My hammer, my love

I don't have fantasies involving 75 year old women. At least not yet. But I remember comedian Gary Shandling once remarking he knew he was getting old when Mrs. Beaver started to look good to him (as in Leave it to Beaver, the TV show, you knuckleheads). However there is one 75 year old that could tempt me: Mona "The Hammer" Shaw.

Mona signed up for Comcast Cable's Triple Play: cable, internet and phone. But she couldn't even get to first base (excuse the mixed metaphor) and get it installed:

Shaw said they failed to show up on the appointed day, Monday, Aug. 13. They came two days later but left with the job half done. On Friday morning, they cut off all service.

This was the company that has had consumer service problems serious enough to prompt the trade magazine Advertising Age to editorialize that Comcast and other cable providers should spend less on advertising and more on customer service. And has spawned a blog called ComcastMustDie.com that's filled with posts from angry customers.

So on that Friday, Mona Shaw and her husband, Don, went to the local call center office to complain.

Let's pick it up, mid-action, according to Shaw:

Mona demands to speak to a manager. A customer service representative says someone will be right with them. Directs them to a bench, outside. (Remember, it's mid-August.) Mona and Don sit.

Tick, tick, tick, goes the clock. Sit, sit, sit, go Mona and Don.

For. Two. Hours.

And then -- this is the best part -- the customer rep leans out the door and says the manager has left for the day. Thanks for coming!

[snip]

So, after stewing over it all weekend, on the following Monday, she went downstairs, got Don's claw hammer and said:

"C'mon, honey, we're going to Comcast."

[snip]

Hammer time: Shaw storms in the company's office. BAM! She whacks the keyboard of the customer service rep. BAM! Down goes the monitor. BAM! She totals the telephone. People scatter, scream, cops show up and what does she do? POW! A parting shot to the phone!

"They cuffed me right then," she says. (Washington Post [so it must be true!], via Boingboing)

Our Mona got a 3 month suspended sentence (don't you think President Bush should pardon her?), a $345 fine and was slapped with a restraining order to stay out of the Comcast office. Comcast's response: they have 25 million customers the overwhelming majority of which are satisfied.

What do you suppose qualifies as an "overwhelming majority"? 96%?

That would make only 1 million hammer wielders. Overwhelming.

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Now you know why I have DirectTV......They HAVE to perform or the hammer falls instantly.......

And also why I have my DSL thru someone else.

R.

By M. Randolph Kruger (not verified) on 19 Oct 2007 #permalink

Comcast. Had an internet connection problem--it took a year and 10 "technicians" until the last looked at the 1 foot piece of cable connecting from the "outlet" to the splitter for TV and internet and said, "On this end, the center wire that plugs into the wall isn't long enough, here, I'll cut the cable and put the connector back on. Somebody just didn't get it quite right" Took maybe 10 minutes--and 10 techs.

Just for the record: The mother's name on 'Leave It to Beaver' was June Cleaver.

It was young Theodore Cleaver that had the nickname 'Beaver'.

And yes, that left the young man with the very interesting name of 'Beaver Cleaver'. Surprised the censors never picked up on it.

another: Thanks for correcting the record. I never really watched the show as I was too old by then. She looked pretty good to me, too, though.