PDA

View Full Version : Warning: Rant Rant Rant



dw2649
04-20-2007, 09:06 PM
Okay so this ran t is about Comcast. i know that
I posted earlier in the News/ Rumors forum about Comcast adding Disney On Demand to my area next week, and while I am really happy about it, I just had few rants about comcast.

First, a couple of months ago I called Comcast to make sure that they had enabled the serial port that I needed on my Motorola 2500 series cable box so that my Tivo could change the channel correctly ( I know, I know i should never call Comcast late at night because the people working there late at night don't know diddly-squat and most of them really don't want or care to be there (at least the people that I have dealt with)). The guy flat out told me that there was no serial port on my box, when I was staring right at it and could plainly see that there was one. The guy even consulted with his "supervisor" and said there was none, yet I knew that there was a serial port on there. Long story short, the tivo was able to change channels just fine using the serial port and I walked away from the call feeling like the guy would not have known the box had it hit him on the head.

Then there was today. I ordered the MLB Extra Innings Early Bird special and today they added Channels Game 11-14 on Channels 442-445, respectively, but they did not change the code on the headend (or on my boxes) so I was only able to get 442-444 but the system was still blocking 445 because it did not think that I was authorized to have the channel (which I was). Some of the techs did not even know that the channels had been added (they said the package is only on 461-470). So I had some guys from comcast come out and they got their remote techs on the phone and they did not even have a clue that the channels had been added. Finally, they got the person in charge of the headend on the line and that person fixed the issue so that now I can watch games on game 14 :D . I tried to tell them that I knew it was an issue on their side and that they should not send out some techs, but they insisted. So I waited around until around 4:40pm when the techs showed up and all they could do is sit around while they got the techs on the line and fixed everything internally. Meanwhile my afternoon was shot and I could not get the errands done that I wanted to (I wanted to go to the grocery store and to Ace Hardware, but they close at six).

Okay I feel better now. Thanks for letting me rant.
Daniel

crazypoohbear
04-20-2007, 10:23 PM
I cancelled my Comcast last month... March 3 to be exact. I have been receiving bills from Comcast every month since. Today I received a bill saying I owed 792. Gee I hope they don't try to turn off my TV or Internet access;)
I switched over to Verizon for TV,Internet and Telephone. I'm saving about 60. per month and Because I signed up at a Kiosk in the mall I received 150.00 in American Express gift cards!. :D

kakn7294
04-20-2007, 10:37 PM
Sorry about your problems with Comcast. I have Comcast and love them. They are the best cable company (out of at least 8 in my lifetime) we've ever had. Where I live, I don't have a choice on my cable company unless I switch to a satellite TV company but we've never had any real problems with Comcast and we get far more channels with them than we ever did before. In fact, several years ago, we had some bad storms come through and lost electricity for 5 days. I called Comcast and explained the situation to them and they actually took those 5 days off of my bill even though we didn't know if we had cable service or not while the electricity was off.

DizneyRox
04-20-2007, 11:02 PM
Comcast is, in my experience, the worst cable company around. Unfortunately I'm moving to an area that they service. I'm hoping that AT&T U-Verse comes around, otherwise I'll be living off over the air broadcasts as I refuse to use them for services.

Verizon isn't much better IMHO, but that's another story.

2Epcot
04-20-2007, 11:07 PM
It good to rant sometimes. I've never had Comcast, thought it sounds like cable companies in general have their problems. I know I had them with Adelphia/Time Warner. I've also spent several days on the phone with Cox Communications as I get setup in my new home. Every person I talk to gives me a different answer, not to mention not changing my appointment time, even though I was told they did, and the cable guy showing up while I was at work.

I'll admit my HD setup is rather complicated using 3 DVRs and a wireless transmitter to another room, but I did all the setup myself. Unfortunately I think I will have to have someone come out to make one more adjustment before everything is set video wise ... I'm still working on the audio and surround part.

When the cable guy finally did show up for my last appointment, the box had no audio. I was not home, only my wife was, so he thought mabye I had not hooked the box up correctly. When I got home, I found an audio selection in the box needed to be changed....That seems like something the cable guy should know to check.


