Martin Rowe

How to avoid a truck roll
June 21, 2007

Makers of communications test equipment often claim that their equipment will save service providers “truck rolls” where a technician must come to your home to install or troubleshoot a service. If telcos and cable operators really want to save truck rolls, they should make sure that their customer service people have accurate information.

Earlier this month, Comcast forced me to replace my cable box. I had a choice of having a technician replace the box or I could exchange the box at a local service center on a Saturday morning. I chose the latter option so I could install the box at a time of my choosing.

At first, the box had trouble dealing with my legacy cable TV service (55 channels). Many channels were blocked, even some local broadcast channels. Sometimes, a channel would come in but experience digital artifacts. After a day or so, I found that I was receiving about 200 channels, although I knew that it was a matter of time before Comcast figured that out and cut off the unauthorized channels. In the meantime, I stayed up far too late one night watching Star Wars.

After a few days, Comcast reverted me back to my original 55 channels. I looked at Comcast.com and discovered a cable service that would deliver 80 channels for the price I was paying for 55. I called customer service and was told that I could get those channels without needing a cable box. “That’s great” I exclaimed. “A cable box is a pain when you want to record several programs over several days on different channels. With a box, I have to change channels between each recording. With my VCR, I can program channel changes. You mean I really don’t need a box?”

“That’s right,” said the Comcast representative, “and you can watch the Red Sox games. But you need a technician to come to your house to remove a filter.” So I arranged for a technician to come between 3 and 5 on Friday afternoon. I left work early and waited, and waited. At 4:45, a technician called to say he’d be right ever. He never arrived.

Now I’m furious. I call customer service and was told that I didn’t need a technician after all. They could set up the new service from the office, which would take an hour or two. In the meantime, Comcast agreed to a credit for wasting my time.

After several hours, I still couldn’t get 80 channels without a cable box. I called Comcast again and was told that I did indeed need a technician and one would come the following afternoon (Saturday) between 3 and 5. The technician showed up at 3:30 and told me that to receive 80 channels, I needed the cable box. Without the box, I could receive only 20 channels, and no Red Sox.

“But the service representative said didn’t need a box,” I protested. “In this community,” replied the technician, “you have an old cable system that we inherited from the previous cable company. In most communities that we serve, you don’t need the box to get 80 channels, but you do here. The customer service people don’t understand that and constantly give out wrong information.”

So, I ended up needing the box. I twice wasted my time waiting for a technician that didn’t need to come and Comcast wasted a truck roll. I now have the 25 additional channels. Of course, I’ll probably never watch more than one of them. I really just want about 20 channels, but of my choosing, not Comcast’s.

Comcast, if you want to save truck rolls, get your information straight.

Posted by Martin Rowe on June 21, 2007 | Comments (1)