Persistence

I just called Comcast in response to a flier we received advertising high-speed service for $19.99 per month for 6 months and free professional installation. The fine print read that we were indeed eligible since we are new residential customers. The first guy who picks up the phone gets all my details and proceeds to tell me it will cost me $33 per month for 3 months and then go up to the normal rate. I asked why and he responded that the flier I received didn't apply to me. I read the fine print of the advertisement we received to him, then he opened up a copy of the actual flier sent to us, but still insisted that the flier was not intended to apply to us and that we did not qualify. He claimed that the following sentence meant the didn't have to honor the flier: "Please call your local Comcast office for restrictions and complete details about service, prices, and equipment." Huh? How does that negate that fact that we were not excluded in any of the fine print details and the giant orange lettering? Anyway, I remained very calm, said I wasn't sure I wanted to give my money to a company with such blatant false advertising, and asked to speak with his manager. In fact, I think I was as calm as any other person not suffering from perpetual service rage, a condition with which we all know I am afflicted. I was quite proud that I didn't raise my voice or sound snide at any point. His manager picked up and we went through the same exercise of reading the fine print and he agreed that I did qualify and got me all scheduled for installation.

Anyway, just goes to show you always have to be persistent in these things. It would be nice to not have to always be on guard when dealing with corporations, but at least both men were nice, the second one more so than the first.