%$#@*& Comcast!

flyersfan31

flyersfan31

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Mar 31, 2006
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Freiburgfan31
Back online after an outage that began on Wed afternoon!! My daughter was in Webkinz world (I knew nothing about it, either, until a 2 weeks ago!) when our connection dropped out. After a dozen calls to Comcast, a new router, 2 new modems, I FINALLY got the GD internet back up and running. Can you believe that 1) the modem's WAN port went bad and 2) the replacement modem from Comcast also had a bad WAN port??!!??!!!!!!:mad: After multiple calls, changing cables, pinging, resetting, repowering, getting out of wall gardens (whatever TF that means!!!!!!) I, and I alone, determined the (final) problem was the replacement Comcast modem. Yeah, like a jerk, I've been renting. Went out, bought an identical Motorola Surfboard, (mebbe $50 at Circuit City with a rebate) and STILL COULDN"T GET ON THE WEB.

Nick might know what this means. 2 different Tech Unsupport folks (numbers 10 and 11 if you're counting) told me that this was a level 2.5 issue, that could only be fixed by some level 2.5 engineers, because their "tools" couldn't repurpose or reposition or resomething-or-other my store-bought modem. Oh, and you can't call those folks directly -- they get to your problem in 24-72 hours (ignoring the fact that I found this out on Sunday after 96hrs of struggling).

I called again this morning to shake the tree, figuring I was going to get someone who could do something come hell-or-high-water. To my great surprise, the (lowly) CSR who answered actually knew how to fix the problem, without any level 2.5 response or whateverTF.

And yes, I would have contacted Nick for advice, BUT I COULDN'T ACCESS THE GD Internet. It's amazing how that affects things these days.
 
At some point when I have more patience, I'll write up the five months of hassles I've had with Choker Communications.
 
You just needed to put in your request on the web form. Sheesh. :D


(That is a Dilbert.)





I had DirecTV visit #9 Monday to fix the weak line on one tuner on one TiVo. I think he may have found it - possibly a bad port on the switch - but it's held for 12 hours the last 4 times, too. At least I had no crap about my install warranty being long over. They see that I'm sucker enough to be paying nearly $100 a month. Not of much longer.
 
flyersfan31 said:
Back online after an outage that began on Wed afternoon!! My daughter was in Webkinz world (I knew nothing about it, either, until a 2 weeks ago!) when our connection dropped out. After a dozen calls to Comcast, a new router, 2 new modems, I FINALLY got the GD internet back up and running. Can you believe that 1) the modem's WAN port went bad and 2) the replacement modem from Comcast also had a bad WAN port??!!??!!!!!!:mad: After multiple calls, changing cables, pinging, resetting, repowering, getting out of wall gardens (whatever TF that means!!!!!!) I, and I alone, determined the (final) problem was the replacement Comcast modem. Yeah, like a jerk, I've been renting. Went out, bought an identical Motorola Surfboard, (mebbe $50 at Circuit City with a rebate) and STILL COULDN"T GET ON THE WEB.

Nick might know what this means. 2 different Tech Unsupport folks (numbers 10 and 11 if you're counting) told me that this was a level 2.5 issue, that could only be fixed by some level 2.5 engineers, because their "tools" couldn't repurpose or reposition or resomething-or-other my store-bought modem. Oh, and you can't call those folks directly -- they get to your problem in 24-72 hours (ignoring the fact that I found this out on Sunday after 96hrs of struggling).

I called again this morning to shake the tree, figuring I was going to get someone who could do something come hell-or-high-water. To my great surprise, the (lowly) CSR who answered actually knew how to fix the problem, without any level 2.5 response or whateverTF.

And yes, I would have contacted Nick for advice, BUT I COULDN'T ACCESS THE GD Internet. It's amazing how that affects things these days.
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"Provision" I would assume.

Sucks, man, I feel ya. I'm sure the guys that were trying to help were doing the best that they could. That doesn't make it feel any better, I'm sure, and I'm not giving you excuses (I don't work there anymore).

My guess is that the first modem went south on ya from a failed port, but the 2nd was honkeydorey.....the provisioning system was likely down and was not reported or known at the time. So you went out and bought a new modem, and it was unable to be provisioned as well, but by then, the problem was known and they escalated to 2.5 to get it fixed. Ugh. I don't miss those days at all.

