Robin's dashboard

My Comcast bill was $100 more than last month's bill despite the fact I only had service for 2 weeks out of the month! They tell me next month's bill will be cheaper and they'll add all the prorates, but my cable is out...AGAIN (not due to Ike) and I seriously doubt they could prorate me for three weeks. I don't have the time to constantly bring my box to Comcast and it's expensive to have them come out and fix it (of course they don't tell you it costs--you find out on your bill). Every time someone came out, they would say, "Oh, the last guy didn't install it correctly. The wiring is faulty in your closet." It doesn't matter if they screwed up because I still had to pay. I also wasn't told the THREE TIMES I was on the phone with them that I could bring my box in for free. If I had known that, I would have.

Customer service has been decent with the exception of some foreign guy not understanding the fact that it's not my fault the cable box was broken...again.... but AT & T U Verse just opened in my area. They're giving me the first month of TV free and $200 cash back. The overall bill is cheaper and the people seem like they value their customers. On Friday, I'm taking all my crap in to Comcast and having U Verse installed on Saturday!

Watch out Comcast; you have competition now so you might want to reconsider how you treat your customers! I understand the cable goes out sometimes, but your snafus got me a $175 bill that I SHOULDN'T have to pay in the first place....especially when I am not even able to use the service! – hrtaustin, on September 23, 2008 00:06

Follow-up: Past weeks have been interesting. I've gotten a little response to my problems... around 5 different modems and as many techs out to the home. At one point I had two modems, one for my VOIP, which seemed to work OK for VOIP but had a bunk modem for internet.

I bought a new router (switch) at one CSRs request setting me back a couple hundred. And I just returned a Hawking Technology Broadband Booster... which really didn't do anything except flash its LEDs at me.

Recently I went "all in" with video, phone and internet... I know I'm crazy... in an attempt to replicate. I now have a dedicated modem for Digital Voice and another for internet. All seems to work OK at the moment. Couldn't get the promotion on the internet, but did with video and telephone and was quoted $120/month including fees for a year. We'll see if that really is the case. I will not go through and B as in B! S as in S! with billing. Period. I'll just pull the plug on everything.

I now need to call my escalation rep and see what Comcast is going compensate for the couple/few months that I have had these problems.

Hope you all were having luck with your issues.

I just recently moved to Houston and decided to go with Comcact because I had them a few years back in Pennsylvania with no problems ever!! I ordered the triple play package that comes with the free WII which will be mailed out at a later date (HOPEFULLY).

Service was installed on Thursday and problems started on Thursday! The main TV is only able to receive channels 95, 96, 97, 98, and 99. The technician left before making sure all the channels worked. We called comcast back (same day as the installation) and were not able to get an appointment until 2 weeks out! WOW. We tried troubleshooting over the phone with severals different reps. I kept calling because I really want to use the DVR Box and my service that I still have to pay for! I figured some reps would be more experienced than others. Nope I was wrong! Everyone tried to help but nothing help! I can now walk myself thru all the steps without a reps help! I have a neighbor that lives across the street that has a Comcast van and you would think they would contact and give him the ticket! NOPE! All of the reps were nice but not very helpful. No hope until the tech comes out this Saturday! O I forgot to mention that one rep mislead me to think the box was bad so I took the box to a CS center and same issue! BTW I found this blog while googling the issue I have with only viewing the channels 95 -99! I wish the techs were this resourceful at fixing the issue!

If anybody knows the issue or a fix, please share!

keeleekyles@hotmail.com

Redbird555,

Please send me the phone number on your account and your speed logs so that I can get this into the right hands for resolution.

Thank you and I apologize for the inconvenience.

Mark C.
Comcast Corp.
We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com – ComcastCares1, on July 30, 2008 05:25

Conal,

I am sorry again for the experience. I have reached out to my contacts from your area and they will be in contact with you tomorrow.

Mark C.
Comcast Corp.
We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com

I too had one of their attack dogs tonight calling to "confirm" an appointment another CSR set up (would have been the 3rd). The CSR who set it up promised that it would not be a charge, but guy tonight promised there would be.

