Many residents have been told that it may be two weeks before they are able to have power again, leaving many households (like my own) to take in neighbors. We lack a shelter system or even so much as a motel, so many people who do not have immediate friends/family available to take them in have had to leave town.

Those of us that did have power, didn't have Comcast service available. Since most of the residents that have it go in for a bundled service package, many people were without phones.

Since there are few folks in this fabulous metropolis, it is not surprising that the resident computer addict (me) was the first to report a problem to Comcast.

This is when things got really fun.

My first call to the company involved navigating their menu and then talking to a very nice man who informed me (after asking everything from my name to the last four digits of my social security number) that we'd had a windstorm.

I was glad he could tell me such current news, and even more happy that it was so super secret that access was guarded appropriately.

I told him that we did indeed have a windstorm, and that we also had power but no cable. He went on to ask me if I was sure I had power, as cable wouldn't be available if electricity was not.

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I remained, I think, very courteous and thankful for his careful analysis of the situation and told him that I was very sure indeed that power had been restored.

After accessing my modem and DVR box remotely he informed me that they weren't online. I was happy that he could back up my observations.

Then he told me that he could access everyone else on the same line, and told me 54 other people seemed to be offline from the system too.

He then informed me that he was making out a time ticket for the area, but that I'd have to get at least three of my neighbors to contact them before it would be upgraded to an "outage". He said the advantages of such an upgrade would be that we would get credit for the loss of service, and the time ticket would be removed and replaced by an immediate order for a technician to restore service.

I was puzzled by the conversation and caught in the headlights of "be nice", so I hung up and went on a walk to talk to the local duplex manager. I told him that we all needed to call Comcast, and explained why. At that point he told me I was the only one with a phone that was working, due to having phone service through Qwest.

Then it hit me...slowly but surely...that the entire system was ludicrous and must be defied. I mean, how is it that a company which can absolutely confirm that a system is down get to dodge compensating people who subscribe to the service if they can't contact the service and tell them about it...when the means to contact them is ALSO down?

So, I took out a copy of a handout given to me in a class I'd taken recently. It featured some of the interpersonal effectiveness/people skills outlined by Dr. Linehan. One of the methods used is "Dearman" which breaks down like this:

Describe - Explain the situation using only the facts of the matter

Express - Explain your personal feelings about those facts

Assert - Take the time to say "no" or to request what you want

Reinforce - Explain why such a request or acceptance of the "no" is good for them.

Mindful - Remain focused and keep asking for what it is that you want

Appear Confident - Say it like you are very certain of what you are talking about, and don't let things tip into aggression or meekness

Negotiate - Be prepared to come to a reasonable middle ground, if such exists.

I got back on the phone and asked to talk to someone who was in a place to make policy decisions, rather than simply refer to a pre-existing standard. I was polite, calm, and firm.

Then I went down the "dearman" list. They tried some funny things, like telling me that there was no way they could be sure of an outage without contact from residents. I told them that they might need to discuss that matter of technology with others at their office, as another person there had told me quite plainly how many people were without service. I'd wait on hold so that they could go find out how that process worked and confirm the information as I was sure it would move our negotiations in a positive and fruitful direction.

In the end, they decided it was in the best interest of Comcast to allow the ticket to be upgraded to outage without being contacted by three people. We now have our service back. I have also been assured that the 54 people on my line will all receive credit for the outage.

I thanked them and told them that I'd be sure to tell everyone about their prompt service and understanding in the matter, and that if there was any misunderstanding about the billing on the next cycle that we'd all make sure to use our working comcast connections to communicate with them about it.

The End.

(As an aside, I have uploaded a couple of photographs of the type of destruction we saw down here in Rochester. You can see the images at my flckr page .)