But hey, at least its only $45.95 a month, right :rolleyes: ($60.95 if you don't have tv service).

Glad its up and running, man, I feel ya.
 
Webkinz......the best babysitter in the world. I come home every night to the sound of Webkinz world on our home pc. My wife started logging in to the kids accounts to make them money after they went to bed. So I bought her one too. Now all three of my girls are addicted. I can't imagine what would happen if the internet went down.

We have Charter cable and it has been down maybe 2 times in the last 3 years....and only hours at a time. We'd lose our voip, too, if that thing went down.
 
Heh, well what a coincidence; I just got home from helping a friend set up their Comcast cable modem. I was willing to wait out the long hold times, because we had a special situation, but Comcast must have a really convoluted provisioning system. I *know* it does not really take 1.5hrs + to provision an MTA.

When I got my Charter service, I plugged in my modem, their system didn't recognize the MAC address and directed me to a "who the heck are you?" page. I typed in the particulars from my pink copy of the work order, and Boom!, I was in like Flint.

-Rich
 
I'm ticked at Comcast, too. After two years, my HD cable box exploded and when they came out to fix it, they realized the tech who installed it had given me free access to every premium channel and put a stop to it. Darn.

On the bright side, the ~1 movie a month we might have watched on the premium channels won't be missed. Now, take away my Discovery channel and you'll have a fight on your hands. My kids will beat you up!!
 
Here's one for the barristers...

How is it franchise agreements between a government entity (my county commission) and a cable company can stand up to federal anti-trust statutes?
 
KennyFlys said:
Here's one for the barristers...

How is it franchise agreements between a government entity (my county commission) and a cable company can stand up to federal anti-trust statutes?
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Because most franchise agreements don't work the way people think they do. Comcast owns the lines they installed. To compete, a company must install their own infrastructure. Look at cities like Boston, where a smaller cable company "overbuilt" Comcast's lines, providing their own service. No one could stop them.

Beyond that, despite most people's claims, Comcast (nor any other cable company) does not have a monopoly any of the services it provides:
For Television, you've got antenna or satellite ability.
For Phone, you've got PSTNs or Wireless providers
For Internet, you've got DSL, Satellite, or if neither works, you always have dialup.

I hate defending Comcast, but these are simple truths. I actually disagreed with the fight to make cable companies share their lines with other utilities. They were installed and set up by the cable company (in most cases), and therefore, they own the infrastructure.
 
SkyHog said:
I hate defending Comcast, but these are simple truths. I actually disagreed with the fight to make cable companies share their lines with other utilities. They were installed and set up by the cable company (in most cases), and therefore, they own the infrastructure.
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My problem is my only other option is OTA or satellite. I'd prefer to see two or more cable companies compete in the same market area. I don't think it's logical to say their real competition is satellite.
 
KennyFlys said:
My problem is my only other option is OTA or satellite. I'd prefer to see two or more cable companies compete in the same market area. I don't think it's logical to say their real competition is satellite.
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A lot of people feel that way, but if you break it down to what service is actually being provided, then, at least from the FTC's perspective, it makes sense:

CATV: Television, including premium networks and PPV.
Satellite: Television, including premium networks and PPV.
Antenna: Television, no premium networks or PPV.

So from a purely objective perspective, Cable and Satellite are direct competetors. Antenna maybe not, but its an option.
 
SkyHog said:
A lot of people feel that way, but if you break it down to what service is actually being provided, then, at least from the FTC's perspective, it makes sense:

CATV: Television, including premium networks and PPV.
Satellite: Television, including premium networks and PPV.
Antenna: Television, no premium networks or PPV.

So from a purely objective perspective, Cable and Satellite are direct competetors. Antenna maybe not, but its an option.
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Where I live, I can't get a single channel with an Antenna. :(
 
Maybe someday, if I can find enough time, I'll wirte something about the ten months of BS I went through with Comcast trying to get my service working correctly. I believe most of their support people are indoctrinated into believing that your problem is always your problem and that there is nothing wrong with their network or cable system. Long story short, I found a CSR who made it his mission to fix my problem after I had sent him graphic data documenting all of my outages. Through his persistence the local maintenance crew finally took notice and started checking the cable system. They found my node was really bad and they had to rebuild it. After that all my internet and horrible TV picture quality issues went away. It's just a shame that it takes so long to find someone who actually knows something and cares about the customer.

