They just keep shooting themselves in the foot. IF there is a choice in your area, why would you even want to be a comcast subscriber?

@gqcarrick: Why? Well, according to the article, it's a good way to prevent your cable from being cut.

/ducks.

fuck comcast. I was trying to get service in philly, and they wanted like $500 to set up a new tap to my whole block, but i would be the only one to foot the bill. Even after i was willing to deal with that (after some negotiation of course) they then tell me i gotta wait like 2 wks for someone to come out and set me up. Fuck that shit. so i called verizon and had them set me up the next day, and was overall very happy with the customer service. If comcast was giving me this bull donkey even before i was a customer, I can't imagine how i would be treated as a paying customer. fucking bureaucratz

@bayank: Where at in Philly?

Comcast makin' sure they get a first-round bye in the '10 WCIA event!

They already have my votes...bastards!

I had one of their door to door people come by a few weeks ago, I proceeded to tell him how I dropped Comcast for FiOS and would never ever again have Comcast service. He told me I would never need to deal with Comcast and instead on needed to speak with him and he would handle everything for me. I politely declined and told him I spent 3 months dealing with the Corporate Office in Philadelphia and do not want to give them any money, and then asked him to leave my property.

They are getting very pushy and he would not accept no.

@bloggerX:

north philly, near Temple

The Comcast reps were walking door to door in my community this week, offering the same services I get from Verizon for almost half the price. I laughed. We had Comcrap for 9 years before switching to Verizon. NOTHING will make me change back. He tried to explain away all the past problems we had with Comcast, and offered us a $200 gift card to sign up RIGHT NOW. I laughed again. He said he would call us on Wednesday to run the offer by us one more time; he must have looked up my old acct in the system because he never called. Now I want to make sure my Verizon box hasn't been messed with...

Just dropped Comcast for Fios two days ago. It is INCREDIBLE. I'm actually get above my advertised speed, constantly. Something like 23/6 on a 15/5 plan. And the technician they sent out was awesome too. He took a while, but he did a very neat and professional job. It may be more expensive, but I'm totally getting what I'm paying for.

@bayank: They service that area! You must have spoken to a lazy-ass rep! Fios is supposedly coming west philly/university city before the end of the year, I'm praying its better than comcast!

Springfield Cable? do they still have that guy working from them how will gave all the channels and a pamphlet saying so you decided steal cable?

@Joeb5: what does this say?

@bloggerX:
Hell yeah they service my area, my neighbors across the street were hooked up, but every rep i spoke to said the same thing about my address. I can't wait until Fios comes around, they keep teasing me every week with fliers for Fios in the mail :(

@YamiNoSenshi: I'd be all over FIOS like white on rice by now. The problem is that FIOS isn't all over my state yet. Grrr. Hurry the F up!

When i worked for Direct TV out here in Los Angeles i would see this all the time. The customer would setup service with Direct get it installed then call and cancel their cable service. The cable guy would come out and then cut or disconnect the Direct Tv wires. A simple fix for me but the customer was pissed that their service was out but once i showed them what happened lol lets just say the cable companies out here were just shooting themselves in the foot. Time Warner/Cox

@Joeb5: Joeb....watch a little cable. It won't cost you a thing....EXCEPT YOUR SOUL!

@bayank: Yeah Verizon keep sending me Fios and wireless postcards every other day I swear.

@apd09: Firearms have a way of making them more accommodating. Also big dogs. And bear traps. :D

@Nidabriz: I doubt a comcast would be able to mess with your fios box. The only thing coming into your home would be a fiber, the other end of which should be in a locked cabinet. I work for VZ and fios is great, but they still need to work on getting it to customers when they say they will.

My cable goes from a pole to my house, which is surrounded by a fence holding back a very large dog.

If any Comcast sales jerk tries this on me, my dog will have chunks of Comcast sales jerk in his stool.

@mac-phisto:
you must not watch the simpsons

@rpm773: Great. Comcast is now a mafia cable protection racket.

@Joeb5: I remember him, he came by offering to sell me a car stereo.

I recently watched a Comcast idiot attach a cheap coaxial power tap to an 220v external electrical plug that was clearly labeled as a 220v intended for an commercial outdoor freezer.

I was outside working on my pool pump when I could see the Comcast guy doing this through my fence. I even warned him that was a 220v and he replied "I know what I'm doing sir. Thank You." I replied, "Enjoy your failstorm." I don't think he knew what I meant until POOF! Needless to say it "released the magic blue smoke" in all of the cable boxes inside the house. The bubbling of the RG6 coaxial plastic sheath was comical to say the least.

But he's just a contractor, Comcast has no responsibility for him (or anyone else in their company).

/snark

@gqcarrick: There's one other option in my area, Bright House, but their service is quite literally $50 more a month for the same features. That's why.

@ARP: Yeah, you hit the nail right on the head there. Somehow it's always the contractors that turn out to be incompetent, don't show up, or pull crap like this.

Yet Comcast keeps sending 'em out to us.

I destroy my own telecommunication cables at home.

@redqueenmeg: But that extra $50 goes to their Comcast Sabotage Repair Fund.

@sixseeds: Could be, but Bright House around here is not too smart either. A friend of mine decided he could afford the extra $600 a year for them, but they told him that even though there was cable going to his house, Bright House could not use it, and therefore he needed to call the *homeowner's association* to get THEM to lay cable. WTF. I told my friend the HOA was going to laugh at him, and they did.

Makes sense to contract out dirty tricks since it can give you some deniablity.

@redqueenmeg: Well I guess if people are stupid enough to belong to howeowners associations they deserve to be laughed at. No one should dictate what you can and cannot do with your own home.

