I have been a customer of Comcast for years. The level of incompetence never ceases to astound me. Last Thursday night I found I had no dial tone. I sent an email to Comcast and Friday morning had a reply. I followed all the instructions in the email with no success so used the link to the tech service chat. After running some tests he deterimined the problem was in the wiring in my house. He said he would have someone out on Monday, they would call on my cell phone 1 hour before arriving and could I please complete the four question survey that would appear at the end of the chat. I went without a phone all weekend. Waited all day on Monday. Finally chatted with tech service again Monday night and found out no one entered a ticket so there was no one scheduled to come out. He asked me to run all the checks again that I had previously done, then told me it would cost $49 since the issue was previously diagnosed as inside wiring. He scheduled somone to be out on Tuesday morning (today). This morning I get a call saying that the problem was in my phones and I needed to unplug them for 24 hours to reset them, and he cancelled the service call. So now I am without a phone until Wednesday, 6 whole days. Why couldn’t I have been told to try that on Friday? I would have had a phone by Saturday if that really is the issue.
On a previous call about a year ago, during the cold of winter, the tech was at my house and diagnosed the issue as the cable entering my house too close to the electrical wire. I had to have the electrical company come out and move the wire, even though the electrical wire was installed prior to the cable being installed. (So who fault was it that the two were too close together?). Two days after the electrical wire was moved, he said it was too close to a tree even though the wires were not touching the tree. He wouldn’t on the cable since the tree could become electrified and electorcute him. (Too bad it didn’t). He said once the wires were again moved he would come back out. The electrical company said it was fine. I finally cut the whole tree down. Called to tell Comcast the electrical wire issued was resolved. They told me the ticket had been resolved and closed a week prior. I screamed at them that I still had no phone after two weeks. They sent someone out that evening. The problem was a defective eMTA box. So I went without a phone for two weeks, and lost a tree. I’m still convinced the problem I am having today is the same thing as the symptoms are the same. I’m betting I still don’t have a phone tomorrow.
I have been a customer with Comcast since 1989!!! I currently have two households that I pay the bill for when it comes to Comcast services. One is mine—the other is my son’s (don’t ask). The account I’m getting ready to rant about is the one where my son lives. Since I only visit him at his house once a month, I have stayed out of his business with the quality of service Comcast has provided for him until recently—within the last year, to be exact. Although he had always complained about the picture quality of the television and the internet service, I told him to call them and complain or to quit whining about it! He said that he had called numerous times but was blown off. I figured that he was probably full of it, but after spending some time with Comcast on the phone myself, I am not too sure.
Although the internet service had been bad there for a least the last two years, I wasn’t there enough for it to bother me. About a year ago I bought a new laptop and I couldn’t connect to the wireless at the house. I spent some time messing around with Dell Customer service reps and then with Comcast. After receiving very little help from either of them, and after spending a couple of hours on the phone, I said “screw-it” and just decided that it was not worth the hassle. I started using the desktop at the house whenever I needed to get on the internet; it was a pain but less of a pain than calling Comcast again.
Then, a few months later I was visiting and I wanted to watch the 49er’s game, but the picture on the very expensive television was so grainy I quickly became furious. I called Comcast and asked for a tech to come out and fix it because I had been with them for twenty years and was spending over $500 a month between both service addresses—I felt I deserved it. Unfortunately I was not there when the tech showed up because I had traveled back to my own home, over 120 miles away. Instead, my son ends up dealing with the tech. The tech says something about a cable being bad, and replaces it with a new cable. The grainy picture gets less grainy, but is still grainy. The tech leaves and I come back to visit a couple of months later. The picture still sucks.
When I see the horrible picture I get mad at my son and mad at the tech/Comcast. I call Comcast and complain again. This time, however, I demand that a supervisor or senior tech come out and fix it. I am also beginning to wonder if anyone in their entire company has a brain in their head. Again, a tech shows up a few days later when I am not there; a few minutes after that a supervisor shows up. The supervisor says that everything looks fine, except for some wire—the same wire that was replaced by their own tech just months before. The supervisor then questions my son as to how the wire got there and insinuates that he had changed the wire and that it was his own fault. My son, who is really pissed and offended at this point, tells the supervisor that it was his tech that changed the wire and started to describe what he looked like. Then the supervisor says something along the lines of that gut doesn’t work for them anymore and alluded to the fact that he either didn’t know what he (the tech) was doing or that he was installing cheap cables of his own and selling the Comcast ones on the side! So, he acknowledges that it is their (Comcast) fault, replaces the cable with a new one, and the picture looks G-R-E-A-T! So please explain to me why it took so much time and energy to get these guys to provide me the service that I have been paying for! But that’s not all.
Just a month or two ago I am visiting again and really want to use my own laptop instead of the desktop. I call Comcast and after thirty minutes on the phone with them, they tell me that it’s not their problem and to call Dell. So I play that game again, and sure enough, Dell tells me to call Comcast. So, I call Comcast and ask for a supervisor who tells me that the equipment I bought from Comcast is old and is in their system as needing to be replaced. I tell them that the internet at the house has been screwed up for a long time and that I hope the new equipment fixes the problem. They then go on to tell me that if for some reason the equipment is not the problem I could be charged $50 for the service call. I told them fine!
A few days later—again when I am not there—a tech shows up. He tells my son that the entire internet system is hooked up all wrong. A signal amplifier in the garage should be in the house, something in the house should be in the garage….blah-blah-blah. After spending over an hour at the house rewiring, relocating equipment, and installing new equipment—-the internet works P-E-R-F-E-C-T-L-Y!!!! The next time that I am there, my laptop hooks up in two seconds and the connection is superb. Again, where has the $275 a month I have been paying for that household been going every month? Why did it take sooooo long to get the service I had been paying for all along? But wait, it gets even better.
A few days ago I get the monthly bill for my son’s address and guess what—there is a $50 charge on it for the tech coming out. I thought I was going to blow a gasket! I purposely waited a few days until I was calm enough to call and speak to them without screaming obscenities and swearing at them. I also called DIRECTV and got a quote to have the crappy Comcast service replaced. It would cost $750 initially to get everything set up, but then my monthly bill would only be $130 a month thereafter—meaning that within 5+ months I have fully recovered my initial investment and don’t have to deal with Comcast anymore!
