Dealing with Comcast

[bobpbx]

I simply cannot do it without yelling at them over the phone. I pay $1,200 a year for internet and some TV (encore, PBS, History, TBS..etc...NO HBO or Showtime, or triple play junk). My "promotional" is up this week, so I called them. They want to give me less for more money, or more of what I don't want, again for more money. If I say the hell with it, take me off the TV, I'll survive with the net, they say "ok, but your net is $89.99 without your current package. So, I yell and threaten some more.

I need somebody with a cooler head to come over my house and call them, pretending to be me. I refuse to beg, is that what most people do?

 

[1Jerseydevil]

Bob I agree. I'm similar to you in that I have no premium TV package. I do have triple play. From the "come on" package of I think was $80 the first year then $110 2nd year, I'm now up to $170+ a month. I can drop the phone and go cell 100% like many now a days, but I won't save all that much because as you stated, drop one and the other 2 or 1 that you keep goes up
exponentially. So I grit my teeth, keep what I have and for a few dollars more keep the convenience of a house phone.
It's all a plan and we have been assimilated. The satelliteTV looks promising but their "come on" packages have a "got ya" at the end also. I don't think the internet is as fast as I believe it uses the phone line. No FIOS here.
The companies have gotten wise to threats of leaving then coming back when the other providers "suck you in" package expires. You may get a few dollars knocked off but that's all.

 

[46er]

Take a deep breath and count to 6,397. You are dealing with robots made of flesh. Ask to talk with a manager.

I am in the process of dumping them, my 'promo' for phone, TV and internet ends in June. I took a look at the 'channels' they advertise and 200 were duplicates, about thirty were triplicates. If I watch 6, it's a lot. I bought the Chromecast thingy some time ago and have been watching streamed programming for some time, no commercials I also ordered an antenna that will get me all that I need from TV from NY and Philly and points in between, but it is backordered, very popular item, attic mount. For internet and a landline I will probably be going with Verizon. I considered a dish, but have too many tree's.

 

[manumuskin]

My wife does it like this. She tries to be nice,then she gets sarcastic and finally she tells them to stick the whole Comcast in a dark stinky place.Within a few days they call up offering another great deal.Though once we had to shut em down for more then a month.

 

[bobpbx]

I just don't understand why it's such a monopoly. There is collusion going on, I'm certain of it. If I were a politician and wanted to make points I'd push for more completion via more providers.

 

[46er]

I just don't understand why it's such a monopoly. There is collusion going on, I'm certain of it. If I were a politician and wanted to make points I'd push for more completion via more providers.

Of that there is no doubt. Lots of money moving around via cable; I'm certain politicians prefer that over points

 

[Arey]

There's no way to deal with ComCast or Verizon. They know it, and I know it, and they know I know that they know it. I have ComCast Cable with no premium channels, and find my bill confusing. It has its ups and downs, but I never call ComCast to inquire because it will increase my level of confusion from mild to severe.

I have Verizon for my landline, and I have Verizon DSL for my internet connection. My internet charge is $19.95 a month for life as long as I don't change my plan. Verizon keeps telling me all I'm missing but not having FIOS but since FIOS is never coming to my community, I never have any reason to change my plan. Every now and then my modem starts acting up and I have to turn it off and on to reconnect to the internet. This can happen for 1 or 2 days, several days at a time or even a week or two. But turning the modem off and on a couple of times a day is preferable to callling Verizon. There was a time when I was on a first name basis with several Verizon repair men, one of whom in the process of fixing my land line managed to not onlynor correct the land line but in the process broke my internet connection for days.

I have to go now, my task bar just relocated itself to the left side of my monitor, and I want to fix it.

 

[bobpbx]

There's no way to deal with ComCast or Verizon. They know it, and I know it, and they know I know that they know it. I have ComCast Cable with no premium channels, and find my bill confusing. It has its ups and downs, but I never call ComCast to inquire because it will increase my level of confusion from mild to severe.

Exactly. I told the woman on the phone that I can no longer decipher their 6 pages of options, so don't even try to sell me one. I want PBS, the history channel, Encore Movies, and the Phillies. Take the rest away and reduce my price.

Have you ever watched any of the morning shows lately like GMA? They make me sick to my stomach. I can't even stand Jimmy Kimmel(?). I guess my age is showing.

 

[Arey]

I never watch morning shows. They're full of aggravating people. I'm in my mid-severties and try to avoid getting aggravated . I get my news from the NPR headline news once in the morning, and once at dinner time. I also check out CNN on the internet for what I think of as "trash news". I never watch the 5:00 or 6:00 PM news from Phila on the tv. Any news item they mention that I might be interested won't be on until 6:50, and even then it's likely to have been pre-empted by by something much more world shaking involving someone named Bieber or Kardashian, or an athlete failing a drug test. I also read the Atlantic City Press which has got to be the worse newspaper in all of New Jersey.

