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—>After yesterday's news that Comcast was considering getting in on the already-under-antitrust-scrutiny merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation, the original article has been updated to be slightly less bad. More »
—>Frank Eliason is a great pointman for escalating Comcast customer service issues, but what if he dies, gets promoted, a new job, or decides we're all just too annoying? Then you might want to have some backup executive customer service info: More »
—>Yesterday's news that Hulu soon plans to start charging for its service actually came fresh on the heels of Comcast's announcement that it's about to officially launch online streaming video for subscribers to both their cable TV and Internet services. More »
—>Coaxed by the promise of rebates, Rhea took the Comcast high-speed internet plunge, but found it difficult to get her money, since Comcast had outsourced its rebates to a company called OfferWire. More »
—>The Harrisburg, Pa. Patriot-News reports Comcast sent out a service upgrades flier with a number for a phone sex line. More »
—>Where does spam come from? Well, there are these things called botnets. They're networks of hijacked computers that secretly do the bidding of their masters. Often, they send out spam. Comcast plans to offer an automated service that will inform you, within your browser, if your computer is behaving as if it has been compromised by malware. More »
—>Mike writes us to say Comcast's On Demand service in Chicago is suffering from dropsies reminiscent of Bears receivers. He says a CSR admitted as much when he called to complain. He writes: More »
—>Comcast sent me an e-mail with this alert/warning that the company is about to change its billing/customer service interface. More »
—>Hey, are you ready for Comcast to take more control over your entertainment? Then great news for you! Yesterday a rumor leaked that the cable giant is negotiating to buy 51% of NBC Universal, which includes the movie studio Universal, Universal theme parks, the NBC network, and shows like 30 Rock and SNL. More »
—>The FCC today proposed new rules to protect and preserve "net neutrality," the idea that ISPs must treat all users the same and not prejudice against different types of customers. In a speech, Chairman Julius Genachowski supported adopting the "Four Freedoms" first articulated by the FCC in 2004 (PDF) not just as principles but as formal rules, and adding two more: "non-discrimination" and "transparency." The big networks are, naturally, incensed. More »
—>So you're working as a door-to-door contractor for Comcast, faced with the task of convincing subscribers to a competitor to get Comcastic and net you some commission. So naturally you decide, "why not disconnect their service, then step in and offer my wares when they'll be more appreciated?" More »
—>Comcast is going to start rolling out a $2 fee hike across the country this fall, which means your cable modem rental fee will go from $3 to $5 by the end of the year. Comcast says they absolutely have to do this or they'll never be able to pay for service and equipment upgrades, which makes us wonder how the poor underfunded company manages to stay afloat at all. More »
—>There are three ways in which HDTV blows your mind: It lets you read too-small text in video games and movie subtitles, makes the picture on DVDs take up the entire screen, and in football games lets you see more of the field, and in such stunning detail you can make out the tears on Buffalo Bills fans' faces as their team blows 11-point leads in the final two minutes. More »
—>Attention: A satisfied Comcast customer has written to this website. Sadly, reader Kevin is now being denied the delicious shivery pleasure of Comcast's services — because his new house is 600' too far away. More »
—>We're happy for Comcast that it's a giant company and all, but is it really that impossible to have someone in Connecticut talk on the phone with a Connecticut-based customer about a no-show installation tech who we presume should also be in Connecticut? Maybe that's the problem—maybe the technician was accidentally outsourced and is presently driving around Mexico or the Antarctic looking for Karah's address. More »
—>Zac read our recent post about Comcast randomly throwing advertisements in the middle of cartoons and other programming. He let us know that the errant commercials can be explained by science. Broadcasting technology science, that is! More »
—>According to reader Chris, Comcast in South Florida has been cutting into TV programming with commercials, preventing viewers from watching various kinds of shows. Reader Chris H. writes: More »
—>Remember Jim? His Comcast cable box randomly responded to the emergency alert system (EAS) by tuning in to QVC. According to a source inside Comcast, rogue lightning strikes set off the EAS, even though there wasn't an emergency. Two things happen when the EAS activates: the cable box switches to a local channel, and Comcast replaces the local programming with an alert. In Jim's case, the box switched to the emergency channel—which happened to be QVC—but since there wasn't an emergency, there was no special broadcast. So what can you do next time your cable box independently declares an emergency? More »
—>According to PCWorld, Comcast is testing a program called "Domain Helper" that will redirect you to an advertising page if you type the wrong URL. More »
—>Marian adorably paid her son's cable, phone and internet bills as he attended grad school in Chicago. All were handled by a company called... Comcast. Duh duh duuuuuuh! More »
—>Add "rescue people from an underwater car" to the list of things Comcast is better at than installing cable. More »
—>When Comcast activates the emergency alert system, Jim's cable box snaps into action and tunes itself to QVC. The locked cable box refuses to tune to any other channel, so Jim is left wondering what emergency information he's missing while staring at the latest deals on cubic zirconia bracelets. More »
Do you know that Comcast commercial where this homeowner gets FiOs installed against his will and then all these bulldozers tear up his lawn and bumbling contractors cause an electrical short? Lelah's letter describes a process that's very similar, except worse and much longer. And then this salesman just picks up her guitar and starts playing it and singing without even asking first. No wonder, by story's end, she's been driven to the brink of insanity, demanding compensation for 5 missed days of work. So far, they're offering her $25. More »
—>Reader Kevin would like to be billed the correct amount for his internet service from Comcast. This is a dream we all share, so let us give our support to Kevin in this dark hour. In his letter to the CEO of Comcast, Kevin says that he has tried many tactics in order to get Comcast to charge him the correct amount — including — but not limited to —- going to the Comcast office and sitting outside in the hope that the account executive would show up. He didn't. This mysterious account executive has also failed to answer messages left on his work voicemail and his cellphone. Perhaps he has become hopelessly trapped under a vending machine somewhere. Someone should try to find him before the scorpions show up. More »
—>Hey dumb crooks, if you're going to rob a place be sure not to wear a uniform with your company's name on it and drive a van plastered with a nationally recognized logo. It makes it really easy for the police to catch you. On second thought, do just that, please. More »
Hey, look! Comcast has their very own blog! It features mostly regular company news about Comcast services and the adventures of employees and executives, but at least it allows comments. Even Consumerist favorite Frank Eliason, Director of Digital Care (aka @comcastcares on Twitter) has joined in the fun. More »
—>Comcast-subscribing NFL fans did the Ickey Shuffle back in May when the NFL Network and Comcast revealed that they'd made nice and the channel would made available to Comcasters on the "Digital Classic" package for no additional charge Aug. 1. More »
—>Look, Comcast, when you take back someone's equipment and give them a receipt confirming that their account has no balance, it's not unreasonable for them to think that their account is canceled. Don't keep billing them for service and equipment rentals, and don't tell them that you "can keep [the account] active and [bill] indefinitely until [you] decide to disconnect it." Because if you do, they're going to call their state Attorney General's office. At least that's how Paul convinced Comcast to finally cancel his account. More »
—>How are cable providers reacting to the threat posed by online streaming of shows? Forget bandwidth caps for now—how about online access to cable programs, limited to cable subscribers? More »
—>If you live near Burke, Virginia, you might want to pay close attention when the contractor hired by Comcast comes to install your service. Rick runs a computer repair company and has twice run into the same problem with Comcast customers, where they can no longer access the Internet after an upgrade and are offered an off-the-books repair service. More »
—>If you're paying too much for cable these days, it really doesn't hurt to call and ask for a discount. You never know, your cable company might surprise you. That's what happened to reader Nitin. More »
—>It used to be Steven Soderbergh who could get away with bringing indie films to cable on-demand services on their theatrical opening day More »
—>If a Comcast subcontractor accidentally drills into your electrical box and sets fire to your home — rest assured that the company will take it seriously. One Pennsylvania homeowner is feeling the seriousness right now. It all started when she asked Comcast to install a cable outlet in her kitchen, and it ended with smoke and flames and $20,000 in damage. More »
Looking for some inexpensive entertainment this weekend? It's HBO and Cinemax free preview weekend at a number of major cable providers, including Charter, Comcast, Cox, Time Warner, and Verizon FIOS. If that doesn't include you, keep an eye on the FreePreview.tv site to learn when your provider's previews are coming up. [FreePreview.tv] (Thanks, Tim!) More »
—>Sorry kids, your days of catching enticingly named porn listed next to your cuddly family shows on Comcast's programming guide are over. Comcast will now place "blocks of dummy channels" to keep family programs away from the racy pay per view channels. More »
—>This is a sad evening for Consumerist, because this post is about Comcast sending a gigantic bill to an unsuspecting customer and yet we're going to side with Comcast. More »
—>Last week's word that Comcast and the NFL finally put their blood feud behind them to make the elusive NFL Network available on the basic digital tier was nice and all, but the out-of-nowhere bonus that the Comcast would also snag Red Zone Channel, which lets you keep tabs on all the games simultaneously, was a phenomenal revelation. More »
—>This should be an easy one to resolve. Readers Rich and Alisa doesn't owe Comcast any money, and Comcast doesn't want them to pay any money. Still, despite this agreement about what is owed, the cable giant still felt the need to threaten to cut off their cable. More »
—>It's official, the NFL Network and Comcast have finally reached an agreement that will bring the football-only network to the majority of Comcast's subscribers. So, who caved? More »
—>Kevin abandoned Comcast and switched to FiOS. Since then, his jilted cable/Internet company has made it quite clear how badly they want him back. They can't believe it when they hear that he won't see them. Denial is tough to watch. More »
—>Reader Adam wrote in to let us know that he's switching to FiOS after Comcast credited his payment to the wrong account number, accused him of not paying his bill, disconnected his cable, lied about it, then couldn't get it back on for several days. More »
—>Comcast might want to slash the budget on its Live Chat service and devote more resources to Frank and Sherri over on the Twitter side of things. The only good stories we hear about Comcast customer service comes from encounters with them, it seems. More »
—>Comcast agreed to lower reader O.'s monthly cable bill to $40, but they didn't warn him that the new, lower price would come with a hefty $150 early termination fee. O. could barely afford Comcast's service before, and wouldn't have agreed to the lower fee if he knew about the surprise fee. Comcast is telling him that he has no choice but to pay, and won't even let him return to his previous plan. More »
—>Congratulations to AIG for beating Comcast in this year's final. More »
—>This is it, folks. The Final Deathmatch is here. To reach the final round AIG defeated #32 Target, #17 Peanut Corporation of America, #9 Walmart, and #5 Ticketmaster. Comcast had an equally impressive showing, waltzing past formidable opponents such as #30 DirecTV, #14 Capital One, #11 GM, and finally, last year's returning champion #2 Bank of America (Countrywide, Merrill Lynch) went down in an upset last night. More »
—> A big cable company vs a big bank. A repeat of our final match-up of 2008. Last year Countrywide (now part of Bank of America) prevailed. Which one will you choose? More »
—>Here we go people: It's the Final Countdown. Let's hear it for the last four companies standing. More »
—> If you've followed Consumerist for more than a few days you've probably heard that 2009 Worst Company in America quarterfinalist Comcast has been known to engage in some, ahem, sketchy customer service practices. More »
—>Graham's roommate is moving out. The cable and Internet are in his name, so they called up Comcast to change the name on the account. Simple enough, right? Surprisingly, it was. Until they wanted to know why there was a $10 fee to change the name on the account. More »
—>Now here is a match-up! One company is trying to avoid bankruptcy in a tough recession, the other struggles with customer service. Which one makes your blood boil? More »
A [Howell, Michigan] man was ordered to stand trial on charges he exposed his genitals to a computer technician trying to fix his slow Internet service. More »
—>UPDATE: We're bad at Spanish. See below. We came across a Twitter user who, while browsing Comcast's internet prices, discovered that the Spanish-language version of the site offers reduced speeds at the same prices as the higher speeds seen on the English version of the site. What the hell? More »
—>The FTC has announced that Comcast and DIRECTV, will be paying some fines for ignoring Do Not Call regulations. Ouch. More »
—>A clueless cable giant? Or a fee-happy credit card company? Who shall taste your wrath? More »
—>Hannah needs some more training, because her knowledge of Comcast's bandwidth cap is less than Comcastic. We also think calling her an "analyst" is maybe stretching it a bit. More »
—>Oh, Comcast. Apparently, during a 2 a.m. showing of "Good Friday Mass at the Vatican," Comcast interrupted this regularly scheduled program with... an ad for Girls Gone Wild. More »
—>After a long day of work, John called Comcast's "24/7" customer service line to downgrade his service. Press 1 to upgrade, 2 to downgrade, chirped the phone. He pressed two and was told that he was calling after hours and would have to call back later. He hung up and redialed and pressed 1, "upgrade," this time, and within 30 seconds was connected with a customer service rep, "who was more than happy to help me DOWNGRADE my service. It was literally a 2 minute call, and I had cancelled the services I don't use and am saving almost $40/mo," blogs John. Clever, Comcast, so clever. More »
—>This English-as-a-second-language tech support guy just wants to help Noah out, but the weird combination of formal exchanges and misunderstandings make him sound like an AI program. We don't think Jullan even realizes that his good-natured attempts to help are only annoying the customer more. In theory, we like the idea of a tech support guy "extending an extra mile," but maybe next time he should stick to tech support and leave billing questions unto the billing department. More »