Cable is a Monopoly but the Government will not do anything about it!!! In fact Cable is a Mafia with each company controlling a portion of the Country and yet no one does anything about it. The only way we will ever have true competition is when all services are available to everyone and we can choose which one we want.

@apd09: Several years ago, when I worked for Comcast, I was at my parents house after work still wearing my uniform. At the time I would get a commission if I signed up a new customer, nothing big, but it worked for me. A contracted installer knocked on the door and I answered, remind you, wearing my COMCAST uniform. The contractor proceeded to tell me about the special deals and I told him if my parents were going to switch to comcast, they'd do it through me. His response was that they offer better deals than the employees get and they should hear him out! Incredulous and annoying.

@gqcarrick: Sorry, not gonna take the bait. I live in East Orlando, and if we didn't have a HOA we'd have couches on lawns.

Springfield Cable... I'm assuming Florida, since the story originated from there, but there's like 40 states with a Springfield, just sayin.

@humphrmi: Is it against the law for us to send Comcast sales jerks to your house so we can watch??

@gqcarrick: Also in a good number of areas it's almost impossible to avoid. A lot of HOA's aren't the nightmares that people make them out to be. Mine is very hands off and takes care of a lot of things, like sidewalk shoveling, maintaining a playground, snow removal, and tree pruning. We have some limitations like the color of our roofing and trim, but given that all the houses are similar colored brick so it's not that big a deal.

It is NOT the contractors fault- it is Comcasts-- they should pay enough to hire cotractors who know wtf they are doing, and hold them accountable, which they don't.

Comcast service is very location dependent. In Philly, though, as far as I can tell, "Comcast service sucks" would be an understatement.
I used to live just outside Philly. We had a digital cable box go bad, and Comcast was supposed to bring out the replacement. I made an appointment and got the 1-5 window. My husband came home at noon to wait for the tech. At 4, I called home from work ... no, not here yet. I called Comcast and they told me "yes, we're still coming today". At 5, same answer. At 7, still no tech, and Comcast's answer was "we were there, you weren't". Best we can figure out is this: My husband missed a call while in the bathroom. No message, caller ID read "unknown". They called, he didn't answer, assumed no one was there, and didn't actually bother to come to the house.
After the lie, we decided it's DirecTV time. Called and got everything set up, and downgraded our Comcast to basic until we could get the installation done. Since the TVs were cable-ready, we didn't need boxes any more. My husband disconnected the boxes and took them to Comcast to turn in. The person at Comcast informed him there's a fee to return the box. That got waived when he said "well, I can just cancel my service if you'd rather."
More recently, my in-laws had a little "disconnection" issue with Comcast. Apparently while digging in their neighborhood, Comcast cut their (Verizon) phone line, leaving them with no house phone. This was on a Friday afternoon. Verizon told them they wouldn't be able to get a repair crew out until Monday, so they called Comcast to complain. Comcast's answer was "we can send someone out to sell you our phone service".
Up here in New England, however, I've never gotten anything but great service from Comcast.

@axiomatic: Did you at least point and laugh at him?

@gqcarrick: No one would, which is why I switched to FiOS when it became available. Verizon has decimated Comcast in my area.

I'm in Southern NJ and out Comcast is good service. One of the big storms we've had recently messed with the service to one TV and the guy who came out to help was the nicest person possible, checked everything on every TV to make sure it was all okay, replaced the box and some wires that had been outside.

We got three calls from Comcast that day though, asking if he had gotten there on time, if he was dressed professionally, if he had fixed our problem, etc. Those guys must get micromanaged like crazy. I felt bad for him. Our Comcast experience has always been pretty good. Our Verizon experience is another matter. Getting our internet working was a huge fucking trial that makes me blind with rage when I think about it.

@bigd7387: That's the free market. All government regulations of business are bad. You're not a commu-social-fascist, are you? Comcast put in the lines so they can charge what they want. If you don't like it, switch to another provider or spend billions of dollars and start your own company.

/snark

My view has been that the state/feds should buy up the transmission lines and let the cable companies compete for your business. It's an even playing field, so the best price/quality would presumably win.

It could work for telecoms and power companies as well. You want power made from hemp and kitten's breath, fine. You want power made from the dirtiest coal where you blew up half a mountain and extinguished 2-3 species, that's fine too.

My Comcast service has been quite reliable over the 20 years I've had it, with no more than an occasional few outages and only 3-4 daylong ones. Their initial introduction of Internet service took a long time, but it's run well ever since. Meanwhile, Verizon has wired all the single-family homes on our block but refuses to wire any of the apartment buildings unless everyone signs up for FiOS.

@bigd7387: "In fact Cable is a Mafia..."

I know what you mean. The drive by shootings between Comcast and Time Warner are getting ridiculous here.

Thank God I live in a condo. My wires run under ground.

Actually...my experience is the Opposite of the comcast detractors. The techs arrived way earlier than promised and I was in the middle of getting dressed and trying to corner my new puppy to stick her in the play pen so she was out of their way....they waited like ten minutes for ME to be ready! Sweet as could be, played with the puppy, showed me everything step by step and their offices are awesome, I never had but one billing issue that was resolved straight away.

I had to discontinue service due to budget issues, but I'm hoping to resign up soon.

@rpm773: Yeah, that didn't work real good for me:

[havoc.gtf.org]

See the pink line? The one that's been cut with a tin snip or something? That's mine, and the tin snip belonged to a Comcast tech who was there to install cable for someone else.

And I stay with them because every time I show up at their office with my hair on end, they reduce my bill. At this point my rate is about 1/3 of what U-verse would charge for the same bitrate.