So anyway, I get this Comcast rep on the phone today and tell him—without yelling or name calling or swearing—the entire thing I have just written on this blog. He is professional at first, but then says something which sends me high and to the right. He tells me that he will credit my account for the $50 “this time only” and that I may want to consider purchasing their extended service or protection plan so that something like this does not happen in the future—as if it was my fault!!! I swear I felt my blood pressure S-K-Y-R-O-C-K-E-T!!! I then told him that I wanted to speak to a supervisor. He apologizes and transfers me. The supervisor puts me on hold for a few minutes and then gets back on the line. He goes on to tell me that the tech only put some codes down on the service ticket and that nobody (at Comcast) spent the time to translate them! After the rep translated the codes he told me that Comcast was at fault, that I should not have to pay the $50, and that he would credit my account. I asked him why the first guy I talked to couldn’t have done that, why I had been on the phone for over twenty minutes, and then I told him how pissed off I was with Comcast. He half-sincerely said that he was sorry and that he understood, but there was nothing else he could do. I then asked to talk to his supervisor, but he told me that there was nobody above him and that basically I could go pound sand!!! Of course he did not say this, but he did not sound sincere or empathetic at all!
Comcast is a joke as far as I am concerned. I can only hope that the other providers out there are better, but I am not holding my breath. It would be really nice if someone could do something about this ongoing nightmare of mine. My account number is 8770 47 023 0617967.
I agree that it is unfair that comcast maintains what amounts to a monopoly on cable television service. If you dont have dish service then they are usually your only alternative. Especially now with even local programming going completely digital. I am so fed up with comcast. I am writing a formal letter to the corporate office and I plan on trying to influence as many people as possible to look for other alternatives to COMCAST service. Today is the last day of the month and I ordered service Nov. 19. I still have not been installed. I have called at least 25 times. Each time its more excuses and lies to get me off the phone and still no service. I was scheduled for an outside install today. I finally was just like I will hook my own cable boxes up just come turn the service on. GUESS WHAT??? THE TECHNICIAN NEVER SHOWED!!!! I AM SHOCKED!!! -not really. This will be about the fourth time that I was promised my service and no tech showed. My appt was cancelled without my knowledge and for no apparent reason other than that COMCAST can rarely honor their committments for service calls to PAYING CUSTOMERS. I was again not even given the courtesy of a phone call. I really want someone from corporate to look into this. I bet the notes on my account are a doozy AND I DONT EVEN HAVE SERVICE YET! I have had some bad experiences with comcast before but this one really takes the cake. I feel almost like that Hammer lady. I want to go to the nearest comcast building and make a big scene. Is that what has to be done to get some satisfaction????
I’m posting this anonymously and behind an anonymizing proxy for reasons which will be apparent below:
First, let’s run down my monthly bill:
Digital Cable (Digital Preferred with OnDemand): $74.95
DVR : $15.95
HBO Promotion (ending 2/10) : $12.00
Internet Service Blast! : $52.95
Comcast Modem Rental : $5.00
Taxes, etc. : $11.53
Total : $172.38/month
Earlier this year (February 2009):
Digital Cable (Digital Preferred with OnDemand): $48.95
DVR : $15.95
HBO Promotion (ending 2/10) : $12.00
Internet Service Blast! : $29.99
Comcast Modem Rental : $3.0
Taxes, etc. : $10.70
Total : $120.59/month
After being suckered into ditching DSL for Crapcast and taking them up on a promotion attached to the purchase of my new HD television, my rates have effectively increased by 30%. And, in the past couple of weeks, the quality of the digital signal has just gotten abysmal. Horrendous compression artifacts in the audio and video. Multi-second dropouts with no image or sound. With their new traffic prioritizing system being dropped into the Internet infrastructure, my bandwidth has gotten shittier and shittier. I don’t know if it’s because they’ve oversubscribed this area or it’s because they’re fucking with their networks working on this initiative:
“Comcast is going to change the way America looks at television. Sound exciting? Then be a part of our next big thing. Our customers want access to entertainment from every source and we’re going to bring it to them! Whether it’s their TV, PC, smartphone, or the next cool device, we’re building a next-generation platform that will serve them all and provide a seamless experience. It’s the converged world we’ve all been waiting for. And, we’re creating a start-up to make it happen. Remember start-ups? Small teams, high performance, agility, creativity, ideal culture, bad desk chairs? That’s us except for the bad chairs, because we’ll have the security of Comcast behind us.
We’re looking for people who put the ‘know’ in innovation, and bring out the ‘imagine’ in imagination. We’re looking for leaders, not followers. But be sure to leave your ego at the door, and bring your best ideas, open mind and communication skills. Because we’re building the perfect product development environment and hand-picking a product dream team. Because if you rock, you should be here.”
A friend of mine who interviewed for one of their software engineering positions (and ultimately turned it down once the obscene lack of talent and vision was readily apparent — their software engineers are mediocre at best and their managers absolutely retarded). After spending gazillions on that tacky fucking Comcast Tower down town and pissing away god only knows how much money on the Flyers, the greedy fucks at Concast have seen fit to waste millions of MORE dollars (a figured quoted by an anonymous source inside) on some dumb fucking R&D effort to fix the guide, create web services and SDKs for 3rd parties to plugin and offer yet more shit. For instance, their idea of a “killer” app is a new guide plugged into several metadata servers which will tie guide entries to things like actor bios and lists of other movies they’ve been in, info on products placed inside programming, etc. And supposedly upgrading their network infrastructure to enable this “Comcast Everywhere” horseshit. Comcast sucks enough. I don’t need them to be ubiquitous and haunt me everywhere I go every minute of the day.
One of their “secret sauces” is a new protocol between a dumb client (ala Cable Box) and backend servers with works like X11. The client is sent simple rendering commands and reports UI events back, but does no real work on its own. One of the problems I foresee is Comcast will basically put a noose around the “High Speed Internet” and prioritize any and all protocol exchanges for this specialized protocol. I reckon they’ll cheap out on hardware upgrades and squeeze out any non-Comcast bound traffic.
