Should a Cable Company Be Held To The Nordstrom Standard?

Comcast isn’t Nordstrom. But can it be? First off, my bad when I didn’t pay attention to the timing of the early bird pricing on the Major League Baseball season package. After seeing the $199 price online yesterday morning, I phoned Comcast, my cable television provider for 10 years and a bundle customer (including Web and phone) for about the past two. Comcast’s customer service rep listened to my ask – to receive the $20 price break – then told me the deal had expired the previous day. “I’m a long-time customer, spend a lot of money with you, and have service on six televisions.” Nothing gave so I hung up. An hour later, I called back and asked for a supervisor. The rep went off the line for about 10 minutes only to come back to chastise me for calling back when I was told no. I again asked for a price break – my fault on the late call but I spend about $250 a month with Comcast – and was told it wasn’t going to happen. “How about a $20 credit for being such a good customer?” No and no. I took my story to Twitter and @comcastcares who quickly responded by asking me to send my story to an email address. On my answering machine last night, Comcast called to ask me to take a survey about my customer service experience. They don’t read their files or Twitter? This morning, Executive Customer Care emailed me and said in part, “We do value you greatly as a customer and completely understand that in today’s economy that there are many ways to obtain entertainment service and it is a choice of our customers to choose Comcast for their phone, internet and TV service. We cannot thank you enough for your dedication to us as a company and for helping us keep our commitment to quality customer care. “I would like to offer you the MLB season pass, free of charge to you should you still wish to order this package.” Nordstrom-esque, wouldn’t you say? Of course, I screwed up initially by failing to call during the introductory pricing period. But I expected to be treated like a valued customer at what I call a brand’s Moments of Trust. How do you rate Comcast’s performance? Beyond that, was I right to ask Comcast to correct my wrong?