Comcast, Round #3

For those of you new to this story, read these posts (in order) to catch up to the rest of us:

• We Got Cable TV 

• Why I LOVE Comcast!!!

• Comcast Blows It and then Saves It 

• Comcast Blows It, then Recovers, Again

So here's the latest in my Comcast saga.

We returned from our Easter vacation on April 6 and found out that Comcast had turned off our HD channels. You know, some of the channels we got for free as a "we're sorry" for last time's mess up. Sure, we still had the channels in non-HD, but who can go back to watching regular TV after having seen HD? Not me!!! ;-)

So I called my "special" contact -- the guy who was supposed to make sure all was well with my service (he's someone higher up in customer service) -- a couple days later (I was busy and it took me some time). I got a call from him the next week (he was out on spring break the previous week). Here's what happened: the local Comcast team had done an audit, saw we weren't paying to get certain features (they're giving them to us for free, again, from last time), and turned them off from outside our home. Interesting that they only turned off the HD -- not the rest of the premium channels.

He said we'd need schedule a date to turn it back on, and I received a call at work from a "regular" Comcast representative (someone who I guess works for him) a few days later to make an appointment. Apparently, even though they can turn off things without us being there, they require us to be there for them to be turned back on.

I told her to call my wife and set up an appointment. She called, missed my wife, and left a message that she had automatically set up an appointment for 8 am to 10 am on Sunday (April 18) morning for us to get service and to call back if this didn't work. Now for those of you who read this blog regularly, do you think I might have a prior commitment on Sunday morning??????

My wife tried to call back four times -- the first three she gave up after being on hold for 15 minutes (one time even longer) each time. Finally she reached someone, cancelled the appointment for the 18th and rescheduled one for the next available time -- Monday, April 26. Yes, we're now working on the third week of "problems" before we get it fixed. But we're patient and willing to work through the process.

Then things went south. When we got home from church on April 18, we had a ticket on our door and several voicemail messages from Comcast saying they were there to check our cable per our appointment and we weren't there. My wife called them back (she got someone quickly this time) and found out that the appointment had never been cancelled and the new one never rescheduled. So she rescheduled officially for a new time on April 26.

Later that day (4-18), I discovered that we didn't have the soccer channels we paid for. This is when I hit the roof! Cutting off something we were supposed to get for free was one thing, but cutting off a service we were paying for was another matter altogether. And not to mention we're in the final weeks of the English Premier League and the semifinals of the Champion's League. I know that doesn't mean much to most of you, but imagine your TV went off a few days before the NFL Championship games (AFC and NFC). You wouldn't be happy, would you?

So I called and left a terse message for my Comcast contact saying I had had it and I wanted this issue resolved now -- not on April 26. He didn't call back by 9:30 am the next morning (Monday morning), so I called him and left another message. Got called back to me on 4-19 at 2 pm and told he would manage the problem himself all the way through the process -- until I was satisfied.

He called me back at 5 pm and said someone would be at my house before 7 pm. At 6 pm, the local guy showed up to fix my cable, but didn't know what to do. He said, "What am I supposed to do?" I wanted to tell him to turn on everything, but I gave him the details on the packages I was supposed to receive. It took him about 15 minutes to get us back up to speed. The one problem: he had to bill us at the regular rate (versus our $17 per month) because he had no authorization to do otherwise. I told him that was fine -- that I would cover it with my contact.

The next day (Tuesday, April 20), my contact called me to see if all was well. I told him it was and that he needed to adjust the price to make sure I was billed appropriately. In addition, I told him to be sure and cancel the appointment for Monday. He assured me all was taken care of. He was half right. The appointment was taken care of -- no one showed up. But on April 28, I received a bill for $89.37. Ugh. I have a call into my contact (he's out until today) -- I'll let you know if anything interesting occurs.

From here, we'll see how it goes. I started this process by giving them the benefit of the doubt, but now my money is on another screw-up happening again before too long. The most likely candidates are continued billing issues and/or the local guys changing my service again. I hope it all works out well though -- it sure would make life easier for both me and my contact.

