Comcast needs to be destroyed....

[Adragontattoo]

Ok I offically have a hatred of Comcast that is probably never going to be sated.

I can see why little old ladies take a hammer to their CS counters.

-10 Mar (roughly) about 9am, I call to arrange to get my service transfered to the new condo in the same building I am moving to.

I am told, that you HAVE to have a tech come out and the first available appt is on the 22nd.

uhhh ok, schedule it for as early as possible on the 22nd please.

-22nd mar Tech shows up after the Guaranteed time and after I call to get an idea of time frame.

Call is set up incorrectly and Tech thinks it is a new install.

I tell the tech, nope I have cable boxes, I own my modem and you are really only here to verify it all works and install the phone modem.

Tech takes the boxes back to his truck and comes back in.

Tech spends an hour + on the phone getting the modem that I own and had used for a year and a half 5 floors lower added to the new acct.

Tech doesnt have a buttset to test the modem and I screwed up and didnt have the phone I ordered delivered in time (I havent had a landline in a decade). Net result, no way to test the modem.

-11:45pm Internet shuts down totally. I proceed to call Comcast and I spend the next 45 minutes on the phone testing to see if I have signal yet while the phone rep tries to add the modem to the acct correctly. The tech's phone rep added the modem to a "ghost" acct which was set up incorrectly.

-12:30ish am Internet is back on.

-12:45am I have to totally disconnect my smoothwall from its duties in order to use the net (using a Linksys wrt54g V6 instead), this may or may not be a HW related issue.

-Sunday I was not home to verify it never crashed

Monday
-24 Mar

-6:00ish pm arrive home, accept phone from front desk, connect phone, no dial tone

Call Comcast spend an additional 45 minutes on the phone and am told that the modem might be bad and to take it to the local CS center and they will exchange it.

Go to CS center, to find out that I have to open a ticket and that they dont even carry the modems there, a tech will have to come out.

go home irritated.

-9:00pm Internet cuts out, totally, dead, non working.
Call Comcast
spend the next HOUR AND A HALF (with at least 2 different CS reps)trying to get them to add my personally owned modem back on to the acct and that their provided modem will NOT be used as my internet modem for any reason EVER.

I am told that they can not add/delete/change the acct until after the appt that is already scheduled for Thursday.

Hang up in utter disgust.

25Mar
-7:20am Call Comcast back again to give them a chance to salvage my acct.
30 minutes on the phone with them to again be told no changes until after the tech comes on Thursday.
I tell them to cancel the phone, copy the old acct and get it back online today, this is ridiculous.
Transfered to a CS rep. who listens to saga, confirms saga via acct and then tells me to please hold on while she opens a Ticket with Customer Care regarding this, I agree as it isnt like I have the ability to surf the web or call anyone else while I wait.


As it stand now 26Mar, still waiting for a call back from them. If I havent heard anything in the next 2.5 hours (1PM est), I will be calling their executive offices and escalating it to as high as I can go there instead of waiting for some CS rep who doesnt care.

Throughout this whole saga, I havent had ANY On demand capabilities either. Tested it again last night and on demand is a black screen with no activity.

[SteveLord]

Just left Comcast behind in NJ. Know what you're saying. Their employees aren't the sharpest tools in the shed.......or sharpest looking.

[galador]

I had a modem that Time Warner gave me on my initial installation 5 years ago that started to act up ( had to reset every few hours) about 3 months ago. Comcast took over our service 6 months ago so I called them.
Called service rep and got a date for technician to take a look.
When tech showed up he restarted the modem and called it " good working order, just too many ppl in my area" ....Jeez.
I argued with the tech for 30 minutes to "just please change out the modem and humor me", he refused to and started giving me a story that a router's life span is 6 months. I told him to take all the comcast gear with him because I will be looking for another ISP.
He relented and swapped out the modem.
Getting 7mbs down, 1 mb up 24 hours a day now without a lick of problems.
Whataya know, a customer might be right once in a while.

[EmAn]

If I would post my experiences with comcast customer service I would be banned :p

[CGR]

If I would post my experiences with comcast customer service I would be banned :p

+1 to above comment.