Nick tried to help me when he was working for them but he was told to butt out because it was not in their area of responsibility.

Jeannie
 
Missa said:
Where I live, I can't get a single channel with an Antenna. :(
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Neither can I.

There is some cable in the ground here which was installed years ago. When I first moved out here I had service, if you can call it that, for about 10 years. The provider changed at least 3 or 4 times in the 10 years, the signal was unreliable, and when it was working, there were only about 20 channels to choose from. Finally no one wanted to buy the service, especially not the big companies, because the cable itself was too crappy to meet their standards, so they folded up the tent and left. I was forced to get satellite because even though I don't watch too much TV I like having it available. To me it is indistinguishable from other people's cable systems although very heavy rain or snow can screw it up. That doesn't happen too often, though. I can't get cable internet, obviously, but I use DSL for that, which is another long story. I could understand if I lived way out in the sticks or something, no, wait, I do...
 
Everskyward said:
Neither can I.

I was forced to get satellite because even though I don't watch too much TV I like having it available. .... I could understand if I lived way out in the sticks or something, no, wait, I do...
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About 10 years ago, I did a consulting assignment for a company that owned a number of cable systems in the rural west. Some bigger places, the size of Twin Falls, and some smaller places - towns of 1,000-2,500 people or less.

Unfortunately, my conclusion was rather succinct: for the capital investment that had to be made in those towns, they could never recover the capital costs over a reasonable period of time. As opposed to upgrading the systems, they would be better off urging folks to get satellite systems (heck, at the capital cost, it might even have been cheaper to buy each house a satellite receiver as opposed to rebuilding the entire plant).

In the end, they pulled the plug on those systems. Just not profitable.
 
wsuffa said:
About 10 years ago, I did a consulting assignment for a company that owned a number of cable systems in the rural west.
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So it's your fault! :D

My mailing address is a town of about 1,000 people although I live in an unincorporated area of the county. However, it is within 20 miles of metropolitan Denver. I can understand how cable would not be profitable here because the land because the housing consists of large-lot subdivisions (2 to 35+ acres). That would be a lot of cable for not very many customers.

I am actually much more satisfied with the the satellite than I ever was with the cable even though it costs $10-$15 more per month.
 
Well, Charter just keeps on going when it comes to ticking off customers. It was bad enough when they force advertising on you when accessing email from the web page. Next month, they will force you to go from another page where you will be forced to see more advertising when you log in.

That kind of crap is NOT what pushes me to use certain companies. I'm already paying for web access to email.

MailAd.jpg
 
Maverick said:
Nick tried to help me when he was working for them but he was told to butt out because it was not in their area of responsibility.

Jeannie
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You have no idea how frustrating that was for me, too, Jeannie. I could see in the system (the system I was not supposed to have access to) that you had numerous technicians come to your house, each one saying it was a line-issue of some sort, and then no follow up by the plant department. I worked with my supervisor to see if we could actually get in touch with the plant department, and the Minnesota Comcast Department said that they were perfectly capable of handling the issue without unwanted assistance from call center folks in Albuquerque. When I explained that a simple audit of the account would show that we were not only wasting your time, but wasting our internal resources and time by sending techs over and over and never actually solving the problem, I was told that I was out of line and that I should have not even accessed the account in the first place.

It was like a threat. I had forgotten about this story, but I was under an NDA that didn't let me give specific details to ya, Jeannie. I'm no longer employed by Comcast, so I can tell you now, that was the most frustrating issue I'd even handled at Comcast, because I knew we could fix it, I just couldn't get anyone in Minnesota to do what needed to be done.

In the end, I'm super exstatic that you finally found someone willing to do their job up there, and I was ashamed to work for a company that treated you the way they did.
 
SkyHog said:
In the end, I'm super exstatic that you finally found someone willing to do their job up there, and I was ashamed to work for a company that treated you the way they did.
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It was actually a bit funny the way ti worked out. I had ordered service from Wide Open West and has it installed and I was just about to tell Comcast to go blank themselves when I got in touch with this really nice tech CSR from the Ann Arbor call center. He was determined to solve the problem because i told him that they were loosing other customers too. My neighbor got rid of Comcast because his digital cable was always going out.

