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75-year-old woman smashes up local Comcast office with hammer

By | October 18, 2007, 10:20pm PDT

Summary: Meet Mona Shaw, 75, of Bristow, Virginia. And if you are wondering, no relation. A retired Air Force nurse and secretary of a square-dancing club, Shaw went Com-smash-tic in her local Comcast office one day last month. As Neely Tucker of the Washington Post tells it, Shaw arranged with Comcast to have them install their [...]

monashaw.jpg Meet Mona Shaw, 75, of Bristow, Virginia. And if you are wondering, no relation.

A retired Air Force nurse and secretary of a square-dancing club, Shaw went Com-smash-tic in her local Comcast office one day last month.

As Neely Tucker of the Washington Post tells it, Shaw arranged with Comcast to have them install their “Triple Play” service- phone, cable and Internet.

Seems as though the Comcast installer failed to show up on the appointed day of Monday, August 13. Two days later, he shows up but only does part of the job. Yet rather than finish the work, Comcast cut off all service to the Shaw’s home.

So now we are at Friday, August 17. Shaw and her husband Don drop in at the local Comcast office in Manassas to complain.

They ask for a manager. They are told one will be right out. They wait two hours.

And after two hours, a customer service rep tells the waiting Shaws the manager has gone for the day.

Mona and Don stewed about it all weekend. Then Monday morning, she visits the Comcast office again. Only this time she brings Don’s clawhammer.

At this point, Mona proceeds to pick up the hammer and bash a customer service rep’s keyboard, bashes the monitor, wrecks the telephone. People scatter and scream, cops come, and Mona Shaw is breakin’ the law, breakin’ the law.

$345 fine, three-month suspended sentence, and a year-long restraining order keeping her away from the Comcast office.

Yea, as if.

Her phone service is now with Verizon.

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Disclosure

Russell Shaw

http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?page_id=1879

Biography

Russell Shaw

Russell Shaw passed away in March 2008. He was an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. A specialist in open source architectures and strategies, Microsoft applications, wireless networking, and multimedia content creation, Russell covered these fields regularly for several IT, business and consumer publications, including Investor's Business Daily and the syndicated IT news site NewsFactor.com.

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RE: 75-year-old woman smashes up local Comcast office with hammer
DonMarcello Updated - 3rd Feb 2011
@Shaeun : I just stumbled upon this case when searching for movies about customer service on Youtube. The problem is that there will always be complaints, no matter how good or bad the service is. However, when all cable providers more or less offer the same level of service, the same incidents included, then what choice do we have? I have been in service management for almost 7 years, but I never had a situation that I couldn't handle. My golden rules are:
1) listen to what the customer has to say
2) tell the customer what you will do
3) do what you have said
4) do 1 to 3 consistently.

Well, maybe the mentality will gradually change over time.
0 Votes
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Sock it to Comcast
mannyamador 19th Oct 2007
The company treated her shabbily and deserved some kind of comeuppance. Maybe the hammer was a bit over the top, but a good chewing out was in order, at the very least. I would have also charged them two hours of service time.
This post should make Skype glad they don't have field offices. http://skypejournal.com/blog/2007/10/forum_watch_voller_on_skypes_s.html
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I can relate totally
laura.b 19th Oct 2007
I definately understand the desire to lay waste to the place, as I went through (and am still going through 3 months later) the same thing with Windstream.

After two weeks they were unable to provide service, they gave the wrong phone number to UPS so they couldn't deliver my modem and I had to go pick it up at the respository, the techincian didn't show, and I was on hold for no less than 40 minutes every time I tried to call them. I got fed up with their repeated illustration of incompetence and fired them. That was July 6.

They still haven't finalized the cancellation of my account, resulting in no bills from DishNetwork (it was initially bundled). I have called them repeatedly and told them that it needed taken care of now. Still nothing. I'm calling the better business bureau, though, because I'm not driving all the way to Atlanta to wreck up the place. Oh, but I can only wish.