[OldSkool]

+1 All of the above

[VinnyTAMU]

I think this is the majority of ISPs. I have dealt with Cox Communications and now Suddenlink, and it is always a painful experience to deal with them.

[Neuromancer]

There does seem o be a lack of education among the comcast employees.

This sounds exactly like the problems I went through with comcast.

I fixed the problem by purchasing my own coaxial splitters.

"Standard" splitters block frequencies that internet/phone and the digital cable box needs to communicate. What you probably need is to go to a radio shack and get a splitter that allows pass through up to 2400MHz.

I have to get all new splitters at my sisters house because comcast cant talk to the new HDMI box we installed. Oddly enough internet works at her house even though technically it should not because she is still using the old style coax spliters that do not have the range of the new ones.

I found all this out when I first got cable internet back in 2000. Learned more about in the last couple of months settings up comcast cable for my uncle.

[mepis]

I don't mind comcast out here in Lancaster all that much. Everytime there is a problem I end up getting a good credit. No contract for me means I can walk away from the service at any time and comcast is in such high heat at the moment out here they are willing to do whatever to keep customers. Every month or so I get at least a $10 credit, usually more. Also the local investigative news team has been doing a story on them every other week here too.

[FudgeNuggets]

Comcast, Insight, Cox and Adephia.... When I'm doing tech support for a doctor, hospital or site and hear these words.... I get this sinking feeling, cringe, curl up into the fetal position and :cry:

[delman]

Yeah I would say all cable companies are like that. My parents used to be with comunist and now I am with suddenlystopped. I have never liked them. Verizon fios seems to just work right (so I don't really have any experience with support) but cable can't compete at all where they are and then where I am it is dsl(I don't have a land line) or the cable. My Last call to Sunddenlink basically acused me of being stupid when I told them it was out and asked me if I had the modem turned on. My response was Duh... All the lights except power and pc activity are out. Then it just goes out several times a day for 30min-1.5 hours. and then after it was up they started saying they could not seem my computers I don't think they should anyways and I told them I have several routers running and bye and it was magically up when I got off the phone.

[Adragontattoo]

Holy crap, I already have a response regarding the EECB I sent to Comcast Corporate.


We will have someone in touch with you shortly from our Eastern
Division.
Thanks.

-----Original Message-----
From: Adragontattoo(Jeff) [Redacted]
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 1:35 PM
To: [Redacted]
Subject: Re: Hopefully an escalation will help my issue.

Alexandria Va
Acct holder name (my name) is [Redacted]
Address on the acct is [Redacted]
Alexandria Va 22304.

[Redacted] wrote:
> Sorry about the problems you have experienced. Can you tell me where
> you are located, including city and state, so we can look into this
> further?
> Thanks.

[jiggamanjb]

I can't stand Comcast as well and I am counting down the, very few left, days when ATT Uverse starts up in my city.

[Pinky]

Comcast, Insight, Cox and Adephia.... When I'm doing tech support for a doctor, hospital or site and hear these words.... I get this sinking feeling, cringe, curl up into the fetal position and :cry:

+1

+2

+2,354,103

:eek:

[Adragontattoo]

Holy crap, I already have a response regarding the EECB I sent to Comcast Corporate.


We will have someone in touch with you shortly from our Eastern
Division.
Thanks.

-----Original Message-----
From: Adragontattoo(Jeff) [Redacted]
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 1:35 PM
To: [Redacted]
Subject: Re: Hopefully an escalation will help my issue.

Alexandria Va
Acct holder name (my name) is [Redacted]
Address on the acct is [Redacted]
Alexandria Va 22304.

[Redacted] wrote:
> Sorry about the problems you have experienced. Can you tell me where
> you are located, including city and state, so we can look into this
> further?
> Thanks.


Ok update.

I sent an email to about 50% of the corporate accts I could find via the Consumerist stating:

Hi all,

First off, I want to apologize for the mass email you are getting
from me, but I feel that this will likely get the most attention rather
then my waiting for Customer Care to get back to me at some point. I am
not one to complain, and I don't like to call/contact unless there is a
real issue.

below is my issue:
I am at work so I unfortunately do not have my acct number with me.

BUT, here is the Customer Care Ticket Number that is open #733529.

-10 Mar (roughly) about 9am, I call to arrange to get my service
transfered to the new condo in the same building I am moving to.

