Since when did "FREE INSTALLATION" and "COMCAST" fall in the same sentence? They charged me $45 so that I could do a self-install. They claimed the $45 was a mandatory charge for all new customers regardless of a tech coming on site to set it up. I was up till 3am trying to get their dumb modem to work.

Hillary should count herself lucky for the low low low fee of $9.99 .. only.

They charged me two separate fees when I first signed up. $30 for a self install kit (which included a ton of coax cable I didn't need), and a $30 "reconnect fee", which doesn't make sense for new service. I fought and fought over both of the fees, and then the service itself. Finally I ditched cable and now have broadcast TV and Verizon DSL.

DirecTV does the same thing if you request a "free" replacement receiver. I had the charge removed because I sent back their replacement because it wasn't as good as the one I had, which I subsequently managed to fix.

I just installed comcast internet yesterday. Why do they even need the installation kit (aside from the cables, which i alreasdy had)? As soon as you connect the cable modem the comcast website pops up w/ the ability to download the software, FREE!

Talk about a waste of money and one more way for comcast to squeeze a few more dollars out of you.

Is it just me or are there an inordinate amount of kitteh pictures today? Is it caturday already???

Got a funny story, very true, no April Fool, waiting for the next one.

My father has a bad record with Comcast receivers. For some reason, they die on him, have to be replaced. He knows the numbers, calls, they tell him to bring it in.

Now, the funny part is that they no longer have new "old style" receivers to give out for replacement; they have refurbished models, or they have the new DVR models with all the bells and whistles.

Each time he has gone in, they either "just ran out" of the new DVR units, or they have "just got in" a batch of the old style from the repair facility (the two monkeys in the back with blowtorches and a wad of used solder).

My father looks very ethnic, whether he is or not...and he's begun to wonder if that has something to do with the fact that each time he comes in, they all but go out of their way to be sure to hand him a "refurb" that fails within a few months.

So...on his next drop off, we've coached him on what to say...this should be interesting.

Comcast, if only you could take the amount of ingenuity you out into screwing customers into value instead, it would be a win, win. But no, you'd rather win the top honors for the worst company in America. I see this is a tough choice for you.

When I canceled the Comcast service I had at an apartment I was renting because I'd bought a house, they tried to charge me for an extra month of service.

I called Comcast on December 2nd, 2008 almost 2 weeks before I was going to move out of my apartment and told them to shut off the service on 12/12, the day I was going to move out. I'd actually picked 12/12 because it was a few days before the end of the billing cycle so things wouldn't get confusing. I returned their equipment to them in person at their office on Max Luther Drive in Huntsville, Alabama on the following Monday, 12/15, one day BEFORE the billing cycle ended.

Well, a few weeks later I got a bill from Comcast at my new address for a full month of service on a closed account. I called customer service and apparently they failed to send a tech out until 12/26 to turn off the service. The rep tried to throw it on me telling me that its only an "approximate" date of shut off so I should have known that I would be charged. There was no way I was going to pay for service I had never received! I even offered to fax in a copy of the receipt the local CSR had given me after turning in the equipment.

It was New Years Eve and I guess my incessant babbling to the rep about how screwy this all was and how all she was doing was increasing her AHT (average handle time) by not cooperating with me got to her. After 25 minutes with me she eventually said to me "okay, its going to be a long day and I'm not going to argue about this so I'm going to waive the charges". VICTORY!!!

I wasn't mean, just annoying. I'm not working right now so I had the time to waste anyway and I got a bit of a kick out of it too.

I used to work in a credit card call center doing fraud prevention and AHT is a big thing for measuring performance in all call centers. In fraud prevention long calls are kind of the norm but in general customer service if a call lasts more than 5 minutes, its a problem.

@vastrightwing: In a customer-oriented business, that would make sense. This is Comcast, however, so "screwing customers" equates to "value".

@Megan Squier: Well then every single call I've ever had with Comcast customer service has been a problem, because I don't think I've ever had one take less than 30 minutes. But that's usually because I only call them for something that they have sincerely screwed up and I end up going in circles with them forever before they even understand the problem.

@HPCommando: No no no! Find a hot 20-something blonde girlie to go to the office for him. It would be very interesting to see if she would be offered an upgraded unit.

@johnva:

Same here. My DVR was acting all screwy, not recording shows and sometimes not receiving OnDemand signals. After two weeks of that, I called and simply said, "I want a new DVR." They said, "Sure thing," and then, for some unknown reason, took 20 minutes to tell me when the tech would come.

