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I think ComCast is run by a bunch of guys who want to force you to read more and go outside more often instead of watching TV all the time.
I think ComCast is run by a bunch of guys who want to force you to read more and go outside more often instead of watching TV all the time.
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I read that whole article and I am physically exhausted and need to go lie down.
Based on principal alone, the OP needs to switch to another service. If verizon is on the way, get some bunny ears for now. That will get your local channels in HD. Then get a laptop and hook it up to your TV so you can watch netflix on full screen. Check out hulu.com for episodes of your favorite shows. Lastly, check bittorrent for shows that are on cable channels.
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I didn't know Comcast offered specific contracts that you had to sign.
The timing of this post seems awfully suspicious, given that Comcast is in the running for the golden turd.
@Eoghann: Ya. Consumerist teamed up with Countrywide to make sure Comcast won because the CEO of Countrywide wants to improve his image.
Tin foil hat much?
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This makes me want to post my own 10 page story about AT&T. I'm not sure if there is any internet / cable company that is competent, but when Verizon shows up in my area I'll give them their chance.
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Funny how countrywide is winning.
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Isn't posting a Comcast story today like campaigning at the ballot box?
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@incognit000: \"I think ComCast is run by a bunch of guys who want to force you to read more and go outside more often instead of watching TV all the time.\"
No, I think the OP is a guy who wants to force you to read more.
Seriously, 90% of this guy's complaints are just part of the cost of providing cheap cable+internet+telephone.
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This guy's letter is a bit confusing.. Was he expecting the cost for an HD package to be the same as a SD one??
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Comcast is both great and awful - I have had minimal outages, great picture quality, lots of extras like free OnDemand HD movies etc. and I get a good monthly rate. HOWEVER, when anything other than a very simple problem occurs, their Customer Service just falls apart... I wont go into my horror stories in full detail, but spent nearly 3 weeks, four service calls trying to get my internet working after moving houses culminating in an EECB that fixed it in 24 hours.
I'm the OP. In retrospect I probably should have fired off a shorter letter to Consumerist instead of forwarding the detailed list of complaints that I sent to Comcast.
After sending that mail it still took about a week before they finally fixed all of the billing errors, but the EECB seems to have done the job.
And to clarify for Darren, we weren't expecting HD for the price of SD. The big problem was that ordering an HD box set off a chain reaction where Comcast got our current account mixed up with two other accounts long since closed and we ended up getting overbilled and hit with late charges as a result.
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Heh, I'd rather use rabbit ears than cable. The \"channel selection\" isn't worth the hassle.
Comcast is the only service provider that still prints my wife's maiden name on our bill. We were told we had to bring a copy of our marriage certificate to the local office before they'd fix it. Everyone else we do business with was happy to make the change with a simple verbal request. Every time I interact with Comcast, I am more certain they are in business mostly to test the limits of poor service
I have had comcast for over a year now. I have yet to have any horror stories. In fact have been very pleased with my service.
Got it installed July of last summer in my new apartment. Installer (contractor) was pleasant, early and installed on a sunday. Ran the wire around the living room to the wall that I was going to have my tv on (only wire in apartment was 6 inches hanging above my door). Everything worked great-TV and Internet. I just had to call them to take the modem charge off my account b/c I had my own. This was fixed and I was credited. Fast forward 1 year. My fiance and I just moved in together. Since he use to have verizon DSL I just ended my service and we put the service (triple play) in his name. Again installer was pleasant, early and install went fine. 2 days later started having problems with the picture-lots of distortion some channels would never load. Called in, resetting box didn't work so they sent out a tech the next business day (was calling on Sat) Fiance was home for this, said tech was pleasant and on time. He said as soon as he walked in he started laughing. It was because our box was 10 + years old. Replaced with newer working box. We haven't looked back since.
The only problem I have is now we get telemarketer calls 5-6 time EVERY NIGHT. They got our number from comcast. Oh well, put us on the do not call list.
I hope we do not have a problem like any I read here. I promise though....good comcast people are out there (philly area).
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@Bladefist: Many apartment complexes have exclusive contracts with cable/internet providers, so the OP may not be able to switch carriers.
While I agree that any co. should give you service you pay for, this comment makes me laugh:
This was nearly two weeks where we couldn't watch cable in our living room because of this service disruption.
The horror. TWO WEEKS with no cable in one room. They might have had to talk? Seriously, the dependency people have on cable is WHY Comcast, et. al. can do what they do. Andrew wrote a letter almost as long as my master's thesis but notice he won't cancel unless something else comes around.
