This is a transcript of my very time consuming web chat with a Comcast technical support person that mercifully just finished 30 seconds ago. This was the fourth chat I’ve had with Comcast today, trying, in vain, to get my personal web page working.
Problem : All I want is for you to please send me the URL that will take me, once I am logged in, to the edit page for my Personal Web Pages. Thank you.
Eric > All I want is for you to please send me the URL that will take me, once I am logged in, to the edit page for my Personal Web Pages. Thank you.
Welmel > Hello Eric_, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Welmel. Please give me one moment to review your information.
Welmel > I can certainly relate to your needs and to have you in this chat is as good as fulfilling my own. I am committed in wanting to provide you with the best customer service experience. You can surely take your worries out. Let me prove my expertise.
Welmel > Do not worry. I will do my best on my end to help you resolve the issue that you are experiencing right now.
Welmel > But first, before we could proceed, to ensure the integrity of your account information could I please have your account number and may I also have the last 4 numbers of your SSN.
Welmel > While waiting, please allow me to take this opportunity to share with you one of the main features that you can get with Comcast which is our online site, Fancast.com. It offers full television episodes, full-length feature films, trailers and video clips to both Comcast subscribers and non-subscribers.If you missed out on your favorite TV shows, you do not need to worry next time.I hope you will enjoy this feature with us!
Eric_ > OK. Last 4 digits of SS # are (xxxx). When you say my account number, are you referring to the number on my bill? Why do you need that? I just want the URL to edit Personal Web pages. Thank you.
Welmel > Yes. Let me check your account first.
Welmel > No worries.
Welmel > Thank you.
Eric_ > Why? Is something wrong with my account? I can give you my account’s primary name: (yyy)@comcast.net . I am asking a generic question, though. I am not trying to resolve a billing issue.
Welmel > No. This is to notate your account.
Welmel > May you please verify the name on the account?
Eric_ > Eric (Lastname), Sylvia (Lastname)s… one of our names are on the account.
Welmel > That is correct. Thank you so much.
Eric_ > You are very welcome.
Welmel > Are you trying to access your comcast.net email account?
Eric_ > I really don’t need to resolve any issues surrounding my account. I am asking a question regarding the comcast.net website, which I find to be impossibly confusing. I would like to navigate to the page that lets me update my Personal Web Page. It’s a page where I can upload files, etc. I have been there in the past, but can’t seem to find it now in the maze of Comcast.net pages. So, what I would like from you, if you would be so kind, is the URL of that page – not specific to my account – just the general place when a person can go, when logged in, to update their Comcast Personal Web Page. That is all I need. Thank you.
Welmel > Alright. Let me give you the link.
Eric_ > Thank you.
Welmel > Please click on this link, https://login.comcast.net/login?s=portal&ts=840b2b32&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fredir.comcast.net% 2Fredirect%2Fwebmail%3Fr%3D1259020931195%26redirectUrl%3D http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comcast.net%2F
Eric_ > That is one long web address. Unfortunately, the Comcast Chat Window does not allow me to either click on that link, or highlight it to copy it. So, I will have to type all of those 50 or 75 characters into a new web browser by hand. Please bear with me while I do this. It may take a few tries to type it correctly.
Welmel > No. All you have to do is just to click on the link I gave you.
Eric_ > Funny you should say that, since the link is non-clickable. Perhaps this is a browser or platform issue. Maybe the link would be clickable if I were using a Internet Explorer on a PC. But, I am using Safari on a Mac. Perhaps the chat interface was not designed with Macs in mind.
Welmel > Alright. Please go to http://www.comcast.net.
Eric_ > OK.
Welmel > Thank you.
Eric_ > I’m half-way through typing the URL you sent. Would you like me to stop & go by another route?
Welmel > Yes, please.
Welmel > That will be great.
Welmel > I am sorry for the confusion.
Eric_ > It’s OK.
Welmel > Thank you so much.
Eric_ > Would you like me to log into my email account?
Welmel > Yes, please.
Eric_ > Logged in (long pause)
Eric_ > Shall I go to “My Account”?
Welmel > Alright. Are you now on your account?
Eric_ > yes
Welmel > Yes. That is correct.
Eric_ > OK, what next please?
Welmel > There will be an option for you to edit your account.
Eric_ > I am on a page that says, “Manage My Account”
Welmel > Yes. There will be options for you to edit your account.
Eric_ > Well, it allows me to View/Change Personal Information, Change User Name, Change Password & Modify email contact preferences.
Eric_ > I can also Create a 2nd User
Welmel > Yes, please choose View/Change Personal Information.
Eric_ > I do not see any link to Personal Web Page management
Eric_ > OK. It opens a screen that lets me change the name on the account.
Welmel > Yes, please.
Eric_ > I’m sorry, I don’t understand what it is you would like me to change on this page.
Welmel > Are you trying to change your comcast.net email account web page?
Eric_ > I am trying to change my web page, yes. For instance, if I want to change some text that appears on my web page, I have to get to some location that will let me type in the new text.
Eric_ > I just now finally finished typing in that long URL you sent me a while back, but it just took me to the comcast home page (www.comcast.net). Is that what you had intended?
