This page is for archiving comments for 2005-2008 for Comcast.
2005-10-24 01:15:24 I've been experiencing high latency, packet loss and slow throughput for the past couple of weeks, been in bitch at Comcast, then ask for service credits when it doesn't get fixed mode. —RyanCastellucci
2005-11-09 10:41:17 same here. —DomenicSantangelo
2005-11-16 11:34:24 I created a account for the sole purpose of describing my hate for Comcast POS service, it is up there with the G Bus Line and gas prices with things I hate in the world. —OnsonLuong
2006-03-02 20:01:25 I had Comcast since day one....it was crap in the beginning but it's slowly getting better. However, I have no choice but to get comcast, because DSL goes about as slow as 56k where I live. Thankfully, Comcast is very fast where I live (East Davis) so I'm not complaining. —JoeyBennett
2007-03-13 22:20:28 Our Comcast Internet is great, no downtime or outages. The Cable T.V. is another matter. It frequently cuts out and dies, often for hours at a time. —TusharRawat
2007-05-06 20:06:31 Does anybody know what model comcast uses for an HDTV PVR? —BradBenedict
- I ordered anyway and got a Motorola DCT3416. I'm unsatisfied, but I'll write about that when I get more free time. —BradBenedict
- My girlfriend and I ordered an HDTV DVR from them a couple days ago. They said it'd be free for the first year. They told us somebody would be over the next day between 8 and 12pm. At like 11:58 the guy shows up and starts installing. He asks if I want to use RF or S-video. I point out that neither of those are HD capable. He says "oh you want HD?", to which we pretty much responded "Yes, that's why we ordered it". He tells us he'll hook it up, but it won't be free. OK, that's fine. We expected to pay for it in the first place. So after he figures out how to set it up we have an HDTV DVR. Later at night when we get to test it we found that he left the wrong manual for the DVR. Not a big deal for us. We also found that we now have nice little advertisements at the bottom of our program guide. Yes, we are now paying more money so that they can have a place to show us ads. It's really annoying. We also found out that the extra $5 we'll be paying for HD only includes the local stations. It's $10.95 for the extra 4 or so HD channels they have. Then the DVR sucks. If you've ever used tivo you will HATE this thing. Not only is it hard to move around but I've found that sometimes fast forwarding or rewinding will lock it up and sometimes it'll record programs but not let you watch them. I have to say that the cable internet is great, though.. —BradBenedict
2007-06-15 18:30:40 Wow, showed up just barely before 6:00 (their closing time) and just as I'm pulling up, I watch the lady working SPRINT to the door, lock it, then run back to duck behind the counter. I go up to the door and knock, and although it's very obvious I know she's there, she continues to hide.
Customer service = A+ —JackWaller
2007-07-14 02:07:47 Just a tip for anyone that's thinking about Comcast. If you don't need cable TV, get DSL. DSL is slower than cable, but with all your neighbors hogging bandwidth (think: downloading + torrents, since a cable connection is shared by the people around you), there'll be tons of times where you'll have almost no connection at all. However, when it actually works, the connection is great. —WaylandLee
2007-08-03 17:35:10 I had Comcast at Glacierpoint apartments from Sept 06 to Aug 07 , I don't think the service went out even once, and the speeds were great. There may have been some slow downs, but not slow enough for me to run speed tests or check my router, so it could have just been me, or maybe my roommate was hogging the bandwidth. I got a deal where I paid $25 a month (except for the last) but their standard rate of $50 is too much if you ask me. —TheodoreSuryapurnama
2007-08-16 15:32:17 I have had Comcast TV service for 2 years, and am very pleased with their cable TV service in Central Davis no outages so far. Their internet service though was variable speeds and needed cable modem reboot at least several times a month. They also have a very restrictive Terms of Service that forbids sharing internet with your neighbor. I switched to Sonic.net DSL instead which actually encourages such sharing. I have a WiFi router, and prefer to split the bill with a neighbor. —VincentFox
2007-08-16 18:10:40 Their DNS servers frequently screw up. Their tech support doesn't know what a router is (Me: "Router xxx.xx.xxx.xx on your network is dropping packets like crazy." Her: "Router? We don't support that unless you subscribe to our home networking service."). Random outages. Cheap leased equipment. I get the feeling that their network is run by monkeys. :( —WilliamLewis
"2007-08-23 09:46" How do I say this nicely.... COMCAST SUCKS! Their customer service is the worst, or perhaps nonexistent. I have spent over 10hrs on the phone with 8 different 'reps' getting absolutely nowhere with all of them! I can't explain with enough passion the level of frustration of not having another choice for internet service. (I am in N.E. Davis, and Yahoo DSL is spoty and slow at times, I had them a few years ago- and their service was bad in winter months). I am of the opinion that monopolies do NOT work. I have spent all this time to accomplish the simple task of setting up an internet connection with a wireless router to network my desktop and laptop without paying out the nose for the service. Unbelievably, in the year 2007 this simple task is yet to be resolved! I'll say it again in hopes that the people at Comcast get it: your customer service SUCKS, stop fleecing people! Your company represents all that is wrong the perceptions of corporations that overcharge and under perform in delivering services. I wish I had another choice, and at this point, I"m willing to either settle for a slower connection or even consider paying more to another carrier that is NOT Comcast. As soon as my offer is over, I will switch over to Yahoo DSL!—Roberto