@danseuse322: I actually don't watch that much television, and when it is on it's usually just background noise. The issue was less about our social life and more that we were paying for half a month of a pricey service that we weren't getting.
And I'd switch providers in a heartbeat, but Comcast is the only provider if you want broadband. I hate Comcast, but I hate dial-up more.
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As I used to be one of high ups in a small company that dealed with advertising; I did what I usually do when I read customer complaints that were sent to us. I read it until I got bored, or irritated as unneeded babble.
This happened halfway through this novel. This is where I stopped. This is where I would have just deleted the E-mail, or threw away the letter and went back to business.
Please, please, PLEASE! Do not babble for pages about how horrible life is. Tell me what I give a shit about. How much do you think should be compensated, and a paragraph or two stating why.
The boss always looked at the bottom of the letter looking for what they wanted in compensation, and threw it away if he didn't see numbers. If I wanted to read a novel, I'd by a book. If you want companies to give rats ass, keep your notes short and harshly to the point.
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This sounds very similar to my family's ordeal with Comcast. The problems began when we moved. First, even though we had told them we were moving and did all the account transferring, Comcast never mentioned to us that we needed to return our age-old (from previous providers that were bought by Comcast) cable modem and cable boxes.
A little more than a month after moving, they suddenly send us a shocking note telling us that we need to return the boxes to the old office (over 1000 miles away) or pay a few hundred bucks. Luckily, we were about to travel to our old town anyway so dropping off the equipment was just a matter of packing it in our suitcases and swinging by the office when we arrived.
But much worse happened a few weeks before this. After moving into our new house, we had Comcast come over to set up our Phone, Internet, and Cable TV. When connecting the phones, Comcast switched our two lines. The phone jacks that were supposed to be on line one were on line two and vice versa. While, you think this wouldn't be a problem, especially since we just moved, it was, because both lines had different calling plans and we had already given out our phone and fax numbers to people. They came and switched everything up and the phones worked properly.
Then came the internet. We discovered that when a computer was plugged in through an Ethernet cable, the internet would work properly for them. However, for some reason, the wireless would give \"Limited or No Connectivity\" as if the wrong WEP key had been entered (even though we though we had entered the right WEP key). After being on the phone with Comcast (during which they switched me from internet, to phone, to cable, and so fourth even though my problem was clearly with interent). Finally, I got a very polite, friendly, and compassionate lady (I felt really sorry for her because she had to work for such a load-of-shit company). She tried to help me for more than twenty minutes before deciding that we might need a new router/modem unit.
That evening, trying to figure out every solution possible, I realized that the Comcast technician had such bad handwriting that we had all misread the WEP key from the sheet he gave us. With the internet working, Comcast mysteriously had to replace our modem/router again a few weeks later (even though it worked fine). The problems above kept me without internet on my computer for a month.
And last, but not least, we had problems with the cable. Our basement TV's cable box went faulty at first, but that was easy to fix. Shortly afterward, we bough a new HDTV and we had unpacked another TV that needed to be on cable. So we called Comcast, emphasizing that we needed a technician to come with a regular box, and HD box, and be able to wire a new cable jack to our HDTV. The next day the technician arrived late with two regular boxes (no HD box). He also said he couldn't even install a cable jack near our HDTV because he \"didn't have time\" and because our \"house is too big.\" We finally got the cable jack installed (the technician left the cable wiring in our basement a complete mess), but still had no HD box. We finally picked one up at our local office.
The above post doesn't even come close to describing all the problems we had with Comcast. Sadly, while direcTV is available in our little country town, there are no other phone or internet providers, so we are trapped.
This is not unlike what happened to me when I moved last year: Comcast repeatedly tried to \"confirm\" my appointment to set up new service by calling the old number and getting annoyed with me for not being there. Then when I tried to change the name on the account to my name instead of my mother's name, it just could NOT be done according to every CS rep I spoke with--including the one who called to know why I wasn't home when they showed up to install \"new\" service as a result of the name change they couldn't even make. Gah!
\"My wife and I were married last October, and we'd been living together...since June of '07\"
Clearly, God has taken your cable as punishment for your sins.
File the paperwork to let Comcast deal with your State AG while simultaneously working with the Comcast Escalation Department. You'll be surprised how quickly you'll be put through to someone who can really help you when you ask them for their name and extension number to be included on your complaint form for the State AG's office.
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Wow, at that point I'd just cancel the whole shebang and be done with it I can live without TV ... if I can get my internet and phone connection elsewhere.