BTW, I saw that the Consumerist named Comcast the worst company in America the other day. What have I gotten myself into?

Comments

[Peter]

Wow. You've been extremely patient with them, you would think that they could get things right after so many tries. I'm currently using Comcast as well, but haven't had near as many problems. Go figure.

[billbill]

Sorry, I can't stop smiling! I have to admit I was feeling kind of jealous about your positive experiences with Comcast at the beginning. Now I feel like you have reached the par that I am on with my Comcast experiences.

Hope it all works out for a few more billing cycles til they do it to you again.

[The Biz of Life]

Maybe it's time to go to the HD antennae on the roof, and Netflix and Hulu.

[jim]

"Maybe it's time to go to the HD antennae on the roof, and Netflix and Hulu."

FMF had unreliable antenna reception and he watches European soccer which isn't available on broadcast networks or Hulu.

[Lurker Carl]

Wow, it's Comcastic!

It seems that entire industry has a workforce that has no motivation to keep their customers happy. Verizon FiOS recently wire my neighborhood, several neighbors who contracted service are having similar billing and service issues. DirecTV/Wild Blue isn't any better.

[Emily]

Get Dish! I have had them for 4 years with only 1 issue (our dish needed to be realligned), but no billing issues at all, and not once have they raised our rates. Comcast sucks and you shoulnd't give them your money purly out of principle.

[Christy]

$17 per month was too good to be true!

If only the rest of us could have a special contact.

I actually like Comcast products, but since I don't like crummy service, I have been working to cancel them after my last bad experience. I had the TV-Phone-Internet bundle, but I purchased an Ooma (VoIP phone product) so I can drop the Comcast phone service. Still working on my alternative-to-cableTV strategy.

[J in FL]

Oh FMF... you should compile all these posts into the epic saga that it is, and put it in the top posts section of your website :)

I do feel bad for you though.. esp with the Premier League situation. I would be quite heated.

[Jon]

This is why these types of companies never go out of business. People are willing to put up with extremely sub-standard service because they are getting a good rate (or at least they are trying to).
Call their corporate headquarters (215-665-1700) and you will most likely get executive customer service. I give companies one chance to fix an issue before calling the corporate headquarters. If the issue is still not fixed after that, I cancel any service I was paying for. I've got better things to do with my time than constantly call customer service and be placed on hold.
If people don't start speaking with their wallets, then nothing will ever happen.

[Tim]

I can't imagine investing all that time and extreme annoyance for saving $20 or $30 a month. Just call and cancel and then they will transfer you to the "cancellation department". That's where you let them have it, and list your demands and if they don't offer you the world, bail and go to Dish Network.

[Pop]

So you have no time to actively manage your portfolio (and think it's a waste of time to do so), but you can waste untold hours of your time to pay for TV? Lovely.

[Matt]

WOW Cable( Wide Open West) has been fine for me. No billing issues, no service issues either. Comcast is also available and I have heard nothing but complaints from neighbors. ATT Uverse is also available but some reviews have been warm. To many tree in the hood for satelite TV.

But then again I still have analog TV's. I don't want to upgrade until thye die or cable no longer supports them.

[BillV]

My favorite from Comcast:
They can turn your service off from outside; but you must be there for them to turn it on.

While you are talking to your contact, ask him why?

[billyjobob]

My girlfriend just signed up for Comcast. I was telling her all the problems you were having. I hope it goes better for her. If it doesn't, I'll let you know. Misery loves company. Right? ;-)

[Bad_Brad]

I'm just gonna come right out and say it.

I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!!

[Old Limey]

I am a very satisfied customer of Comcast, have been with them for many years and the service has been great but since I haven't tried to get my cost lowered I'm probably paying more than some customers that don't mind all the hassle of trying to plead with them for a lower price.

