Scripting News - Latest Comments in A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

DishNetworkUser — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:55:02 -0000

Dish Network seems to really be the better choice. I found some great specials at this website & those specific promo codes. Good Luck!
http://www.vmcsatellite.com...

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

Terik Ororke — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:25:06 -0000

People need to swith to satellite TV or Fios and the like and it is time to dump comcast that cntinually robs the American Public and provides poor service.

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

vincent33 — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 22:42:26 -0000

Comcast:
I’m writing this after Comcast put me thru 48 hours of hell but it really started over a year ago. I am an avid football fan so I decided after over 15 years of basic cable with Comcast to get a DVR. I researched the DVR and found that it was limited in recording size by a 160 gig HD. There was no option to upgrade it internally or externally. Comcast had also made sure the customer could not offload any recordings to a computer or get a different DVR. Everything was no no no. I decided to live with it expecting Comcast to eventually allow customers to upgrade. About two weeks ago with football season approaching I decided to revisit the DVR situation. I was surprised that it was identical to last year. Comcast has disabled or blocked every possible way to get more recording space. My DVR can record only 20hrs of hd. One HD football game lasts 4 hours. I could almost fill this DVR up in one weekend of football. This was when a co-worker mentioned I should get TIVO. The more research I did the more I found the answers were yes yes yes. The TiVo was highly upgradeable in every way. There was one problem. There is a multitude of horror stories on websites such as comcastmustdie.com and others of Comcast customers who have attempted and failed to get Comcast to do one simple thing (install Comcast cable card in the TiVo box). After researching the situation and considering I hold a Masters Degree in Information Systems from Kennesaw State University I figured I could walk a Comcast csr thru the process. I knew from my research I would be better off to go to Comcast and get the m-card because every part of this process could be done over the phone. It’s a simple matter of typing some numbers in a computer (m-card pairing) and sending an initialization hit from the vinings head end. I also knew that many of the service reps sent out have no idea what they are doing. I won’t even go into the trouble I went thru to actually get the m-card from Comcast. When my TiVo arrived I followed the instructions and made sure that the latest software was installed. On Monday night July 27th I was ready to make my first of about ten calls to Comcast customer service. The csr was named Pat. I knew from the online forums what numbers she needed such as host id and data ID. She said she didn’t need all those numbers that everything would start working in about 45 minutes. Nothing happened so I went to bed and started the next morning. I didn’t get the names of every csr I talked to but I know it was at least 8 and maybe 10. The fact that the first one I talked to didn’t set up a case file proves that their entire existence is a joke to Comcast. With a case file the eighth csr I talk to will know this. Asking them a question is equal to asking the guy that bags my groceries what to do about my cable TV. Some time on Tuesday afternoon on of the CSR’s mention that she could schedule a field rep to install my cable card the next day. I was exhausted so I reluctantly agreed knowing I may be paying 17 dollars for more misery. Lamont arrived at 12 noon today in a Comcast truck. I started bombarded him with technical information about Val:V missing and the Auth:MP problem. He didn’t know what I was talking about but he assured me he would get my cable card working. I took some notes. He called someone at 770-559-7800 using my phone because his was malfunctioning. He told them he was getting an illogical equipment message from the first person (the dispatcher) he called that could not help him. He said it was job number 681052. He switched the m-card I had received from Comcast with another one. He also solved one mystery. From the second I received the m-card I was billed for digital service a/o. He said the Comcast rep had charged me for an additional stb instead. These charges were on the bill I received on Tuesday. I was able to check the conditional access screen (which he knew nothing about) and see that the Val:? had changed to Val:V but Auth:MP still displayed which needs to be Auth:S . He said I was 36th in line to receive an init hit from the vinings head end. He said I should have all my channels within an hour and he would call back to verify. He assured me that if the init hit failed he would return to fix it. Indeed some unencrypted hd channels displayed as he was leaving. I commended him and told him I would keep checking channels until he called. He gave me a receipt and took my Comcast dvr and the original m-card I had received from Comcast. That was about 5 hours ago and no call. Below I have provided every piece of information Comcast may need to correct these problems. I believe it would take a person with basic knowledge of how to use a computer and telephone about 5 to 10 minutes to fix this problem.
The grief this has caused me has made a permanent negative impression on me concerning Comcast. What is the price to pay for that? Right now my options are limited. I have invested in a TiVo dvr and a year of TiVo service and football season is coming up. My personal knowledge of technology ensures me that a time will come in the near future that I can rid myself of this Comcast. Consider this: I intended to eventually have Comcast cable, Comcast internet service and Comcast phone service. Now I intend to eventually rid my house of all traces of Comcast.
In the meantime this is what must happen in the next 24 hours. I want every single channel that I am paying for restored and an email or phone call from Comcast assuring me that I have been refunded for the erroneous charges and that I am not charged one single minute for the dvr and m-card Lamont took with him. I also will not be charged for Lamont accomplishing nothing. Make sure the $17 is removed. Considering what I have been thru I should receive a month’s credit but I can assure you at this point with the time and money this has cost me that would be an insult. You will however give me what’s mine. I will not waste my time on the phone with another Comcast csr and I would prefer that no one else from Comcast be sent to my house.
In the event that all of this does not take place at 5:00 pm eastern on Thursday July 30th 2009 I will draft a cover letter and place that and this entire email in letters to the president and ceo of Comcast and every member of the board of directors of Comcast, the FCC, the governor’s office of consumer affairs and the BBB. I also intend to post this email on comcastmustdie.com and any other websites or forum that will allow me. Next week I plan to start requesting meetings with the President, CEO and members of Comcast board of directors. These people need to hear in person what Comcast is doing to its customers.

