Complaint Review: Comcast Cable

This is in reponse to rebuttal #1.  I can report that I get all of my local channels through DirecTV so your assertion that having satellite TV means that the customer will not receive their local stations is obviously false.  Also, I would have service outages with Comcast that would last around 3 days for years and those outages would have NO explanation.  I have had DirecTV service since February 2012 and have had total outages of maybe 5 minutes when the rain is extremely bad - even during the snow/ice storm that started December 24, 2012 my DirecTV reception lasted until the millisecond that my power went out and I got my DirecTV reception back a full week before the Comcast customers got theirs back - everyone was begging to borrow DVDs from me so that they would have SOMETHING to watch because I did not have time to watch my DVDs because I was enjoying watching my DirecTV which was finished rebooting within 30 minutes of my power coming back on.

For the rebuttal that reported their problem with their satellite installer causing a roof leak.  I now have a dish through DirecTV (for TV) and a dish through Exede (for Internet) and neither of those caused any problems at my residence so I am sorry that you had such a poor installation experience.

I do live in the same area. I'm a little late in this response but....for a company to have a monopoly they would need to have complete control over the market. In our case this does not hold true. Not only do we have Comcast, there are at least three dish providers. I'm not sure if you can get charter or knowlogy but as you can see comcast has a long way to go to be declared a monopoly. I'm not sure why, if your husband worked for them, he didn't just go out and fix it.

Why do people want to be shills?  This person's drivel about satelitte TV is nothing more than putrid, turgid scum.

You are the type of person that gives comcast a bad name, so you should probably stop trying to defend them.  To comment that it is illegal to purposely cut a cable line is just stupid.  Those lines are also suppose to be buried a certain depth.  That is also a code.  Does comcast get prosecuted for them not being deep enough.  Only if the offenses are system wide like an epidemic, then they just start fixing things. .  And neither should someone who has to go to the length of cutting the cable to get comcasts attention to get them to do their job properly.  You don't even know what you're talking about.  For one thing the legal ambiguity of the situation would get any homeowner off.  Also,  these cables are suppose to be run around the perimeter of neighboring houses along the property lines.  You're not suppose to run them right through the middle of peoples yards.  If it's necessary, the neighbors are supposed to be asked and the job of that bury is supposed to be expedited.  You error where comcast also does.  Instead of apologizing and taking responsiblilty you ignorantly go around giving legal advice that you know nothing about.  You don't even address the persons complaint.   The phone companies don't leave cables peeking up through through the ground in the middle of people's yards but this stuff is common for comcast.  I worked for them also,  and saw this stuff, and heard the complaints every day for two and half years.  Comcast DOES ignore complaints like this.  They will do it until you give up or find a method to get their attention like this person did.  If they can get away with it, they will.  So mam, go back to watching Maury Povich, and Jerry Springer and leave the legal advice to others.  Thanks

