I have to say that reading your first part about the call center environment does have its valid points. But as I work for the largest cable company in the country in a call center environment I have to tell you that the company you work for can completely change your outlook on that type of a job. Having worked for Comcast for 2 years I have to tell you that it is by far the best company I have ever had the pleasure of working for. We do get a bad rap from the public but I have to say I am in a different department than the normal residential people that you hear the horror stories about and this is the way that we are changing for the better. I spend most of my day forming 5 and 10 minute friendships and so does everyone else that I work with. I do have experience with the residential side as well though and I understand those frustrations as well as the frustrations with contractors. In my world one agent like myself handles everything for a customer. No transferring. Just taking that step away from our customers has made a tremendous impact on their happiness and their willingness to let us help them. We do still get the occasional entitled feeling customer or generally pissed off person and yes we do have lots of people asking for things that they have no business asking for, but I always try and put myself in their shoes. People are calling in because they have a problem. It doesn't matter what their specific problem is, my job is to help them fix it. I don't want to get into an argument or drawn into a discussion of the merits of our company or whether or not we are a monopoly as so many people think and so many people are incorrect about, but at the end of the day, it is all a combination of people and personalities that make or break that phone call. If you call in to me and you're not a shitbag I will bend over backwards to take care of whatever caused you to call into us. Then I will follow up after a few days or a week and make sure that your concerns have been addressed and resolved properly. That last step is what usually blows people away. This is a hard job and you have to really enjoy helping people to be able to do this on a day-to-day basis and be successful with it. This is not the kind of job where you can just punch a clock and collect a paycheck and be ok for 20 years. That being said I enjoy what I do and I like going to work, and in just over two years with the company I have been able to support a family of 4, I own my own house, and I have saved a little over 23 Grand in my 401k. Not too bad