—>On May 1st, the NFL is pulling its cable channel from Comcast's cable line-up over a dispute about the cable company's sports tier. As the deadline looms larger and larger, the company is taking their case to the people. David L. Cohen, an executive vice president of Comcast Corp, wrote the following opinion piece for the Philadelphia Inquirer. More »
—>The above picture of the huge video screen in the lobby of Comcast's headquarters in Philadelphia pretty much sums up everything you need to know about Comcast as a company. More »
—>Hillary discovered that her money-saving free digital service self installation kit from Comcast wasn't so free after all when she got her monthly bill. She says they removed the charge when she called to ask about it, which further reinforces our suspicion that this is a sneaky plan to pass the cost of the free kit back to subscribers. If you request a free self install kit from Comcast, watch your bill for extra charges. More »
—>OceanNet is a company that provides building-wide WiFi to residential buildings in Ocean City, Maryland. One problem — the WiFi was really just some guy's Comcast account. More »
—> Did the Pornbowl ruin your evening? Or does the NFL Sunday Ticket monopoly fill you with rage? More »
—>Comcast keeps sending Andrew's parents letters insisting that "there is a leak of our electronic signal into the air," and that if it can't be immediately fixed, their service will be disconnected. Andrew's parents always immediately call Comcast to schedule a service visit, because nobody wants a signal leaking into the air, especially not one that "could interfere with aircraft and ship communications," but each time they call, Comcast has no clue why they sent a letter, or how to plug the leaky plane-gobbling signal. More »
—>After spending almost 4 months trying to get Comcast to fix the signal problems with his cable, reader William, who lives in an apartment building that only allows Comcast, has decided to just cancel his his account and go without. More »
—>The New York Times has reported that a list of over 8,000 Comcast user name and passwords were available to the public via Scribd for two months, before a Wilkes University professor discovered it over the weekend after doing a search for his identity online. Comcast is saying it looks like the result of a phishing scam and isn't an inside job, and that there are so many duplicate entries on the list that it's closer to 4,000 customers. More »
—>Comcast's new service agreement (PDF) has some curious details buried in the fine print. Here's the short version: "customer equipment" includes your computer and TV set, and if Comcast somehow damages or breaks any customer equipment through "gross negligence or willful misconduct," they will pay you up to $500, no more. "This shall be your sole and exclusive remedy relating to such activity." More »
—>Reader Evan canceled Comcast — which seems to have lead to a barrage of annoying phone calls that simply will not stop. A little Googling turned up others with the same problem... More »
—>Bob Garfield, creator of ComcastMustDie.com, has declared victory. Comcast isn't dead, but he says instead of being "a vast, greedy, blundering, tone-deaf corporate colossus," it's merely all of the above with the exception of tone-deaf. ComcastMustDie is one of the many online different outlets for customer rage that Comcast has tapped into to proactively respond to customer complaints. They still have a long way to go, but at least they're listening. That is all Bob really wanted, it seems, as he's moving on to a new project, CustomerCircus.net, that will solicit and broadcast consumer complaints against all kinds of companies. And yep, Comcast will still be one of them. More »
—>Earlier today, Jessica wrote to us about her Comcast horror story: there was something that smelled terrible, and the smell was coming from inside her apartment! He also hooked up her replacement modem incorrectly, so it still didn't work, then said he'd be right back and drove off forever. Luckily, she was able to steal enough wifi to send an email to Comcast, and as of now the problem has been resolved. More »
He is actually still here I as I e-mail you — I hate to be mean, but the BO is so bad, I am seriously choking. He left to get some parts out of the truck and the smell is so strong in my apartment I am going to need to open all of my windows for the rest of the afternoon just to get this smell out. More »
—> Comcast is testing WiFi service at about 120 NJ Transit rail stations in an effort to retain broadband customers who might otherwise be tempted to switch to FiOS. Will it work? More »
Every businesses needs documents employees can refer to, pantra-laterally, to help steer their decisions through times of uncertainty and deal with rapidly fluxing global business enterprise environment, secure touch points that provide direction and solace, Rocks of Gibraltar in miniature, if you will.
Like when you need to make a new pot of coffee.
Inside, Comcast's official new pot of coffee making policy and instruction manual...
More »
—>NPR spoke with Daniel Roth, a senior writer at Wired Magazine, over the file sharing fiasco that Comcast found itself in about a year ago—the one where a Comcast customer discovered that the company was secretly impersonating his computer to interrupt bittorrent transmissions. More »
—>The Santa Rosa, California Press Democrat says that Korbel Champagne Cellars will ask a Sonoma County judge to force Comcast to reveal the names of anonymous Craigslist posters who criticized the company. More »
—>Ever wonder what it's like to be Comcast's resident Twitter wizard, Frank Eliason, for a day? BusinessWeek did, so they sent a reporter to watch Frank, described as a "maverick," spend a day responding to scorned customers. More »
—>Hate renting set-top boxes from Comcast? So does one San Francisco Comcast subscriber. He's suing, claiming that the rental fees are far in excess of what the boxes would be worth on the open market. More »
—> Comcast says their investigation shows that their systems were functioning properly, so they've turned the case over to the FBI. More »
—>Comcast is giving a $10 service credit to every Tucson customer whose Super Bowl viewing was interrupted by a porno snippet, but you have to call in. The number to call is 1-888-315-8219. A thorough system review indicated there was no technical glitch, "suggesting someone deliberately seeking to interrupt the broadcast rather than a technical glitch," wrote WSJ. US Attorney General spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle said, "We take this matter seriously." The pancake pupcake pile said, "You can call me nanerpus, nanerpus." More »
—>How much would someone have to pay you to have your kids watch a penis? Comcast answers that question by giving a $5 one-time discount to every subscriber in Tucson, AZ who had their cerebellum gelatinized by seeing the porno movie that accidentally cut into the Super Bowl last night, according to a rumor a reporter we know overheard in their newsroom. More »
—>Comcast customers in Tucson, AZ watching the Super Bowl saw more pigskin than they bargained for when 30 seconds of a porno movie cut in to the final minutes of the big game. "I was watching the game with my family, Larry Fitzgerald scores the go ahead TD - then bam, penis," writes reader David. A Comcastic Fight Club homage, perchance? More »
—> Google has decided to throw its weight around when it comes to Net Neutrality; the search giant announced a plan to let end users see what their Internet Service Providers do with their bandwidth. What does this matter to you, the aforementioned end user? Inquire inside. More »
—>Comcast charged Robert a $24.95 "Customertroublecall" fee after he called to ask why they were taking over a month to restore his service after Hurricane Ike swooped in and caused over $3,000 worth of damage. Robert wanted to know why Comcast was continually missing their scheduled service appointments and why they insisted on billing him for a service he couldn't use. More »
—>A few hours before Republican FCC chairman Kevin "Kevvy" Martin officially lost his job — he launched an investigation into whether Comcast is deliberately degrading rival phone services. More »
—>For more than a year, says the Baltimore Sun, there were Comcast cables laying in the gutters, and across the driveways of a neighborhood in Hanover, MD. Why were they laying there? Because that's where Comcast installed them. More »
—>You thought you were having a bad day? Meet Chris. He was installing some equipment for Comcast (by way of a subcontractor) on a water tower in Payne, Ohio. His rigging broke and left him dangling by his safety harness for over an hour. More »
—>Ever been scorned by Comcast? A brave Comcast Call Rep has given us an in-depth analysis, as well as some ways to navigate around the Cable giant's sales pitch. More »
—>If your Comcast cable box starts a fire in your home — should you be responsible for paying to replace it? More »
—>Reader Benjamin is pissed because Comcast in his town of Richmond, VA they raised his rates, and justified it by saying they have to pass on the cost of rising gas, technology, and health care. He writes "Gas is a Buck' 69, they haven't improved the technology in my area, and health care... Really? They might as well of added a $5 fee to restock the candy bowl in the break room of the service center while they are at it." If that's not fun enough, see what happens when he tries to file a complaint about it. They try to route him to the complaint line...but it's been disconnected! More »
—>Reader Brad forwarded some links to chat transcripts in which he tries to tell Comcast that he can't make local calls, during which he alternates from incredulity to despair then back to incredulity again. He even sings to the CSR. More »
—>Here's how Stephanie saved $230 on her cable and phone bills after following the tips in "3 Ways To Lower Your Out Of Control Cable, Internet And Phone Bills" More »
—>If you would like to reach the immediate clutch of minions encircling Comcast CEO Brian Roberts for some reason (say for instance you tried working with Comcast Customer Service Czar Frank Ellison (email: We_Can_Help at cable dot comcast dot com) and for some reason that didn't work out or you weren't happy with his solution - or you just really want to give his executive assistants a piece of your mind and want to increase your chances it will reach his ears) - here's the phone number for the Comcast Office of the President: 215-286-8960. More »
Does Comcast love Obama? Or do they just really, really, really hate FCC Chairman Kevin Martin? [DSL Reports] More »
—>Inside, email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses for over 100 different companies to inject your customer service complaints into their corporate executive offices, and get it well on the way to success. More »
—>Reader aishel says that he saved $323.40 yearly on his Comcast bill just by asking! Yes, it can be just that easy. More »
—>Amy, a student at UC Davis, has just learned one of the lessons that one inevitably learns at college. Cable companies are simply not very good at what they do. Take, for example, the "finished" installation of some cable outlets in her apartment. More »
—>Reader Josh is a Comcast customer says he was without power for 7 days due to Hurricane Ike, and by calling 1-800-COMCAST he was able to get a service credit for the whole time he couldn't watch TV. More »
—>Tressy Campbell of Woodstock, Georgia has a kitchen. In this kitchen is a lot of raw sewage. It's been this way since June. As you might imagine, Ms. Campbell is somewhat annoyed about this, and would like the Comcast contractor who drilled a hole in her pipe and ran a cable through it to pay for the repairs. More »
—>Oh Comcast, you romantic. You were so sorry to see Michal leave that you pretended he didn't. We get it: he bikes, he blogs, he helps toddlers learn Polish. But after four months of him repeatedly asking you to stop billing him, when you still won't stop it begins to look a little stalker-ish. Your computers can't always be down. More »
—>Yesterday we told you about a man who saved $238.92 per year on his Comcast bill by threatening to cancel and getting a discount to keep him around. Numerous readers chimed in in the comments with their tales of victory using the same method, tales of failure, and a few company employees shared their insider perspective. Ive rounded up the comments and sorted them by the aforementioned categories so you may learn from their tips and tricks to save on your cable bill. Some of the same tactics can be applied to other services, like cellphone or credit cards, as well... More »
—>David used the classic Threaten To Cancel method to save big time on his cable bill, $238.92 per year. Better yet, he did it in the face of Comcast trying to raise his bill. Granted, it was by less than a dollar. But why pay more if you don't have to? Here's how he did it. More »
—>Comcast's customer service czar Frank responded to our post "Comcast: "The Patriot Act" Mandates We Need Your SSN" by saying it was an error on part of the agent. Via Twitter he said: More »
—>Ryan wanted to order new Comcast service but balked at their request for a Social Security number. When he asked why they needed it, the Comcast chat rep said "The Patriot Act" required it. That doesn't sound right to us, or to Ryan. His story and full screenshot of the chat, inside... More »
—>That would certainly explain some things. More »
—>Yesterday, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that the police were looking for two men who were posing as Comcast employees as a ruse to steal social security numbers. The men were driving an unmarked car, wandering around a neighborhood knocking on doors and telling residents they needed to fix some wiring issues. One resident refused, claiming that she didn't have an appointment. She then saw the employees start knocking on other doors and, finding it unlikely that her entire neighborhood could have "wiring issues," called the police. More »
—>Comcast has joined pretty much every other ISP in New York by shutting off access to newsgroups, effective two days ago, although current users will still have access through October 25th. A lot of stories on this topic have focused on how New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has led the overall "crackdown" due to kiddie porn, but we think this is really just a politically convenient business decision to cut costs on a service that's declining in popularity. DSLReports seems to agree, and they offer some advice on where you can get affordable newsgroup access now that your ISP is no longer footing the bill. More »
—>Reader Michael forwarded Comcast's official warning about the new 250 GB download cap that they've added (or rather, that they've now admitted to) in their Acceptable Use Policy. The cap has been in place for some time, but Comcast is just now getting around to telling everyone about it. More »
—>Brett Favre lead the NY Jets to victory over the Miami Dolphins Sunday, but if you're in New Haven, CT you didn't get to see it, thanks to an error by Comcast. The cable company accidentally broadcast the wrong game, but when fans called to have the mistake corrected, Comcast told them that their game was blacked out because they lived too close to Foxboro and the New England Patriots. That is, of course, a bunch of baloney. More »
—>Northfaceninja watched in horror as a Comcast employee repeatedly smashed his Comcast van into a car driven by a senior citizen before barking: "Get the fuck down from your car so I can kick your ass." The angry employee quickly abandoned his ass-kicking plan once he noticed onlookers jotting down his license plate number. More »
Cnet has rounded up a list of free bandwidth monitoring apps for Windows and Mac users who will be facing Comcast's new 250 GB download limit next month. They aren't perfect, but they "should tide you over until Verizon brings some Fios action to your hood." [download.com] More »
—>Broadband Reports is saying that they've confirmed through several sources that Comcast is going to be instituting a 250GB cap on their high speed internet.