I had been using a little that pinged my corporate firewall ever 15 seconds and graphed the response times and it showed huge gaps in my service. I had this information going back over a six month period and I sent that to him in it's graphic form. When he saw that I think he said something like holy excrement or some such thing. It still took him another three months to get the local service crew to pay attention but I finally got a call from one of the high level managers saying they were on it. Shortly after that everything started working properly and my signal levels on my model looked great, +8dbmv downstream and 44 dbmv upstream. prior to that the lowest I ever saw my upstream was 62dbmv. Of course when it went higher than that I had no service.

They were also kind enough to give me a monthly credit of something like $12 per month for one year to help compensate me for my trouble and loss of service.

I want you to know how much I really and truly appreciated your attempt to get me some help. I know exactly how frustrating it is when you know you are right but you are being told to butt out. It's happened to me several times when I worked for a certain defense contractor who will remain nameless.

Jeannie
 
Mona Shaw had heard and seen enough from Comcast, her local cable television provider.

After repeated attempts to change her phone service from Verizon to Comcast's Triple Play during a week in August, the 75-year-old Bristow resident with a heart condition took out her frustrations at the Manassas payment center on Center Street.

Shaw was arrested for disorderly conduct after she took a hammer to several items in the office - all the while saying, "Have I got your attention now?"

...

According to statistical data from 2006 provided by Comcast to the city, the cable company resolved two-thirds of the 570 calls referred to the maintenance department in five days or less, a number that jumped to 75 percent during non-winter months.

Comcast resolved 90 percent of all other service calls in five days or less during that 12-month period. But counting the winter months, that still left more than 500 people out of 4,270 waiting for a resolution after five days.

...

http://www.insidenova.com/servlet/S...PN_åasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173353015622
Click to expand...

Well, OK, then. Note that the lady's complaint is with the "Triple Play" which includes phone service. Realistically how many people could possibly need phone service so bad they can't be without it for five days?

Gotta be a tough decision when you have to choose between Verizon and Comcast.
 
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I am about to drop kick COMCAST in favor of Uverse. I was not impressed by COMCAST in COLO, and when they took over the local TIME WARNER service here, I was still unimpressed. I have made no less than 15 calls (resulting in 4 service visits) to Comcast to fix or replace my cable box, as it has several channels which have no audio at all, or have the wrong audio for the program, or give me audio in Spanish! Each time I am told its a technical issue at another location, and they will go there to fix it. I never see the technician again...

As I really have no need of a landline for phone, I can get faster internet(fiberoptic) from UVERSE, along with my TV service for about $20 a month more than I am currently paying for basic phone and DSL. As I cut off COMCAST ($65p/mth), I will realized better service, faster connections, and a net savings of about $45 a month)

KA- CHING!!!!!
 
Re: Those of you who were ever frustrated with Comcast....

i predict: Guilty as charged, sentence 5 years of Comcast
 
Re: Those of you who were ever frustrated with Comcast....

You be the judge: When Mona Shaw comes to court for a hearing in December, would you find her guilty, and if so, what punishment would you mete out?
Click to expand...
Guilty: $1 fine plus court costs
 
Re: Those of you who were ever frustrated with Comcast....

tonycondon said:
i predict: Guilty as charged, sentence 5 years of Comcast
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That would be less time than some Comcast customers have been sentenced to "You must be home between 8 AM and 7 PM. No. We cannot tell you when the technician will show up but we will watch the house and tell you we were there at the time you dared to leave so you have to pay $79 for the missed appointment."
 
Re: Those of you who were ever frustrated with Comcast....

mikea said:
That would be less time than some Comcast customers have been sentenced to "You must be home between 8 AM and 7 PM. No. We cannot tell you when the technician will show up but we will watch the house and tell you we were there at the time you dared to leave so you have to pay $79 for the missed appointment."
Click to expand...

Sounds like Verizon....

Shoulda titled this thread "If momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy..."
 
I went through a six month ordeal with Charterless Customer No-Service because a contractor tech did a shortcut and added a 10" extension on the pigtail coming out of the ground rather than make a new drop. It's amazing what a pain a bad connector install can cause. I lost internet service from 20 seconds to as long as 20 minutes numerous times a day. Eventually, I realized I was also losing HDTV service at the same time and non-HD channels were going fuzzy.

The techs come out only to find strong signals. I eventually discovered it myself. NOT the techs. Just me, the dumb-ass customer. They finally installed a new drop. Then, I had a promise of a substantial credit for my troubles.