2007-08-23 17:15:24 I agree with the above comment. I've been misled many times over the past year. The first three months were fine. Then I set up the automatic payment online, and from then on, the website wouldn't let me access our account online and stopped sending us paper statements. It didn't pay the first month we set up automatic payments, so we were a month behind for a couple months before I realized, since I couldn't access our account. I called the help line and the person said they would fix the online problem and start sending us paper statements again. Neither happened. A month later, I started going in to the office in Davis each month to pay our bill and they constantly misrepresented the amount we owed. The woman I talked to each time (it was the same woman each time, Sabra, or something similar) led us to believe we owed one amount, sometimes told us we were paying our bill in advance, but then we would receive information telling us we still owed money either because we hadn't paid in advance or, once, that we hadn't even paid the last month's bill completely. This continued for five months. When we talked to her the last time, she told us that the person we talked to last time was mistaken, even though she was the one who had talked to us. We tried calling the help line to complain about the treatment, but all they offered us was $10 off our next bill. It was the worst customer service I've ever experienced. We're moving next week and I'm not planning on using Comcast ever again. It's a shame because it seems like they have a lot to offer but the customer service is horrendous. —ElleWeber
2007-08-26 23:45:54 Has anyone else had problems spidering websites through Comcast Broadband? I get a burst of download activity followed by 6-7 seconds of stall, followed by another burst of activity. Same program and OS at work, through an Omsoft SDSL connextion runs continuously at the link bandwidth. Looks like some fishy bandwidth limiting going on. —GrumpyoldGeek
2007-09-08 19:27:46 I haven't had any problems with the internet. Maybe one outage in the 6 months or so that I have it. If you're looking for a good source of HD though, I would look elsewhere. I really wish they had more than the 6 or so non-broadcast HD channels that they offer. —BradBenedict
2007-09-12 10:59:28 try going in person to the comcast place in south Davis to resolve whatever problems occur. For the last few years that I have had comcast, the phone customer service was atrocious and frustrating. Then we discovered the wonderful people at the Davis comcast and all the problems in service that occurred (and there have been a lot!) have been resolved quickly, and usually with a nice deal thrown in. DO NOT call customer service, go talk to the people at the office instead. —JillBenciWoodward
2007-09-28 16:29:07 I have to say that I'm impressed with the service at their office. Their central phone system sucks and you pretty much need an in-area phone number to get through the first time. If you have a cell phone number from your home area (510, here), you end up calling their central number, are given another phone number, and once you call the phone number, you're transfered to someone else. Frustrating! I went into the office today to get my digital receiver replaced because it'd gone bad while I was on vacation. They gladly replaced it and helped me add another box onto the account. If you're one of the older members that is paying $100/mo for Cable+Internet, inquire about the triple play and you get the phone service added for the same price (and you can try to get them to waive the $25 install fee).
No lines, either. —AndrewLeonard
2007-10-19 02:06:55 A live comment on an experience with Comcast. I am having intermittent and frequent network and phone connectivity loss through my cable modem / phone device. Being an extremely busy student, I'm extremely limited in when I can be home. Comcast believes that the problem is with the combination cable modem/phone device that I rent from them. However, they absolutely refuse to send me a new device to swap in to see if that might be the problem (I even offered to pick one up at the local Comcast office). Getting this - or any - problem diagnosed requires them to send a technician, which requires scheduling a 4 hour window, and having to stay home during that time. It doesn't matter if the problem could be solved by the customer faster, or if the customer can not be home for an appointment for quite some time. Comcast simply doesn't care. I've never seen service this bad from any company, and the only reason that I've stayed with them is that there are no other providers of internet service at my complex. If you have a choice, be warned, and consider choosing something else. —IDoNotExist
2007-10-19 19:52:03 high latency. NOT RELIABLE! sucks when you're finishing some last minute stuff. —KaiWan
2007-11-01 19:26:08 There is a great trick to free upgrades with Comcast: being a student in Davis. I had written above long ago about threatening to cancel, and they refresh promotions. When my girlfriend and I left Davis, she got a job in Midtown Sacramento and moved there. Comcast is incredible for their promotions, period. The problem is they vary regionally, but there's an easy trick to getting the MOST out of your money. If you're a Davis student, and moving often and have roommates, and you're not doing this, you are wrong. It's simple, all you need to do is: call multiple times, and bluff. When my girlfriend was moving to Midtown, I called Comcast three times. We had tv and broadband in our apartment, and it was under her name. Typically broadband internet and the normal tv ~70ish channels runs for about $100 a month with taxes and fees. I called three times. The basic idea was we live with roommates as students, soon we're on our own.
