Same old story. I ordered high speed internet 3 years ago and the technician said he could not provide it. He called the nice black lady in the billing dept. to tell her to remove me from the service list. She said she would try and I’ve proceeded to get bills and collection agency notices and calls from them ever since. They even impeded my ability to get a mortgage because they adversely affected my credit score.

In Connecticut, cable is a monopoly deal. You get one service per area, and if you don’t pay their prices, you don’t get cable. We figured out the costs, put an antenna on the house for less than one year’s extortion, and we’re getting netflix. Thus, we have no need of Comcast’s cable whatsoever: good internet via AT&T and entertainment at a price we can afford (well under a quarter of Comcast’s price to get 105 channels of nothing, too!)

Lose ‘em.

Maybe it’ll be a good excuse to spend some time next week outside in the fresh air, visit with friends and family, and maybe read a good book or even take a vacation.

Plus, you still have your local SBUX and mobile broadband for work and blogging – and there’s nothing good on TV anyway. =)

Oliver,

I have the 3mbs service and use VoIP, video skype, etc. with no problem. I can upgrade it to 10mbs though if needed so if I ever get hooked on downloading movies from iTunes or something similar and need more bandwidth I have a little room. It’s not FiOS, but it the package is a lot better than what I had with Time Warner and cheaper / month.

Minor update: I have been contacted by Comcast corporate and promised a fast resolution. I’m waiting to see if that indeed happens and will update if it does. Thanks for the concern, everyone!

Don’t take NO for an answer from them. Have someone you know that is a royal jerk call them for you and whip them into shape. Seriously. Sometimes being rude is necessary and effective.

Over the years, you guys have given me some good advice, so it is a pleasure to return the favor.

While living in Albuquerque for six years, I was introduced to Comcast. I used them for a cable ISP. I was underwhelmed, and in moving this past August, I was introduced to such practices as, “Sure, we’ll give you a refund on your modem, all you need to do is to turn it where you last had service.” “But,” I tell them, “we moved to Richmond. I no longer live in Albuquerque. Why don’t I turn it into your Richmond office?” “We’re sorry…”

Your case doesn’t surprise me. *Every* time we had to deal with Comcast, I ended up wondering why I paid for such abuse.

Then entered FIOS from Verizon. I bought the service with Verison with the notion that it wasn’t Comcast, and I *really* didn’t want to support Comcast if I had another option. The FIOS line is fast. Stable. It has never once dropped. I have never noticed any slowdown in either upload of download speed, and their home telephone sounds much, much better than Vonage, Skyoe, or any traditional land line I have owned. I can’t speak to to their TV service, but my students say it is great. Nor can I speak to their service practices. Why? I’ve worked with them almost nine months now, and I’ve never had occasion to call them. When they came out and put in the FIOS line, they worked around my schedule. Cool.

By the way, it’s been fun reading about your experiences in the cloud. I’ve been exclusively in the cloud for well over a year. It isn’t heaven, but in the past year, the college where I teach has moved from a MS house to Google Apps. I’ve moved most of my teaching environment from Blackboard and eCollege to Google and Bubbl.us, and all my daily chores are now just a logon away. In the process, I’ve come up with a good, solid teaching platform for Tribal Colleges who may not be able to afford Office and/or Blackboard, and my students are learning to work together and collaborate on projects online. I’ve even been able to buy a Nokia N810 and an ASUS PC eee as my next “upgrade.” The total cost of both were cheaper than a more robust traditional laptop good enough to run Vista and Office 2007. I am slowly converting colleagues to online collaboration.

In short, welcome to the cloud. The living is fine. What took y’all so long?

Steve

Marshall, What speed internet do you have for Uverse? Do you use video over Skype, and if so, who well does it work?

http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/05/verizon-tech-su.html

I dropped my Comcast cable modem after one too many outages and absolutely horrid customer support about four years ago. I really should give AT&T Uverse a closer look, so I can get rid of Comcast cable TV as well.

I clicked on the twitter-link that was posted earlier – it looks like James is getting some customer service love online as we speak

I’m European so Comcast is (thankfully) not a part of my life. I do remember this Youtube video I saw featured a couple of years back on Consumerist

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CvVp7b5gzqU

Priceless.

This has happened to me three times. The third time, my neighbor watched the Comcast guy walk up to my front door, pantomime knocking, drop a note, and walk off.

Quality, right.

James at least they cared enough to give you an install date to lie about. In my case they just keep telling me they have no install dates, since Feb 14, 2007!

I must be the only person who hasn’t had a problem with Comcast. They installed my internet and TV service 4 years ago and I have only had one outage and it only lasted about an hour.

When I scheduled the install, I was told between 8:00 am and noon and the tech showed up at 8:15 am.

Now, my mother, girlfriend, sister and many of my friends all have Comcast horror stories similar to James’.

I’m gonna keep my fingers crossed while knocking on wood that my Comcast Carma continues to be good.