Vincent Mark Hill
mjvs2@bellsouth.net
Cell: 770-862-5712
Home phone: 770-943-2876
Comcast Account Number: 8220 11 110 0848607
Motorola m-card Numbers
Cable Card NO: 000-014-371-349-3

Host ID: 035-012- 059-318-0

Data: 304-463-243-00

Unit address: 000-00143-71349-101

Card S/N: MA0847CAN012

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

blacklaw — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 08:02:37 -0000

I can only say that my mind begins to swirl we used to have insight broad band bur comcast came in and took it over ever since my service has went to sh_t. they have changed all the packages and my bill has increased I really wish there was another provider to use i feel trapped

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

Miguel — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:17:38 -0000

Internet and phone has been down for 6 working days. First time I called hold time 23 min. Talked to some one on cell phone for 10 min then was hung up on. Second try 34 min same thing happened. Went to office. They told me some one will be out next day between 1-5 pm. No show. 3 time calling to find put why no show 58 min later they told me I wasn't answering my phone. I reminded them my phone wasn't working. They reschedualed for today. Between 1-5 pm. It's now 4.17 pm. They haven't showed. Thanks comcast

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

kayla — Wed, 27 May 2009 13:59:26 -0000

hello .. i recently bought a ps3 and now i am absolutely hooked on playing call of duty .. i've been thinking of switching my ISP [clearwire] to comcast for a better connection for online gaming, but after your article i don't think i will be .. do you have another reliable ISP that i could go through that won't break my bank and is ideal for online gaming w/ my ps3 ?? thanks ..

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

Daniel Alexander — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:08:23 -0000

I've done my duty. I've gotten over 40 people to drop Comcast over the last 2 years (since I dropped them). And now they are coming to my place of business and trying to offer their business services. I found it quite enjoyable to tell the salesman that they will never due business with our company and if they want to know why they should just do a web search for "I Hate Comcast".

I still have a few more friends with the service that don't yet have a good alternative to Comcast, but just as soon as other options become available I'll see that they drop Comcast as well. There is, of course, a limit to the number of people that I know that have Comcast. I think that the most I will be able to directly change over will be around 60 people (when all is said and done), but that isn't too bad. Plus none of them will ever go back to Comcast without checking with me first (being that I'm their Computer geek friend that they go to for such advice). So, it's a reasonable amount of damage given what they did to me.

If Comcast messed with you then I recommend you do the same. At the very least you will feel a bit more vindication knowing that you were able to get some number of friends to dump Comcast as well. Comcast really should known better than to mess with the power users. It's the power users that tend to be the computer geeks that their other clients listen to. You mess with the power users then you don't just lose one account. You lose a bunch of accounts. I mean, I haven't been a Comcast customer for years now and yet I still take every opportunity to hurt them (justly so).

Actually, as far as I can tell they want to lower their overall bandwidth usage. I mean, they threaten to cancel my service because I use "too much" bandwidth so I have to think that I am doing them a favor by getting 60 people to drop their service; thus reducing their overall bandwidth usage. You are welcome Comcast. Glad to be of service to you. I'll keep up the good work on your behalf. Hopefully we can get your overall bandwidth usage down to 0.

I will say that it does sadden me to find myself so opposed to a company that I desire to see them run out of business. I mean, it isn't good for the economy and it isn't good for their employees for Comcast to fail, but I just dislike them so much that I truly want to do a dance on their corporate grave. It's actually a bit scary for me to dislike them so much that I don't even think twice about telling off some Comcast employee just for being a Comcast employee. I think, "How dare them work for such a horrible company!!!" and these can be decent people, but I just don't care. I know that it is just not fair of me to think such a thing, but I truly hate this company.

