I understand now why folks hate Comcast

[Brian Elfert]

I have had really good luck with Comcast at my old house. I just established service at my new house and nothing short of a nightmare.

The gas company cut the cable and Comcast insisted on a professional installation for $99 so someone could fix the cable. The guy came out and fixed the cable, but the tech refused to hook up my service because I don't have a TV yet. I had my cable modem there, but he didn't hook it up. I called and they switched it to self install, but they insisted I had to have my DVR hooked up before they could activate the cable modem. I spent 30 minutes in line at the Comcast office to get a DVR. I spent an hour on the phone getting the cable modem activated and it turned out I didn't even need the DVR to get Internet working.

My Internet quit and I called them. It turns out they switched me back to professional install and disconnected my modem even though it was up and running. After another 45 minutes on the phone I am back to self install and my modem is working again.

No wonder nobody likes these clowns.

[Scott Shepherd]

I logged in to pay my bill last week and noticed an outrageous amount. I was paying $93 a month for cable and Internet. My "new" price.... $237 a month for basic cable, no HD and Internet. I called them and sure enough, that was my new rate. I asked if they thought it was reasonable for my bill to go from $93 to $237 a month. They transferred me to a "specialist" to help retain me. She looked it all up, said id been a customer for over 10 years and they could offer me a great deal at $139 a month.

I told old her I was on Verizon's website looking at their triple play for $79 a month plus a $400 Visa gift card if I signed up for 2 years, effectively knocking $20 a month off their $79 price for more service. Granted, that $79 Verizon deal ends up at $130 after all the boxes, fees, and taxes, but it was enough to make her think I was going to switch. After 30 minutes of saying no to her, she finally came within $3 of what I had been paying.

How they think it's right to have over a 100% increase with no notice just shows me how little they care about treating customers decent.

[David Weaver]

I remember cancelling expanded basic when I was still single. I called to move it back to basic, as the price had gone up once a year until it was 1 1/2 times more expensive than it was three years prior. The lady on the other side of the phone actually said to me "well, we've added content - the travel channel and the oprah channel" (or "O" or whatever they called it back then. I told her that was hilarious. She told me she'd give me expanded basic for 6 months for $19 and I could decide to cancel again after that, and I declined and told them just to have it unhooked. She must've said 5 times in a row "just to clarify, you know you won't have MTV or ESPN".

When I moved to where I am now, we got basic again. a "tech" came out to hook it up and spent about a half hour here fiddling. whoever lived here was a TV fanatic before, because the house is only one floor and they had 5 hooked up lines in the upstairs and one in the basement.

I have one TV, I could get by without it.

So the cable guy plugs in the one TV and checks it and then declares he needs to go to the basement to see how many lines are coming in. I asked him why he thought that was necessary, and he said he had to write down how many lines the service was split into. I again asked him why he thought that had anything to do with the install and said, "I had better not see a charge for 6 lines coming in when I have one TV". He said "oh no, they just want to know, you'll only get charged for one".

Of course, when I got the bill, it charged me for all of the lines, except when he counted he missed one and wrote 5. I got charged $100 to "hook up five televisions". I had the pleasure of waiting forever on hold to finally get a hold of someone and argue with them that I only have one TV and shouldn't be charged for installation on lines that don't have a TV on them. I finally got it down to one.

I can't stand them.

Just this past week, I was able to completely get rid of the other company I can't stand - verizon. The last phone we had on it was my wifes - voice and text only for $60 a month. Stupid. We switched her to republic wireless for unlimited talk, text and data for what ends up being $31 a month with fees.

Our internet options here stink. They are essentially comcast, verizon and satellite. So I am stuck staying with comcast for $71 a month for internet. That's about as stupid as verizon's $60 a month limited minutes voice plan.

[Chris Padilla]

I was busy unloading tile out of my truck Tuesday night when approached by a guy with a clipboard. He said he was a specialist from Comcast out trying to access why people left them. I left them X number of years ago (I guess it was 5 or 6) but I honestly couldn't remember the reason but it was likely money and their arrogance and crappy customer service so that was what I told him. He said they've turned over a new leaf and have a lot of great offerings but I said I wasn't interested. He left his card on my tailgate.

[Brian Elfert]

We have no alternatives like Verizon FIOS or AT&T Uverse here. You can get satellite for TV, but Comcast is about the only choice for decent Internet. Centurylink Internet speeds are really slow right now.

[Myk Rian]

If I owned a company like Comcast, I would fire everyone working there and hire new employees.
It's amazing that company has grown the way it has.

[Brian Elfert]

If I owned a company like Comcast, I would fire everyone working there and hire new employees.
It's amazing that company has grown the way it has.

This is what happens when you have a monopoly in most areas. Most cities in the Minneapolis metro area have a franchise agreement with Comcast that gives them a monopoly on cable TV service in that city. The cities do charge Comcast a monthly franchise fee for each customer. Of course, that franchise fee is passed on to the customer. Effectively, each customer of Comcast is paying an extra fee each month that allows Comcast to have a monopoly in that city! The cities allow this because the cities don't want everybody and their brother hanging cable lines on the poles. I would be happy to have some extra lines on the utility poles if it meant cheaper rates for TV service through competition.

[Matt Day]

We pay $150/mo for cable and Internet with Comcast. That is crazy but we like to watch tv and internet is pretty much a necessity.
I HATE Comcast. They out of no where jacked my bill up by about $50. There is always a long hold, and I always have to get thransferred 3 times. Bunch of morons at that place.

