Comcast took over from Time Warner a couple months ago (around June '07) and it has been heck ever since. I have spent at least 12 hours with them on the phone, talked to countless cust svc reps, been told many contradictory things, could not understand the CSR (cust svc rep) (I don't think they are based in the US, but sometimes I do get one I can understand).
Most have no idea what they are talking about, I would just assume that right off the bat when you are speaking with them! And call again to verify or get yet another excuse/answer.
My 1st issue was when I had complete packet loss when downloading using my broadband (could not surf the web, I could send but not receive). They sent out 3 tech people. The first one gave me a new modem and blamed it on that and a new cable box (?). It did work right away, but 10 min after he was gone the same problem was back. The next guy did nothing, told me it was all OK after doing some resetting-he was here less than 5 min. As usual, it was back to not working after he left. They must have some server they can use to make you think the problem is fixed, which goes back to the old server after a certain amount of time. Just to make you happy and get them out of there. The speeds, after running the speed tests, were above what my plan is supposed to deliver, which is why I am suppicious, esp after the modem change. I had never had it run that fast! And for so little time, alas!
The third time, I was given a lot of runaround about getting a supervisor out and the previous service guys kept telling me their super would 'check' or come next time, etc. They did not. I was promised one by the CSR who set up the third appt. One did not come, just the regular service guy. To his credit, he did spend some time (and over my insistence, I was NOT going to let another one slip through my fingers saying "It's fantastic!"). He could not fix it, so he said that he would have the super do something with the MAC address the next day. No. I had been living with this for over 3 weeks. I just put my foot down. I guess I scared him! He was very young. He went back outside and finally came back in and told me ALL I NEEDED WAS A NEW CABLE (I have separate lines for TV and broadband). I went outside and my cable had sunk under the dirt and who knows what. He changed it out and all was fine and stayed fine. BUT, the new line is straight from the box, one apt over, running close to the sidewalk, not nailed to the building neatly and out of the way of lawnmovers, weedeaters, etc.in fact, the cord was so long, I had to pull it up under my porch fence and push it as far from the sidewalk as I could. I should have called right then and gotten someone to come out and do it right, but I was happy and I simply did not have it in me to deal with this issue anymore. I am disabled and very sick and this had brought on a bad flare. I will have it redone after the next issue is fixed.
To their one credit, they did credit me for every day I was off the 'net, but it was only by what their equipment showed at the office, which, of course, was less than what I had experienced. They often told me all was fine when it wasn't. Unbelieveable.
I tried to get a supervisor, to no avail, during all of this. You get a voice mail and they never call you back, of course!
I don't know how many times I was told "We are upgrading, it will be fixed tomorrow." "Tomorrow" got to be THE day! Obviously a lie.
Their phone answering service doesn't work right half the time. Now it does something different every time you call.
When I had Time Warner, I used Earthlink for broadband. They gave me a discount when I went on disability as they didn't want to lose me as a customer. It was their 6 month promo. The 'net and cable are my main forms of entertainment, along with reading, as I am mostly bedridden, so this is the only money I spend on entertainment. They did this until Comcast took over. I noticed it today when my bill went up. I was told that they no longer work with Earthlink and I couldn't use it anymore. So I signed up for their 'economy' package, which is the worst, it might as well be dial-up. She did not tell me the other package I could have purchased, which would have brought my bill back down to what it was before, while maintaining some sort of reasonable speed. I was using Skype (phone through my computer) to speak with her and she didn't ask what I was doing on my computer or anything or try to set up my new comcast email, she just changed it over to the new plan, I got a new IP address which meant Skype went down and I lost the call.
I called back several times to try and get back to where I was before. I ended up, as usual, getting very angry. I called Earthlink and said 'help!' but they refused to give me the discount anymore, so I am stuck with Comcast or satellite, which, from what I have read here and seen on the 'net (both Directv and Dish Network's web sites are confusing and have too much small print and I had lots of questions, but it's too late at night and from what I have read here, on the consumer complaints about them, no thanks. I stayed with a friend who had Dish Network and it was awful, so not many choices here.). Earthlink also told me I *could* use them or anyone else that served my area for email, so Comcast lied about that.
So I called to get my Comcast email address, having accepted the situation. The first guy I spoke to was pretty nice and apologized. Somehow, since I switched from Earthlink to Comcast, my account is marked as "deleted" or "inactive" and he could not deal with it. He had to send a 'ticket' to these 'email guys' who would take care of it. I would have to wait until Monday and then call them with a reference number. Can't THEY call ME and give me the courtesy to tell me when my email is effective? How do they know how much time I have left to get my Earthlink email forwarded? This is unbelieveable.