More »
—>Here's one more thing to worry about when a fire destroys your home — Comcast. More »
—>Reader Jeff writes in to let us know that Comcast Frank and the Twitter team swooped in and rescued him from Comcast tech hell. More »
—>Here's an odd situation: Reader Stephen says that Comcast (his old cable company) disconnected his new Verizon cable. He's not sure what exactly he should do about it and would like your advice. More »
—>FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell (R-Obviously) recently warned conservative bloggers that the Commission's decision to repudiate Comcast for crippling Bit Torrent could lead the government to start "dictating content policy" by requiring blogs to give equal time to opposing views. Ha! Of course, this can be avoided if we vote for the *ahem* "right" candidate in November. More »
—>Reader Adam has written in to share his maddeningly typical experience with Comcast. As he says, "They didn't kill my first born child, but they were a big pain in the ass." More »
Are you a Daily Candy subscriber? Surprise, Comcast now owns it. [AppScout] More »
—>Reader Kyle says that his dispute with Comcast has resulting in something of a happy ending, though they're still working out that pesky easement issue. Comcast is under the impression that it has an easement on Kyle's property, while Kyle's records show that they do not. According to Kyle, Comcast has agreed to mail him some paperwork about the easement and has offered him a credit of $500. More »
—>If you think you can sign up with Comcast just to get a Wii and then cancel or downgrade service, think again. Downgrade service or cancel in the first year, $250 in fees, second year, $125. Other restrictions apply. The insider says the new Wii promotion is a bunch of crap and they and other Comcast CSRs won't be offering it to customers unless customers beg for it because of all the caveats. Frankly, they're in the right for protecting their asses on this one. However, it's not too hard to imagine scenarios where Comcast gets the account details wrong and customers wrongly get assessed fees... The internal document, inside... More »
—>Reader Kyle, like so many of us, would rather Comcast not dig up his property without asking, especially when they are a) running cable for his neighbor b) mysteriously avoiding an area near the curb where they could have run the cable without disturbing his yard. To add insult to (landscaping) injury, when he asked the Comcast workers to stop digging they refused, and when he called Comcast to ask them to tell the workers to stop, they also refused, then hung up on him. More »
Finishing second in the Worst Company In America contest hasn't slowed down Comcast's money making machine. Their profits rose 7% thanks to telephone and high-speed Internet services. They're adding customers and making more money per customer, thanks to bundling, says Bloomberg. "...Average revenue per customer rose 8.6 percent to $109.66 as it sold packages combining its services." [Bloomburg] More »
—>Just like we told you via exclusive insider leak last Tuesday, Comcast is indeed giving away a Wii to new triple—play subscribers. It says so right in their press release. You will have to sign a new 2-year contract with Comcast for "Triple Play" services. And you will have to sign up with Comcast. There is that. More »
—>Duhn duhn da duhn! Envelope please... yes, America has voted and... the Worst Company in America award goes to.... Countrywide Home Loans (now owned by Bank of America)! The final vote was... More »
—>Comcast's Twitter-jockey has his own New York Times story. Awww. We love Frank, even though we probably make his life really crappy by posting lots of Comcast complaints. Oh well! Sorry, Frank. More »
—>Chris L. writes in to let us know that the EECB (Executive Email Carpet Bomb) is probably the only way you're going to get Comcast to fix a network problem that affects your entire neighborhood. Calling and talking to the "zombies" at the call center will just result in yet another "truck roll" (where Comcast comes to your house and says everything is fine.) More »
—>The Washington Post is the latest paper to attempt the problem of just why and how Comcast is able to suck as hard and as consistently as they do. They run through the usual suspects (too much emphasis on growth, Brian "Comcatastophe" Roberts makes $20 million a year, too much competition, not enough competition, people watch videos, it's Wednesday, I love lamp, etc.). Whatever the reason for Comcast's suckage, its not accidental, and we're thoroughly bored with the excuses, but we did enjoy the article for its obligatory "bad customer experience" anecdote — in which Comcast characterizes itself as going "above and beyond" for the consumer. More »
Comcast will be giving away a limited supply of free Wiis in an upcoming promotion, a current employee tell us. The offer is good for new Comcast triple-play subscribers signing up July 28-August 17th in select markets. Our tipster confirmed the promo will be good in Miami, San Francisco, Houston, Denver, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, and some other markets too. In valid markets where triple-play is not available, double-play subscriptions are eligible.The cable provider is apparently undaunted by the unresolved incompatibility issues between some Comcast-provided routers and the Wii. More »
—>UPDATE: After he sent an EECB, all of Andrew's billing errors have been resolved. More »
—>Well, folks. This one is for all the marbles and a beautiful lucky golden shit statue, suitable for display in the corporate headquarters of either Comcast or Countrywide (now Bank of America). More »
—>The box we teased you about contained a glistening golden poo statue. That's right, the award for Worst Company In America is here. That can mean only one thing... On Monday we host our final deathmatch between Comcast and Countrywide Home Loans. It's going to be a brutal bloodbath full of chills and spills. Only one will walk away champion, and then we will mail them their justly deserved prize. Stay tuned to Consumerist.com for all the hot crappy-company-on-crappy-company action. More »
—>FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told the Associated Press yesterday that Comcast had "violated our principles" when it came to managing their network. He accused Comcast of arbitrarily blocking internet traffic and failing to disclose to consumers that it was doing so. More »
—>UPDATE: Comcast has now removed Brad from its mailing lists for really reals. More »
—>Here at the Consumerist we get a lot of emails requesting more "happy stories." While we wait for some to happen, here are 13 headlines we would love to write. They are in no particular order. More »
—>Here's your first "Final Four" matchup: #1 Comcast VS #12 Diebold. More »
—>Christopher made the mistake of calling Comcast to order a baseball package and now he's been stuck with an outrageously high (and incorrect) bill. Every month. For 3 months. He calls and calls and they tell him it's fixed and it never is... More »
—>Reader Ryan sends us a gallery of photos depicting the aftermath of an unfortunate meeting between a moving Comcast van and his house. More »
—>It's down to the final four worst companies in America, folks. The bracket has been updated and the next round will begin on Monday. Congratulations to the four companies that made it this far. You've really achieved something! Who do you think will win it all? More »
—>The results of the Harris Interactive survey that tracks the reputations of the 60 most visible companies in America has been released and here they are: Google is tops and Halliburton is not. Not shocking, but there are some interesting findings. Honda is the only car company to make the top 10, and Comcast, Sprint and Northwest Airlines are the least well-regarded in their respective industries. More »
—>It's no secret to Consumerist readers that Comcast's outsourced techs are often late, rude and incompetent, and that calling customer service is more akin to improving dialogue in a Beckett play, but as this exclusively obtained powerpoint made by a Comcast employee shows, it's no secret to the cable company either. (I know the damn thing wasn't officially created by Comcast corp. C'mon, give us more credit than that. It's pretty obvious that it's too funny to be official. I just meant to describe how it was created by a Comcast employee and passed around to other Comcast employees and came from inside Comcast. I realize now that "internal" makes it sound official, and that wasn't my intention. I apologize for the confusion.) Watch and/or download the powerpoint, inside... More »
The bracket has been updated as we prepare for Round 4 of our Worst Company In America contest. See the full-sized graphic, suitable for framing or forming the basis of informal office betting pools, inside... More »
—>Here's your first "Elite 8" match-up: #1 Comcast VS #9 Exxon. Only a few more rounds to go! More »
—>Chris gave Comcast a heads up that he was moving and wanted to arrange a transfer date ahead of time, and they disconnected his present internet access instead. Gahhhhhhh! Ahhhh!!! When he made various calls to various Comcast departments, various employees agreed it was messed up, but all refused to actually solve the problem. So Chris, using some email addresses we posted, sent out a well-crafted executive email carpet bomb... More »
—>On Monday, John Weatherly, age 60, appeared in court to face kidnapping charges stemming from an incident in March, 2007 when he allegedly detained a Comacst technician, The Tennessean reports. According to the police affidavit, Weatherly deadbolted his door and threatened the technician with a German Shephard and would not allow the tech to leave until he fixed his television. The judge ordered a mental evaluation for Weatherly. More, inside... More »
—>If you're a Comcast cable TV customer and they sent you a M-Card, a card that lets you use two tuners off the same cable card, make sure you're not getting double-charged, reports blogger Christopher Price. They were charging him double for one card and he had to call them up and remind them that FCC policy mandates one free CableCARD per household to get them to manually remove the charge. Chris says, "If you have an M-Card, check your bill. If you dont have an M-Card, request one from Comcast and save yourself $21.48 per year theyre already getting enough of your hard earned money." More »
—>A woman who sent a sarcastic payment to the "Comcast Vampires" for "My Right Arm" is suing because she says Comcast employees posted a copy of her unredacted check on the internet. She says she was alerted to the security breach by a stranger from Colorado who received the check in an email that said: "This is too funny not to pass on. This is an actual payment we received via yesterdays mail." More »
—>If you'd like to help Comcast eavesdrop on its own subscribers, you're in luck: Comcast has posted a job listing for an "intercept engineer" on a headhunter site, according to Wired. Want ad for position of The Man, inside. More »
—>A Baltimore area man was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries after two men broke in to an apartment, demanded money and then shot him before fleeing in a Comcast van, according to police. Officials have not yet determined whether or not the men work for Comcast, and calls to Comcast by WBAL radio and the AP were not returned. More »
—>Comcast says that it will experiment with a new method of managing traffic to thousands of customers in Chambersburg, Pa., and Warrenton, Va. The new method will not target file-sharing, but would focus on individual heavy Internet users - no matter what they are doing, says the Philadelphia Inquirer. More »
—>Time Warner Cable is going ahead with a test of metered internet, starting Thursday, for new customers in Beaumont, Texas. The metered billing is TWC's proposed answer to the problem of bandwidth hogging super users. More »
—>Here's a technique we'll not be adding to our list of fun ways to escalate your complaint: The 18-year-old who recently hacked Comcast and took down the company's homepage and webmail told Wired that it was Comcast's own fault... The hacker, known as EBK, called Comcast to let them know they'd been hacked. The manager scoffed and hung up: More »
—>Three Comcast contract workers were arrested when a witness discovered that a kitten had been spray-painted and nearly kicked to death, ABC 4 in West Valley, Utah reports. Jesus Villalovos was arrested for animal cruelty and obstruction of justice and 2 other men were cited with class B misdemeanors. The men were working in the area as contractors for Comcast around the time of the incident. Details, inside... More »
—>If you read our story "Canceling HBO Costs $1.99 But Canceling Comcast Is Free, Which Do You Choose?" you should remember Jonathon who was trying to cancel his HBO with a Comcast online CSR that was offering very little help. Jonathon wrote back to us to let us know that after our story ran he received a call from a Comcast supervisor who apologized and said that the online CSR did in fact have the authority to waive the $1.99 fee. Jonathon's letter, inside... More »
Okay, who decided it would be funny to hack Comcast? DSLReports says, "Though there's no indication that user privacy is jeopardized, you may want to avoid using Comcast webmail until things have been completely cleared up. [DSLReports] More »
—>Reader Shannon has been without a working phone in her home office for the past 16 days thanks to Comcast. This has her in a bad mood, but she's also a little ticked off because they sent over a bunch of guys who didn't understand her when she told them not to dig up her patio. More »
Comcast has defended its BitTorrent blocking by saying it only does it when network congestion is high, but a new study finds that they're doing it basically all the time. [The Inquirer] More »
—>Companies spend a lot of money on marketing, but ultimately, a brand is what people think it is. Meet Brandtags.net — a site where you can tag brands with one word or phrase that best represents how you feel when you see their logo. It seems that Dell has its work cut out for it—some of the top tags people are using for that brand include: More »
—>According to WAFF in Huntsville, Alabama, last weekend 2 Comcast Cable vans were racing each other at speeds of over 75mph which caused an accident that put 3-year-old Kayleen Smith (pictured left) on life support. Now Kayleen is off life support but remains unconscious. Details, inside... More »
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—>Tier 1 voting is over (we'll get a nice standings chart up soon). Now it's time for things to get more intense, now we'll have some real competition. This is Round 33 in our Worst Company in America contest, Comcast vs The American Arbitration Association.
