For those that slam Comcast

[rabiddawg]

Have never had "really reliable" high speed internet. Would be hit or miss a lot after 5:00 or so in the evening. When it rained it would be dodgy but never to the point where it was a problem. When it worked it worked great. Starting Sunday it finally went out for good. Called Comcast Monday night after I got home from work and told them the problem. They said they would have someone there at 10:00-12:00 Tuesday to check it out.

I googled the problem and most said it was a noise issue from the road to house. They also said it would take them about 3 trips to correct the problem and after reading what everyone on here said I was anticipating that

Guy got there at 9:50am Tuesday morning and within 20 minutes of his arrival he had a new bright orange cable running from junction at road to our house and the problem was resolved. Our previous cable was one installed by Suscom before Comcast bought them out. They had already upgraded us to the 150mbps package from the call the night before. We were at the 50mbps package before. Oh yeah, they also added free showtime to our account since we already paid to get free HBO

I honestly have never had trouble out of Comcast nor have my neighbors. I honestly don't know where all the hate comes from.

 

[Arthur2478]

Service for Comcast, DirecTV, Dish, anybody: It always depends on the caliber of worker who gets sent to your home. Sounds like they sent out someone competent. They next person they send out could be a complete baffoon. Hit or miss.

 

[rabiddawg]

That doesn't account for the upgrade in services though. I think people just like to jump on Comcast because it's the "cool thing to do".

 

[Sutterkane]

I don't have a problem with their product. My problem is with their prices, and their nickel and dime approach to getting money from you.

A few years ago when everything went from analog to digital and everyone was told that you had to have those little converter boxes, comcast sent those out for free. 2 years later, they began charging rent for them. If you ditched it in that time with your ****** analog tv? Tough, you're paying to replace that box.

I've also got a buddy who used their triple play package as a means of getting his bill down, even though he didn't use the phone service. So he never went and picked up the modem. Still, about 3 months into the service, comcast started charging him rent for a modem that wasn't even in his house. Apparently their audit team determined that in order to use that service you *had* to have their special modem, so they charged him anyway for it instead of just including it in the package.

THAT's the kind of **** that pisses people off about comcast. Most of their employees are actually very nice people. The problem is their management staff that makes the rules are complete ********. They are regularly listed as one of the worst customer service companies in the USA for a reason.

 

[AFDawg]

I miss Comcast. We had to go with DirecTV and AT&T after moving to the country. I'd go back with Comcast in a minute if the started covering our area.

AT&T has been terrible to deal with. After a pole fell on our property, it took three trips to our house and me Tweeting at them to get it fixed.

 

[WrapItDog]

Comcast tried that modem crap with me. I have owned my modem for 10 years. I dropped cable and just kept internet and they started charging me a modem lease fee. It took me 6 months to get the modem lease fee off my bill. 3 monthly phone calls, 3 visits in person to the office. On the last visit I went postal on the lady behind the bullet proof glass. The same lady I had talked to the previous 2 visits who had assured me the problem was corrected. I finally got to speak with a supervisor who corrected the problem in about 5 minutes.

 

[rabiddawg]

Well maybe they are making a concerted effort to change. They are the biggest entity in the cable universe so they really don't have to be as nice and accommodating as they were to us. The fact that they really do seem to care impresses me. Maybe the central MS one is just better than most, which is reasonable, but I remember having far more trouble out of SusCom and Rankin County Cablevision before Comcast came in. You go to there equipment outlet on Hwy 80 and ask for a replacement remote they just hand you one. No questions asked. I have probably went in and requested 10 remotes because we lose them at a high rate

 

[FormerlyHighLifeRebel]

I've had that bright orange cable run to my house about 3 times

And it still didn't work for more than two weeks before I had to have somebody come back out.

