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Comcast.Never Again, i mean it this time!

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
Staff member
Well for years and years i've had nothing but trouble with Comcast. From equipment issues to being told the wrong information over the phone countless times. I've always gone back to Comcast because they've had the best selection of service in my area. Well, let the record state, that from this day till the end of my life i will never again subscribe to any Comcast service.

I recently moved from TN to IL and before the move I decided to cancel my Comcast service and i'd look in to my options when i got to IL. Well i called Comcast and informed them of my move, "no i don't want to transfer my service to IL, no i don't know anyone that can take over my service here" so they finally agreed to close my account. I told them i was leaving the very next day and asked "it would be easier if i just take the equipment with me and mail it back to comcast from my new address", i didn't have time to drive to another city to drop of the equipment while dealing with the move. The Comcast rep assured me "sure thats not a problem, we can mail the return boxes to your new address in IL" great! i gave the address, loaded the U-Haul and hit the road.

Well a week goes by and no Comcast shipping boxes show up, so i call Comcast, "oh no sir, im sorry you were miss-informed, we can't send boxes to an adress that does not have an active Comcast account". ok so what do i do now? i'm not going to drive all the way back to TN especially after a Comcast employee assured me they could send me return boxes, "you can take them to any UPS Store and they will send them back to the service center here in TN" ok thats a better option, thank you.

I drive to the closest UPS store.."comcast? in TN? hmmmm let me look....no, usually they send you a pre-paid label" ok.. but Comcast told me to bring it here and you would ship it for me.."hmm no sorry, i dont even have an address" *sigh* perhaps its my fault for ever listening to comcast in the first place...

so i call comcast back "no sir, sorry you were mis-informed" yes you've said that bout 3 times now, your sorry really does nothing for me, let me speak to your supervisor. "ok sir, you can take your equipment to any Comcast office in IL, let me look up the closest one.....ok here is the address, just take them there and drop them off"

ok...great...lets try this again....so i drive to the comcast office wait in line for bout 20 minutes..hi i need to drop this equipment off, i closed my account a week ago... "ok let me look up your account....hmmm i cant find anything here...oh its an account from Tennessee? oh we cant access those accounts, there is no way for us to check these in to the system" !!!!!! ok so what do i do now? i've been told the wrong information bout 4 times now. "well you can call the customer service number.." NO....This is a Comcast office, these are Comcast cable boxes, my account is closed, i am leaving this equipment here, deal with it.

and then i exited the building empty handed.

all told i spent bout 2 hrs on the phone, 1 1/2 hrs driving and after years of this kind of abuse from Comcast and their lack of training and knowledge i will never ever again use Comcast for anything.

THE END
 
I feel your pain bro. About fifteen years ago I dropped our local cable and signed up for DirecTv. When I called the cable co. I told them I wanted to stop service. "Where are you moving sir?" I am not moving. I am discontinuing service. "Yes, but I need to know your new address so we can connect service there." I am not moving I simply do not want to pay for your service anymore. "Oh, you mean you are actually wanting to disconnect the service altogether?" YES, I want to completely cancel service as in, not paying you anymore. "Oh, why would you do that?" I am signing up with DirecTv. "Well, you really should be careful you know. Those satellite services are kind of..." She trailed off into nothingness. Just disconnect it I says. And hung up.

They honestly do not know why so many people ditched them in the nineties for satellite. And ironically satellite services have now become nearly as bad and in some ways worse than the cable cos. I quit them all nearly three years ago and went to internet and streaming only. Not a true tv solution but who cares? It works well enough.


Just as sure as the cable idiots denied the advent of satellite and the telcos defended the land line phone in the face of cell phones(particularly for rural customers) they are all hiding from the streaming avalanche that is coming down the pike. Sooner or later you will simply install an app for your favourite channel and pay by the channel by the month for service. The bandwidth cost is up to your provider. I have been told over and over this cannot happen. Usually by the same types who told me mobiles would never displace land lines for average consumers and cable companies would never see a real challenge from satellite companies because their programming wasn't deep enough. Oi.

Cheers ,Todd
 
While you were given wrong advice a few times......why did you wait until the last day to cancel service?

Comcast is an agglomeration of individual regions loosely connected. Its hard enough doing transactions across county lines within a region, never mind across states.
The office you left the gear at may have no way of getting that gear to TN or any way of crediting your account. You may well get billed by the TN branch for the equipment.
 

