Where's the news here? It's a rate increase. They happen annually. I'm not sure I see the value in this post.

Thats why I always stay clear of Comcrap. They raise rates every chance that they get. Give me all channels ala-cart (50 cents each), and maybe I would come back.

What the fuck, they charge to send out a technician? You have to pay to have them fix their screw up? The one (and only) good thing I will say about the thieving, useless bastards who run Charter is that they don't charge you to send out a technician. Or if they do, at least I've never been charged for it.

Maybe it's because they know their technicians are just as useless as the morons working in the call center and can't actually fix a damn thing and it just would not be fair to charge people for that "service". Seriously, last time I had a technician out to fix our crappy cable internet, he was dumbfounded by my wireless router. He literally said the reason I was having issues was because my laptop wasn't plugged into the router. "No, it's fine, it's wireless. And the router isn't getting an IP address from your DHCP, and if I plug into the router, it still doesn't work." He was still confused. To appease him, I plugged my laptop into the router, and guess what, it still didn't work! And this wasn't when wireless routers were brand new, this was less than a year ago. Idiots. But I digress. Continue on with the Comcrap ranting.

Basic cable? $15? I can't touch Comcast here for less than about $50! Hah.

Every month now for about five years now, I've paid Comcast somewhere in the range of 55-62 dollars total for high speed internet, a cable modem and analog limited basic cable. When my cable modem crapped out, they replaced it at the service center for free. The network goes out occasionally -- I'm guessing that's because the teenagers and slackers in my building are using Bit Torrent to download gigabyte size files for work and all. But my cable TV has never gone out and my network is usually pretty darn fast. And in five years, my Comcast bill has yet to exceed $65.

I've got nothing to complain about. Maybe you can find something to do with your life besides download gigabyte size files with Bit Torrent for work and watch 100 dollars worth of TV?

@Pylon83: Unless you have charter communications. They seem to raise rates every 3 months now. Usually its a couple of dollars each time. And their pricing makes no sense.

Cable company pricing makes no sense lately. An HD box costing $16 a month, which I was told only cost $11, was taken back when I couldn't recieve HD signals, and the bill went down $30 per month. Where did the other $14 come from?

@xianzomby: Hi! Didn't I meet you at Self-Righteous Comcast Apologists' Anonymous last night?

@xianzomby: A well built infrastructure shouldn't be taken down by a couple people using Bit Torrent 24/7.

@nickripley:
Pleaaase, bigger is the company, bigger number of complaints it will get. Especially when its employees aren't trained to highest standards.

Most customers get OK service and have few complaints. Bad reputation comes from some major screw ups from some customers. If every customer would get horrible service, no one would be using Comcast.

I have noticed that while my parents and I (we live in different cities) have the same cable provider, our customer service experience is drastically different - hers is riddled with incompetence and billing errors, where mine has been mostly smooth sailing - not to say that I haven't occasionally suffered from incompetent customer service reps or technicians, but usually problems are handled promptly and efficiently. Perhaps the "apologists" for Comcast in this thread merely live in an area where the local service providers are more competent?

Well folks, this is actually the annual Comcast Rate Increases. Most of the Comcast Territories are doing the rate increase. Everything is going up from $1 to $5. Late fees are going from $5 to $7. And from what I have seen they are being discreet about the increase. So watch out when you get your January bill from Comcast. I'm an insider.... I could go on and on.

@chouchou: That is NOT true. There are many, many people that feel they HAVE to have things like cable, and they just go-with-the flow. This, of course, applies to other things, but how many of Comcast's customers don't even look at their bill? I don't know the number, but I would bet it's a fairly decent number.
And then there are the people that are locked into using their service, or go completely without any internet or what-not, due to apartment building contracts, or even just because Comcast is the only carrier of a particular service in an area.

My favorite is, though, that your words almost betray you:

>>Especially when its employees aren't trained to highest standards.

>>Most customers get OK service and have few complaints.

What a high standard, this "OK service!" I have Speakeasy for DSL and they have EXCELLENT service, which is why I use them! "OK service" isn't "OK" with me.

