Cable Guy To The Rescue

Cable has had major PR problems when it comes to its reputation for public service.

One of the highest profile stories of customer dissatisfaction concerned the woman last year who took a hammer to the computer and phone of a Comcast customer service rep outside Washington after she says she got less than sterling service, to put it mildly.

Broadcasters have made much hay out of the publicity of that incident, though Comcast has gotten some props recently from one of its harshest critics, Bob Garfield, co-host of NPR’s On the Media and founder of the Web site, comcastmustdie.com.

Garfield says on the site that Comcast has made "concrete steps" in putting customers first, that he is retiring the rather extreme site name for the more generic CustomerCircus.net to subject other companies to "the power of aggregated rage." He also says that he is stepping away from the site.

Now comes the story, also out of the Washington suburbs, of a Comcast cable guy to the rescue.

If he was a little late for an appointment last week, Jorge Rivera had a good excuse.

According to the Washington Post, Rivera, who works for Comcast, helped save a half-dozen people from a fire when he stopped en route, grabbed the ladder from his truck, and helped them to safety after their apartment building caught fire.