Comcast Hammered: Church Lady Hammers Cable Company

[photo: AP]
by Mondoreb & Little Baby Ginn

A story of consumer outrage against a favorite target--a cable company. Comcast finally drove this woman to violence. The story of a church secretary gone wild.

From AP:

Bristow, Va. — She was fined and got a suspended jail sentence, but Mona Shaw says she has no regrets about using a hammer to vent her frustration at a cable television company.

"I stand by my actions even more so after getting all these telephone calls and hearing other people's complaints," she said.

Shaw, 75, and her husband, Don, say they had an appointment in August for a Comcast technician to come to their home to install the company's Triple Play phone, Internet and cable service.

The Shaws say no one came all day, and the technician who showed up two days later left without finishing the setup. Two days after that, Comcast cut off all their service.

At the Comcast office in Manassas later that day, they waited for a manager for two hours before being told the manager had left for the day, the Shaws say.

Shaw, a churchgoing secretary of the local AARP branch, returned the next Monday, Aug. 20 — with a hammer.

"I smashed a keyboard, knocked over a monitor ... and I went to hit the telephone," Shaw said. "I figured, 'Hey, my telephone is screwed up, so is yours.' "

Comcast Corp. disputes Shaw's version of its customer service record. "Nothing justifies this sort of dangerous behavior," said spokeswoman Beth Bacha.

Police arrested Shaw for disorderly conduct. She received a three-month suspended sentence, was fined $345 and is barred from going near the Comcast offices for a year.

Anyone who's a cable customer can sympathize with Mona. The only question is why more hammers haven't been raised in anger before this.



Back to Front Page.