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

curtis — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:32:20 -0000

If you love their internet policies, you'll love their TV crap even more. I know i do....

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:01:59 -0000

I would just like to say that I too hate Comcast! Ooooooooh, how I hate Comcast! Seething, seething, seething with hate! They have ruined several days of my usually perfectly happy life. Scum bags! I know it's not constructive critisism but I can't help it, I'm just so mad!

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

Burdee1 — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 08:46:57 -0000

Typical Comcast. I had a problem that required a line person to repair, set up a time, when they didn't show up, called. The agent said that they could not get any information because the dispatchers were eating and playing cards and wouldn't talk to anyone. The lines person showed up about midnight and I sent them away until the next day.

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

jackie — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:11:56 -0000

I used to work for Comcast and I've created a piece of "art" using my old business cards. It was theraputic and would make you laugh. Let me know if you care to see it and I'll send you a jpg.

p.s. I hate them too....they screw their employees too.

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

chris — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 04:11:22 -0000

Obviously they have to pay for their bandwidth. Every mb you suck down costs money. This is a well covered topic and, while I think it isn't right and that their claims of "unlimited service" are lies, there is a clause in their terms of service that you can use as much bandwidth as you like as long as it is under what Comcast deems appropriate:

Network, Bandwidth, Data Storage and Other Limitations

Comcast may provide versions of the Service with different speeds and bandwidth usage limitations, among other characteristics, subject to applicable Service plans. You shall ensure that your use of the Service does not restrict, inhibit, interfere with, or degrade any other user's use of the Service, nor represent (in the sole judgment of Comcast) an overly large burden on the network. In addition, you shall ensure that your use of the Service does not restrict, inhibit, interfere with, disrupt, degrade, or impede Comcast's ability to deliver and provide the Service and monitor the Service, backbone, network nodes, and/or other network services.

You further agree to comply with all Comcast network, bandwidth, and data storage and usage limitations. You shall ensure that your bandwidth consumption using the Service does not exceed the limitations that are now in effect or may be established in the future. If your use of the Service results in the consumption of bandwidth in excess of the applicable limitations, that is a violation of this Policy. In such cases, Comcast may, in its sole discretion, terminate or suspend your Service account or request that you subscribe to a version of the Service with higher bandwidth usage limitations if you wish to continue to use the Service at higher bandwidth consumption levels.

it seems that we are truly boned, however, many people have talked to local officials and have gotten their way, which I suggest as I also hate comcast. Also, I doubt it was your flickrfan even on an excessive plethora of macs. You would have to be downloading an HD picture on every station 24/7 every 5 minutes to even hit the supposed bandwidth (anonymous comcast workers have stated that the average wall is 200GB/month). This amount (while shameful given the "unlimited" advertising) is the equivalent to watching 3 streaming movies 24/7. While it could be you flickrfan, I would suggest a spyware check to make sure nothing is stealing your bandwidth. Good Luck and stick it to Comcast as much as you can :)

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

Jeremy King — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:40:19 -0000

Well all I can say is that it's fine when I'm just browsing the net, but still disconnects. but when I download certain things like using my steam client to download games, it will just stop connection. I'm only running on 1mb of speed when I purchased the 6mb package. I've also got a vista premium.

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

Dennis — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 12:15:46 -0000

thats because at comcast we dont care about our customers we only want your money and if you dont pay we shut your services off till you bitch then we still make our shit not work. i work for comcast and i see how we treat customers and i think its fucking stupid we have techs that dont do there jobs, phone agents that swear at customers and they turn around and get raises. we have outdated systems and equipment that goes down faster then a boxer getting knocked out in one punch. our systems are so unstable that even our main intranet site goes down at least 3 times a day. half our tools we use dont work properly or always Being "updated" to make them acually work.

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

Mark — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:54:51 -0000

My own experiences are very similar. You can also add in being disconnected four times after i signed on, have my bill be incorrect from the beginning, getting significantly less bandwidth than advertised, and having Newsgroups discontiued AFTER I signed the contract. They told me that Newsgroups were a free service and they could discontinue any time. I figure it was there when I signed up. It was htere when I paid. If they turn it off, I should get a reduction in cost.

Nope. Comcast has sucked and contibues to suck!

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

Brent720 — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:33:46 -0000

COMCAST service can be great or lousy depending on who you get on the line when you call. Last night my cable went out for about two hours, in Huntsville, Alabama. I tried to call and report the outage and got put on hold for more than half an hour, and had to listen to constant commercials the whole time about how wonderful their high speed Internet service is. It is pretty darn good when it's working, but they often seem to assume that people aren't using the service between midnight and 6 AM, as I've had several outages lasting up to several hours. I know they have to do maintenance, but they don't give you any warning, just pull the plug, so if you are in the middle of doing something important, it gets squelched. If you complain they tell you to get a business account. They always have an answer which implies that you are the one at fault, not them.