My friend found it hysterical that Comcast was going to try and do what amounts to an “Internet Startup” while anchored to the mother sloth. But, apparently the higher ups have already set aside a great deal of coin for this project. So expect your rates to get up even further and your service to get worse. And if you do have a competing cable franchise, you should pass along these details in an effort to start a cable arms race.
And, because they’re a de facto monopoly, there is no alternative. No FIOS here. Fuck you Comcast. Fuck you, fuck you, TRIPLE fuck you. The quality of your offerings is just bad. The constant upward adjustment of rates for even crappier service is worse.
Changing the way America looks at TV? Yeah. It’s called gouging their eyes out and pricing yourself out of the market entirely. The FCC needs to get tough and carve Comcast up into overlapping, separate entities. Or declare the infrastructure public domain and allow content providers to hook into it.
The Motorola DVR boxes are garbage. The hard drives last about six months. Their on-screen guide, etc. is shit software. I’ll give props to the techs, because they seem to know their shit. But the customer service people are clueless. And the Comcast Tower just stinks of greed and people terrified of making waves lest they be exiled from Egypt.
I havent written in a while folks, my apologies. Most nights much to beat to hell to even type, the horrible rush rush all sales no service experience you all get is about to be worse than ever. See what you folks think of as dumb tech is really overbooked schedules and understocked warehousing. As far as the folks posting about their whole street having the same issue thats usually a problem thats known about but the tickets to fix the bad equip or replace a hardline tends to dissapear once it reaches management for approval. Understock; the guy who posted abotu a box not being a DVR odds are the tech knew but nearing the end of a fiscal quarter stock orders go on hold we get what we get all to inflate what the revenue looks liek on paper for some managers bonus. Just the other week I went to get DVRs since I had only a couple on my truck and we only warehouse 1-2 times a week and was told I couldnt have any, I had to make that last.
As far as the rush rush, you all know the scenario. Techs no show, show late or make it in the knick but look like they are in a 100meter sprint. Thats all because we have a quota system. Remember the old days if you had a good size install and wanted other stuff done while we were there?? Long gone, 3-5 years ago. Every type of job has a certain amount of points they are worth, and a few years ago they increased the amount in a day, then again, again, again. Now the recent, they are decreasing the job points but we still have to make the same amount of total points. hmm, If we are already racing around like clowns on crack, speeding wrecklessly, not taking breaks or lunches, how on earth do you expect us to make the quotas? Seriously you just expect us to do 6 installs and 8 trouble calls in a day? All while doing your hocaspocas checklists; seriously if we did those checklists a-z each job would be 3-4 hours. You people dont remember just a couple years ago trying the 14+ workorder routes on a few people from different areas? Half of them ended up in the emergency room. From ulcers, to bloodpressue cracking 200 and passingout, to dehydration. Yeah and the idea you can regionalize the time schedule for a job is a joke. Lets see someone in a city in an apartment thats all prewired and utility room can do a triple install in 40 minutes, so someone out in the woods with 300′ drops through the trees and has to run 4 outlets and fight for signal on their crappy lowgrade pda’s from 1999 technology should be able to as well. Do any of you in the leadership teams take reality pills?
So in other words folks other than takign that crappy gaurantee; you know the one where you get 20 bucks if we are late, wich isnt knew we just hid it and made customers work for it, and making it known this company hasnt done SHIT to correct service. In fact they have made all the moves to decrease it. From consolidating service centers, doubling workorder volumes, still not having a viable way for csr’s, dispatch, and techops(field techs) to be able to work as a nice strong 3pointed triangle. In fact they have actually invested in ways to cut away from the main areas customers deal with so they can increase the backend, such as more teams to have even more stats and metrics to make everything be either our fault or the csr’s. I mean seriously, if a manager, regional, or corp exec says everyone use this model box outlooud or even put in email with his/her name and it doesnt work they are still rendered not responsible because the metrics would say “go back on tech” or “failed truckroll save” on csr or dispatch.
The only real results will come when you customers and us team up instead of fighting with eachother. You pay all our salaries and we keep that revenue stream running so if we bash these F’ers from both sides we can both win.
I have called comast–i have lost count how many times. Each time I want to sign up for service I get a different explaination and a different price. When I ask to speak to a supervisor, sometimes I get ome. I finally got one who offered me a servicer which I said I would think about–my mistake. I called her back 3+ times and she never returned my call. I talked with another supervisor a week later. She said that service was not available unless there was an override by a manager. She said she would e-mail her manager an the first sipervisor’s manager to follow through. Yeh, well I am still waiting. Perhaps I should go for another service. We are too far from Uverse service calbe systems.
I initially got comcast service in the 1st week of october and one of things that i had asked for was HDMI cable box.
Rep no.1 :
didnt bring the hdmi box and instead asked that I should go to ther service center to exchange it if i wanted an HDMI enabled box. He also connected the cable in the internet slot and vice versa.
I called the rep back immediately since the internet didnt work correctly, loosing connection every 10 minutes.
he said that he will be there after 5pm. he NEVER SHOWED UP.
Rep No. 2:
I contaced comcast and asked them get this fixed. the 1st agent said i will be chrged for this.on talking to a supervisor, they said that there was a ms understanding and then i was able to confirmed with them that this will not be a charge as it was part of installation.
they could only schedule a working day that week for the next guy to come out.
Rep No. 3:
Gets a box that is HDMI compatible and fixes the issue about the internet. but now the DVR doesnt work! he spends 2 hours trying to fix it by going to his truck to try different boxes (the truck is parked 20 minutes away). he says that his supervisor will fix the issue later in the day as he cant understand the issue.
Rep no 4:
he figures out instantly that the new box is not a DVR box at all!!!!!
he fixes that issue by giving me another box and now everything is great
But wait….
fews days later i get an email from comcast to pay my bill. i click the link to do that and i try to log in but the site keeps kicking me out saying ‘email not valid’!!!! the same email adress that i reveiced an email from comcast to pay my bill!
Rep No. 5:
i spend an hour online with an agent who cant figure out why i cant login. suddenly he realizes that the site is being repaired that day after wasting an hour of my time! now i ask to go to a supervisor and he suddenly has figured out how to log me in!
as soon as i log in i notice that i have been charged $16 for the servicing charges!!!!!!
also the modem fee is $5 and i was told $3.
now i really want to talk to a supervisor and the guy online basically REUSES to do that. He says i can call comcast for that. i protest that i dont want to wait for another hour to get to a supervisor, so he says i can directly get in touch with one via a special number…and he goes on and gives me the special number….1 – 800 – COMCAST!!!!