Actually, for morning TV the only show I can recommend is Curious George, and I hate monkeys.

 

[46er]

Exactly. I told the woman on the phone that I can no longer decipher their 6 pages of options, so don't even try to sell me one. I want PBS, the history channel, Encore Movies, and the Phillies. Take the rest away and reduce my price.

Oh, you want the cafeteria option, says the Comcast agent. That's one of our new and most popular plans. But you can't get it since you are already a highly valued customer.

 

[Teegate]

The only way it will end is when everyone drops their Comcast TV service and they feel the pinch. I could do that in a second but the rest here would have problems with that.

 

[RednekF350]

Comcast is a living nightmare. I have never seen such a large corporation with such poor customer service.
My daughter-in-law works for them and I asked her if she has a "Batphone" number that she can use to bypass the normal mess when she needs customer service. The answer was no.

We recently went for the triple play because there were no other "reasonable" packages at the time. We were given no instructions when we switched over and we had to go pick up a new box and router from them for the TV. None of the equipment contained instructions.

We had no phone service after hooking up the box. This later turned out to be coincidence.
We had to have a service tech come out to tell us our phone line now needs to be connected to the router. I thought that Comcast was somehow taking over our phone by some esoteric, magical force but I was wrong.

My wife and I don't watch very much TV but we thought we would try the DVR feature one day to save a show. We got an error code on the screen saying we didn't have DVR service. After one disconnection and a twenty minute wait on the phone, we were asked to read to them the serial number on the box that we had. It turns out that the box is not DVR capable. We have to go to them to exchange it. We are so exhausted and fed up with the bulls%it that we still haven't exchanged the box.

 

[imkms]

I dread the thought of ever having to call Comcast due to the run around and the length of time it can take to fix their problem (they somehow think the problems are never theirs). I did have the triple play, only because it was cheaper than the double play but when that promotion was due to expire the new cost was just not worth paying. I now have just the cheapo basic TV package and the lowest speed Internet. I use OOMA for my house phone (excellent BTW) and have Amazon prime to get a few more video options. This saves me $95/month and prevents rolling around 150+ channels looking for something to watch. For those concerned about Internet speed, I can say that at 3.6Mb it works for me. Streaming video is never a problem and everything else I do works fine. I don't do much uploading where speed would have the biggest impact and I only detect the slower speed when I do any large Windows updates, which is not that often and not worth paying an extra $50/month for.

 

[bobpbx]

Thanks for your own personal stories. Misery loves company!

 

[46er]

Comcast is a living nightmare. I have never seen such a large corporation with such poor customer service.

We recently went for the triple play because there were no other "reasonable" packages at the time.

We did the same thing and last year when the 'promo' was up called to complain about the new cost. Got nowhere. Used their online chat feature and was able to get $40 knocked off, but we had to move up a level. I checked what the new cost will be once this expires in June. When I get up off the floor we decided enough is enough and began looking for ways to dump them. That sales technique they use that appears to lower cost we refer to as the 'Comcast death spiral', as you will never again be able to reduce your plan to get a lower cost.

I've posted this link before, but it's worth posting again. The new antenna technology has come a long way since I last used it. It is an option unless you actually need 200 channels which is actually only around 100. A simple test; go to their online TV guide for your Comcast account and click the 'My Channels' tab only, then put it into A-Z channel order and you will see how they misrepresent the number of channels. IMO their use of channels instead of stations is just another one of their deceptive sales techniques. Filing complaints with the BPU bring no joy.

http://www.antennapoint.com/

 

[Arey]

Life was so much simpler when there were only 3 channels, 3 6 & 10 from Phila and tv sets had a pair of rabbit ears atop them. My father once sent a fan letter, the only one he ever wrote, to John Facenda.

 

[imkms]

Life was so much simpler when there were only 3 channels, 3 6 & 10 from Phila and tv sets had a pair of rabbit ears atop them. My father once sent a fan letter, the only one he ever wrote, to John Facenda.

And even with the limited # of channels it seemed like there was always something worth watching!

 

[bobpbx]

And even with the limited # of channels it seemed like there was always something worth watching!

Yeah, wasn't it channel 17 or 29 on UHF that brought us Bruno Sammartino and Haystacks Calhoun?

 

[oceancountynj]

I have the basic/basic package. Under $15.00 a month.Of course I don't get sports channels or the history channel. Talk to a neighbor and pirate off them for $10.00 a month. I have no complaints with comcast

 

[oceancountynj]

Of course I still have to many home shopper networks and Spanish speaking networks. God forbid the illegals cant watch Pancho Villa