Comcast - another ugh experience

[tyl604]

Comcast certainly deserves the recent recognition of being one of the most hated companies in the country.

Today my modem/router now called a Cisco Gateway stopped working; it is only six or so months old. I waited over twenty minutes to speak to a technician who was unable to check anything like signal strength for the upper and lower band (their equipment continuously searches for the strongest signal but Comcast could not identify how strong a signal I was receiving); he knew not what to do except to recommend that I get a new gateway.

After waiting twenty more minutes on hold my next kindly representative (the tech could not do this) told me they would replace the gateway for free - except that there would be a $9.95 charge for shipping or a $40-60 charge for them to bring it out and perform a "new" installation. Or I could take a half hour ride each way and drive to their warehouse to pick up a replacement. So two of the three options require me to do all the work.

The fact that I pay monthly for serviceable equipment seemed to make no difference.

Comcast - there must be a special place in the afterlife for those who guide and run the company and train the employees.

[tbomachines]

Gotta fund those giant towers in philly somehow! The first 58 story one wasn't enough...


Sent from an abacus

[kerry]

Take comfort in the fact that Century Link is no better. We lost internet and phone. I knew exactly what happened since it had happened a few months before. I called them and told them a tech had just disconnected the wrong wire in the junction box down the street from my house and I had just seen a tech there. Could they contact him, tell him what he had done and hook us back up. Impossible I am told. 5 days later they show up to connect the wire the tech had disconnected. The old guy who came out to hook up the wire told me the new techs are clueless.

[tyl604]

And of course they offered to discount your monthly bill to compensense for your inconvenience.

[strelnik]

Originally Posted by kerry

Take comfort in the fact that Century Link is no better. We lost internet and phone. I knew exactly what happened since it had happened a few months before. I called them and told them a tech had just disconnected the wrong wire in the junction box down the street from my house and I had just seen a tech there. Could they contact him, tell him what he had done and hook us back up. Impossible I am told. 5 days later they show up to connect the wire the tech had disconnected. The old guy who came out to hook up the wire told me the new techs are clueless.

Did you at least get a prorated rebate for the time lost?

[jplinville]

Comcast is better than Verizon CS, IMHO. I was with Verizon for 4 years...every 6 months, like clockwork, the modem they sent out would die. Worse than that, we had spotty internet speed, at best...averaging 4mbps. I switched to Comcast 3 months ago, went through 2 of their modems before I decided to order my own for around $150. Wired speed is around 155mbps for roughly $20 more than what I paid for with Verizon. The cable package is cheaper than what I was paying through Verizon for DirectTV, and phone is cheaper as well.

If you can do your own foot work, Comcast isn't that bad. Drive to their local office, and replace it for free, or buy your own. You've got to remember...the lowest bidder builds their equipment. If you want quality equipment, you have to buy your own.

The only real issue I had was where the installer placed the wireless gateway...right next to the home theater. I was getting a weak signal 5 foot away. They told me to move it to the other side of the room, and the signal got worse. I ended up placing it above and between the theater system and a speaker, one place they specifically told me not to, and am getting the strongest and fastest speeds ever.

With today's installation wizards, installing and building your own home network is a breeze...just follow the simple directions, and the computer does most of the work.

[tyl604]

Apparently their modem and router are now combined into a machine called a gateway. Did you buy such a machine or did you buy a router and a modem? What brand did you buy? Did Comcast discount your monthly fee?

[strelnik]

Originally Posted by tyl604

Apparently their modem and router are now combined into a machine called a gateway. Did you buy such a machine or did you buy a router and a modem? What brand did you buy? Did Comcast discount your monthly fee?

My questions too.

I may end up getting internet at my house instead of using cafes as I have for the past 3 years. Need to do some cleaning first, though.

[tjts1]

And they thought I was crazy when I dropped Comcast to tether my phone instead.

[elchivito]

Kerry's right. CenturyLink's CS is horrible. I kept getting unpredictable slowdowns last week and over the weekend. 5 ESL-student customer service calls later the issue is still unresolved. Same lame procedure every time. Hook your laptop to the router by ENet cable. Power cycle the router. Speed test. "Looks like everything's fine".... till it's not.
I'm suspecting the router at this point but don't know enough about them to know if they fail in this manner.

[jplinville]

I bought the Arris SURFboard SB6141. I already had a wireless router, as well as two 5 port ethernet routers. I got a discount byu not having to pay the rental fee. As best as I can figure, the Arris will pay itself off in about 9 months total.

[tyl604]

Very interesting.