I am told, that you HAVE to have a tech come out and the first available
appt is on the 22nd.

uhhh ok, schedule it for as early as possible on the 22nd please. (9-12
is agreed upon)

Offered incentive due to move and end up agreeing on the triple play option.

-22nd mar Tech shows up after the guaranteed time and after I call to
get an idea of time frame.(1230 or later)

Call is set up incorrectly and Tech thinks it is a new install.

I tell the tech, nope I have cable boxes, I own my modem and you are
really only here to verify it all works and install the phone modem.

Tech takes the boxes back to his truck and comes back in.

Tech spends an hour + on the phone getting the modem that I own and had
used for a year and a half 5 floors lower added to the new acct.

Tech doesn't have a buttset to test the modem and I screwed up and
didn't have the phone I ordered delivered in time (I haven't had a
landline in a decade). Net result, no way to test the modem.

-11:45pm Internet shuts down totally. I proceed to call Comcast and I
spend the next 45 minutes on the phone testing to see if I have signal
yet while the phone rep tries to add the modem to the acct correctly.
The techs phone rep added the modem to a "ghost" acct which was set up
incorrectly.

-12:30ish am Sunday Internet is back on.

-12:45am Sunday I have to totally disconnect my firewall from its duties
in order to use the net (using a Linksys wrt54g V6 instead), this may or
may not be a HW related issue.

-Sunday I was not home to verify it ever crashed

Monday
-24 Mar

-6:00ish pm arrive home, accept phone from front desk, connect phone, no
dial tone

Call Comcast spend an additional 45 minutes on the phone and am told
that the modem might be bad and to take it to the local CS center and
they will exchange it.

Go to CS center, to find out that I have to open a ticket and that they
don't even carry the modems there, a tech will have to come out.

go home irritated.

-9:00pm Internet cuts out, totally, dead, non working.
Call Comcast
spend the next HOUR AND A HALF (with at least 2 different CS reps)trying
to get them to add my personally owned modem back on to the acct.

Eventually, I am told that the phone modem is the only modem that can be
on the account. At this point I am totally fed up and flatly tell the
supervisor that their provided modem will NOT be used as my internet
modem for any reason EVER.

Eventually, I am told that they can not add/delete/change the acct until
after the appt that is already scheduled for Thursday.

I hang up in utter disgust.

25Mar
-7:20am Call Comcast back again to give them a chance to salvage my acct.
30 minutes on the phone with them to again be told no changes until
after the tech comes on Thursday.
I tell them to cancel the phone, copy the old acct and get it back
online today, this is ridiculous.
Transfered to a CS rep. who listens to saga, confirms saga via acct and
then tells me to please hold on while she opens a Ticket with Customer
Care regarding this, I agree as it isn't like I have the ability to surf
the web or call anyone else while I wait.

As it stand now 26Mar, still waiting for a call back from them.

In the year and a half that I was living 5 floors lower in the same
building, without the phone portion, I had 2-3 occasions where I had to
call CS. From the 22nd to today, I have called 6 times already and I am
STILL waiting for a call back (over 24 hours waiting for Customer care
so far).

Throughout this whole saga, I haven't had ANY On demand capabilities
either. Tested it again last night and on demand is a black screen with
no activity, but that is the least of my concerns.

At this point, I am really questioning what is the incentive to stay
with Comcast, I have had nothing but the run around from the phone CS
reps I have talked to, out of the 3 portions of the triple play I agreed
to pay for NONE are working fully, what is the benefit of my staying
with Comcast?

This is cross posted to the *Comcastmustdie.blogspot.com*, emailed to
*TheConsumerist.com* and posted on *OCForums.com* under vendor
discussion as well.


within an hour I had multiple responses and within 2 hours I have had 2 different phone calls from 2 different departments trying to address my issue and correct it. Unfortunately I am still at work but from what I was just told I am back online and the call for tomorrow is set up correctly and I was asked to call AFTER the LEAD technician comes out to make sure that my issue was correctly addressed and fixed completely.

Big applause to the Executive support team for addressing an issue that the consumer support side was ignoring, ME!

