Finally Had Enough of Comcast

[Buckeyephan]

When I tried to continue a recorded program that I began last night, I found it and most of the programs I have recorded over the years had disappeared overnight. Tried to have technical services help but they said the programs had disappeared from the cloud. My DVR only has 19% being used. Her suggestion was to either buy the movies or record them again. Not possible since many were from commercial channels or not available any more. So, tomorrow I plan to bid Comcast adieu. We could return to Direct Tv but we also need internet and a landline. How is Spectrum? We are not interested in “cutting the cord” or some of the other methods some people choose to use. My sister did that and by the time she subscribed to the streaming services, it costs her more than before and she has less. I think Spectrum and Direct Tv are the only options for where we live. Looking for feedback from people who use either of those. Thanks.

[Mrprez]

I haven’t tried it yet but some people are having luck with T-Mobile 5G internet. You could then use something like Hulu + Live for your tv channels.

I have Spectrum internet and it seems to work fine down here in DeSoto. I don’t use their tv package though, too expensive and I don’t care to watch live tv/commercials.

[JGVillages]

I use Comcast for internet only. Negotiated yearly, for 12+ years, and currently paying $40/mo ($50 less $10 for auto pay). Speed at 117 Mbps. I’ve been with DirecTv for the same time, and also annually with threatening to change, I am able to negotiate a reasonable price. Your “landline” with Comcast is internet based so it’s basically a cellular phone restricted to your house. If you feel you must have the home line there are numerous VoIP providers that offer that service only for the same or less that Comcast charges in it’s Bundle.

[logdog]

I also use Comcast for internet only - $30 per month. Tried YouTubeTV for the unlimited DVR but when the price went to $65 per month, I switched to Comcast TV. Thought I could save by bundling. After less than a month, I quit Comcast TV because I wasn't getting the tech support I needed. Now I have Dish for only $20 more per month than YouTubeTV and have a lot more channels and the Hopper 3 DVR is amazing. I've had both Dish and DirecTV before and Dish is superior.

[buzzy]

I have had Direct TV here for all 9 years. They partner with Century Link for landline and DSL internet.

[retiredguy123]

When I tried to continue a recorded program that I began last night, I found it and most of the programs I have recorded over the years had disappeared overnight. Tried to have technical services help but they said the programs had disappeared from the cloud. My DVR only has 19% being used. Her suggestion was to either buy the movies or record them again. Not possible since many were from commercial channels or not available any more. So, tomorrow I plan to bid Comcast adieu. We could return to Direct Tv but we also need internet and a landline. How is Spectrum? We are not interested in “cutting the cord” or some of the other methods some people choose to use. My sister did that and by the time she subscribed to the streaming services, it costs her more than before and she has less. I think Spectrum and Direct Tv are the only options for where we live. Looking for feedback from people who use either of those. Thanks.
I think you are making a mistake. You are not going to improve your service by switching to another provider. I have been very satisfied with Xfinity for 5 years, with only a few issues. And, they seem to do a pretty good job with customer service. One way to keep recorded DVR programs for a long time is to download the shows to a tablet or a laptop computer. Then, you are not dependent on the cloud for stored content.

[villagetinker]

This is interesting, I had my DVR die, and was told that all the recordings went with it. I got a replacement, hooked it up and the next day all the recordings were back! No idea why or how this happened.

[retiredguy123]

This is interesting, I had my DVR die, and was told that all the recordings went with it. I got a replacement, hooked it up and the next day all the recordings were back! No idea why or how this happened.
The newer DVRs use a combination of storage on the settop box hard drive and cloud storage. Apparently, your programs were stored, or backed up, on the cloud.

[sdeikenberry]

"We are not interested in “cutting the cord” or some of the other methods some people choose to use. My sister did that and by the time she subscribed to the streaming services, it costs her more than before and she has less."

I don't know anything about your sister's situation, but I can tell you it should not cost you more than cable cost to cut the cord. And you gain control, peace of mind not hassling with cable companies, and a better choice of programming better suited to your personal tastes. Cutting the cord is simple these days, and you should consider it as an option. Sure, the format isn't exactly like you're used to with Comcast, but in a few days you'll be fine with it...and you'll have unlimited DRV capability.

[arbajeda]

Keep Comcast Internet and phone and stream DirecTV:

Access Denied (https://www.directv.com/stream/)

Click the link, it works.

[Babubhat]

Will never go back to Spectrum. Awful experience.

