Fuck you, Comcast

The BBQ Pit
1

I go to the Comcast office Monday to get srevice switched to my new apartment, and as luck would have it, you say that Tuesday is available for a tech to come out and install it. Great! Between 1 and 3 PM…well, I guess only a two hour window is ok. He gets there (at about 2:45, of course,) goes outside to check the lines, comes back in and says I’ll all ready to go. I’m dubioius because in the past they’ve always hooked something up to the line inside, but whatever, he’s the tech, not me. I get my “self-install kit” (a useless CD full of bloatware, a cable splitter, and a thity foot coax cable…I would have preferred a thirty foot CAT5 cable and kept the modem close to the cable outlet, but whatever.)

I hook everything up and…nothing. The little link labled “internet” just blinks rapidly. From previous experience I know this means it isn’t getting service. I call the 800 number, and the tech does the usual “is everything plugged in correctly” routine, and blah blah blah he determines I don’t have service. When I tell him the tech never checked the line inside the house for service he was surprised and said he should have. Great. Thanks a lot, worthless tech. Just because I’m the last place of the day you go to doesn’t mean you can just do a half-assed job. I even went outside myself to look at where the line enters the house and it looks like it’s cut! The line coes out of the house to a bracket that holds it on the wall and connects it to the cable coming from the utility pole. But the other end of the connector has no cable attached, but there is a cable coming from the pole and attached to the side of the house and hanging there, flapping in the wind. Seriously? The line outside was ok? Fuck you, you lying technician! You clearly didn’t even look at it. I don’t know how you thought you could get away with not actually installing my service.

I schedule another tech to come by, and as luck would have it, there was a spot today between 3 and 5 PM (it was a miracle that not only did I get two dates that weren’t two weeks from now, but during hours I didn’t have to work either.) Well, 5 PM came and went and…nothing. I called the 800 number again, got nowhere because they can’t find the request from yesterday for the tech to come today. I hang up because the guy on the other line was SOOO SLOOOOOWWW (seriously, it took 16 minutes for the phone call, and all the he did was see that no, there wasn’t a service date for today, and then to transfer me to another department to set up another…it took the guy from yesterday four minutes to do that and MORE.)

I went down to the local Comcast office (the one good thing I can say about them is they are actually open until 6 PM!) and tell them my story. They also can’t find the record of a service date for today (even after I gave them the confirmation number I was given.) Great. Fan-fucknig-tastic. I could have gotten a date for tomorrow but I’m leaving for a long weekend trip to SC and won’t be back until Monday night, which is why I wanted the fucking internet working BEFORE then. So now I have to wait until Tuesday between “8 and 11 AM” for another tech to come by.

Oh, but my account will be credited for the time I don’t have service…but only if I re-call the 800 number and go to the billing department…the lady at the office coldn’t do that through her computer for some reason. :confused: I think when I call I’ll try to have the installation fee taken off too, I mean…he didn’t actually install anything, so why should I have to pay for it?

(Oh, and before anyone asks, I’m posting from the computer lab ay my old college, because for some reason my ID and password still work…)

2

Even if you could switch to Time Warner things would be just as bad.

I had to explain to eight different people last time I got my service hooked up that I hadn’t “failed to return” my previous cable modem, because they had come and picked it up.

Then the tech couldn’t get me a connection in the living room. We tried it in the bedroom, and it worked fine. No explanation, not even a hint that they might try to, you know, fix it.

3

I’m with ya, bouv. I was on Insight, which was gobbled up by Comcast. So, we went through their little “change your email over to us, it’s so easy” dance. They said all my mail from the old address would be forwarded to the new address. They did that part. They also said all my existing inbox and sub-inbox files would be transferred in a day or two. No such luck. They wanted me to run my email through their own system on the Comcast page. That was a PITA for several reasons, including having to use a password every time.

We wrestled with my old Outlook Express to get it to grab all incoming email for both addresses. That was fine until I tried to send out some change of address mail. It won’t go. I called Insight/Comcast, and after pressing English, home, internet problem on the menu, I got a prerecorded message, “If you are calling about the red light on the message spot on your cable box, yada, yada, yada…” (Comcast has been sending me daily messages to offer the latest WWE pseudo-wrestling pay per view.) When I finally got to internet service, it rang twice, then I got a phone company voice, “You must dial “1” before dialing this number.”

That was two days ago, and they’re still covered up. Meanwhile, I can do everything except send out email. I know it does no good to growl at my computer and my phone, but I get a headache every time I go through that stupid phone dance.

4

I feel for you.

Verizon is alas just as bad.

We had phone and DSL service with them. Last week both were down for five days. Verizon shrugged and muttered at me when I tried to find out WTF was going on.

I switched to Comcast for internet service (I find it faster than DSL) and am currently contemplating other options for landline service. I can’t switch out the landline because I need it as backup in case Comcast goes down again.

