
Comcast Confessions: why the cable guy is always late - smacktoward
http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/4/5960251/comcast-confessions-why-the-cable-guy-is-always-late
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preinheimer
I worked as a contract cable installer back when cable internet was new. New
enough that they used one guy to do the computer set up, and a second to do
the cable wiring. As I was finishing my tenure they were switching over to
"super techs" who would do both. I was the computer half. This was like 2000.

We had no interaction with the guys doing the cabling, they were a different
company. I'd get a sheet of installs in the morning, as well as the time
frames. 8-12, 12-5, and 8-5. If someone had managed to convince a rep we might
see a shorter timeframe like 3-5, but they were pretty rare. I'd show up, slot
a network card, plug in the cable modem if the cable guy had been there
already, and leave.

Then I moved to the big city, where the company gave people specific times.
10, 11, 12, 1. etc. They tended to give the clustered appointments to the
super techs, so I was driving all over the city, searching for parking, and
waiting to get buzzed in. My first two weeks were rough, then I discovered the
manager had been going light on my appointments while I learned the city. Then
my appointment book started looking more like: 10, 10, 11, 12, 12, 12, 2, 3,
4, 4, 4, 4. On good days I'd hit the closest double/triple/quadruple booked
slot early, hit the second one one time, and try to race to the rest. Skipping
lunch as required, or snacking on a nutrigran bar while wishing my car had
A/C. On harder days I'd get to the first appointment barely on time, discover
they had Windows NT and try to pawn off appointments while juggling IRQ
settings.

Some days were an absolute mess, 8,8,8,12,12,12,12,5,5,5,5,5 or the like. You
couldn't show up early for a 5, those folks were racing home to meet you as
is. So I'd end up sitting in a park trying not to kill myself on a razor
scooter for a few hours waiting for the next rush.

~~~
preinheimer
Random things that made me late:

\- Being double booked in the first place (clearly)

\- Customer has yet to unbox their computer.

\- Customer had so much crap installed that simply rebooting took literally
10+ minutes.

\- Buildings with slow elevators.

\- Having to park 4 blocks away

I blogged another story here:
[http://blog.preinheimer.com/index.php?/archives/417-My-20-Ti...](http://blog.preinheimer.com/index.php?/archives/417-My-20-Tip.html)

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padobson
I'm generally a Laissez-faire kind of guy, but the treatment I get from my
cable company is a strong argument to drastically increase regulation, or even
nationalize entire chunks of the industry.

If you're providing a service so poorly that nationalization seems like a good
alternative, then your business probably deserves to be nationalized.

~~~
VLM
"If you're providing a service so poorly that nationalization seems like a
good alternative, then your business probably deserves to be nationalized."

That deserves to be on a tee shirt. See also, health insurance, the financial
system in general, and Government Motors.

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coldcode
This is what happens when you have a monopoly (in this case a regional
monopoly). Customer service is an expense item, so minimize it and you make
more profit, after all what can the customers do, move? I worked on a project
for a company where the call center did reservations and customer service.
They only paid the workers if they took a reservation; thus any customer
service call resulted in a hangup. These customers never used their company
again. The difference is a monopoly doesn't have to care as no one will leave.

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raldi
Saved you a click: they overbook

~~~
cheepin
Had to click to confirm. Can confirm.

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classicsnoot
It would appear that 'customer service' is an area in desperate need of a
revolution. A relative of mine worked in the BAE call center for 6+ years, and
they were constantly reviewed and retrained. This service was exclusively for
BAE employees and contractors.

The trend of fucking over customers is a vestige of the near monopoly the
distributed cable consortium has in the US. There is no real motivation to do
better as most people don't give a shit until it affects them directly
(@raldi).

This is probably a silly idea, but what about an all volunteer charity tech
support? Are cable boxes really so mysterious and complicated as to be
serviced only by 'specially' trained employees and 'vetted' contractors?

~~~
kabdib
Cable boxes are nearly 100% remote controlled from the head-end (the
management software I'm familiar with is eye-gougingly bad, btw). They can
tell a lot about what's going on by looking at the box, and the status and
logs it sends up.

You generally can't change the settings on a box because the state is
protected from changes (you can break into boxes, but that still won't give
you access to the video streams you're not entitled to, since that access is
cryptographically protected from the head-end).

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jmt7les
As a former techician for Comcast, the reason is that the management there is
far removed from what actually goes on in the field, they have no idea how
hectic the scheduling can be. When an appointment can reasonably take anywhere
from 2min to 3+ hours, it takes much more flexibility on the management end to
allow the work to be done properly instead of being forced to rush through it.

~~~
VLM
Its the difference between the airplane flight reservation model and the taxi
reservation model.

Taxi model = you call and a on call guy is dispatched and if they're busy its
first come first serve.

Airline model = you call and make a reservation onto an overbooked quota slot
next week. Staffing is "optimized" next week to an acceptable level, to a
monopoly, of overbooking and predicted failure.

People expect/demand the taxi model and don't understand the inherent results
of the airline model.

The system is operating as designed. They just don't like the design.

The telecom hicap / biz side operated under the taxi model but residential
telecom and cable has always operated under the airline reservation model as
far as I know. I know from personal experience that both natgas and water and
electricity operate under the taxi model, so its not something inherently
impossible about visiting people's homes.

I wonder if anyone's ever tried the taxi model for residential services? Or if
its a startup opportunity?

