I am about to file a BBB complaint about comcast. I want to get an HD box and have been to the local comcast office about 6 times over the last 2 months. They never have boxes and say they will get more the following week. I go next week and no boxes. Yet if I call and schedule a technician to come out to install the box for a $50 fee, they magically have HD boxes and can come in a week. I'm about to file a complaint because I bet once I do, they'll have a box for me ready to pick up.

Try Comcast's best customer support team:

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I'd prefer it if they just called these hikes the "Because We Can" fee. I've said the same about Ticketmaster, rename the obviously bullshit name "convienience fee" to the "cuz where the hell else ya gonna go" fee and I'll probably just shrug and say yup rather than going out of my way to get tickets at the box office directly.

I counted down the days until Verizon offered FiOS TV in my area of Richmond. That was over a year ago and I have been happy ever since. Comcast is hands down the worst cable company in the country.

i contacted my local BBB about comcast. a couple of months passed and i received a letter from BBB saying that comcast had ignored their request for info on my case. a couple of more months passed and finally somebody from comcast called me to see waht the problem was. i won't get into the specifics of my case, but suffice it to say, comcast isn't really intimidated or concerned about the BBB. Or laws. Or, well, anything, really.

But definitely contact the BBB about these crooks. Maybe someday all the complaints will prove useful in a class action lawsuit.

I just got these hikes in Minneapolis too! What a bunch of arrogant bastards. Isnt the FCC investigating them for a lack of product for a high price? And the raise the price?? We pay waht will soon be $60/month ad we get standard channels, which apparently does not include channels like A&E. But I get plenty of music channels. SWEET.

@bravo369: Call your local franchising authority, too - Comcast might care what they have to say a bit more than the BBB.

We just got a Comcast rate increase, too. Funny how happened so much less frequently before Comcast took over our former cable company. I hate the excuses, too. The really lame thing is that they raise the rates on basic cable and justify it by citing "technology upgrades", when in fact the main purpose of the "upgrades" is to help Comcast compete better on offering more HD channels, VOD, etc. So essentially if you have fewer of their services you end up subsidizing everyone else. I especially hate paying more so they can offer more video on demand, a service I have no desire to ever use through Comcast. The Internet and my Tivo provide all the VOD I need.

We've been having Epic Comcast Deathmatch 2008 for the better part of a month now, also in VA (I'm hoping my BF will write it up and submit it here, once we see what happens next), and every time he tried to get to customer support on a weekend the phone tree rerouted him to billing.

@bravo369: "Yet if I call and schedule a technician to come out to install the box for a $50 fee, they magically have HD boxes and can come in a week."

Or they just say they can come in a week but it will actually takes a couple months for them to come out and "install" it.

Realistically I would guess the Comcast office supply comes from a different place than the technician supply. But that isn't a valid reason for them not having any at the office for so long.

From another disgusted Richmond area Comcast customer....I called to remove HBO and DVR (saving 40.00 per month!) and they charged me a 2.00 service change fee! This was not mentioned when the change was made. Also our high speed internet access is getting slower by the day. Isn't it convenient that they now offer a "boost" package you can pay for to help with that? I laugh bitterly at their customer first commercials.

@milrtime83: No, it's not a valid reason. They need to coordinate within their company MUCH more. I've never seen such a disorganized operation.

I also think that it should be illegal for them lie to you about install dates, etc. Maybe it's time that we get some consumer protection laws in places specifically targetting the cable industry. Something like $1000 automatic statutory damages every time they break the rules, kind of like they had to slap on the debt collection industry due to their sleaze. The cable companies deserve this just as much and I don't see any other good way to reign in sleazy operators like Comcast.

Honestly, I laugh when people on Long Island say Cablevision's bad. Because, honestly, it could be worse. It could be this.

Actually, now that I think about it, this is kind of just honesty in advertising on Comcast's part. They're just trying to let you know that it's not like they plan on actually acting on any of your complaints. They're just being more upfront about it, instead of pretending to take them down and then doing nothing, as per usual.

@HFC: Fixed it for you - "Comcast is hands down the ONLY cable company in most of the country." As such, they need not care.