I have to say, I love the service when it's working, but when it is not, it's easier to just WAIT than to call and get put on hold. All of our customer representatives are busy helping other customers. Yeah, at midnight. That means they only have one or two such representatives, or else they have a widespread outage and don't want to publicize that fact. The morning after there is no mention on the web of anyone else having an outage at 11:11 on 11/11/2008. Is that a coincidence?

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

Louis — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:20:23 -0000

Dave, Reading through all this has changed my mind about the service, I was thinking of getting this service for my room since I'm a huge Internet user who is still chained to Dial-Up. It was time to move on to the next generation of high speed internet and since Comcast was the only one available in my area, it was the only choice I had(Next to Hughes net, but their services are very expensive).

Thank you, Dave, reading this has saved me any future problems and complications I would of experienced if I had gotten the service, their actions sound unethical and unprofessional. A good company should ALWAYS put customer first and that the customer is always right, not place blame on them and then threaten them. I find their service to be very laughable and sad as well. Your blog does count a lot, because they just lost a future customer with their simple minded remarks.

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

Danny — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 09:46:44 -0000

Recently, I sent out an email to my sister. The total size of the email was 12 meg. The residential limit for individual emails is 15 meg. That is the link .http://lite.help.comcast.net/conte...

The email cam back with a notice that it exceeded the allowed size. Before going to tiersupport@comcast net, I resent the email directly through HTML at the comcast site. (It recognized a 12 meg file as 17 megs) Wow a lot of bloat! Anyway, most of the tier support people didn't evn know what size files were allowed (Or comcast has a policy of misinformation) long story short! Comcast will correct the problem in 48 hours. Nice to know that you get what you are paying for!

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

Kodai — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:54:19 -0000

OK, I realise that this is an old thread and it is likely nobody will ever read this, but I have to reply to this.

Using your speed limit analogy...

In the time I have been with comcast, they have upped the speed limit from 55 to more than 250 MPH. BUT... They also say that you can only drive a certain distance because you would use too much gas. They also won't tell us how far we can drive, just that we'll lose our liscence and car if we do drive too much.

I have this feeling that the total bandwidth that we can use per month changes from month to month. I think they just call the top 14K customers and threten them.

I'd be happy to stay within limits they set, if I knew what they were. If they were too restrictive, I'd look for other service (which I'm going to do anyway).

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

Shane — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:56:51 -0000

The police would be like comcast if they took down the speed limits, erased the history of speed limits leaving you not knowing hat the limits are, told you that you could drive as fast as you want, pulled you over and ticketed you because you went over the limit, and then never told you what the limit was.

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

Erik S. — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:35:27 -0000

I don't know where you live, but the $1,500/month they quoted you is pretty ridiculous and well beyond T1 pricing. Speakeasy (among others) will provision a business class T1 for $350, including telco charges) in a lot of locales.

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

Scott Westerman — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 12:09:16 -0000

I feel compassion for this person, but his comments definitely don't reflect my view.

With over 90,000 employees in the family, there are bound to be a few un-happy folks at any given time. The majority of us were attracted to Comcast because we have a passion for people and a love for the technology we deliver. We don't always get it right, but building strong customer relationships, one at a time, is the goal.

We also listen to feedback. If you're having issues with your Comcast relationship, the local team is your first best resource. But if the chain of command isn't working for you you can connect directly with our corporate special agents by writing to we_can_help@cable.comcast.com or by twittering Frank Eliason @comcastcares.

I'm happy to dialog with you if you are having bandwidth issues, too. You can write to me directly: scott.westerman@comcast.net.

@comcastscott on Twitter

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

Scott Westerman — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:14:25 -0000

Maestro - Send me a note and we'll figure out how we might be able to help.

Scott Westerman
scott.westerman@comcast.net

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

Joshua Francis Whalen — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:13:19 -0000

OOPS! Pardon. It's $395. T3 starts at $600

Re: A new reason to hate Comcast (Scripting News)

Joshua Francis Whalen — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:06:38 -0000

My ISP, Panix. has T1 for $300 a month. Mind, it's T1, which is much less than 28mbps, but several people mentioned T1, so I figured I'd post. If you decide to buy it, mention my name. they do offer a bounty, although I'd have posted even if they didn't . I LOVE panix. have used them for almost 2 decades, and haver nothing but good things to say about them. www.panix.com