I’ve struggled with the service Comcast provides now in 3 separate residences and 3 separate cities. I had a small break from Comcast while in Florida and enjoyed the service from BrightHouse. Now, back in Alabama, I am reminded of the woes of dealing with Comcast. I won’t bore you with all the details as we would be here a while, but today I’m simply trying to get through to the call center to schedule service and the recording tells me, “I’m sorry, but we are unable to connect your call at this time… Thank you for calling Comcast.” So now, they aren’t even answering my calls?
I have BASIC cable with Comcast, because I won’t give them any more money than my $9.94 a month. While Comcast’s contractors were trying to do work on the telephone pole for a neighbor, my cable service was physically disconnected. I called Comcast and set up a service call for two days later. Their automated scheduling system called me twice and twice I had to confirm to this automated system that I would be at home. The tech came and repaired the service quickly–I didn’t even have to let him in the house. Of course, I was charged a $30 service visit to re-establish service that Comcast disconnected in the first place. Of course, they heard from me and I won’t be paying the service call.
I’m writing to let you know why we’re planning to switch from Comcast to a local Internet company. We pay almost $200 a month for Comcast TV/DVR, Internet service, and Internet phone. For that much money we expect to get good service. Instead, we have these recurring problems:
DVR often doesn’t tape things we set it to tape. I’ve talked to others who have this same issue.
TV reception and DVR taping is spotty: we often have gaps with no sound and/or pixelated images.
We have too many Internet outages or intermittent service.
We’ve experienced lack of good service when we call regarding the above issues.
A couple illustrations of service issues:
* Our Internet has gone out for extended periods when we’re working at home, now and then over a day. Though we don’t have a business account, like many people we often work at home, so we rely on continuous Internet service. One time when it was out for almost half the day, I called to inquire about the issue. I asked if we could get an update from the technicians working on it when they had an idea what the issue was and how long it would take to resolve. I was told no, I could only get a call when the service was restored. I asked to speak to the person’s supervisor, and he told me he was the highest-up person I could speak to. Unfortunately I no longer have his name. Eventually the service was restored, but I lost half a day of work–and I was not called to be notified till an hour after the service had been restored.
* Our Internet and Internet phone service were spotty all of Tuesday 8/24, when my husband was working at home. That night, they went out completely, so I called Comcast. After being on hold for 20 minutes, I spoke to a technician who tried to diagnose our problem. He said there had been no outages in the area, and he decided the problem was with our modem. He set up the earliest available appointment, Friday 8/27 at 2:00 pm–almost 3 working days later. He also told me I could call back the next day to try to make an earlier appointment. He indicated that he couldn’t make an earlier appointment because at night there was some limitation in the system that didn’t let him find an earlier one. All this took an hour, keeping us up till midnight on a work night. I called the next morning and was able to change my appointment to 10:00 – noon that day. Then I started getting e-mails from my neighbors in my condo complex (which I had to read on my Blackberry) saying they were also having issues. One said he’d seen Comcast trucks here the day before. I found out later that unit E303 had Comcast here around 4:00 on 8/24 because of problems. However, when I called Comcast that night, no one knew about this. It would have helped to have this information, an indication that the problem was larger than our modem.
So I stayed home from work on the morning of Wednesday 8/25, while a technician worked on the issue. By noon I had to go in to the office, as I still didn’t have Internet, so this cost me a morning of work. When I came home there was still no Internet. I finally called Comcast again and the person on the phone had us reset not only our modem but our router, which fixed the issue. No one had told me to do this before, so we had no Internet for nearly 24 hours, plus spotty Internet the entire day before.
In addition to showing how serious the issues are, all of this illustrates the lack of communication or robust systems at Comcast. For what we pay, I’d think Comcast could afford to put in place systems that would allow technicians and other customer support people to have all the information they need to really help customers.
i am happy to report that comcast FINALLY paid the money they owed me (8/27 post). while appreciate the fact that i found ONE person over there to do their job, it stinks that it took SOOOO much work/effort on my part–to get what was mine in the first place! i still hate comcast, but at least i can be done with them for once and for all.
Sorry for you .. I have been there.. I understand… Hope you are not charged $35 for each of the tech visits. Do not trust comcast ads.. check your bill to verify that you are not charged for their tech visits where they did not solve the problem.
Move to satellite TV or IPTV if you have choice. If you do not have a choice get somebody to hook up a mythtv setup.
Ever since Comcast changed its service to HDTV we have experienced intermittent interference that comes with disruption in the sound and picture tiling – it happens more frequently at night than daytime, when it happens it is on all channels and DVR recordings.