—>According to an article in The Press Democrat, some residents in Santa Rosa, CA. are coming home to find large green Comcast utility boxes installed on their property, often in the middle of their lawns. The unsightly green plastic boxes are about the size of an air conditioner and have been popping up in Santa Rosa as Comcast upgrades its cable network. Naturally, the residents are upset. More »
—>Katherine, a new Comcast subscriber, was setting up her online account access when for reasons unknown it told her that she must talk the online CSR. Suddenly she felt fear and trepidation radiate down her arm and settle into her mouse hand. She took a deep breath, said a silent prayer and clicked "CHAT NOW." What proceeded was a mind numbing 20 minutes of her life that Katherine will never get back. Her letter and chat log inside... More »
—>Of all our random corporate screw-up stories, this is one of the funniest, if only because it's so random and so persistent. Oh wait, Kelly's out over $100 now and Comcast keeps debiting her account whenever they feel like it. Maybe that's not that funny after all. More »
—>Reader Matthew just cut his Comcast bill in half with a single phone call. He received a flier from one of Comcast's competitors that boasted a much better price than the $175 per month he was paying. When he called Comcast and told them about the better rate, he was swiftly transferred to "customer retention" which must be a place of magical wonderment because by the time he got off the phone his Comcast bill had been reduced by $90. How did he do it? His letter, inside... More »
(Thanks to Waldon!) More »
—>A Comcast insider part of a network operations group tells me that Comcast is doing some behind the scenes reorganization and decentralization so as not to suck as much. The insider says: More »
A few months ago Azureus petitioned the FCC, which led to a FCC hearing in February. One of the complaints from the commission was that there is little data available on the scope of BitTorrent throttling, a gap Azureus now tries to fill by collecting data on the prevalence of TCP-resets among ISPs worldwide. More »
—>Stephanie's internet is back after she used the contact info from our post "Comcast Trawling Blogs And Twitter For Customer Complaints" to email Comcast's problem solver, Frank Eliason. Stephanie writes, "Within an hour of my email to Frank he responded, saying that he forwarded my problem to Scott the local guy...they had a tech at my house within an hour." Score! More »
—>Reader Stephanie wants to cry because of Comcast:
I HATE dealing with tech support. This time, I bit the bullet because my internet connection wasn't working.More »
—>The sometimes customer service deficient cable company Comcast has a new "fireman" whose job is to respond when people blog or Twitter their customer complaints. Frank Eliason's unenviable task is to watch the blogosphere and reach out to posters when they kvetch about Comcast. He's a nice guy, he's reached out to help some our reader's posted complaints, but he's not omnipotent. This article covers two people customers contacted by Eliason. One of them got their problem solved within a day, the other was still waiting for a solution a work-week later. It is Comcast, after all. Still, if regular customer service isn't helping you, try blogging or Twittering your problem and maybe the magic customer service fairy will visit you! Also, his Twitter profile is comcastcares and his email is We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com. More »
—>Frank Eliason from Comcast Executive Customer Service provided the following statement regarding the San Fransican whose Comcast cable service mysteriously shut off 10 minutes after asking a tech to move his van from in front of his driveway: More »
—>Dave Winer uses a lot of internet. Too much, it seems, for Comcast's tastes. They shut his connection down because he was clogging up the pipes. More »
Did you know that Comcast has an "on-time guarantee?" That's right, if your tech arrives outside the time window for a repair, you're entitled to a $20 credit. For installs, you get one free cable outlet installed. A former Comcast worker says, "Only dispatchers have the ability to put this credit on accounts, however," which makes us wonder how easy it is to actually get these applied to your account. Maybe if you use these numbers to call dispatchers directly you'll get somewhere. [Comcast] More »
—>Reader Daniel lives in San Francisco, where parking is notoriously impossible. He came home one morning to find a Comcast van blocking his drive way, and politely asked the driver to move. Ten minutes later he lost his internet and TV signal. Mysterious coincidence, or malevolent tech? Check out the details, inside. More »
—>Comcast SportsNet has more sports than they do channels. When fans of the San Jose Sharks tuned in to see playoff hockey last night they were surprised to see a baseball game in progress. When that game went into extra innings, ComcastSportsNet decided to stick with the game and drop playoff hockey. More »
—>The brass at Comcast are keeping an eye on Twitter, according to Michael Arrington of TechCrunch. He spewed some bile about Comcast via Twitter and got an immediate response from their internet damage control team. More »
—>Here's sad news— Comcast has worse customer service than the New Jersey DMV. More »
Pass the hat around, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts is only going to make $20.8 million this year. [Philadelphia Inquirer] More »
—>David wanted a straight answer from Comcast as to whether they were degrading his HD signal, but instead was fed a colossal trough of baloney. The executive customer service rep who replied to David's email said Comcast is using a "new system" for HD and while it "works well with clean 1080i signals, we're making some adjustments to improve how it handles other types of HD signals so we can bring you the best HD picture. We apologize this has not created the HD experience that we intended, but we will work towards getting it right. " Sure... check out this previous post, Comcast Degrades HD Quality To Make Room For More Channels, for the science and proof of how Comcast (and other cable operators) are degrading HD feeds to make more money. The full exchanges between David and the Comcast reps, inside... More »
—>DSL Reports has the story of an outsourced Comcast tech was fired after bragging online about using internal Comcast systems to get vengeance on hackers disrupting his Xbox. After annoying little twerps intentionally overloaded his Xbox with data (known as packet flooding), Mark Ribeiro, who describes himself as a "Comcast tier 2.5 support agent, which essentially means im one of the top 1% elitest agents," went to work. First he identified one of the perps and found out he was a Comcast customer. Then he looked up the kid's info in the Comcast support system and called the kid's father... More »
—>When you don't pay your bill Comcast cuts your cable off, but what happens when Comcast doesn't pay its bill to you? More »
On a normal day, losing some cable channels for a couple of hours would be an inconvenience. On a day like today, some might use words unfit for publishing. You see, today was the first game of the Red Sox and A's seasons, played in Japan. The game started at 6AM EST, and plenty of die hard baseball fans rose early to watch... nothing. Comcast gave me a $2 credit for my troubles. There's nothing like a $2 credit to make me feel valued as a customer. More »
—>Where's my tinfoil? Comcast's senior VP of user experience, Gerard Kunkel, apparently wants to put a camera in your cable box and use it to serve ads. More »
—> Comcast is now claiming that the FCC "has no legal power to stop the cable giant from engaging in what it calls 'network management practices' (critics call it peer-to-peer traffic blocking)," reports Ars Technica. In an amazing display of spin, Comcast writes that letting the marketplace "maximize consumer welfare" has been "enormously successful" as proven by the "Comcast customer experience"—seriously, we're not making up these phrases. On a less humorous note, the filing in which Comcast makes these claims also seems to imply that it will sue the FCC if it tries to enforce any changes on how Comcast blocks P2P traffic. More »
Comcast workers have started to unionize. All the Comcast workers who read our blog can sign up here to learn about organizing their workplace. More »
—>Comcast wanted to charge Daniel $69.99 for 16mbps internet access, or "Blast" level service, but he knew that he should only be paying $52.95, as he already had TV service with Comcast. No amount of wrangling could convince the customer service reps otherwise. The deal also couldn't be found when going through the main Comcast pages and price plans. But then, after searching on the Comcast site, Daniel found documentation of the price and forced Comcast to honor it. Now he shares the PDF with us so others can get this deal as well. He was also able to get a $79.99 credit on his account to buy a new cable modem since the 16mbps service needs Docsis 1.5 or higher technology in the modem, so that's something to shoot for as well. Note, Blast is only available if you're in one of Comcast's the "select" "competitive" markets, i.e. wherever Verizon FiOS is. Inside, the full contents of the PDF splayed out... More »
—>A Comcast worker woke to find that his apartment building was on fire, so he decided to save some people using the ladder from his truck. Nice guy.
Hartnett jumped into action, knocked on residents' doors and ushered people to safety. More »
This is Round 1 in our Worst Company in America contest, Comcast vs Menu Foods. One company kills pets. Another kills file sharing. Which is the greater crime? The wisdom of the internet will decide.