We had Comcast several years ago. I switched to Verizon for DSL because Comcast went down for over a day several times. I was told DSL would be as reliable as phone service.

Little did I know that phone service from Verizon is not reliable. Not even Ma Bell in the days her monopoly ever left me without phone service that long.

5

Cumcast actually redeemed themselves with me this week(though they are still in the fucking hole). I’ve been having slow cable internet speeds since I moved into the new apartment and last week it died twice in 2 days. Tech support went through the same bullshit, “disconnect your modem for me and wait 30 seconds”. No, I’ve done that like 30 fucking times. “It must be a bad modem.” I replace the modem, still shit. Call Cumcast, they schedule a tech to come by. Now the day the tech comes by, I have internet service, but I want him to look at the lines and shit anyway since he’s there. He does some investigating and discovers the cable line is split and all fucked up. He runs up a new cable line, does some tweaking and BAM! I’ve got wicked internet! Downloading the OpenOffice setup torrent (perfectly legal) used to peak at about 200kB/s. After this, I was over 800kB/s!! WOOT!!
I’m still calling them Cumcast though.

6

bouv, stories like yours almost, almost make me miss being a cable tech. It’s the easiest fucking job I’ve ever had, and I made 12k more a year than I do as a teacher.

Seriously, your problem would probably take an hour to fix. That’s it. It’s wire and connectors. There’s no magic involved in cable; as long as one can perform basic arithmetic, one can be an efficient tech.

I used to make people so happy by fixing their stuff. I miss that sometimes. I hate that I read so many bad things about the cable industry, because it’s just way too easy to do right.

I was a contractor for CC for a while, though, and they do blow to work with. Your experience as a customer is actually better than that of the average contracted tech. All those stories about techs getting fired for falling asleep on the job? It’s always because he or she was on hold with the fucking call center for nearly an hour!

The only issue I have with your rant is with the complaint about the two hour time window. That’s pretty much industry standard, and it’s sometimes tough to even make that window. Remember, the tech probably has 8-15 houses to go to. Plus, he needs to eat at some point, and fill the van with gas. If something goes wrong at one house, it throws the whole day off. Other than that, I agree about the shitty service you got whole heartedly.

7

I am convinced that I’m the only person in the history of the universe who ever had a good experience with Comcast. The installer came when he said he’d come, he hooked everything up right, and even found a fault in my existing wiring that had the potential to leave me with slow Internet speeds. He replaced a splitter and swapped a length of RG-59 with RG-6. He seemed so friendly and knowledgeable that I actually called up Comcast after he left to compliment him.

A few months later, I spilled beer on my modem and friend it. They replaced it for free.

I haven’t had a single outage since I got service about ten months ago, and I use them for Internet, TV, and phone.

So if you’re ever wondering who that single lucky customer is who actually has good experiences with Comcast, it’s me. I’m that guy. :slight_smile:

8

Why do you have to do that? If it’s a problem with the outside line, why do you have to be there when they fix it?

9

Nope, I’m quite happy with Comcast too. Well, other than the price. I’ve had my TV, phones & Internet with them for 8 years now. My download speeds are blazing fast, and I’ve had maybe 2 or 3 outages the whole time. Those outages only lasted a few hours.

10

I had a notice on my door when I came home that said Comcast discovered a leaky signal, blah blah, not FCC compliant, Blah blah blah. One tech came and said it was because of the surge protector I plugged my coax into (Monster Power strip, got it cheap with my TV). He disconnected that, changed some wires, and called it good. Next couple days, my service was horrible, so two other techs came out, and discovered the squirrels* that lived in the roof were chewing through the cable. They replaced the entire line from the outside box to my outlet, and everything was peachy after that. All at no expense to me, as it should be.

  • Damn things also chewed through my screen door, raided a bag of pretzels nearby, and pooped on my desk on the way out. Don’t tell the animal rights activists what I did to those little fuckers! :mad:
11

I hate comcast nearly more than any other company I deal with. I am still thinking about giving one of the dish networks a try.

12

Wow, I never realized Comcast had such long tentacles! All the way up to Vermont, huh?

In Indiana where I live, we have Comcast as well. Everything I have is through them, Cable/HD TV, long distance, internet. My bill is kind of steep, but everything seems to work OK.

My biggest beef with Comcast is that I can never seem to get through on their customer service line.

In fact, they had double-billed me for an On Demand movie that my family and I had to order twice because the first attempt resulted in a herky-jerky, unviewable broadcast, so when I tried to call them (repeatedly), I would be on hold after negotiating their automated system, only to have the computer voice come on and say “Sorry, we cannot connect you right now. Goodbye.” and then hang up on me!