I started doing cable in Nashville in 98. I worked for a company called Winsett Simmons. I was a contractor. My training was very short and they didnt show us much. It was on the job. You worked with several senior installers or team leads. This is basically how all of the contract companies do it. And I personally have been involved with Winsett, CTIS, New Vision, and many others. Trust me, the Nashville system has had many. I have friends that worked for and still work for contract companies. I did this for about three years and then switched to doing sattelite dish installs. Much easier work and a much worse product, I will go into detail on this later. So after about five years of doing cable/dish as a contractor I knew just about as much as any other contractor out there and had done thousands of jobs for cable/digital cable/high speed internet and digital sattelite. Then I got married and had a child. I needed good benefits and wasnt getting that as a contractor. So I hired on with Comcast. Now Comcast used to be ATT and that used to be Intermedia and that used to be Viacom. The only thing that changed was the name out front and the sticker on the vans. Same cable plant, same cable techs. When I hired on they new me. I worked with these people for years. I could have gone out and did the work. But I was amazed at the training program. Much different than any contract company. I was in training for 10 weeks. Mostly classroom. We learned about the whole cable system. Not just how to hookup a box and see how many jobs we could get done in one day. I learned things like how many decibels a piece of caox will lose at a certain frequency. How temperature affects signal. How to troubleshoot. Most contractors will hook up your cable and if there is a problem you need to have a maintenace tech come out and fix it. I was an installer for about a year and was promoted to maintenance. Back in the classroom for 4 more weeks. Now I learned about amps and nodes and fiber optics. And I can honestly say I would never let a contract installer on my property. They do very poor work as a whole, know very little about cable as a whole and I personally spent alot of time going behind them fixing there mistakes. And these were mistakes I had made for years as a contractor. Now I am not slamming all contractors. Some have worked inhouse for Comcast, Time Warner, Charter and so on. So there are alot of good contractors out there. I could go back to contracting now and be good at it. But as a whole they do alot of very easy jobs poorly in a little bit of time. We had an annual event that covered the whole state called the cable games. It was done by company and it was like the cable olympics. There was a jeopardy type event and several hands on type events. Contractors didnt show up to this. They wouldnt even have a clue. Charter always won in Tennessee. Those guys rock. Another thing to keep in mind is that Comcast randomly quality checks inhouse and contractors. If they qc a contractor and his work sucks they charge him back for it. If he keeps it up he is let go. Inhouse your qc checks are factored in when it comes time for a raise or promotion. I would have never made maintenance tech if I did work like I did as a contractor. Contractors qc score as a whole is way lower than inhouse. So if you have a choice and you probably wont, get an inhouse tech. Or if a cotractor does your install and you arent happy call in and get a trouble call. Here in Nashville all trouble calls are done inhouse. And trouble calls are free. Now I am not pro Comcast at all. I quit a couple of months ago. They dont pay good. That is really the only complaint I have. Remember this is the same people and cable plant as ATT was and intermeadia and Viacom. I work for myself now doing networking and home theater blah blah blah.
Now on to the dish vs cable. Remember I did both and have friends that do both. I know both products very well. So here is the skinny. Cable beats dish hands down. As a product. If you are a contractor reading this. Go install dish. Its easier. No poles to climb. Less expesive equipment, no $900+ meters to buy. You dont need the big ladder very much. And it pays more, at least here it does. And you need a box for every tv so you wont have 9+ outlets to run. Ok as a consumer, I will lay out the facts and you come to your own conclusion. And these are based on what he have here in Nashvile. Your area may be different.

1. No contract. With dish and direct it is usually around $200-$250 to cancel. So if you get it installed and you dont like the fact that it goes out in bad weather. Well too bad. Give them $250 dollars and get cable. If you get cable and dont like it. Call them and they will cancel your service and prorate your bill for any service you have paid for and dont use. They wont charge you to disconnect.

2. The weather. Did I mention that? Yes. Bad weather and dishes dont mix. Heavy snow and high winds. Heavy rain and thunderstorm clouds can and will make it go out.

3.Service calls. Most cable companies dont charge for service calls. Most dish calls are around $75 dollars.

4.In some cases you need to purchase equipment, espacially HDTV boxes or boxes with Tivo built in. In some cases you can get a promo on the dishes for these. With cable you rent it and if it breaks they come out and replace it for free. Remember free service calls.

5. If you move, there can be a charge to move your dish. Or you will have to move it yourself.

6. Channels selection. On dish there are alot of channels that just plain suck. Cable has some too. But the dishes have more. Like the horesracing network, or you can watch the earth rotate on the nasa channel. Gimme a break.

7. The fine print. There is alot of fine print in the dish ads. Read them carefully. If I had a nickel for everytime I had a customer pull out the Sunday paper to show me what the ad says after I was done installing the dish and have to say "Well if you read down here at the bottom, do you have a magnifying glass Mrs. Smith? No? Well let me read it to you. $4.95 activation charge per box. Blah Blah Blah. Oh you want me to disconnect everything and get the hell out of your house? Ok that will be $250. Yeah you signed a contract. Thats down here in the fine print too Mrs. Smith"

So now you have the facts. If you are shopping, I suggest you contact dish, direct and the cable company and ask them about these things stated above. And remember saving two dollars a month on dish means nothing if you want to cancel and are in a contract. Now for the disclaimer. Everything I have written is what I know of here in Nashville, TN and it is most likey different where you are.

Your first rebuttal was someone trying to inflate them selves up mech bigger than they really are and they know it- Tisk, tisk!
Anyways, I don't have cable and don't want it especially Comcast. Why? With out being too blunt, I don't like the advertising they send to my house. I don't like how the captions portray one particular race and exclude all else. I will not be buying services from Comcast ever, should I want cable.
Another thing your first rebuttal wanted to do is make it seem like you were Martha friggin' Stewart or some thing. I live in suburban Chicago where people steal cable ALL THE TIME! And do you know what they do. Hang a stupid note on your door saying they will disconnect your line unless you'd be interested in buying their dumb service. In fact they've hung the same sign on my door a couple times when I don't even have it. Probobly just trying to get me to buy the stuff. I just threw the thing in the darn trash. Rebuttal number one should really mind their own buisiness. Who do they think they are? The cable police? Yuk-yuk-yuk! Dats a joke, I say.

My husband is a Comcast Tech and I am aware of everything formentioned. To say ALL Comcast people suck etc. is just plain incorrect. He himself has problems with dispatch, contractors, and co workers. That he feels is part of the daily grind. I do feel if the original post was getting cable and no bill Comcast should have gotten a call the first month. She said she and her husband cut a cable line on purpose, thats illegal. It is correct in thinking that all Comcast branches are different, but some remain the same. My husband is called for by customers specifically because they will only deal with him. Comcast DOES allow a specific Tech or contractor to come to the local. He likes to do the job right the first time, good work ethic , yeah, the real reason is he gets sick and tired of hearing customers attack HIM when he has never been to that location. He tells them to let him look at it and gives the customer his name and Tech # to call him if there is a problem. He works his regular hours and is on call five days a week. For you or any off these posts to generalize and say all the techs are lazy is childish. He works hard and takes a lot of happiness out of the fact that customers call for him because they want their problem fixed correct the first time. With the additude some of you display I see why a tech or contractor would want to do as little as needed and leave. I live in an area that was destroyed by Hurricane Charley. We had a newborn at the time and our other children. COMCAST brought us water , food, diapers, wipes, the list is long. The higher ups came by to help remove debris from comcast employees and familys property. They brought generators because we had no power for over three weeks. Other homes in the area had power and did not recieve the destruction our area did. The nice people of the community would bang on our door(COMCAST VAN OUT FRONT)at ten o clock at night "WHEN IS MY F**KING CABLE GONNA BE BACK ON". That is one of the many nice customers in all the Comcast communitys.

I have no power, water, and these people stop at my house to complain they have no cable! WE DIDN'T HAVE CABLE! The people at comcast are in a larger part hard working people, YES YES YES there are lazy good for nothings my husband works with. He is not one of them.

It doesn't matter how good they are people complain. After the hurricane and the cable was restored floods of calls came into comcast because no one had their TV on channel three? Thousands of calls so a tech or contractor can walk into your home , change the channel , and leave. So if Comcast sucks it sounds like all their customers are morons.

My husband is a Comcast Tech and I am aware of everything formentioned. To say ALL Comcast people suck etc. is just plain incorrect. He himself has problems with dispatch, contractors, and co workers. That he feels is part of the daily grind. I do feel if the original post was getting cable and no bill Comcast should have gotten a call the first month. She said she and her husband cut a cable line on purpose, thats illegal. It is correct in thinking that all Comcast branches are different, but some remain the same. My husband is called for by customers specifically because they will only deal with him. Comcast DOES allow a specific Tech or contractor to come to the local. He likes to do the job right the first time, good work ethic , yeah, the real reason is he gets sick and tired of hearing customers attack HIM when he has never been to that location. He tells them to let him look at it and gives the customer his name and Tech # to call him if there is a problem. He works his regular hours and is on call five days a week. For you or any off these posts to generalize and say all the techs are lazy is childish. He works hard and takes a lot of happiness out of the fact that customers call for him because they want their problem fixed correct the first time. With the additude some of you display I see why a tech or contractor would want to do as little as needed and leave. I live in an area that was destroyed by Hurricane Charley. We had a newborn at the time and our other children. COMCAST brought us water , food, diapers, wipes, the list is long. The higher ups came by to help remove debris from comcast employees and familys property. They brought generators because we had no power for over three weeks. Other homes in the area had power and did not recieve the destruction our area did. The nice people of the community would bang on our door(COMCAST VAN OUT FRONT)at ten o clock at night "WHEN IS MY F**KING CABLE GONNA BE BACK ON". That is one of the many nice customers in all the Comcast communitys.

I have no power, water, and these people stop at my house to complain they have no cable! WE DIDN'T HAVE CABLE! The people at comcast are in a larger part hard working people, YES YES YES there are lazy good for nothings my husband works with. He is not one of them.

It doesn't matter how good they are people complain. After the hurricane and the cable was restored floods of calls came into comcast because no one had their TV on channel three? Thousands of calls so a tech or contractor can walk into your home , change the channel , and leave. So if Comcast sucks it sounds like all their customers are morons.

I wouldn't switch to any dish provider they are the ones who suck. I was just filing a report on direct tv, or contractor country as I call the dish companies. They said they would hook me up for free and include up to 4 rooms with the hook up. But when the man I like to now call Dickweed came out to install it he told me that he would need to collect a 50 dollar activation fee and 49.99 For each additional outlet that he installed but the lines where already here, so I paid for the supposed free hook up and a extra 50.00 for the first month of service, I don't know about you but I didn't see anything that was free yet???

Oh yeah this 100.00 is only for one outlet!!!!! And last of all he mounted the stupid dish to my roof without telling me or contacting my landlord, now the roof leaks and my land lord is going to make me pay for all of the water damage that was done and all the dish co. can tall me is that the contractor who hooked me up dosn't work for them any more, so now I am in a legal battle with them.

So I called Comcast in Indiana and they have a great deal that I took advantage of it's called the Dish Buy Back program they came out tokk down my dish and my receiver box and hooked me up for all my rooms 4outlets all together the 4th outlet only cost 17.95 for me to have it hooked up because 3outlets are included in the deal already now i have digital cable that has not ever went out on its own like the dish did.

Also got their high speed internet hooked up and its great. just wanted to let you know about my experience with them and even if you are having problems with them over the phone at least your picture is still there

First off the Original Post I am Sorry and I feel You! You have every right under the sun to feel like you do!!!!
The Comcast employee post 2
Let me first say that Comcast is run completley different in every location! Not just state to state. I lived in Nashville and Knoxville and it is setup different. Also Knoxville has very poor customer service. No wonder she got the service she did!
As for the 3rd comment! Let me start off by saying you are rude. Comcast has not sent me bills before. In my flurry of bills I may have forgotten about that bill. I do not see in any way that she was stealing it! If she had the service hooked up and people there to fix it the obvisiouly it was a mistake on someones behaf but not theft!Also You sound like a comcast employee so that is a explination of why you are so rude!

Honey dump Comcast! They SUCK! Go to Direct they are awesome and cheaper!By the way I have had no problems with them and everytime I call I am treated like a friend!

You all act like because your cable isn't working or something isn't done right it is the end of the world. For one thing, to the person the wrote original post. You say you haven't gotten a bill for a couple months? They send out there bills and they also process ones that come back. So before you blame them, ever thought maybe they are getting lost or shredded in the process? Even still....you do watch the cable picture every day right? Why the hell would you sit and wait 2 mths before you get a bill? Worst yet then you call and b***h about it? Noone has control over the mail sorry to say.

As the 2nd person said, I have dealt with comcast contractors as well, and they are lazy and incompetent. In fact when I have appt's I specifically ask for an inhouse tech(becuase they do it right). Contractors get paid by the job not hour so they get as much done as they can so they can get that money.

Don't complain about prices, its sickening. You are getting a service from comcast, there is a charge involved. Comcast has a number of channels for your viewing pleasure. Those channels have prices and fees for comcast to pay so they can air them(which comcast takes the brunt of in any increase that comes). If they raise prices comcast raises prices. Ever here of inflation? It's an everyday thing that happens all the time. You always have a choice, plain and simple. Don't like it? Don't have the service.

Also you can get further with honey then sour milk, so remember that the next time you call and scream at the rep behind the phone. They are not comcast they just work for them.

This letter is for the blowheart from Comcast. I am a Female Contractor that for the past 9 years has worked building and repairing what is formerly TCI,AT&T and now the all mighty Comcast.

I have watched many a pencil pushers like yourself sit back and push the blame on everyone but who the blame belongs to.There are many Contractors like myself that take there work seriously and put 110% into it . But since the merge of AT&T and Comcast many Contractors are out of Business due to invoices being held for 5 to 7 mths and the inexperience of the key people working for Comcast.That my friend leaves your in house to do the work ..Have at it.

I myself want nothing to do with Comcast anymore and the other good Contractors Comcast has run out of business by holding back invoices for work done. So Im assumming the contractors you are dealing with are either illegle aliens or lack the experience needed to get the job done. It is my opinion that Comcast will eventually feel the heat as there systems begin to fail due to poor installation and poor upkeep .

And its true your in house construction dept will be the ones to blame NOT the Contractors..Comcast is nothing more than Corporate Crooks that make money by being GREEDY,LYING,DECEPTIVE MANIPULATORS.
IM Glad to say I have cable from a Comcast Competitor.
Have a nice day (NOT)

Let me get this straight- you live in Wisconsin? I just wanted to make sure because in my book that's only ACROSS THE COUNTRY. And just to get another point straight, since I KNOW money is obviously so important to your company- I did not STEAL cable, as you pointed out so many times, so therefore, I would not be getting CAUGHT. YOUR company did not send me a bill, NOT my fault. Which by the way is taken care of now. Like I pointed out, you live in Wisconsin, I live in Tennessee- here- there ARE still contractors working for Comcast, as a matter of fact I saw a BTU truck yesterday.

