invest in internet and broadband if they couldn't throttle\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135483,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/01\/comcast-isnt-even-bothering-promise-actual-net-neutrality-anymore.html","url_meta":{"origin":22996,"position":4},"title":"Comcast isn’t even bothering to promise about actual net neutrality anymore","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 1-Dec-17 7:13am","format":false,"excerpt":"Comcast used to argue vehemently that FCC restrictions on it as an ISP related to Net Neutrality were so unnecessary because they would never, never, ever violate Net Neutrality in the future, even if there were no FCC regulations on the subject. Strangely enough, from the day when the FCC\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/comcast.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":130512,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/28\/when-media-behemoths-collide.html","url_meta":{"origin":22996,"position":5},"title":"When Media Behemoths Collide!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 28-Apr-16 4:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"NBCUniversal -- having now acquired DreamWorks -- is set to go toe-to-toe with Disney in movies, animation, TV networks, and theme parks.Disney has an edge in major IP franchises -- but NBCUniversal has Comcast (or, more properly, Comcast has NBCUniversal).It should be interesting -- in a big-money, duopolistic way. NBCUniversal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}