See the master bracket of all the companies here. More »
—>An appeals court has kicked the Comcast, NFL dispute back down the lower courts where the two companies will have to start all over again in their dispute over whether or not Comcast can offer the NFL network on a special "sports tier." More »
—> We don't mean to influence the "Worst Company In America" voting, but check this out: if you call Comcast and ask them to stop sending you anything other than your bill, they'll agree but quietly slap you with a $1.99 "change of service" fee. Like most made-up, totally indefensible fees from cable and cell phone companies, Ian found that a chat with a customer service agent can get the fee removed. Update: Comcast has responded to this and apologized for the fee. More »
—>Comcast admitted to paying its employees to sit in at a F.C.C. hearing on net neutrality at the Harvard Law School today, depriving angry protesters from their right to sit in those folding chairs. Despite the venue being filled to over capacity, keeping some people from entering, not everyone inside seemed appreciative of their privilege. One Comcast employee admitted on tape, "I'm just getting paid to hold someone's seat, I don't even know what's going on." According to SaveTheInternet.com, the Comcast employees, "arrived en masse some 90 minutes before the hearing began and occupied almost every available seat, upon which many promptly fell asleep." The stacked audience's behavior was limited to wearing a yellow highlighter, sleeping during the proceedings, and loudly applauding when Comcast VP David Cohen got on the mic. More »
—>Comcast told reader Marcus that he could just take his cable modem with him when he moved from the Philadelphia suburbs into the city. Then he checked his credit report and found out that he was a cable modem thief. More »
—>Shaw writes:
I am one of the early adopters of Comcast's new TiVo service that is being rolled (see: rushed before ready) out in Massachusetts. More »
—> BusinessWeek's cover story from their March 3rd issue, "Consumer Vigilantes," looks at last year's wave of stories about consumers who took matters into their own hands, either by smashing up a Comcast office with a hammer, starting a "Comcast must die" blog, or sending EECBs to unsuspecting executives. "Frustrated by the usual fix-it options—obediently waiting on hold with Bangalore, gamely chatting online with a scripted robot—more consumers are rebelling against company-prescribed service channels," BusinessWeek writes. What we can't figure out is how they got those three guys to actually pose with those goofy masks onsometimes it's okay to say no to the photographer. More »
—>Reader Brian sent us this transcript of a conversation that he had with a Comcast rep. He was considering switching to Verizon and was wondering if Comcast could come up with any reason why he should stay. They couldn't. In fact, Comcast's CSR "Mike" said: "my advice is to go ahead and switch, and if you find Comacst provides a fast and more reliable service we will welcome you back." More »
In the brief Comcast filed arguing that they doesn't need the FCC telling it how not to throttle its customers' internets, Comcast came up with a pretty special explanation:
The self-policing marketplace and blogosphere, combined with vigilant scrutiny from policymakers, provides an ample check on the reasonableness of such [network management] judgments.So after dissing on the relevance of blogs, Comcast turns around and says that it takes blogs seriously enough that they're a sufficient proxy for FCC regulation. The lawyer that came up with that one deserve a very big M&M cookie. More »
Comcast has quietly changed their terms of service following the BitTorrent backlash to protect their ass a bit more. [Ars Technica] More »
Stop us if you have heard this one before: Comcast and the BTN still don't have a deal. Nothing has changed since the football season, when many fans were upset at not being able to see the Wisconsin-Ohio State game, which aired on the BTN. More »
—>AT&T and Comcast may be willing to help Hollywood control piracy on their networks, but Verizon wants none of it, says the New York Times. More »
—>After an unhappy Comcast emailed his complaint to the CEO and we posted the letter here (see "Repeated Comcast Outages Nearly Cost Reader His Job"), Comcast refunded him $121 in installation and other fees, in addition to the $263 it had already refunded. "Not worth all the trouble my wife and I endured," our reader writes, "but I have to give Comcast credit for trying to make it right." More »
—>Here are 26 unpublished direct numbers for level 2.5 and above Comcast supervisors. We've published many a horror story about Comcast's incompetent front-line staff. But according to our inside source, these people know how to fix your problems. We've got numbers for high level people on the national level, as well as numbers which are good for central Pennsylvania customers. Let the escalations begin! More »
—>Few consumers realize they can ditch their monopolistic service providers in favor of local, independent telecoms that often offer similar services at competitive rates. These smaller outfits depend on service, not size, as reader Sharpstick recently discovered:
In the Charleston SC area we are fortunate to have local a internet / phone / cable provider called Knology that has made customer service an art form. More »
—>From inside a Comcast call center, we got a sales goal sheet designed to excite call center reps to sell more new customer bundles using with four cartoons icons of cold; Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat,, Mr. Freeze from Batman, Frozone from The Incredibles, and Ice-Man from X-Men. The flyer exhorts: "ANTI FREEZE INCENTIVE. Don't let these freeze masters get you...Sell some bundles and protect yourself from the cold!!!" If you're in the top three of your department, the flyer continues, you can win $250, $150, or $100 for 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, respectively. Exciting. What is the symbolic function of the "freeze masters" as a performance incentive? What does, "the cold" represent? Left out in the cold? Given the cold shoulder by your peers if you're not contributing enough to the 2000 bundle goal? An inability to pay one's heating bills? We have no idea, we're just glad we don't work in a call center, we've never been too good at winning knife fights. (click to enlarge). More »
—>A Comcast insider warns us that Comcast does no checks to make sure 911 is working on your Comcast digital phone: More »
—>Comcast has been fined $12,000 for having crappy customer service by Montgomery County, Maryland.. More »
—>Included in the Comcast January bills was a new Comcast Agreement for Residential Services pamphlet, and a new opportunity for customers to opt out of mandatory binding arbitration as a way to settle disputes with their cable provider. Just go to comcast.com/arbitrationoptout, enter the required information, and hit go. Boom, you've just held onto your constitutional rights. Here's a related post on the 9 ways arbitration screws consumers over. More »
Starting March 11, Comcast will begin charging a $3.99 "human interaction fee" if you want to pay your bill by talking to a live operator. [The Oregonian via DSL Reports] More »
—>After we posted SM's battle with Comcast to stop fraudulently billing her for over a year, , Comcast took notice and asked to get in touch with SM. We played matchmaker and now Comcast reports that the problem is solved. The account is cleared and CMI has been notified to stop trying to collect on it. Inside is the letter they are sending to SM. Hooray, problem solved. Comcast's billing system, however, remains a mess. Hopefully CMI won't still try to collect, for CMI's sake. Otherwise SM will now really have a very good basis for making quick and easy cash by suing them in small claims court for violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. More »
—>Lots of companies are pushing deals for their bundled internet, tv and phone plans, but which are best? Consumer Reports surveyed its readers and here's how they ranked the service providers: More »
—>SM writes:
This story starts in March 07 when my sister moved out of the country and canceled her Comcast account. I returned her modem, and they told me her account was settled. Then, my mom (who has power of attorney) gets a bill for around $193. Comcast customer service tells my mom that she really only has to pay around $35, so she sends a check for that amount, but another bill arrives for $135.35. Again, Comcast customer service tells her, no actually you only need to pay $43.86. My mom tries to dispute the bill, but Comcast sends my sister's account to a collection agency called CMI... More »
—>Chieftain Capital Management Inc., owns 2% of Comcast (about 60 million shares) and is unhappy with the way its investment has been performing. They're calling the management tenure of CEO Brian "Bad Install" Roberts a "Comcastrophe," a term that might just good enough to be Mr. Robert's new official Consumerist nickname. Brian "Comcastrophe" Roberts. We like it. More »
—>215-640-8960 is the number to reach the Comcast executive offices. More »
—> A reader from Vermont writes in to let us know that he accidentally discovered Comcast has been charging him a $3/month modem rental fee for a modem he owned, because Comcast claimed that due to poor record keeping, it had no way of distinguishing between Adelphia's modem renters and owners. This fee went on for months undetected because Comcast doesn't itemize such fees on their online statements, only on their printed bills. (Well yeah, because including such details online would waste ink...wait, what?) When our reader called Comcast to have the fees refunded, he was told he'd have to provide proof of purchase for his modem. More »
—>The FCC announced that it will investigate complaints against Comcast for disrupting BitTorrent traffic. Then again, it wasn't a formal announcement, it was in response to a question posed by Consumer Electronics Association's CEO Gary Shapiro in an interview before a live audience during the big electronics expo. "Sure, we're going to investigate and make sure that no consumer is going to be blocked," is what FCC Chair Kevin "Pretty Boy" Martin said exactly. "Sure" is not a word one uses to make a strong statement. He may have just been playing to the crowd. C'mon, it's CES, he knew if he said otherwise he could find a bunch of geeks sitting on his car in the parking lot looking to "reformat his harddive," if you know what I'm saying. More »
Comcast has set up a site called Fancast.com where viewers can watch more than 3,000 hours of television shows from NBC, Fox, CBS and MTV and where they will soon be able to remotely program the digital video recorders in their homes. The shows on Fancast are available free. Comcast has yet to say how it will price the rest of the content as its plan moves forward. More »
There's a promotion going on right now whereby Comcast customers can get 6 months of internet for $19.99 per month. [SlickDeals] More »
—>After threats from US Senators and general hue and cry from sports fans, the NFL has caved and will allow NBC and CBS to simulcast the upcoming Giants-Patriots game in which Tom Brady and the boys may become the first team to go undefeated since the Miami Dolphins first did it in 1972, and the first team to go 16-0 in the regular season. The game will be available nationwide. More »
—>"I was one of the majority when it came to being fed up with Comcast. However, unlike most, I never had any of the customer service nightmares so often reported on consumer sites. My dissatisfaction with Comcast was purely based on what I felt was unfair pricing. More »
—>Cable companies must constantly prove their worth to local franchise authorities. The authorities grant the cable providers permission to operate, and can whip them into action for failing to meet basic customer service standards, as reader Darren shows. More »
—>Comcast gets a lot of knocks around here but you gotta give a thumbs up to these three Comcast installers who saved two people from a burning building building in Chicago. The contractors were on their way to install when they saw flames coming from a building with a pharmacy downstairs and residences upstairs. They turned around, got a ladder off their truck, and started banging on the windows. "If it weren't for the cable workers, I'd probably be burnt up," said one of the tenants. The fire department says the fire was started by a thrown Moltov cocktail, but perhaps they should also check if any FiOs trucks were in the nearby vicinity. More »
—>Comcast has sued the NFL for breach of contract alleging that the league is breaking its contract with Comcast by encouraging the cable giant's customers to switch to other providers. More »
—>Want to get your Comcast issue resolved? Post it and your account number over ComcastMustDie.com. The guy who started the blog, journalist Bob Garfield, was interviewed on NPR's On The Media yesterday and he said that everyone who has done so has gotten a followup call from Comcast to look into their problem. If you look at the people who commented on the post, "Has Comcast Gotten Back to You?" you'll see a number several people saying the executive office reached out to them (Some people initially say Comcast didn't respond, but then a few days later write again to say that Comcast had). So, if you've got an unresolved Comcast issue, it can't hurt to give posting it and your account number over at ComcastMustDie a try. More »
—>Comcast told its employees to vote in the Consumerist reader poll asking readers what they thought was better, Comcast, or FiOs. Above is the employee email blast they sent, provided to us by several different Comcast employees: Now, we're definitely more amused than this than anything else, but it certainly was odd. Why would Comcast want to interfere with the torrents of peer to peer opinion sharing? In any event, Fios won, 784 to 277. More »
—>We asked the readers to solve one of the great mysteries of life: Which is better Verizon FiOS or Comcast? More »
—>Sometimes we get questions we just can't answer, and this is one of them. More »
A Comcast rep called "absolutely ridiculous" the rumor that they might have disrupted a Good Morning America broadcast featuring a Comcast-office-smashing-with-hammer-customer. [Comcast Must Die] More »
—>After her story appeared on The Consumerist, Allison is no longer being defrauded and threatened to be sent to collections by Comcast to pay for service she never ordered. A rep in the Comcast executive office contacted us, we put them together and the problem got solved. More »
—>TiVo says that you will soon have the privilege of paying Comcast an extra $2.95 a month for TiVo service (on top of what you already pay for a DVR).
"We are very excited by the emphasis that Comcast has placed on this product within its organization and their plans to aggressively market it at a $2.95 up-charge as well as through packaged bundles and win-back offers," Rogers said. "Further, we are pleased with Comcast's plans to promote and market the value of the TiVo experience, which will leverage many of their marketing assets including cross-channel TV." More »
Rumor is that when Good Morning America ran a piece about Mona Shaw, the cranky old lady who busted up a Comcast office with a hammer, Comcast subscribers in her home town suddenly found their ABC channel had gone black. [Comcast Must Die] More »
Comcast is raising its prices in Washington, DC. Basic cable is going from $13.45 to $15.24, Digital Classic $11.96 to $14.95, Digital Premier from $110.10 to $115.45. If a tech has to come out to your home, the fee will go from $19.95 to $29.95. Relocating an outlet, however, dropped from $24.95 to $21.35.Best of all is the charming paragraph on the letter introducing the bill changes. More »
—>Reader Dana is trying to order the Comcast Sports Tier in time for tonight's "Old Favre, Young Favre" battle between the Packers and the Cowboys, but she says she can't even get Comcast on the phone. More »
—>Reader Allison wrote her Congressional rep in regards to Comcast defrauding her:
Dear Representative Snyder, More »
—>The elite cyber-squad freedom fighters of the The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released findings today that Comcast does indeed meddle with peer-to-peer file sharing. They're also giving away some software you can install to test your own ISP. The FCC still has yet to respond to complaints and reports of Comcast's interference. More »
—>Fortune magazine has an Q&A with CEO Brian "Bad Install" Roberts in which he expresses his hope that Comcast's reputation for horrific customer service isn't "universal": More »
—> FCC Chairman Kevin Martin thought he had the support of the two Democratic commissioners when he went forward with a proposal to invoke powers given to the FCC in the 1984 Cable Communications Act. The 70/70 rule, as it's called, allows the FCC to adopt any rules necessary to promote a "diversity of information sources," once 70% of households can receive cable and 70% of them subscribe. More »
—>The moment of truth may be coming in the NFL Network/Cable showdown. This Thursday the NFL Network scored what is arguably the most interesting regular season game of the year (at least in the NFC): The 10-1 Packers vs. the 10-1 Cowboys. The trouble is, not a whole lot of people are going to be able to watch it outside of Dallas and Wisconsin. More »
—>George, who was called a liar by an ill-tempered Comcast CSR (who didn't believe that George had been quoted a lower price than the one that was noted on his account) has written in to let us know that Comcast apologized: More »
—>Comcast is fed up with the NFL telling its customers to switch providers because the cable company has chosen to offer the NFL network only on their sports tier. More »
—>Reader George is unhappy with Comcast and he doesn't even have it yet. More »
—>Here's 45 direct-to-department phone numbers for Comcast, because sometimes reaching the right person at Comcast is so maddening you want to start swinging a hammer in the local branch office. This isn't to say these people will magically fix your problem, but at least they can leapfrog you past the three-headed watchdog of low-level customer service reps (the heads' names are Incompetence, Sloth, and Apathy). The escalation and retention numbers, which might be of particular interest for people with big complaints, are marked with an asterix. We tested about 1/3 of these, let us know in the comments if any disconnect.... More »
—>Ars Technica is reporting that a California resident has sued Comcast for their traffic shaping shenanigans and is seeking class action status. He's accusing Comcast of "breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and violating the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act." More »
Last week the apartment complex I live in near Greenbelt, Maryland, sent a letter stating that starting January 1, 2008, Comcast will be the only Internet service available for residents. That's reason enough for me to move. More »
—>Comcast has issued a press release claiming that they're helping to solve crimes with something called "Police Blotter On Demand" a trial program launched in the Philadelphia area. More »
—>Newly emboldened FCC Chairman Kevin Martin plans to wield the Cable Communications Act of 1984 to shatter the cable industry's anti-competitive practices. The proposed regulations would give consumers flexible, diverse programming at cheaper rates, while capping the cancerous growth of conglomerates like Comcast and Time Warner.
