JedFonner.com

I’ve been a Washington, DC Comcast customer for 3 years now. Why? Because they’re the only game in town. Seriously, if I had ANY other means of getting TV, I would switch in an instant (satellite is not an option b/c dishes are prohibited by my condo association).

So after years of suffering Comcast’s poor service and “comcastic” picture quality and software, why do I continue to subject myself to more of the same awfulness? Well, partially because I’m a perpetual optimist, partially because I know it will give me more stuff to write about on my blog, but mainly because Verizon sucks too.

So we recently decided to switch from Verizon DSL to Comcast cable, mainly because our DSL modem is dying and Verizon won’t replace it unless we fork over a bunch of money. And since Comcast is cheaper and faster, we figured we’d give it a shot.

So we called them up and crossed our fingers. That was on Aug 20th. Apparently, the crossing finger thing didn’t work, since we’ve had three appointments and we’re still waiting for working cable internet and now our cable TV is broken.

Here’s what’s happened so far.

Aug 20th: called and spoke to a representative, who scheduled me for an appointment on Sept 4th, when we would be home recovering from our wedding.

Sept 4th: I called to check that the service rep would still be coming (I’ve learned to call them, not to wait for a call). Oops, they scheduled Sept 5th as the service date. I’m positive I told them the 4th, especially since I added it to my Google calendar as I was speaking to them. So we have to cancel and reschedule for the 10th.

Sept 9th: I receive an automated call reminding me about the appointment the next day. The machine asks me if I want to receive a call 30 min prior to the technician arriving, and I hit 1 for Yes.

Sept 10th, 10:30am: Technician arrives without any phone call. No biggie.

Sept 10th, 10:40am: The modem he has doesn’t work, so he goes back out to the truck to get a different one.

Sept 10th, 10:50am: Second modem doesn’t work. He wants to install a modem/wireless router for an additional fee. We explained that we didn’t want to be charged more just because they don’t have the right equipment (we already have a wireless router thank you very much).

Note: the technician explained that he couldn’t just go back to the office to get another modem for us because his office is out in Beltsville, MD. We live in Washington DC. I know from personal experience that there’s a Comcast office in northeast DC, about 15 min from where I live. Beltsville is way out in the middle of Nowhere, MD. So here’s my question: is he just going to go to all of his next appointments trying to install the same broken modems over and over?

Sept 10th, 11:10am: Since we were being so obnoxious and not taking the more expensive router, we had to schedule them to come back NEXT week… which will be our THIRD scheduled appointment to have cable internet installed.

Sept 10th, 11:15am: Technican gathered up his gear and filled out his form for us to sign - we especially liked that he listed on the form that he started at 11am and worked for over 75 minutes - even though he didn’t really arrive until 10:30am and worked for less than 45 min. Ah, more technician sketchiness.

Update: Sept 17th: Two new technicians showed up today, and after much investigation they realized the real problem - the signal strength of the Comcast signal coming into my house is -14. It’s supposed to be positive. That’s almost assuredly the reason why the technician last week thought the modems were broken. So no high speed internet until they can boost the signal strength.

And this part is true Comcast style: the technicians can’t boost the strength themselves. They said someone else would have to come out and do it. Naturaly we ask, “Well, when will this happen?” Their response: probably within 10 business days, but they don’t know, and you can’t actually schedule an appointment. We just have to keep calling back and asking if the work has been done yet.

Now here’s the real kicker - we didn’t bother to check my TV signal after they left, after all, we had to get to work. When I returned from work later, I turned on my TV, and yup, no signal. Something they did while checking the signal strength has killed my TV. Now I not only have no cable internet but now I don’t even have TV. And the earliest they can come back out to fix it is 3 days from now, in the middle of the day… if that’s not Comcastic, I don’t know what is.

Seriously - W… T… F… I hate Comcast soooo much.

At this point, they can forget about getting my money for cable internet. Once I get my TV fixed, I don’t ever want to have a Comcast technician back at my house.

I’m not the only one who hates Comcast. Checkout the Comcast Must Die post on the totally not-technology-related blog adage.com. This is just the latest I noticed in a long, long string of people complaining about Comcast.

And don’t forget the comments thread on ComcastWatch, which is a great source for reliving other people’s pain.

And where the hell is my Comcast TiVo service? They announced the deal almost 2 years ago!

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