So I had some guys from comcast come out and they got their remote techs on the phone and they did not even have a clue that the channels had been added. Finally, they got the person in charge of the headend on the line and that person fixed the issue so that now I can watch games on game 14 :D . I tried to tell them that I knew it was an issue on their side and that they should not send out some techs, but they insisted.

When I had Adelphia/Time Warner I often had to tell them NOT to send out anyone because the problem was not on my side. That always seems to be the first thing they want to do.

dw2649
04-20-2007, 11:44 PM
It good to rant sometimes. I've never had Comcast, thought it sounds like cable companies in general have their problems. I know I had them with Adelphia/Time Warner. I've also spent several days on the phone with Cox Communications as I get setup in my new home. Every person I talk to gives me a different answer, not to mention not changing my appointment time, even though I was told they did, and the cable guy showing up while I was at work.

I'll admit my HD setup is rather complicated using 3 DVRs and a wireless transmitter to another room, but I did all the setup myself. Unfortunately I think I will have to have someone come out to make one more adjustment before everything is set video wise ... I'm still working on the audio and surround part.

When the cable guy finally did show up for my last appointment, the box had no audio. I was not home, only my wife was, so he thought mabye I had not hooked the box up correctly. When I got home, I found an audio selection in the box needed to be changed....That seems like something the cable guy should know to check.



When I had Adelphia/Time Warner I often had to tell them NOT to send out anyone because the problem was not on my side. That always seems to be the first thing they want to do.

Trust me. I tried that and it did not work. This is the fourth time they've been out here this week (2 were long scheduled appointments, 2 were same day appointments scheduled by the phone technical support departments). The field techs are great for the most part and really seem like they know what they are talking about. In fact I was asking what the appropriate downstream and upstream SNRs is for my modem (i believe the tech said, and this is what I had heard before, was between -15--+15 dbs, but I don't remember). I told the tech that i wished they would tell the phone service people that this is what is correct for this are because the phone techs have no clue. It is just the phone "technicians" that do not know what they are talking about or doing.

I actually just switched from a standard HD box to the HD DVR box available in our area from comcast because our standard box had a lot of issues tuning to certain channels (the guy actually said they don't use those standard HD boxes anymore because they were really really bad (due to the intercot TOS I can't say what he actually said about them)). But the HD DVR seems to be working fine, and I got a deal where it was only $1.00 more per month than we were paying for the standard box for 6 months, and then at the end of the 6th months I'll switch back to the regular HD box when the new standard HD boxes become available in our area. I already have a Tivo, so I don't need another DVR.

Overall i really like the comcast service, just not when I have to call late at night. If that happens I will just wait until the morning so that I can get the local comcast phone center, not the national one (which handles all the overnight calls).

MsMin
04-21-2007, 11:18 AM
I've never had to deal with comcast, we have cox here. I hate when the techs treat you like you don't know what you are doing- they ask is the TV plugged in??? :mad: because they are reading a set of questions and can't deviate from the list. One tech finally realized that the cable outside needed replacement and we have had better service since. Our HD channels were saying they were "off the air" what a stupid msg since really they weren't we just weren't getting a strong enough signal.
I feel your pain...

DizNee143
04-22-2007, 01:00 PM
i like comcast..just got it hooked up in my new condo yesterday...i got the triple play package..verizon is the devil to me though!! lol..they screwed me over twice last week..they never cared to show up and i had taken off of work...they got me sooo mad..so i cant with them and i have comcast for everything!! and its working fine!! sorry you had a few bad experiences..but if you think about it..you'll have bad experiences anywhere...im sure sooner or later something will happen with comcast and ill feel the same way...lol..

Donald A
04-22-2007, 04:02 PM
I am glad the cable companies have competition now with the dish providers as I think it keeps them "honest." When I lived in Ohio we had Adelphia several years (no choice as I lived in apartments) and had nothing but problems. Here in Indy, Comcast is our cable company, but we brought DirecTV with us. Honestly, we have had no problems with DirecTV and it is our only way to get NFL Sunday Ticket. I recommend DirecTV as it is pretty good. The only problem is in heavy, heavy rain it will go out.