Way to go, Ms. Shaw! $345 is a small price to pay, and now everyone will read in the news what they did to you. Actually...that gives me an idea.... wink
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Mail them a hammer
Yagotta B. Kidding 19th Oct 2007
* Cost of hammer: $1.95
* Cost of shipping: $10.00
* Imagining the look on their faces when they open it: Priceless.
Having just had a similarly frustrating experience with a half hour circle around a menu at sprint, I wanted to do worse than take a hammer to them. The lack human response to a need for a human to deal with a problem is among the most frustrating moments of 21st century life. When you finally get a human they are in India, and you can't understand a word they say!!!!!!!
There have been many posts about the incident with Mona Shaw. We are sincerely sorry for the customer service issues that she experienced. Comcast has more than 225 million customer interactions a year and we are striving to deliver a positive experience to every customer, every time. However, it is also our responsibility as an employer to ensure the safety of our employees. Ms. Shaw's actions were certainly not appropriate under any circumstances and we hope that contributors to these online forums would discourage others from taking physical action against customer service employees.



We'd like customers reading this post to know that we are undergoing a company-wide effort to improve customer service. More information about this effort and how to contact Comcast online can be found at www.comcast.com/customerservice.

Jennifer Khoury, Comcast Corporation
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Large Customers base is No excuse
Shaeun 19th Oct 2007
Having a large customer base is no excuse for service that is as bad as Comcast provides. I have always laughed at the Commercials because I hear COMCASTIC and thing the exact opposite of what is intended. Your service is notoriously bad. You should fire the entire staff at that office, for allowing a situation to escalate to that point. How stupid are those employees that they couldn't handle a 75 year old woman who only wanted to talk to a manager?
0 Votes
+ -
@Shaeun : I just stumbled upon this case when searching for movies about customer service on Youtube. The problem is that there will always be complaints, no matter how good or bad the service is. However, when all cable providers more or less offer the same level of service, the same incidents included, then what choice do we have? I have been in service management for almost 7 years, but I never had a situation that I couldn't handle. My golden rules are:
1) listen to what the customer has to say
2) tell the customer what you will do
3) do what you have said
4) do 1 to 3 consistently.

Well, maybe the mentality will gradually change over time.
0 Votes
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experience more than once, I am surprised more people don't do the same thing. While I disagree with what she did, I have more of a problem with companies crappy service policies that treat people like garbage. If I had my choice the way she was treated would be against the law and your company would be prosecuted for it!!!!!
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So,
Cardinal_Bill 19th Oct 2007
do you thing the response of your employees was appropriate?

If so, you don't deserve the business.

I just spent about 30 minutes with my dish provider. I explained to them that when the weather was bad we lost service. I asked that they have someone come out, when they had time, and verify the dish was pointed correctly. They responded it would cost me $50 to have them come out. I replied in that case forget it, but when the service failed next time I would be obnoxious when I called them for the repair service that I'm paying for in my monthly bill.

Obviously they employ the same bean counters you do.
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Come out and fix it for free or consider this my cancellation notice, and I will be going to your competitors. That typically gets a customer retention specialist on the phone who then will consider fixing it for free.
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Neither is the extreme lack of service
necessary for the extreme prices that you
charge. You should not have waited for a
catastrophe to initiate customer care
improvement.

The pendalum swings in both directions. If
you don't want to get hit, take corrective
measures before it hits you, not afterward.
They are fully aware of their practices and have not made any progress in the last 10 years in a positive direction, well maybe a minuscule bit. They treat their customers with contempt.
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Trick or Treat
gotitright 19th Oct 2007
It might be a few weeks before Halloweeen, but it probably wasn't a good time to replace the customer service people with zombies.
Umm....whether you like Comcast or not.
That was a very scary experience for the Customer Service Rep and the innocent customers that were there. Sorry but that is not psychologically normal to take a hammer and smash up a public place because you're frustrated.
This lady is not "cute" she is dangerous.
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So what?
Macathome 21st Oct 2007
You just bend over and pay the bill?

I wish there were more like her, those of us who don't act on our urges would get better service wink

She's 75 for Christ's sake, how many days does she have left to wait?

I'd say she's only "dangerous" if you screw with her, you go girl!!

Happy Comcast Customer, (until there's a viable alternative)
This lady was in the midst of theft. Comcast was stealing from her just as much as the thief who snatches your purse. Some people watch the thief run away and some chase and fight back. This lady fought back. As one who has had Comcast theft occur on a frequent basis (last time was just this past Saturday) I undertand her reaction. Every single interaction I have had with Comcast has been unsatisfactory. I am tired of Comcast promises of customer service improvement. It never happens. Maybe this publicity will spur some action.
OMG! Mona Shaw is my hero! As a disgruntled and downtrodden former Comcast employee myself, I applaud Mrs. Shaw and respect her for standing up for herself! I wish I had done that before leaving my job in the dusty dungeons of Comcast Dispatch.

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