Is Comcast Stupid?

Today, Sunday, I received a call on an emergency cell phone about my account.

They know I do not have a regular phone and I only use the emergency cell for their numerous service calls. Today I spent over $3.00 talking about service that someone in their company disconnected but failed to tell anyone else.

This nice lady said she could not ‘see’ my account, only a balance due. Talk about the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing – this is classic. I didn’t even ask the balance but if they are calling for a $10 and change past due amount that is not due until Oct 3, 2008, according to their bill – they must be hurting for money.

Today I was told I was not really disconnected, I had a soft disconnect because unlike other services, like phone or electric, I can not be disconnected from cable unless the balance was paid. The nice lady indicated I would still be charged my monthly total, $105+ until my account was paid in full – even if I disputed the charges.

Monthly charges of $105+ which is about $30 too high according to the balance a customer service rep told me on September 11 but is not even accurate because they disconnected me. If I am disconnected by a company, how can they continue to charge me for services?

How can this be? Pay for something I am not getting? I did not sign a contract agreeing to anything. And besides they disconnected me – I did not disconnect them.

I no longer have any service because they disconnected me but they are going to charge me essentially 100% interest or finance charge for non-payment?

Anyone else ever have a similar situation?

I know this should go into a rants and rave place but I could not ‘see’ it.

Fellow Comcast Ex-Customer

I stumbled across this surfing local blogs. I wonder how many of us there are.

See P. Blevins Dear Comcast post at http://palmerblevins.net/blog/2008/09/23/dear-comcast/

Notice he also switched to Xanadoo.

Thanks Mr. Belvins for permission to post the link.

No Comcast One week update – Sept 23, 2008

One week ago today Comcast said goodbye to me – not my choice but I am not complaining.

I was afraid that the loss of the 50+ cable channels would greatly affect my life. As it turns out, I have not missed them at all.

DirecTV stopped by today but I was not impressed with the guy so I decided against installation plus I have made a few interesting discoveries.

We don’t get CBS locally but it does not matter – I can watch most of the shows online at CBS.com using my Xanadoo modem. Since they are on the computer screen I can even use the magnifier to ‘see’ some detail. Thank you Comcast.

I also found that only having about six channels to choose from was much less time consuming then the stupid guide on the Comcastic DVR – it also put me back in touch with the local news people.

Cable TV had me so brainwashed – I did some math in my head. I used to watch The Shield on FX. Can’t watch it now but if I wait a while the season will come out on DVD – I think I got my son a couple of seasons on DVD at $25 apiece – I’ve been paying $75+ a month for so long. What a dummy I was.

Otherwise I can not think of one thing I am missing. Not one damn thing.

Update: 6 PM
I ‘remembered’ to check the email account that I used with Comcast – it is a Gmail account only for Comcast.

Last week I got a message from someone at the ‘Comcast Executive Offices’ asking me to call them. I emailed back that I only wanted to use email since I do not have a phone (and when I did call using others phone I would be on hold for most likely an hour. Besides, every time I talk to a rep OR chat online with one they are clueless. I wanted a ‘record’ of our conversations.

The executive replied asking what my current service problem was.

I was a bit testy and asked why they did not check their records before contacting a customer.

That was early yesterday morning with no reply so I figure I’ve heard the last.

Someone did try to call me twice last Tuesday, the day I sent out my Open Email To Comcast but they called my emergency cell number, that I never leave on and I did not get the messages until Sunday.

They did not give a call back number, just a name. There have been no other attempts to contact me except for Executive Office Email last week.

So as one person said before Comcast even took over from Insight, all they want is your money – they care nothing about you or the service they provide. They will get no more from me.

Do Yourself A Favor

After sending my Comcastic DVR back to their fairy tale land, I was worried about not being able to replay, freeze frame or time shift live TV - would I ever be able to survive without it?

I watched, 'GASP' Live TV - and I lived to tell about it. But I still hate commercials.

As it turns out I have an old TiVo sitting in the entertainment center. Its input is hooked to a digital receiver which is hooked to an old antenna. I set it up when the tournado (U have to live here and watch local news to get that joke) knocked out normal cable.

It works great. But best of all - it's free.

I can pick the channel I want - record it or watch it live with all the features of a DVR and I discovered I can record with it as long as I know what time/channel I want.

1st Favor to yourself - check out the online TV guides - you are not limited to 6 or 8 lines with a few hours or channels displayed.

Your screen can show 20 channels and six hours at a time. You can even lock out the channels you do not want to see but MY pet feature is being able to 'see' five days of programming for one channel.

Five days in six hour or more increments. I love it. It will even send me email reminding me of when shows are on. Not quite as easy as pressing the record button but it sure is a lot faster when you can see more info. I'll bet you people who can see might be surprised - if your Internet will work.

2nd Favor to yourself.

