Some of Comcast’s customer service representatives and their supervisors could care less more than a million east-coast residents remain without power and thousands may no longer have a home.

Priority #1: Where is our equipment? If you can’t find it, you are going to pay for it.

Yes, once again the company that redefines lousy customer service is back to illustrate why their reputation as the 4th Most Hated Company in America is well-earned. The Don’t Care Comcast Customer Service Bears in Kabletown call centers are only too happy to give the desperate in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania a hard time.

Blogger Seth Clifford (via the Consumerist) doesn’t need Comcast’s attitude problem. His parents have already lost one home and are on the verge of losing another.

Comcast’s Shocking Realization: the Clifford family has bigger things to worry about than a set top box:

[My mother] was trying to explain to them that they stood to lose the entire house in an explosion and that the authorities were having trouble even reaching the area to cut the gas to prevent this. She mentioned that she wouldn’t be able to return the cable box and equipment because the storm had basically destroyed the area, and the house was perilously close to being destroyed completely as well.

Comcast’s reply to her?

We’re very sorry, but the price of the equipment will be charged to your account if you’re unable to return it.

That’s right: in the middle of a natural disaster, the worst our area has seen in decades, at a time when my parents have already lost one house and stand to lose the other, as well as everything in it (remember, it’s not a rental so it’s fully furnished and they live there for part of the year – there are family keepsakes, antiques, and the like) – at a time like this, Comcast has essentially told my mom “tough s***”.

She spoke to a supervisor who echoed the same thing. Comcast was very ‘sympathetic to the situation’, but according to policy, the company must assess fees against unreturned equipment, no matter the situation.

Devastation on the coast of New Jersey

This is hardly the first time we’ve seen Big Telecom Companies Behaving Badly when Mother Nature strikes.

After tornadoes devastated parts of Alabama in 2011, one of Charter Cable’s customer service minions told a victim they will wait on the phone while the customer searches the yard for missing cable equipment. Can’t find it? Pay us.

The worst companies just don’t care until someone in the media embarrasses them sufficiently to realize the cost of a cable box isn’t as great as the drubbing they are about to get on the 6 o’clock news.

Once exposed, damage control kicks in. The flower arrangement is on the way and the “we’re sorry” card is in the mail.

Too bad the flowers are not for everyone. For those whose stories never go viral, the response often remains “pay up or we’ll ruin your credit for years.”

Comcast is a long way from its “Comcast Cares” motto:

“It’s a wonderful thing to have people work together for the benefit of others.”

Clifford is disgusted with the realization Comcast only cares about itself:

• Comcast does care. It cares about reclaiming equipment in the face of unspeakable disaster. And about charging fees for equipment that does not get returned, even if there is no physical way within the realm of possibility in which to do it.
• Comcast, does not, in fact, care at all about you. Not even a little. House burned down? F*** you, pay me. House about to explode at any minute? F*** you, pay me.

After the Consumerist shined their flashlight on Comcast’s house of corporate evil, the inevitable apology was on the way:

We have already reached out to apologize for adding to his parents’ difficulties and to ask for his parents’ contact information so we can call to personally apologize and assure them that we are handling the equipment without the need for them to do anything further. Please know we are working with our teams to ensure we handle all customer calls on a case-by-case basis with sensitivity to the devastating effects Hurricane Sandy had on so many of our local communities and residents. Again, we are of course notating his parents account to ensure they are not charged for equipment they can’t return.

Hey Comcast: how about “notating” every customer account in the northeast pummeled by Hurricane Sandy to ensure the flying monkeys customer service reps in the call center don’t abuse anyone else? Comcast’s “case by case basis” is loophole language that could leave customers shelling out hundreds in lost or damaged equipment penalties.

Frontier Communications continues to alienate customers up and down the state of West Virginia with more service outages, billing problems, and emergency 911 service interruptions.

This time, it’s the community of Marmet that suffered an outage the company described as “temporary.”  Service to the area’s Metro 911 emergency operations center was interrupted Monday and residents knew what to do when Frontier could not deliver landline service that works — they grabbed their cell phones.

In Dunbar, the funeral director at Keller Funeral Home noticed he stopped getting calls from local area customers after Frontier took over operations July 1st.  Michael McCarty told a Charleston television station Frontier initially blamed him for the problems, but later discovered malfunctioning switching equipment was at fault and forked over a $344 refund.  McCarty’s business probably took a bigger financial hit than that when potential customers could not get through — for months.

“People would call, but it wasn’t ringing here,” McCarty told the Charleston Gazette. “There really wasn’t much we could do but wait it out.”

Two dozen complaints about Frontier’s performance are still pending at the West Virginia Public Service Commission.  The state’s consumer advocate says Frontier’s service quality in the state is not improving.  Frontier blames Verizon’s aging and poorly maintained network for most of the problems.

