Comcast Sucks, Comcast Sucks, Comcast Sucks, Comcast Sucks, Comcast Sucks, Comcast Sucks, Comcast Sucks, Comcast Sucks, Comcast Sucks, Comcast Sucks, Comcast Sucks, Comcast Sucks, Comcast Sucks, Comcast Sucks, Comcast Sucks, Comcast Sucks, Comcast Sucks, Comcast Sucks, Comcast Sucks, Comcast Sucks, Comcast Sucks…Â Oh yeah, Comcast sucks!!!!
So, yesterday was the big day. Comcast came out to “deliver” my cable cards. I was as giddy as a school girl. The appointment was for 2:00 – 5:00 yesterday and the tech showed up at 2:02! Great start! He hands me the cards, calls into the office to activate them, and has me sign the work order.
My first issue is, if the tech is only a delivery boy when it comes to cable cards, why in God’s name can’t I just go to the office and pick them up!! They don’t stay to make sure things work. In looking at the various Tivo user groups out there this is a common thing with Comcast. But, if you go to a local office, they usually give them to you and waive the “delivery” fee. I didn’t have time to deal with it so I let the delivery guy show up. But, I will be calling them when my first bill shows up.
Anyway, I plug in the first cable card and I get the expected prompts. I go through the setup and update my cable profile so that the new channel guide gets downloaded. Everything seems to be going well. I even do the Card Test to make sure I’m getting some of the channels I didn’t get before. All’s well. I let the Tivo chug along and do it’s update and I go off and take care of a few other things around the house.
I come back about 20 minutes later and the Tivo is all finished with its updates. Now, for the moment I have been waiting for. A new flat panel television, a HD capable Tivo, and a cable upgrade to digital and HDTV. I scroll through the channel guide and find the DiscoveryHD channel. I click over there and saw the most amazing thing. A completely blank screen!!! That giddy school girl feeling is now one of disappointment. I’m also only getting about a third of the channels I should be getting.
Having dealt with the Communistcast organization before, I wait a little longer because sometimes getting your updates is as fast as a herd of turtles. It can take awhile. An hour and a half goes by and nothing. I call the service number. I explain the situation to the rep, clearly state that I have an Series3 Tivo, and I’m not getting most of my channels.
The first thing he asks me to do is turn the TV off, wait 30 seconds and then turn it back on. I ask him why he feels this is the best course of action. He starts reading me the scripted response (I interact with our companies call center, I know how these things work Comcast). I let him finish and then I re-explain that the cable card is in the Tivo. “It’s not in the TV???”, he asks. That’s right genius. For the third (fourth??) time I tell him my story.
The end result of this long and laborious discussion is that he sends a new initialization signal to the cable card. He says give it 10 minutes and the problem should be resolved. I give it 20. While it’s waiting for its new signal I go ahead and plug in the other cable card. Might as well get that in there in case they need to do the same thing to that card. Long story short, the card causes an error message to display on the screen and won’t go away until I take the card out. Great… Back to the phones. They need to resend the cable guy out to swap out the card, but they can’t do it until tomorrow. Wonderful.
Now I go back to see if the latest signal has hit my working card and I have my channels. What do you think I see??? All my channels? No, of course not. But, some of the channels I was getting are no longer there and some of the stations I didn’t receive are now active. Are you freaking kidding me!!!!
I give it another hour. Across this hour the signal flickers in and out a few times. But, still nothing. No change. By now, it’s about 6:00 or just after. I call again. I get another rep who’s first words, after I explain my story, are “Hmmm, that’s weird.” Great, another rocket scientist.  The rep puts me on hold for about 5 minutes and comes back and says that they just sent it a signal. Give it about 10 minutes and things should be fine. Yeah, right. I’ve heard this before. She also says that if it doesn’t work the technician that is coming out to replace the defective cable card can look further into the issue.
I’ve just resigned myself to not having all the channels for the night. But, I do find one channel that is showing in HD, 1080i. I’m in love… That giddy schoolgirl feeling is back. I have HD and it is beautiful. Such a wonderful picture. I need to tweak a few of the settings on the television to dial in the colors and what not, but I am very, very happy with what I am seeing. <sniff> <sniff> Finally.