Every time I read one of these stories, I'm so glad I dumped Comcrap.

well living in Alabama.... no jokes please. I have enjoyed the 8Mbps d/l --- 784Kbps u/l that comcast has provided. Comcast has screwed me over plenty. My bill 69.20 per month, which includes basic(hd clear QAM locals) and "high speed internet" has had decent service enough to sustain my paying them monthly. ATT/former BellSouth can't provide anywhere near the bandwidth that i am able to attain with Comcast. That being said I have had plenty of connection problems with comcast and spent hours on the phone with their monkeys going through the script... only for them to find out it is "a local" problem which apparently corporate monkeys aren't privy to. "i'm sorry we dont really know what is going on at the local office... we can send someone out tomorrow from 12-5" well if you are like me you have a job and can't jump... ie be home whenever the comcast monkeys call"... sigh... at least i got a credit for one months bad service..... however, the service continues to decline, monkeys continue to screw up and i will eventually be forced to find another provider (hopefully there will be one in this forsaken Alabama town by then)

This is brilliant. I wish they would double prices in Washington. Nothing like light a fire under the folks who actually write the laws in this country-- and I'm not talking about our elected officials-- I mean the dozens of policy wanks working for elected officials. Those folks don't make a whole lot of money, and are much more influential on our elected officials than anyone else. Want congress to change FCC regulations? Raise the rates in DC so all those not so wealthy Congressional staffers get the shaft. Well done, Comcast.

@nickripley: You get what you pay for. And I don't mean money only. You also ''pay'' with your time when you research which company you choose. And the longest contract I've seen is 3 years. Once you get screwed by a company, you don't renew. (Unless you're really lazy). So if Comcast is bad, just get out and cut your losses. Cable isn't necessary for survival, last time I checked. And there are alternatives.

Comcast is ''ok'' because for a percentage of customers they screw up really bad. They are not out of business, yet. When they really become ''bad'', no one will get anything from them.

Customers who do not check their bill, at least once every 3 months, are their own problem. If their provider(and not necessary Comcast) screwed up the billing, and they waited years to ''notice'' it, well that's their loss. Looks like they didn't need the money in the first place. (Also, looks like the same type of people who are causing current mortage crisis).

As for OK service : you never know how good the service is until you have a major problem. The way the problem is handled by company's service is the difference between OK and excellent.

And, like in your case, you can get excellent provider. But it demands an effort. Most people are lazy. So ''ok'' companies thrive.

who says washington when referring to dc? i was so confused!

i live about 5 mins from dc and in this area we have access to comcast, direct tv, dish network, and verizon fios. with all the competition it boggles me that these companies wouldnt work harder to KEEP business.

For your information, no, I don't have anything better to do than watch 250 channels of nothing to watch.

Thanks to Dish, I can watch nothing very reliably. When I had Adelphia (now Time Warner) the only thing that was reliable was their unreliabiliy. Now I can watch everything very reliably except there's nothing to watch.

well my basic comcast tv is only because it is cheaper to buy that and broadband (just barely now i think i'm saving .25 cents compared to the 3/4 dollars per month i was saving when i signed up for both) I use comcast solely for internet. DirecTV being another evil monopoly serves me better with HD than comcast ever could. That being said TV and Internet are evil.. back to the stone ages I say... no tv or computer for you!

Same rate raised here in Jackson, Mississippi too. Got the letter last week. Bastards. Nickel and dime.

@xianzomby: Pretty much the same here. I started with @Home service, which was bought by Comcast in my area. As I prefer DirecTV service, I've only ever had the most basic cable there is, and it's $15. It's that, or spend $15 more for just the internet service (it's a wash, other than the $0.08 franchise fee for the TV portion). My bill is currently under $65 (plus, as I said, DirecTV at only $27). When I moved, they transferred service for me and activated me for free. When I had some intermittent connectivity problems, the service techs were free. My only gripes have ever been: (a) I had to call to remind them to bury the new line that said techs installed; (b) automatic credit card billing had to be arranged through snail mail (although recently in my area, it's all online now). If I could get all of the channels (they're just not offered in my area) that have Mexican soccer and soap operas (not for me, honestly), I'd probably dump the DirecTV in favor of Comcast.

So, I've been happy (knock on wood, though).

Comcast is ridiculous. I used to live just outside of Philadelphia (aka Comcast Country). Back in 1999 Comcast took over Suburban Cable. Within 2 -3 years our basic cable package went from $25 a month to $50. This was analog, basic channel cable.

We now live in Austin and Comcast is headed this way. They already took over Time Warner in Houston and according to a friend his bill has gone up $10 a month 2 months after the take over.