[thevillages2013]

Directv when you get a thunderstorm or in our case even before you get a drop of rain the signal is lost. It’s the best weather forecaster there is and the worst tv provider.

[trxi6565]

Spectrum is the worst! I’m leaving spectrum this week to go to xfinity. To many problems with spectrum and customer service is awful!

[chenault55]

When I tried to continue a recorded program that I began last night, I found it and most of the programs I have recorded over the years had disappeared overnight. Tried to have technical services help but they said the programs had disappeared from the cloud. My DVR only has 19% being used. Her suggestion was to either buy the movies or record them again. Not possible since many were from commercial channels or not available any more. So, tomorrow I plan to bid Comcast adieu. We could return to Direct Tv but we also need internet and a landline. How is Spectrum? We are not interested in “cutting the cord” or some of the other methods some people choose to use. My sister did that and by the time she subscribed to the streaming services, it costs her more than before and she has less. I think Spectrum and Direct Tv are the only options for where we live. Looking for feedback from people who use either of those. Thanks.

We switched to Dish but left the internet with Comcast about 5 years ago and we are very happy with that arrangement. Dish has a few things the others don’t. It’s worth checking out if it’s available in your area. Good luck

[DaleDivine]

I have had Direct TV here for all 9 years. They partner with Century Link for landline and DSL internet.
Me too. for almost 8 years. And most storms DO NOT knock our Direct TV out.
It has to be a major storm then we just switch too a recorded show until the storm passes.
:bigbow::bigbow:

[rsmurano]

Direct tv sucks. I don’t know about spectrum since I’ve had att fiber for 5 years before coming here, I have xfinity 400M now.
For tv service, I looked at them all: YouTube, att tv, att universe, peacock, and others and nothing comes close to dish tv. I e had dish tv for over 20 years (except for the 3 month period which I tried direct tv, so bad I paid the penalty fee and went back to dish). For streaming, I liked att tv the best. It would have been around $70 a month and it would have got close to dish network coverage and it had decent, not great, recording capabilities.
There are so many features that dish has that nobody else has: 18 simultaneous recordings, we have 3 external hard disks connected to the hopper so you can expand on the 2000 hr capability of the internal disk (we have had movies on these disks for over 10 years without any problems), 30 second skipping of commercials, great dvr capabilities, start watch a show then finish it in another room, watching movies off the dvr or receiver in a different country, have 2 devices that you can move movies to and then these battery devices can be used to play movies without internet like on a plane, remote foreign place.
The biggest drawback was the price so I told dish that if you don’t come down in your price for 2 years that comes close to att tv, I’m cancelling and leaving for good. They did just that. When my contracts up in another 13 months, I’ll take a look and see how things compare, but in the mean time, dish is providing us with all the shows we like for a price that is comparable to anyone else but I get better benefits with dish

[LizzieBorden]

Heres how it happens. A CSR (customer service rep_) gave you the information. If you call back, you sometimes get something different. Unless you speak to a supervisor….each one is trained But depending on how much knowledge the retain, or take the time to look up, is what you get. Last year I called and asked to have my serviced reconnected at an earlier date than I gave them in May. The person I was talking to told me I couldn’t do that. I said, but I can do that, he told me I couldnt. I hung up, called back and got someone who knew what they were doing and got my service restored on the new date. I worked in a call center, I am familiar with how it goes.

[mtomlinson]

Have you tried re-booting your set-top box? I had a similar problem of missing recordings and a re-boot "found" them. Worth a try!

[kkpenska]

We just switched to AT&T for our TV. It’s called Direct Streaming. No box necessary. It’s an icon on your smart TV. We are saving about 80.00 per month. They will let you try it for 2 weeks. They also offer internet & landlines. We went to the Lake Sumter store. They were very helpful.

[Jhnidy]

Spectrum is the worst! I’m leaving spectrum this week to go to xfinity. To many problems with spectrum and customer service is awful!

Spectrum will charge you a full month if you use any part of the month. Use up all your time before you turn in the equipment.

[Streamers]

I can help you with streaming as long as you have internet. It’s a great service with many channels and very reasonable
Call 352-325-2999

[Heytubes]

I use Comcast for internet, have Directv for my motor home but downloaded the Directv app onto my smartphone to watch everything then mirror my smartphone to my smart TV and I’ve got everything I need and more as rain doesn’t affect my signal on the phone.

[flhr95]

Get a good reliable internet connection, then go with Direct TV streaming. No dishes needed, I also use internet based VoIP Phone Service | Internet Home Phone Service Provider | magicJack (https://www.magicjack.com) VoIP Phone Service for my home phone service.