My credit was one month of internet service ($49.95) and one month of HDTV service ($6.99). Yeah, I was impressed. As it turns out, all the phone calls I made to customer service do not count. We're talking somewhere around 150 calls over a six month period when you count the drops by their system; sometimes four drops during one call attempt.

Also, the time I took the HDTV cable box in personally to swap out... that did not count as a customer service call. It seems, by their policy, ONLY a PHYSICAL visit by service techs count as a service call as proof there are problems.

I told them their nonsense just guaranteed a significant addition to their workload as I'll spread the word. The employee techs seem to be pretty decent as are most of the contractor techs. I started with a bad contractor tech and ended up with a bunch of idiots on the phone, starting with the company's general counsel's office in St. Louis.

Bottom line: They don't care. They really don't care if a customer is unhappy. Damn, we need more competition!
 
Okay, so now I have a gripe about ComCrap too - or at least my gf does. They took over the Time-Warner service in Houston, which, while not perfect, was certainly better than what we're getting with ComCrap. They came in promising lower rates, then just raised them by 6%. That's not the main gripe though...

So, with this change, the internet customers need to change their email address from a houston.rr.com address to a comcast.com address. Well, when my better half set up her account initially, she added an email address that was more similar to the one that she's used to from other services, and hasn't used the primary address on her account in the 3 or 4 years that she had Time-Warner. Thus, she has no record or recollection of the password to that main account, which she needs to log in to in order to make the change to a comcast.com email address. Typically, this wouldn't be a problem, since you can just go online or call and request the password after verifying that you are the main account holder. Well, about 2 months ago, her internet connection went out and after several calls, they finally sent out a tech - after 7 days without internet. He tested the connection and everything was strong, and that it was her cable modem. He didn't have another one with him that day, so he told her that she needed to go to the store and buy a new one and they would credit her back for it. This was something that she had asked over the phone if she should do, and she could have done this earlier in the week, but she was told that it was probably a connection issue and she needed to wait for the tech. Anyway, she bought the new modem and we installed it and her internet works great. The problem is that the person at the store didn't note on her account properly that she got the new modem, so now the tech support people won't give her the password since the ID on the modem she's using doesn't match what her account says she should have.

So now the email change deadline is approaching and she has spent a couple of hours on the phone with ComCast being pushed from person to person and sitting on hold (and burning cell phone minutes doing it, since she doesn't have a home phone) with no resolution. At this point she's wishing there was another choice in cable and cable internet provider in this area, because if there was, she would probably switch.

I don't suppose anyone has had a similar experience and knows of a way to resolve it in a more timely fashion?
 
KennyFlys said:
I went through a six month ordeal with Charterless Customer No-Service...

As it turns out, all the phone calls I made to customer service do not count. We're talking somewhere around 150 calls over a six month period when you count the drops by their system; sometimes four drops during one call attempt.

Also, the time I took the HDTV cable box in personally to swap out... that did not count as a customer service call. It seems, by their policy, ONLY a PHYSICAL visit by service techs count as a service call as proof there are problems.
...
Click to expand...

You need to be careful. Sprint dropped customers who called too often...because Sprint was incapable of fixing whatever problem the customer had.
 
mikea said:
You need to be careful. Sprint dropped customers who called too often...because Sprint was incapable of fixing whatever problem the customer had.
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As long I don't get hit with a fee, let them drop me! :D

I'll then send a hammer and what's left of the phone to their CEO.
 
KennyFlys said:
As long I don't get hit with a fee, let them drop me! :D

I'll then send a hammer and what's left of the phone to their CEO.
Click to expand...

The point is every employee along the way has the main goal of getting rid of you because you have the nerve to have a problem they can't fix from a keyboard or something equally easily. If you don't have the good grace to just live with it once enough employees have gone through the motions they will take the final solution and dump you entirely as a customer.
 
mikea said:
The point is every employee along the way has the main goal of getting rid of you because you have the nerve to have a problem they can't fix from a keyboard or something equally easily. If you don't have the good grace to just live with it once enough employees have gone through the motions they will take the final solution and dump you entirely as a customer.
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So, I should call everyday and pretend to be a parasite in their nether region! :rofl:
 
Yeah, baby, yeah. The thread that keeps on giving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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