dw2649
04-22-2007, 09:31 PM
We've had line of sight issues that have kept up from going satellite for a number of years. Now that we have Comcast High Speed Internet, it is cheaper (and easier) for us to stay with Comcast rather than go over to Satellite. We pay $42.95 per month for the internet and get somewhere around 6mbps, whereas when we were using our DSL connection (we still have the service, although it will be terminated fairly soon now that we have Comcast as our main ISP), we paid around $40-$50 for the service (after the promotional period) and barely cracked 1mbps (plus the fact that the company we had , Earthlink DSL, was a royal pain to deal with when we had trouble because they did not actually run the DSL line themselves (that was done by Covad)). We could not go any faster on DSL due to our distance from the central office. At least Comcast runs the lines themselves and they can get one of their people out here within a 4 hours if the problem is called in in time, or at the latest the next day. I had Comcast High Speed Internet while I was living at my apartment and tried to get my folks to switch over, too, but my father dislikes and does not want to have to deal with change. For him, the DSL was working even though he was paying $40-$50 for subpar service (due to the distance from the Central Office) and did not want to deal with the perceived "hassle" of changing ISPs, even though all it took was a 10 minute (or less) phone call to Comcast to set up the appointment and an appointment that took 1 or 2 hours on a Saturday morning for everything to get setup (even though most of the appointment was the contractor adding the wiring to run the cable to the modem located in the 1st floor study and we did not have to do anything but sit around and wait). Once I told him the speed we were now getting at the house, he was amazed (and the fact that we are paying less than what he was paying at earthlink was even more amazing).

Like I said before hand, I love comcast and their service, it is just the ineptness of some of the phone techs that I have to deal with that I truely dislike. And now that we have the High Speed Internet from Comcast, it does not make financial sense for us to switch to Satellite/DSL, nor do I really want to (I dislike the contracts that most Satellite and DSL providers make you sign to get the free equipment and good prices. Comcast does not make you sign any contract, all you do is rent the cable box ( the first box is free, the rest is $5.00 per month for each box) and buy or rent the cable modem (I own mine, but you can rent for less than $5.00 per month)).

January-2007
04-25-2007, 10:34 AM
Wow. We pay $10.95 a month for dial up internet access, nothing for cable, since we don't have it. Life is so much simpler.

Ian
04-25-2007, 04:09 PM
I have Comcast and, for all their warts, they're still the best option out there.

We get like 5 billion channels (okay maybe not that many, but it's a lot!), we have an HD box, DVR, cable internet, and they do our home phone and our bill is like $165 a month.

I know that sounds like a lot, but we get something like 20+ premium channels (like 10 HBO's, 10 Showtimes, and Starz) ... we're happy with their service!

gueli
04-28-2007, 03:58 AM
Some things I can point out if you care...
I am a Cable Technician & have been with my company for over 15 years. At this point, I am one of the people who they call when you are having a problem in your whole area (very rarley do I take care of TC's (trouble call appointments).
All cable companies (& satelite & Verizon FIOS) have their problems.
- Where I work - you will never speak to a head end tech or supervisor as a customer. You certainly can speak to a supervior(phone ops or tech's supervior, if we haven't satisfied your problem).
- just so that you know SNR is signal to noise ratio. In a modem it is not an actual "reading" - it is an alogrhythem (sorry for the spelling) of what the 'box or modem see's. Only an expensive signal meter will tell you a true SNR.
- most boxes & modems are designed to recieve signals from +15 DBmv to -15 DBmv (usualy most people say DB). Depending on a company's set up your transmit numbers should fall in a range of about +25 to +59 (Max transmit) DB.
Recomendation- If you are not satisfied with service or something like that- do not complain to the low end people (Phone support) - Bark up the tree to a manager (or corporate president). Do not jump the gun with advice, give people a chance to satisfy your complaint 1st (but after the 4th call for the same problem-enough is enough).
You are correct -phone support reads from a flow chart.
If you have a problem with a digital box that is not getting new channels (not digital breakup) but like the MLB package, this is usualy a computer problem, and can be resolved on the phone.
Sometimes the problem is at your house. allowing us to come out & repair any line problems will generally clean up 90% of Picture Quality (PQ) issues. If it is not there the tech who comes (unless they are a rookie) generally knows who to contact to resolve the issue. If there is a System Problem - then I get it. When I am done, your PQ issue is gone.:D
if you have any questions Ask.
:mickey: :mickey: