Comcast, like every other company on earth, likes to advertise about how great they are. They run commercials all over about how their internet is better, faster, stronger than the next guy’s. Except, a business group that checks in on badvertising says, Comcast isn’t really as great as Comcast claims it is, and needs to tone it down a bit. [More]
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Comcast Changes Customer’s First Name To “A**hole,” Is Really Sorry
By 1.28.15
We know from years of talking to people on the frontlines of customer service and billing that they don’t always have the nicest things to say about customers; you probably wouldn’t either if your day consisted of being yelled at for issues beyond your control. But most people don’t let their distaste for customers boil over to the point where they actually rename a customer “A**hole Brown.” [More]
Politicians’ Letters In Support Of Comcast Merger Were Actually Written By Comcast
By 1.26.15
In the eleven months since Comcast announced that it would acquire Time Warner Cable, numerous local and national politicians have written to the FCC in support of the merger, claiming it will create jobs (in spite of the fact that thousands of employees will inevitably be made redundant), spark investment (even though Comcast could just invest the $40 billion instead of using it to buy TWC), and provide broadband access for the poor (a program that’s been criticized as window dressing), without hurting competition (because there isn’t any to begin with). Many of the letters hit the same points… almost as if they were ghostwritten and the politicians just signed their names to them. [More]
NBC To Stream Super Bowl To Convince People To Buy Cable
By 1.20.15
Rather than requiring that online viewers prove they have cable TV subscriptions in order to watch its live stream of the Super Bowl, NBC has decided that giving un-cabled Americans online access to the year’s biggest non-curling single-night sporting event is the perfect opportunity to convince people to ante-up for pay-TV. [More]
3 Of The Many Times The Big ISPs Have Tried To Have It Both Ways
By 1.15.15
With the prospect of new regulations staring them in the face, big ISPs have been taking every possible opportunity to wail about how doomed they will be if anything changes. But every cable and telecom company that has spent 2014 and 2015 vowing that regulation is the worst thing ever has also spent years benefiting from exactly those regulations. Here are just a few examples. [More]
Why Dish’s Sling TV Is A Factor In Pending Comcast/Time Warner Cable Merger
By 1.15.15
Later this month, Dish will finally launch its much-awaited Sling TV streaming service that gives subscribers live online access to a dozen cable channels. And even though Sling has yet to go live, it’s already being factored into the pending mega-merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable. [More]
Comcast Customer Says Company Pulled Credit Report Even After He Paid It Not To
By 1.15.15
When a Chicago man recently contacted Comcast to set up a new broadband account, he was told the company would have to run a credit check — or he could pay a $50 deposit to waive that requirement. But the customer claims that Comcast went ahead and pulled his credit anyway, which is why he’s now suing the nation’s largest consumer broadband provider. [More]
Sources: Comcast “VIPs” Automatically Pushed To Front Of Phone Queue
By 1.13.15
Last week, it was revealed that a Comcast office in the power epicenter that is the D.C. suburbs maintained a “VIP” list of local politicians, business leaders, and other bigwigs. However, Comcast claims that in spite of the VIP label, these folks received no special treatment. Not so, multiple sources tell Consumerist. [More]
More Groups Pile Onto “Stop Mega Comcast” Coalition
By 1.12.15
Only a month ago, a coalition of more than a dozen groups formed in an effort to work together in stopping the pending merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable. And while the federal regulatory review process inched forward on this deal, more and more groups have joined in the fight to prevent Comcast from dominating the consumer broadband market in the U.S. [More]
Comcast Office Maintained List Of “VIP” D.C.-Area Politicians & Other Power Players
By 1.9.15
A new report has revealed that a Comcast office in a Washington, D.C., suburb maintained a list of important and politically influential customers in the area — a list that Comcast claims it most certainly didn’t use to give these “VIP”s preferential treatment. [More]
The Onion Accidentally Publishes An Actual News Story
By 1.8.15
It’s rare, but it happens, folks: The Onion has gone and made the mistake of identifying real news as fodder for satirical fiction. Because with the amount of Comcast customer service calls gone horribly wrong we’ve heard about, we’re pretty sure that plenty of people have experienced “the remote backwoods of the cable company’s automated phone system” only to find he or she has “blindly stumbled deeper into the uncharted hinterlands regarding appointment scheduling and equipment installation options…” Sadly, It’s a terrifying, and yet very real place. [“Caller Enters Remote Backwaters Of 1-800 Automated Messaging System” at The Onion] [More]
Comcast Cable Chief Promises Customer Service Will “Be Our Best Product.” Really.
By 1.8.15
Comcast is reigning Worst Company in America champion for a reason: we’ve seen story after story after story where consumers have struggled just to get basic service from the company. But Comcast cable head Neil Smit was confident (or delusional) when he told a panel at the International CES that customer service would soon be the best product to come from the company. [More]
Comcast’s X1 Platform Might Have “National Known Issue” Stopping It From Actually Working
By 1.7.15
Comcast is really pleased with their Xfinity X1 platform, the set-top app-running digital-tuning computer that is their latest interpretation on the cable box. And it does indeed do some nifty things! But it’s also had some pretty bad, extremely widespread issues. And if what one customer service rep told a customer is true, it seems that far from being something sporadic and unpredictable, the problems with the X1 may instead be known issues that Comcast has yet to fix. [More]
Another Year, Another Comcast Mystery Deal That Disappears After You Hang Up
By 1.6.15
After reading the above headline, a less jaded person might think, “Surely there can’t have been ANOTHER example of a Comcast customer service call gone terribly, terribly wrong!” Snap out of it, kid. We’re living in Comcast’s world, and that means that upon the heels of one customer service call gone wrong, of course another has come rushing. And just like others before it, most of it was caught on tape. [More]
2014: By The Numbers
By 12.31.14
2014 was a record-setting year in an enormous variety of ways, both good and bad. As we wrap up and head into 2015, here’s a look at what happened, and what we learned, in the 2014 that was. [More]
Comcast Rings Out 2014 With Yet Another Tape-Recorded Customer Service Disaster
By 12.30.14
It’s been a bad year for Comcast’s customer service image — probably not what the company wants to hear when it’s trying to convince federal regulators to let it swallow up millions of Time Warner Cable customers — and while many consumers are taking this week off from work, the folks at Kabletown know that bad service doesn’t take a holiday. [More]
Comcast, Time Warner Cable Still Bringing Up Rear In Customer Satisfaction Surveys
By 12.30.14
While federal regulators continue their review of the pending merger between Time Warner Cable and Comcast, it’s time to look at how these two companies fared in various customer satisfaction surveys from the last 12 months. We’ll give you a hint: It didn’t go well. [More]
Dish, Consumer Advocates Ask FCC To Block Comcast/TWC Merger As Final Comment Deadline Hits
By 12.23.14
The Comcast/TWC merger is once again in a brief time-out, but that didn’t stop today from being a major milestone in the FCC’s review process. At long last, the final deadline for the back-and-forth of comments, replies, and replies to replies has come, and merger opponents are taking advantage of their one last chance to ask the FCC to prevent a consumer disaster before it happens. [More]
