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July 18, 2012

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That's the problem with a lot of these big companies - their customer service sucks. I guess if you think about it from their shoes, losing 1 or 2 customers for a billion dollar company isn't that big of a deal.

Andrea at So Over Debt constantly has problems with comcast as well. Unfortunately it is her only option. Luckily I can choose from Comcast or Knology. You can bet which one I have... Knology :)

"But you are getting a lot of value for what you're paying."

Typical Comcrap arrogance. "Value" is perceived in the eye of the buyer, not the seller, you nitwit...

ah, just cut the cord already. How many hours of your life do you waste every year dealing with them and writing about it? :)

The problem is they know that they have people cornered. Most subscribers talk a big game but are unable to bring themselves to cut the service, regardless of the outrageous prices. Cable companies know this. Until they have like 5 or 10 million subscribers cancel, I don't think they would be concerned. For every person that actually gets the guts to cancel there is another sucker waiting to sign up.

Comcast is terrible and the worst part about it is that they don't care. They know that they either have a captive audience in many areas or that most people, even if they complain, won't bother doing anything about it. For the few that do take their business elsewhere, they're willing to 'suffer' that cost because it's still cheaper than what it would cost them to actually improve their service and be more competitive.

This is why as soon as we bought our first house, we switched from Comcast to Verizon FIOS. We were forced into Comcast with our apartment, and it was awful. Terrible customer service and terrible service (don't really want to go into details now, but it's pretty much the same old story you've heard countless times on the internet...). Then we got the house and have gotten consistently excellent customer service and service with Verizon FIOS. Yes, it has ended up costing a bit more than Comcast after the promotional period, but to us, it is worth it because we no longer have to deal with Comcast. We are willing to pay a little more for the superior service Verizon gives us. Consider that when you contemplate where to give your business to, FMF. How much extra per month would you pay not to deal with Comcast? :)

My complaint about Comcast isn't the price.
Its the service. My internet goes out almost daily at home, and at my work we have Comcast, and it goes out daily there as well, slowing business because we can't get into our systems.

That's comcastic.

I hate comcast too. I just want internet connection and they keep bugging me to add phone and TV. $50 is too much to pay for cable.

We have Comcast for internet (only option for our current location.) We recently downgraded speed once the introductory price expired. I frequently lose connection only to have it kick in again 10 seconds later - very annoying for Skype calls with long distance family. They show no problems with the connection, sigh. We've just dealt with it since there's not really another option for us right now.

Cut the cord. Stick with FREE over-the-air HD channels offered in all Metro and likely (a few channels) in rural areas. I did this several years ago. After the initial sting of missing sports wore off, I have no regrets. Less tv time means, more time for other, much more valuable activities...

I have had COMCAST ever since it was available and am totally satisfied with both the technician service (if needed), the reliability of the cable service, and the performance of their equipment. All of the TV content providers offer a bargain rate for new customers that is limited to a certain time period, and then it gets raised to what everyone else is paying. My time is too valuable to waste in a lengthy, exasperating and futile attempt to get a company to give "ME" a lower price. It's one thing bargaining in the marketplaces of third world companies where they think you're a stupid tourist that doesn't know any better if you don't do it, but in the USA the main places where bargaining is expected is at Car Dealers and that's a painful and annoying process that, thank goodness, I rarely get to experience.

One's time is far better spent researching and managing one's investments.

I had a very similar conversation with Comcast recently about my cable bill as it recently was increased to an unacceptable level.

I called their customer support several times even offering to include my home phone into my services (was just TV/Internet at the time), if they could give me a lower rate than I was paying now. They refused to bargain and would not give me any breaks on my bill.

I decided to switch to DirectTV last month and have been happy ever since. I got a great price for 2 years and I estimate that it will save me close to $700 over the next 2 years. Even when all the rebates expire at the end of year 2, I will still be paying less than Comcast for more services (more channels, and 2 additional HD boxes).

I recommend DirectTV, but do your own research to see if it is right for you and your family. If you do decide to go with DirectTV, please you use my referral link. It will save you, and me, $10 off your bill over 10 months.

Referral link: http://refer.directv.com/a/clk/HvnD5

People I know who have the most problems with comcast are people who only have one choice for cable. I have two and the one I have is not comcast. Comcast wanted to set me up with there 500 channels, dvr, internet, phone and multiple blah, blah, blah all for a low introductory price of.....and when it goes up just call and threaten to cancel and they will renew the price I was told by yhe sales person. Umm Yeah. I don't want the hassle.

I find 500 channels of nothing is still nothing so the 80 channels I have are fine, if I want a movie I go to netflix, hulu or whoever. The internet is more important to me than the cable.

