iflyrc0
join:2006-02-20
Springfield, IL
 ·Xanadoo
 ·Insight Communicat..
| Disconnect Notice
Wanted to stop buy and say goodbye - I'll be on one of the satellite forums from now on.
I received a Disconnect Notice from Comcast today. I owe them $10.96 by October 10 and I am done with them. I guess it is better then an email or instant message breakup.
I do not understand why the CSR I talked to this morning nor the tech that came by about 9 am to replace my DVR did not tell me I was disconnected. I'm an old man that can barely walk and even more barely see.
All I asked for was a DVR that worked and to fix the billing mistake that a blind person (pun intended - I am almost completely blind) could see was someone playing with my account.
I was nice and never lost my temper even after waiting almost an hour on hold and being disconnected (I believe hung up on) while trying to get my problems fixed.
So goodbye forum guys - I think it has been at least 2 years. It has been entertaining and very informative.
For the complete story and Open Email Goodbye to Comcast see:
»adventinlife.blogspot.com/ |
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Greg_Z
Premium
join:2001-08-08
Springfield, IL | So again, what was your complaint about service? I am hoping that you forewarned the Satellite companies about your expectations of service. |
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rody_44
Premium
join:2004-02-20
Quakertown, PA
·Comcast
edit:
September 16th, @04:23PM
| reply to iflyrc0
for the record your aug 3 bill isnt for julys service. all cable companies bill in advance so your aug 3 bill would be for that months service into september. if its 10.96 or one thousand dollars the computer treats it the same. when a tech comes by for a service call he doesnt know or care that your scheduled for disconnection 3 weeks from now. thats all handled by a computer. |
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iflyrc0
join:2006-02-20
Springfield, IL
·Xanadoo
·Insight Communicat..
| reply to Greg_Z
My complaint was incorrect billing and a DVR with Hi-Def that worked. Fairly simple. I'm used to the Comcast Internet being slow and getting lost. That's why I have a Xanadoo 256K modem sitting next to the cable modem - takes 2 seconds to change it. I honestly can not tell what service I am on unless I go to a site with many pictures or video.
I have been a customer of both DirecTV and DISH since around 2001 or 2002 - even had a PC Direct dish hanging off my barn but then they stuck something up on the grain elevator and up on my old TV tower next to my sat dish and I no longer needed a land line at the farm.
Don't have Internet at the cabin and don't want it but DISH works great - even get St. Louis network channels - much better then the local stuff here.
No big complaints with either one. Direct TV did have a dual tuner DVR fail within two weeks but it has been rock steady ever since.
Both dishes can lose signal during really bad storms but I usually have everything unplugged so how would I know I've lost signal?
Perfectly happy with satellite. It does what it says.
I was also happy with Insight - had the same DVR for almost two years with little or no problems - just could not hold two HiDef NASCAR races at the same time. The latest DVRs they gave me were so slow to respond to commands AND failed so fast - 4 or 5 in six months - three different replacements in one week. I usually had to remove power two or three times a week because of lockups. And wait for 12+ hours to get a guide back.
Not acceptable - I had Cable TV primarily to watch/listen to the Cubs and NASCAR - three or four times I had to disconnect the DVR and run the cable direct to my TV to watch the CUBS.
When they sent updates or reset codes I could not watch TV until the update was done - did not happen that often - but would not have a complete guide for 12+ hours. I had to use the Internet to figure out what was on if it was working. And how many times did a EAS test alert interrupt my recordings or a show I was a half hour behind in real time?
Many lost hours waiting for a tech, for someone to answer the phone, for my service to start working again, for a website to load, for the guide to reload.
Expectations too high? Sorry I disagree and I'm mostly blind - can't really tell you if the picture was any good but I did have visitors comment on the lack of sharpness and stretched bodies and heads on the latest HD channels they added.
If no one else in Comcastic land has experienced this then it has to be my fault but I am sure not going to pay for the experience. |
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iflyrc0
join:2006-02-20
Springfield, IL
·Xanadoo
·Insight Communicat..
| reply to rody_44
You are correct but it would show any changes in service that occurred in July and should have pro-rated or partially credited any services added or discontinued.