First call: Connected to the 'new customer' guys. Scenario: We're used to Comcast and want it. We're moving soon. Plan not under our name / not current customer. Offer 1: $75 install fee. $66 a month for 3 months for cable/internet.
Second call: Connected to the 'transfer service / downgrade' guys. Scenario: We just graduated from University, and can't afford the plan we have. Moving soon and we'd like to downgrade. Offer 2: Transfer cost = installation cost, he said put it under my name instead of hers to pay a $50 install, $66 a month for 6 months for digitial cable starter and internet.
Third call: Connected to the "cancel service" guys. Scenario 3: We're moving, it's under our name, we just can't afford it. We'd like to cancel. Offer 3: Free transfer. $55.99 a month for 6 months for digital cable starter and internet. And Free HBO for 6 months. (All 5 or 6 HBO channels plus the HBO on demand).
Yeah. The trick is simply call and ask. Notice which lines I connected to on the phone menu. The more you bluff, the better they offer. I ended up doing the same thing for my dad, in the East Bay area. They weren't offering HBO, I even asked, but they actually lowered the tv price for 6 months and the internet price for 12 months.
It's funny, isn't it? The loyal customer who pays the monthly bill gets the least out of it. Threaten to throw a tantrum, threaten to downgrade or cancel to save money (I didn't even lie - I could have said thinking about DSL or Satellite tv), and you get rewarded. The best thing about Comcast is that they are month-to-month, no contracts. My girlfriend is now enjoying digital cable, on demand, and a bunch of HBO and HBO on demand channels: for cheaper then normal non-digital expanded basic! Right before the six month mark is up, we'll call and cancel those features. Yay!
2007-11-02 08:32:44 We just upgraded to "big cable", as I call it, and its probably going to be my downfall- I've become a TV feind...its so cool to have on demand. The deal we got was 12 months standard digital cable for 39.99/month with 6 months HBO and other movie channels. The guy who came to set it up was extremely friendly and fast! With in minutes he had set everything up, programmed our TV to the box and gave us a quick review of the remote's features...By the way, he said that starting next year all cable customers including those with basic will have to have a box so that Comcast can cut down oon people stealing cable. —MyaBrn
2007-11-20 15:25:11 My roommate and I both called Comcast to inquire about how much local channels-only cable plus internet would cost. Same quote both times: $13.somethin a month with a $26 install and 20/mo for internet. So my roommate set up an appt for the install, the guy shows up this morning, and guess how much we're supposed to pay? $137 for cable install ($26), internet install ($50), 1st mo cable + internet ($30 + $20, b/c they misunderstood and thought we wanted basic cable, not super basic (which is not advertised on their website)), plus some other hidden costs! These guys are bullsh**ters. —johnfisher
Not to be a big defender of comcast but you are overreacting quite a bit here. The only mistake they made was the 30 vs. 13 for the package confusion. That $50 dollars is only if you don't do the install yourself, and the install involves plugging in a wire and running a CD on your computer. Not exactly rocket science for someone who knows how to work a wiki Past that those are all the fees you were originally quoted. Take a second to relax and do the math before you get angry.-CraigFergus
2008-04-11 22:00:20 For some reason, my Comcast digital cable service always has these sort of sound spikes at the end of certain commercials, and the sound also seems to skip every so often when I'm watching some of my favorite shows, cutting off a word or two of dialogue. It's incredibly annoying at times. —CecilioPadilla
2008-04-12 11:34:19 We have been having the same problem. I would say on average about every 15 min (or less), we get some kind of "interruption". A sort of break in sound and video. It happens every day, every hour, all channels. —Davidlm
2008-04-12 12:39:31 It sounds like it is the switchover from local ads to the network feed (and/or the other way around). Is there sometimes a half second of another commercial? If so, it isn't Comcast, but some editing tech sitting in a quiet room splicing in commercials... and doing a lousy job. Alas, a mediocre effort is usually seen as being enough to not seek out a better editor, and inexperienced editors often cost less. If there are no snips of excess commercials visible, it might be a good editor on lousy equipment, and if it occurs with the same frequency in the middle of the show's content, it isn't the local feed editor at all. —JabberWokky
2008-05-05 01:35:13 We are thinking of getting Comcast internet after we move in September. We've heard from residents that it has been very flaky in the past, how reliable is it now?
We are also thinking of getting cable, since we currently get by with an antenna. Do those sound spikes still exist? —KellyM
2008-07-31 10:13:52 Ok. So here is my truly horrible experience trying to *cancel* Comcast service (are you listening, Frank Eliason?). I'm writing this as I am attempting to cancel the service for August 30th.