But many of Frontier’s complaints, not just in West Virginia, are about unfair early cancellation fees, inaccurate billing, lost service orders, and lousy customer service.  Here’s a sample:

• “The customer service representative was extremely rude and angry. We called in response to the unfair cancellation fee of $250.00. Last week we were told that we had until 9/30 to opt for other phone service without a cancellation fee. Each representative gives different information. Small business were treated horribly by Verizon and now Frontier. After the rudeness, I will never bring my business service back to Frontier!”
• “I have fought this company for six months because every month they cannot get billing right. They are the absolute WORST I have ever dealt with. They charge for services not wanted. They charge late fees when none should have been charged and then didn’t remove them after admitting their mistakes. If you have any other choice, avoid Frontier like it’s a plague, because it is.”
• “They never processed my order to transfer my service. I called back 4 times in a week to get them to do their job. On the last day, I was left on hold for 2 hours in the morning and then 1.5 hours in the afternoon, only to be told I would have to wait another 3 days for a servicemen to come out. The wait times were nothing less than abusive.”
• “Horrible folks to do business with. Verizon sold my FiOS/Phone account to Frontier and soon afterward mysterious charges for “ID protect” etc. started appearing on my bill. Whenever I call their service, it loops and hangs up. I tried the option for “we will call you back” – when it calls back , it will give another number to call back, where you have to wait again. Can’t wait to get rid of them.”
• “Frontier recently bought out Verizon’s service in my area. The automated phone tree system goes in loops and hangs up on you. Furthermore, once I finally figured out how to get someone on the line (responding to every question the automated system asked with “operator”) and moved up to a supervisor… the supervisor got very short with me when I tried to cancel my service and then hung up on me. When I called right back, I got an automated message saying the offices were closed.”

Some enterprising Frontier customers have learned their hold times will be much shorter if they opt to speak with a Spanish-speaking operator.  “Many of the call centers are in Florida anyway, so you may get a bilingual operator no matter which language you choose,” writes our reader Danielle.  “I cut my hold times from over an hour to less than five minutes this way.”

Meanwhile, one of Frontier’s primary competitors in the state, Citynet, accused Gov. Joe Manchin’s office of wasting $126 million in taxpayer money that will benefit Frontier Communications far more than state residents starved for broadband.

Citynet CEO Jim Martin urged federal officials Wednesday to suspend the grant after the state defended plans to allocate a large amount of the grant exclusively to connect state agencies.

“The state’s response clearly highlights why the federal government needs to suspend the award until there are major modifications to the plan,” Martin said. “It is clear from the state’s letter that little will be done with the federal taxpayer funds to increase the availability of adequate and competitively priced high-speed infrastructure in West Virginia. The current approach will cost the state future job growth.”

Martin is upset that more than half of the grant, $69 million dollars, will be spent on Frontier’s behalf to construct a broadband network for the state government.  The agencies who get access will still have to pay Frontier market rates for high speed broadband access, despite the fact taxpayer dollars were spent to construct the network Frontier will operate.

Manchin

Citynet wants stimulus funding diverted to construct a “middle mile” broadband network that every telecommunications company can access at wholesale rates to deliver improved broadband services to residents and businesses, not just government buildings.

Martin says the Manchin Administration is making “blatantly false” claims that the stimulus money would deliver high-speed Internet to 700,000 homes and 110,000 businesses.  Unless those homes and businesses are stuffed into government agency buildings, it won’t.

According to Martin, all of the benefits will go to only two places — state agencies and Frontier’s pockets.

“It’s a political favor to Frontier,” Martin charged.

“The citizens of West Virginia deserve transparency and accountability from their public servants, and this is even more true given the magnitude and importance of the need for broadband enablement in our state,” Martin said Wednesday. “I was born and raised in West Virginia, and I am aware of the consequences this program could have for West Virginia in terms of job growth and competing for high-paying 21st century jobs.”

Here is how DataJack was marketing themselves back in January

DataJack, the 3G mobile broadband service that was promising unlimited wireless broadband service for $39.99 a month is back — with an all-new 5GB monthly usage cap, a new provider, and hassles for existing customers who must swap out their existing wireless modem.

Stop the Cap! first covered DataJack back in January, when customers were howling about the company’s lousy customer service and its tendency to “stretch the truth” about its coverage area, speeds, and even the availability of the product itself.

Rumors about a major spat between its original data service provider, presumably T-Mobile (based on the fact DataJack and T-Mobile had identical coverage maps back in January) and DataJack led the company to stop signing up new customers.  Since January, DataJack’s website has told would-be customers that the wireless modem necessary to use it was “out of stock.”

DataJack remained in limbo until the first week of April, when the company began e-mailing updates to dealers and customers about major changes to the company and its marketing:

1. “Unlimited” service is history, not that DataJack ever really offered it.  Many customers who used the service in excess of 5GB per month were notified their account would be closed at the end of the month’s billing cycle.  “Companies like DataJack have an English language comprehension problem,” writes Stop the Cap! reader Kevin. “The word ‘unlimited’ means ‘without limit,’ — a concept DataJack routinely ignored when throwing people off their service.”  New customers will be subject to a formal 5 GB usage cap.
2. Customers who did manage to get modems from DataJack may find they may no longer work after this Thursday.  The company is dropping GSM-based network service and moving to a CDMA network (either Sprint or Verizon — most believe the former), which means obtaining a new modem.  At least that will be offered free of charge to inconvenienced current customers.
3. The price for new customers is going up $10 per month — to $49.99 for 5 GB of service.  Existing customers get to retain service for $39.99 a month, albeit with the new usage cap.  The DataJack website has still not been updated to reflect the new pricing.

