# \*sigh\* You suck, Comcast. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 28, 2005, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-you-suck-comcast/301567 "2005-04-28T16:55:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2005, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-you-suck-comcast/301567/21 "2005-05-02T10:28:30Z")
> [@Agent Foxtrot](#): > > You guys are getting away with very cheap cable service. > > I pay almost $100 a month for **basic** cable television (no HBO) and cable Internet access. There’s no competition here in Baltimore, so they can charge whatever the fuck they want. :mad: > > Adam We get their basic, basic service, which is just our local channels and a few others such as WGN, TBS, Discovery, some weird religious channel (I think Catholic, because I’ve seen quite a few nuns running about), C-Spans 1 & 2, and a home shopping network. Oh, and CMT. We don’t watch much television, so that works well for us. That’s about $15 a month; in addition to the internet, it’s a whopping $60–pretty much what we paid with Time Warner before we moved for a similar package. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2005, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-you-suck-comcast/301567/22 "2005-05-02T11:20:29Z")
> [@GaWd](#): > > Actually, it’s not as simple as that. They’re making many server-side and switch-side changes and DNS changes that have had our connections going up and down and being without reliable DNS contact for up to or more than an hour at a time. I had gotten an email from them informing me they had completed their end of the updates and all I had to do was unplug and replug. The only problem I’ve had since then was a couple of odd hours where the connection was extremely slow. Last summer I had a serious connection problem. The tech came out and found some wacky wiring on the pole. He fixed all that and I’ve only had about a day’s worth of outages since then. ---
**Author:** ![Who\_me\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/958977/32.png) [@Who\_me\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Who_me_1)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2005, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-you-suck-comcast/301567/23 "2005-05-02T13:20:16Z")
> [@larsenmtl](#): > > I’m in Baltimore too. $110 for internet and digital cable with HBO. My wife won’t give up the digital and HBO, I won’t give up my cable modem. We are screwed. > > I get semi-frequent short outages but I’m generally happy with everything but the price. I’m in Baltimore (county), and I just have Comcast for internet. Comcast has called me every couple of months to offer me free cable TV for 6 months to a year if I would just say yes. So far, I just confuse the hell out them by saying no. I’ve had little trouble from Comcast. Occasional outages that last anywhere from 10 minutes to 10 hours. Most of that isn’t Comcast’s fault, as the company putting in privacy fences in my neighborhood keep cutting Comcast’s lines… ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2005, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-you-suck-comcast/301567/24 "2005-05-02T16:23:36Z")
> [@Agent Foxtrot](#): > > You guys are getting away with very cheap cable service. > > I pay almost $100 a month for **basic** cable television (no HBO) and cable Internet access. There’s no competition here in Baltimore, so they can charge whatever the fuck they want. :mad: > > Adam Yes, but I pay another ~35/month for my DSL through Qwest so it sounds like about the same price. I’m in Denver BTW. ---
**Author:** ![Runestar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/74df32/32.png) [@Runestar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runestar)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2005, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-you-suck-comcast/301567/25 "2005-05-02T16:55:12Z")
We have Comcast for both digital cable and cable modem. We did have some connection problems with the cable modem a couple of weeks ago. Unplugging the modem, waiting a couple of minutes, and plugging it back in usually fixed the problem. Everything’s been fine the last couple of weeks though… About a year ago I called to complain about the picture quality on our cable TV. The technician came out, measured the signal strength, and agreed that it was pretty weak. She checked the signal at various places along the line, and discovered that the cable box on the telephone pole was full of water… :smack: They replaced the box with one that was presumably a little more weatherproof, and the signal’s been fine since then. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2005, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-you-suck-comcast/301567/26 "2005-05-02T18:02:14Z")
I just had to write to Comcast today. Not regarding their service, but my primary e-mail account. I have given it to less than 8 people in the world. Now, 99.9% of the mail that comes in is spam. I have to go to their webmail interface to see what mail I have, so I can check it and report it as spam. Well, since I started doing that, guess what, there’s even more spam! So I wrote to ask why the mail I report as spam is not blocked, or the domains it comes from are not blocked, etc. One of the criteria you have to fill in before you can send your question to them is what browser you use, on what OS. I got a polite, lengthy response from them. Almost the entire bulk of their response consisted of the detailed instructions to use spam-blocking features in Outlook; how to get Comcast’s mail filter program and set it up; how to integrate it with Outlook. On Windows 95, 98 and XP. I use Netscape on Windows 2000, which is what I filled out on the submission form. So, you ask them a question, you get answers to different questions, answers to questions you didn’t ask and answers to questions that are totally irrelevant to your situation. But an answer to your question or a solution to your problem? _Forget it!_ ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2005, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-you-suck-comcast/301567/27 "2005-05-02T18:22:28Z")
> [@Who\_me?](#): > > I’m in Baltimore (county), and I just have Comcast for internet. Comcast has called me every couple of months to offer me free cable TV for 6 months to a year if I would just say yes. So far, I just confuse the hell out them by saying no. Odds are, that’s because you’re probably already getting basic cable from them. I’ve been told that if you’re getting internet through the cable, there will also be a TV signal running through it - they can’t hook up the one without the other. I don’t know if it’s true or not. In the nearly two years I’ve had their internet without the TV, I haven’t cared enough to plug in the TV and fine out. They’ve only called me once or twice, but I also take a perverse pleasure in telling them no. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2005, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-you-suck-comcast/301567/28 "2005-05-02T21:40:00Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky responding to Gawd](#): > > They bumped it up a little last month. All you have to do is unplug the modem for two minutes and plug it back in an voila! This may, or may not, be true for subscribers other than yourself. Comcast has hundreds of regional office locations scattered all over the U.S. (called central offices or headends) which each upload signal to the CATV network independent of any other headend. Each of these networks is discrete and has no connection to another headend. Unless you’re in the same franchise as Gawd, your experience with Comcast is almost certainly going to be different from his. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2005, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-you-suck-comcast/301567/29 "2005-05-02T21:55:25Z")
> [@UncleBeer](#): > > Unless you’re in the same franchise as Gawd, your experience with Comcast is almost certainly going to be different from his. True enough. The email mentioned this in so many words. They claimed to be doing this in all their markets over the next how-ever-many-units-of-time they mentioned. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-you-suck-comcast/301567.md?page=1)