Comcast Basic service is not really "Basic Cable." With Comcast basic you get the regular network television shows and I think the weather channel. No Discovery Channels, music channels etc. Its like having an antenna and as BANE_42 was describing, the only reason to get it is because if you had Internet service and no cable TV, it would cost the same anyway. Otherwise, I'd just have the antenna and download whatever else I wanted to watch.

And to all you DC whiners, I say welcome to Northern Viriginia prices. I've been paying 15 bucks for basic service for months.

@ianmac47: Huh? All the policy wonks I know have PhDs and make boku bucks. It's the interns and lowly staffers who don't make anything, and believe me when I say Mr. Congressman doesn't care if 22-year-old Jimmy can't afford cable.

That said, Comcast does suck and I wish Mr. Congressman did care!

"Digital Classic $11.96 to $14.95"

That's not the prices they were quoting me when I was looking. Shouldn't those say $51.96 to $54.95?

I am very glad I didn't go with them

I will get flammed for this, however, the problem isn't Comcast, it's everyone who continues to pay Comcast for their rate increases. Bail out! Try FIOS, Dish Network, DirectTV, old fashioned antenna, IPTV, netFlicks, etc. etc. DUMP COMCAST!

@vastrightwing: As many of us always point out, for some of us, that's our only option. Comcast or...nothing. Entire localities have climbed into bed with Comcast, assuring that the whole area has only a single cable provider. Right. Time to talk to our local officials. However, doesn't solve the fact that, for years now, crappy Comcast has been our sole cable option.

They sent out one of those chipper "we're raising your rates so that we can give better service!" mailings to us here, too. Basic cable went up. Know what the "improvement" was? Moving all competing network channels out of reach of basic subscribers. We used to receive our own NBC affiliate, as well as that of the nearest major city. Now? Our teeny local affiliate is all you can get on basic. We also now get the last 5 minutes of Headline News' national feed preempted for their own version of "local news no one on earth could use." GREAT improvement Comcast!

@theblackdog: The prices of "Digital Classic $11.96 to $14.95" are for the upgrade above the "Standard" cable package. So if your "Standard" cable was $50, the Classic package upgrade would be $11.96 on top of that. Make sense?

@vastrightwing: I agree 100%. I switched to Dish back when i lived in Philly. It was a tough decision too because i loved watching Philly sports and comcast has a virtual monopoly on Flyers and Sixers games on Comcast Sports net

thank heaven for directv...been with them quite awhile and have no problems....i would like the al a cart channel buy tho....got a gazillion channels and only watch about 16 of 'em......i could do away with the shopping and religious crap......

The dish isn't always an option, unfortunately. I live in an apartment where you aren't allowed to attach anything to the outside of the building. Crappy Comcast is the only option in our one-cable company town, under those circumstances.

Not only have they raised the prices about 4 times in the last year, they keep removing channels at the same time! They took away the Sci-Fi channel and about a handful of others from our "Basic Expanded" analog package, and the price keeps rising to well above $50! "Why yes, I would like to pay more money for less product! Why, thank you for your generousity!"

@burgundyyears: I'm with you. I'm in Washington State and my Basic Cable bill (Not digitial... no box) with Comcast is $55.

@MercuryPDX: That's the price in Seattle. Add $45 for internet. I finally dumped them and went Cleawire/NoTv.

Much better internet and the rest isn't missed.

@LastVigilante: They did the same thing where I live; they raised the prices while decreasing the service. Then, when I called to cancel, they argued with me and sent me to a customer retention specialist who offered to reason to stay with them.

Got Dish...got happy!

They increased $3.44 in Houston as well. I sent an email to the CEO and I was called by the executive of customer support. Of course, it didn't get me anywhere, but it sure made me feel good letting them know what I thought about their company.

@Cogito Ergo Bibo: FCC regulations forbid apartments to forbid you from attaching a dish. Apartment owners face stiff fines if they try.

See here: [nreionline.com]

@MercuryPDX: You are counting your taxes and fees in that total MercuryPDX. Your rate for the service itself is about $4 to $5 less.

@Jon Parker: Interesting read. Thanks! Although, in truth, there's really nowhere to put a dish on my place. No back yard or balcony, etc. Urban setting. From the article, refusing permission to perch a dish on a window ledge seems reasonable. Heck, as a person walking below the ledge, even I can understand that!

Got almost the same note from Time Warner. I'm locked in supposedly for another 6-8 months before I call and get the deal back.

@CelesteD: Pretty much everyone uses Washington to refer to the District. Have you ever noticed the newspaper is The Washington Post, Not the Washington DC Post?