I've never had a problem with any cable company until I moved into this house. Most of Comcast's problems can be fixed with just a few tweaks, like running a new line or replacing a box. Anything beyond that, and it simply is not worth their time to fix. So, they take the "**** it" approach. It's cheaper for them to just reduce my rate and give me something for free and hope that I just put up with the service just going out randomly. When all you watch on TV is live sports, showing up on Tuesday to fix the same problem you were supposed to fix last Tuesday isn't going to fix the problem. I didn't care about getting a cheaper rate. I wanted it to work. It wouldn't.

Their entire marketing scheme is to give you free services when you complain because most of their customers just want to watch the news and email their grandchildren. It took 10-12 different trips to my house and just as many replaced boxes for me to cancel my internet and buy what was essentially dial up from another company. It may have been slow, but it worked. That's much more than I can say for anything Comcast got paid for.

I don't hate on Comcast because it's cool. I hate on Comcast because for over a year they had a monopoly on my business and refused to fix the problem. And their strategy worked, when you've taken an hour off of work every other Tuesday for six months, you will eventually just get beaten into submission and stop complaining because complaining means work on my end as well. Every month I had to make the decision to take an hour off from work and meet them at my house to get a reduction on my bill for services that didn't work when they were supposed to or just pay my bill. They knew this, and they didn't give a ****. I had the direct line to customer service rep in Monroe, Louisiana at one point, and they still wouldn't fix it.

I could not choose to switch because of large trees on my neighbor's property and the unavailability of Uverse in my neighborhood. I had no choice, and, for many people in older neighborhoods, they know we don't have a choice.

For those of you who have services that work, good for you. For those of us who had no choice but to get bent over every month, we don't hate on Comcast because it's cool.

By the way, Uverse is expensive, but it is the ****.

 

[Dawg1976]

Let me tell you my experience with Comcast. Cable tv quality has been horrible in my neighborhood for years. In my house and in my mother's old house just around the corner from me. They told me just old cabling in the neighborhood and nothing they would do about it as for now. That was 2 years ago. I recently bought a condo on the AL coast and the quality is excellent(Mediacom). No comparison. Just plain old package without an hd box. And service call responses for me has also been horrible with Comcast. Last time it was a 3 week scheduled appointment and the service guy came out of Hattiesburg as Meridian didn't have enough guys to handle all the calls. Internet has been fine with Comcast though.

I'm dropping Comcast tv next week as I won't be in Meridian enough to justify it. Will keep internet for Netflix and other internet tv. Nothing about my complaints as being 'the cool thing to do'. They just suck from my experiences.

 

[rabiddawg]

Interestingly enough we never had trouble with our HDTV. Even when internet and phone were down the TV was fine.

 

[rabiddawg]

UVerse has the most convoluted channel listings I have ever seen. My in-laws have it and I just give up most times trying to fine something I want to watch.

 

[o_1984Dawg]

People like to jump on Comcast because they've had ****** experiences. Myself, I switched to Directv 6 years ago. Comcast's customer service was excellent. I should know. I had to call them every other month to fix my bill. But their cable service was great, especially their new OnDemand system, so I stuck with them. Apparently it was so great because they were using another company's software. They got greedy and decided to switch to their own software, which must have been developed in the 1980s. That's when I left.

I'm sure they've upgraded since then and good for them and their customers. Doesn't mean those of us who soured on them aren't completely justified though.

 

[QuaoarsKing]

I had a terrible Comcast experience. My wife and I bought her mother's house, and she moved into our old apartment. We told Comcast and they said they'd switch the addresses of our 3 cables boxes and Internet to the house, and her 2 cables boxes to the apartment.

You'd think this would be easy, but it just wasn't. It took over an hour on the phone just to get this message through, and then for several weeks, one of the boxes would spontaneously switch back to its old address and stop working almost every day. And every time this happened it was a 15-30-minute call just to fix it. Somehow, Comcast just couldn't handle the fact that two accounts switched addresses. Finally, we got fed up and switched to AT&T and have had no problems.