As always, try using ComcastMustDie.com -- a truly great site!

@EtoilePB:

I contacted the local city council board that deals with their franchise agreement after all my hassles and copied them on the e-mail to the CEO. Needless to say, she wasn't happy to be getting that and demanded a written response within 3 business days. Now today is the third business day and I haven't heard anything, but she has more pull with the government relations office than I ever will have.

Excuse me, but $60 dollars for basic cable is theft. I think until all Comcast customers threaten to cancel it will be business as usual. You should be able to pay per channel and not forced to pay for 60 channels of crap. I have Comcast, but we have basic broadcast only which costs about $13 plus internet $42. The internet would cost more if I didn't purchase the $13 cable plan. I will never good cable until Comcast allows you to buy the HD DVR and doesn't charge you a monthly fee for equipment. I just signed up for Netflix and can watch a ton of movies on the the Xbox 360 for $15 a month. That's the price of one pay channel on Comcast.

Comcast isn't the only one raising rates.

The local anti-comcast: Knology, (which is quite good mind you, no real major complaints, unlike comcast) is raising their rates based on the services you use. Mine will come out to be about 5 dollars a month extra, they're citing an increase in broadcast rates by television networks and conglomerates.

Probably because they can't sell advertising space because they can't produce decent shows, and the auto company money is drying up..

And remember that we all get to pay more and be capped! WOOT!

@bravo369: Email my team and we will help!

Thanks,
Frank
We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com

Health care costs? Damn Comcast! How dare they look down upon our health care system, teh best in teh world!

I just canceled my comcrap cable last week in favor of FIOS. When I called to cancel they asked why, I responded becuase FIOS IS CHEAPER AND BETTER, I literally have an HD equivalent for every channel. The rep responded, sir we have the largest HD channel lineup. I didnt even bother refuting.

Speaking of that, can someone tell me how comcast is allowed to say they have the most hd content when they obviously dont, just to name a few i have espn2hd, espnuhd, espnnewshd which i never had on comcast. Someone should look into that.

Anyone else want to cancel communistcast and go back to rabbit ears on their new HD tv? I received a notice saying i've been receiving BLAST! internet and my bill was going up 10 bucks. I called to complain and she says, Oh we've errantly sent those bills out and are trying to track down who went sent them to. Yeah my *** you are. You're waiting for the smart people to catch you in you lie. Comcast thats all you are LIES LIES!

@bravo369: The way the cable box thing works at comcast is truely messed up, but i can explain why they are never there when you show up.

At all of their offices, the only cable boxes they have are ones that someone turned in that day or that week (depending on how busy the place is). less people have hd boxes so there are less to go around.

the messed up part of that is, you might not even get a working unit. a few months ago i went into the office and got a cable box, no matter how or where you connected it, the screen was garbage with static, even for the menu screen which has nothing to do with the actual cable.
I took it back and told them it wasn't working right and they gave me a new one, but i gaurentee the next day someone else got my non working box. they just give them out until they land in someone's hands that doesn't complain.

Proof positive: comcast takes complaints "seriously"!

I know their pricing sucks, but honestly, you can call them up and they will lower your rates if you ask for a deal, so long as there is something for you to "upgrade to" if you are on standard cable, and not on a promo in the last 60-90 days (depending on where you are), call up and enter the numbers as if you were a new customer (the people on these lines are always the nicest) Then tell them you already have service but you would like to see if there were any special promos you are eligible for. You should be able to get at a minimum 6 months at $30ish for digital cable, which is about 30/mo savings over standard cable. if you are lucky you can get that rate for a full year +free HBO and Starz. the same thing works for internet and phone. so long as you haven't had a promo in 2-3months they will let you get on one.

@comcastcares: Does comcast care that I don't get AMC HD anymore, for NO GOOD REASON? I've called several times to either get it back or get a discount (its one of my favorite channels), with no luck. However, you did send a service person out to replace my box with a crappy HD DVR (Cisco RNG-200) when my SA Explorer was working just fine, and now the DVR is making my HD channels go out for random periods... I didn't get CNN last week, CW this week...

