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Dear Comcast, I'm leaving you because...

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Re: Dear Comcast, I'm leaving you because...

#31

Post by mikecrowl »

Comcast cut me off last year, after 7 years of service. I got a lil "greedy" and broke the 250g cap (300g+) - never even knew there was a bandwidth meter at their site.

By the time they warned me, it was already halfway through the next month. I slowed my usage down, but still broke 260g at the end of the month (I work from home, use it for everything).

They shut me off, banned me from service for 1 year, and absolutely no one at customer service or their "security department" would even talk to me. Zero tolerance, no options.

Re: Dear Comcast, I'm leaving you because...

#32

Post by zbischof »

j_s wrote: post #29
zbischof wrote: post #23

I'm also considering leaving. Here are a few of my reasons for wanting to leave. First and foremost, is the generally horrible customer service. While I have occasionally managed to talk to an intelligent customer service representative, these chances are rare. When I first signed up for the service a few years ago, I got a call from Comcast saying that my service would be cut off since for the past three months my b…

Whenever I can, I use Skype to call customer support 800 numbers for free and do other things on the PC while waiting... http://blogs.skype.com/en/2005/07/free_calls_to_tollfree_pho...

Thanks, I'll keep this in mind. I've spent more time dealing with Comcast customer service than all my other monthly billed services combined. I've got more stories, this is just the highlight reel.

Now if I could just get them to stop playing crappy, low quality music while I'm waiting...

Re: Dear Comcast, I'm leaving you because...

#33

Post by drzaiusapelord »

binarysoul wrote: post #2

He's leaving because he has the option to use a different comparable provider. Some of us are not so lucky. I have only two options available in my apartment. 3mbit/s cable service which disconnects frequently and is wholly unreliable, or ATT DSL 6mbit/1mbit which while its reliable costs $40/month. 4G wireless solutions do not penetrate my building enough to be useable. What we really need are more comparable option…

Yeah, I can switch to 1.5/.7mbps DSL or stay with 16/3mbps cable. I saw u-verse came to my area but I had to yell at a manager to even get them to consider selling it to me without video. They agreed but when I asked them to cut my DSL the same day uverse comes in, they told me they could do that if I bought the video package. Toss in how AT&T treats its wireless customers and you're dealing with a level of incompetence and evil that makes Comcast look very attractive.

The question isn't whether comcast sucks, its whether it sucks worse than the competition. Here in Chicago, its clearly the better choice. That 3mpbs upload is pretty sweet for RDP and file transfer. Heck I even run a little webserver off my desktop and my dynamic IP hasn't changed in 2 years.

While I have no problem with the comcast bitching (they can be terrible at times) I just never see the equivalent for AT&T and other monopoly telcos. Why don't AT&T and Verizon get the same treatment? It took me 2 months of phone calls to get business DSL at our satellite office (new building) with Verizon and they even managed to fuck that up on site. I'm finding it hard to believe Comcast is any worse than these guys. In fact, I'd go as far as saying Comcast Business is pretty impressive. American based tech support during normal hours, great speeds, and no caps.

I suspect most of the complaints are from home users who are just joining the rage-fest and have zero experience with actually switching to the competition and will pretend to enjoy substandard speed and service just to "stick it to Comcast." Err okay, but that's not a rational or positive attitude.

Also, some of the comments in this thread are hilarious. Sick of the 250gb cap so you'll switch to wireless 4G? Heh, enjoy non-published dynamic throttling to 128kbps when Clear decides you've had too much internet. I'd rather have 250gb at 16mbps than "unlimited" at 128kbps.

Re: Dear Comcast, I'm leaving you because...

#35

Post by bgentry »

mtgentry wrote: post #10

The other day when I cancelled my cable but kept my internet, the first thing the service rep asked was 'Oh! So you do a lot of streaming then?'. I shrugged off the question but thought it was revealing. Cord cutters are growing in number and they know it. p.s. article up-voted on it's own merits and not because the submitter is my cousin. (What up cuz')

hahaha no way! didn't know you were hanging around here these days =)

Re: Dear Comcast, I'm leaving you because...

