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Comment by rayiner | Hacker News Reader

> I think this was the most productive call I’ve had so far, because I finally got the clear picture of what’s going on. Somewhere in Comcast’s system, there’s a check box that says that I already have cable service to the house. Every time I call to ask about new service, someone looks at this checkbox and concludes that I don’t need construction. Whenever a ticket is opened in regards to construction, it’s closed automatically because the system believes it’s not necessary. So I am literally in a Catch-22

This is what Kafkaesque actually means.

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What I think I would try I that situation is to change the address. Pick a nonexistent address on the same street, and order service at that address. Change the numbers on the house to match and make sure they are prominent so any people dispatch there will find it.

I love that idea. In some situations there's actually a USPS process for changing the number address of a plot of land. I remember the first house my parents bought had two valid addresses until they got everyone using the same one.

This actually fits in nicely with the Comcast "rinse and repeat" method. Keep calling back asking the same question until you get the answer you want.

Maybe he should have just submitted phantom requests from every address on his street under different pseudonyms. Eventually someone might have made the mistake of initiating the construction... or a regional manager may have unlocked the project due to perceived demand!

I had a similar problem with one Comcast system insisting that autopay was active, and another system refusing to charge my card each month while the total due kept rising.

Situations like this are all I can think of when considering offloading more and more work to machines. I am all for automation, and maybe it is the lesser of two evils, but there is a certain human problem solving/reasoning element that desperately needs to be figured out.

Any non-trivial bureaucracy will develop these degenerate use cases, with or without automation. It's a matter of will, not available neurons that could solve the problem if properly motivated.

If the story's author files a complaint with the FCC or the municipal cable-governing entity, this problem will be fixed rather quickly.

Garbage in/Garbage out. The problem isn't automation, unless you're suggesting a hueristic in the Comcast ticket system that flags requests for review if the same invalid requests keeps getting submitted every few days with only an increase in the amount of profanity.

Yes, but IMO the point is that average humans are still much better "garbage detectors and cleaners" (or general-purpose problem-solvers, really) than automated systems are going to be for the foreseeable future.

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