Knowing how many different answers I get, I called back and got another guy, to make sure, and he said that the other guy was right and I'd have to call Comcast myself, no one would notify me. He thought it might be within 12 hours and gave me an erroneous time that was in my file, that I switched over to the new plan, which conveniently makes the 12 hours after 5 PM EST Friday, which is after these 'email guys' go home, so we are back to Monday. I figured I'd better not upgrade to the plan I really want yet, as I had SO much trouble getting my bill prorated, but did not know about (all the plans on the web site are for new customers or something else I am not qualified for). But I AM a new broadband customer, am I not, since I was an Earthlink customer, not a Comcast customer, even though Earthlink piggybacks the cable company? This guy told me not to count on getting an email address by Monday, either, which sounded like he was giving me a bit of a warning. "First come, first served." So now I have to wait until at least Monday, unless some great luck comes my way, and with this slow internet, or longer. I might go ahead and change my plan and make them totally crazy with the prorations, who knows. The wisest and least crazy-making course of action is to wait until the day my billing cyle is over to do that, which is just until Sept 4. I can live, I think, although I download a lot and when you surf the net, you are mainly downloading! But then they can't mess up my bill as easily.
This 'economy' plan, for those of you who know anything about this stuff, has the standard bad upload speed of around 350 kbps, but the download is only double that, which is intolerable. For $15 more I can get 6,000 kpbs download, which is more like it. I had about 7,700 with my Earthlink plan. It is the 'medium' plan most companies offer (you can get real high speed for real high money). Is it on the web site? No.
The first guy I spoke with could not even tell me the times these 'email guys' were open! At least the 2nd guy did and also told me that I was "deleted" as I just needed to be added to the server, which the first CSR failed to do after we got cut off the phone when she switched me so suddenly.
I have been a CSR in my life and it takes a lot to get me mad, but after a while... These guys are the absolute worst, even worse than Time Warner. I don't know what to do as there are really no good alternatives and from what the 'net says, I can't afford the satellite cable, and they do not have decent broadband and I've never heard of the company, so don't want to go there, at least I know what I have here. Crud. But there is worse crud.
I haven't even gone into the rudeness and it's too silly to, but trust me, these people need training and counseling.
Whoever made this decision to change Houston to Comcast should be taken out and run around senseless. Comcasts claims how great they are and how little problems they've had during the switchover, but I've read report after report on the 'net about how bad things are. My new DVR box is horrid, won't program correctly and does not have logical repeating program choices. The FF and RW are slow.
They do not realize, of course, and one CSR even said, at one point, knowing I was on disability, that "how could a few dollars matter?". That is not really what a CSR should be saying.
If you have trouble, please report it here, to the BBB, even though I'm not sure exactly what they ever do, if anything. Exist, I think. And the FTC, and they DO do something and love stuff like this. I think Comcast will be in a class action suit at some point. The customers won't see much, but at least it might make Comcast straighten up their act a little. Just a little.
This has made me crazy, has wasted countless hours, been bad for my health. And I have never had this happen to this extent with a company. And now, just to get an email address, I have to wait all this time. So, if you move here and are a new customer, do you have to wait days after installation to get an email address?
Unbelieveable. Oh, and YOU have to keep up with it. "Do I have an email address yet sir/m'am?"
When they tell you one thing and you are seeing another, with your broadband speeds, go to
Http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest? Flash=1
And choose the city closest to your location and Disable your firewall for best results. Make sure there is a slot left (there will be a red dot if not and you'll have to wait, plus the green bar will be all the way to the right). The Comcast guys send you elsewhere, which sends you here, but sometimes the address they use does not get them here. And then they don't want to believe that it is the same exact speed test! It may not be for all I know, just more lies, probably. Sometimes it works, but the one above always does.
I know I'm not out a bunch of money, but I am out about $10 bucks I could sure use this month that I had not budgeted. And that is a lot of money for me. Seems like it is people like me who usually complain on these sites, but people with money need to, to. Bad behavior, rudeness, unprofessionalism, and everything else they do is NOT excusable and will not change until enough people complain.
Sending this to everyone else I mentioned above and this site will also recommend.
Hope your experience is better than mine.
Sarah
Houston, Texas
U.S.A.
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