Also, we did try to complain. My husband asked to speak with someone in charge when he made one of the complaint calls I mentioned and got no response, see here in TN Comcast just doesn't really care like they might there because they are the only regular cable providers for a good portion of the city, so therefore there's not a whole lot customers can do. As far as your suggestion to get a dish, well I know quite a few people that have one that have NO problems when it rains, storms, is windy, etc. The only problem is, for customers like me who only have limited cable and also like to know what's going on in the community, there obviously is no alternative with satellite. So therefore comparatively-there is no alternative.

Don't blame Comcast for contractor's work? Normally when you hire somebody, they worke for you right? Comcast hires contractors to work for Comcast doing Comcast's work. Contractors also have higher regulations. So what your saying is just don't blame the workers for the higher-ups. Well you are the ones in charge of THEM and making sure things are done and taken care of.

Another thing a lot of people don't know for the people out there- the guys that work for CTIS as I mentioned- the equipment that they have to buy out of their own pocket in order to work there costs thousands of dollars.Just the meter they use costs about $950 and they only use a few of the options on it, but Comcast has no other option. And this is not against Comcast, but CTIS- their workers have to work anywhere from 11-14 hour days 6 days a week, but can only report 60 hours or under legally, and don't make but b/w $350-550 a week. So I just have a question where Comcast is losing all its money to.

There are MANY many customers in this same area who probably don't know about this website, and don't really know how to get anywhere with complaining because it still doesn't change the way Comcast works here. So, if you don't like how it is or don't believe it for yourself, transfer here and try to get somewhere with fixing the problem and making it better because the present ones cannot. Start by making some courtesy calls and see for yourself how many out of 10 will tell you that Comcast is a rip off. I did not write this to upset higher-ups, I wrote this to address problems that should be fixed.

I do not know how long your husband contracted with Comcast or how much your husband knows about the Federal Laws of cable Theft, But he should have seen the laws probably even printed on some of the lock boxes. First of all, if you are receiving cable services without paying for them, it is not only a local teft of service violation but also a federal violation and these laws can carry quite stiff penalties. So I would advise you to call your cable company as soon as possible to let them know that you are receiving services and you wish to become a paying subscriber before they catch you.

As for the quality of work you are explaining, I am both the Illegal Theft Of Service Coordinator and the Quality Control Inspector at our Comcast Division. We no longer have contractors in our system since the quality of their work was very poor and as you said, they get paid by the job, not by the hour so their goal is to complete as many jobs in as little time as possible. They are also more expensive compared to the in house Comcast Cable Technician. Even though they may purchase their own materials, they are a greater cost to the company than the Comcast Employee who is properly trained and specializes in this field.

As for the poor quality job that was completed at your residence by the outside contractors, what I would suggest you do is when you call your local cable company to report to them that you are receiving services that you are not paying for and you wish to become a paying Comcast customer, also ask to speak either to the field supervisor or the General Manager. Between these two people, they will make sure that a trained technician from Comcast will come out to your house to fix this problem, since I can promise you that no Comcast employee is going to put a 4 way splitter at a jump pole because first of all, it will cut the quality of your pictures to a very low and unacceptable level, and second, when the rain gets into the in house splitter, it will corrode the connectors and causes you to have very snowy pictures, which in return means that this will causes a service call and I can not think of any in house technician who enjoys running on a service call that is caused by poor workmanship of a fellow employee. (That is also why I am sure this job was done by an outside contractor and not a Comcast Employee since contractors do not handle the service and repair part of the business!)

As for the dept of the drops that were buried past your property line. Most Comcast systems do have a contractor hired in for this part of the service since it is not feasible for Comcast to purchase the expensive equipment to do this type of work since it is done so seldom. This too is something that you will want to inform the field supervisor or General Manager about because Comcast pays good money to have these drops buried at the proper dept so that they are not dug up, but when these drops are buried so shallow that they can be cut by a person hoeing the garden, it becomes quite costly for Comcast because they have to pay a company to rebury a new drop again since underground splicing is not something that Comcast likes to do because eventually water will get into the fittings, corroding them and causing a preventable service call which also cost Comcast money not only for the Service Technician to repair the job, but also for the truck roll, additional parts, etc.
So in all fairness, please do not blame Comcast for the poor quality service that was done by outside contractors.

I can guarantee that the management of Comcast would like to know how their money is spent and would appreciate it if you told them exactly what your situation was since it sounds to me like the contractors are costing Comcast a lot of extra money for a poor quality job. Besides, If you do not get the results you want, there is one more option called a dish which you can enjoy watching.

That is as long as it is not raining out, snowing out, windy out, you do not care if you receive local channels and you do not mind having picture lock ups and cut outs while you are watching that movie versus the high quality digital picture that Comcast offers.