When this first started I made a call to report and the whole system was reset; the second time I called again they did a reset; the third time I called they finally scheduled a tech to come out – 4 days later one actually showed up, he put down a new interior cable cord; the 5th time I called again they did a reset and scheduled another tech – 3 days later he came. This time the tech swapped out the receiver-DVR unit and made some kind of adjustments outside, but said he felt good about what had been done to clear the problem. So now over 3 weeks from the first phone call – on the 6th phone call – again they would need to send out another tech; this time the tech was quite savvy he found that a second cable line to one of the bedrooms in the house (we had basic cable set up for the bedroom TV) was picking up radio signals in the area! So his answer was to DISCONNECT all other cable runs, and have live the one main cable. I was not happy with this supposed solution – after 20 years of having the same exact cable lines that have worked fairly well – now the whole answer to solving this mystery was to disable every cable line but the main one – does this really make any logical sense?? Well so much for that theory anyway – the problem started up again that very evening! Reception was good for a couple of hours this time …. so call #7 – this time they were suppose to order a “field line-supervisor” to be dispatched, 3 more days pass and we get another ordinary Tech – again! Oh but this Tech was even more insightful then any of the other 5 – first thing he asked after being shown just what has been happening – His first question – “Did anyone happen to have a HAIR DRYER on at the time of the problem?” A WHAT??? I was getting a bit cranky at this point so I left the room and let my husband take over. Whatever the guy did he did it outside! (without the aid of testing the problem against a hair dryer!)
Oh but the problem still was not fixed! To this point we have had 7 different Techs out; reset after reset and NO supervisor yet to speak of! So now it is Sunday morning Aug 22nd and when I turned on the TV at 7am I got total scramble on every single channel – we called again and this time left a blistering message about getting this fixed! So on Tuesday am support said that a line-supervisor would be contacting us later that day -after they came out to try one more time to determine what the problem is – Again I stayed at home waiting for someone to come out -like I was told to do – the whole day came and went – nothing! I was feed up with this run-around – so my husband called again at about 8pm on Tuesday August 24th – oh they did come out and made some adjustments to the outside line – “Are you still having problems?” Yep we sure are! If they came out why did they not do us the curtsey of knocking on the door or having the Supervisor call at least (like we were told they would)?? “Oh well they must have tried but was likely no one was home.” was the response from (so-called) Customer Service. This was an out-n-out lie! I was home, plus two other Adults – I have a very noisy dog that would definitely alert us to the presence of someone around the house – plus we have never heard from a Supervisor at all. When my husband made to call Tuesday evening the best the gal could tell us was that she could have another tech out on Friday. I have had enough of Comcast – the run around and the blatant poor service ability is appalling – so Comcast listen up you are not the only game in town now! And after 20 years we are taking our business somewhere else!
September 3rd, 2010 at 12:18 pm
I’ve struggled with the service Comcast provides now in 3 separate residences and 3 separate cities. I had a small break from Comcast while in Florida and enjoyed the service from BrightHouse. Now, back in Alabama, I am reminded of the woes of dealing with Comcast. I won’t bore you with all the details as we would be here a while, but today I’m simply trying to get through to the call center to schedule service and the recording tells me, “I’m sorry, but we are unable to connect your call at this time… Thank you for calling Comcast.” So now, they aren’t even answering my calls?
September 3rd, 2010 at 10:03 am
I have BASIC cable with Comcast, because I won’t give them any more money than my $9.94 a month. While Comcast’s contractors were trying to do work on the telephone pole for a neighbor, my cable service was physically disconnected. I called Comcast and set up a service call for two days later. Their automated scheduling system called me twice and twice I had to confirm to this automated system that I would be at home. The tech came and repaired the service quickly–I didn’t even have to let him in the house. Of course, I was charged a $30 service visit to re-establish service that Comcast disconnected in the first place. Of course, they heard from me and I won’t be paying the service call.
August 30th, 2010 at 11:02 pm
im a comcast technician and im tired of you bitchy customers always blaming the techs. GET A LIFE!
August 30th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
Hi,
I just sent the following to Comcast–and we’re switching to Webpass, a local Internet company (more on that at http://rfrancescato.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/greening-the-internet/):
I’m writing to let you know why we’re planning to switch from Comcast to a local Internet company. We pay almost $200 a month for Comcast TV/DVR, Internet service, and Internet phone. For that much money we expect to get good service. Instead, we have these recurring problems:
DVR often doesn’t tape things we set it to tape. I’ve talked to others who have this same issue.
TV reception and DVR taping is spotty: we often have gaps with no sound and/or pixelated images.
We have too many Internet outages or intermittent service.
We’ve experienced lack of good service when we call regarding the above issues.
A couple illustrations of service issues:
* Our Internet has gone out for extended periods when we’re working at home, now and then over a day. Though we don’t have a business account, like many people we often work at home, so we rely on continuous Internet service. One time when it was out for almost half the day, I called to inquire about the issue. I asked if we could get an update from the technicians working on it when they had an idea what the issue was and how long it would take to resolve. I was told no, I could only get a call when the service was restored. I asked to speak to the person’s supervisor, and he told me he was the highest-up person I could speak to. Unfortunately I no longer have his name. Eventually the service was restored, but I lost half a day of work–and I was not called to be notified till an hour after the service had been restored.