As a side note, around 8:00 or so, the signal dropped for about 10 seconds. I have all of my channels now. Apparently it takes nearly 6 hours for a customer to get what they ordered. Good thing they showed up. It’s Tuesday and House is on at 9:00. I want my wife to see it in all its Hi-Def glory. And we do. It was wonderful.
This morning the “delivery” guy showed up and dropped off the new card. But, this time he stayed until I got the card in the box. SUCCESS!!! No error message. Knowing that it can take a long time to get channels to display, I go about my day knocking things off my to do list. I come back an hour or so later and I now have all of my channels on both tuners.
But of course, in preparation for Thanksgiving and my other items I want to accomplish today, there is no TV for me until later. 
 That’s OK, I have 4 days over which to engorge my brain on HD and movie stuff.
More on my HD Tivo experience later. I think this entry has gone on long enough. This weekend should give it a good work out and I’ll have some good feedback.
R.
Update (1/28): There are 5 other posts related to this topic. I have posted links to all of the posts at the end of this thread.Â
Wait until you get your first bill. No matter how many times I told them I only had 1 TV, they kept insisting this wasn’t possible and told me they were going to charge me $5 for the HDTV, $6.95 for the “extra” digital box and another $4.00 for the first digital stream. It wasn’t until I took it all the way to their attornies in Philadelphia, that they acknowledged that legally they couldn’t charge me these fees because TiVo contains it’s own digital and HDTV converter. Instead, the FCC only lets them charge you $1.50 per month for the second cable card. If you get trapped in their maze of inepitude, shoot me an email and I can give you tech support numbers to people in their advanced teams. Enjoy your new TiVo experience, it’s a hassle getting Comcrap to play ball, but that bloop bloop noise goes a long way towards soothing frayed nerves once you get it set up properly.
Comment by davis freeberg — November 22, 2006 @ 8:46 pm
Thanks Davis. Even though Comcast is peeing on my Tivo parade, it’s not taking away from my fun. I’ve been a Tivo owner for about 4 – 5 years now, I don’t plan on giving it up because they can’t get their act together. This is even with half of the channels on my second cable card just going out about 30 minutes ago. One minute they’re there next minue they’re gone.
I’m ready for the fight though. Tivo remote in hand… Ready to plunge it through their evil corporate heart…
R.
Comment by Ron — November 22, 2006 @ 9:28 pm
[...] 1 – Tivo Update/I HATE Comcast [...]
Pingback by The Comcast cable card saga revisited « Just talking out loud… — December 29, 2006 @ 7:04 pm
I’ve been working with ComCast for over a year now. I work in a call center. When your pissed off, and nothing’s working, i’m the guy who gets the brunt of it. The service you recieve from any given agent is like a doctor. They may word things differently, may have interpreted policy differently (we ARE human) and may have more working experience than others, but we do the best we can. Unfortunalty we don’t have individual extentsions (or else i’d give you mine).
Try to kind of see things from our side. Of the 50+ calls you take in any given shift, 40 of which are incredibly pissed off, and occasionally ignorant, are itching to rip your head off. So unfortunately, if you call toward the end of any given shift, we may not be in the best of moods, but we do our job. Which is exactly what it is.
And last of all, its a free call. Which is why its sometimes a long wait to get through. In front of you is a grandmother who bought her first pc, wants to know how to work her email, but can’t exactly see the monitor, and panics over everything. We are patient. We try to be thorough. And if its not a Comcast product, we can’t help you. Internet problems? Unplug mdm for 20 seconds, restore power. You should be good to go. I’ll post basic Trouble Shooting Tactics later. Hope yaw’ll enjoy it, and spread the free advice. Or wait on the phone
Comment by Brian — January 26, 2007 @ 6:35 am
Hi Brian,
Thanks for the feedback and commentary and welcome to the blog.
I do look at things from both sides. I too work in a call center. I am a Director of Product Readiness for my company’s technical support department. It is my team’s responsibility to train our support staff across the globe on soon to be released products as well as new hire training and any other incremental training needs.. We also analyze issues that generate high call volumes in the various centers and develop strategies for dealing with them.
That is part of my frustration. Having the background I have, I know there are ways to resolve a lot of the issues I have run into in my dealings with Comcast (or maybe those processes are in place and some of Comcast’s staff choose not to follow them). If my team were responsible for what I experienced on the phone with Comcast, I would probably fire most of the team. I would also have a talk with the management staff of the call center on their hiring practices (which I tend to do on occasion here).
> When your pissed off, and nothing’s working, i’m the guy who gets the brunt of it.
I am always polite and cordial when I talk to the reps. If I am cranky, I let them know up front and also let them know I know it’s not their fault. I also commend those that do a good job (treat people as you want to be treated).
> And if its not a Comcast product, we can’t help you.
Also agreed. But, in the case of cable cards and Tivo and the large number of customers with this configuration (as stated by one of your coworkers), it would seem that there should be appropriate documentation in your internal knowledgebase for the online staff as well as the field reps to be able to at least have a coherent conversation.
Additionally, as various types of media center devices start coming out that will support CableCard (see http://www.engadget.com/tag/vidabox) you and your teammates are going to start running into similar issues.
> I’ll post basic Trouble Shooting Tactics later.
I’m sure those that review this thread would appreciate that. But, in my case, the issue boiled down to (after reviewing the entire ordeal) a) Comcast support staff not being able to grasp the concept of two cable cards in one device, and b) by not understanding a) not enabling the correct services on the card.
Thanks for the view from the other side.
R.
Comment by Ron — January 26, 2007 @ 1:30 pm
Oh, Brian, I forgot to mention that this blog post is only one in a long series of posts. You may want to go through and read all of those.
R.
Comment by Ron — January 26, 2007 @ 1:35 pm
[...] Reception Problems [PLUG] [OT] Comcast problems anyone? Comcast Problems KyleBits: I Hate Comcast Tivo Update/I HATE Comcast « Just talking out loud… Barely Legal Substance: Why I Hate Comcast, And Have a Loathing for Bellsouth Too HATE COMCAST — [...]
Pingback by Comcast: Am I the only one who hates them? - WebProWorld — May 31, 2007 @ 11:12 am
I agree with most of Brian’s and Ron’s reponse to Brian’s post. However,
“And last of all, its a free call. Which is why its sometimes a long wait to get through.”
Paying customers pay for the telephony, the agents, and the callcenter.
Comment by Customer of Comcast — July 7, 2007 @ 4:15 pm
Ron, you are absolutely correct I worked in the ACD unit for one of the largest USA banks and deal with customer issues all the time, we had quote “The customer is always right, even when they are wrong.”
The Comcast customer service center representatives are rude and lack experience in dealing with clients as well not being technical astute to their jobs. The so-called manager/supervisors on the fly (yeah I know how it works) are no different.
I had an installation that was not properly grounded and experienced a lightening surge that jumped to the Comcast connection through the splitters, blowing out all of my TVs, internet appliances, computers and HAVC circuit board. Despite having multiple surge protectors, it did not help situation because the surge came back-end through the cables. I called the service center to ask them to send a technician out to verify that all grounding connections were in place…they swore up and down they had grounding. However, when a certified electrician inspected my premises to repairs the damages and saw the splitters (cable/internet) in the garage, he pointed out that they also needed to be properly grounded.
I called Comcast to explain what had happen I was quickly told it was not their concern. Neither could I get a proper response from any of the customer service manager/supervisors; regarding some form of compensation, therefore, I closed my accounts (cable & Internet) and went to Dish Network. I am using Embarq DSL, it is slower, but I feel safer since I am living in an area that experiences a high incident of lightening strikes.
Byron
Hanover, PA
Comment by Byron-Paul Mayne — August 22, 2007 @ 9:43 am
Hi Byron,
Thanks for the post. Nice to know I’m not the only one out there who runs into issues with them.
For a company that seems to want to take over the cable world, you would think that they would put a little more effort into their support.
Hope you have a better experience with DISH and Embarq.
R
Comment by Ron — September 3, 2007 @ 6:34 pm
I used to hate Comcast now I despise them. They raised prices left and right over the years for their overpriced and low quality service.
In my area they took the NFL network from the basic package and set it up as a premium channel. That was the last straw.
I canceled my service on July 23. They have now billed me for August, September and October saying that, although they see the disconnection request, it has not been disconnected from the pole. I don’t know what to do. I don’t us their service but they keep billing me. They even sent a collection agency after me for money I do not owe.
I will watch nothing before I use them again.