No idea on what if anything will come out of this but I have made it clear that I would be willing to remain a customer IF the problem gets fixed completely tomorrow and IF I am given some reason to ignore what has happened and actually give Comcast a chance to redeem themselves.

[Pinky]

I'd be amazed if they cared. They're probably just trying to avoid having to change all their email addresses.

[Adragontattoo]

I'd be amazed if they cared. They're probably just trying to avoid having to change all their email addresses.


Uh those email address have been publicly available for 6 months at least.

Consumerist.com

search for Comcast.

Comcastmustdie.blogspot.com

Google.com

Comcast sucks or EECB Comcast

[defiant79]

Wow, sounds a lot like Charter Communications out where we live. Everyone else around this area has 10meg cable internet service as well as DVR and HD, but we have been "waiting" for almost 2 years now. I have long since switched from charters 3 meg cable to Embarq's 5 meg DSL and it was $10 cheaper per month. I just in the last 2 weeks upgraded to Embarqs new 10meg DSL package now, Charter is still WAY behind. I will be switching to Directv as soon as I possibly can.

Hope everything works out for you tomorrow though.

[FudgeNuggets]

Ok update.

I sent an email to about 50% of the corporate accts I could find via the Consumerist stating:

Hi all,

First off, I want to apologize for the mass email you are getting
from me, but I feel that this will likely get the most attention rather
then my waiting for Customer Care to get back to me at some point. I am
not one to complain, and I don't like to call/contact unless there is a
real issue.

below is my issue:
I am at work so I unfortunately do not have my acct number with me.

BUT, here is the Customer Care Ticket Number that is open #733529.

-10 Mar (roughly) about 9am, I call to arrange to get my service
transfered to the new condo in the same building I am moving to.

I am told, that you HAVE to have a tech come out and the first available
appt is on the 22nd.

uhhh ok, schedule it for as early as possible on the 22nd please. (9-12
is agreed upon)

Offered incentive due to move and end up agreeing on the triple play option.

-22nd mar Tech shows up after the guaranteed time and after I call to
get an idea of time frame.(1230 or later)

Call is set up incorrectly and Tech thinks it is a new install.

I tell the tech, nope I have cable boxes, I own my modem and you are
really only here to verify it all works and install the phone modem.

Tech takes the boxes back to his truck and comes back in.

Tech spends an hour + on the phone getting the modem that I own and had
used for a year and a half 5 floors lower added to the new acct.

Tech doesn't have a buttset to test the modem and I screwed up and
didn't have the phone I ordered delivered in time (I haven't had a
landline in a decade). Net result, no way to test the modem.

-11:45pm Internet shuts down totally. I proceed to call Comcast and I
spend the next 45 minutes on the phone testing to see if I have signal
yet while the phone rep tries to add the modem to the acct correctly.
The techs phone rep added the modem to a "ghost" acct which was set up
incorrectly.

-12:30ish am Sunday Internet is back on.

-12:45am Sunday I have to totally disconnect my firewall from its duties
in order to use the net (using a Linksys wrt54g V6 instead), this may or
may not be a HW related issue.

-Sunday I was not home to verify it ever crashed

Monday
-24 Mar

-6:00ish pm arrive home, accept phone from front desk, connect phone, no
dial tone

Call Comcast spend an additional 45 minutes on the phone and am told
that the modem might be bad and to take it to the local CS center and
they will exchange it.

Go to CS center, to find out that I have to open a ticket and that they
don't even carry the modems there, a tech will have to come out.

go home irritated.

-9:00pm Internet cuts out, totally, dead, non working.
Call Comcast
spend the next HOUR AND A HALF (with at least 2 different CS reps)trying
to get them to add my personally owned modem back on to the acct.

Eventually, I am told that the phone modem is the only modem that can be
on the account. At this point I am totally fed up and flatly tell the
supervisor that their provided modem will NOT be used as my internet
modem for any reason EVER.

Eventually, I am told that they can not add/delete/change the acct until
after the appt that is already scheduled for Thursday.

I hang up in utter disgust.