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
Staff member
The move was very sudden and for reasons i won't get in to here. (no, not running from the law or anything illegal) I originally had planned to leave a week from when i actually did, which would have gave me time for everything. Well life had other plans and i had to head to IL ASAP.

I called Comcast after my nerves were calm and explained where the equipment was and how it ended up there and they said once they input the serial numbers off the equipment it will pop up my account and they will be able to credit them and take care of it. why the lady at the office didn't know this?....i dont care. of course i would not be the least bit surprised if i got charged for them. no matter what they wont see one more penny from me, the equipment is at the comcast office, im sure they can figure out a way to get it back home.
 
Jason:

Can you get RCN in your area? I've got them where I live close to downtown Chicago, and I've been very happy with them. All their support people are US based, and they've been very quick to address the few problems I've had. No bandwidth metering either, which is a big plus for me: my offsite backups at CrashPlan.com are over 500GB and growing, and I run a SubSonic music server off my PC to stream my massive digital music collection to my smart phone and laptop when I'm away from home. That's enough bandwidth usage to get me kicked off Comcast, if I still used them.

Nick
 
I gave up on cable TV of any sort, whether it comes by land or sky. To me it is a waste of money. With an antenna I get all the local stations in HD. With few exceptions, everyone I know has pay TV, and they spend just as much time as I do going, "why is there nothing on!" Only they are paying somewhere between $75-150/month to do so. I also have a friend who just used Netflix and iTunes for there TV viewing.

From what I can tell you can watch almost anything on the internet these days, whether it's sporting events, movies or TV shows, so why bother paying extra for it.
 

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
Staff member
Jason:

Can you get RCN in your area? I've got them where I live close to downtown Chicago, and I've been very happy with them. All their support people are US based, and they've been very quick to address the few problems I've had. No bandwidth metering either, which is a big plus for me: my offsite backups at CrashPlan.com are over 500GB and growing, and I run a SubSonic music server off my PC to stream my massive digital music collection to my smart phone and laptop when I'm away from home. That's enough bandwidth usage to get me kicked off Comcast, if I still used them.

Nick

no dice, i just looked and im outside their service area. they must strictly stay around the immediate Chicago area

I gave up on cable TV of any sort, whether it comes by land or sky. To me it is a waste of money. With an antenna I get all the local stations in HD. With few exceptions, everyone I know has pay TV, and they spend just as much time as I do going, "why is there nothing on!" Only they are paying somewhere between $75-150/month to do so. I also have a friend who just used Netflix and iTunes for there TV viewing.

From what I can tell you can watch almost anything on the internet these days, whether it's sporting events, movies or TV shows, so why bother paying extra for it.

This is the way im going. I just need to get internet from someone. Right now i'm using my phone as a hot spot, which cost me an extra $25 per month and limits me to 5GB of data, been using it 10 days and havent used 1GB yet. i just don't visit YouTube or stream anything and its actually pretty quick.
 
This is the way im going. I just need to get internet from someone. Right now i'm using my phone as a hot spot, which cost me an extra $25 per month and limits me to 5GB of data, been using it 10 days and havent used 1GB yet. i just don't visit YouTube or stream anything and its actually pretty quick.

In Chicago land you will get quite a few stations from an antenna, especially if you invest in a decent powered one. I have a fairly large one that I have in my attic.

I had some "fun" issues with comcast as well. They were the only people in town at the time that offered broadband internet. I got so annoyed with them that I got an aircard from Verizon which was more expensive and slower, but at least I didn't have to deal with comcast anymore. This was when there was unlimited data of course. I now just use my phone as well, which is cheaper and the speed isn't terrible. It is still cheaper than most other internet options out there.
 

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
Staff member
I now just use my phone as well, which is cheaper and the speed isn't terrible. It is still cheaper than most other internet options out there.
exactly, i agree. i was already paying $25 for 2gb of data so another $25 for 5gb and internet on my computer. and there is a good LTE signal in my house. i've been thinking "why didn't i do this before?"
 
I thought about ditching cable, but between the hundreds of channels and OnDemand I never really have trouble finding good stuff to watch. I've thought about cutting the cord and going to streaming only, but I'd still have to keep Comcast as a bed partner since it's the only decent internet in my area, the DSL here is horrible and overpriced...
 
