Update for Sat July 12, 2008

On July 7, 2008 I called my personal Customer Service Rep, left another message, and still no response. So I called the 800 number. I did not track how long it took, didn’t want to throw my phone, but I do know I watched at least two sitcoms using my TiVo.

Got an appointment setup in less then 3 minutes. No questions, no comments except a tech will be there between 8 and 10 on July 8.

Amazing – fastest response ever. The guy even showed up at 805 but then it went down hill. He changed out my DVR but then spent over an hour with someone on the phone trying to get my box to initialize.

He was bitching about the customer service he was getting. I did not feel so bad, all people were treated the same, even technicians trying to do their job.

He called but could not find anyone close with a different box so he waited and waited and waited on customer service. Finally he talked to someone.

After some time and after I noticed that half my HD channels would not work and trying to get the CSR on the other end of his company phone to fix it, he asked if he could go back to the office and attempt to fix it there.

He would leave the call open and call me either that evening or tomorrow morning. Fine, whatever it takes.

He called that evening and it appeared he had all the problems fixed. He said he would check in the morning.

That night I am not sure what happened but something was not right and I no longer had the movie channels – not authorized and 3 or 4 of the HighDef channels I previously had were also not authorized.

He stopped back by the next morning telling me the codes on my account were all wrong and they ‘think’ they have them fixed. Finally on Friday the 11th he installed another box and all my problems seemed solved – the girl had finally gotten the codes right.

By this time, four days later, I was ready to give up. As soon as he left I turned the thing off and left.

My son dropped by and went through setting up my Favorites – I can not see very well – not even sure why I have TV – I can almost watch HighDef.

He reads the guide Comcast sent us in May dated April 30th, and just clicks on the channels I should be getting making them my favorites. All good but my movie channels are gone again.

I called and they told me they had to change all the codes on my account and since I had old codes, any changes knocked the old codes out.

Bullshit, I had just moved from Class Service to Digital Starter with no problems. The HD channels I wanted were suppose to be part of the Digital Starter package.

Finally she told me to get one particular HD channel and get my movies back it would cost me $16 more a month. Nope I wanted my $5 package back. Sorry, no longer available – I just had it four days ago.

Then she told but for a dollar more a month and move up one package I could get my movies back AND many more HD channels. I asked about one HD channel and she said it should be included. Fine.

She called it an upgrade to Preferred from Classic. Why the hell had she wasted so much of my time if they had a package with everything I wanted for only a dollar more a month.

I had my movies back and two more HD channels that I really wanted. Everyone happy except I had wasted several months paying one price when for a dollar more I could get a much better package.

Why had no one pointed this out whenever they were trying to sell me phone service or more premium movie channels.

I called my Personal Customer Service Rep to bitch – left a message but he never returned my call.

My patience is almost gone. I do not know if I will make it the six months.

Update For Thu July 3, 2008

Last evening (Jul 2) my DVR refused to record anything. About 8 pm the front panel went dark. I unplugged and left it unplugged – I did not feel like screwing with it.

This morning I plugged it back in not very happy I had missed my early morning shows. At 5:30 pm the guide for the evening’s MAJOR networks had not re-loaded.

I turned it off because sometimes it will load faster and tried to access ZipTv listings on the Internet. Comcast took four tries to load it.

I turned the DVR back on to tell it to record one show. I had to give it the time and station because the guide was showing to be announced.

I went to bed.

UPDATE

Jul 4th, at 8 am - I checked and the damn thing had not recorded the show from the night before or my morning shows.

This will be the second DCH6416 to be replaced since April. Let’s see – I’m paying $10 per month for the privilege of wasting my time on this worthless equipment.

I already know the answer but I want a refund. Quit laughing.