Customer support stinks even if you aren't a customer yet

Well. This past week has been fun. My Dad came home from work Tuesday last week with pizza, because it was time to celebrate! He said he checks every few months to see if we have anything broadband around us (here in Timbuktu), and he checked that day, and Comcast had high speed cable in our area! Like 4 Megabit high speed! Like 100+ times the speeds we're getting now with 36k dialup! The person on the phone said they would have to run cable to the house, which would take 3-5 days, then they could wire it in, install the cable modem, etc. This week Monday (2 days ago), the 4th business day, my Dad called to check on the status of things.
Wait -- say what? No record of us? But we called last week and signed up!

O_O

So my Dad orders cable service again, and the lady said they'd make it fast because of the delay. My Dad called again today, the 2nd day after that took place, and after getting the address...

Phone rep: "Wait, are you in Illinois?"
Dad: "No, we're in Michigan."
Phone rep: "Oh, well you'll have to call this phone number:..."

Weird, because my Dad used the generic 800 number the last 2 times...
He gets on the phone with someone else, they have to transfer him to a different number... finally he's talking to the right person. They get the address, look it up, and -- huh? No...... service???
[long, drawn out, Darth Vader style "Nnnoooooooooooooooo!!!!"]

Apparently, the other people he talked to didn't know anything, or they got the wrong place, or something. I SOOOO want something better than 36k dialup. A (relatively) small 5 MB file? Go do something else while you wait. 20 MB download? Start it at bedtime, HOPEFULLY it'll be done by next morning! (a little sarcasm...) Online gaming? Bah!

*sigh* Oh well.... So close, yet so far......

ps. Happy Thanksgiving!