Your only choice is vote with your wallet and make the change.

Bundling saved me a bundle.($40 a month) I wish I had done it sooner.

I agree, Comcast is awful. I thought my pain was over when I moved to California, but it turns out Cox is just as bad.

Whenever I call, the first thing I say is, "I want to cancel my service". This immediately cuts out any sales pitches, but you usually get transferred to their cancellation department. There you get a rep that (sometimes) will try to improve your situation to keep you as a customer.

I apologize for the trouble and we are reaching back out to our local leadership team to ensure you are receiving the best package rates available.

As I am reading through the comments, I would love to help others who are having any problem and concerns with Comcast. Please email us [email protected] and we can get more details and assist.

I despise giving money to companies that I feel don't deserve it. When I was single, I cut cable completly and was thrilled. I had a Tivo hooked up to my antena on the HDTV...with that and Netflix and I was set.

Since getting married, that's not an option :) so we recently moved from cable to DirecTV. So far, happy with the service for the first 3 months, (even still with no agreement with Viacom) and saving a considerable amount ($45-$65 monthly)in total. Also the DVR and user experience is much better IMO, and surprisingly, I immediately noticed the picture is sharper than our cable providers.
Hoever, there is alot of time involved in setup, I think it was 3 hours or so, not to mention the time on the phone getting started. Good luck!

We have had okay luck with Comcast. They did up our bill spontaneously because they said we were getting HD when we didn't request it...umm, we didn't request it, it just appeared (not our fault...they did reverse the charges)...and they never came back to bury our cable last fall, so my hubby ended up doing it (very carefully) even after calling in and talking with field rep/tech that happened to be stopped in front of our neighbor's house.

WHY would ANYONE pay for tv? Most suburban/urban US gets ALL major and most minor networks over the air (OTA) in uncompressed true HD. That's fREE people!! Here in Portland, OR metro, thats 25 english channels, a few in Spanish and one in Russian. Pay for TV?? WHY, WHY, for a one time $100 or less, an antenna, HDMI cable (connect your pc for HULU or if your addicted to TV, HULU+ or netflix and you've got it all. Save thousands of $$, forever and ever. Remember what we all did for tv 35+ years ago? now there's 3x, 4, 5x more channels available,on teh air now, cancel the cable/satellite! It's all there for 90% of us...FREE!!! P.S. I see MLS soccer and often international soccer couple times a week on my free tv channels too....

Love that some guy from Comcast commented. If you could assist those people who have to deal with Comcast, then you already would have. Plain and simple.

I have been happy with the service from Comcast. The actual product has worked well (probably >99.9% up time). The prices are OK if you add in everything I want to have in the way of TV channels, DVR,HD, etc. and compare with the competition. They may not be the cheapest out there but the sat. services don't have 1 specific sports channel I want. I could go with FIOS but we've had a run of bad service with them and they aren't particularly cheaper. Plus FIOS has a contract requirement and Comcast doesn't.

Keep in mind that the Comcast 'bad' service means they get 62% satisfaction rate while the best rated cable TV provider might get 68%. We're talking about D grades between the best and worst in the industry, but the 'best' provider gets a D+ rather than a D. THe industry as a whole is not good with service.

jeffwesternwa, one word : sports

I don't want to watch an occasional game. Of the 90+ games I want to watch I can expect to see about 8-10 of them for free. To watch the rest I need to pay for TV service. No I'm not going to hang around in a bar to watch the games either.

Example : You live in Portland. According to their schedule 13 of the the upcoming 17 Timbers games are only on cable channels. If you wanna watch those games you gotta pay.

yes of course someone could make due with only watching 10-20% of the games for a given sport. You could also make due with no TV whatsoever or live in a cardboard box. Its all a 'want'.

@Jim

You are absolutely right. It is a want. People can complain all they want to about service, price, options, etc., but at the end of the day they are still choosing to pay for a service that they WANT.

I'm fine with people choosing what they want to do. And yes, there is a monopoly in most markets in the pay TV market. That may not change for the foreseeable future. It is unfortunately because it removes the competition required to drive prices down.

FMF chooses to pay every month in order to help guarantee he can watch international soccer matches. You pay for the sport you want to watch. I choose to take my $85 a month and use it elsewhere.

If more people stood by their wallets and voted with their $$$, companies would change a whole lot quicker. Unfortunately, most people just roll over and open up when price negotiations fall apart.

FYI, it appears there may be a new player (at least new to me) in my area. Charter also offers cable, so I'm going to check them out...