I have Basic + Extended cable (without Internet) which includes about 280 channels, but no special channels that cost extra. I pay $86/month in the SF Bay area and that also includes a Comcast DVR with 2 hard drives, and 3 set top boxes. Prices vary quite a bit from one region to another and of course there's always the special "Come on" deals for limited periods.

I agree with Pop's comment about putting a value on one's time.

[Tuan]

You should compile it and send it to Consumerist. Or follow Consumerist EECB email bomb and send it all to the executives at Comcast.

[Eric]

Well to the anti-Comcast crowd FMF. It's a cold, cold stay here.

[Money Beagle]

You've put up with way more than I could handle. I dumped Comcast about eight years ago. They took a week to schedule a repair to my internet service which was completely down. I stuck it out using my back-up dial-up. They came out and fixed it, but within 36 hours it went down again. I called and they told me it'd be another week. My next call was to the competing cable company who was able to do a full install the next day, so that extra week that Comcast was unable to deviate from cost them eight years (and counting) of revenue.

Can't wait to read the upcoming story on how easy/hard it is to dump Comcast, I'm sure it's coming :)

[Bad_Brad]

Money Beagle - it is hard to dump Comcast. I should say, it is easy to make the decision, it is hard to actually do it. They kept billing me for a full three billing cycles after I had dumped them. They were like the Hotel California, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

[Budgeting in the Fun Stuff]

I'm not going to bore anyone again with my Comcast story (see past FMF posts), but I will say I hope it works out.

They are on my I-wouldn't-use-this-company-again-unless-tortured list along with Fedex and Chevy.

[Jenni]

At what point do you decide that all the time you're spending to chase these guys around and fix things is worth it? Seriously, I'm asking ...

[FMF]

Jenni --

Are you really serious?

[Diane]

Hate them - I cut cable off completely and am digging life without the hassle and expense of Comcast. Saving over $700 a year and watching all I want on netflix, hulu and other streaming options.

[Nick]

Here's a little bonus tidbit on why comcast is one of the worst companies out there... I had a cable/Internet package with them and recently decided to get rid of the cable and continue with their Internet service. Mainly just because I don't watch that much cable and the shows I do watch I can get streaming on either netflix or online.

Anyway, so I call them to just stop my cable and keep internet (I'm under no contract or anything). They tell me that's fine, but they are going to charge me $10 to make the change.

Here's the kicker though which makes no sense to me from a business perspective... if I were to cancel my comcast account entirely (and say use Verizon for Internet) they wouldn't be able to charge me a $10 fee.

So basically they are charging me a fee to STAY a comcast customer. What kinda sense does that make?!

[Pat]

I will never do business with Comcast.
I had Comcast cable and internet for year. I had no problems. The service was very reliable. Anytime I had an outage, it was related to accidents or major weather damage.

I had the basic cable package, no frills, no premium channels. I live half way between Philly and New York. One of the great things about this area is we get both NY and Philly channels. During NFL season, we often have a choice of different games on the NY and Philly channels.

Then the digital TV transition took place. Comcast moved the NY ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox affiliates to their digital tier. I called and complained and was told, repeatedly, that it was because of the digital transition. According to http://www.dtv.gov/ "If you subscribe to cable service, the DTV transition did not affect any TV sets that are connected to your cable services." Yet everyone I spoke to at Comcast parroted the exact same line, it was the digital TV transition. My basic package cost, at the time, $16 a month. They removed four channels (that I know of) and moved them into a "digital tier" that cost $60 per month. I complained and argued and they gave me six months of free digital cable and free HBO. When the free period ended, I canceled my Comcast service and have never looked back. I will NOT do business with them again.

While I had the Comcast digital box, I did discover something interesting which I will share. I accidentally connected the digital box incorrectly. I still had a VCR, and I ran the cable into the VCR first, then into the digital cable box. This had two interesting side effects. One, it made it impossible to use on demand services. The box was unable to communicate with the home office with the VCR in the way. The second side effect was that I got every channel. All the movie channels, all the sports channels, everything. Once I connected the digital cable box correctly, the situation corrected itself and I was able to use the on demand services again.

