FCC U L8R

Doh! I called the FCC to follow up on the complaint I filed against Comcast. Boy, was that fun. After lots of trial and error in their phone system, my call was answered by a woman who probably shouldn't have been answering phones.

Me: I'm following up on a complaint I filed last month
Her: When did you file it? We ask people to wait 45 days
Me: Six weeks ago, 42 days, close enough, no?
Her: What's the reference number?
Me: [reads the reference number]
Her: Hold on a sec.. Let me get to the right screen.. Ok, what is it?
Me: [reads the reference number slowly]
Her: [repeats the first digit] ... ok.
Me: Arg! [reads the rest of the digits slowly]
Her: Ok, what's the problem?
Me: Comcast remove channels and failed to give me the necessary notice?
Her: They don't have to give you notice
Me: Sure they do, your web page says so
Her: I have a note here that says they don't.
Me: Where is it on your web site? I believe what I read online sooner than a post-it note on your desk.
Her: Where online did you see it?
Me: The FCC web site
Her: Where?
Me: [it took three tries to spell out an eight digit number, what will a URL be like!] Let me look it up
Her: ok.
Me: I found it - it's rule number 76.1603.
Her: Let me look it up [lots of muttering, apparent inability to "numerical order"]. Ok, I found it.
Her: This doesn't apply in your situation
Me: Why not - it says they can't change the lineup without 30 days written notice and they did just that.
Her: It doesn't. They don't have to give you notice
Me: It seems to spell it out pretty clearly?
Her: Let me find someone who can explain it better
Me: [better? that would imply you've explained it!]

After a brief pause, a new person came on the phone who first attempted to convince me that Comcast might have notified me in writing via some mechanism other than writing, possily something broadcast on one of their channels. I questioned whether anyone at the FCC, in looking into my complaint had contacted Comcast to see if that was in fact the case.

Rather than answer (which I think means "we didn't look into it"), she pointed me to 76.309 which states pretty clearly (it's a government document, so clarity isn't a goal) that it is up to my local cable franchise authority (city government) to enforce this issue.

I explained that I was aware of that and had already spoken with them but they were not able to help and that another FCC person I spoke with said I should file my complaint with them and make a note that the local government was not able to do anything.

She explained that this other FCC person was wrong, that they were not able to help me (which was, I've since learned, a crock of shit because there are instances where the FCC will act against a cable provider - DA-061587 is a perfect example) - I'm just not important enough.

So in this matter, I've talked with three government officials (FCC), and two of them told me completely incorrect information, and one was correct but left out relevant pieces of information. That's my tax dollars at work. I'd like my money back now please.

Take that! evil near-monopoly with an inept customer support staff

Ha! Comcast didn't know who they were messing with when they took away my California channel (whatever that is) with a scant 12 hours of notice and left a couple of mo-rons to answer their phone. They thought I was just some raving lunatic with a hammer who would accept their acts as gospel.

Think again! You see, the search engine is mightier than the sword. With a few scant queries on the Google, I found the FCC regulations guiding your operations. In particular:

Changes in Rates or Service and Billing Practices

Thirty days advance written notice (using any reasonable written means) must be given to subscribers and local franchising authorities of any changes in rates, programming services or channel positions, if the change is within the control of the cable operator....

Thirty days - do you see that? That's different than 12 hours. It's much more. Even if you count the hours slowly - one ... two ... three ... you won't be able to make 12 hours drag on for 30 days. No, I don't think even the Maccabees could have helped you with this one.

Ok, sure, if I was a fruit fly that only lived for 8 hours I'd never even know - you could have lied in your phone message and said "next month the California channel would go away" and I'd be dead long before I ever knew what happened.

But thankfully (for me, not you), I'm not a fruit fly so I do know what happened. And now you're so screwed.