Jim, Baseball: MLBtv.com! I subscribe but to the radio feeds, you can watch ALL MLB games for $100 a year! (radio is $20) OTA: I get a lot of Soccer, NBA and football games (usually 3-5 football a week),a couple MLB baseball games of the week free TV too. Yea, not EVERY Timbers, Blazer game in on but, there's some other soccer, occasional minor or Japansese baseball and other sports also. Plus a movie channel, plus three old show channels, weather, religion, minor networks, music channels, etc., ALL FREE. I can't watch that much tv, life's to good to be in front of the the tube but, I'm not complaining. I play moe than I watch tv but, 25 english channels is way more tv than I'm used to! I had TWO channels in my early 20's, ONE overseas in mynlate 20's! This is GREAT and FREE! I can afford it (retired at 47 :), I just choose not too...g'Luck!

Jeff --

I could get "a lot" of soccer for free too if I didn't mind watching average professional players (via world standards). But I prefer to watch the best of the best.

So if you run into a cheap service where I can watch the top few teams from England, Spain, and Italy play every week, I'm all ears...

I wanted to add that we have DirecTV and pay for the special NFL Sunday Ticket stuff and a DVR. Sports is what is mainly watched on our TV. I'd estimate it at probably 90%. I can get the few shows I do watch online. Sports especially if you don't live in your team's home area are basically impossible to watch without paying for some service. And it's more expensive for my husband to go to a sports bar to watch the games if he actually happens to be off work for them.

Jeff, After you find free European soccer for FMF to watch please also find me free NBA games and all the college football games too. There are some sports you can find online or free and many other sports that you can not find anywhere but paid cable/sat subscription networks.


Jon : "And yes, there is a monopoly in most markets in the pay TV market."

I don't think cable has much of a monopoly anymore. 30% of consumers have satellite and 10% have phone company TV services. Verizon & AT&T cover about 50 million homes and satellite is available to anyone who can see the southern sky and put up a dish.

I have FREE NBA and college football on all the time on OTA, NBC/ABC/CBS/FOX, and baseball too. Some soccer. Plus a lot of other sports, maybe not 24/7 but, JEff's right, how MUCH TV can you watch. Free OTA TV is just that, best picture, no charge! And enough sports on their too!

Chynalemay -

I guarantee that "some soccer" is not the type of soccer I would want to watch.

Well you have such a "special need" FMF, I imagine very few others are so interested in Intl soccer, too bad the cos won't go ala carte but instead must price by tier, and soccer will always be "top tier" , you probably are one of a few customers that will have to PAY for tv, try the satellite cos and go for the best deal, for 90% otherwise of USA, there is so much football (especially) and some of the other major league sports for FREE that for many ..those who aren't making a dent in planning for the future, a $1K+ year for TV that could be free instead of $$ placed against debt or into maxing an IRA/and/or retirement plan is downright stupid!

FMF,

Are there any internet streaming options for those international games?

-Mike

Mike --

Not ones that work. I believe I have seen options to purchase streaming options for sale for a specific team, but if I recall correctly those were something like $200 a year just for that team's games. That's not a great option because we like many different teams, leagues, international play, etc.

I have found sites that give video summaries of each game each week for free, so perhaps I will simply live with that option.

Chyna /Jeff, Sure there are a LOT of sports on TV. But not the right ones. I don't want to watch those games. I want to watch MY teams not some random game.

Its like if you said you wanted to watch Game of Thrones and I said that there are all sorts of drams on free TV. And you insisted that Game of Thrones wasn't free and I repeated like a broken record that theres a lot of free dramas on TV. Its NOT the same. Then I retort that you shouldn't watch so much TV anyway.


Just cause a NBA game is on doesn't mean thats the team I want to watch. Again only ~10% of the games I want to watch are free. People are fans of specific teams. I'm sure most sports fans are like me and follow specific teams rather than just watch whatever game happens to be on TV for free.
And NO you can't get all the NBA games via steaming arangements online, nor do most college football teams have such deals either.
Please trust me that hte game that *I* want to watch are not on free TV. I know what I want to watch and whats available for free. Trust me if my teams had all the games free OTA or steaming online I'd know.

Please stop trying to tell me that I can find what I want via antennea or online, cause I can't.

I don't hate Comcast, but I do hate paying a big monthly bill for channels I'll never watch. I'm happy to pay them now for just internet service, then pay Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Prime for streaming video delivered through both my Roku and PS3. I watch far less TV, but I also watch better TV because it's only what I want--no more channel surfing, and, except for a handful of ads on Hulu, no advertising either.

I'm particularly thrilled to see friends' and family's children watching educational programs on Netflix with NO ad exposure whatsoever! It's hard to put a dollar figure on how much that could potentially save over the years as the kids are not programmed to crave toys and junk food.

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