Rep no 7:
i call comcast and the initial agent says that the charge is a valid one, puts me on hold for ‘a few seconds’ which turn into 45 minutes.
Rep no 8:
meanwhile while sill on hold i call comcast from my work phone and reach a supervisor. this is patient and listens to all my issues. he offers me $100 credit and a charge reversal and think that to be a fair resolution and thats the end of the story.
But wait..
yesterday i log in to pay my bill for this month and i see only a $50 credit!
surely a small error. so i call comcast.
Rep no .9
they tell me that this all their notes show and they are sorry for the confusion. are you kidding me! confusion? i reach a supersivor who tells me that he cant do anything about it, and i quote ‘ i am not here to address your grievances, that that you can go to comcast.com or a service center’. this is so rude that it is unbelievable. so i try to reach another person. i get transferrred back to same guy! this thime he even refuses to tranfer me and says that if i want to speak to someone else i have to call 1-800 comcast again!
Rep no 10:
today i called comcast again. and the bst the supervisor was able to to offer me was that ‘ comcast is sorry for the missunderstanding,comcast will submit a request for the $50 and I MAY get it and they rude agent matter will be looked into’ on asking how this helps the customer, i was told that future customers will benefit.
now i have been given the number for corporate who i will me calling on Monday.
look for updates:)
I have had a HORRIBLE experience with COMCAST. All I wanted was my service installed and that is proving WAY to difficult for the COMCAST in the Atlanta area. I think I will just go to another provider. I originally called on Nov 19 to set up service in my new residence. I made the appointment and suppose b/c of my credit history that I required a COD. Ok fine. I wait tables and money is tight for luxuries such as cable but my son is eight and thinks he may just die without Cartoon Network. So I bust my hump that week to come up with the COD the day before my install. The day of my install I was worried. My past experiences with COMCAST made me dread waiting on a technician that might never show up. This was really important to my son however. My appt was from between 2 and 5. At about 1:30 I open my door to step outside and there is a tag on my door from Comcast saying I missed my scheduled appt!!!! What????? I had been home all day! He came early!!! I live in a gated community that has a intercom system to be let in. Why would anyone come directly to my door?!!! I called them back immediatly. Was assured the tech would come back. Blah blah blah. I wait and the tech never shows. I literally was in tears I was so angry. I have since the day after thanksgiving been trying to get a tech to come out to connect my service THAT PREPAID FOR and have had no success. I have talked to so many reps, cust care supervisors, escalations and dispatch to no avail.
Why cant I get the service I paid for in a timely manner? Why do I have to change my schedule to suit there 3 hr appt windows? What do the people who have jobs to go too before 5pm do??? Comcast service is AWFUL. I just wanted my service installed. If these are issues Im facing just getting service what will happen when I have a problem????
(Because it would take far too long to detail comcast’s list of atrocities, I will repost a statement I made to another complaint site. It pretty much tells it all in its’ horrible glory.)
In May 2009 I entered into contract to upgrade my services with Comcast. I was told I would receive cable, phone service, and the highest available speed internet service for the price of $114.99 all inclusive (taxes, modem, etc.). I confirmed the price & services with the Comcast representative at least SIX times to make SURE there was no misunderstanding. I agreed to the offer as offered to me by the Comcast representative.
I have since been overcharged TWICE: the first time was an “error” of approx. $30-35. (which was later resolved). My last bill was for $130.31, NOT the $114.99 I was REPEATEDLY promised. Calls to Comcast (Ann\Amy?) to resolve the matter were absolutely useless (she claimed the extra charges were for modem rental & taxes, NEITHER of which were stated as ‘extra charges’ by the original representative when I accepted. I had been told each time I asked that the 114.99 cost included EVERYTHING), and a promise of a call from the supervisor from that representative never came. I went to the local Comcast office on tuesday, where, not only was it not resolved, but I was informed I was not even getting the promised highest speed Internet EITHER.
On 9/14 I called the Comcast Escalation Department [1 (866) 279-5024) and spoke to David. I was essentially told, ‘I’m sorry, but these are our packages & prices & there’s nothing we can do”. He suggested I “misunderstood”; I find it difficult to accept that I “misunderstood” an offer I CONFIRMED 6 TIMES with their very own representative.
I am not being provided the agreed-upon contracted services, and am being overcharged even for the services I AM receiving. The ‘package’ as described to me since by Comcast’s subsequent representatives (‘Ann\Amy\David’) is one I would NEVER have agreed to or accepted had it been offered to me at the time. Comcast & it’s representatives are practicing price-gouging & fraud, and I do not see why I should have to pay a bill that A) is in excess to what I was told SIX TIMES & agreed to B) is not providing the promised offered & agreed-to contracted services.
All attempts to resolve this with Comcast have proven absolutely fruitless.
UPDATE: I received a call from Richard Spence,Executive Support\Research Specialist, West Palm Beach Region, Office of the Vice President (866) 279-5024 approximately 2 weeks ago. After explaining my complaint with the Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services against Comcast, he told me he would get back to me next week and they would try to work something out to my satisfaction. No offer was made, and today I received a letter from the DOA&CS claiming they had closed my case, following correspondence from Mr. Spence which consisted of false & misleading information on his part.
So now we can add ‘lying to a government agency’ to the list of charges.
(ADDENDUM: I have spoken to a co-worker, who has since cancelled all his Comcast services in disgust: he told me he was promised the same services as me for $79, all fees included (he was ALSO told this multiple times). He was subsequently charged $138\month, TWICE what he was repeatedly promised. As I said, he cancelled all his services. This is proof that Comcast is knowingly defrauding customers by luring people into purchasing services by providing false price\service information, then raising prices once they have them ‘on the hook’.)
