I Hate Comcast With a Fiery Passion - Page 4
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tofucake
Hyrule18937 Posts
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Roffles
Pitcairn19291 Posts
I've rarely experienced anything bad while at home (Atlanta), but when I go up to Chicago area for college, Comcast there is complete shit. I end up terroring almost every other game I play with friends because ping there is god awful, and the net there seems to cut off at least 2-3 times a night. It's just a frustrating experience which I've had to put up with for a good couple years, and similarly to tofu's experience, everytime I call Comcast, their support is unfortunately not the best since I feel like I hear the same response from them every single time. | ||
T.O.P.
Hong Kong4685 Posts
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EvilTeletubby
Baltimore, USA22247 Posts
On June 24 2012 10:46 T.O.P. wrote: Comcast is the best here in San Francisco. Fast internet / Low price. The only thing bad is the 250 GB cap. But we exceed the cap every month and even got to 500GB once and never got a warning. Hah, I wrote a whole big arse post about that one time when the limits initially came out, I'll have to see if I can dig it up. Long story short, we don't give a fuck how much you use until it starts interfering with other people's experience. So, if you're on a light node and there aren't a ton of power users on it, chances are you can use as much as you like and we'll never say a word. On June 24 2012 10:00 Roffles wrote: What baffles me about Comcast is how it works really well in certain areas, but is complete shit in other areas. I've rarely experienced anything bad while at home (Atlanta), but when I go up to Chicago area for college, Comcast there is complete shit. I end up terroring almost every other game I play with friends because ping there is god awful, and the net there seems to cut off at least 2-3 times a night. It's just a frustrating experience which I've had to put up with for a good couple years, and similarly to tofu's experience, everytime I call Comcast, their support is unfortunately not the best since I feel like I hear the same response from them every single time. I don't know much about the Chicago area, but generally speaking, it depends on the plant infrastructure, which is not always the same area to area. You can dig into it I'm sure, but often times when we're acquiring an area/territory from another provider, they leave it in pretty hellish conditions to be honest, and we spend a few years (along with lots of $$$) fixing it up the right way. Some very rural areas (obviously this doesn't count for Chicago) also lack the upgrades because of the cost-per-customer associated with upgrading miles of cables for a handful of customers. In my region (Maryland/Delaware/Virginia) for example, you see this in the extreme rural areas down in the blue ridge mountains. One big initiative in our area at least (might be our whole division or even company wide, I can't recall at the moment) is to improve network health. Ie, so these little signal problems and outages are mitigated and the services are more reliable. Again I can't speak for the Chicago area, but if something is a systemic problem and not just localized, believe me we know about it and are working on it, especially for a major metropolitan city. On June 24 2012 09:47 tofucake wrote: Yeah my family's been with comcast for a solid 15 years at least. Kind of annoying we always have to do modem reset/check plugs/blah blah blah every time I just want it fixed and I do all that crap before I call. Hah, I've heard that one plenty of times before and even defended it on here. We'll ask you to do it every single time because, 1) Most people DON'T do it prior to calling and... 2) Of the ones that do, often times they do it wrong. And because people don't like to admit when they're wrong, we train our reps to go through the motions every single time. Yeah, lots of times it's unnecessary but for all the times where it does work, and saves the time and hassle from needing a technician to come out to your home, it's completely worth it. Much like phone prompts, it's a necessary evil. On June 24 2012 08:28 BearStorm wrote: I have had a really bad experience with Comcast before. There was a pretty bad snowstorm that took out the cable TV/internet. After 2 nights and 3 days they still did not get the cable running. I called to check on the progress and was completely transparent with my unhappiness. I mentioned how their service was expensive and that losing internet for such an extended period has its own