Do you really need to fill out all those forms while I'm on the phone with you? You're not asking ME any questions!

The people that said more cat pictures should repay you the money for that advise...then fire them. Your other selection was much better.

Ok

Anyway.

@ninjatoddler: Time Warner gave me a $30 credit to do self install so they dont have to roll a tech. If I messed up, I got charged the $30 for the tech to come.

@SJActress: I guess I got a smart one in that case. That was the first time I called them directly. All I know is that CSR's at the bank I worked at would get in DEEP trouble if they exceeded so many minutes per call.

When I signed up for the service the manager of my apartment complex gave me a direct number to local sales in Huntsville to sign up for service

Cox tried to do this to me. I picked up the "free self install kit" at their office, and saw later on the bill they tried to charge me $35 for a box containing coax cable, an ethernet cable, a stupidly simple diagram, and ten pages of ads...

They also regularly call my cell phone at 7 am trying to sell me home phone service.

Update (I submitted this story) - Bonnie from Comcast let me know that the DTAs are free if you pick them up from Comcast, and she is checking to see if they're supposed to be mailed for free as well, or if I really was supposed to be charged $9.95 for shipping. Either way, the original person I spoke with on the phone didn't tell me about the shipping, and the letter I got didn't mention it either (nor can I find info online), so it's being refunded. Portland is apparently one of the first markets they're rolling out the digital transition in, so they're trying to work the kinks out - thank you Bonnie!

In more important news, the DTAs do work with TIVO - One of the reps I spoke with said they didn't work with any Tivo's - now that's a scary thought!

I'll be sure to keep an eye out for this, I live in Portland too and my parents ordered four boxes. They told her it would be free shipping, too, so they must think this is the norm.

@godawgs7: In Portland, Comcast is going digital ("This is not at all related to the FCC digital transition!!!" -Comcast) and anyone with digital cable who wants to watch anything besides basic cable needs a digital box now on each TV. They only give you 2 and then charge $2/month for each additional one. It's stupid.

MediaCom did the same thing here in Arizona (when they finally showed up, that is). I had to explain to three different CSRs, slowly and using small words, that I installed the cablemodem myself.

You could have picked up the install kit. That is what I did. The beauty is when you pick it up, they still mail you another kit so you end up with two kits. And you don't get charged at all.

@ninjatoddler:
When I called about the free install kit, they said it was not available for my location, and I had to have someone come install. I had to show the tech how to do it!

Comcast is the devil.

maybe Hillary should of asked more questions when speaking to a rep on the phone.

Yes the kit is "free" but, how'd you expect them to get it to you?

@Megan Squier:

i had the same thing - they never sent out the tech to turn off service - like that was my fault....yet i had MOVED OUT and dropped the boxes off as well - took 3 months to get my refund check since i had auto-bill pay set up on my credit card....if i had known what i know now, i would have just issued a chargeback and let the cc company take care of it, but i was young and stupid...

@bohemian: Yeah and send that hot blond in RIGHT after him. And preferably have the local tv station's consumer reporter lurking in the parking lot.

@Alessar: And then send her to my house.

I believe it says on their website when you order service that they will charge you for shipping. Sounds like an idiot customer rep who didn't explain it to her (if she called).

Ummmm, whats with all the f*n cat pics?

I just moved and Comcast decided to 'upgrade' me from self-install to premium install and charged me $49.95 for the service even though I never asked for premium install. Now the CSR claims that she can only reduce my bill by $20 and that only a supervisor can remove a charge from my bill (again, for a service I never requested!)

that kit is a waste. Its a splitter and a cable wire. You dont need that cd that comes in it. You take the modem, hook a cable to it from the wall, wait till all the lights are on and plug the ethernet into the computer. Open a web page, follow the directions and it should work if your cable signal is good.

I used to be an AT&T DSL customer, and they always have a self-install kit which costs nothing. Then I switched to the comcast triple play. I asked for a self-install kit, and they said there was no such thing, they had to send a tech to install everything for me. So, a tech came out and it cost me $100 for the install, which didn't require anything more than plugging the modem in and waiting for the lights to come on.

@SJActress:
Actually, they probably do. Or at least want to.

When I worked tech support at a large company, we too had AHT goals. Our phone system had 3 modes, In Call (or ready), After Call Work, and Away from Phone.

If any of your times in any mode were too high you could lose your eligibility for monthly department bonuses.

A good rep's handling times were often their best metric, as they were able to resolve issues quickly due to experience. So often, we would do stuff that could be done in 'after call' while we were on the call, such as shipping product or logging the call.

