@HFC:

...the best thing that I can think of about Comcast is that they haven't dipped a baby seal in diesel fuel, lit it on fire, and beat it to death with it's mother's spine.

...as far as we know.

People can avoid Capital One though, some people don't have that option with Comcast unless they don't want internet or prefer to have something that isn't compared to a Model T Ford or an internet speed.

True, (but I suspect not in the way you intended it. Definitely not in a way that makes Comcast the bad guy.)

The ONLY way it's true is if Comcast isn't even an option for someone in their neighborhood. Because as you stated, give the "choice of using Comcast or not." you always have the 'NOT' option. Just don't get cable.
(TV isn't mandatory.)

BINGO!

I don't know why so many people voted for Capital One. There are far worse CC companies out there. Don't like Capital One's fees? You can go somewhere else. NOT SO if you're like the thousands out there that are trapped in a Comcast-controlled monopoly area.

My choice for Internet and TV, for example is Qwest or NOTHING. The sadder part about my situation is that Qwest will soon be outsourcing their TV service to DirecTV, but since our building doesn't face south, they can't install a satellite dish here, so my choice for TV will be NOTHING.

Hooray for capitalism!

Comcast (#2692) is worse than Capital One (#650) on Vanno.

@king rex: Sue them.

@vastrightwing: :Slow clap building to thunderous applause:

I refused to pay the overage by paying the bill $10 shorter than charged. Sometime later they cut off my service. I went to the downtown office to pay the bill, they said they'd take it off. It wasn't, and I received a nasty note telling me to pay up.

I was enraged, but my girlfriend stepped in to pay that month's service, unnecessary overage and all.

It was only $10, but I still want our money back. What should I do?

Comcast didn't show for an installation appointment, but I was luckily able to get DirecTV.

When I turned eighteen I applied for a Capital One card to start building credit. Between graduating high school and getting ready to go off to college, I forgot that I had applied for said card until one day I decided to pull up my free (the actual free one) credit report and saw that, not only did I have a Capital One card, but someone had been using it and not paying the bill. I quickly called to tell them that I was not in possession of the card and that I wanted the account closed. I went back and forth with them trying to explain that I had never once in my life used the card because I never received it until I was informed that 'they would take care of it' and then promptly hung up on. Six months later, I got a call from a collection agent saying they wanted to collect on the debt I owed to Capital One, so obviously it was never taken care of. Screw Capital One.

1. Comcast never did a credit check on me; did they on you?
2. How exactly does Capital One "screw with people's credit"? They long since ended their previous practice of not reporting credit limits.

I'm glad I closed their sleazy ass card account 3 years ago!

Look at it like this:

Capital One is a Credit Card company. They are optional. Any mailings I get from them are promptly sent to the shredder.

On the other hand, Comcast is a Cable / TelCo / Phone company. Now on its own this is not that bad - but coupled with shit customer service, terrible technicians, frequent outages of all services at once (including phone - pray you don't have an emergency), and the fact that they hold a monopoly over a significant portion of America and it is suddenly not unreasonable that Comcast is winning.

@axiomatic: And hence is exactly why I just voted for Concrap.

Monthly caps, the push for "tiered" internet levels, etc make Comcast foul in my book.

But Capital One keeps "denying" my charges, when I'm NOWHERE near my cap. Once when I literally had NO charges awaiting payment.

@EarlNowak: I think the correct term you were looking for is Comcrapstick.

@coan_net: I had pretty much the same experience, except that while they bumped my rate up they were advertising for NEW customers on promotional pricing that was about one-half the amount they charged me. Good-bye!

Some day we'll find out what happened to all the competitors in cabletelevision underworld. Where's the competition, there isn't any!

Service labeling

I'm going to make the case that Comcast isn't even offering Internet service. Someone first needs to define just what Internet service means, because now it means whatever a provider says it means. Example, if the Internet is a switched web where data is directed via a router, then Comcast is not providing this service at all, but instead is providing a subset of the Internet by filtering/blocking traffic, slowing traffic, capping traffic and spoofing traffic. These were never part of the Internet specification and are being practiced today to "manage" networks. In my opinion, networks should not be managed using these methods: it's up to each end point (AKA customer) to decide how to manage their traffic. I manage my own traffic and block my own ports. I do not want anyone else doing this for me.

Imagine if the power company managed electricity like this: they monitor your power usage and cap your kilowatt usage to 100KW/Day, once you exceed that, a limiter device will trip and shut off your power until you reset it. You pay for 240 volt three phase power but sometimes the power is brought down to 220 volts so they can save energy. Then the power company notices that you have an unusually low power factor, so they start billing you an additional fee without telling you.

My idea of a properly managed network is to simply monitor bandwidth and route traffic as necessary to keep the flow moving. Denial of service attacks can be monitored and routing tables can be modified to stop attacks without affecting other traffic. High bandwidth users can be identified and sent notifications but to manage their pipe by spoofing and slowing packets is not the answer.

I might support buying a "managed" service as long as it is clearly spelled out how the network is being "managed". Data caps need to be clearly defined and you need to be able to monitor your usage to the byte. "Unlimited" should not be used if there is any kind of cap. This means that no provider can ever use the word unlimited unless they're referring to the bill you may receive. Any traffic shaping needs to be clearly identified and spoofing should all be pointed out. If you are going to sell a product, then label it properly!

I HATE Cap One - stupid bastards! They could have had a loyal, paying customer but within five months they screwed up my payments so often that I yanked the card.

I loathe Comcast too, for their smugness about being the only game in town, but they haven't screwed me like the other ones.

@axiomatic: Excellent point.

You don't need Comcast. FREE over the air TV is an alternative. It's free and no one will ruin your home. There's no contract to sign and the picture is much much clearer and better since over the air TV is not compressed like Comcast. I not only ditched Comcast, but I removed their coax line from my house. I don't want anything from Comcast touching my property!

Plus Capital One is swallowing up some of the local banks around here and some convenient branches have now been shut down because of them.

I can't really get too worked up about either company, but then I don't have a Capital One credit card (although their ads are sometimes kinda cute).

I've never had any trouble with Comcast, but have seen plenty of horror stories posted. They seem to be making a bit more of an effort to reach out. Part of it is simply lingering reputation too.

Not everyone has a choice of using Comcast or not.

Comcast wins for sure.

You see, my initials are M.A.C. - and if you rearrange the letters in COMCAST - you get COST MAC - See, COST MAC MORE MONEY!!!!! THOSE BASTARDS They have been planning this for years.

@HFC: It's Comcastic!

Hmm.

Oh well.

(I was grandfathered into an older pricing plan from another company they took over for, and while THEY were trying to fix the problem, they made a temporary modem switch to see if that would fix it. OH WAIT - Equipment change means they can take me out of the old pricing plan and stick me in a new pricing plan. Oh sorry, once that is done we can't switch it back. Sorry, your screwed since there is nothing else in your area right now. Ha Ha Ha) I sure had a Comscrewyouic day.

How is Comcast winning? They don't have a monthly cap!