* Our Internet and Internet phone service were spotty all of Tuesday 8/24, when my husband was working at home. That night, they went out completely, so I called Comcast. After being on hold for 20 minutes, I spoke to a technician who tried to diagnose our problem. He said there had been no outages in the area, and he decided the problem was with our modem. He set up the earliest available appointment, Friday 8/27 at 2:00 pm–almost 3 working days later. He also told me I could call back the next day to try to make an earlier appointment. He indicated that he couldn’t make an earlier appointment because at night there was some limitation in the system that didn’t let him find an earlier one. All this took an hour, keeping us up till midnight on a work night. I called the next morning and was able to change my appointment to 10:00 – noon that day. Then I started getting e-mails from my neighbors in my condo complex (which I had to read on my Blackberry) saying they were also having issues. One said he’d seen Comcast trucks here the day before. I found out later that unit E303 had Comcast here around 4:00 on 8/24 because of problems. However, when I called Comcast that night, no one knew about this. It would have helped to have this information, an indication that the problem was larger than our modem.
So I stayed home from work on the morning of Wednesday 8/25, while a technician worked on the issue. By noon I had to go in to the office, as I still didn’t have Internet, so this cost me a morning of work. When I came home there was still no Internet. I finally called Comcast again and the person on the phone had us reset not only our modem but our router, which fixed the issue. No one had told me to do this before, so we had no Internet for nearly 24 hours, plus spotty Internet the entire day before.
In addition to showing how serious the issues are, all of this illustrates the lack of communication or robust systems at Comcast. For what we pay, I’d think Comcast could afford to put in place systems that would allow technicians and other customer support people to have all the information they need to really help customers.
August 30th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
i am happy to report that comcast FINALLY paid the money they owed me (8/27 post). while appreciate the fact that i found ONE person over there to do their job, it stinks that it took SOOOO much work/effort on my part–to get what was mine in the first place! i still hate comcast, but at least i can be done with them for once and for all.
August 30th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Sorry for you .. I have been there.. I understand… Hope you are not charged $35 for each of the tech visits. Do not trust comcast ads.. check your bill to verify that you are not charged for their tech visits where they did not solve the problem.
Move to satellite TV or IPTV if you have choice. If you do not have a choice get somebody to hook up a mythtv setup.
August 27th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Ever since Comcast changed its service to HDTV we have experienced intermittent interference that comes with disruption in the sound and picture tiling – it happens more frequently at night than daytime, when it happens it is on all channels and DVR recordings.
When this first started I made a call to report and the whole system was reset; the second time I called again they did a reset; the third time I called they finally scheduled a tech to come out – 4 days later one actually showed up, he put down a new interior cable cord; the 5th time I called again they did a reset and scheduled another tech – 3 days later he came. This time the tech swapped out the receiver-DVR unit and made some kind of adjustments outside, but said he felt good about what had been done to clear the problem. So now over 3 weeks from the first phone call – on the 6th phone call – again they would need to send out another tech; this time the tech was quite savvy he found that a second cable line to one of the bedrooms in the house (we had basic cable set up for the bedroom TV) was picking up radio signals in the area! So his answer was to DISCONNECT all other cable runs, and have live the one main cable. I was not happy with this supposed solution – after 20 years of having the same exact cable lines that have worked fairly well – now the whole answer to solving this mystery was to disable every cable line but the main one – does this really make any logical sense?? Well so much for that theory anyway – the problem started up again that very evening! Reception was good for a couple of hours this time …. so call #7 – this time they were suppose to order a “field line-supervisor” to be dispatched, 3 more days pass and we get another ordinary Tech – again! Oh but this Tech was even more insightful then any of the other 5 – first thing he asked after being shown just what has been happening – His first question – “Did anyone happen to have a HAIR DRYER on at the time of the problem?” A WHAT??? I was getting a bit cranky at this point so I left the room and let my husband take over. Whatever the guy did he did it outside! (without the aid of testing the problem against a hair dryer!)
Oh but the problem still was not fixed! To this point we have had 7 different Techs out; reset after reset and NO supervisor yet to speak of! So now it is Sunday morning Aug 22nd and when I turned on the TV at 7am I got total scramble on every single channel – we called again and this time left a blistering message about getting this fixed! So on Tuesday am support said that a line-supervisor would be contacting us later that day -after they came out to try one more time to determine what the problem is – Again I stayed at home waiting for someone to come out -like I was told to do – the whole day came and went – nothing! I was feed up with this run-around – so my husband called again at about 8pm on Tuesday August 24th – oh they did come out and made some adjustments to the outside line – “Are you still having problems?” Yep we sure are! If they came out why did they not do us the curtsey of knocking on the door or having the Supervisor call at least (like we were told they would)?? “Oh well they must have tried but was likely no one was home.” was the response from (so-called) Customer Service. This was an out-n-out lie! I was home, plus two other Adults – I have a very noisy dog that would definitely alert us to the presence of someone around the house – plus we have never heard from a Supervisor at all. When my husband made to call Tuesday evening the best the gal could tell us was that she could have another tech out on Friday. I have had enough of Comcast – the run around and the blatant poor service ability is appalling – so Comcast listen up you are not the only game in town now! And after 20 years we are taking our business somewhere else!