Complaint Review: Comcast - Internet

I had my service installed in 2011 because Comcast was the only service available in my area. I was issued a used HD DVR, used Modem but new HD receiver and new digital receiver.

The HD DVR had constant problems, requiring me to call customer service to have signals sent to the box to re-set it. The menus would be unavailable, the DVR portion would not work and I would get error messages. Each time they would not credit me for the time the box was down.

This became more and more frequent throughout 2012.

In July, after being fed up of waiting and waiting on the phone each time (45+) I started using online chat because it was happening more frequently as in every other week then weekly then the box would freeze daily and get a green screen, requiring a full restart and still no DVR or menu capabilities. Each time I kept trying the chat they would say it takes several hours for the "signal to register" so the chat would end and a few hours later - no dice. One time, more recently, the internet (Comcast too ironically) froze in the middle of the chat and I could not continue (which Comcast now claims they offered a tech and I said no which is completely false).

Finally last weekend I tried chat again to wait over an hour and no analyst took the chat. That would be July - October. I then called and waited about 20 min for an agent to pick up. She agreed to send a new box but required me to pay $9.95 for the shipping. I said that was fine as long as they credited me for each month the box was down - so whatever the breakout was for the use of the DVR box I could not use. She put me on hold and said I never complained and they could not do anything. I told her it was not true and started to tell her about the chats and she said the online chats are not connected to peoples accounts so there is no record. I don't believe this honestly because they ask for your information and check your account when you do an online chat. 

After going back and forth, she offered me $20 and I said no way. I said I wanted a pro-rated amount for the "premium" or extra cost of the DVR box from July - Sept and that was not highly unreasonable considering I pay my bill on time and I'm not asking for something irrational like 3 months of free service. So she said she was going to talk to a supervisor and put me on hold. She came back and said the Supervisor would review the case because they did not believe me about the chats and that I did not call in and I would have to call back in 3-5 days to see if any credit would be offered at all. I said thanks but no thanks as this was unacceptable customer service. The DVR in question has been an issue since installation and that was more than clear on the account, so I asked her why Comcast could not be held accountable for the faulty equipment. This is when she said that the tech was offered in the chat which had frozen when the internet went down in my area. I responded to her, telling her the internet froze on that conversation, nothing was ever offered while I was on the chat and it was quite interesting that she had information on THAT chat but none of the other chats that supposedly were NOT tied to my account. Then the agent would not answer any questions or let me talk to a supervisor.

The next day, I signed up for DirectTV and AT&T Uverse. I had DirectTV installed but AT&T will be a few weeks out so today (10/13) I had to cancel just the Comcast TV. I asked if they could match AT&T's internet and phone deal and they would not. The difference was about $60 per month. They didn't even care while I was leaving Comcast.

In short, Comcast's customer service is no better than it was 5 years ago. Neither is their service. It goes down for "maintenance" in my neighborhood at least monthly and we never get credits. The equipment is used and has issues constantly but Comcast will never credit you for the loss of use. All I am looking for is credit for the loss of use for July - September 2012 of my HD DVR considering the exorbitant prices Comcast already charges. The fact that they can not be held responsible for their faulty equipment which they make me pay a lease fee for that does not allow me to access their services which I also pay a monthly fee for should be a violation of some regulation.

Comcast (Xfinity)
Not sure where they are based - either Philadelphia or LA.