Basically what it boils down to is this guy said it was me and it was all in my head... well, by proxy in my wife's head as well. I bought a new switch (Airport Extreme w/gigabit switch) as one CSR suggested. I swapped out *all* cat5 with fresh store bought. Got another new modem (Moto Surfboard this time) swapped in.

I can replicate these issues even when plugged into modem and NOTHING ELSE.

This guy didn't even let me talk tonight... just attacked (in a very polite CSR way) and defended Comcast to the "t"... stating that it was whatever I tried and literally waiting for me to say anything and saying that was wrong and that was it.

Being disjointed, but I am still PISSED OFF. No matter what I try there are problems and Comcast is UNWILLING to go any further and help solve these issues. Just unbelievable... in't there anyone who can figure this out or do they sick these folks on you to convince you that you will be charged??? And that it is your fault. Wow! There's some customer service for ya.

I see that Comcast has marked this tread with "The company says this answers the question". Great! Question is answered, but what about helping with restoring the service???

Two thumbs down for the handling of this.

I have had intermittent connections with Comcast as well. In reply to my emails about this issue, I get the following:

"I understand you have a connection issue. I'll be happy to provide you
with some information about powerboost I hope you will find helpful.

PowerBoost is a value added feature offered at no additional cost to
Comcast customers who subscribe to the 6 (Performance) or 8 (Performance
Plus) Mbps download speed tiers. PowerBoost is a network speed
enhancement, created by Comcast, that temporarily provides bursts of
download speed well above the provisioned 6 or 8 Mbps download speeds
for the first 10 MB and 20 MB of a large file download, respectively.
It then reverts to your provisioned speed for the remainder of the
download. PowerBoost is not something you need to manually initiate."

This is ridiculous! If I could find another provider, I would do it in a heart beat. The first reply was helpful, and I performed all the isolation techniques possible, only to get the same intermittent connection with the computer and modem only. I send specific times and speeds, or lack of speeds, and get the response above. I guess I have to call, email, again, again, and again, as I have few options.

This type of trouble will vary from individual to individual. It could be a problem with the home network, router, computer, wiring, splitter, node. This needs to be fully checked out by technicians. It is also best to provide any information regarding times of trouble (i.e. if it happens when it rains there is probably something with the exterior wiring). If anyone would like assistance in fixing trouble such as this, please email us and we will work to get it resolved. Include detail description of the trouble and when you are experiencing it.

Thank you for the opportunity to assist.

Frank Eliason
Comcast
@ComcastCares on Twitter
We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com

Does anyone know whether Comcast is able to solve this problem? When I call them, it is as if they have never heard of any connectivity problem. This is outrageous --- considering that the service is not cheap. Can we think of a way to make them resolve it -- by applying financial pressure? I am one day away from cancelling my service and having my neighbors do the same.

Called the other day and the CSR told me that the open network ticket I had was closed out and all was well. I called again and was told that it was in monitoring status.

This is a classic sign of Right Hand Left Hand syndrome... where the right hand has no earlthly idea what the left is up to. These CSRs all think that they have *the* answer... and spread dis-information like a virus.

I have already signed up with another ISP so for a little while I will have two. My business relies on a reliable net connection.

Maybe Comcast will get their $hit together soon. Chances are...

And that Cory (x7807) fellow who called me last week with all good intentions of following up with me this week... didn't. Go figure.

i had comcast service come out for a visit last saturday. it turned out that the problem was poor quality coax. the comcast tech upgraded coax from the splitter on the outside of the house to the wall jack used for the modem, and i have not observed any loss of connection since. also, he replaced the splitter on the outside with from the existing "lower quality" RCA splitter to whatever brand is typical for comcast installations now. so, i think that in this situation comcast service came through pretty well. i have also been playing phone-tag with the exec office with the followup call, so their post-visit protocol seems alright also. unfortunately, it turns out it was probably not the older toshiba modem being the problem afterall, but at least now i do have a much more up2date motorola surfboard modem ... oh, and when i do get through to the exec office, the service visit charge will be waived, so that's an added piece of customer satisfaction ...
good luck to all of you who may still be experiencing problems/issues!!!

The next time I talked to a Comcast tech he said it must be an anti-virus problem with my F-Secure system, and he had me turn it off. The computer worked for a few hours, and then I experienced a new round of network resets.

I turned my anti-virus back on and the system didn't behave any better or worse.