If you were in After Call or Away mode, your phone wouldn't ring. So if you did your work on the call, you could buy yourself an extra chunk of 'break time'.

@bohemian: Judging by who's staffing my local office, a hot twentysomething boyie would be better received.

@Alessar: I suspect all you'd prove is that the bored middle-aged women in the office aren't much interested in what kind of cable box people get.

Comcast sucks, they back-charged me for one of their own screwups.

I had dropped off their modem when I switched to my own, and they happened to take Internet off of the bill that next month. Instead of just leaving it and getting free Internet, I decided to be honest and call them to make sure I had it on my account. That was a long process because one system could see my modem, but another one couldn't, but we got it straightened out.

When I got the bill the next month, they not only charged me for the current month's internet, they charged me for the previous month. I would have hoped that they would have just eaten the charge since it was a screwup on their end, but they decided to stick it to me instead.

@ninjatoddler: If you do the installation yourself, you shouldn't be charged.

@godawgs7: And you don't even need that software, so all you need is coax and, possibly, a splitter, depending on how your cable is configured. The install kit is a joke, and I actually bypassed it when I self-installed Comcast internet a couple of months ago.

@albokay: It's a good splitter and wires though. Worth 10 bucks if you need that stuff. Most splitter people buy from stores like walmart don't pass all of the needed frequencies.

@theblackdog: They did not stick you. It seems like you called them and asked them to bill you correctly. If you are that upset call and ask for a credit for time wasted.

I used to work for Comcast in sales in Beaverton, probably the department you ordered this kit from. The $9.95 is a code the rep has to put on in order for the unit to ship, however at the time I worked there we were supposed to add a discount code to the order that waived the fee. Most likely the rep just forgot to add the code to waive it. It's not a conspiracy

@Corporate_guy: Maybe it's worth $10 bucks. But that charge needs to be disclosed rather than advertised as "free", doesn't it?

@SwarupaElpis: Yep - I just heard from Comcast and they said the rep accidently charged me for shipping a normal digital box, instead of the DTA which is free. I was given a credit the first time I called, so no problem with that, just wanted to let others to know to keep an eye out as well....

Cox did a similar thing to me, except I got the charges taken off, especially after I had completed the relatively simple routine installation and they forgot to add the modem to their network, requiring an argument with the CSR as to who's fault it was that I wasn't getting service... tried to charge me extra saying that if they needed to send someone out, there would be a fee. I told them to shove their fee up their ass because I knew this had nothing to do with me, but rather a problem on their side. Much arguing back and forth over this and what constituted their fault vs. my fault.

More than a few years ago, I was very stupid. Well, ignorant, maybe.

I signed up for Comcast internet service at Circuit City. They had a deal where you could buy a cable modem as part of a self-install kit (complete with rebate - what was I thinking?) and get a discounted rate for three months.

Yeah. (In my defense, my apartment complex hooked up with Comcast, so I didn't have other options for cable or broadband - the one window I had wasn't on the proper side of the building for satellite.)

Anyway, they misspelled the name on the account (even though I already had cable service with them), failed to charge the correct rate for the partial month and first full month, and charged me for cable modem rental.

Naturally, I could not get through to a person when I called in, and the problems could not be resolved via email, so I sent a nastygram and they reluctantly fixed the billing errors (but did not fix my name).

Except that about a year later, the modem rental charge returned. And again I tried to get it fixed, and again I had to write ... and again they fixed the billing error and not the misspelling.

Happily, Time Warner soon replaced Comcast as our provider of "choice", and I never had to suffer again.

@Corporate_guy: I couldn't do that now, it was almost 2 years ago. In that time I dumped the boyfriend and moved into my own place, so I didn't bother calling Comcast for new service.

I also got no warning they were going to bill me for the month they missed, they just said the next bill would have HSI on it.

The self-install kits were free at one point, but they now do charge the $9.95 -- I work for Comcast and I had a customer request one of these and I thought it was free - so I shipped it out, later to find out that it's not free...nobody told me! Not good...the customer can call us up and we'll take off the charge, all the calls are recorded so if she wanted to dispute a charge the manager will just listen to the call, if the rep said it's free, they will always waive the fees.

There's a lot of confusion in the call centers...but we do our best, I always encourage customers to call if they have a problem, it is our job to fix it!

And to avoid the fees for the self-install kits, we always tell our customers to go to their local Comcast service center to pick up equipment, there's never a fee for that, plus you can get your stuff the same day, not have to wait for something in the mail!

@MMD: The kit is free. You can pick it up. This is purely a shipping charge.