Cable Rage Pushes Granny Over the Edge

Oct. 19, 2007 — -- Call her tactics old-fashioned. Call it a frustrated woman on a mission.Call it just plain wild.

A 75-year-old Virginia woman was fed up with her cable company, so she took matters into her own hands and brought a hammer with her.

Mona Shaw was trying to switch to Comcast for cable, Internet and phone, but the cable guy didn't show up when he was supposed to.

Shaw says the Comcast cable guy didn't show up the day she had put on her calendar. Then, when he did come, she says he changed her phone number of 34 years without her knowledge. And when she finally figured out how to work a prepaid cell phone to call and complain, she got a frustrating phone tree.

"You know, push 1, push 2, so on and so forth. You get to the point where you want to throw your phone out the window," she said.

So she took a literal whack at Comcast, the largest cable company in the country. Shaw went to Comcast's Manassas, Va., office in person and was told her she'd have to wait for a manager — and she did. But before long, Shaw was told the manager had gone home.

Comcast disputes the details. But by this point, Shaw's frustration had turned to fury.

"I just came down, went to my husband's toolbox and reached in and pulled out the hammer," she recalled. "And said 'OK, Don, we're going for a ride.'"

She said she took her husband's hammer and marched into the Comcast offices.

"I hit the keyboard," she said. "And I knocked over the computer monitor."

Shaw swears she's not a violent person, just determined.

"If I need to get something done, I'm gonna find a way to get it done," she said.

Shaw is a retired Air Force nurse. She and her husband, Don, enjoy square dancing. They foster dogs that need homes. But on this day she'd had it.

Not long after Shaw's show of rage, the authorities arrived.

"The next thing I know a police officer comes roaring in," Shaw said. "When he said put down that hammer, well I did, right on the telephone!"

Shaw was charged with disorderly conduct and banned from Comcast's offices for a year.

"I don't condone violence against telecoms, but I certainly understand the impulse," Comcast critic Bob Garfield said.

Garfield set up a Web site called ComcastMustDie.com. He says the response from fellow consumers has been overwhelming.

"My goal is simple — to take this gigantic, soulless arrogant corporation and bring it squealing to its knees begging for mercy. And if not to its knees — to its senses," he said.

Comcast says it has added 12,000 new customer service agents and offers shorter service windows and weekend appointments for customer convenience.

In a statement, Comcast said, "We apologize for any customer service issues that Ms. Shaw experienced. That said, Ms. Shaw's actions were certainly not appropriate under any circumstances."

The Shaws canceled their cable and have ordered satellite service from another company.

And they couldn't be more pleased with their new service.

"They answer. They come out on time. They call and make arrangements," Shaw said.