Someone at Comcast Hates Hubby Right Now

My inlaws are having trouble with their TV/Cable/Phone service. They can make calls, but they can't receive them. Hubby has done a bit to verify the problem the best he can from being 30 minutes away, and managed to get them to answer their GD&*!@ cell phones (for a change) but doesn't have their account number to call and actually report the problem. Father-in-law doesn't either.

"Dad, it's on your bill."

"My what?"

"Your bill. That you pay every month."

"Yes, I paid it."

"Great, now find it."

"Find what?"

Sigh. "Find your bill, Dad. The one you paid."

"Oh, I filed it."

"Great. Go get it."

Shuffling of papers, line goes dead. Hubby calls back a cell phone and gets his mother this time, who has no clue any of this is going on. After a minute, he gets his father, who is trying to call Comcast. He’s confused by the IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system. He’s not giving the ‘correct’ responses. Hubby tells him to press ‘0’.

“No, not ‘oh’, Dad, press ‘zero,’ the number. Just keep pressing zero.”

“But that’s not one of the options.”

“Trust me.”

Presses zero, simulated female computer voice pretends to be confused. It upsets the eighty-year-old.

“I don’t think that was right.”

“If you have the account number, I can call.” (Hubby usually calls and pretends to be his father. It’s better for everyone.)

“No, I have the bill.”

“Okay, just keep pressing zero, Dad. They’ll give in.”

The eighty-year-old is surprised (I have no idea why, he should trust Hubby by now) when the simulated female computer voice offers him a representative. He takes the option like a drowning man. And hangs up on us in the process. Hubby calls back, gets his mother again, who – again- has no idea what is going on even though she’s answering on the cell phone that was right there while his father struggled with Comcast. She pauses and informs us he’s talking to someone.

Hubby clarifies, “Is he pressing buttons or speaking responses to an automated system, or actually talking to someone? Someone alive.”

“He’s talking to someone in Spanish.”

Okay . . . Well, Father-in-law happens to know Spanish, so if that’s how it has to be, so be it.  Unfortunately, I dare say he knows fewer technical terms in Spanish than he does in English, so that should be interesting. Some poor tech support person is helping a tech-challenged eighty-year-old who’s not even speaking his primary language.

In other words, someone at Comcast hates Hubby right now.