[jmt7les]

As a former techician for Comcast, the reason is that the management there is far removed from what actually goes on in the field, they have no idea how hectic the scheduling can be. When an appointment can reasonably take anywhere from 2min to 3+ hours, it takes much more flexibility on the management end to allow the work to be done properly instead of being forced to rush through it.

[VLM]

Its the difference between the airplane flight reservation model and the taxi reservation model.

Taxi model = you call and a on call guy is dispatched and if they're busy its first come first serve.

Airline model = you call and make a reservation onto an overbooked quota slot next week. Staffing is "optimized" next week to an acceptable level, to a monopoly, of overbooking and predicted failure.

People expect/demand the taxi model and don't understand the inherent results of the airline model.

The system is operating as designed. They just don't like the design.

The telecom hicap / biz side operated under the taxi model but residential telecom and cable has always operated under the airline reservation model as far as I know. I know from personal experience that both natgas and water and electricity operate under the taxi model, so its not something inherently impossible about visiting people's homes.

I wonder if anyone's ever tried the taxi model for residential services? Or if its a startup opportunity?