GM of Comcast Montgomery resigns

Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2005

Comcast Montgomery’s general manager has resigned after a two-year tenure that oversaw the expansion of Comcast cable television and Internet services and a surge in customer service complaints.

Craig A. Snedeker resigned ‘‘within the last two weeks” for personal reasons, said Comcast spokesman Jim Gordon. Jaye Gamble, Comcast’s senior vice president for the Washington metro region, has taken over Snedeker’s duties on an interim basis.

Snedeker oversaw the local launch of the company’s On Demand cable television service and digital video recorder product.

But Comcast, with 200,000 customers in Montgomery, has seen a spike in customer complaints this summer.

For the first five months of the year, the county’s Office of Cable and Communication Services recorded about 100 complaints per month. In June, that number rose to 265 and reached 474 in July, before dipping to 377 in August.

Comcast has blamed its service troubles on the massive expansion of Verizon’s fiber-optic lines, which included cut lines. Verizon has acknowledged cutting some Comcast lines, saying it was an inevitable part of building out its network, but said Comcast has cut Verizon lines as well.

Gordon said Snedeker’s resignation was not the result of the service complaints. ‘‘Those are day-to-day operational issues that are still going on,” he said.

County Councilwoman Marilyn J. Praisner, a frequent Comcast critic, said only some of the company’s customer service problems can be traced to Verizon’s expansion.

‘‘Some of it was involved in problems with Verizon, but not exclusively. Some of it ... is when you cancel appointments with people and don’t tell them people are not coming,” she said.

Snedeker spoke highly of his time with Comcast.

‘‘I’ve enjoyed a tremendous 10 years with Comcast,” Snedeker told The Gazette on Tuesday. ‘‘It’s just time for me to do something different. The past few years have been very, very busy ... a pace that’s taken me away from my family a little too much. It’s just time to take this opportunity to focus on my family, a great opportunity to take stock.”

Comcast is searching for a new general manager, Gordon said.

‘‘I hope that anyone they hire understands importance of customer service in Montgomery,” said Praisner (D-Dist. 4) of Calverton. ‘‘I hope they work well with the County Council and county staff to improve customer service for their consumers.”