Kevin is taking a walk far away from DataJack:

“These people don’t have the first clue how to run a business.  Their entire marketing plan just a few months earlier was based on the premise of unlimited service.  They apparently got into trouble with their provider, another sign that doesn’t inspire confidence, and now they’re e-mailing customers telling them they literally have days to complete an equipment swap or lose service?  In the end, they were punishing people for actually believing their marketing nonsense about “unlimited” service and now they want people to believe a $10 price hike for less service is good news?  After everything that has happened with these people since January, who knows what will happen next month.  I’m not about to wait around to find out.”

Dealers were the first to be notified about the company changes.  Stop the Cap! obtained this copy of a message sent to DataJack retailers:

Dear DataJack Dealer,

Please note that Effective April 2, 2010, the following changes were made to our terms and conditions:

Service Usage. We reserve the right to safeguard our network from abuse, excessive bandwidth consumption or any activity that compromises the performance of our network. We may limit throughput speeds, control the amount of data transferred, and suspend, modify or terminate service, without notice, if your usage adversely impacts our network or exceeds 5 GB in a given month. We may monitor your compliance with the above but will not monitor the content of your transmissions except as otherwise expressly permitted or required by law.

Prohibited Uses. The service may not be used in a manner that violates any law (including without limitation, copyright and intellectual property laws); or the Service Usage clause.

We have found it necessary to implement these measures to ensure our DataJack customers are given the opportunity to access reliable, high speed, wireless internet service at a reasonable price.

95% of our customers will not be impacted by these new provisions; however, if a customer who is impacted visits your store and requests a refund due to no longer having access to the service, please direct them to the DataJack customer support team at 1-888-693-4522. Our team will work directly with the customer to resolve the issue.

Additionally, we are in the process of rolling out a new and improved Dealer Portal. Benefits of this portal include a more user friendly interface, virtual training videos, and enhanced functionality. Our systems will be down for a short period of time while making the transition. Please refer to customer service to process pins and activations for your customers.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact [email protected].

The "unlimited service" so prominently mentioned in January is gone from today's marketing of DataJack (click to enlarge)

Existing customers were next to be notified by this e-mail message sent last week:

Dear Valued Customer,

To address recent quality and connectivity issues, DataJack is migrating our service on April 15, 2010 to a new Tier 1 network which delivers faster data speeds and an expanded coverage area. The move to this new network means that DataJack must replace your existing device by April 15th to ensure uninterrupted service. Realizing this could be an inconvenience to you, DataJack is offering our customers a FREE MIFI unit for use as your replacement device at absolutely no extra charge (M.S.R.P. $299.00).

To ensure we get your replacement device to you in a timely manner, it is imperative that you verify the name and address we have on file for you as soon as possible by replying to this email. The name and address on file is as follows:

(address removed)

Upon verifying your address, we will send your new WIFI unit and a postage paid return envelope so you may mail back your current DataJack device. We ask that you please return the used device within 10 business days. South Florida customers also have the option of exchanging their device on April 14th, 15th, and 16th from 10AM – 9PM EST at the following location: 6365 NW 6th Way Suite 160 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309.

If you do not want to take advantage of the FREE MIFI unit offer, please contact customer service at 1-888-693-4522 to discuss alternative equipment options.

Please note that new customers will be required to pay $49.99 per month for service. This price increase will not affect you, your service fee will continue to be $39.99 per month. Additionally, we have changed our terms and conditions to include service usage and prohibited uses clauses. The terms and conditions apply to all customers.

Again, time is of the essence. We must get your new unit to you by April 15th to avoid service interruption. Thank you for your patience and we look forward to serving you on our new and improved network.

Best Regards,

The DataJack Team

Here is how DataJack dispenses with customers who use their “unlimited” service “too much”:

Dear DataJack Customer,

In accordance with our terms and conditions, more specifically the Service Usage and Prohibited Usage clauses, we are unable to renew your service upon expiration.

We regret that we can no longer provide service and wish you the best in finding a new provider for your wireless internet access needs. Our customer service representatives are available 8AM – 5PM Monday through Friday to address any questions you may have.

Best Regards,
DataJack, Inc.
888-693-4522

Under Terms & Conditions

Effective April 2, 2010

Service Usage. We reserve the right to safeguard our network from abuse, excessive bandwidth consumption or any activity that compromises the performance of our network. We may limit throughput speeds, control the amount of data transferred, and suspend, modify or terminate service, without notice, if your usage adversely impacts our network or exceeds 5 GB in a given month. We may monitor your compliance with the above but will not monitor the content of your transmissions except as otherwise expressly permitted or required by law.