[Robin K.]

I had a very similar saga with DirectTV. At certain points, they outright lied to me and I never did get my money back. If you're looking to change services, don't choose DirectTV.

[elderly librarian]

I love the fact that there's a comcast ad right beside your posting!!

[Kim]

I enjoyed reading this series, as I have had my own set of Comcast issues (see posts at http://kimskitchensink.blogspot.com/search/label/Comcast). It's such a large company that it seems no communication actually happens - I think customer service agents are instructed to promise permanent low fees just to appease the customer, because when you call back, you'll never talk to the same person twice. And even when you do, there is miscommunication between that person and his/her direct employees. Nobody knows what is going on, and nobody can provide any permanent fixes.

[Julia]

I just read the whole saga. Thanks for sharing it.
Sounds pretty typical of Comcast/Qwest/DirectTv. None of them quite have it figured out.
Personally, I just try to keep it simple. I try to find the lowest price for the bare minimum services that I want. I avoid promotions that add features. Even if they are offered without any cost over what I'd be paying for the minimum. It's always the extra features that you don't really need that cause the problem - they just aren't worth it. Also, I used to think it made more sense to bundle services with one company to keep it simple and save money. This actually gives them more stuff to screw up. The best service I ever recieved was when I had basic cable from Comcast, internet from Qwest, and phone from Verizon. When I bundled cable/internet with Comcast, they screwed stuff up. When I bundled phone/internet with Qwest, they screwed stuff up. At my last home I had all three bundled with Qwest. That is the worst!
Most of my trouble has been with Qwest though. It seems 1 in 3 reps will take the time to read all the notes on my account and tell me as they are adding a note to the account. The other 2 in 3 have to be reminded that there should be a note, or I have to ask them to make a note and then find out next time that the note isn't actually there.
I always request the technicians call me 30 min. before arriving. They never do. Some will call me when they get to my house and I'm not there. If I can get there within 10-15 min they'll wait for me. But nobody ever calls me in advance like I ask.

[Julia]

I do want to add one thing:
A year ago I subscribed to Netflix. I quickly found that all those times that there's nothing on TV, I can always find a great series on Netflix instant viewing that I've never heard of. When I moved in Feb, I did not subscribe to any cable at all. I have high speed internet (Comcast) which I would have with or without Netflix, with or without cable. My primary entertainment is Netflix. At $10/mo this is a far better value (and I've never had any bad or neglectful service) than any cable package. I suppose somebody that likes to watch sports won't find this nearly as effective, but anybody that just watches shows can watch those shows for a lot less (or free. Try looking for them on the network website or Hulu). I'd encourage anybody and everybody to look for ways to avoid cable.

[Funny about Money]

Wow! What an excellent reason to get used to life without cable TV at all. There have to be better ways to entertain oneself--maybe playing soccer instead of sitting on the sofa watching other people play? I don't subscribe to cable and don't miss it. But then...for some reason I'm so busy I don't have time to watch even the broadcast pap. Most of the things I want to see are on PBS, and most of that can be accessed by Internet at your convenience.

[FMF]

Funny --

We do play/ref soccer -- several games over the course of every week. Hard to add any more...

[Amanda]

Comcast is HORRIBLE!!! My husband and I have had our fair share of issues with them...its just too bad that we do not have many other options when it comes to cable service. It's so hard not to FLIP out on someone over the phone when things like this happen...kudos to you for keeping your cool so far...

[Sarah]

Many don't agree with Comcast I use to be a customer of them and never really and a problem. I looked at my billing after I started being an employee with DISH and saw how much I was paying for everything. It was more than I had expected. I now have DISH service with their TV everywhere. I am able to watch all my favorite shows live off my laptop or Android. I heard that Comcast has the same promotion. So I decide to check it out my sister is a Comcast subscriber. Turns out that it only works on an IPAD and you have to be in your home to pick up the Comcast WiFi connection. With DISH you have the ability to travel more outside your home like a light rail or a doctor’s office.