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Get a life, man !!! It is insane for anyone to be spending $160/month for television. Read a book for a change, or just use rabbit ears and watch PBS. In some countries common people don't earn $160 year. You could probably feed a small town for $160 month. You are just another greedy, wasteful American. I bet you even drive a Hummer!
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Obviously, you shouldn't have gotten married.
Amazing how Comcast is heaven or hell, depending on where you are...
@Eoghann: So now someone needs to post a Countrywide-related story, in the interest of equal time? Sounds good to me.
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The Frank Eliason address should hopefully get you some results. We had a horrible experience with AT&T and our only other choice was Comcast. Between the two of them I don't know who was going to make me have a stroke. I posted my woes about Comcast on my LJ and \"Frank\" got in touch with me and things started rolling. We got some serious customer service, and things have been pretty good since.
OK if you want credit you should not cancel the service call. Once you do that and they pull up your account history it will show as canceled by subscriber meaning you have no problems. This fact won't help you. But there is a problem, if you get a tech out and have no problems they can charge you. You can't win.
Another thing I'd like to point out is - there is a service call and there is an install/upgrade. You can't have both at the same time. Well an installer could clean it up and in the process fix your problems but a service call is just that a service call. A service tech will not upgrade your DCT and add additional outlets. That's not his job. As simple as that.
I have zero experience with Comcast but I know majority of cable cos do this.
I get free OTA HD.
Give it a try.
And for the record I only get two stations. Two is better than one. And since there are only Two stations within 90 miles of me I pretty much figure I am maxed out.
@nataku83: I have to agree. I had Charter... HORRIBLE! I wanted to try Verizon, but I was told that the area where I lived wasn't profitable enough to offer DSL to... I've had Earthlink- worst experience to date. And right now I have Time Warner, who isn't too bad, but their rates are a bit high. And their trials in Texas have me a bit worried. I refuse to go with AT&T because of their involvement with deregulating the local franchising laws in WI.
So ya, all of them suck, just to varying degrees...
Direct TV + dsl and phone cost less then what they are paying and that is with HD and DVR.
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Maybe I'm more patient, but I don't really get where the tragedy is in this. He had some billing issues where credits weren't applied properly, an issue with his apartment buildings connection, and a bum box.
So, where's the fire or do I just need to RTFA again?
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I don't know, I've had bad experiences with Comcast but this takes the cake.
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Can we PLEASE fix the apostrophe/quotation mark typo in the title block?
\"Andrew__\"__s Epic Comcast Debacle\"
Is that not driving anyone else nuts???
I sent an EECB about two months ago to Comcast using the email addresses found here. I received a call from the \"manager of my market\" within twenty minutes. My billing issues were fixed, he stated that he had a meeting with the local call center director in my area and identified who I had talked to. It may have been BS, but all emails had a CC of (I forgot his name) the vice president of customer affairs or something like that (I googled his name). But anyways, they fixed my billing errors, AND, I'm paying $95 bucks a month for internet, digital, HD, DVR, and premium channels. But, I do live in a smaller Comcast market. Sadly, they've still had to come out twice since then to fix issues in my neighborhood.
having had many issues with comcast, i've found the only way to getgood customer service is to contact frank via twitter or email. he isthe only person i've found who actually care's about the customer andget's things done quickly and efficiently.
RG
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I have nothing useful to add. I just wanted to say that \"Epic Comcast Debacle\" would be a great band name.
Actually, I will add that I'm heartily glad I don't have to deal with Comcast at all.
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@ceriphim: If you see typos and that sort of thing, the best thing to do is to email the editor (the links are all in the left column) rather than pontificate about it in comments.
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i had that same thing happen to me with the two-year contract/special rate junk. They never sent me the contract (or even mentioned it to me in the initial conversation), and suddenly i was getting bills for double what I should have. When I called, they told me that I never signed it and sent it back.
Then, they simply switched me to the one-year/no contract plan. It took several months for the billing to get fixed too.
@Wet_Baloney: Or it could be that $160 is the cost for a package deal that also includes broadband Internet service and a land-line phone for the home, and the $160 ultimately includes all of the taxes, fees, set-top boxes, remote controls, etc.
Our Comcast bill is about $70 per month and most of that is for Internet access. TV I could live without (and have done, though I prefer to have it) but 'net access is life these days, pretty much. For work and job access, too, not just entertainment or contact with friends / family.
I'm sure someone or so many Comcast employees are reading consumerist constantly.... I hope they get the run for their craptitude service...and customer experience ....
Should I say -0.1% Customer Satisfaction Experience is the rating they get
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craptitude is a word that needs to be in the dictionary. i love it =)