[ChicagoNative]

Heres how it happens. A CSR (customer service rep_) gave you the information. If you call back, you sometimes get something different. Unless you speak to a supervisor….each one is trained But depending on how much knowledge the retain, or take the time to look up, is what you get. Last year I called and asked to have my serviced reconnected at an earlier date than I gave them in May. The person I was talking to told me I couldn’t do that. I said, but I can do that, he told me I couldnt. I hung up, called back and got someone who knew what they were doing and got my service restored on the new date. I worked in a call center, I am familiar with how it goes.
Yikes! With the time it takes to actually talk to a live person, if I hung up on them and called back, I’d have to allow half a day!

We’ve debated cutting the cord, but like the poster upthread, found that for the product and functionality we want, it’d cost about as much as the cable company, so we stay with xfinity. We have a cable-landline-WiFi bundle with one DVR box. The other two TVs are smart TVs, with which we can use xfinity stream to record, watch etc. We like zipping through commercials on recorded network tv programs and love the voice-activated remote. It’s still the cable company when it comes to customer service, but luckily we have very little reason to call them.

[pablo cruze]

Keep Comcast Internet and phone and stream DirecTV:

Access Denied (https://www.directv.com/stream/)

Click the link, it works.
To me even their entry level package (essentials) is not a value. 70 bucks for 65+ basic channels. Likely with a bunch of small print fees as well.
I'm thinking OTA antenna will get most of the traditional networks. I'll stream the rest.

[jimkerr]

You’re making a mistake leaving Xfinity. I would stay put.

[ChicagoNative]

I can help you with streaming as long as you have internet. It’s a great service with many channels and very reasonable
Call 352-325-2999
Can you record programs with streaming only? I thought cable with a DVR was required?

[pablo cruze]

Spectrum will charge you a full month if you use any part of the month. Use up all your time before you turn in the equipment.
I have spectrum in michigan. It is terrible and expensive. It was the only cable service available in our area.
They know it; so they manipulate their customers. Wife didn't want to cut the cord.
We'll be done with them next month since we sold the house this month. Yay!!

[merrymini]

Stopped watching TV and am going to internet streaming only. All the cable companies suck. They advertise one thing but claim it is not available in your area. All dependent on who you happen to be talking to at the time. I am committed to jumping to each best deal available when I can and with no contracts, it is easy. Every one has it’s good stories and horror stories too. Great level of incompetence. If they do not care, why should I.

[Rchamblin1]

They have the best DVR in the industry and you can connect an external hard drive to save all your recordings as your DVR fills up. Excellent service and many programming options.

[PoolBrews]

With regards to the recordings, if they were extremely old they could have been removed for a number of reasons. If a movie is recorded during a weekend or week long promo event, they will be removed once the promo is done. If the channel that carried the movie loses it's rights (they typically have movies a set period of time), it gets removed.

I had DirecTV for 20 years. Too many game to play when you want to renew to get a good price. Once I moved to Florida, no way I would ever have DirecTV or Dish - the rainouts happen on far too many days here. No signal for hours, and for any live events you're screwed.

I then had Xfinity. Good internet, good TV... then the rate increases started. I was able to get good rates for 3 years, but this past year the "best" rate they could give me was too much. Went to CenturyLink for 1GB fiber internet. $65/month, no taxes, no fees. Guaranteed for life. Fiber is the best you can get for internet - no issues with bandwidth, user load, etc. They give you the fiber modem for free.

Signed up for YouTube TV. As a T-Mobile customer, you get $10/month as long as you are a T-Mobile customer. So that's $55/month. I have all the channels I need, an unlimited DVR, and all for $120/month. Xfinity's "best" package included 200Mb internet - 1/5 the speed I have with CenturyLink - the same number of channels I regularly watch (yeah, Xfinity says you get 200 channels, but there's easily over 150 of these channels I would never watch), and I save $50/month.