25Mar
-7:20am Call Comcast back again to give them a chance to salvage my acct.
30 minutes on the phone with them to again be told no changes until
after the tech comes on Thursday.
I tell them to cancel the phone, copy the old acct and get it back
online today, this is ridiculous.
Transfered to a CS rep. who listens to saga, confirms saga via acct and
then tells me to please hold on while she opens a Ticket with Customer
Care regarding this, I agree as it isn't like I have the ability to surf
the web or call anyone else while I wait.

As it stand now 26Mar, still waiting for a call back from them.

In the year and a half that I was living 5 floors lower in the same
building, without the phone portion, I had 2-3 occasions where I had to
call CS. From the 22nd to today, I have called 6 times already and I am
STILL waiting for a call back (over 24 hours waiting for Customer care
so far).

Throughout this whole saga, I haven't had ANY On demand capabilities
either. Tested it again last night and on demand is a black screen with
no activity, but that is the least of my concerns.

At this point, I am really questioning what is the incentive to stay
with Comcast, I have had nothing but the run around from the phone CS
reps I have talked to, out of the 3 portions of the triple play I agreed
to pay for NONE are working fully, what is the benefit of my staying
with Comcast?

This is cross posted to the *Comcastmustdie.blogspot.com*, emailed to
*TheConsumerist.com* and posted on *OCForums.com* under vendor
discussion as well.


within an hour I had multiple responses and within 2 hours I have had 2 different phone calls from 2 different departments trying to address my issue and correct it. Unfortunately I am still at work but from what I was just told I am back online and the call for tomorrow is set up correctly and I was asked to call AFTER the LEAD technician comes out to make sure that my issue was correctly addressed and fixed completely.

Big applause to the Executive support team for addressing an issue that the consumer support side was ignoring, ME!

No idea on what if anything will come out of this but I have made it clear that I would be willing to remain a customer IF the problem gets fixed completely tomorrow and IF I am given some reason to ignore what has happened and actually give Comcast a chance to redeem themselves.

Excellent, usually if I try to ever complain to a higher up about anything all I get is a canned excuse or told to ****/sod off.

[Adragontattoo]

Fudge, get off the phone and acutally dig up the corporate # if you can (usually listed on the stock listing of the company if available) or search for the term EECB (Executive Email Carpet Bomb) + "Company name"

If there has been an EECB to this company you should find the info.

Phone CS reps (even their supervisors) are nothing more then Page readers.

[=ACID RAIN=]

I think this is the majority of ISPs. I have dealt with Cox Communications and now Suddenlink, and it is always a painful experience to deal with them.

Word. I even have suddenlink here in kingwood. Same account as we had in BCS.

[WonderingSoul]

I don't mind comcast out here in Lancaster all that much. Everytime there is a problem I end up getting a good credit. No contract for me means I can walk away from the service at any time and comcast is in such high heat at the moment out here they are willing to do whatever to keep customers. Every month or so I get at least a $10 credit, usually more. Also the local investigative news team has been doing a story on them every other week here too.

I'm at Millersville University right now in off campus housing and the comcast internet out here is absolute trash. I have to reset my modem/router one or two times a day to get a connection. I wish Verizon was available :(

[boarderjw]

yeah i hear ya. my comcast internet goes down all the time. resetting everything sometimes works, but usually i just have to wait until it magically comes up again. really annoying. at least i don't play WoW anymore though. back then when it happened it made me want to break things.

[Neuromancer]

Did you check to see if your splitters were 50-2400MHz or the old 20-1000?

[Adragontattoo]

Did you check to see if your splitters were 50-2400MHz or the old 20-1000?

nope, had my main rig go down last night with constant BSOD, gave me a reason to pull the stacker apart and start the migration to the Rocketfish case.

Ended up figuring out that every chipset cooler I own will not work with 8800gts due to cooler size.

Lead Tech ONLY is coming out tonight so he can work on the issues.

[Neuromancer]

nope, had my main rig go down last night with constant BSOD, gave me a reason to pull the stacker apart and start the migration to the Rocketfish case.

Ended up figuring out that every chipset cooler I own will not work with 8800gts due to cooler size.

Lead Tech ONLY is coming out tonight so he can work on the issues.

Booo and cool.

Have fun moving your PC over. :)

Let us know what the tech finds.

[Adragontattoo]

Booo and cool.

Have fun moving your PC over. :)

Let us know what the tech finds.

Its on hold till the Thermalright Hr-05(IIRC) SLI arrives.