December 1st, 2009 at 10:33 am
I have been a customer of Comcast for years. The level of incompetence never ceases to astound me. Last Thursday night I found I had no dial tone. I sent an email to Comcast and Friday morning had a reply. I followed all the instructions in the email with no success so used the link to the tech service chat. After running some tests he deterimined the problem was in the wiring in my house. He said he would have someone out on Monday, they would call on my cell phone 1 hour before arriving and could I please complete the four question survey that would appear at the end of the chat. I went without a phone all weekend. Waited all day on Monday. Finally chatted with tech service again Monday night and found out no one entered a ticket so there was no one scheduled to come out. He asked me to run all the checks again that I had previously done, then told me it would cost $49 since the issue was previously diagnosed as inside wiring. He scheduled somone to be out on Tuesday morning (today). This morning I get a call saying that the problem was in my phones and I needed to unplug them for 24 hours to reset them, and he cancelled the service call. So now I am without a phone until Wednesday, 6 whole days. Why couldn’t I have been told to try that on Friday? I would have had a phone by Saturday if that really is the issue.
On a previous call about a year ago, during the cold of winter, the tech was at my house and diagnosed the issue as the cable entering my house too close to the electrical wire. I had to have the electrical company come out and move the wire, even though the electrical wire was installed prior to the cable being installed. (So who fault was it that the two were too close together?). Two days after the electrical wire was moved, he said it was too close to a tree even though the wires were not touching the tree. He wouldn’t on the cable since the tree could become electrified and electorcute him. (Too bad it didn’t). He said once the wires were again moved he would come back out. The electrical company said it was fine. I finally cut the whole tree down. Called to tell Comcast the electrical wire issued was resolved. They told me the ticket had been resolved and closed a week prior. I screamed at them that I still had no phone after two weeks. They sent someone out that evening. The problem was a defective eMTA box. So I went without a phone for two weeks, and lost a tree. I’m still convinced the problem I am having today is the same thing as the symptoms are the same. I’m betting I still don’t have a phone tomorrow.
December 1st, 2009 at 9:23 am
I have been a customer with Comcast since 1989!!! I currently have two households that I pay the bill for when it comes to Comcast services. One is mine—the other is my son’s (don’t ask). The account I’m getting ready to rant about is the one where my son lives. Since I only visit him at his house once a month, I have stayed out of his business with the quality of service Comcast has provided for him until recently—within the last year, to be exact. Although he had always complained about the picture quality of the television and the internet service, I told him to call them and complain or to quit whining about it! He said that he had called numerous times but was blown off. I figured that he was probably full of it, but after spending some time with Comcast on the phone myself, I am not too sure.
Although the internet service had been bad there for a least the last two years, I wasn’t there enough for it to bother me. About a year ago I bought a new laptop and I couldn’t connect to the wireless at the house. I spent some time messing around with Dell Customer service reps and then with Comcast. After receiving very little help from either of them, and after spending a couple of hours on the phone, I said “screw-it” and just decided that it was not worth the hassle. I started using the desktop at the house whenever I needed to get on the internet; it was a pain but less of a pain than calling Comcast again.
Then, a few months later I was visiting and I wanted to watch the 49er’s game, but the picture on the very expensive television was so grainy I quickly became furious. I called Comcast and asked for a tech to come out and fix it because I had been with them for twenty years and was spending over $500 a month between both service addresses—I felt I deserved it. Unfortunately I was not there when the tech showed up because I had traveled back to my own home, over 120 miles away. Instead, my son ends up dealing with the tech. The tech says something about a cable being bad, and replaces it with a new cable. The grainy picture gets less grainy, but is still grainy. The tech leaves and I come back to visit a couple of months later. The picture still sucks.
When I see the horrible picture I get mad at my son and mad at the tech/Comcast. I call Comcast and complain again. This time, however, I demand that a supervisor or senior tech come out and fix it. I am also beginning to wonder if anyone in their entire company has a brain in their head. Again, a tech shows up a few days later when I am not there; a few minutes after that a supervisor shows up. The supervisor says that everything looks fine, except for some wire—the same wire that was replaced by their own tech just months before. The supervisor then questions my son as to how the wire got there and insinuates that he had changed the wire and that it was his own fault. My son, who is really pissed and offended at this point, tells the supervisor that it was his tech that changed the wire and started to describe what he looked like. Then the supervisor says something along the lines of that gut doesn’t work for them anymore and alluded to the fact that he either didn’t know what he (the tech) was doing or that he was installing cheap cables of his own and selling the Comcast ones on the side! So, he acknowledges that it is their (Comcast) fault, replaces the cable with a new one, and the picture looks G-R-E-A-T! So please explain to me why it took so much time and energy to get these guys to provide me the service that I have been paying for! But that’s not all.
Just a month or two ago I am visiting again and really want to use my own laptop instead of the desktop. I call Comcast and after thirty minutes on the phone with them, they tell me that it’s not their problem and to call Dell. So I play that game again, and sure enough, Dell tells me to call Comcast. So, I call Comcast and ask for a supervisor who tells me that the equipment I bought from Comcast is old and is in their system as needing to be replaced. I tell them that the internet at the house has been screwed up for a long time and that I hope the new equipment fixes the problem. They then go on to tell me that if for some reason the equipment is not the problem I could be charged $50 for the service call. I told them fine!
A few days later—again when I am not there—a tech shows up. He tells my son that the entire internet system is hooked up all wrong. A signal amplifier in the garage should be in the house, something in the house should be in the garage….blah-blah-blah. After spending over an hour at the house rewiring, relocating equipment, and installing new equipment—-the internet works P-E-R-F-E-C-T-L-Y!!!! The next time that I am there, my laptop hooks up in two seconds and the connection is superb. Again, where has the $275 a month I have been paying for that household been going every month? Why did it take sooooo long to get the service I had been paying for all along? But wait, it gets even better.
A few days ago I get the monthly bill for my son’s address and guess what—there is a $50 charge on it for the tech coming out. I thought I was going to blow a gasket! I purposely waited a few days until I was calm enough to call and speak to them without screaming obscenities and swearing at them. I also called DIRECTV and got a quote to have the crappy Comcast service replaced. It would cost $750 initially to get everything set up, but then my monthly bill would only be $130 a month thereafter—meaning that within 5+ months I have fully recovered my initial investment and don’t have to deal with Comcast anymore!