The best I can tell they charged me for two different packages for Jul - Aug and one additional tier for Aug - Sep and charged me twice at full price for Internet Service and charged me a bundle fee instead of a bundle credit - someone was playing trying to get something to work or just decided to screw with my account.
They did get my payments correct but that does not surprise me. |
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Greg_Z
Premium
join:2001-08-08
Springfield, IL
·Comcast
 ·Vonage
·Insight Communicat..
edit:
September 16th, @07:50PM
| reply to iflyrc0
Their billing is a month in advance, and you had how many months since the change (8 to be exact) to contact Comcast to inquire, along with you had the chance to update your box prior to Insight no longer having the Springfield market. The same happened with before Insight with Cox & TCI, so consumer not knowing is not the complaint.
I am sure that if you had contacted them, along with looking at the mailers, you would have had a better understanding of your billing that they where charging you for, which from the last post was antiquated service that you choose to keep.
And I forgot to add, you DO know that Xanadoo is limited range here in Springfield, along with a 10Gb per month cap. |
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rob316
join:2005-10-17
Carteret, NJ
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to iflyrc0
Please everyone stop defending Comcast and drinking the Kool-Aid, Comcast sucks plain and simple. I let them know of my displeasure with their crappy service by cancelling all my services with them and going to Verizon Bundle with DTV. I spoke with my wallet. |
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Greg_Z
Premium
join:2001-08-08
Springfield, IL
·Comcast
·Vonage
·Insight Communicat..
| I am not defending them, and never have. Point is, the OP should of paid attention to the notices that the rest of us got along with themselves here in Lincoln Land. It took me 4 phone calls to get my billing correct, and I am still looking forward to having to deal with it in two months when the credits wash in Nov. |
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rob316
join:2005-10-17
Carteret, NJ
·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to iflyrc0
It's funny how after I cancelled my service I get at least 3 flyers a week from Comcast offering me these great deals like premier package with free HD-DVR for 129.00 a month for a year. The HD-DVR is free for a year and also 20 dollars a month off for 6 months. Where were these deals when I called them before I cancelled my service asking for a way to lower my bill. |
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rody_44
Premium
join:2004-02-20
Quakertown, PA | they were there. i guess comcast didnt want to offer it to you at the time. around here as long as you pay your bill when due they just pop you onto anothr promo. |
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rob316
join:2005-10-17
Carteret, NJ | I paid my bill every month on time and was a very good customer with them for almost 8 years. Oh well their loss I guess, as I am enjoying DTV with over 100 HD channels compared to a paltry 25 from Comcast I used to get. |
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tacitus
join:2005-08-23
Ellicott City, MD
| said by rob316  :I paid my bill every month on time and was a very good customer with them for almost 8 years. Oh well their loss I guess, as I am enjoying DTV with over 100 HD channels compared to a paltry 25 from Comcast I used to get. I hear you ... occassionally I have gotten OK deals from comcast but generally they are too busy trying to shove triple play down my throat and sending me about 2 flyers + 1 phone call every month about it. I have been a customer for aboutt 25 years, but I am not sure when it became comcast and the screwage began. |
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iflyrc0
join:2006-02-20
Springfield, IL
·Xanadoo
·Insight Communicat..
| reply to Greg_Z
Yes sir,
Xanadoo is limited - about a mile or mile and a half from the towers. All four places I use it in Spfld are within that limit. I have yet to even come close to 10GB a month - in fact, most days they don't even bother to show what I use. When I first got Xanadoo they had 256K capped at 2 GB so 10 GB is an improvement.
While talking to a service tech when I was connecting the Xanadoo, I asked how much it would cost just to try 1.5/384 - I had it for a day (more like a week) and ran loading tests against Comcastic - if I had not promised a local Comcastic supervisor I would give them six months to get things working right I would have canceled that day. That was in April.
I have yet to try it but a tech said my portable or any computer hooked up to my Xanadoo modem will work in ANY town that has the service. Granted it is limited but I visit Chatham and Decatur every so often - the next time I will try it.
I have hooked it up to several computers at friends and it worked without even rebooting the system.
Can't do that with the Comcastic Modem. |
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iflyrc0
join:2006-02-20
Springfield, IL
·Xanadoo
·Insight Communicat..
| reply to Greg_Z
And to clarify - in February when Comcast took over the Internet my service went to hell. The tech told me I was losing 95% of my packets. They spent three weeks trying to fix it. The night of partial success there were four technicians here. They tried four different modems before they got one to work (but it failed the next morning) the same day an idiot at corporate canceled my account and moved it to a new account number without letting anyone at the local level know. No service for about two weeks.