Go out to a big box store and test drive a TiVo. Its so much FASTER and smoother then the Comcastic DVR. When you hit FF to skip past commercials then resume play, it backs up a little when you hit play and I find I do not have to hit rewind very often to get back to the programming.

I had forgotten that feature.

My Tivo no longer gets guide info. A few years ago this company kept calling me trying to sell me crap.

I discontinued my landline. I inadvertently prevented the TiVo from calling home. I discovered this years later - yesterday as I a matter of fact.

Oh well, for what I need, the TiVo and digital tuner works fine with online guides.

And the last favor for yourself? See what channels you get get for free with an antenna. In my case I get several and I can tune in the HiDef signal on most.

I find that having fewer choices makes life much simpler.

Try this - disconnect your DVR for a week. Find other things to do - like listen to Ronnie on the Cubs Network - I had forgotten how much I liked him.

Later I even loaded up a book on CD and listened to a Stephen King Story - it has been a long time.

I found it much more entertaining then the movie.

I think many people got lured into a DVR lifestyle because of the live TV manipulation but when the second tuners were added, we all started watching too much crap - we had the ability - we had to use it.

And I discovered just how bad some of the crap was. I'm glad it's gone.

Do yourself a favor or favors.

Open email to Comcast September 16, 2008

On this date I talked to a CSR at around 4:50 AM and asked that my bill dated Aug 03 showing many service changes AND charges be reviewed by herself and a supervisor and to please call me with the results of the review - it is self explanatory that someone did not know what they were doing.

I have already wasted many cell phone minutes to fix a problem "created" by your CSRs - most times on hold never talking to a CSR so I decided to make it easy for you and not have to pay for me to be on hold while you looked for/at the records and make snap decisions.

It is now 11:29 AM, 6+ hours later and my phone has not made a sound except when your service tech called to replace my DVR my fourth since Apr of this year.

I sent three email messages yesterday about my three problems – I got back confirmations that my message had been received and someone would get back to me within 24 hours. The original messages were sent about 6 am yesterday – no responses so far today. It is now 11:30 AM.

In my mailbox right before your tech arrived, I found a Disconnection Notice with Total Due by 10/06/08 of 10.96.

Is this your normal way of telling a customer they are no longer wanted? Almost as bad as email or instant message. Fine, you have solved many of my problems.

Your technician just left with my broken DVR - I did NOT let him install the replacement – but I did give him a full accounting of what was wrong with that DVR and its programming.

Since you say my balance due is only 10.96 at least I did not get screwed for the $200+ I did not want or get.

I wonder why the CSR did not tell me I was going to be disconnected or why the tech had a DVR for me IF I was going to be disconnected.

I know – the reason is simple - your left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing – been that way since day one.

I have been a cable customer in this city since 1981 except for four years. No matter what the company was called. For the most part I had absolutely no problems and any problems I did have were fixed within 24 hours if not sooner.

For years I subscribed to the all you have package - $190 a month with Internet.

Comcast takes over and I lose three email addresses that I have had since 2003 - why? Because your old customers were more important then the new ones is the only reason I can see.

I got all new Gmail accounts – at least I do not think they will screw me over in the future – I can even create websites for those accounts – all for FREE.

I also lost all my grandchildren's websites because your CSR told me they would be transferred automatically once my new email addresses were established. She promised to call me back if that was incorrect. She never called.

But I did get email dated in May 08 that I would lose them on May 30. I didn’t read that email until September 2008 but I got to say you did warn me.

Since I lost the three most important addresses I quit using those email accounts. I checked them 2 or 3 weeks ago when a relative told me she tried to access my youngest grandson’s on his birthday – I almost always update the sites on their birthday – this year I was having vision problems so I missed it.

Checking the accounts after almost six months of non-use I found nothing really helpful or important but the activity has picked up since September 1 – I have 4 or 5 spam messages in each of my six accounts and no easy way to ‘unsubscribe’ from the junk mail - a service message advertising McAfee Security Programs – yeah, right.

I promised myself that if my problems were not fixed by 5 PM today, you would become my ex-TV provider. I can’t even break that promise to myself – at least you kept one of a thousand promises you made to me.

And to add insult to injury – you might have been throttling my Internet Traffic – and come Oct 1 my unlimited account that I have had since 2003 is now capped – amount does not matter – I signed up for unlimited use and to my knowledge I have signed no new agreements
with Comcast.

But the thing that finally helped me decide divorce would be best from your service – you took the only worthwhile channel available on regular cable, National Geographic and moved it to beyond many peoples reach.

Good business decision. I think that is the WORST one you have made so far.

Well, in closing and before I waste anymore of my limited time, I think your customer service system is absolutely the worse of any company I have ever dealt with.

And on that note good bye and good luck – if you don’t fix things quickly you’ll need all the luck in the world.

At least you could have thanked me for the thousands of dollars I spent in 23 or 24 years on the cable industry. I just realized the truth - it was not enough.