costs associated with it, but the asshole on the other end had the audacity to start yelling back at me. I ended up calling him a jerk, and he tried to defend his actions by saying that I did not recite the last 4 digits of my SSN correctly so he thought I was trying to access information I wasn't supposed to. Makes no sense. No prorating the month, No discount. No genuine apology. Fuck Comcast, I switched to Verizon who aren't saints either, but I would be willing to eat any cost to never deal with Comcast again. If the call really happened as you described, that is a pretty poor example of the rep losing his cool and something that is completely unacceptable and would get dealt with. I'm sure even by your own admission you weren't the easiest person in the world to deal with at that point, and considering you were probably his 40th person of the day with the same story, it might have hit his breaking point. Also, we would always adjust the bill for time without service... again this sounds like a bad apple as opposed to the rule; I can assure you it is not. | ||
Antylamon
United States1981 Posts
I have Comcast for TV, internet, and phone. DirectTV and Verizon are both options here, I just don't see any reason to switch. I don't care about shitty customer service as long as their stuff works without a problem. They have a monopoly for a reason, you know. They're not horrendous if they're that dominant, otherwise they'd be out of business. | ||
EvilTeletubby
Baltimore, USA22247 Posts
On June 24 2012 11:30 Antylamon wrote: They have a monopoly for a reason, you know. They're not horrendous if they're that dominant, otherwise they'd be out of business. Yeah, pretty much this. ^_^ I think we're just easy to bash on. Then again, all telecoms pretty much are, it's not just a Comcast thing. You can find just as much hate about Time Warner, Cox, Verizon, DirecTV, etc. etc. We're all universally wearing targets on our backs. | ||
Clemz
United States70 Posts
Now though, we get spurts of anywhere from 5-10 minutes where web pages just refuse to load, internet seems fine, I can be killing demons in D3 with no issue, while watching a stream on my other PC, just web pages don't load. I'm thinking this one is on my router though. TLDR; Generally pretty happy with Comcast, had a few issues, but they've been pretty quick to sort the shit out. We had Time Warner before Comcast bought them out here, and it's gotten better since then. | ||
iLoveKT
Philippines3615 Posts
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fritfrat
United States50 Posts
I then had Comcast in an apartment near school for a year- it actually was great internet there, very solid and consistent connection, very nice set up person. I now have TWC at my new current place, also a great connection/good technician for set up. I agree with what some people have said- it very heavily depends on the area. This is obviously far inferior than it being a consistent good quality, but unfortunately most other ISPs really aren't that much better in the US. I'm not a comcast fan at all, but I am surprised at the disproportionate amount of hate they get. | ||
docvoc
United States5491 Posts
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Suende
United States43 Posts
In this little shithole I can only get satellite internet or some sort of 4-G cellphone service. Hate it. | ||
Dodgin
Canada39254 Posts
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duk3
United States807 Posts
Also, I used to be pretty happy with my internet, because it was around 25 down/8 up which is not bad, but now it's closer to 12 down/2 up which isn't that great, but it's definitely usable. | ||
EvilTeletubby
Baltimore, USA22247 Posts
On June 24 2012 14:34 docvoc wrote: I hate comcast so much, its so bad, the internet is intermittently going out and this is the first week that it is fully operational in months, I hope to god it continues. When comcast internet goes out I'm just like, + Show Spoiler + Pro-tip: It's not going to fix itself and get better on it's own. This mentality people have of just complaining about service issues but not reporting them drives me nuts. Call us up and get a tech out there - intermittent internet means you have an RF problem, which is a physical connectivity problem. It'll only get better if we have someone come out, so call us. We can't fix what we don't know is broken. On June 24 2012 14:48 Dodgin wrote: I find it quite funny how this blog turned into ETT giving tech support and advice to everyone posting about Comcast | ||
RandomAccount#49059
United States2140 Posts
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T.O.P.