Step 1) Attempt to cancel via Internet. Lots of info on Comcast website about how to get service or pay for more services. 5 minutes of searching required to find the part that says that you must cancel by calling them. *cringe*
Step 2) Call 1-800-Comcast. Go through longish phone menu
Step 3) Tell Comcast rep that I want to cancel service as of the day that I'm moving. She says I can't do that, because they only require 7 days notice, and it's now 30 days in advance. I say that I want to schedule it now, because I may be on an airplane then. I also say that I can take my equipment back myself. She says this is impossible, gets angry, then transfers me to...
Step 4) Transfered to someone who does Internet. She says that I will have to return my phone device separately. I tell her that it's the same device (cable modem and phone in one device.) She transfers me to a phone expert...
Step 5) I tell phone expert that I'm trying to cancel my service. Phone expert takes my address, and transfers me to someone who can supposedly arrange this in...
Step 6) Illinois. She thinks that I live in Davisville. I say that I live in Davis, and there has been no Davisville here for 100 years. She really seems to think that I live in Davisville. Eventually we establish that she is in Illinois, and that I've been transferred to the wrong state. I've now been on the phone with them (mostly on hold) for 21 minutes, and still am no closer to having my service disconnected. 23 minutes, and I am transferred to someone in...
Step 7) Livermore, CA. He says he is in the *sales* department. Still not the right department. But amazingly, he is able to arrange for my service to be terminated (both phone and internet) as of August 30th. He gives me a confirmation number. This is promising. He doesn't understand why the other offices couldn't do this too (neither do I, actually.) He says I will need to bring my equipment to the office in Grass Valley. I don't know where Grass Valley is (Google maps says it is a 125 mile drive!) He says there may be a closer one in Sacramento (this is closer, but do I really want to drive 30-40 minutes each way?!) I suggest that I might be able to take it to the office at 2501 Research Park Drive, as listed on the Davis Wiki. He doesn't seem to be able to find this one. I've now been on the phone for about 33 minutes... He went off to check, and I was transferred to someone in...
Step 8) The Sacramento office! Sacramento office guy confirms that my service will indeed be canceled as of the 30th, and also confirms that the office at 2501 Research Park Drive Davis, CA is the correct office to take my equipment to, and that I don't need to do anything other than return my equipment to that office on that day. Total time: 39 minutes.
So to cancel service just took 2/3 of an hour. I was asked the same questions by each person in each office. I was transferred 7 times. I was told that canceling when I wanted to was impossible, and that it required technicians to come out (not true). I also had to give out part of my social security number several times. Not exactly reassuring. I've had very few customer service interactions as bad as this one, although one of them was trying to get my service with Comcast set up in the first place, and another way trying to get a service interruption fixed - with Comcast of course. If they didn't have a monopoly for Internet service at my current apt, I would have gone with someone - anyone - else who could provide me with fast, reliable service. (I hear AT&T has been adding service in my part of Davis of late...) —IDoNotExist
2008-08-28 18:19:57 I was hesitant about calling to cancel my service after reading the previous comment, so I walked into the Comcast office to cancel instead. I entered at 5:12 PM earlier today, modem in hand, and asked to cancel my service. I was done and out of the office by 5:16. —AnnaWang
2008-08-29 08:31:04 Technically, Comcast is a giant improvement over the last company that had the franchise. Sales and marketingwise, Comcast is a nightmare. I went to comcast.com to see about upgrading to HDTV. I got hung in an endless loop between entering my home address and and trying to go to the page where I select a package. How in the hell can they sell anything when a legitimate customer can't find the prices. Another thing that totally rankles me is the slick 4-color flyers they mail out advertising deals with only pricing for "the first three months". I've lived here 11 years. I absolutly need to know the long-term pricing if something is going to cost $20 or $30 or $40 per month. —JimStewart
2008-08-29 12:49:12 I just disconnected my service with Comcast over the phone. Took me 4 minutes and 42 seconds. Very painless. Told me I could take my equipment back to either Sacramento or Davis, whichever was closer. Very easy. —RobertM525
2008-09-01 20:53:07 Returning my equipment to Comcast was better than the phone or installation experiences. I had to wait in the parking lot for a bit because they have way too few spaces there. Once inside, I stood in line for about 10 minutes. They had three people taking equipment returns, but one of them appeared to be on a break, and only two people were being serviced at a time. The person who took my equipment seemed very stressed, and not terribly happy with what she was doing - a problem most likely exacerbated by the huge number of people returning their equipment that day (the day before moving day in Davis). Not the most friendly customer service, but I did leave with my pro-rated bill payed and a receipt for my equipment. They make a big thing out of how expensive this equipment is (I doubt it is really so expensive - you can get much more sophisticated networking gear for not very much money at many stores.) But the equipment was just tossed into a box below the counter. I wonder if they reuse any of it at all. —IDoNotExist