So anyway, I get this Comcast rep on the phone today and tell him—without yelling or name calling or swearing—the entire thing I have just written on this blog. He is professional at first, but then says something which sends me high and to the right. He tells me that he will credit my account for the $50 “this time only” and that I may want to consider purchasing their extended service or protection plan so that something like this does not happen in the future—as if it was my fault!!! I swear I felt my blood pressure S-K-Y-R-O-C-K-E-T!!! I then told him that I wanted to speak to a supervisor. He apologizes and transfers me. The supervisor puts me on hold for a few minutes and then gets back on the line. He goes on to tell me that the tech only put some codes down on the service ticket and that nobody (at Comcast) spent the time to translate them! After the rep translated the codes he told me that Comcast was at fault, that I should not have to pay the $50, and that he would credit my account. I asked him why the first guy I talked to couldn’t have done that, why I had been on the phone for over twenty minutes, and then I told him how pissed off I was with Comcast. He half-sincerely said that he was sorry and that he understood, but there was nothing else he could do. I then asked to talk to his supervisor, but he told me that there was nobody above him and that basically I could go pound sand!!! Of course he did not say this, but he did not sound sincere or empathetic at all!
Comcast is a joke as far as I am concerned. I can only hope that the other providers out there are better, but I am not holding my breath. It would be really nice if someone could do something about this ongoing nightmare of mine. My account number is 8770 47 023 0617967.
November 30th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
I agree that it is unfair that comcast maintains what amounts to a monopoly on cable television service. If you dont have dish service then they are usually your only alternative. Especially now with even local programming going completely digital. I am so fed up with comcast. I am writing a formal letter to the corporate office and I plan on trying to influence as many people as possible to look for other alternatives to COMCAST service. Today is the last day of the month and I ordered service Nov. 19. I still have not been installed. I have called at least 25 times. Each time its more excuses and lies to get me off the phone and still no service. I was scheduled for an outside install today. I finally was just like I will hook my own cable boxes up just come turn the service on. GUESS WHAT??? THE TECHNICIAN NEVER SHOWED!!!! I AM SHOCKED!!! -not really. This will be about the fourth time that I was promised my service and no tech showed. My appt was cancelled without my knowledge and for no apparent reason other than that COMCAST can rarely honor their committments for service calls to PAYING CUSTOMERS. I was again not even given the courtesy of a phone call. I really want someone from corporate to look into this. I bet the notes on my account are a doozy AND I DONT EVEN HAVE SERVICE YET! I have had some bad experiences with comcast before but this one really takes the cake. I feel almost like that Hammer lady. I want to go to the nearest comcast building and make a big scene. Is that what has to be done to get some satisfaction????
customer 8220122012275433
November 30th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
I’m posting this anonymously and behind an anonymizing proxy for reasons which will be apparent below:
First, let’s run down my monthly bill:
Digital Cable (Digital Preferred with OnDemand): $74.95
DVR : $15.95
HBO Promotion (ending 2/10) : $12.00
Internet Service Blast! : $52.95
Comcast Modem Rental : $5.00
Taxes, etc. : $11.53
Total : $172.38/month
Earlier this year (February 2009):
Digital Cable (Digital Preferred with OnDemand): $48.95
DVR : $15.95
HBO Promotion (ending 2/10) : $12.00
Internet Service Blast! : $29.99
Comcast Modem Rental : $3.0
Taxes, etc. : $10.70
Total : $120.59/month
After being suckered into ditching DSL for Crapcast and taking them up on a promotion attached to the purchase of my new HD television, my rates have effectively increased by 30%. And, in the past couple of weeks, the quality of the digital signal has just gotten abysmal. Horrendous compression artifacts in the audio and video. Multi-second dropouts with no image or sound. With their new traffic prioritizing system being dropped into the Internet infrastructure, my bandwidth has gotten shittier and shittier. I don’t know if it’s because they’ve oversubscribed this area or it’s because they’re fucking with their networks working on this initiative:
“Comcast is going to change the way America looks at television. Sound exciting? Then be a part of our next big thing. Our customers want access to entertainment from every source and we’re going to bring it to them! Whether it’s their TV, PC, smartphone, or the next cool device, we’re building a next-generation platform that will serve them all and provide a seamless experience. It’s the converged world we’ve all been waiting for. And, we’re creating a start-up to make it happen. Remember start-ups? Small teams, high performance, agility, creativity, ideal culture, bad desk chairs? That’s us except for the bad chairs, because we’ll have the security of Comcast behind us.
We’re looking for people who put the ‘know’ in innovation, and bring out the ‘imagine’ in imagination. We’re looking for leaders, not followers. But be sure to leave your ego at the door, and bring your best ideas, open mind and communication skills. Because we’re building the perfect product development environment and hand-picking a product dream team. Because if you rock, you should be here.”
A friend of mine who interviewed for one of their software engineering positions (and ultimately turned it down once the obscene lack of talent and vision was readily apparent — their software engineers are mediocre at best and their managers absolutely retarded). After spending gazillions on that tacky fucking Comcast Tower down town and pissing away god only knows how much money on the Flyers, the greedy fucks at Concast have seen fit to waste millions of MORE dollars (a figured quoted by an anonymous source inside) on some dumb fucking R&D effort to fix the guide, create web services and SDKs for 3rd parties to plugin and offer yet more shit. For instance, their idea of a “killer” app is a new guide plugged into several metadata servers which will tie guide entries to things like actor bios and lists of other movies they’ve been in, info on products placed inside programming, etc. And supposedly upgrading their network infrastructure to enable this “Comcast Everywhere” horseshit. Comcast sucks enough. I don’t need them to be ubiquitous and haunt me everywhere I go every minute of the day.
One of their “secret sauces” is a new protocol between a dumb client (ala Cable Box) and backend servers with works like X11. The client is sent simple rendering commands and reports UI events back, but does no real work on its own. One of the problems I foresee is Comcast will basically put a noose around the “High Speed Internet” and prioritize any and all protocol exchanges for this specialized protocol. I reckon they’ll cheap out on hardware upgrades and squeeze out any non-Comcast bound traffic.
