I’m moving this weekend, and while things were finalized this week, I decided yesterday to sign up for cable.  I pulled up Comcast.com and started poking around.

Just some background on the situation so the story makes more sense.  I’m moving to a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland.  I’m on a Macbook with Leopard 10.5.4 and using Firefox 3.0.1.  I’m also a web developer/producer/front-end coder.

I find the sign up portion of the site and add together the package I want.  “Double Play” bundle with digital cable and high speed internet.  HDTV, DVR, sports entertainment package.  Easy enough.  I click “Proceed” and fill out my information. Then I’m prompted to select three possible times for installation.  I select my three and hit proceed.  The system then processes your order and sends you to a live chat feature where you speak directly to someone in sales who will finalize your order and select the time when a tech will come install your service.  I wait for a while.  Suddenly it says the tech has left.  No warning, no message, just a notice that MaryEllen.18473 has left the chat.  I’m left with almost no recourse except to start over.

So I begin the process again, selecting what package I want, the options, fill out my info, select the time frame, wait for the chat.  After 30 minutes the same thing happens.  This time I click “help” and it lets me view the transcript.  Apparently the salesperson was there, but I couldn’t see anything they were saying in the chat until they left.  It’s some sort of Java-based chat… There’s no way around it on their site.  I figure maybe it’s a browser-related error.

I fire up Safari, repeating all of my steps as before.  The Java chat window looks different, this is a good sign maybe?  The salesperson comes in, and I can actually see them talking to me.  They greet me, and inform me that my order came in blank, completely blank.  I have to manually tell them what packages I ordered.  I receive an IM, and switch windows to iChat.  When I come back to Safari, the Java app is blank.  I can’t see anything, I can’t type, I can’t do anything.  I close the window.

At this point I’m frustrated and want a human to talk to.  I call Comcast at 1-800-COMCAST.  My phone number was purchased and set up in Maryland.

Rep 1 - “We can’t see online orders for 48 hours, I don’t know if it went through, let me transfer you.”
Rep 2 - “I’m in Virginia, do you have a Virginia number? I can’t help you, hang on let me transfer you.”
Rep 3 - “I’m in Richmond, I can’t help you, let me transfer you to the Baltimore County, Maryland reps.”
Rep 4 - “Yes, I’m in Baltimore County, but that apartment doesn’t exist.  I can’t see it on my list.  I only have a list, not a map, let me transfer you to someone with a map.”
Rep 5 - “I’m in Virginia, let me transfer you.”
Rep 6 - “I can see your apartment here, but not your order online.  Let’s sign up again over the phone, okay?”

I’ve been on the phone for almost an hour.  Finally, progress!  She can see my apartment AND wants to help… Progress!

There’s one problem: The prices are different.  The “Double Play” which is $66 online for both cable and internet, is $57 on the phone JUST for cable.  There is no double play.  She prices out all my options and my plan which was $93/month online comes to around $152/month over the phone.  We agree that I should probably try again online, but that’s all she can do for me.  She was very friendly, though.

I decide to try to sign up on another computer.  It’s an old Dell with XP and IE 7. Repeating the same steps we’re all now familiar with, I finally get to a rep, it doesn’t crash and I successfully sign up at $89/month for some strange reason.  Not complaining on the savings.  This process went very smoothly.

Total time invested: 3 hours.

Comcast is a multi billion dollar company.  They’ve been around for a long time. Their web team undoubtedly is familiar with cross browser issues and crazy out-of-the-box things like standards.

Comcast.com has 267 validation errors on their homepage alone.  The code is horrific.  Clearly tech took the reigns of the design and just forced it to work.  I had success in ONE browser on ONE operating system. Because clearly no one uses any other browsers.  It simply doesn’t work at all on a Mac, in any browser that I tried.

This image is a screen shot from the contact form page.  It sounds like they’re following a pretty user-friendly model.  IE 5.5, FF 1.1?  That’s going back awfully far and should cover anyone who has been online since Y2k. My guess is that’s the requirements just for the contact form.  I couldn’t find any documentation for the sign up process.

I’m a part of a design firm that could be swallowed by Comcast’s weekly coffee budget, but as any designer, developer, producer, programmer who is worth a damn knows… You shouldn’t under any circumstance only make your site usable in one browser.

The problem is multi fold for Comcast.  My issues didn’t end when I tried to call the 800 number.  They were as disorganized and faulty as the website was.  It took a lot of navigating, exploring, and transferring to finally find someone who could even give me any option to remedy the situation… even if it was just to try online again.  I especially liked being told my apartment didn’t exist, that the numbers in my building didn’t include anything between 137 and 211.  I must have entered some sort of black hole when I walked through those doors, or been imagining the numbers when I signed my lease.

The problem is a general over-complication of systems and techniques.  The CSRs on the phone are different than the ones online, and can’t interact.  They can’t even view those orders.  They have separate pricing models, and will tell you that your phone number originated over 300 miles away and make you feel like you’re doing something wrong.

The solution is to simplify.  Your website doesn’t need three types of Javascript rollover scripts, it doesn’t need to be AJAX filled and Java dependant if it simply doesn’t work for a huge percentage of computer users. There shouldn’t be multiple databases for sign ups independant from eachtoher.  Telephone CSRs should be able to help with online orders for when the issues with online ordering are just too much.  Your website should work on a platform used by millions.  The rep I finally dealt with online when I finally got to the chat and had it working was very helpful and quick in solving my problems.  If I had been connected sucessfully to him the first time around I would have been very satisfied.  When I emailed Comcast asking for confirmation of my order (the automated one the CSR mentioned never came), they replied within a few minutes confirming my order.  These parts of the process were very good.

Apple shipped 2.11 million Macs in 2008 Q2.  Does Comcast not want those people to be able to sign up online for service?

I love me some HD goodness and can’t wait to get the service hooked up at my new place, but this is a problem that is definitely hurting their bottom line, and leaving customers with a bad taste in their mouths.

I’ll be emailing this to Comcast and eagerly await their response.

Edit: A response apologizing and basically telling me that he’ll forward it, but don’t expect much.  Thanks to the CSR who responded.

There seems to be a lot of issues within the web posting you have
included in your message. Let me sincerely apologize for the problems you have
encountered. It seems that the majority of the problems you had were
with the usability of the ordering website (obviously not all of the
problems). The easy answer would be that this issue is way above my
head. I will, however, do more than that and make sure that your
comments and suggestions are forwarded to the appropriate members of our
development and management teams for further review and action. We
appreciate that you took the time to help us keep our commitment to
quality customer care. While I cannot guarantee any real action on the
part of our developers, I can assure you that your voice will be heard
by the people who need to hear about such issues.