2008-09-01 21:04:31 Unrelated to my poor customer experience issues with them, the new 250 GB per month bandwidth cap is a VERY bad thing for internet users. But, you say, you only use the internet to check your e-mail and surf the web. But the bandwidth consumed by new services will quickly eat up your bandwidth cap. Consider the following uses of the Internet that you may find that you want to use in the future:
1) Streaming audio (pandora, Internet radio, etc.) 2) Streaming video (very bandwidth intensive) 3) Downloading video (non-streaming) - this is the future of TV and movie distribution, whether Comcast likes it or not.) 4) Obtaining new software. Software is now distributed largely or entirely online. One program may run into the hundreds of megabytes or even into the gigabyte range. 5) Patching old software. Updates for Windows, OS X, Linux, or many programs can run into the hundreds of megabytes in some cases. 6) Phone (Voice over IP) - Skype, AIM, etc, especially with video. You can now send two-way, high quality video to people around the planet. This uses quite a bit of bandwidth. 7) Backing up data between machines - want to make sure that your data is kept safe in two separate locations (for example, to protect it from having your computer stolen, damaged, or from a hardware failure)? You may be transmitting multiple gigabytes every time you back up. 8) Web based applications - Many companies, such as Google and Microsoft, are now offering applications that run entirely over the Internet. Although currently primitive, this may be the future of many types of applications. 9) That application of the net that no one has thought of yet. Years ago, it was rare for anyone to send or receive more than a few MB of data per month over the Internet. Now, applications that consume that in seconds are the norm. This trend will almost certainly continue for the foreseeable future.
The bandwidth cap will inhibit the growth of new applications, and will help to protect Comcast's video distribution monopoly in many markets.
Even if you don't come close to Comcast's data limit now (and I'm among those who don't, at present), consider that within a few years, it is likely that you will. If you have a choice, vote with your dollars, and chose a provider other than Comcast. —IDoNotExist looks like a step towards violating net neutrality on comcasts part, didn't see that coming. —StevenDaubert
2008-09-10 07:07:48 It's a money grab. They have a monopoly or near monopoly in many markets. This is a clear reflection of the lack of competition that was created when Congress got rid of mandatory 3rd party access to ISP networks. —IDoNotExist
2008-09-10 10:17:10 I like Comcast's service more than DSL, but the whole data-cap thing is likely to convince me not to go with Comcast anyway. I almost certainly won't go over it, but there are four people in my apt. using the same connection, and I don't want to have that bandwidth cap hanging over my head. —JoePomidor
2008-09-10 14:55:53 I have Comcast and have never experienced this "data cap." My household consists of 5+ people with 9+ computers so I'm not sure what we're doing right to never have an issue with them... —SunjeetBaadkar
2008-09-10 15:59:50 The cap was only announced a week or two ago. If they are planning to disconnect people based on how much they download in a month, either you don't download enough to matter, or you haven't been doing it in the period they are measuring. —IDoNotExist
2008-09-10 22:00:51 I use the internet about 12 hours a day (I work from home). I also stream tons of video and audio (I don't have cable). So far, it looks like I'm averaging 2 gigs a day (upload and download). In order to get to the 250GB cap, I'd have to average 8.3GB a day, about 4 times my average. No doubt I will reach that in a few years, but by then won't they have increased their limit? Anyway, AT&T's lines are crap in my neighborhood and I get extreme slowdowns randomly when streaming video or playing games, so it's not much better. Eventual cap, or terrible stream quality? Eventual cap wins until I hit the cap. —KellyM
2008-09-11 07:32:21 AppleTV was mentioned, also Amazon and TiVo do the same thing, as does NetFlix to either computers or their settop boxes. This is an interesting move, and possible because of all the video rolling out. After all, Comcast is in competition with them. —JabberWokky
2008-09-11 10:42:59 My guess is that the cap will go DOWN, not up. It works like this. Comcast builds a network, with the assumption that people will use it primarily for web browsing and e-mail (low bandwidth applications). Comcast guesses very wrong, but doesn't want to spend money to upgrade its networks to carry more data. (In fact, many cable companies have put in fiber to the home, but prefer to dedicate the bandwidth to pay per view movies, which are more profitable.) Comcast also wants to increase its profits. Most users use much less bandwidth than what they are paying for, so they are very profitable, and they allow Comcast to build much less capacity than if users actually used what they paid for. 2-5% of users actually USE what they pay for. These are the people who are technically savvy, and who want to use their connections for video, audio, voice over IP, backup, data sharing, and many other applications. They are the people who drive the technology industry. They are also not very profitable, because they use more capacity than Comcast predicted that they would. So 98% use less, and 2% use more. Comcast looks at this and decides that if they can get rid of that 2%, they will be much more profitable, and will not have to build additional capacity for a long time. In other words, Comcast wants to cherry pick only the users who are profitable, and get rid of the other ones. That's what the cap is about (that, and preventing competition with cable TV.)