 

[MSUDawg25]

Comcast's legendarily bad customer service reputation is deserved. However, the American market has a way of correcting itself. If they have any sense, they realize their somewhat of a monopoly will be corrected before too long and they had better get their **** together and provide a better product/service. Maybe they are doing that.

 

[TimberBeast]

And it still didn't work for more than two weeks before I had to have somebody come back out.

I've never had a problem with any cable company until I moved into this house. Most of Comcast's problems can be fixed with just a few tweaks, like running a new line or replacing a box. Anything beyond that, and it simply is not worth their time to fix. So, they take the "**** it" approach. It's cheaper for them to just reduce my rate and give me something for free and hope that I just put up with the service just going out randomly. When all you watch on TV is live sports, showing up on Tuesday to fix the same problem you were supposed to fix last Tuesday isn't going to fix the problem. I didn't care about getting a cheaper rate. I wanted it to work. It wouldn't.

Their entire marketing scheme is to give you free services when you complain because most of their customers just want to watch the news and email their grandchildren. It took 10-12 different trips to my house and just as many replaced boxes for me to cancel my internet and buy what was essentially dial up from another company. It may have been slow, but it worked. That's much more than I can say for anything Comcast got paid for.

I don't hate on Comcast because it's cool. I hate on Comcast because for over a year they had a monopoly on my business and refused to fix the problem. And their strategy worked, when you've taken an hour off of work every other Tuesday for six months, you will eventually just get beaten into submission and stop complaining because complaining means work on my end as well. Every month I had to make the decision to take an hour off from work and meet them at my house to get a reduction on my bill for services that didn't work when they were supposed to or just pay my bill. They knew this, and they didn't give a ****. I had the direct line to customer service rep in Monroe, Louisiana at one point, and they still wouldn't fix it.

I could not choose to switch because of large trees on my neighbor's property and the unavailability of Uverse in my neighborhood. I had no choice, and, for many people in older neighborhoods, they know we don't have a choice.

For those of you who have services that work, good for you. For those of us who had no choice but to get bent over every month, we don't hate on Comcast because it's cool.

By the way, Uverse is expensive, but it is the ****.

This is absolutely correct. I have had Comcast for 12 years in Meridian and have had every problem imaginable. Not a single problem I ever had was corrected in a timely manner, including me having to actually take off work and no one show up, multiple times. And that isn't the biggest problem, I don't even like to acknowledge how much we pay every month just for our HD boxes. My neighbor has one freaking tree that blocks me from getting Dish or Direct so I'm stuck with Comcast. We don't have Uverse yet but I am going to check on that again. If I could get anything else I would drop them in a heartbeat.

 

[dawgatUSM]

This new X1 platform I have is top notch. Problem is, it's only currently available In metro areas like Memphis, which is close or where I am. But I really don't like being charged 60 bucks for them to change a cord when they told me there would be no charge. To their credit, they gave me all the movie channels for free for 3 months.

Now, they best be getting the SEC network or I'm going some place else.

 

[512taylor]

UVerse has the most convoluted channel listings I have ever seen. My in-laws have it and I just give up most times trying to fine something I want to watch.

"Search" works for me.

 

[Miss.Stake]

I can't take any complaints about cable companies seriously, because if you complain about any cable company other than Cableone.. You've never had Cableone. The absolute worst cable company in the United States.. It's got to be. I could go on for days..

 

[dawgstudent]

It seems the Starkville cable company might be one of the worst.

 

[jxndawg]

Years ago I bought my first TiVo. For it to work, I had to call Comcast and get them to bring me a cable card. I called and they set up my first service appointment. I had to leave work in downtown Jackson and drive to my house in Ridgeland to meet the guy.

When the Comcast guy got there and saw that I didn't have the TiVo wired in yet, he said "Naw, naw man - you need to have this thing all set up before I can put the cable card in." Said he couldn't stick around while I set it up, but he offered me some advice: "Instead of using the cable card, why don't you just get a digital cable box? It'll do the same thing and you won't have to fool with the cable card." So I set up my second appt. to get Comcast to bring me a digital cable box.

