At home, we have the triple play package for internet/tv/phone. My wife was let go last month from her job, but it’s the one thing we haven’t cut back yet, planning to not mess with our current set up until later in the summer once we decide how far we want to cut and what services we really can’t live without out (DVR!) So we send closer to $200 than $100 a month to Comcast.
However, I enjoy writing checks to the IRS more than this crappy monopoly. Anyone that reads my blog knows I’m rather mild mannered so it takes a lot to get me riled – but I’m just sick of Comcast on so many fronts. I switched about two and half years ago from AT & T for the phone and internet, and back then, the cable web connection was faster than DSL, but it has been far less reliable, and the company’s customer service is horrid. COMCAST, you suck because:
1) For the frequent hidden, one-time charges that I have to police my monthly bill for to catch and then call to have you remove. These have ranged from fees for talking to you on the phone, or making modifications to my service plan, or for you sending a technician out to my house when we didn’t need it. This happens at least every other month.
2) For sneaky downgrades to the bundle plan that require me to pay more to get the same level of service. Most recently this involved changing the signal so TVs in the house without a cable box could only get like 20 channels instead of 100. To get the full range, I am now forced to pay like $6 x 2 to rent a couple boxes so the other TVs can get more than the basic line-up.
3) Internet going down at least once a month over the last several years (while the phone and cable is functioning fine). For someone that worked at home like me, this was just a really lousy thing to happen so frequently. And during late April and May, this happened more like every other day over a couple week period. For someone day trading, this can be even more costly – both in terms of open positions and lost opportunity costs. You did send a technician out finally, and rewired the house and things are running much better now.
4) I just got an office out of my home. I decided to try Comcast again, mostly because cable seems to be faster than DSL. My first shock was how you jack up the prices from your Residential side to the Business side for the same services. It doesn’t make sense since its the same infrastructure I believe, and I’m definitely not getting better customer service yet.
5) In setting up my new office, my Comcast sales rep for the first couple days was trying hard to get me to sign a two year agreement, and was using the offer of waiving a $250 installation fee to extort me into signing a contract twice as long as I need. After much back and forth, he finally relented, in part because my home internet was having so many problems at the same time. The rep also offered to give me a month free, thank you.
6) I signed that contract 13 days ago, and I have YET to even have an appointment SET yet to get me up running at my new office. The hang up, the old account of the former tenant needed to be shut off before my new service can get in the system. This is for an office that requires $250 of installation done – yeah right.
Anyone want to take a guess when my service will actually be up and running? Please leave your pick for date and time in the comments, this should be fun!
I have reached my limit, in a month or two I’m 99% sure we will be switching our home phone to a cell phone, going with AT & T DSL, and DirectTV.
Oh, yeah, I’m posting this using my back-up internet connection (for day trading) with a Verizon mobile card, problem is – it’s my primary link right now because Comcast stinks!