Comcast Solved ALL My Problems

Comcast fixed all my problems.  Today I found a Disconnection Notice with Total Due by Oct 6, 2008.  Looks like instead of arguing with me or giving me equipment that worked they just shut me off.

Instead of letting the tech replace my DVR I just had him take it back to the office.

So my problems are all solved.  Should have done this in February when all my problems started.

I just wrote an open email to Comcast - I had to break it into four parts to email it to them.

I'll post it next.

Get To Go Home

They let me go home this morning - I got the good news yesterday early morning so I called Comcastic to re-schedule my service call to replace my DVR. Reports were that it was not working right.

I also complained about my Aug 03 bill for July service - I guess the tech got tired of listening to me explain and we were disconnected. I had already wasted too many of my cell phone minutes trying to fix their screw-up. I called back three times and never got another CSR - at 5 am in the morning. WTF?

So I sent them Email - 3 separate messages about 3 separate issues. Two responses saying they could not discuss my bill through email, either call (they won't answer the phone) or live chat - yeah, right - the last time I did that they sent signals to my modem and DVR and they never worked again.

So this morning I called to verify my appointment and explained my problem again because the CSR yesterday had noted I discussed my bill (no particulars) but the call was disconnected. Why did she not try to call me back?

Anyway, I briefly explained my problem, asked the CSR to compare the last three bills with a supervisor and please call me back with a resolution. The problem could be easily seen.

That was at 4:50 am this morning - another 17 minute cell phone call. It is now about 7:30 - I figure they went home - so here we go again.

But this time I am not screwing around. If all my problems are not fixed by 5 PM, I am gone. Six months of crappy CSR and screwed up billings - no more.

My DVR is sort of working.

A friend visited my home -  I had a medical problem and had to stay elsewhere for a couple of days.  He saw my DVR seemed to be working.  He said it was acting funny but he told it to record the truck race and the Illini football game.

Nice of him I thought until he went to check  them.  Truck race was blank and the Illini game was not - I'm not sure what it was but Illini it was not.

It missed the series recording Sunday Morning so it is still screwed.

I am ready to give up.  Luckily DirecTv got both the game and Sunday Morning.

Sorry for the crazy postings

I have been putting posts online but have not published them.  I am not sure what I was missing  - I very seldom look at the blog.  Today I hit the wrong button and I noticed I had many posts missing.  

They were there, just not published.  Oh, well.  At least it is fixed now.

I just figured it out - on one page I tell it to publish immediately.  But it is only those posts I email to the blog that get posted immediately.  When I leave the editor it just 'saves' the draft.

Sept 11 Update – Sep 3 bill

A few days ago my third DVR delivered since Mar or Apr quit working. I had to spend almost an hour on the phone with tech support who insisted we check all the wiring.

I moved the unit because I thought four DVRs in 4 months meant something was wrong – like possibly it was overheating.

After an hour of the bull crap that it had to be something I did wrong and trying to sell me the $1.99 monthly wiring maintenance program, I asked him to turn off all packages except basic Internet.

He told me I would have to pay $60 a month for just Internet service and the only way to get a discount was to also take Digital Starter or whatever it was called.

I used to have a movie package – Encore - In one month I never watched one movie – the selection was so bad, why have something I am not going to watch?

Plus I was getting a bunch of channels in the digital level (above 100) that I NEVER watch – my son could not figure it out.

Plus I was tried of the DVRs failing – I could barely see them anyway so screw it – all I wanted was Internet Service. He re-arranged my bill and told me he had given me a discount and my Internet would only cost $30 a month. What ?? I was only paying $20 now. And I would have the digital started package – what? That's what I have now.

I was confused and did not feel good so I figured I would sort it out later.

The tech finally decided the unit needed to be replaced and we scheduled an appointment for the next day.

A little later that morning I finally got a bill from Comcast – I didn’t get one in August but I paid my normal amount.

Something was really wrong – it looked like my cable charges had doubled.

I spent an hour trying to get a copy of my August bill from the Comcast site – but it was useless - timeouts or my account info was incorrect.

I did not get email last month nor this month that my statement was ready online so I was thinking that my online account had gotten screwed when my email addresses were changed from insight to Comcast.

Finally I hooked up my Xanadoo modem and accessed Comcast. I had a copy of my statement in less then three minutes.

I tried Comcast modem and again could not get logged in to raise hell about the bill they had screwed up.

When I examined the bill for Aug 3, it appears that Comcast had billed me for three different packages during the month of July but only reversed one package.

I can not see well but a neighbor who cannot hear well tells me I was also charged $10 for bundled packages (I use to get a $10 credit) and he also thinks I was billed for Internet Service three times but one of them might be a credit.

I wish I could see it so I can get the problem fixed. Why should my book keeper have to fight with the damn company again.

All I know is I am not feeling well, very nauseated and sweating like hell – I think my body is trying to tell me something.

I’ve had a heart attack before – this feels much different. Hell of a time to get sick – I got too much to do. Oh well.