I'm thinking of switching to a new ISP...

Hi GH,
You are not alone in your Comcast lousy service. We live in Houston, TX and had wonderful experiences with Time Warner Road Runner for both cable and internet. Ever since Comcast took over at the beginning of the year we have had a long series of problems. Comcast will randomly drop channels we have subscribed to without any explanation. There are numerous audio dropouts, the video is pixelated on random days, and we have to continually reset the digital cable box HD DVR in order to watch TV. The latest problem was starting last night when we couldn't get ANY channels. I called the Comcast telephone number to send a digital refresh signal to the box. That appeared to work. Then again this evening the same problem. I tried to send a refresh signal again. No joy this time. I called and spoke to a "technical rep" and I use the term loosely. He couldn't do anything for me. He had me reboot the DVR and then after 5 - 10 minutes all I could received were channels 95, 96, 97, 98, and 99. The other TVs connected directly to the cable received unviewable TV pictures. The rep told me that he had to send a cable service man out to the house, and proceeded to see when he could do that. Of course, the ONLY times they can send a service man is when no one is at home. I told him that was unacceptable and that I wanted to speak to a manager. Then I got the usual Comcast run around. He said there was no supervisor available. What a blatant lie! I can not believe that Comcast allows their 24/7 call center reps operate unsupervised!

In addition, apparently they have no one at Comcast at any level in the organization that can get someone out to your house at a specific time to make a repair. Apparently the service techs have full freedom to determine the order of how they work off the trouble tickets. I find it astounding that a huge company operates from the bottom up!

Comcast service is abyssmal. I am paying for a service and I am treated like dirt. They do NOTHING to make me a satisfied customer. I guess since they are the only game in town they think that they can treat their customers like second rate citizens. They have so many obstacles to gettting problems resolved it is ridiculous. I don't know how they stay in business.

I definitely hope that someone from Comcast reads this post, especially a highly placed executive. I want to talk to someone with responsibility AND authority to make things right. My wife is fed up and wants to switch providers.

Henry Schneider
hschneider3@gmail.com

I am *not* convinced that swapping out the modem is the answer here, and it has been suggested by a CSR already in my case as well. Cable modems are hard for a CSR to troubleshoot so they are more apt to blame it as a catch-all and suggest that you swap it out. What is really mind-boggling is that no matter who (CSRs) you talk to, they seem to have their own opinion of what is going on and, of course, they are an expert. – conal, on July 19, 2008 03:50

I am *not* convinced that swapping out the modem is the answer here, and it has been suggested by a CSR already in my case as well. Cable modems are hard for a CSR to troubleshoot so they are more apt to blame it as a catch-all and suggest that you swap it out. What is really mind-boggling is that no matter who (CSRs) you talk to, they seem to have their own opinion of what is going on and, of course, they are an expert. – conal, on July 19, 2008 03:50

This is a problem that I am having too... I just replaced my cable-modem today figuring that the problem would be resolved.

After about two hours later, the same exact thing happened, and I have to either powercycle the modem, and sometimes even restart the computer multiple times. Needless to say, this has become not only extremely frustrating, but also a great expense of time and effort as well.

I've been trying to fight my own feelings about the battle between Qwest and comcast for worst company. The best answer I could come up with is that at least Qwest didn't make me sit on hold for 30-45 minutes. Qwest also had a better track record for ACTUALLY fixing any problems I had. Neither are companies I'll use again though. – SpicyLemon, on July 18, 2008 16:34

I've been trying to fight my own feelings about the battle between Qwest and comcast for worst company. The best answer I could come up with is that at least Qwest didn't make me sit on hold for 30-45 minutes. Qwest also had a better track record for ACTUALLY fixing any problems I had. Neither are companies I'll use again though. – SpicyLemon, on July 18, 2008 16:34

Hi Mark,

I did send my information to We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com. Received a call from Cory this afternoon at 3:40PM today and actually got a network ticket number to reference.

Now we wait and see if LMC can isolate and fix this problem.

Thanks a bunch for responding. – conal, on July 17, 2008 23:56

Conal,

Let me look into this for you. Will you please send me the phone number associated with the account?

Sorry for your troubles.

Mark C.
Comcast Corp.
We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com