Comcast Bought Me a New Television

For the back story, see this post: Comcast’s Negligence Killed My Television.

Yesterday I received a check from Comcast’s insurance company, Liberty Mutual. I was reimbursed for the cost of replacing my fried TV plus sales tax, as well as the two charges for diagnosing the problem with the TV. In general, I am very pleased and feel that Comcast rectified the situation. However, were it not for this bully pulpit of a blog, the situation may not have ended in my favor.

When I last wrote about this incident, I tweeted the provocative post to @ComcastCares and to several of Comcast’s twitter representatives. Thanks to some of my dear readers, the tweet was re-tweeted, and within a few minutes, the main page of @ComcastCares twitter feed was at least half full with the words “Comcast’s Negligence Killed My Television.”

I was at work the next morning when I got a call from Comcast. A gentleman from the local office was on the phone, and he was very friendly. After explaining what happened to my TV, he said that he wanted to call Comcast’s insurance company. I asked when he would be dispatching technicians to properly ground the CATV line, and he seemed to be completely unaware that the line was improperly grounded. Either he was playing dumb, or he truly was not aware of my blog post with all the pictures. My suspicion is that he received orders from above to take care of my problem, but was probably given very little background information. He promised to have a technician come out the same day. Finally, he asked if he could call me back on a 3-way call with their insurance company on the line. I agreed, and a few minutes later he was on the line with a Liberty Mutual agent. I quickly received a claim number and was told to call Liberty Mutual the next day.

I came home from work a little early, and sure enough, a Comcast technician was in the yard, pulling cable from a spool. He was a decent fellow, but made the mistake of mentioning to me that the line was “grounded to the copper pipes.” I wasted no time in telling him that the copper pipes were fed by a PVC pipe, and were therefore not grounded. He said that the copper pipes were likely bonded to the whole-house ground. I told him that if that were the case, the national electrical code required a second ground, with the recommendation being a grounding rod, EVEN if the copper pipes were bonded to the whole house ground. His response was, “Don’t worry, I’m going to ground it right.” I left to meet my family at the pool. I did not crawl back under the house and check his work. My suspicion, based on the amount of wire he was pulling, was that he ran a grounding wire to the whole house ground.

Anyway, I’ll skip some minor details here and cut to the chase. Liberty Mutual was very friendly and fairly efficient. There was a one-week delay while they were waiting to hear back from Comcast to authorize payment. I called Comcast and expressed my displeasure at having to wait, and they sent an email to my local guy, the one who had initially called me. Once he returned to the office (it seems he was on vacation or had some time off), he authorized Liberty Mutual to pay, and things moved very quickly. Liberty asked me what the TV was retailing for, and I pulled up Best Buy’s website and told them. I then asked to be reimbursed for the charges to diagnose the TV. The representative readily agreed. I do not think she even checked to see if the replacement costs I quoted were accurate. She seemed to cut the check while we were on the phone, and several days later, it was in my mailbox.

When I went to Best Buy tonight to buy the new TV, it was on sale for $100 less than I quoted Liberty. Score.

I’m still waiting on the part to fix the old TV. It will cost between $150-$200.00. All suppliers are out of stock and are saying they will not have the part until September.

I know for a fact that other neighbors lost TVs on the same night I did. One neighbor lost three. All were fried via the cable line. Not a single neighbor that I know of filed a damage claim with Comcast. I figure that is the norm, and that is why Comcast may not spend the time grounding their lines correctly. Article 820 of the National Electrical Code, ANSI/NFPA No. 40, provides guidance for correct grounding.

Thanks to all of the folks who offered advice and shared their cable company horror stories. When dealing with gargantuan corporations, social media now makes it very easy to get one’s voice heard. With the click of a mouse, one can publish some pictures or recount an unfavorable situation to thousands of potential customers. A blog post with a smart title may get listed on the first page of search engine results. This reality is a game-changer, and the Davids of the world no longer have to rely on simple slings to fight Goliath.

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