Google Fiber wants to come to Nashville. Nashville wants to let it. But incumbent providers — AT&T and Comcast — really hate letting more competitors horn in on their game. And all of that is the stage upon which this week city politicians advanced their proposal to let Google Fiber come to town. [More]
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Comcast Charges Customer $1500 For Data They Didn’t Use, Insists Meter Is Perfect
By 9.6.16
A couple in their early 20s, living in Nashville, subscribed to Comcast home internet service. In their area, that came with a 300 GB data cap. All well and good for these two, since they don’t use much data… except Comcast claimed they did, and billed them for $1500 in overage in less than three months. [More]
Comcast Still Not Quite Sure If Its $70 Gigabit Offer In Chicago Actually Exists
By 8.24.16
One city at a time, Comcast is upgrading its cable internet networks to a fast new high-speed standard, called DOCSIS 3.1. In Chicago, the launch of the tech itself seems to be fine… but finding out how much it costs, if you can sign up for it at all, has proven much harder for consumers. [More]
Comcast Now Says It Will Offer Next-Gen Broadband In Chicago At Lower Price; You Just Have To Ask
By 8.19.16
Earlier this week, Comcast announced that it was launching its higher-speed next-generation broadband service in Chicago, but the only price it would confirm was double the lowest rate charged by Comcast in the other markets where it had already offered this service. However, Comcast has now confirmed to Consumerist that folks in Chicagoland will indeed be able to get the lower rate — if they know how to ask for it. [More]
Nashville Mayor Wants Google, Comcast, AT&T To Sit Down And Make Nice Over Fiber Plans
By 8.16.16
Incumbent cable and telecom companies push back hard when Google wants to come to town with Fiber service. But while corporations file legal challenges and yell at each other by proxy, residents are stuck in the middle without competitive service. [More]
Your Cable Company Will Probably Give You Free HBO For A Few Months, But Good Luck Getting The “New Customer” Rate
By 8.15.16
For years, we here at Consumerist HQ have heard anecdotal claims that negotiating for a better rate from your cable provider is no longer as simple as it used to be. The discounts weren’t as deep, people would say, the offers were on the weak side, and in the wake of bad PR, companies have seemed more willing to call customers’ bluff and let them cancel service painlessly. Of course, anecdotes do not equal data, so we wanted to know: is this actually a thing? [More]
Ad Watchdog: Comcast Should Stop Claiming “Fastest Internet In America”
By 8.9.16
If you live in one of the many parts of the country served by Comcast, you’ve likely seen the company’s nearly endless ads claiming that its Xfinity broadband “delivers the fastest internet in America,” and the “fastest, most reliable in-home WiFi.” However, an ad industry watchdog group has asked Comcast to rein in its bragging. [More]
Telecom Customer Service Can Afford To Be Terrible Because Switching Costs Are High
By 8.8.16
Why is customer service generally terrible from your cable and internet service provider? It’s not so much that the service is terrible, even though it often is. The problem is that it’s inconvenient to switch providers, if you even have a second option at all. When you feel like you don’t have a choice, you resent your current provider more. [More]
Comcast Would Rather Be More Like Tesla Than Netflix
By 8.8.16
While it remains to be seen what Comcast’s Next Big Thing will be — though it probably won’t be a streaming TV product — there’s one thing the company knows for sure: it doesn’t want to be anything like those Netflix guys. [More]
Comcast Decides To Not Charge Early Termination Fees To Flood-Ravaged Stores
By 8.5.16
Flood waters recently tore through Ellicott City, MD, forcing some businesses to close up shop. One store says Comcast tried to rub salt in this fresh wound by demanding it pay hundreds of dollars to cancel service it can no longer use. [More]
Comcast Will Continue Using Overseas Call Centers
By 8.4.16
After being slammed by a string of high-profile customer service disasters, Comcast has made investments in recent year — like putting guarantees on appointments and increasing the size of its social media response team. However, one of the more annoying aspects of customer service calls isn’t going to change: The use of outsourced, overseas call centers. [More]
Comcast: Consumers Are Harmed If We Don’t Get To Charge Extra For Privacy
By 8.3.16
Internet service providers like making money. They don’t like regulations that prevent them from any avenues that could make them money. And they will argue basically anything they can think of to help prevent those regulations from happening. Like, for example, suggesting that you, the consumer, will actively suffer harm if Comcast and others aren’t allowed to charge you extra for keeping your data to yourself. [More]
Charter, Comcast, AT&T Really Want To Stall Chance Of Competition From Google Fiber
By 8.2.16
Consumers really like Google Fiber. Or, at the very least, they like the idea of Google Fiber: when the company says it’s considering bringing its super-speedy internet service to town, prospective subscribers happily sign up and towns do what they need to do to make themselves attractive to the business. And that sits very, very poorly with the companies that are already in town and don’t want to deal with a pesky thing like competition. [More]
Washington State Suing Comcast For “Deceptive” Service Protection Plans & Fees
By 8.1.16
Accusing the nation’s largest cable company of “engaging in a pattern of deceptive practices” affecting nearly 500,000 people who signed up for a plan intended to cover most service calls, the Washington state attorney general’s office has filed suit against Comcast. [More]
Comcast’s Still Not Sure There’s Any Money In This Whole “Streaming” Thing
By 7.28.16
You might have heard that it’s 2016, and streaming your TV via the internet is all the rage. And yet despite being just as susceptible to cord-cutters as anyone (everyone) else, Comcast is still not thinking the whole streaming-TV thing is a moneymaker. [More]
Comcast Excited To Have Lost 4,000 TV Subscribers This Spring
By 7.27.16
Comcast is just so happy this morning, you guys! Their second quarter results are out and they are thrilled, just thrilled, to announce that they lost 4,000 TV subscribers in the last three months. [More]
Woman Out $250 After Falling Victim To Comcast, Amazon Fake Promotion Scheme
By 7.26.16
Consider yourself warned: Scammers are taking advantage of the recent news that Amazon is selling access to Comcast services, faking calls from the cable company to steal money from unwitting victims.
[More]