PM me if you do indeed "care".

@G_Money21:
Comcast includes all the "on demand" channels in HD as programming too. I know, it's BS.

@EtoilePB: Huh, I'm in VA too. I got one of my favorite channels taken away... Guess I better un-sign up for the paperless bill and autopayment so I can catch this if it happens to me.

We dropped their TV service and went with DirectTV and we are quite happy. To be honest, I actually paid a bit more for DTV but the quality and channel lineup is much better than comcast.

@G_Money21: Because they broadcast a bunch of shopping/junk HD channels. Also, if you get their super, super premium, they'll broadcast everything in HD, regardless of whether the content was made for it (ie lots of stretching pictures... shudder).

@HRHKingFridayXX: The RNG must stand for "random number generator". That's how it decides whether to let you watch a particular channel.

Ah... the delicate ballet of what one is willing to pay vs what one is not willing to pay for any given service or product. Sounds like they are getting close to the Not Willing to Pay That price.

@ShrilekhaElpenor: We shouldn't have to do that. I hate playing these kinds of games with them just because their pricing is driven entirely by marketing.

I just failed to lower my bill with Comcast via the "Call and Ask" route, it turns out the only promotion they have right now is the triple play for $109 per month. So I cancelled. Luckily I'm in Baltimore, so I'm signing up with Xohm, I hear great things, I hope it works for me too. Also I'll just sign up for a year with DirectTV or the Dish, and when the price defaults higher, I'll switch to another provider. Pretty silly that that's the way to keep your bill low.

Time Warner is like the second coming of [insert deity here] compared to Comcast.

And Time Warner in Minneapolis was bought out by Comcrap. Fantastic.

With Time Warner I paid $70/month (on a promo) and got Premium cable, a digital box that recorded, and movie channels. on a $65/month promo here and I get no movie channels. Hell, I dont get MTV2.

@Adisharr: I have noticed over the past year or two that Time Warner has really stepped up their game. It started with a call back queue instead of waiting on hold forever for customer service (and they actually call you back, usually in less than 30 minutes). I am guessing this has taken a lot of the stress off of the CSRs as they have fewer "I'VE BEEN ON HOLD FOR AN HOUR!!!" screaming customer calls.

And recently on a service trip, their technician showed up on time and called when he was on the way.

I still think their prices are high, but their customer service has definitely improved.

Raising prices... lowering customer satisfaction... faltering economy... consumers giving up non-essentials...

I laugh in Comcast's face!

Yeah, I just got a big increase too. (Well basically each year they go up another $5 or so).

I have medium tier high speed internet (6mb), basic cable, digital cable, and a 1 dvr cable box (no movie channels at all), and I am paying $135 a month.

@HFC: Well here it definately goes to mediacom (our only provider).... hmmm i sense a pattern.

@Saboth: I got a Tivo mainly because if I was going to have a DVR I didn't want that money going to Comcast. And also because I knew there product and associated support would be crap by comparison, given their track record.

@failurate:

"call back queue" that is the most wonderful thing I've ever heard of, I hope that become more standard. There is nothing more infuriating to me than sitting on hold for an hour.

@ShrilekhaElpenor: Uh, no, no you can't. When I lost channels (a legit reason to get your bill reduced, right?), they asked me to pay MORE to get the channel I lost.

If anyone did get their bill reduced, please please tell me who at customer support you called.

@johnva:

yeah, i thought about it...then I figured comcast would do something to kill the support or something and render tivo useless.

@tripnman:

Um, yeah, you seem to be forgetting, Cox, Time Warner, Charter and a whole slew of other cable companies, including the one I work for.

Comcast is big, but they do have a lot of competition.

Comcast just moved the Cartoon Network off the analog portion and into their digital lineup. My family is pissed about it. They are 18. I'm going to go digital soon after I've finally get my HD TV, they just don't want to wait.

@G_Money21: You are right. Especially since they are no longer even pushing true HD signals. They are below 720p right now until DOCSIS 3.0 arrives in all markets then "MAYBE" they will go back to true HD.