The commission is preparing to take steps to make it less expensive for rivals of the largest cable conglomerates to buy their programs — so that, for instance, a satellite company would find it less expensive to purchase programs by the Turner Broadcasting System, a unit of Time Warner. More »
—>Net neutrality advocates are gathering momentum to take Comcast to the woodshed for an old fashioned populist beating. Comcast believes that deliberately destroying connections to the popular communications protocol BitTorrent amounts to "reasonable network management," which the FCC permits. Advocates figure if they can't ride the net neutrality pony to Congressional passage now, it will forever lie dormant in the stable munching on BitTorrent packet hay. More »
—>If you have a problem with Comcast, and you've called customer service, and you've escalated to a supervisor, and maybe even hung up and tried a different person, and you're still getting nowhere, here are some executive email addresses you could use to launch an Executive Email Carpet Bomb against Comcast... More »
—>Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones respectfully requests that you cancel Time Warner Cable and/or Comcast for not letting you have the NFL network on regular basic cable. More »
—>The Comcast insider who leaked the BitTorrent memo promises to tell all of Comcast's dark secrets at Shortnamenowitsgettinglong.com. More »
Customer forces Comcast to upgrade his connection speed to the advertised speed. [Something better to do] More »
—>ComcastMustDie, a blog about how much Comcast sucks, is looking for someone to make a theme song for an upcoming podcast. They want it to be 90 seconds or less, contain instrumentals, vocals and it would be nice if they contained these suggested lyrics: More »
—> Advocacy groups and legal scholars filed a network neutrality complaint with the FCC today against Comcast, asking the government to issue a temporary injunction against the cable company that forces it to "stop degrading any applications. Upon deciding the merits, the Commission should issue a permanent injunction ending Comcast's discrimination." More importantly, the complaint asks the FCC to classify any blocking of peer-to-peer file sharing as a violation of the agency's Internet Policy Statement, "four principles issued in 2005 that are supposed to 'guarantee consumers competition among providers and access to all content, applications and services.'" More »
—>According to an inside source, Comcast is trying to hunt down who leaked the internal BitTorrent memo to us last week. The rumor is that they're interrogating supervisors and then customer service representatives. Memos regarding the dire consequences of providing internal information to the press are being distributed. More »
—>The FCC approved a rule banning apartment building cable deals today, and Comcast is all mad about it. More »
—>NFL Sunday Ticket is like amazing delicious super crack. From the ability to watch whatever game your fickle heart desires, to the hypnotic decadence of "The Red Zone Channel," NFL Sunday Ticket is well, radical. More »
Are you a Comcast user? Try visiting torrentfreak.com. Let us know if you're allowed to see the page or if you get an error. A reader told us Comcast is blocking it but we want to check it out first. Update: looks like this is an isolated incident. Carry on. More »
—>Comcast told its employees to not comment when customers ask about recent reports in an AP article that it contracted BitTorrent sabotaging to a company called Sandvine, or to even discuss that a relationship exists between the two companies. Too bad that Barron's financial magazine reported back in April that the two are in bed together: More »
In the reports about Comcast's disruption of traffic between customers using the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol, it's alleged that Comcast outsources the traffic meddling to a third-party company called Sandvine. Publicly, and in an internal talking points memo leaked exclusively to The Consumerist, Comcast refused to comment on having any relationship with Sandvine. More »
—> Comcast's meddling with BitTorrent has prompted a member of congress to say something nice about file sharing. Aww! More »
Comcast's profit fell 54% and Standard & Poor's downgraded the stock to sell. So sad, it brings a crocodile tear to our eyes. [Post-Gazette] More »
—>Remember "Mr. Pants," the guy that was canceling Comcast? Well, a Biblical-grade swarm of technicians descended upon his home like locusts with service trucks. So he's keeping them. More »
Last week, Comcast got positively busted by the AP for disrupting users who use a popular file-sharing method called BitTorrent. Now Reader Brandon in the DC area says:
I've found that Comcast isn't throttling traffic now that they've been exposed. I'd been throttled for the few days prior to the story, then two days after bam, I was downloading. I downloaded 2 gigs of music.Comcast is probably just going into hiding so other outlets can't issue confirmation reports of the AP story, then after the news forgets about it, they'll go right back to it. But not the internet. The internet never forgets. Especially when you're trying to stop the internet from internetting. More »
—> Comcast is in heavy PR-spin mode this week following last week's reports that they spoof customers' computers to cancel peer-to-peer connections, and have been blocking corporate users from sending large attachments via Lotus Notes (that blockage was "fixed" last week, around the time this story broke). Comcast says that they don't "block" anything but rather delay requests, and that it's only done to improve overall performance for their customers. More »
—> Comcast uses its own computers to masquerade as those of its users in order to disrupt and throttle internet traffic—specifically the peer-to-peer kind—whenever it chooses, according to nationwide independent tests carried out by the Associated Press. A Comcast rep dances around the charge by saying that the company doesn't "block" access to anything—but he makes no mention of throttling or disrupting connections to shape traffic, probably because if he did, he'd have to admit to it or blatantly lie. More »
—> Reader "Mr. Pants" writes us with the story of why he canceled Comcast. It's all the reasons that everyone cancels Comcast wrapped up into one spiffy complaint letter. More »
—>Comcast PR sent us this statement about the hammer-wielding grammie: More »
—>The old lady who busted up a Comcast office with her hammer after getting sick of their delays, that we told you about two weeks ago, got her story written up in a new and even more exciting fashion by the Washington Post. The piece includes this photo of Mona Shaw posing with her trusty tool of consumer vengeance. More »
—>Comcast's Law Enforcement Handbook (PDF) was leaked today and posted on Secrecy News. More »
—>This is an internal Comcast document entitled, "So you have an angry customer?" It's a guide for technical support and customer service representatives for when unhappy customers call. It's actually very good, full of plain talk and ways to think about the situation to help solve and defuse it. Apparently none of the Comcast customer service reps our readers complain about have ever read it. More »
—>"Have I got your attention now?" asked Mona Shaw of the Comcast payment center employees as she smashed their keyboard, monitor and telephone. More »
—>Cranky Advertising Age columnist Bob Garfield has channeled his Comcast loathing into a new blog endeavor, Comcastmustdie.com. Garfield figured why should he have all the fun lambasting Comcast on his blog? So he set up a new blog and invites you to give Comcast what's for in the comments. Besides your complaint, he encourages you to include your customer number in your posts so Comcast can identify you (in case they decide to care). More »
I am having trouble getting the Cubs on Comcast. I have been working with Comcast for two-plus weeks on this and it is still not working. The first game is tonight at 9PM to beyond midnight. I have a Tivo Box that uses the "Cable Card" approved by Comcast. It is on Channel 47(TBS) but that station is not working due to "Content Security" problems. I am stuck, as Comcast is the only provider due to Cable company regulations. More »
—>Comcast will add TBS HD to their line-up in Boston Tuesday, a day before Major League Baseball's playoffs start, but Chicago isn't getting the same treatment according to reader Daniel. More »
—>Comcast is holed up in a secure bunker today after accidentally angering some Philadelphia sports fans who were hoping to see the Phillies play the Nationals as they attempt to win the NL East. More »
—>"I am writing this because I feel more and more as I work there that I can't sit back and watch Comcast fall flat on its ass when it comes to customer service. I hate to say it like that but Comcast's customer service is amazing. I am going to tell you a few things that you may not believe happens in a call center but it does. I am leaking this information in hopes that Comcast will know that their customers are fully aware of what is going on and that their screwed up actions should be stopped in their tracks." More »
—>This is the dress code policy for Comcast call centers. It strictly forbids the use of skorts. More »
—>The FCC, always a source of amusement for this website, has decided to crack down on Comcast for broadcasting VNRs or "Video News Releases." VNRs are produced by PR firms for use as filler by lazy TV news producers. It's a great deal for TV: They get free content and don't have to deal with the pressure of doing their jobs properly, and the company gets product placement. Consumers are the only losers. More »
—>Comcast's download limit is 200 gigabytes, but the limit isn't everywhere, a former Comcast employee told The Consumerist. Places where the network isn't optimal, due to old hardware or too much traffic, like the Bay Area, will run into the limit. Places like Philadelphia will never run into the problem. More »
—>The L.A. Times read the privacy policies of several bundled service providers and found that they are feverishly monitoring their subscriber's activities. With the ability to monitor internet, phone, and television preferences, bundled service providers are able to track nearly every aspect of their subscriber's digital lives. While Google retains personally identifiable for less than two years, some ISPs like Time Warner cling to your data for an astounding fifteen years in order to "comply with tax and accounting requirements." It gets worse.
There are red flags to be found in each telecom provider's privacy policy. A close reading of Time Warner's policy reveals: More »
—>FCC Chairman Kevin Martin thinks your cable bill is too high. More »
—>This above pictured pile of cables is but the beginning of Glen's magical mystery tour into the wonder of having a Comcast contractor install cable... More »
—>Bob Garfield usually writes a blog about advertising and marketing for Advertising Age. Yesterday's post was a change of pace for Bob. It's called: "Comcast Must Die." More »
—> Even our readers can't agree on whether net neutrality is a good or a bad thing, so we thought we'd stoke the fire with a nice side-by-side comparison of sample broadband options for consumers in two "free markets," the US and the UK. Art Brodsky of the Huffington Post (oops, we probably already lost half of you) writes that a British man he met while traveling showed him a spreadsheet he'd put together that compared 59 different broadband providers, so he'd know which one to do business with. More »
—>Comcast can't use their mandatory arbitration clause to keep its Georgia customers from obtaining class-action status in a lawsuit that alleges Comcast inappropriately collected too many franchise fees. The amount that was improperly collected (about $11 a subscriber) isn't enough to warrant a bunch of individual lawsuits, so Comcast thought it could get away with it by citing its mandatory arbitration clause forbidding class-action lawsuits. It worked at first, but now the 11th Circuit Court is having none of it. More »
—>Let's face it, you are probably smarter than your last Comcast technician—at least, you probably think you are. More »
—>According to USAToday, Tivo failed to anticipate how quickly its customers would fall in love with HDTV—and out of love with TiVo. More »
—>Wow. Here's contact info for 100 cable company executives. More »
—>Looks like we got our hands on a big ol' list of Comcast contacts for every single regional division. Names and numbers listed under "Sched Install," "Complete Install," "Reschedule Install," "Billing Adjustments," "Escalation Contact," and "Retention "save" disco's" would seem to be of particular interest to consumers trying to escalate issues through the notoriously unresponsive and uncaring cable company. More »
—>Comcast is reportedly stabbing at the heart of the file transfer protocol BitTorrent by preventing users from seeding torrent files. Seeds are completed BitTorrent downloads shared with other users; without seeders, the BitTorrent protocol does not work, much the way a garden can't grow without seeds. Comcast's draconian throttling solution utilizes a program from Sandvine that affects all files distributed through BitTorrent, regardless of whether the shared file is an illegally downloaded movie, or a legal distribution of Linux. From TorrentFreak: The throttling works like this... More »
—>When will companies learn that astroturfing is lame? Never! More »
Professional WIRED blogger experience the ignominy of waiting for days upon weeks for a Comcast installation. [Gadget Lab] More »
—>In today's go-go economy, savvy companies know it's important to draft official policies for a variety of circumstances and surprises that can crop up in the middle of a busy workday, clearly communicated and readily available. More »
—>Subscribers to Comcast Digital Voice service get more than just digital phone service installed when they sign up. They also get the pleasure of Comcast selling their phone number to telemarketers, fresh out of the box! More »
—>Cable consumers hate the NFL network. Not because its bad, but because the cable companies and the NFL are warring over it and passing the pain on to consumers. More »
—>Comcast cut Ian's Speakeasy DSL line while installing a fiber optic cable for his live-in landlord. Ian couldn't convince Comcast that cutting another company's line was a problem:
All calls to Comcast have been met with cynicism, contempt, and out-right lies. Among the things i was told was: there was no independent line, the line belonged to Comcast, my landlord was the problem, the house was wired improperly when built (you know, back in the '70s when DSL was all the rage, right?), and then was eventually hung up on.Fed up with Comcast's lies, Ian hopped in his car and drove to the nearest Comcast office. Ian writes: More »
—>Reader Steve says Comcast has dropped the west coast feeds on his premium channels without telling him about it. Now his sadness can not be quantified. More »
—>Welcome, Comcast, to Houston, TX, where you've already managed to irritate your brand new customers. Laura Gill is perhaps the most irritated of them all. More »
—>Montgomery County, MD, also known as the county that fined Comcast $12,281.84 for not answering the phone quickly enough, has issued a press release warning consumers to opt-out of Comcast's unfair arbitration clause. More »
—>Why wait for Comcast to set up your internet service when you can activate it yourself? That's what Alex and his roommates thought when they activated their service in June, unaided by a tech. Comcast had scheduled a tech to install Alex's service, but the tech didn't show until several days after his appointment, when he was told his services were not needed. This greatly angered Comcast:
"because [Alex's roommate] called Comcast himself to set it up (in effect doing exactly what the tech would have done, had he bothered to show up), no one was being billed for our internet! So, instead of notifying anyone, they flipped the switch and turned it off."More »
—>You'd think the country's largest ISP would embrace customers who use Firefox and Safari. Or maybe you wouldn't. Tech.Blorge blogger David says they "hate" Mac and Firefox. Strong words! More »
—>Cable companies are using the government's forcing them to ship new cable boxes with detachable cable cards as an excuse to raise rates on old set-top boxes, AP reports. More »
—>Comcast customer service sucks so much because they outsource much of it to Convergys, affectionately called the "sweat shop" of the call center industry. One disgruntled insider has these four unverified confessions about how they run their customer service hellholes: More »
—>If you have kids in your house, and Comcast or Time Warner Cable or whichever cable company you have sends you a DVR, here are is the first thing you'll need to do: More »
—>A jury acquitted Gustavo Cardenas, an outsourced Comcast cable tech, of raping a 25-year-old-single mother, the Daily Herald reports. Investigators found Cardenas' DNA in saliva on the victim's breasts.
