If you don’t want Comcast to own NBC, you can use this handy dandy online petition Consumers Union put together for you to tell the FCC. As the agency continue to mull over the deal, perhaps your opinion may help sway theirs. But why might Kabletown owning the peacock be bad for consumers? [More]
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How 5 Different Companies Treated Us After My Father's Death
By 9.10.10
Everyone deals with death at some point, and everyone grieves differently. The major corporations our lives are intertwined with often don’t want to let us go–or create unneeded problems for our survivors. Dan’s father recently died, and he wrote up a comparison of his family’s experiences with a variety of large companies. Out of Bank of America, American Express, Fidelity, AT&T Wireless, and Comcast, which companies do you think were the easiest to deal with under the circumstances? [More]
Strings Attached: Charities Comcast Donated To Send FCC Pro-Merger Letters
By 9.3.10
There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Comcast has donated over $1.8 billion to local charities and now that its merger with NBC is on the table, it’s time to call in the chits. Charities that received contributions from Comcast are pouring out their epistolary support for the merger, and they appear to be less than spontaneous. [More]
Save $420 On Your Comcast Bill By Being A Pain In The Butt
By 9.1.10
Jeff in Seattle saves $420 a year on his Comcast bill by calling the company once every 6 months and demanding they keep him at the lowest competitive rate of $29.99. He threatens to go to Qwest if they don’t give him that rate. He’s been doing this for several years now, and it keeps working. [More]
Oops, Comcast Didn't Really Increase Your Internet Connection Speed
By 8.20.10
Robert writes that he received an exciting e-mail from his Internet provider, Comcast. They were giving him a better connection! Faster downloads! Then Comcast followed up a few days later to say, approximately, “hey, remember that e-mail we sent saying that your Internet connection is faster now? Yeah, it’s not actually true.”
[More]
Got Refund After Comcast Charged Me $28 To Fix Their Mistake
By 8.13.10
Roger got Comcast to refund a $28 fee they charged him after they came out and fixed his lines that were not connected to his house properly. Even after they reversed the charge, they wanted to charge him a $1.99 monthly fee for a “protection plan” which would protect him from being charged $28 fees. Here’s how he defeated them: [More]
Comcast: Oh, You Wanted To Keep Your Decade-Old E-mail Address?
By 8.13.10
Some advice for Comcast customers: if you want to keep your comcast.net e-mail address when significantly changing your services, you should mention this sometime during the process. Nancy tells Consumerist that’s what she learned when she had Comcast combine her cable and Internet access and roll them into a Triple Play account. Sure, the installation went awry, but you expect that. She didn’t expect the company to shut off her e-mail account, since she was continuing as a Comcast customer and all. This was apparently very naive of her. [More]
Comcast Charges $2 For You To Deliver Their Cable Boxes
By 8.11.10
Comcast may have sent you a shiny new digital cable box for free, but that doesn’t mean that you can give it back for free. If you want to de-clutter your house and bring your box back, you’re going to have to pay up. An anonymous reader tells the Consumerist phone tipline that Comcast charged him $1.99 to take his spare cable boxes off his hands. [More]
Comcast Refuses To Believe My Father Is Dead
By 8.10.10
The death of a family member is never easy to handle. And the last thing you need in the wake of a tragic loss is to get caught up in red tape and incompetence over something as minor as canceling your late loved one’s Comcast account. Unfortunately for Consumerist reader Wyatt, that’s exactly what is happening to him and his family right now. [More]
Comcast & Blockbuster Try To Double-Team Netflix With DVDsByMail
By 8.9.10
With Netflix invading Canada and Redbox thinking about going online, the once-great Blockbuster Video has teamed up with Comcast to launch a joint effort: DVDsByMail.com. [More]
Get $20 Back From Comcast Just By Asking
By 8.3.10
Without telling him there would be a fee, Comcast charged Tom $30 to fix the cable wiring going to his house. By simply questioning the charge and expressing his disappointment he wasn’t notified about it, Tom was able to get $20 back. Here is the chat transcript of his success, which is also enjoyable for the inane interjected advertisements that try to sound like human conversation. [More]
Bill Pay Drop Box Stolen, Comcast Doesn't Tell Customers
By 7.21.10
If you live in Staunton, VA and you have Comcast, you might want to make sure they got your bill. Apparently a bill pay drop box was stolen and the cable company didn’t inform customers that their bill may have been stolen. [More]
The Best Person At Comcast Just Quit
By 7.16.10
Frank Eliason, the best person who works at Comcast, has decided to leave Kabletown, USA in order to return to banking, where he’ll again be working in a social media capacity. We wish him the best, as he has always done his best to help our readers, despite the massive amount of abuse we have lovingly heaped upon him. [More]
Comcast Would Rather Have Me Switch Than Give Me A Deal
By 7.16.10
Reader Courtney was on a promotional plan with Comcast that she didn’t know about, so when it expired she was unhappy to find out that Comcast would rather let her switch to the competition than give her a deal. [More]
Ben Popken On NPR This Morning Re: Comcast NBC Merger
By 7.13.10
I was on NPR this morning chiming in about the Comcast NBC merger that’s hurtling like a freight train through Washington (spoiler alert: not a fan). Here’s the clip. At the end, the reporter says that when he asked Comcast about their coming first in our Worst Company in America contest, they dismissed the entire affair as a “cheap stunt.” We take offense. A trophy that cost $30 and had to be air-mailed from Japan is not cheap. [More]
Cable Companies Could Save Money By Flagging Certain Customers "Not An Idiot"
By 7.12.10
Cable companies could be saving lots of money and pissing off fewer people if they implemented special “this guy is not an idiot” flags on their tech savvy customer’s accounts, argues the NeedCoffee blog. [More]
Mysterious Comcast Internet May Cost $35, $48, $62 or $39.99
By 7.9.10
Reader Scoots was paying a promotional rate for Comcast internet. The rate expired and the bill went up to $48. Scoots called Comcast to ask for the old rate back and encountered a “four-square car dealership rip off” of sorts. [More]
Christian Groups Want To Know How Much Comcast Makes From Porn
By 6.28.10
As the government continues to pretend that it cares what anyone thinks about Comcast’s merger with NBC Universal, a coalition of Christian media watchdog groups are asking the cable giant to publicly divulge how much money it makes from porn channels and pay-per-view. [More]