[Pinky]

Uh those email address have been publicly available for 6 months at least.

Consumerist.com

search for Comcast.

Comcastmustdie.blogspot.com

Google.com

Comcast sucks or EECB Comcast

I guess my sarcasm wasn't clear... :beer:

[Moto7451]

Reminds me of when I was about 12 or 13 and I had to install our cable internet while three Russian techs from Adelphia stood back and watched while chatting back and forth in Russian. The only thing they said was "how did he do that?"

Adelphia High Speed was junk, it was only on half the time.

[MadMan007]

Well I have to go against the grain here and say that Comcast has been good for me. Over the past 2 years or so it's gone down for less than 12 hours maybe twice. I have had to reset the modem or router maybe 4 times. Once after calling about the service being down they set an appointment and even though it was back up before the appointment the tech came out anyway on a Sunday and improved how the cable split was set up to get a better signal for the modem.

[AJZ]

Don't even get me started with comcast. In my apartment the roommates and I call them 'Comcrap'. That should sum up how we feel about them.

[Aktunka]

This is from a coworker of mine who brought in the warning he received from Comcast about possible interruption of his service if he did not pay his bill. The best part of this is that he is on Comcast auto pay thing so they should never be short on the money. Perfect example of how Comcast is stupid.

http://home.comcast.net/~mauskau/pictures/Larry%20Cable%20Bill.jpg

[duper]

I had crapcast back in Michigan and if any of you are from there you might remember how they were going bankrupt or merging or changing hands (whatever it was) right around 2000 so because of that the internet was working 50% of the time and raised the service up 10-20 bucks more a month. I switched to WOW and got the same service for only 24 bucks a month.

Well I moved to Florida in the boondocks and the only thing they have is Dialup, DSL or crapcast. I waited almost an hour before I could even get a hold of someone to get service. I live in a blackhole it doesnt show up on 90% of maps and crapcast can never find it when I call them. Not to mention they kept routing me threw Michigan. I kept my old Michigan phone number so when I call for problems some chick still uses my number for her service in Michigan and owes hundreds of dollars and whenever I have a service issue. They always route me threw Michigan for 30 mins until I get routed to Orlando then 30 more mins before I talk to someone in my area who speaks with a thick southern accent. I almost think I would be better off talking to someone in India.

My first 3 weeks of service was fine until the "gateway" died (crapcast terminology) I called and wasted some more of my life waiting on hold. After 1 hour of trouble shooting over the phone and it was obvious something failed inside or something is wrong on their end. They would never admit to making a mistake.

***WARNING*** NEVER TELL THEM YOU HAVE A ROUTER HOOKED UP OR THEY WILL NOT HELP YOU!

Crapcast Moron: Lets reset the "gateway"
Me: I already did that before I called
Crapcast Moron: Unplug the "gateway" for(interrupted)
Me: 20 seconds? But now your gonna ask me to do it for about 1 min
Crapcast Moron: You got it
Me: I already did all of that and a lot more before I called but if it will prove my case I will do it one more time, no connection
Crapcast Moron: We can send someone out next week to check the signal (yeah and I would have to take time off work)
Me: I'm telling you it's the modem

So I was like screw it went out to walmart at 2am and bought a freaking modem called crapcast back and said I bought my own modem now get my service working, the guy on the other end said "gateway"? They transferred me to Canada and 20 mins later my internet is working again.

Now my internet goes out 2-3's time a month for a few hours. I call up crapcast I get routed to Michigan.

Crapcast: Hello Mrs Brown
Me: NO I'M NOT FREAKING CONNIE I DON'T EVEN KNOW HER AND I DON'T LIVE IN MICHIGAN TRANSFER ME TO FLORIDA!
Crapcast: Hello sir we can not find a signal to your gateway, but service seems to be working in your area.
Me: O RLY? I was on hold and they said service was down in my area.
Crapcast: Oh I am sorry about that sir. (Riiiiiiiight!)

I get a call back weeks later from crapcast telling me I am having problems with my service because they don't have my "gateway" MAC registered with them.

tl;dr
Crapcast must die! I can't wait until I move out of this hick town or either Brighthouse or Verizon FiOs is available in my area.