Family's Comcast Signal Obscured By Tangled Vines, Incompetence

David has finally reached the end of his cable when it comes to Comcast reception at his house. He has had multiple technicians out to help. He has contacted the executive customer service SWAT team. He has Twittered. His connection is still crappy, and he’s locked in a contract. He finally fired off this letter to company executives, hoping that people at or above the Jack Donaghy level can help him receive the service he’s actually paying for.

We have no idea where to turn at this point. Let me just get started with what’s been going on for the past 6+ months with our phone/internet/TV bundle.

A few weeks into us bundling phone, TV and internet we started having pretty bad connectivity issues – the internet would drop out, phone calls would drop and we wouldn’t be able to hear the other person on the line and TVs would be snowy/drop signal as well.

We called Comcast to create a ticket and get a service rep out to fix it. *Cue Yakety Sax * [Okay. -Ed.]

The first one says we’re not getting enough power to power the line. He installs a booster. Everything works for a few days. A few days later the issues return, so we call and get another tech out (two weeks later was the earliest we could get someone out). This tech says we have too much power going to everything. He removes the booster and says that too much power is coming from the outside lines. Things work again for next few days. The issues still return and we call for another tech to come out. When he finally comes he says we need the booster but not set to such a high power level. At this point, we’ve given up on getting everything working and just focus on internet.

For a couple months we’re complacent with our crappy TV and phone service and the internet starts going out. Every time we call we are just told to unplug the modem/router and plug it back in. I stop calling because thats what they tell me to do every time anyway.

We try to get Comcast to clear vines from the lines; they say they aren’t responsible for the lines and we have to remove them ourselves. Our house is behind the interstate – there is a bunch of overgrowth between our house and the interstate. The city normally cleans it for us when we complain to them, but they won’t touch the line. They say that they aren’t allowed to touch the poles/lines even though it’s their overgrowth on them. No problem; we call a service to come clean the vines. They won’t touch it saying that they can’t clean Comcast’s lines. We call the local power monopoly who also has lines on that pole – they say that it’s Comcast’s problem. And Comcast says it’s our problem.

How are we supposed to clear the vines off these lines if no one will do it? Eventually we get sick of having crappy service and ask to call another tech out; Comcast finally relents and says that this tech will clear the vines off of our lines. The tech never comes. We call again and they have no record of our call. We make a big fuss over the phone and are promised that a supervisor will call us within the next 24 hours. Of course, no call. We call them back after 48 hours and they have no record of the previous call either. Eventually we get to the “escalations” department. This person says he has to send a tech out before he can send an outside maintenance crew to fix the line, and to talk to this tech about clearing the vines.

The tech came today. When he fixed the internet/phone connectivity issues we went to check the TV signal – no difference. I showed him the TVs – he said nothing on my report said anything about the cable having issues; just the phone. He said what he did to fix the phone (reduce the power again…) would fix any internet connectivity issues we may have been having. He also states that the reason the TVs are having issue is because of the lines and the overgrowth on it. We told him that escalations said to talk to him about removing it. The tech said Comcast does not touch vines on the lines. We told him that we can’t find a service that’s willing to do it, the city won’t do it, the power company won’t do it, and Comcast won’t do it.

Who do I talk to? I’ve tried tweeting @ComcastCares but all they ever do is say “email us at we_can_help@comcast.net”. Oh, and they won’t respond to the email I sent there.

Comcast sucks. If we weren’t stuck in a contract with them we would’ve left months ago. I copy/pasted and CCed the email list I found here.

If anyone from Comcast has the intention of fixing any of this for us, please call at [redacted].

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