13

Don’t it’s not worth it. I just moved to an area with out a major provider so I got DirecTV instead so shitty local cable. It was a huge mistake. It took me 3 weeks after my first appointment to get the dish installed and I’m still sure its not right.

The first guy showed up with two dishes I told him that I only need one and I only was allowed one in my association rules. Well he was upset because it meant less money, he told me this, and was on the phone with the home office for 30 min to change the work order well then he discovered that the house came with an exterior line leading to a smart box which then sent signal all over the house. Well apparently this set up wont work with DirecTV and he couldn’t install anything.

About three weeks later I finally got another Tech over to the house it took him 4 hrs to install the dish on the roof and then he routed around my smart box so I can’t move my receiver to another room. I’m sure there is a better way.

During this I had problems getting my DSL. I ordered DSL with Quest the same Day I ordered with DirecTV. I got a tech to come out the next day and I didn’t need to be there :eek: I was amazed. I came home from work and my modem was sitting on the doorstep. I went in and hooked it up and nothing happened. I called quest and they told me that my installation had been put on hold indefinitely for an unknown reason. I came home the next day to find a 10’ long trench 2’ deep going through my side yard to my telephone box. I called Quest and they still had no information so I called up my builder. It turned out that he had wired the house wrong externally and had to fix it but once it was done he would call Quest and they could finish the installation. A week went by, the trench was gone and I still had no DSL so I called the builder back and he said the he had notified Quest. I called them and the phone operator told me that DSL was not offered in my area and I would need to pay to ship the modem back to them. I just hung up because I needed to scream and yelling at the operator does no good. I called back the next day and had a different operator check and DSL was available and a tech would be out in a week to finish the exterior installation.

So ya I was down almost a month waiting on people to get satellite and DSL installed switching won’t get rid of your headache.

14

Used to be Adelphia, but they got bought out. I had Time Warner when I lived in NY and never had any problems at all. Once it was set up it ran fine at both apartments I had. I know that both Comcast and TW were bidding on who got to take over the Adelphia service here, and the worst (IMO) company won. There’s also a small independent local cable company here, Burlington Telecom, but they are new and only have service to a few select areas (and just in Burlington, not in any other part of the state,) my apartment of course not bring one of them.

And I have to be there because someone has to sign the slip saying yes, the tech was there and so forth. Plus, since obviously something went wrong the first time, I’m guessing they want to be damn sure that I personally say “yes, it’s working now” before the second tech leaves.

15

You too?!
Two weeks ago the phone/DSL went out on a Thursday. It was out most of the day, but service would come back on for brief (1/2hr) stretches, then it would go out again for five hours. I called for service. The automated voice told me,“We can schedule your service between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday.”
Tuesday?!
Tuesday.
I requested a person. Who told me the same thing. I told her that wasn’t acceptable. She said she could put me in “the bucket” for a possible service for the following day, but if there wasn’t a time available, they wouldn’t be able to do anything until Tuesday. Fine, put me in the bucket.
The next morning the technician called during one of our brief non-outtages (innage?) to confirm that we had service and therefore everything must be fine so he doesn’t have to do anything, right? I told him it was sporradic. He mumbled something about having to be down our way anyway. The phone came back that afternoon and the automated service told me a problem with the lines had been fixed.

Now all of this wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t the third time we’ve had this happen in nine months. And each time we’re several days with no phone, and each time it’s a problem with Verizon’s lines, and each time it’s a 10hr service window. Except the first time no one came for the 10hr window. Or the 4hr one the next day. Or the 4hr one the day after that. (the third day they were two hours outside the window, but at least they came)

I’ve got Comcast cable. Our On Demand isn’t working. I’ve left that one for my husband to figure out, as I’m out of patience for customer service at this time.

16

Comcast is pretty bad, but all the other options in my area are worse. If I had a better one I’d switch in a nanosecond.

The worst part, for me, is the upsell drumbeat. The last time I had a tech in my house, he had to do some sort of tuning on the line; I don’t know what he did, but the modem could see there was a signal but couldn’t lock in on it for some reason. He brought up a hidden menu on the cable box and tweaked some settings.

Then he started in with all the products and services I could take advantage of. Line insurance, rewiring the house, new sockets, the list was endless.

Finally, I said, Look, I know your managerial stringpullers tell you to do this, but as far as I’m concerned we’re done. The signal is working, I have cable and internet, thank you and that’s it. Don’t ask me anything else. Tell them I said no. Goodbye. No, I mean it. No, I don’t want that either. Stop asking. Again, I know they force you to do this. Just tell them I said no to everything no matter how many times you asked. Whatever it takes. Goodbye!

17

I can top all these Comcast stories. Comcast currently owes me well over $150,000.

18

OK, I’ll bite. What’s the story behind that!? (That is, if your lawyers will allow you to tell us.)

19

He paid last month’s bill twice, probably.

20

Winner.