Some of you may argue that this is a free market, and that in a free market, a company can choose which customers it wants to sell to, and at what price. Unfortunately, Internet service is NOT a free market. In much of the country, there is exactly one provider (Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, etc.). That's a monopoly, not a free market. In other parts of the country, there are two providers - again, hardly a free market. Even in some of the most heavily wired areas of the country, with high population densities and high incomes (ie. lots of people to buy the service), there are typically still only one or two providers. Customers are left with the choice of either 1) Accept the cap or 2) Go without service. Since the 2% can't go without service, they lose their ability to use the Internet for what they are paying Comcast for.
What Comcast will probably do is keep this cap for a while, and get rid of the least profitable customers. When they are gone, the rest of you won't have noticed (not having hit the cap). They will then lower the cap and raise prices for anyone who wants to use more service. You are seeing the beginning of major price increases in exchange for major decreases in service. If you don't believe me, check out the pricing of ISPs around the world, such as Rogers Internet in Canada, which has a cap in the 1-2 GB range. (I'd have used that whole cap this morning just downloading a free TV show from iTunes yesterday!)
If you still don't believe me, look at the cell phone industry. You don't pay for what you use. You pay for a cap. If you go over the cap, you pay a lot more. But you can't pay for using less, because you have to guess in advance what you will use. This is what happens when one company controls access to the network.
Meanwhile, the ISPs are also trying to charge content providers to deliver data to you at reasonable speeds. Comcast and others would like to charge Google to deliver data to you. What is now a free service will turn into a pay service where you get data from providers of Comcast's choice. But, you say, I already pay to receive data! And Google already pays its own ISPs to send you data! But Comcast would like to have it both ways, and charge the sender AND recipient of the data. Neat, huh? Now watch what happens when every ISP tries this. All of the small Internet startups that provide new and innovative services will fail, because they won't be able to afford to send data to all of their customers. The survivors will be big, will merge, and won't offer much if any innovative products. If you don't believe me, look at what happened when Congress got rid of the law that required cable and phone companies to provide access to third party ISPs. Those ISPs disappeared practically overnight, leaving us with...Comcast!
When you hear people discussing Net Neutrality, this is what they are really discussing. This is a fight for who controls your data and who you will be forced to pay your money to. It's a fight for openness and innovation on the Internet versus control by a small number of very large companies that show very little interest in innovating, and that pander to the lowest common denominator. Ultimately, it's even a fight about the control of your personal information, and your ability to access services that are essential to functioning in an information economy.
Now is the time to write to your representatives in Congress, before it is too late. —IDoNotExist I would concur wholeheartedly with the previous statement, even if it's a bit tl:drDaubert
2008-09-13 16:01:37 I've had some trouble with Comcast's cable and internet services (billing me for a package that I did not order). Calling Customer Service ended up getting me redirected to the Sacramento office, where a less than helpful representative told me that the service I had bought did not exist and that the one they gave me was cheaper anyway. After going over my bill with her and explaining that I was getting less service for more money than the plan I originally ordered, she told me that she could give me the service I wanted, but that it would cost almost double what was advertised. After giving up with this, I called a local representative (apparently their Customer Service didn't know about the Davis office) who fixed the bill and my service in about five minutes. The moral: make sure you know a local agents number, anyone else will be useless. —CameronTracy
2008-09-15 20:08:52 Extremely bitchy and useless service at the Davis service center. If there's ever an extra charge on your bill or a problem with the bill, they never know what any of it means, and they are never able to fix it. I don't think they get any job training whatsoever and that they have that building there to give the illusion that they have a "customer service center". When you have an incorrect bill, which can be often, and you ask why it's too high, they basically say, "I don't know, pay us or we shut off the cable tomorrow". No joke. Plus, the field "technicians" are completely incompetent. In 6 months they have disconnected our cable 3 times when they were supposed to disconnect other people's cable that live near us. Then, we call them to get it hooked back up, and it takes them several days to come back to reconnect it. So for about half the year, we pay them for 30 days of service, but get about 24 days of service. Yah, and they don't give us any refunds or credits. They generally laugh and don't care. So, Davisites and new folks to the area, if you have ANY option other than comcast, I highly suggest you use that service instead. You will be very pleased you did. —D.J.Wills
2008-09-16 22:45:13 Unfortunately, we live in an area where the nearest DSL CO is too far for even 1mbs service. Since I work from home and share a connection with my girlfriend, 758kbps is completely unacceptable. ATT gave me a 3-6mbps service (somehow, sonic.net said that's impossible), but surprise, it very frequently browns out when there is a lot of activity. I'm suspecting we are too far from the CO for a reliable connection, even though when it's stable we get 2.6mbps.