[Val Kosmider]

When I moved to a new location two years ago my choice was Comcast, or Comcast. I was coming from Time Warner, which, ironically, Comcast is now attempting to buy. My Time Warner experience was great and I hated to even think about signing up with Comcast.

We started out with "no, sir, we cannot offer service at that location." Okay, that is curious because the neighbors have it.

Once we got that straightened out, it went from one thing to another, including their tech guy not being able to run the cable through conduit which had been laid for him from the house to the box. A little "customer" assistance on how to use a thread tape and the cable was through.

The tech who came out to hook up the inside stuff...computers, TV and phones, did a great job.

And, most unbelievably, the service has been of high quality. In two years there has been one minor issue (with poor connections on the outside cable--imagine that; same genius who couldn't run the cable through the conduit and left if laying on top of the ground), and one minor service interruption that lasted a couple of hours.

Once I got past the customer "service" folks, the experience actually has been pretty good. Quite honestly, I am shocked and surprised. Of course, every week I get solicited to add TV service to my Internet Service, and add Internet service to my TV service, because the left hand and the right hand have no idea what they are doing!

[Steve Peterson]

The Comcast problem affects AT&T as well. We recently moved and it took 2 months to get home phone, DSL, and DirecTV bundled through AT&T. It took about 3 weeks before they could figure out how to hook up a phone line. Somehow the number they gave us was also given to someone else. We finally got connected and ended up with 2 phone lines. Deleting one line killed the DSL. We spent at least 10 hours on the customer support line. Half the time the customer support would not be able to find the service ticket. What a nightmare.

Steve

[Bert Kemp]

I have Century link and they really you know S*** but its the only game in town, its 47.99 a month for like 3 mbps download speed.which is fast enough for me most the time.Ihave no tv service I use my computer for all my tv, radio and everything. My computers hooked to my 42" tv in the living room and I get just about every tv channel in the world for free. I hate commercials tho so unless its a live nascar race or football I use netflix stream for tv tho. there is a free tv website that has all the shows but no commercial but no close captions either I need those.
There is a way to tether your phone to your computer and dump your internet provider if you have unlimited phone service. Some phone providers don't allow tethering like mine but some do .

[Erik Loza]

When I moved to a new location two years ago my choice was Comcast, or Comcast. I was coming from Time Warner, which, ironically, Comcast is now attempting to buy. My Time Warner experience was great and I hated to even think about signing up with Comcast.....

Our experience was similar, except that it was Time-Warner that we were trying to get away from. Their local service techs were great (I believe these guys are all independent contractors) but like everyone else says, it was the call center that was intolerable. I agree with whoever said it is basically a monopoly and that they know you have very few options. We switched to AT&T Uverse (which I have no complaints with so far) and I clearly remember that phone call to Time Warner. They kept trying to transfer me to a "Retention Specialist" for I-don't-know-how-many-times... What's ambiguous about, "We are signing up with a different service. I need to terminate this one."?

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[Jim Laumann]

Bert

free tv website?

Care to elaborate on this?

Jim

[Rich Enders]

Through several locations over the last 12 years we have been Cox customers. Although not perfect they are not bad.

Then last March we rented a vacation home in California for a month that had Time Warner cable for the TV, but no internet. Since I am still a working stiff we had TW add internet, and it was a comedy of errors. We gave them a months notice, but it still became three full days of visits, calls, holds, transfers, holds, dropped calls, holds, visits, calls.... etc.

In re-reading the responses above it seems that service issues vary by employee more than by provider, but I suppose that means the provider isn't doing their job of training and verifying.

[Raymond Fries]

There are many reasons why Comcast won the Golden Poo award for more than one year.

I have had a couple of memorable experiences with them. The most annoying was a cable installation. For a few years we had a problem with dropping our Internet and the TV was fine. Finally one technician decided that the problem was because we had to many splitters installed. Gee – I wonder who installed those splitters. Anyway, they said they would install a new cable dedicated to Internet and that would fix our problem.

I said that would be great but I wanted an internal installation because I did want the cable stapled to the siding. They said they would send a manager to work out a plan. He showed up and we agreed that they would tuck the cable behind the siding and follow the roofline. When it came to the second floor, the cable would come across and they would drill a hole just under the gable vent to get it into the attic. I figured I could paint the 18” of cable running along the bottom edge of the siding and it would not be very visible.

And then reality struck when the work was done. I came home from work and discovered that they just stapled the cable to the house and drilled a hole in the middle of the gable vent to get it into the attic. Oh how attractive that was. NOT!!

When I called to complain, the manager that was here to schedule the work denied being here. NICE Huh?

They ended up removing the cable, replacing my gable vent and doing what I asked for in the beginning. The cable went behind the siding in the corner and they drilled thorough the overhang behind the gutter to get into the attic. There is only a few inched of cable visible.

My wife has had talked to many retention people to keep our bill in check.

I agree that they should win the Golden Poo award every year. They are pretty bad.

[Frederick Skelly]

I have one TV, I could get by without it.

Me too David.

Large cable companies like Time Warner, Comcast, etc still act like Ma Bell did before they deregulated telephones. I hate 'em too. Im hoping AT&T builds up enough TV business to give traditional cable companies some serious competition. Bet they'll get more customer oriented then. AT&T got better - not great, but better.

Fred