Welmel > They are the same, Eric.
Eric_ > You seem like a very nice person, but am I right that you really don’t understand my question, or how to help me?
Welmel > I am sorry to know that.
Eric_ > Well, thank you for your efforts, and your time. I’ll try again another time to solve this problem.
Welmel > But the only option for you to change your personal web page is on your comcast.net email account.
Welmel > My apologies.
Eric_ > It’s alright. Have a good night.
Welmel > Thank you for the understanding.
Welmel > Thank you so much,
Welmel > Have a good one now!
Welmel > Thank you for choosing Comcast and it is my honor to assist you today. Comcast appreciates your business and values you as a customer. If you need further assistance, you can chat back 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Eric_ > Take care, Goodbye.
—
Ever pause before deleting an African email scammer’s message and think about engaging them in a pointless conversation? I have. To see the results, choose a daisy:
This is my 2007 thesis for Lesley University's Masters of Education in Curriculum Design, focusing in Conflict Resolution and Peaceable Schools:
Daisybrain 
Hello,
I would like to investigate this further. Are you able to email me the details?
My direct email is George_Lunski@Cable.Comcast.Com
My twitter is @ComcastGeorge
Thank you,
George Lunski
Comcast Corporate Office
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COMCAST GEORGE, can you help?!?!
See “Rich” below.
twitter: richjamesyoung
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Wow. Congratulations, it looks like you just had an almost-coherent conversation with a robot.
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I know. I almost asked him if he was human, but I thought that would be rude. It was the “I’m sorry to know that.” line that made me think he was a software program.
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Damn. This is one of the downfalls for asking personal questions with a large company. The smaller the company, the better they respond. That’s just from my experience. Like, I once called customer support for Canon cameras and they put my on the line for a long ass time, and once I pressed a number that’ll redirect me to another message, I had to wait yet another long ass time. I waited too long that I wasn’t able to talk to a human being. It was frustrating!
Sorry about your experience with Comcast though
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Just an update:
A very helpful man from the Comcast Corporate Office saw my blog post & sent very simple instructions to edit my web page.
Also on the page he sent me to were instructions to Publish my page. The funny thing is that I spent even longer in Comcast live chat earlier asking over & over if there was a button I could hit to make my page public. I kept saying, “There must be a ‘Publish’ button somewhere so people can see my web page. (Other than that my Personal Web Page is REALLY personal.)” But the support person was never able to get me there or even understand what I was asking for.
But thanks to George in the Corporate Office, I can now go there and hopefully everything will work as it should.
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LOL!
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I work for Comcast and I was actually supposed to get that eCare job. I trained for it for a month. Worked the job for one week, and then the department was dissolved. That’s outsourced to the Philippines now. Oh well, if more of these chats pop up they may bring it back in house.
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I’ll try to remember to save the transcript next time – some of them have been hilariously frustrating, with me restating the problem over & over again and the chat person having no idea what I’m talking about (but pretending to know).
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“Tech support” means having a very long, exceedingly polite conversation with a man in India for no apparent reason, other than to keep him employed.
You know how people sneak video cameras into slaughterhouses to film what really goes on there? I think it would be great if someone sneaked a video camera into one of these tech support places in Mumbai (or Manila, or…). What exactly are these folks doing when they have no idea how to help you and can’t end the phone call or online chat? My theory is that the chat folks have a keyboard with each keystroke conveying a certain phrase, and they just hit one random key after another and hope they resolve your problem.
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That’s really funny. The pre-recorded keystrokes wouldn’t be that much worse than typical tech support – even when I call the US office, no matter what the problem, they go through the same script for fixes, telling you to turn off the computer, unplug everything & start up again… next time I’ll ask them to skip to “Step 5” and see if that speeds things up.
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Dear Author daisybrain.wordpress.com !
It not absolutely that is necessary for me. Who else, what can prompt?
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Thank you for your kind words, Caterok. My spam filter thought you were not a real person, but I know better. In fact, I think I’ve spoken to you before through a Comcast web chat!
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http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=comcast+%22personal+web+page+address%22&l=1
No offense meant, but it was ridiculously easy to find the requested information not only on Google, but right there on the comcast homepage, thus negating the need for the entire online chat.
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Well, the solution did turn out to be very easy. It was supplied for me by a Comcast corporate manager. But the Comcast home page has so many links that I never noticed the innocuous yet crucial “more” link that would lead to success. The tech person I was chatting with also either didn’t know about this link or didn’t understand the nature of my problem.
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I signed up for Comcast internet and digital cable in June. I’ve had multiple problems and always use the online chat to try to solve them. This way I have something in writing. But since June:
> 5 monthly bills have been for 5 different amounts (It should be $87.50 month)
> Not a single bill has been for $87.50
> My internet has been shut off twice (strangely on two seperate days after I complained about my bill!!)
> I’ve chatted with Nelson, Jay, Cyril, Johanna, Mohammad and Retchel!!!!
Now the chat says I have to GO DOWN TO THE OFFICE TO HAVE TIS FIXED!!!!
COMCAST GEORGE, can you help?!?!
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[…] My Conversation With Comcast. This is where I learned the power of blogging. Out of frustration, I posted an unproductive […]
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