Looks like Comcast is the only alternative. —KellyM
2008-10-03 13:01:19 We've had comcast for two years, and both years they have thoroughly screwed us. We just moved to a new house in september and transferred our service, but they charged me for service for both my old and new addresses. Plus, they shut off our cable and internet for about 2 weeks even though that time period had already been paid for...You know how they have all those funny commercials all the time? Well I've figured out that they must take all the money away from customer service in order to entice new people with these commercials...Or it's some kind of social experiment to find out how much crap the consumers will really take before changing service. I'm definately changing it next time I move. —buss013
2008-10-03 13:30:27 My VPN link to my office stopped working a few days ago and won't come back up. Looks like Comcast is blocking packets. Anyone else have this problem? —JimStewart
2008-10-03 13:44:42 If only there could be multiple cable providers in an area!! I had Comcast in Davis (high speed internet + tv) for 5 years. My service was always fine, and I appreciated how fast the internet was. I just took the high price and delt with it, that is, until I moved to Woodland. I now have Wave instead of Comcast as my cable provider in Woodland, and even though my 1-yr promotional price just ran out, I still get a lot more for the money. With Comcast I used to pay $120 for old school analog cable (I had to ask special for it) and high speed internet. Now I pay $160 a month for nearly the best package of digital cable (all the movie channels), DVR, and high speed internet...and before the promotion ended I paid $117 for that for a full year. Comcast is way over priced and they just do it because they can. —AmLin
2008-12-09 20:27:29 I live in University Village apartments where many other people live. Connection speeds are great before school starts but after that its 1mb/s when I pay for 6mb/s+. Downstream
Freq/Power: 555.000 MHz 3 dBmV
Signal to Noise Ratio: 36 dB
Modulation: QAM256
Upstream
Freq/Power: 33.000 MHz 49 dBmV
Channel Type: Mixed (TDMA and ATDMA)
Symbol Rate: 2560 kSym/sec
Modulation: QAM64
Status
System Uptime: 0 days 1h:51m:39s Computers Detected: 1 CM Status: Docsis-AC Power Iso OFF Data Reg Complete Time and Date: TUE DEC 09 20:12:48 2008
Interface Parameters
Interface Name Provisioned State Speed MAC address LAN Enabled UP 100 00-00-00-00-00-00 CABLE Enabled UP —- 00-00-00-00-00-00 MTA failConfigFileError DOWN —- 00-00-00-00-00-00
Everything on comcast is great from past experience if you can get past the basic customer service. Right now, at the moment I am trying to organize people who live in the University Village Apartments for an increase of bandwidth. This is possible if I have a minimum of 10 people to call customer service and ask comcast to add a ticket to the area where poor bandwidth is happening. I love to play games on the time I have off and I surf and download. I check speeds and connections all the time. I pay for 6mb/s + powerboost and I expect to get what I pay for! If anyone out there in the UV Apartments are having trouble please call Comcast! —all4x
2008-12-11 19:08:57 I hate comcast. We called on September 1st to get our internet/cable up. We knew it would be a while since everyone was moving. We didn't get our internet until about 4 days ago, the cable 6 days ago. They sent a person every two weeks that seemed to do nothing except look around our house for about 10 minutes each. At one point one of the people they sent left his tools behind after being around for 5-10 minutes. Two weeks later they sent someone to pick up the tools and the guy just left. It was another three weeks before we heard back from someone saying that they wanted to drill into our driveway and tear through our front lawn in order to lay down cable. Then another couple of weeks later, they did more construction on the side of the house at 9am (guess I wasn't meant to sleep in that morning). Finally, just last week, we got our internet and cable. The funny thing was the day after they got it up and running, we already received the bill. Its too bad the service department wasn't as fast as the billing department. —SunjeetBaadkar
2009-03-09 11:22:49 I have been experiencing very slow speeds lately and talking to other users across town it seems like everybody is. I talked to somebody at Comcast who talked like they won't even attempt to fix it unless they get a lot of complaints. He actually told me that I should get neighbors to contact Comcast so they know it's not just me. So, if you're having problems with speed, please call them and let them know :) —BradBenedict
2009-04-04 00:37:58 To get a good sense of just how overpriced Comcast's service is, here is an article on how much cheaper and faster network access is in other countries: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/the-cost-to-offer-the-worlds-fastest-broadband-20-per-home/ —IDoNotExist
- That's kind of misleading, compared to their competitors, they are less expensive (DSL vs Cable in the US). The US is just overpriced. —KellyM
- Comcast is overpriced, compare them to AT&T's U-verse for instance. That, and their service is horrible.
