How NOT to Handle One's Comcast Problems

I've blogged about my dislike for Comcast's VOIP phone service in the past. (read HERE, then HERE for all the details and horrid reminders).

But apparently, Comcast knows how to treat their other customers just a crappily (I just made that word up) as they did to me. A 75 year-old woman, Mona Shaw decided to switch from Verizon for Comcast's Triple Play service package. When they couldn't get the service operating, Mona took her trusty hammer and drove to the local Comcast office - and then proceeded to use said hammer to bash all sorts of Comcast property while shouting "Do I have your attention now?"

(Aside: I don't think that it was intended by Mona, but that's an AWESOME parody to Verizon's marketing slogan. "Can you hear me now?")

Mona, I can sympathize with your dilemma, but violence rarely works in these types of situations. Keep good notes, demand fair compensation, and blog about it so you can vent instead of releasing your rage in more physical iterations.

[Washington Post via Gizmodo, photo from Washington Post]

Believe It or Not: Comcast Experience STILL Gets Worse

So I contacted AT&T to switch my service back to them from Comcast. There's yet another problem with Comcast that is related to "porting" (ie. moving an existing phone number to another company for service) from Comcast to AT&T. The short version is that Comcast has a contract to port numbers from AT&T, but AT&T does not have a contract to port numbers over from Comcast.

So they give me bad service - AND still manage to make it as difficult as possible to switch to another company.

So now I have to seek out another phone company. Currently, I'm looking into Packet8, Lingo, and VoicePulse. All seem to have similar features, service, and quality to AT&T - but since they're all smaller companies, I worry how long they will stay in business.

Comcast: You'd Think it Couldn't Get Worse...

I've had it with this company. My dislike for Comcast (specifically their VOIP phone service) has been well documented on previous posts here on my blog, so use the filter for "Comcast" on the right to sort them out if you're new to this blog.

Amidst all the problems that I've documented, I was under the impression that my service was FINALLY working properly. This one's a doozy

I set up my Comcast service to send me an email to let me know when I have a new voicemail. So today I get a couple notificiations, and I when I log in to my web page to see view them, I see that I have over a dozen voicemails - some from a week ago - that I didn't know about. All were business related and a few were what I would deem "critical". Some of these were time critical and have caused personal and business-related consequences that are highly consequencial. Furthermore, I had set up my phone line to forward all calls to my cell phone since I travel a lot, and THAT didn't happen either.

I have had it with this company. I've already begun to switch my service back to AT&T - a service that I KNOW will work.

It's worth noting that I'm fairly happy with the high speed internet service from Comcast. However, I decided to cancel this as well since the service is on the same bill. Iwas on the phone with Qwest to set up a DSL service from them. Unfortunately, Qwest only has 1.5MB service in my area, and I"m getting 8MB from Comcast - big difference when you're on the internet and 1-2 phone lines all at the same time.

Vote - Who is worse: Sony or Comcast?

The blog Consumerist.com is having a poll today in their competition to see who did worse to their customers in the last year. You can guess who my vote is for... (although I don't care for Sony that much either). Be sure to read the comments at the bottom of the page. This one resonated with me particularly well.

KevinQ says:

I had to go with Comcast. Sony only hurts you if you want something from them. Comcast, however, is the only option in too many areas, and they can hurt you even if you don't want to give them your business.

02/19/07 12:38 PM


VOTE - Who is worse: Sony or Comcast?

Comcast Rant: update

Picking up where I left off...Comcast had gone 30 hours without fixing my phone when they said it would be finally "fixed" within 24 hours after 5+ weeks of ongoing problems. So due to travel and other commitments, I had it on my "to do" list yesterday to call Qwest and sign up for their DSL service. I would then cancel Comcast services once Qwest was running.

At around 8:13am yesterday, Comcast called to say they had fixed the problem. After a quick test of my own, I discovered he was right. This creates an interesting dilemma.

So...should I stick with my promise of cancelling, or should I stay with Comcast and avoid future hassles? Post your comments to let me know. I'll share my decision later.