The next week I left work again to meet the guy for the second appointment. He brings in the cable box and hooks it up and tries to get it to work with the TiVo but can't. I finally told him I had to go back to work, but I'd fool w/ it later that night. After messing around w/ it forever, I re-read the TiVo instructions, where it specifically said it will NOT work with a cable box - it has to have a cable card.

So I called again and told the lady everything that had happened to this point and how I was getting frustrated, and I told her "what I need is either one multi-stream cable card, or two single-stream cable cards." She apologized and said "I just put it in our system word-for-word exactly what you need and I'll make sure they get it to you."

I leave work again to meet the guy for appt. #3. He walks over to the entertainment center and turns everything around so he can see all the wiring, and he just stands there studying it for a long time and I start wondering what he's doing. I finally tell him, "Look man, I need to get back to work - if you can just plug the cable card in I'll get everything fixed up tonight." He looks at me and says, "Cable card? They told me you needed a multi-stream cable CORD" (I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as this). Dude left, I called and raised hell, and service appt. #4 turned out to be the charm.

Few years later I get married, move to a bigger house and buy a second TiVo. Figured there's no way my experience can be as bad this time. First service appt the guy brings the cable card but can't make it work. Second service appointment was "between 5:00 and 7:00 pm" . . . on my wedding anniversary. Not one but TWO Comcast guys get there at 6:59 pm and try to make it work until I kicked them out at 9:00 pm.

The hell of it is, these are just my TiVo-related Comcast horror stories. I've got a bunch more but am as tired of typing as you prob. are of reading.

 

[Optimus Prime 4]

ask DCD how his dish was working last night!**

nm

 

[Optimus Prime 4]

That's the #1 advantage of cable, upgrade equipment whenever, for free. That's the main thing keeping me from trying directTV or dish, I don't want to own equipment, or have to pay a fee for it to have a maintenance plan. That and my current 75MBps internet. I personally see that leaving cable is more expensive, but I also think these arguments are no different from apple vs. windows, or ford vs. chevy, no one will ever have their mind changed.

 

[Ridgeland Dog]

Ridgeland is getting C-Spire - TV, Internet, and Phone. It is suppose to be the best and greatest. Internet is suppose to be 100x faster than Comcast. We shall see.

 

[FormerlyHighLifeRebel]

I really think it depends on where you are

Cable is generally a good deal. It's substantially cheaper, and it gives you what you need. The problem with cable is that they don't have to work to get their customers. If there's one guy whose system isn't working, then the solution is to replace the box and move on. If that doesn't work, then run a new cable to their house. If that doesn't work, then replace the box. If that doesn't work, then run a new cable....

If I hadn't had just non-stop problems with the service, I'd still be with Comcast.

 

[The Peeper]

No problems w/ Comcast for me either (Reservoir area) I came from AT&T internet

and it was turrrrible, weekly conversations w/ Mr. Patel in India and all his brothers and cousins about how to make it work. Since switching (probably 3 years now), no problems at all. Been having to reboot HD box every other day here lately though, about to turn it in and get another, hope I haven't jinxed myself.............

 

[Miss.Stake]

I've used Metrocast while I lived in Starkville and Cableone the rest of my life with my parents and current day.. Metrocast is like a godsend compared to Cableone.. it's that bad. Our city signed an exclusive deal with Cable one back in 1989 that gave them exclusive rights for 25 years!! It's finally expiring this year and Uverse is moving fast to get into our city. Thank goodness.

 

[Cow College]

Having had all of the above services I can say Cable One is far and away worst company ever. Comcast now is okay. So far they have been very helpful. Cable one :facepalm:

 

[XBLDawg]

I've been with Comcast since they bought Suscom in Rankin County. Back then we had great Motorola equipment and the guide was top notch. Then, when they standardized the Jackson metro, we had to switch to Scientific Atlanta. Since then, they have been painstakingly slow at rolling out new features. The guide is still terrible and the equipment is subpar.