Comment by Neil — September 20, 2007 @ 12:44 pm
I would share my ongoing saga of Comcast incompetence, but it would simply be to repeat the many other stories already posted. The most startling, or perhaps brilliant (if you are Comcast and you have just signed a monopolistic contract with a city – like Houston) aspect of their “customer service” is that it is set up so that there is absolutely no accountability. You can never speak to the same person twice, and as a result, the clock punchers at the call centers just do what they can to placate you and move on to the next irate customer
Rather than continue to vent, or change to ATT, there needs to be some organized opposition. Class action lawsuits usually get a company’s attention, and Comcast is certainly primed for one or more, but I think people are pining for some more immediate attention. If you are like me, you simply want your internet and/or cable to work. I would gladly pay my bill each month in exchange for an internet connection that actually functions. So, how do we get there?
My thinking is to fight them at their own game – advertising.
In that regard, I am curious as to whether there is enough support among us to gather a fund to purchase newspaper advertising, get the attention of Comcast, and force them to put up or shut up.
If I set up a website to accept donations for advertising to get Comcast’s attention, would there be contributors?
I am not asking for anything now, just trying to measure the interest out there.
Let me know by emailing wakeupcallcmcsa@gmail.com
Also, if you know of any other organizations, groups, persons or others who are engaged in the same effort, or if you have any ideas, email them to this address as well. My intent is to start a website and compile all this information and make something happen.
Let’s stop complaining and DO SOMETHING constructive!!!
Comment by William — November 24, 2007 @ 12:28 pm
i have been having nothing but problems with comcast for years. they have a monopoly in my area and are the only internet providers available. i am seriously considering moving just to get away from comcast and their horrible service. i cannot believe what they do is legal.
Comment by jessica — January 16, 2008 @ 2:18 pm
have you had any luck with your e-mail and taking a stand against them?
Comment by jessica — January 16, 2008 @ 2:19 pm
Hi Jessica,
No, I haven’t really gotten anywhere with e-mail. Maybe their internet filtering bit them (not sure if you have seen that in the news the last month or so).
R
Comment by Ron — January 22, 2008 @ 9:30 pm
Dude, I just dealt with this same issue for the last 30 days. Figured it out on a late night call with one of the Concast technicians. Here’s what you have to say:
“Close the order.”
Apparently, if they don’t close the order the cards don’t get properly activated. Not exactly sure what closing the order entails but it works. Another thing I tried was to have the tech send a “cold initialize” over the line. Apparently there are three signals they can send: a hit, an initialize, and a cold initialize. The cold initialize resets the card and repairs it with the receiver. Again, I’m not a tech and I don’t know if this is wholy accurate. I am just posting it here in case it might help someone looking for hope at 3 am.
Here are the symptoms I had. I got basic cable up to channel 25 and a few sporadic channels like 78 and 79. No HBO, no Discovery, no CNN. I have a Tivo Series 3 HD with two Motorola cable cards from Concast.
If you have the same problem. Here’s what I recomend:
1. Call comcast
2. Customer service will answer, say immediately that you want to speak to a technicial in the digital cable department. (don’t waste a single breath on customer service)
3. Ask the tech to look at you account and make sure they “Closed the order”.
4. If that doesn’t work, ask them to send a cold initialize over the line. Tell them that you have already tried everything else and are on the verge of cancelling your service if they give you a hard time.
5. Wait about 5 minutes and you should get your channels.
Hope that helps some poor soul out there! Good luck!
Comment by UniverseOfLuxury — April 5, 2008 @ 10:24 pm
The cable card is a piece of junk the fcc makes us cary. I am a tech who does not keep them on my truck If I am sent to replace one I show the customers the benifets of the box, because I dont want to spend 6 hours trying to activate a service that doesnt work. Cable cards are a waste of money and If you have one you should update to a box.
Comment by Bill — October 16, 2008 @ 7:07 pm
Cable cards are great it not the cards that are the problems its the tecs and the system. the reason that the cable guys don’t like them is because they don’t know what is wrong with them. the answer is there is nothing wrong with the card…it is working just like it is told to…comcast is just telling it to do the wrong stuff.
Comment by bob — November 6, 2008 @ 6:32 pm
I’ve used both cableTV and directTV and they both suck! About a month ago I was able to find something that made it possible for me to get more channels than I had on cableTV and directTV put together. Also there is no monthly fee. Hope this
helps! You can check it out here – http://budurl.com/frmtv4yourpc
Comment by Jon — October 13, 2009 @ 11:16 am