My friend found it hysterical that Comcast was going to try and do what amounts to an “Internet Startup” while anchored to the mother sloth. But, apparently the higher ups have already set aside a great deal of coin for this project. So expect your rates to get up even further and your service to get worse. And if you do have a competing cable franchise, you should pass along these details in an effort to start a cable arms race.
And, because they’re a de facto monopoly, there is no alternative. No FIOS here. Fuck you Comcast. Fuck you, fuck you, TRIPLE fuck you. The quality of your offerings is just bad. The constant upward adjustment of rates for even crappier service is worse.
Changing the way America looks at TV? Yeah. It’s called gouging their eyes out and pricing yourself out of the market entirely. The FCC needs to get tough and carve Comcast up into overlapping, separate entities. Or declare the infrastructure public domain and allow content providers to hook into it.
The Motorola DVR boxes are garbage. The hard drives last about six months. Their on-screen guide, etc. is shit software. I’ll give props to the techs, because they seem to know their shit. But the customer service people are clueless. And the Comcast Tower just stinks of greed and people terrified of making waves lest they be exiled from Egypt.
November 30th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
I havent written in a while folks, my apologies. Most nights much to beat to hell to even type, the horrible rush rush all sales no service experience you all get is about to be worse than ever. See what you folks think of as dumb tech is really overbooked schedules and understocked warehousing. As far as the folks posting about their whole street having the same issue thats usually a problem thats known about but the tickets to fix the bad equip or replace a hardline tends to dissapear once it reaches management for approval. Understock; the guy who posted abotu a box not being a DVR odds are the tech knew but nearing the end of a fiscal quarter stock orders go on hold we get what we get all to inflate what the revenue looks liek on paper for some managers bonus. Just the other week I went to get DVRs since I had only a couple on my truck and we only warehouse 1-2 times a week and was told I couldnt have any, I had to make that last.
As far as the rush rush, you all know the scenario. Techs no show, show late or make it in the knick but look like they are in a 100meter sprint. Thats all because we have a quota system. Remember the old days if you had a good size install and wanted other stuff done while we were there?? Long gone, 3-5 years ago. Every type of job has a certain amount of points they are worth, and a few years ago they increased the amount in a day, then again, again, again. Now the recent, they are decreasing the job points but we still have to make the same amount of total points. hmm, If we are already racing around like clowns on crack, speeding wrecklessly, not taking breaks or lunches, how on earth do you expect us to make the quotas? Seriously you just expect us to do 6 installs and 8 trouble calls in a day? All while doing your hocaspocas checklists; seriously if we did those checklists a-z each job would be 3-4 hours. You people dont remember just a couple years ago trying the 14+ workorder routes on a few people from different areas? Half of them ended up in the emergency room. From ulcers, to bloodpressue cracking 200 and passingout, to dehydration. Yeah and the idea you can regionalize the time schedule for a job is a joke. Lets see someone in a city in an apartment thats all prewired and utility room can do a triple install in 40 minutes, so someone out in the woods with 300′ drops through the trees and has to run 4 outlets and fight for signal on their crappy lowgrade pda’s from 1999 technology should be able to as well. Do any of you in the leadership teams take reality pills?
So in other words folks other than takign that crappy gaurantee; you know the one where you get 20 bucks if we are late, wich isnt knew we just hid it and made customers work for it, and making it known this company hasnt done SHIT to correct service. In fact they have made all the moves to decrease it. From consolidating service centers, doubling workorder volumes, still not having a viable way for csr’s, dispatch, and techops(field techs) to be able to work as a nice strong 3pointed triangle. In fact they have actually invested in ways to cut away from the main areas customers deal with so they can increase the backend, such as more teams to have even more stats and metrics to make everything be either our fault or the csr’s. I mean seriously, if a manager, regional, or corp exec says everyone use this model box outlooud or even put in email with his/her name and it doesnt work they are still rendered not responsible because the metrics would say “go back on tech” or “failed truckroll save” on csr or dispatch.
The only real results will come when you customers and us team up instead of fighting with eachother. You pay all our salaries and we keep that revenue stream running so if we bash these F’ers from both sides we can both win.
November 29th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
I have called comast–i have lost count how many times. Each time I want to sign up for service I get a different explaination and a different price. When I ask to speak to a supervisor, sometimes I get ome. I finally got one who offered me a servicer which I said I would think about–my mistake. I called her back 3+ times and she never returned my call. I talked with another supervisor a week later. She said that service was not available unless there was an override by a manager. She said she would e-mail her manager an the first sipervisor’s manager to follow through. Yeh, well I am still waiting. Perhaps I should go for another service. We are too far from Uverse service calbe systems.
November 29th, 2009 at 12:22 am
I initially got comcast service in the 1st week of october and one of things that i had asked for was HDMI cable box.
Rep no.1 :
didnt bring the hdmi box and instead asked that I should go to ther service center to exchange it if i wanted an HDMI enabled box. He also connected the cable in the internet slot and vice versa.
I called the rep back immediately since the internet didnt work correctly, loosing connection every 10 minutes.
he said that he will be there after 5pm. he NEVER SHOWED UP.
Rep No. 2:
I contaced comcast and asked them get this fixed. the 1st agent said i will be chrged for this.on talking to a supervisor, they said that there was a ms understanding and then i was able to confirmed with them that this will not be a charge as it was part of installation.
they could only schedule a working day that week for the next guy to come out.
Rep No. 3:
Gets a box that is HDMI compatible and fixes the issue about the internet. but now the DVR doesnt work! he spends 2 hours trying to fix it by going to his truck to try different boxes (the truck is parked 20 minutes away). he says that his supervisor will fix the issue later in the day as he cant understand the issue.
Rep no 4:
he figures out instantly that the new box is not a DVR box at all!!!!!
he fixes that issue by giving me another box and now everything is great
But wait….
fews days later i get an email from comcast to pay my bill. i click the link to do that and i try to log in but the site keeps kicking me out saying ‘email not valid’!!!! the same email adress that i reveiced an email from comcast to pay my bill!