Hearing the verdict, Cardenas broke into a broad smile aimed at his bosses from Baker Installations, a subcontractor for Comcast, who watched the trial. More »
—>You know, the cynic in us says that the answer to the question "Which ISPs Are Spying On You?" is "all of them," but Wired actually bothered to ask the 8 largest ISPs about their data retention policies. The sad part? Only 4 responded. More »
I have attached a photo of something that arrived in the mail for me from Comcast. I had a problem with a bill where they had charged me twice for something. After exhausting the normal channels, I e-mailed the CEO. The very next day a nice woman from his office called me and said someone from the local office would be in touch. Not half an hour later did I get a call from the local office. Of course, it wasn't just that easy, but eventually the situation was sorted out. So I was surprised to see a box with a big tin of popcorn waiting for me when I got home along with a card that says "Thank you for being a Comcast customer. We're sorry for any inconvenience you may have experienced. Our goal, as always, is to give you our best service. We appreciate your understanding." More »
—>Sue has a serious problem with Comcast. They're billing her for $1236.02 in porn she never ordered, claiming that it must be her 15 year old son who is ordering it. More »
—>Reader Dito has a DirecTV riddle. More »
—>If you're a Comcast customer and in the event of a dispute, want to retain your right to sue Comcast in a court of law in a trial by judge or jury, a right afforded to you by the Constitution, rather than go by the decision of an arbitration company Comcast hires to mediate your dispute, fill out this opt-out form. More »
—>Not content with providing just fee-ridden television and internet service, Comcast is looking to charge up to $49.95 to stream movies to your home the day they premier in theaters. The two largest movie theater operators, Regal Entertainment and National Amusements, have banded together to express their displeasure, with Regal's CEO saying: "We're not interested in playing anything that makes its debut in the home and at the theater at the same time." Comcast doesn't care.
Stephen Burke, Comcast's cable president and chief operating officer, told an audience at an industry conference this week that several studios were "very interested" in the idea of allowing cable providers to charge $29.95 to $49.95 to watch an opening-day movie at home. He said it would increase studio revenues rather than cannibalize them, if handled properly.The studios, too busy drooling over the prospects of additional profit, declined to comment. Would you forego the deliciously buttery movie theater experience for the comfort of your home? Tell us in the comments. — CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER More »
—>You might want to think twice before agreeing to an Comcast CSR's offer to "extend the price for 2 years," because Comcast's Triple Play comes with a contract and an ETF. More »
—>Parents, get used to it. At any time, and for any reason, there could be porn. You could be walking down the street and accidentally get hit by a truck full of porn. You could be watching Tom Brokaw host a special about healthcare and suddenly, wham. You're watching porn. You could be watching the Disney channel, get up to go clean the bedroom, come back and your 5 year old will be watching hard core porn. Get used to it. From the NY Daily News:
The "Handy Manny" cartoon on Playhouse Disney was abruptly interrupted yesterday morning when Comcast honchos mistakenly aired the porno in sections of Jersey. More »
—>Comcast is notorious for techs missing their appointments. If you would like to see where you tech really is, and maybe have him get his heiny over, here's a whole bunch of Comcast's internal dispatch numbers. More »
—>So if you love or hate Comcast and want to make sure the man at the top knows it, here's his contact info: More »
—>As you well know, calling your cable company and calmly telling them they're way overpriced will likely result in your cable bill being lowered significantly. Don't believe us? Try it. More »
—>According to an internal Comcast Powerpoint we received, starting this month, the cable provider gives even less of a damn about residential customers. Highlights include: More »
Here's how Fancast works: Viewers interested in the new movie Perfect Stranger could not only access information via Fandango on where and when the film is playing as well as content concerning the movie, but also the scheduling of movies on TV featuring Stranger stars Bruce Willis or Halle Berry. In addition, any related content on the Internet or mobile would be identified. More »
Like many companies, Comcast doesn't train its customer service reps enough in security verification. The result is that anyone can call up, pretend to be a service tech, and get your info. Criminals can pick up pieces from one company and use them to get more information out of another, and so on. They can use the end result to steal your identity, your bank account information, and other fell deeds. More »
—>If you're one of those stone-age-type people who live in Chicago and don't yet have a digital cable box, you'll be getting one in July. Comcast has nearly completed a $400 million dollar upgrade and will discontinue analog broadcasts this summer. Customers who plug their cable directly into their TV will receive only local channels following the official switch. From the Chicago Tribune:
Completion of the upgrade means all Comcast customers that have basic service will need to exchange their analog set-top boxes for digital set-top boxes. The cable company will not charge an additional fee or raise rates for current analog customers, Schaefer said. More »
IN DEMAND also offered to make the Extra Innings subscription package available to other cable companies across the United States, MLB said. These operators also would be required to carry the MLB Channel once launched. More »
—>Another city is irked at their cable provider for not living up to the requirements of their franchise agreement. The city of College Park, MD (population 24,657) has proposed a letter threatening Comcast with fines of $200 a day if Comcast doesn't improve the time it takes to answer the phone. "It's stupid to try to call them," said Jack Perry, a city council member who claims he once waited 35 minutes for Comcast to answer his call. "Nobody answers the phone." More »
Its customers generate twice as much cash flow as the average subscriber, said Comcast spokeswoman D'Arcy Rudnay.Get ready to be Comcasted! —MEGHANN MARCO More »
Members of the House Financial Services Committee, led by Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.), approved a bill last week that would give shareholders an advisory vote on pay. More »
"We're between a rock and a hard place," Gregor said. "We could drop the franchise, but then a lot of people won't have television." More »
The privacy policy starts off with the fine sentiment that: "Comcast is committed to maintaining your privacy and believes that, as a subscriber to its high-speed Internet service, you are entitled to know Comcast's information practices." The policy then goes on to state "We will not read your outgoing or incoming e-mail, video mail, private chat, or instant messages, but we (or our third party providers) do store e-mail messages and video mail messages on computer systems for a period of time." More »
I've told them either they are throttling the bandwidth for my neighborhood or it's a problem on the pole going to my house. They had found a problem there previously; apparently it looked like squirrels chewed through the box and severed components. Squirrels are apparently bad-asses when it comes to taking down infrastructures.We suppose Comcast could have kept Rex as a customer if they'd bothered to just take a look at his potential squirrel damage. Comcast even promised that they would. They didn't. Now Rex has Speakeasy. Sadly, when we told him that they'd just been purchased by Best Buy he said a word that nice ladies don't type on the internet. More »
"I guess the thing that bothers me is, the service is bad and rates keep increasing," said Alan Letofsky, one of many customers who recently received a notice from Comcast saying they would need a digital-cable box to keep HBO, which telecasts The Sopranos. "We just don't want to give any more money to Comcast." More »
—>Remember Jason? He had the Comcast tech from hell. The cable installation tech asked Jason for cash, drilled holes in his baseboards, broke his Media Center PC, installed the wrong router... More »
—>Blueprint For Financial Prosperity tells us how to get Comcast internet installed without paying a $50 activation fee. More »
FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin circulated the proposed ownership cap to other commissioners Monday, said Rudy Brioche, a legal advisor to Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein. More »
I'm not sure what to say about this check I got from Comcast, except that I almost framed it. But then I decided how much I hate Comcast, like many decent people do, and decided if I can take money from them, any amount, then I'd do it... then I'll print a copy and frame it. More »
—>Colorado police are looking for man caught posing as a Comcast employee. The man had no identification and was holding photocopied Comcast brochures as he tried to gain entrance to a home. More »
A Polish immigrant was killed because a cable repairman was allowed to continue making house calls despite being a suspect in a murder investigation, the victim's fiance alleges in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Chicago. More »
—>Jason ordered something very simple from Comcast. He wanted cable service, internet, and a router. He wanted the internet hooked up to several computers. He wanted two regular cable boxes and one DVR. He wanted wall jacks installed in his home. Comcast, last we checked, offered all of these services. So why did Comcast's installer show up without a router asking for $115.80 in cash? Why did he drill holes in Jason's walls and baseboards, and unplug his HP Media Center PC Box (thereby breaking it)? Why was he rude to Jason, requiring him to "show the cash" to "make sure he had it?" More »
—>Comcast has left reader Laura without forty-eight channels since early February. Laura has replaced four cable boxes, and spoken with several technicians. Each one suggests the same diagnosis.
