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Wednesday, April 30, 2003

A simple request turned into a communications nightmare for Roberta and George Latta of McCandless.

	Roberta "Rob "Latta holds her home phone, which didn't ring for a week, after it was mistakenly disconnected. Latta had asked Comcast to disconnect a second line the family had been using for Internet service. (Matt Freed, Post-Gazette)

On April 21, Roberta "Rob" Latta asked Comcast to disconnect a second telephone line the family had installed years ago for its Internet service. It did so because it had recently switched to Comcast's all-in-one cable Internet service.

Unfortunately, Comcast mistakenly disconnected the family's regular telephone line. It didn't reconnect it for a week.

During that time, an elderly mother in Florida, a daughter in college and many other family members and friends couldn't reach the Lattas at home and didn't have their phone numbers at work.

"We don't make a habit of receiving or making personal calls at our job," said Roberta Latta, 52, an executive assistant at Contemporary Craft in the Strip District. George Latta, 60, is a personal trainer at Club Julian on McKnight Road in Ross.

There had been a death in the family the previous week and people were still calling with condolences. But they couldn't reach anyone to console. Their calls were met with a recorded message: "This number is no longer in service."

Family members and friends wondered what was going on. So did the Lattas, who were frantically trying to get Comcast to restore their phone service.

E-mails started arriving from friends who had called the Lattas' relatives to find out why their phone "no longer was in service."

Roberta Latta reached a Comcast supervisor on April 25 who said she had been told the family had canceled the phone number it had for 25 years. The supervisor said the number already had been assigned to someone else.

"By now, I was livid," Roberta Latta said. "I asked her if it made any sense for someone to cancel service to the home they are still living in and then spend four days arguing about it.

"She said I would need a medical reason to get service any sooner than five to eight days. I told her my blood pressure was really, really high right then. She told me to fax a doctor's verification of that."

Roberta Latta said it was "incredible" Comcast would disconnect service within 24 hours, but wouldn't reconnect it for five to eight days.

She called the state Public Utility Commission in Harrisburg and filed a complaint.

She said she went to church on Sunday and "managed to forgive" the Comcast employee who had made the mistake "that started this whole terrible problem."

In an e-mail to me on Monday, she said she had spoken to 17 Comcast telephone employees, including three supervisors. All of them promised to call her back. None did.

And then Kathy Hall got involved. Hall, one of Comcast's top customer service managers, resolved the problem on Monday. She had the Lattas' phone service reconnected and got their old phone number back.

Hall asked Roberta Latta to send a copy of the paperwork she had accumulated during her weeklong struggle to get the phone service restored, so the company could use it "for training purposes." She also said the family would receive a $20 credit for the trouble it experienced.

A $200 credit "for a week of anxiety" would be more appropriate, Roberta Latta said. "I spent hours and hours on the phone trying to get this resolved.

"Anyone who has children or parents living far away would be horrified to be in this predicament," she said. "You can't be reached by any hospital or by the police because all they have to work with is your home phone number.

"Phone service curtailed by natural disasters is acceptable. Phone service disconnected because unpaid bills is understandable. [Phone service] cut through the actions of a service employee and not immediately restored upon request is unconscionable."

If she ever has to have another phone line disconnected, Roberta Latta will ask the person taking the order to read it back to make sure it is correct. "The next thing [to do] is to document by date, time and operator's number every time you call someone about service. And, when necessary, ask for a supervisor."

Comcast, based in Philadelphia, provides basic cable, digital cable and high-speed Internet services and is one of the leading communications, media and entertainment companies in the world. It has regional offices in Green Tree and employs more than 2,200 people in the Greater Pittsburgh area.

And at least 17 of those local employees, including three supervisors, still have something to learn about customer service.

Lawrence Walsh can be reached at 412-263-1895. His e-mail address is pyp@post-gazette.com.