Rep No. 5:
i spend an hour online with an agent who cant figure out why i cant login. suddenly he realizes that the site is being repaired that day after wasting an hour of my time! now i ask to go to a supervisor and he suddenly has figured out how to log me in!
as soon as i log in i notice that i have been charged $16 for the servicing charges!!!!!!
also the modem fee is $5 and i was told $3.
now i really want to talk to a supervisor and the guy online basically REUSES to do that. He says i can call comcast for that. i protest that i dont want to wait for another hour to get to a supervisor, so he says i can directly get in touch with one via a special number…and he goes on and gives me the special number….1 – 800 – COMCAST!!!!
Rep no 7:
i call comcast and the initial agent says that the charge is a valid one, puts me on hold for ‘a few seconds’ which turn into 45 minutes.
Rep no 8:
meanwhile while sill on hold i call comcast from my work phone and reach a supervisor. this is patient and listens to all my issues. he offers me $100 credit and a charge reversal and think that to be a fair resolution and thats the end of the story.
But wait..
yesterday i log in to pay my bill for this month and i see only a $50 credit!
surely a small error. so i call comcast.
Rep no .9
they tell me that this all their notes show and they are sorry for the confusion. are you kidding me! confusion? i reach a supersivor who tells me that he cant do anything about it, and i quote ‘ i am not here to address your grievances, that that you can go to comcast.com or a service center’. this is so rude that it is unbelievable. so i try to reach another person. i get transferrred back to same guy! this thime he even refuses to tranfer me and says that if i want to speak to someone else i have to call 1-800 comcast again!
Rep no 10:
today i called comcast again. and the bst the supervisor was able to to offer me was that ‘ comcast is sorry for the missunderstanding,comcast will submit a request for the $50 and I MAY get it and they rude agent matter will be looked into’ on asking how this helps the customer, i was told that future customers will benefit.
now i have been given the number for corporate who i will me calling on Monday.
look for updates:)
-mayank
November 28th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
I have had a HORRIBLE experience with COMCAST. All I wanted was my service installed and that is proving WAY to difficult for the COMCAST in the Atlanta area. I think I will just go to another provider. I originally called on Nov 19 to set up service in my new residence. I made the appointment and suppose b/c of my credit history that I required a COD. Ok fine. I wait tables and money is tight for luxuries such as cable but my son is eight and thinks he may just die without Cartoon Network. So I bust my hump that week to come up with the COD the day before my install. The day of my install I was worried. My past experiences with COMCAST made me dread waiting on a technician that might never show up. This was really important to my son however. My appt was from between 2 and 5. At about 1:30 I open my door to step outside and there is a tag on my door from Comcast saying I missed my scheduled appt!!!! What????? I had been home all day! He came early!!! I live in a gated community that has a intercom system to be let in. Why would anyone come directly to my door?!!! I called them back immediatly. Was assured the tech would come back. Blah blah blah. I wait and the tech never shows. I literally was in tears I was so angry. I have since the day after thanksgiving been trying to get a tech to come out to connect my service THAT PREPAID FOR and have had no success. I have talked to so many reps, cust care supervisors, escalations and dispatch to no avail.
Why cant I get the service I paid for in a timely manner? Why do I have to change my schedule to suit there 3 hr appt windows? What do the people who have jobs to go too before 5pm do??? Comcast service is AWFUL. I just wanted my service installed. If these are issues Im facing just getting service what will happen when I have a problem????
Customer 8220122012275433.
November 27th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
I got scammed just like the last guy. Singed up for the $129 bundle and got nailed $148 instead.
November 26th, 2009 at 1:05 am
(Because it would take far too long to detail comcast’s list of atrocities, I will repost a statement I made to another complaint site. It pretty much tells it all in its’ horrible glory.)
In May 2009 I entered into contract to upgrade my services with Comcast. I was told I would receive cable, phone service, and the highest available speed internet service for the price of $114.99 all inclusive (taxes, modem, etc.). I confirmed the price & services with the Comcast representative at least SIX times to make SURE there was no misunderstanding. I agreed to the offer as offered to me by the Comcast representative.
I have since been overcharged TWICE: the first time was an “error” of approx. $30-35. (which was later resolved). My last bill was for $130.31, NOT the $114.99 I was REPEATEDLY promised. Calls to Comcast (Ann\Amy?) to resolve the matter were absolutely useless (she claimed the extra charges were for modem rental & taxes, NEITHER of which were stated as ‘extra charges’ by the original representative when I accepted. I had been told each time I asked that the 114.99 cost included EVERYTHING), and a promise of a call from the supervisor from that representative never came. I went to the local Comcast office on tuesday, where, not only was it not resolved, but I was informed I was not even getting the promised highest speed Internet EITHER.
On 9/14 I called the Comcast Escalation Department [1 (866) 279-5024) and spoke to David. I was essentially told, ‘I’m sorry, but these are our packages & prices & there’s nothing we can do”. He suggested I “misunderstood”; I find it difficult to accept that I “misunderstood” an offer I CONFIRMED 6 TIMES with their very own representative.
I am not being provided the agreed-upon contracted services, and am being overcharged even for the services I AM receiving. The ‘package’ as described to me since by Comcast’s subsequent representatives (‘Ann\Amy\David’) is one I would NEVER have agreed to or accepted had it been offered to me at the time. Comcast & it’s representatives are practicing price-gouging & fraud, and I do not see why I should have to pay a bill that A) is in excess to what I was told SIX TIMES & agreed to B) is not providing the promised offered & agreed-to contracted services.
All attempts to resolve this with Comcast have proven absolutely fruitless.
UPDATE: I received a call from Richard Spence,Executive Support\Research Specialist, West Palm Beach Region, Office of the Vice President (866) 279-5024 approximately 2 weeks ago. After explaining my complaint with the Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services against Comcast, he told me he would get back to me next week and they would try to work something out to my satisfaction. No offer was made, and today I received a letter from the DOA&CS claiming they had closed my case, following correspondence from Mr. Spence which consisted of false & misleading information on his part.
So now we can add ‘lying to a government agency’ to the list of charges.
(ADDENDUM: I have spoken to a co-worker, who has since cancelled all his Comcast services in disgust: he told me he was promised the same services as me for $79, all fees included (he was ALSO told this multiple times). He was subsequently charged $138\month, TWICE what he was repeatedly promised. As I said, he cancelled all his services. This is proof that Comcast is knowingly defrauding customers by luring people into purchasing services by providing false price\service information, then raising prices once they have them ‘on the hook’.)