Shockingly, it is not a problem with the line or the box. It is a problem with the coding coming in through the line. The technician tells us that our line is showing both Adelphia codes and Comcast codes coming through it. When both sets of codes hit the box, the box shuts down.Diagnosing the problem is not the same as fixing the problem. Though aware of the issue, Comcast has not offered a solution. Laura is still without forty-eight channels. Comcast is still billing her for full service. More »
Anyone who thinks consumers understand high-definition television should consider a recent survey by Leichtman Research Group. More »
• Know what the competitors charge. Print out competing packages to have at the ready. Also make sure to compare apples to apples. For example, basic cable is significantly cheaper than digital cable. More »
—>David's Mom just got her refund check, nearly bringing her issue with Comcast billing and harassing her for cable that was never installed to a close. More »
Neighbors say the trash includes customers account information. This afternoon, when we looked at the piles of trash, you could see through the plastic what appeared to be customer bills. Comcast doesn't return calls about the problem. Can't they afford a paper shredder?! At least make the ID thieves work for their money, Comcast. —MEGHANN MARCO More »
Bills for thousands of Montgomery County cable viewers will increase by 4 percent starting March 1, when Comcast Corp., suburban Maryland's largest cable television provider, raises rates throughout the Washington region. More »
—>Apparently, in some areas of the US you can view short videos of local pets who are in need of homes via Comcast on Demand. More »
Comcast issued The Consumerist a statement regarding, "Comcast Customer Uses "Unlimited Service" Excessively, Gets Disconnected For A Year": More »
UPDATE: Comcast responds. More »
Montgomery County, MD has fined Comcast $12,281.84 for not meeting the standards set by their franchise agreement. The agreement stated that Comcast would provide a level of customer service that they did not meet, and were fined accordingly. Specifically, they failed to answer the phone quickly enough. Is $12,281.84 enough of a fine to get Comcast to change their evil ways? Probably not, but Montgomery County, MD is setting a good example for other communities to follow. —MEGHANN MARCO More »
—>Comcast is asking you to send your bills to a character in Greek mythology (Not that the Consumerist never has a typo, but we digress...) More »
Hello, More »
Matt has Comcast and whenever service goes out he calls up, does a little bitching softshoe, and then asks for a refund for that day of service. Depending on your subscription plan, this could be anywhere from between $2 to $5. More »
What would you call getting a bill for services you never received? How about fraud? That's what Comcast is doing to one blogger's mother. More »
Comcast has begun narrowing the window of time customers have to wait for technicians, says the Wall Street Journal. More »
A man pretending to be a Comcast supervisor talked his way into a New Jersey home last Wednesday, but fled when asked for ID. More »
Last week the FCC reiterated that Comcast needs to "unlock" it's DVRs and set-top boxes. And, to make life even better, "The foot-dragging, tech-testing wing of the cable industry, Cable Labs, has finally standardized a two-way interactive CableCARD." A CableCARD is a device that will allow a CableCARD ready TV to operate digital cable without a set-top box. More »
—>Business Week is reporting that Comcast DVR owners can, for a fee, incorporate TiVo features into their existing DVRs without a visit from a "technician". Oh, sweet mystery of technology. They didn't say how much it will cost, but hey... Do you want it or not? —MEGHANN MARCO More »
After more than five decades with the same phone number, Frances "Sugar" Shankman lost her number when Comcast mistakenly disconnected her line." When Frances tried to get the number back, Comcast issued her a new one. More »
At one time or another, we've all felt like customer service has gotten it completely backwards. More »
—>As we mentioned yesterday, threatening to cancel your cable for another provider can sometimes unleash a shower of freebies and rebates as the company tries to get you to stay. More »
Recent storms ripped through the Seattle area, downing powerlines and cutting cable and phone access for thousands of citizens. More »
As we've discussed before, in areas where there's true competition in the cable market, you can call up the cable company, threaten to leave, and watch in delight as they try to persuade you to stay with discounts and freebies. More »
According to Comcast, reader Peter's house does not exist. More »
—>The New York Times is reporting that Comcast will begin testing a new video on demand service in two cities, Pittsburgh and Denver. Unlike traditional video on-demand that shows movies 30- to 45-days after their release date on DVD, this service will allow movies to be ordered the same date as the DVD release. This puts video on-demand in direct competition with sales and rentals. Each on-demand rental will cost $4, which compares with DVD rental prices. Uh-oh, Blockbuster. Forget the beginning of the end, this is the end of the end. —MEGHANN MARCO More »
—>A Comcast customer's Powerbook exploded after a Comcast tech plugged coax, connected to her computer through her modem, to an electrical wire. More »
Welcome, New York Times readers. Here's a bit of an intro to The Consumerist, if you're curious and want to learn more. More »
From the Chicago Tribune: More »
The suit claims DirecTV falsely claimed in recent ads that Time Warner Cable subscribers will not be able to see their local professional football teams play unless they have DirecTV. Time Warner is one of several cable operators who no longer carry the NFL Network, due to monthly fees the league wants to charge for the channel, the Wall Street Journal said.More »
Yahoo is blocking emails sent by Time Warner Cable Road Runner customers who were formerly with Comcast. When consumers complain to Time Warner Cable, the company essentially tells them to call up Yahoo themselves. More »
Comcast is raising rates as much as 6.5% in several markets starting January 1st. So far, Washington state, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Richmond, VA have been confirmed as markets that will be affected by the increase. But don't blame Comcast, blame HDTV. More »
—>Former Comcast and Adelphia customers sued Time Warner last Wednesday over the service disruptions caused when Time Warner bought their networks. More »
—>The crumpet dropped from our gnashing maw when we spied these portents. More »
"The DVR started out by simply not responding to any command to change channels, etc. Suddenly, it switched to channel 3, then 4, then 5, 6, 7, and so on. I managed to pause it for a second, but then it just jumped to channel 233 and stayed there, pulsing on that channel while the DVR box flashed the numbers. This story really isn't terribly interesting on its own, but the channel it stopped on was a religious channel with a priest featured prominently on the screen."More »
Fed up with the outages caused by the transition between Comcast and Time Warner Cable after the latter bought the former, Orange County resident brainforest recorded a gripe. More »
Today, Time Warner Cable starts integrating and consolidating the California cable holdings it aquired from Comcast and Adelphia. If all goes according to plan, this will never happen again: More »
—>Straight outta Compton: More »
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UPDATE: And here's the picture to prove it. More »
—>Comcast says it's looking into the allegations of a man who claimed a rep called up and lied to get him to switch from Vonage. At issue was whether Comcast made false claims about the inferiority of Vonage's VoIp service. In a statement released to The Consumerist, Comcast said: More »
—>Sometimes the obvious solutions are hardest to see. This gal felt her monthly $132.07 Comcast cable/internet bill was too high. So she called them and said she wanted to cancel because of the price. More »
—>Comcast is dissembling like a mother smucker, telling fabulous lies about Vonage in order to get customers to switch. Comcast telemarketed one man and told him that Vonage: More »
—>Brian W. is befuddled. He got a strange gift from Comcast in the mail the other day. For a change, it wasn't a picture of a naked Comcast tech, flabbily draped across a faux tiger skin rug, holding a heart-shaped box of candies before his genitals. More »
—>Friday, we reported that Comcast — despite advertisements to the contrary — had no ability to supply you with the blade gougings and skate-sliced fingers of that sport of men, National Hockey. More »
Hey, it's almost hockey season. And the temptation of vicariously thrilling at four months of ice fights would be enough for even the most hearty Consumerist to set aside their health disdain for Comcast and sign up for their NHL Center Ice Package. More »
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—>Remember that gal who had Comcast install her cable and then the tech proceeded to call her over and over again, trying to get a date? Reader Andrew reports that the tech got turned in by another Comcast tech. The first lovelorn tech left a message on her cellphone saying that he was wrong and would stop calling. However, the second Comcast tech may have just been trying to make elbow room . He too hit on our consumer and asked her out. More »
—>Today is a bank holiday for the Gawker Media Network but that doesn't mean that the fickle wheel of commerce stops keep spinning round. Here's some updates on consumer's stories we reported on last week. More »
—>Comcast sent us this statement on the ads, which explains why only some people are seeing them at some times, and how they're here to stay: More »
Last night, Comcast put ads on the TV guide channel. People were mad. Then they took 'em off. People were happy. More »
—>The Comedian reports that just a few hours later, the Comcast guide ads are gone. More »
Blogger "The Comedian" isn't laughing about the latest addition to his Comcast service. The cable company just added ads to the guide menu. The Comedian reports being "ticked off." Another reader, Philip, is even more vituperative. He says he's, " ...boiling with rage! ...furious with anger!" More »
Yet another reason to not sign up with Adelphia... More »
—>Eager to prevent another snakesonablog style sleepy tech debacle, a Comcast rep contacted us about the unwelcomlingly amorous cable installer. She says: More »
—>It's expected that Comcast cable installs are both late and flawed, but Andrew W's friend adds a new wrinkle: unwelcome love advances. More »
If you're pissed about TimeWarner buying Adelphia and cutting your NFL Net coverage, have heart. More »
You don't mess with a man's football. More »
—>Adam Pash, Lifehacker associate editor, moved into a new apartment and signed up for Adelphia internet connection, which promptly had mad troubs. Which is understandable. Adelphia is bankrupt. More »
We just got sent this internal announcement announcing Houston's Cable Partners annihilation. More »
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—>Reader Jason reports that a fishy cut of last Friday's Nightline was also heard in their podcast of the show. Listen here. Missing on both the internet-over-tv service and the podcast was a segment containing an infamous clip mocking the cable operator. More »
People are linking to the our AOL retention manual article, as well as a mal-edited Comcast broadcast. They're saying things and we're reading them. Now we're telling them to you. More »
When Consumerist readers and users of Comcast's tv-over-internet service watched our clip on Nightline, they were surprised to see that Comcast appeared to censor out a part that was critical of the cable operator. Whither the Sleepy Comcast Tech? We pointed this out to the segment's producer. 50 minutes later, we got this email from Comcast Corporate Communications: More »
The Sleepy Comcast Technician featured prominently in Nightline's story last Friday, but you wouldn't know that if you were watching with Comcast's tv-over-inernet service. Watch this screen snag: More »
—>We hear rumblings. Rumblings that Comcast put up a streaming version of our Nightline appearance on their subscribers-only site, The Fan. And rumbling from the belly of those rumblings? Word that Comcast just happened to cut the part of the Nightline segment where their company was cast in an unfavorable light. More »
—>How does $500 extra a year sound? And it doesn't even require stuffing envelopes. More »
We've been fielding some inquiries lately from news organizations, asking our thoughts about recording customer service interactions. Will Vincent and the Sleepy Comcast guy inspire copycats? Will people try to game the system for kicks and national acclaim? Well, some guy tried to goad a Comcast rep during an intent to cancel call... More »
—>Lisa the Comcast CSR rocks. Hey, we don't doubt it, despite the terrible company to which she is umbilically affixed. Girls named Lisa tend to rock. But this time, Lisa doesn't merely rock by dint of her party-girl name, but by saving one of our readers a few bucks when he needs it most. More »
Comcast hopes that you will be distracted by these new ads and forget about how much their customer support sucks. What they should really do is capitalize on the sleeping tech fiasco. Do a campaign about how Comcast techs are your buddy. They're so friendly, you want to hang out with them and play Halo2 and smoke weed and pass out on the sofa together. That tech shouldn't have been fired, he should have been made company spokesman. Four spots here, found via Adfreak, with hipster mermen, hipster loggers whose jobs have been taken by robots, hipster Das Boot (sucks), and hipster Japanese game show. Whether being cross-bred with sheep and eating skittles or attending officially PRB sanctioned concerts, hipsters are the roxor. More »
—>Once again, the guy who took a video of the Comcast technician asleep on his couch, is dissatisfied. Oh, his internet works fine and everything. No outages, no malfunctioning routers, no snakes crawling out of his cable box. More »
—>Brian's Comcast Tech, fired. We already reported that, we know. But does anyone besides us feel bad for that poor sleepy tech? More »
—>Plenty of rock a bye babies and sweet dreams await Brian's Comcast tech, now that he has no job to get up for. The Comcast rep who fell asleep on a customer's couch while lamely attempting to fix his router has been fired, Comcast said. Brian grabbed a camera and uploaded the proceedings to YouTube, where it got 200,00+ hits and ended up on Countdown on MSNBC. That was Tuesday. More »
Brian had a Comcast tech come to his house to replace a router, one of two broken ones they provided. The operation shouldn't have taken but a moment. Instead the tech was on hold with Comcast for 90 minutes. And he fell asleep. Brian made a video documenting the affair. More »
Just when you thought it was safe to connect your computer to the internet, Comcast customer service rears its crappy head again. More »
—>Another log on the bonfire of Comcast's legion crappy customer service, John's internet went out for no reason and Comcast is going to take at least six days to show up. Six days without spam, guys taking videos of their coffee maker or DRM news. More »
Comcast, why is your scheduling system made out of peanut-butter and bits of baling wire? More »
—>A mysterious stranger, spoken of in exuberant tones, he is the one, the Last Scion, he who can magically draw a cable connection through the wall without drilling more holes than a methed-out woodpecker in a balsa wood warehouse, he is... The Wall Fish Expert! More »
—>Empower thyself, consumer. Jonathan writes: More »
Please help me. Comcast is killing me." More »
—>We think we've discovered the Rosetta Stone of cable company installation stories. More »
—>You call up the cable company, schedule an appointment, take off time from work and they don't show up. You've heard, or told, the story many a time. In fact, we receive this same complaint several times a month. More »
—>We received several complaints and consumer stories in the past few days that, while heartfelt, weren't epic. Ergo, we put them all together into one package and post them after the jump. More »
Puzzle time, from Reader Adrian! More »
—>Comcast oversold bandwith in Bay Area, California, resulting in speeds slower than dialup. More »