2009-04-04 18:37:07 That depends on where you live. If you are in parts of the country with good DSL (or better yet, FIOS), it is much cheaper. Even in places that have both DSL and cable, it can be very expensive for anything but the most basic service, and performance does not compare to what is available in many other countries. In much of the country, Comcast or a DSL provider has a monopoly. Even DirecTV has lower prices where there are competing services available in an area or not for *exactly the same signal*. —IDoNotExist
2009-04-04 18:45:22 Called today and selected option to cancel service. Friendly operator asked why. I responded that $59/month was too much for me and I was thinking about AT&T or Verizon Wireless. She offered to switch me to budget service with dial-up speeds at $40/month. I declined. Then she offered to give me the Performance (6mbps) service for $35/month for one year. I accepted. —RyanSpring
2009-04-04 20:11:59 I wonder if you would have gotten 100 Mb/s for $20 if you had declined that. :-) —IDoNotExist
2009-04-04 20:37:16 I have 16mbps with Blast (speed boost) + modem rental for 43.98 a month. In Davis, on Anderson Road about a mile from campus, it costs about $17 for 768kbps DSL (the maximum I qualify for). FIOS will probably never get installed in Davis, at least while I'm living here. So, 16mbps for 43.98 a month, or 768kbps for 17 a month... not a hard choice. I've tried both Sonic.net and ATT DSL before resorting to Comcast, but I've been much happier with them. —KellyM
"2009-05-09 15:30:23" Was thinking about switching to Comcast for the next year I'll be living in the same apartment in South Davis (Valdora area). Is this a good idea at all? My ATT is 2.5mbps, it runs very strong and rarely if ever disconnects. But Comcast's 16mbps package is just too tempting. Anyone in this area have any trouble or problems whatsoever with pingtimes and speed? Can any of you tracert google.com or something please? Thanks in advance. —InAmberClad
2009-05-12 16:14:19 I live in west Davis and in the past three weeks there have quite a few disconnections. Comcast confirmed that other people in the area have been having problems. Anybody else experience that ? —libero
2009-05-12 16:27:47 As a matter of fact, yes. I stopped using comcast due to the frequent down time. There was some kind of problem with the lines in my apartment complex, which it took them over a month to recognize. They even tried to send out a tech and bill us for it! —MasonMurray
2009-08-23 00:11:28 The first two paragraphs on this site were typed out by a douchebag. I suppose it is easiest to blame your ISP for problems you have, but subscribing to an alternative service because a problem now and again is very dumb. Especially when following the "other options" link I see Instaconnect on the list. Instaconnect is a horrible ISP, any businesses or apartments using it are horrible as well. —VMCrymore
This problem was not now and again, they gave it permanently to all customers until they ask for it to change. I have to admit it could have been worse, like VeriSign doing this to people they have no direct relationship to, and the way to disable it should work relatively ok, but its still really bad. The fact that they made it relatively easy and reliable to disable it, even though they give it to everybody by default, means they know how bad it is and hope most people won't notice or care. They have no shame and are getting away with this because lots of people either don't know better or recommend services like OpenDNS that are just as bad. —NickSchmalenberger
2009-09-20 00:36:54 This place sucks, I have filed two BBB complaints against them and each time BBB found I was in the right. Their service sucks, their repairmen dont know WTF they are doing and their prices are awful! —Dozer
2009-09-20 11:09:43 Ugh! Comcast has gone out in my area over 6 times in the past 2 weeks. Each time it comes back on after a few minutes - but requires resetting the modem and usually restarting computers. I need reliability...I am in North Davis pretty close to Covell and am seriously considering AT&T DSL. Anyone recommend one over the other? Don't want to jump from frying pan to fire... —JulieVanderzeeuw
2009-10-06 00:09:49 I had AT&T DSL and now I have Comcast (at a different residence). With both I have had to re-start my connection on an occasional basis. I'm inclined to say that AT&T gave me fewer problems, but that is probably just because I am dealing with the Comcast problems right now. —sweetMeliss
2009-10-13 11:11:00 My internet just went down during this storm... anyone else?
BTW, an update on pricing. My promotional pricing ran out so I contacted Comcast via online chat and asked why I was paying 60 for 12mbps when they have a promotion for 30 dollars on their site (6 months). The customer rep said hold on, then got me a promotional price of 30 for 16/1.5 for a year. Ask and you shall receive. And if you don't receive, hang up and try again until a CSR gives in
EDIT: Internet is backup. Downtime about 20 min. —KellyM
- Back in San Jose with AT&T they would automatically do this for you (renewing members get all the new member deals) but from what I have heard of Comcast, you have to call them or something. My Comcast internet connection seems to always go down when it gets a little windy so it definitely went out for a while. —hankim
- The difference between AT&T and Comcast promo rates, is that Comcast rates are actually a ton cheaper and way better value than AT&T promo rates. Yeah, Comcast bandwidth fluctuates (although not that much in Davis/my neighborhood) and is down more often (1%?), but I'll GLADLY deal with that than get a 768kbps downstream from ATT for the half price of 16mbps at Comcast. —KellyM