I cut the cable this past year, and I'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner. I got an antenna from antennaHub for $40 (one time cost). Local stations broadcast in HD (1080i) and it's better than what I was getting with a dish, and as good or better than cable. It's crystal clear. You will need a smart tv (HDMI and ethernet ports). I have a 7.5 MbpS DSL service for $45/mnth. A Roku box is $60-100 and a one time cost. Add Netflix for $8/mnth. I will probably get a Chromebox soon so I can get everything available over the internet, though there are other boxes. The only thing I can't get is ESPN and NFL Network. Most tv shows are available, on a delayed basis, from their websites (free) or from Netflix/Hulu. You can also get tv stations and shows from around the world - which is great. It changes what you watch, and gives you a much wider selection. Like I said, I can't imagine going back to cable or dish.
 
I thought about ditching cable, but between the hundreds of channels and OnDemand I never really have trouble finding good stuff to watch. I've thought about cutting the cord and going to streaming only, but I'd still have to keep Comcast as a bed partner since it's the only decent internet in my area, the DSL here is horrible and overpriced...

Is it really that good?:biggrin1:
 
Is it really that good?:biggrin1:

Yeah, maybe it's because I don't sit in front of the TV that much and hate sports, so I'm not worried about the lack of sports coverage. All I have is the basic, expanded and preferred lineups with HBO and DVR's in two rooms. Like I said, between all the channels, countless shows/movies on OnDemand and recording stuff I miss on the DVR, I can always find something to watch. I pay $65 for this package (another $50 for internet), and I find it fairly reasonable, if I didn't I would of ditched it long ago.
 
hahaha. never ceases to amaze me. I mailed back a direct tv box back in 2009 to Direct TV and they are still looking for it.
I live in nyc. some may say a privelege but it allows me to take nice walks and enjoy a newspaper and coffee within walking distance and visit friends. I cut off cable years ago and never looked back. I read much more and have more hobbies.
Remember many years ago when we didn;t shell out $50 a month for cell phones and $100 for tv, internet and cable? that's $150 in telecom bills that almost eevryone pays (add more cell phone plans and its preposterous) . I'm off teh grid and like it. I keep a low speed internet connection and rent movies. i kept my parents old phone no. from 35 years ago in case old friends call
 
here's a tip when I lived with my girlfriend whom had comcast. tell them you got laid off and want to cancel. they'll load you with freebies just to keep you. goes to show how much they may be really raking in
 
Let me ask everyone who posted to this thread - in each of your daily lives don't you deal with sharpies & those who have been exposed to stupid gas - you all know in your heart of hearts that it's not just Comcast these days ! - unfortunately it's the way life is & some days it's all uphill and other days you come home to your wife/husband and say "I just met an incredible person today, let me tell you about it" - it probably balances out ??
 

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
Staff member
if a customer has a good experience they are likely to only tell a few people about it, or no one at all, but if they have a bad experience they are going to make it a point to tell everyone they know. my folks have always had comcast growing up and i recently had them and i was always the one that had to "call it in". have i had good experiences with Comcast...probably so, but i can say without a doubt the bad experiences i have had with them greatly out weigh the good. Hold times are often way to long, there are about 7 different "main menus". you have to *verify your account with a computer then again with the rep, then each and every time you get transferred and trust me you will be transfered at least once, Every cable box i've had, had to be exchanged, didn't record NEW shows, randomly reset itself, wouldn't connect to ondemand, wouldn't pick up the HBO i'm paying extra for, the modems they provide often had to be reset or replaced.....i can't think of what else at the moment but im sure there is more. We are not talking about some run of the mill cable company, we are talking about a multi-billion dollar cable company, they merged/bought NBC for goodness sake! (Comcast controls 51%) How bout investing in some equipment and training!

*i get why you have to verify your account/identity, and can't really get mad at that, i'm just saying it gets annoying*
 
We haven't had cable or satellite for 10 years. I guess local channels have been enough for us. We did have netflix streaming for a few years, but have since stopped that. I am looking for a new Internet provider though. Mine keeps jacking the rates up and is up to over $50 a month for 12MB. Anyone have any experience with Uverse internet?
 
We have uverse and no complaints. 54 dollars and change per month. 12Mbs download speed and a 250Gb bandwidth cap. Never had so much as a warning we came near the cap and my daughters stream a LOT of Netflix. We really have no complaints. We have only Internet.

Cheers, Todd
 
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