While they were waiting on the phone for the CSR to get the modem registered, my DVR failed, it was almost three years old, we were all watching the news when it quit. They gave me a brand new model that had just come in. This was in early April I think.
In the meantime, Comcast could not find me in their billing system when I called to pay my bill. It was June 3 before I got a paper bill from Comcast and was finally able to get an online account and the bookkeeper was able to pay online.
It was the Jul 3 bill that they finally got my address partially right. (As an aside - does everyone know that if you use a live person to pay your bill on the phone it costs $3.99).
An executive from Comcast finally found that my account was under a phone number I had never had, my address had somehow been changed (the transfer program did not like the 1/2 in my address) and when Insight or one of the companies from long ago had entered my SS#, they had made a mistake. And somehow my nickname had been added as my last name. Simple little mistakes by improperly trained people.
And to Cap it off, when the corporate person entered my account number into my new records, the wrong number was entered. I was lost again.
I got a very generous refund and credit for all the problems. In May I called because ESPN2HD was not working. The nice CSR told me I needed to get the Digital Starter Service - I said no I did not want to change my bill because I would lose my 'old' packages.
She promised that was BS and she added Digital Starter Pack, reduced my DVR rental charge and I kept my $5 movie pack - she lowered my bill by $1 a month. And my Internet was at still at $20 with all the discounts.
June 03 bill was perfect. July 03 bill was perfect. July 8 a tech gave me a second or third replacement DVR. The other was dead when I woke up one morning.
He was checking all my channels because during his previous service call some of the upper HD channels were not working. He told me I was missing some HD channels - he checked his work order, checked my Jul 3 bill, then checked the April 30 Channel Lineup and called a CSR to check on things. This was after he waited almost an hour for a CSR to answer and enter the new serial number of my new box.
After another hour or more of waiting he told me he would come back in the morning after fixing things at the office. It took four days to get my DVR working properly with my movies after I called complaining to a supervisor that I wanted my movie package back for $5. She sent a tech with another DVR the next morning and everything seemed to be fine.
I did not get an Aug 3 bill - my Sep 3 bill showed a ridiculous past due amount. I got that bill the morning my third or fourth or fifth, according to the tech that was here yesterday, DVR failed.
On that date, Sep 10, the very nice CSR saw what was wrong with my account and supposedly fixed it. I never got a chance to check because my DVR was dead.
I have 6 double length pink service call tickets starting on Mar 6, 2008 - five of them show my previous box number and a hand written or applied sticker showing the new numbers. In every case they also measured and noted my signal levels. The last double pink ticket was dated yesterday and indicated that the customer returned the DVR and remote.
I have a white Insight service ticket from 2005 when they installed a replacement DVR and gave me a new DOSCIS modem to replace the one I bought in 2003 which was the first service ticket in the file.
The only other ticket I have from Insight was the day my grandkids and their parents moved to their new house. I returned all the extra digital and dvr boxes we had to the Dirksen Drive office - six of them and I screwed up and missed a remote. The nice girl tried to charge me $10 for it. I went back home and found the damn thing and wanted to shove it but I handed it to her AFTER removing the batteries. I have principles.
I still had a $10 charge on my next bill. I never did bitch or get it fixed. And now my final bill is $10. I figure we are even. |
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sedu
join:2002-01-10
Freeland, MD | reply to iflyrc0
I just want to know why someone who is almost blind has HDTV. |
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iflyrc0
join:2006-02-20
Springfield, IL
·Xanadoo
·Insight Communicat..
| My kids and grand-kids like to visit. - I've only lost my sight in the last two years - most lost occurred in the last five months. Some days I can sit about two feet in front of my 36 inch TV and can see some detail - others days I can not even find the TV.
For the most part I just listen - my son programmed the series recordings for me. One of those things I really didn't need but was nice to have.
Plus cable has provided me with Internet since 2003. No reason to change until this year. A U of I student/neighbor took me on as a project to provide me with magnifiers and screen readers. Without her help and research I would not even be able to 'listen' while I type this message. |
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