October 9, 2007
75-Year-Old Arrested For Smashing Comcast Office
Via Consumerist, allow us to introduce you to the next Great American Hero: Mona Shaw, 75-year-old Manassas resident and fed-up potential Comcast customer. Potomac News has the great story about Shaw, who got a little hot under the collar after trying to change her phone service from Verizon to Comcast's Triple Play back in August. As hard as it might be to imagine, Shaw ran into some difficulty trying to get her Comcast service set up. After several repeated attempts, the Bristow resident headed to the Manassas payment center, where she took a hammer to several items in the office, including a keyboard and a monitor, while shouting, "Have I got your attention now?"
"What the hell, I'm 75," Shaw told reporters after the incident, for which she was arrested for disorderly conduct and later released.
Read the whole story about what Mona "The Hammer" Shaw went through trying to set up her phone service with Comcast, and decide for yourself whether her actions were way out of line. Comcast's response? A statement that included:
"We recognize that there is room for improvement and that even one bad customer experience is one too many. It is our goal to continue bringing customers in Northern Virginia the most advanced products and services we offer ... and to ensure that they have a great experience at every touchpoint."Our only question is whether Shaw is entitled to a jury of her peers on the disorderly conduct charges. There's just no way they would convict.
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She really is my new hero.
yeah, I think you would be hard pressed to find rural jurors in Manassas who have ONLY positive customer service experiences with Comcast.
It took me like TWO days of dealing with those mouthbreathers to get them to fix a botched CableCard installation, which in the end was a case of the original technician not having communicated the serial numbers to the home office properly...
I don't care what happened. I simple want to thank her from the bottom of my heart.
I will gladly use the services of any cable company that guarantees same day satisfaction or a 5 min rampage through their offices.
I think we have all wanted to take a hammer at some customer service office one time in my life.
Grr. my=our
I got rid of Comcast years ago. They are an evil company. They kept raising prices while services were taken away and more and more blackouts occurred. I switched to DirecTV and love them. When I moved over here I switched to Dish and love them too. The only time the service goes out is when their is a really really bad service (you better get the candles ready).
I hate to sound like a spokesperson for them, but they have better customer service, they are cheaper, and the quality of the channels is much better.
Later on, I was forced to get their high speed internet service because at that time no other services were available. They charged me twenty extra dollars because I had Satellite. They said the take twenty dollars of their cable subscribers as a courtesy...yeah sure. Seems like unfair practice to me.
I wonder if Dick "shoot you in the face" Cheney is on their board...
While we can all have a good laugh, we need to remember that violence is never the answer.
Except in the case of cable providers. Ballpeen and claw hammers are they only thing they understand.
That, and the feces catapult.
this lady is my hero
Crazy old bat. As much as I hate Comcast, she's not entitled to destroy property.
Awesome.
Sounds like someone's seen Fried Green Tomatoes just a few too many times. Towanda!
I so can't wait to be old and crazy. It's going to be way better than turning 16.
I'm a big fan of not destroying property, but it's high time we admit the cable and phone companies have a sweet deal - they essentially have monopolies and they use the force of local government and their huge bank accounts to foist terrible customer service on millions.
We all have horror stories to tell about cable and phone companies. The only way to make their customer service improve is to pass legislation requiring things like $100 paid to customers for missed appointments or for each day without service.
Then and only then will their customer service improve.
Of course, give the stench of modern American politics, that ain't going to happen.
Sing it with me!! If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning, I'd hammer in the evening, all over this land.
I'd love to call and talk to her, but ...
Ha ha, Moose, I thought about Kathy Bates in the parking lot, too!
"I'm older and have better insurance!"
Comcast is worried about one upset consumer?? Try the majority of subscribers (and non subscribers for that matter). In fact, the story of a pleasant comcast experience is a rare one and is often the following of a previous terrible one. I guess if you set the bar low the first time the second will seem awesome!
What I don't understand is the tremendous inefficiency of Comcast. When I got my cable service installed, a contractor did my installation. And almost as soon as he was gone, a Comcast staff person was knocking on my door for the installation. They seem to have no idea what the other hand is doing.
And then there was the time that there were five Comcast technicians on independent service calls at the same building at the same time. That's right, 5 Comcast trucks parked outside instead of sending one technician to do 5 installations on the same visit.
Just doing these simple things could save millions, but they don't even seem interested in doing that.
Concash sucks....
if they treat you like shit you must acquit!
It's around midnight. There's a faint rustling outside. I figure it's a treebranch or a bird. The tapping continues. Mrs. Monkey kicks my ass out of bed. I reach under, grab my machete, and see what's what. Outside the front window, there's a Comcast van across the street. I go outside. Mr. Comcast is jamming wires into my unused cable box (I don't use it since I've got DirectTV).
"Um, what are you doing?" says the monkey with the machete.
"Wiring your cable box. We got a reported downed system."
"We don't get cable."
"Isn't this 1234 New Bananaboat Road?"
"This is 1234 New Bananaboat LANE. You're two streets off."
Shrugs. "Sorry."
Says the monkey with the machete, "Y'know, f***ing around peoples' houses at midnight is not the brightest thing to be doing, considering how many people own guns and have crappy eyesight."
I shut the door and scribble a note to myself: "Buy milk, eggs, gun, vodka."
I love this story. I want to buy her a drank.
Can I hire this lady to go smash up some $hit down at the Comcast office on Michigan Ave here in the District?
This woman is my hero!!!! Comcast is a nightmare... no matter what city or what service (or lack of) you're trying to give them money for.
She deserves a national award!