Why I LOVE Comcast!!!

Ok, I don't really love Comcast, but I thought that title would get more people to read this post. :-)

Anyway, there have been a few updates since we've gotten cable that I wanted to share with you all. here goes:

• So far, all my bills from Comcast have been correct and for the agreed upon amount (several people commented that I'd never get what was promised for $17 a month.) So far, I have.

• The DVR is GREAT! I can record shows (like soccer games) and then watch them in a fraction of the time they would normally take (fast forward until a goal is scored.) I can "watch" 5 to 6 games in the amount of time it would take to watch one live (note: I don't watch this many games and I do watch a game now and then live -- but it's difficult since many are not on at viewer-friendly times for US viewers.) And on regular shows, cutting out the commercials saves a ton of time as well.

• Looks like I'm going to be able to pay for the entire year's worth of cable simply through the money earned refereeing soccer this fall. I have a post coming up in November with details on how we're doing with this extra money maker.

• Here's what I REALLY love. Comcast called and left a message on our machine the other day that we now have (at no extra charge) NFL Red Zone. What's it show? Every touchdown of every game. We can watch the best plays/moments from eight games in the time it takes to watch one regular game. Click through to the site if you like to see a flavor of what's shown on Sunday. But for us, it's a great way to watch the best moments of several games without having to deal with the two-yard runs. :-)

Oh yeah, and the TV is great! Makes watching that much better.

Comments

[The Biz of Life]

How long before they start hitting you up with their full fees? Their charges seem to creep up a little higher every month on my bill. I'm thinking about dumping Comcast and going old school and just getting my feed off the HD antennae.

[Jeff]

People swear by their DVRs and the big screen is wonderful. It will be interesting when the promo rates expire. Typical HD Comcast and DVR rates are north of $75/month. It is hard to beat that free uncompressed digital signal for your local channels. I have had some luck talking with our cable company's "retention" dept for the past 3+ years, they can usually offer some sort of discount to keep a customer. Good luck and enjoy.

[Terry]

Comcast doesn't offer Fox Business in my area, plus their internet service (when I rented a room in a house that had it) is way overpriced.

Comcast IS good at finding market niches to exploit and gouge. (Like people in apartments who can't get satellite, and internet users in fringe neighborhoods (like mine currently) not served by other providers.)

That's Bombastic!

[Jim]

DVR's are great. Nothing like skipping commercials and watching shows in 2/3 of the time. I'm not too thrilled with Comcast's DVR compared to Tivo though. The Comcast interface is kinda crude and it lacks some key features but it gets the job done.

[Old Limey]

I second the opinions expressed about DVRs, what a huge step forward from VCRs. We love being able to record one show, watch another one simultaneously and still be able to 'Pause' the show we're watching. The library of recorded shows is great when there's nothing else on that we want to watch.

We have a 26in. Samsung LCD HDTV, my wife doesn't want to have to make major changes to our room decor just in order to have a new monster screen, our TV is built into a Calif. redwood bookcase/cabinet unit, in a used brick surround of my own design, that we had constructed over 30 years ago when we added an adjacent fireplace. You men will understand that sometimes compromise is essential if you want to lead a happy life.

It does bother me that Comcast is getting to be a monopoly and the prices increase on a regular basis, however I don't want to switch to Direct-TV and have to put a Dish on my roof. I do take advantage of Comcast's option of putting the bill on a credit card, that at least gives me back a 2% cash reward.

[Darin H]

RedZone is the GREATEST INVENTION KNOWN TO MAN! Heh. As long as a Bronco game isn't on, I'm watching RedZone. I can't live without a DVR, we were in a temp corporate apartment the last two months and didn't have it after 2 years of having it. I didn't even know when shows came on! I was just so used to them showing up on my list. As some show we watch have ended/canceled we've cut back on the amount of TV we watch though. Better for us.

[Dan]

Hey Terry,
1. Their Internet service is overpriced? I can read the news from all sides from around the world. I can watch old music video I can't anywhere else. I can watch shows on Hulu when I want. I can do video conferencing. I think it's a bargain. Maybe you don't need that much speed. Maybe try dial-up. It's only $10.

"Comcast IS good at finding market niches to exploit and gouge."??? You are complaining about them offering you services you can't get from Satellite. You don't have to buy it. They do have different levels of TV service. You don't have to order more than you can afford or anything at all. Cable/Satellite is a bargain compare to all entertainment. For the cost of two people to go see two movies at a theater, I can watch hundreds of movies. I have the DVR and VOD to watch what I want when I want.

Nobody is forcing you to buy the services. Stop whining.

[Financial Samurai]

DVR is great, especially watching football. 3 hr game turns into a 2 hr game. Saving one hour of watching time is worth $500 to me!

[K. Benner]

In my home, we have our own Comcast song:

Always slowing, never going, watching netflix, oh stop, wait, fix--c o m c a n' t

online Halo, oh no game slowed
comcast can't keep up internet mode
c o m c a n' t

[Emily]

Comcast is horrible in our area. We refuse to use it. I'm glad you are having a better experience.