I switched to DirecTV this week...here's why.

I had Triple Play. ONLY reason I needed home phone was for my alarm that I have since cancelled. My bill had become $277 or so a month which is way too damn high. So, we called to see if we could get a break. No sir, we offer 2 Triple Play packages on our site, that's what you can get. One is $189, the other is $217/month which is what we have. Add in the modem rental, box fees at $8 per box, and there's your $277.

They've gotten smart. Now they bundle all the premiums so even dropping them doesn't have an effect on your price. And for your cable modem that you pay $8 a month to rent, it comes WITHOUT a battery..if you want one of those you have to pay them $60.

Now, their website says that for my $217 a month I should be able to get X1 and Anyroom DVR. No sir, we can't offer those to you at this time, those are just promotional.

BS. Ive been a customer of theirs for 5+ years, patiently waiting for them to roll out features that they promise for YEARS, and now I can't even get their newest equipment BECAUSE i'm not a NEW customer.

 

[kramer_192]

If I could have convinced my wife to drop cable and have nothing but an antenna, I would have don so a long time ago. But I am still fighting that battle.

 

[FormerlyHighLifeRebel]

I hate to bump an old thread, but I've gotta get this **** out in the open.

When I cancelled my Comcast service they said they would send me a pro-rated bill in the mail. Since then, I have received two bills that have gone to my e-bill service on my online checking account, both of which were due later this week and were significantly higher than I expected. I have been trying since last week to view the bills, but I can't because they deleted my online account when I cancelled their service. Since neither of the bills were due until this week, I figured I would just call this morning and see what was what.

This weekend I received a call from a collection agency. Instead of sending me the prorated bill in the mail or via email, they just turned it over to a collection agency. I've got a ding on my credit report (which I have worked my *** off to keep clean) for 53 dollars that I had no idea I owed. No one I have talked to has any explanation for this. No one I have talked to has indicated that I owe anything this week. Apparently, they just expected me to pay for something that I did not owe, then back charged me for something that I did, but never told me about.

Finally, if there are any attorneys on here who specialize in suing companies for unfair debt collection practices, please PM me. I don't know how much this is going to cost me in the long-run, but I'm willing to pay to make Comcast miserable in the meantime. I'll pay some costs and as much of a contingency as the law allows. **** 'em.

 

[DAWG61]

I don't hate ComCast but the small things drive me crazy with them. Like when every single Saturday the TV guide goes to almost full "To Be Announced" making it impossible to DVR sporting events or that it's been 10 years and the guide is still off with the Memphis Grizzlies, Cincinnati Reds, Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks games yet the MLBNetwork, NBANetwork and premium sports packages still black you out for those 4 teams. The Reds live in this blacked out abyss for me. They get blacked out unless they are on ESPN. They are never on ESPN.

 

[WrapItDog]

Good luck getting you some comcast TV in N. West Tupelo anytime soon. As of today the main cable and phone lines are still laying on my rental property driveway on Jackson between Lumpkin and Thomas. Power poles were set yesterday. Pic of street day of tornado. My rental property driveway is next to the power pole laying across the street.

 

[starkvegasdawg]

My neighbor has one freaking tree that blocks me from getting Dish or Direct so I'm stuck with Comcast.

Harvey Updyke says he can help you with that tree if your neighbors are auburn fans.

 

[WrapItDog]

I'll take all the tree help I can get. Got all but one tree taken care of. A three bedroom house next door is under there somewhere. The guy in the pic is about 5' 7" tree trunk diameter is aprox. 6'

 

[fishwater99]

I hate Comcast b/c of their customer service and their High price.

I am looking to switch to U-verse this summer, will save a bundle with the bundle and get $400 Visa card.

As of right now to get the SEC network you need U-verse or DISH...