#36

Post by mikecrowl »

mikecrowl wrote: post #31

Comcast cut me off last year, after 7 years of service. I got a lil "greedy" and broke the 250g cap (300g+) - never even knew there was a bandwidth meter at their site. By the time they warned me, it was already halfway through the next month. I slowed my usage down, but still broke 260g at the end of the month (I work from home, use it for everything). They shut me off, banned me from service for 1 year, and absolut…

Oh, right, we were talking about options.

I had two options here in Seattle. Clearwire? 4g, with a modem positioned at my window, hoping it got better reception than my phone? Nah.

Or Qwest (now Century Link) DSL. The DSL has been fine. Not quite as fast, or stable (recent storms and flooding forced a lot of reconnects) but is just fine.

Re: Dear Comcast, I'm leaving you because...

#37

Post by smhinsey »

adestefan wrote: post #30
smhinsey wrote: post #25

I've been fortunate enough to be a FiOS customer for awhile, so I haven't had the pleasure of dealing with Comcast lately, but until I moved into this building I'd used them all over the east coast. They had a particularly galling bug in their customer service system where you would be routed to a regional call center based on your phone's area code. This meant that every single time I called to talk about anything,…

Verizon had the same issue with FiOS for a long time. I would routinely get routed to the NY customer service even though I would tell them repeatedly I was in MD since I didn't have a phone number. I haven't called them in a couple years so I don't know if that's still the case.

Hah, they must use the same vendor. Strangely enough I haven't had that problem myself the few times I've called, but one of the nice things about FiOS is that you don't need to call them for many common tasks.

Re: Dear Comcast, I'm leaving you because...

#38

Post by kgo »

cgag wrote: post #24

My understanding is that no one actually wants to be with Comcast, I was under the impression that people were generally with them because they have a monopoly on fast internet in a lot of places.

In my area, you're on Comcast if you're pissed off at Verizon, and you're on Verizon if you're pissed off at Comcast.

I'm on Comcast because I was a Verizon early adopter, with DSL in the 90s. It got to the point where even their cheapest packages were at least an order of magnitude faster than my speed. Sure I could have called and gotten a new package, but it's like they were just keeping me at the original speeds out of spite, like they actually had to do work to keep me so slow. Just like the stories of that little old lady who's still paying a monthly rental fee for the phone in her house.

I'm sure Comcast will do something to piss me off in the next few years and I'll go back to Verizon.

Re: Dear Comcast, I'm leaving you because...

#39

Post by thisischris »

bgentry wrote: post #4
binarysoul wrote: post #2

He's leaving because he has the option to use a different comparable provider. Some of us are not so lucky. I have only two options available in my apartment. 3mbit/s cable service which disconnects frequently and is wholly unreliable, or ATT DSL 6mbit/1mbit which while its reliable costs $40/month. 4G wireless solutions do not penetrate my building enough to be useable. What we really need are more comparable option…

I wholeheartedly agree. I'm thankful that I turned out to actually have a decent 2nd option. My main reason for writing this was to encourage others, especially in the bay area, to make sure they've really looked at all their options. Some might find a nice surprise like I did.

Just moved into a new place and were about to sign up for Comcast, but instead I think we will be going with Sonic!

Thanks!

Re: Dear Comcast, I'm leaving you because...

#40

Post by j_s »

zbischof wrote: post #32
j_s wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I can, I use Skype to call customer support 800 numbers for free and do other things on the PC while waiting... http://blogs.skype.com/en/2005/07/free_calls_to_tollfree_pho...

Thanks, I'll keep this in mind. I've spent more time dealing with Comcast customer service than all my other monthly billed services combined. I've got more stories, this is just the highlight reel. Now if I could just get them to stop playing crappy, low quality music while I'm waiting...

I agree on that being a problem (was tempted to say "I hear you on that one..."); Windows Vista+ with separate audio levels per-process comes in handy; it's not too hard to notice the transition from annoyance to "hello, hello, hello?" even when turned way down with Spotify on top!
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