[SAHM]

Just wait until you try to cancel the service. We turned in our cable modem when we bought one. It took about 6 months fighting with them to remove the rental charge. It finally got removed when we went to corporate with the problem. Recently canceled our service to go with Clear (WiMax) and plain old antennae TV, and now Comcrap is sending our account to collections for that same modem that I returned almost 2 years ago and have the receipt to prove it! This was after they lied about the rate we would be charged. Yeah, needless to say, there will be NO more Comcast in our house. Hulu and the network websites are great!

[jeffinwesternwa]

ONLY time I EVE heard a comcast compliment was in the few markets where they have a cable competitor (i.e. Click, Fios, etc), otherwise they are overpriced, terrible pic quality and awful lineup of tiers that don't allow you to purchase just the channels you want, BETTER solution: HERE in Portland, OR area a modest size outdoor antenna gets 25 FREE English, several Spanish and even occasional Russian language show/stations, ...Over the Air (OTA) digital television (dtv) is FREE tv, and better pic quality, similiar choices and NO monthly bill! Couple that with a computer and use Hulu, etc., websittes for shows and maybe redbox or netflix and you have an economical, QUALITY entertainment system for pennies a day, NOT DOLLARS...screw the overpriced cable monopoly!

[Crystal]

I'm so glad you are having a better time with them than we did! If you are ever disappointed, my husband and I are really happy with AT&T U-Verse and their 4-at-a-time DVR. We've had the same bill for more than a year. We don't spend much on other entertainment, so we completely agree that having a DVR is AWESOME!!!

[JimL]

We have had no problems with Comcast in the past. Currently, however, we are U-verse customers as the deal was better than the other options. Like Crystal, we love the DVR and I find it easier to use than what is offered by the others.

[Mark]

RoadRunner Rocks!

[Old Limey]

I am a happy Comcast customer and have had great service with zero problems. I'm too cheap for Pay-for-view so I never watch any of Comcast's movies as the free movies are generally very old and ones I am not interested in.

However if you like movies I can recommend NETFLIX. It's a fantastic local company, started in Los Gatos in Silicon Valley but now has service centers all over the USA. I am on a low cost, one DVD at a time, plan that costs me about $9/month. What I love though is their software that lets you search through their whole collection of thousands of titles using search words and phrases to find what you are looking for. You can then, if you want, go to the customer review section to see what dozens of other viewers thought of the movie - this feature has many times saved me from renting movies that I knew I wouldn't like. You build a queue of movies and when you return one they ship the one that is then top of your queue.

Another great feature is that you rate movies that you have watched from 1 to 5 stars and then their software starts to produce lists of suggestions of movies that it thinks you will like based upon your ratings. They also have lots of movies that you can watch from your computer, several times I have found that just watching a few minutes of a movie I am thinking of renting can tell you whether you do or don't want to watch the whole thing. If I mail back a DVR on a Monday, they get it Tuesday, mail the next one back the same day which arrives Wednesday. The service has been terrific. I have also watched some great movies that I never new existed.

[JimL]

Old Limey's recommendation on Netflix is great. Several of the Blu-Ray players will not let you stream from Netflix in HD, which makes it as easy and convenient as possible.

[Terry]

Dan -

I could be wrong, but I've long considered their cable pricing exorbitant, and with perpetual price creep. And when I had DirecTV at my last place - with six rooms of DirectTV, that worked out to something like $12-$15 per person per month And the programming was WAY better than Comcast: we had not only Fox Business, but MLB *and* NFL plus umpteen flavors of ESPN, most of which Comcast didn't have (at least not on expanded basic).

Okay, I suppose that Comcast has a premium tier with at least some of those, but our DirectTV package was much better than Comcast expanded basic and also cheaper.

And who has a landline these days? It would cost me $30 per month for a landline before I could get dial-up for an additional $10.

[JimL]

I think pricing can really vary by area. When FIOS and U-Verse move into an area, it seems that more deals come out with either lower package pricing or rebates. While it is somewhat a pain to switch services, it does help to keep costs down.

[Dan]

Terry,
I was just trying to say cable/Internet/Satellite are discretionary spending. We can live without them and nobody is entitle to these services.

The prices are determined by what the market is willing to pay. More competition would control the price, but with or without competition I think the price would continue to go up if the consumers are willing to buy the service.

I don't think I was promoting any services or company.

I just think buying something you don't need then complain about the price is like driving pass a Honda dealership to buy a BMW then complain about how much more it cost.

[Christy]

You're right . . your headline got my attention! Glad to see Comcast is honoring their promotional price. I do love Comcast and I have a TV - High speed Internet - Phone bundle, but dang they are expensive here in Houston! I'm not complaining, I pay it, right? Only wish we would see a $17 deal.

[Jody]

Well, you are one of the few blog sites that has positive things to say about Comcast. Every other site talks about their bad experiences but you have listed a good experience. Very, very, rare!!!