Hong Kong4685 Posts
On June 24 2012 16:03 EvilTeletubby wrote: Pro-tip: It's not going to fix itself and get better on it's own. This mentality people have of just complaining about service issues but not reporting them drives me nuts. Call us up and get a tech out there - intermittent internet means you have an RF problem, which is a physical connectivity problem. It'll only get better if we have someone come out, so call us. We can't fix what we don't know is broken. Comcast tells me they will charge me if they send a tech out if the problem isn't on comcast's end. That includes if the problem is a faulty modem. | ||
EvilTeletubby
Baltimore, USA22247 Posts
If the problem is with the Comcast service leading up to your house, OR the Comcast equipment (I'm assuming you rent a modem), then there is no charge. If the problem is with the wiring in your house, or your personal equipment (like say your NIC is dead or something) then there would be a charge since it isn't a Comcast problem. We absolutely will not charge to swap out our equipment if that is the problem. Although tbh 99% of the time it has nothing to do with the modem. | ||
felisconcolori
United States6168 Posts
On June 24 2012 05:33 EvilTeletubby wrote: Lol... why do you start by saying "something juiced the hell out of that DVR... yes, I would blame Comcast". What type of attitude is that? -_- Common, actually. Of course I would blame Comcast. The Comcast equipment is the only common thread in the chain of failures. Whether or not it's actually Comcast's fault, they own the equipment that has fried Tofu's equipment. Could it be Tofu's fault in some way, or the way the house is wired? Absolutely. But all of the equipment failures and the striking down of said equipment starts and continues through the Comcast supplied DVR. It could be a lightning strike near/through the coax causing massive problems (dunno, was a common problem for modem failures on computers back in the day), poor electrical components in the (probably) Atlanta Scientific DVR box causing a short, or even the ever popular capacitor failure leading to buildup and rapid shorting through the HDMI cable. As a consumer, all we see is "Comcast box killed my TV". Then when we call in, the frontline customer support has to follow the normal script (I've done customer technical support) and try new ways to fix the problem based on the probability of a fix because customers vary incredibly in technical savvy. Lots of customers can get annoyed by the length of the process, and they're already upset about the problem to start with. If a technician is scheduled, the wait and the sometimes iffy nature of the (usually) contracted technician increases customer frustration. And there is a lack of incentive to improve the process, as the companies more often than not have a monopoly meaning you can get cable, or you can get something else. TL;dr - Yes I'd blame Comcast if, out of no where, my DVR box started nuking my TV/other equipment. Would I be right? Maybe, maybe not. Depends on what is the actual cause of the problem, which I'll probably never find out. Replace DVR box, double check coax, whatever fixes the problem first is where the investigation stops. So maybe it's the DVR. Maybe it's the coax to the house. Maybe it's the coax in the house. At that initial moment, all I would know is "DVR kills my stuff!" and that DVR came from Comcast... Also, I'm not singling out Comcast for general hate. I can think of at least two other providers that draw more hate, and cable companies in general are often hated (with or without good reason). Relax man. I understand. My current job is with one of the most hated, reviled, and ridiculed agencies. We deserve some of it, most of it is absolutely ignorant, and y'know what? Not a damn thing we say or do can stop it. Just have to shrug, and move on doing the best you can and hope someday people start to notice. | ||
EvilTeletubby
Baltimore, USA22247 Posts
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felisconcolori
United States6168 Posts
On June 24 2012 18:14 EvilTeletubby wrote: Sounds like the details are a little muddled. If the problem is with the Comcast service leading up to your house, OR the Comcast equipment (I'm assuming you rent a modem), then there is no charge. If the problem is with the wiring in your house, or your personal equipment (like say your NIC is dead or something) then there would be a charge since it isn't a Comcast problem. We absolutely will not charge to swap out our equipment if that is the problem. Although tbh 99% of the time it has nothing to do with the modem. Depending on if Comcast is following trends with other companies, but I recently found out that my cable modem is not owned by my cable company. It seems they stopped renting out the modems (which I was used to) and instead just sold you the modem (although it was noted as an installation fee on my bill - not something technical people get involved in). So if Comcast in that area is saying that a modem replacement may fix it, it may not be replacing Comcast equipment. It may be his equipment. And yeah, I have never seen any company charge to swap out their equipment, although sometimes a company may be reluctant to swap out something if the problem is minor or can be corrected another way. (Reasonable, depending on the actual problem.) Also, you're a very strange "Evil" Teletubby, given how much good you actually do. | ||
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