[MrChipster]

Just buy a large external hard drive for backup 4+ terabyte drives are available for under $200

Or buy microSd cards in the 256gb size and store movies very inexpensively

[Luggage]

Spectrum is owned by comcast

[KRMACK55]

When I tried to continue a recorded program that I began last night, I found it and most of the programs I have recorded over the years had disappeared overnight. Tried to have technical services help but they said the programs had disappeared from the cloud. My DVR only has 19% being used. Her suggestion was to either buy the movies or record them again. Not possible since many were from commercial channels or not available any more. So, tomorrow I plan to bid Comcast adieu. We could return to Direct Tv but we also need internet and a landline. How is Spectrum? We are not interested in “cutting the cord” or some of the other methods some people choose to use. My sister did that and by the time she subscribed to the streaming services, it costs her more than before and she has less. I think Spectrum and Direct Tv are the only options for where we live. Looking for feedback from people who use either of those. Thanks.
I had spectrum from June 2019 to August 2021. Their service is awful. I had problems almost every month. I had internet and cable for one TV. My bill started at 142- and ended at 225- before the final month of their cheap plan was 152- for a few channels. I did not have a talking remote or VCR my remote was replaced 6 times. They are a subscription service do I was charged $152- for 4 days of Spectrum. Awful

[MrFlorida]

Verizon and T Mobile both have 5G internet, some of my neighbors have this service and seem to like it.

[Jdelett]

We have Charter and the DVR works fine. We had Charter in a different state with a better DVR. Not sure why this one is different, but it’s meeting our needs. The salesperson tried to sell us the DVR in the Cloud deal, but it wouldn’t work with our brand new Samsung. It was very frustrating because it took them two weeks to get us connected to a regular DVR. We are happy enough with it now. It records what and when we want it to.

[Bella6368]

When I tried to continue a recorded program that I began last night, I found it and most of the programs I have recorded over the years had disappeared overnight. Tried to have technical services help but they said the programs had disappeared from the cloud. My DVR only has 19% being used. Her suggestion was to either buy the movies or record them again. Not possible since many were from commercial channels or not available any more. So, tomorrow I plan to bid Comcast adieu. We could return to Direct Tv but we also need internet and a landline. How is Spectrum? We are not interested in “cutting the cord” or some of the other methods some people choose to use. My sister did that and by the time she subscribed to the streaming services, it costs her more than before and she has less. I think Spectrum and Direct Tv are the only options for where we live. Looking for feedback from people who use either of those. Thanks.

We use Spectrum, and they are horrible. No Fiber Optics like Verizon. They use copper, so when its rainy, we always have internet issues. We are switching over to XFinity, and Your Tube. Good luck!

[BEETHOVENMIKEY]

We got quite an education over the last 2 years.
We've been Comcast customers for over 30 years and have regretted it almost every year. When there's issues, my blood pressure foibles just at the thought of dealing with them over the phone. I've chewed them out and been sent up the chain over technical issues so many times, if I call in, I'm automatically bumped to their 2nd tier. But, that's not comforting resolve.

FIRST: Comcast discontinued DVR service over 3 - 4 years ago in this area. If you have one of the two Xfinity DVR units they issued, it's a dead box, except for the electronics. Since the last DVR was issued, they've had 3 different Xfinity comm boxes (basically a communication/computer device). Everything you have done over the last 3+ years, has been CLOUD based. You may see the same recording lights flashing, but that's simply the electronics. When they did it...as you've discovered, you lost everything recorded on the DVR. Up in MD, before we moved down here, I lost many hours of recordings I was saving.
SECOND: when Comcast switched everyone to cloud, cloud storage was 250mb. However, about 2 years ago, in fine print, they dropped storage to 100mb. They did not advise people with any fanfare. Depending on your recordings,, you should have noticed the percentage of storage available, in the top right corner of your recording SAVE menu, drop significantly. Again, if you had things recorded and saving when they made the change, you lost everything. You should be noticing that you get pop up notices to upgrade to more storage. If you don't... again, if you have an almost full cloud storage allotment, and you have new programming to record, your oldest recorded programs will be deleted to make room and they cannot be recovered. Again... they want you to buy more storage.
THIRD: depending on where you live in TV, will depend on internet alternatives. We live on the north side, which us serviced by CenturyLink. They offer fiberoptic, here, which is far superior to any other service. We moved into our new house about 18 months ago, signing up with Comcast, but once the 2 yr agreement is up, we're going to CenturyLink for internet and upgrading to 500mbps. CenturyLink also carries full programming, and we'll evaluate at that time whether to get full CenturyLink package for internet and TV, or just get internet and stream other services.
Good luck.

[Skip]

Keep "Blast" Internet from Comcast until T-Mobile covers all of The Villages with cellular-internet at a lower price.
LoCast (app) was free and were sued by the networks and were just shutdown. Too bad. Others may take its place for local network feeds at no charge. (LoCast asked for donations and that's why they were sued.)
We use YouTube-TV. Got first month free and months 2 and 3 at reduced rate (search for bargains). Love it. No contracts. Pay as you go every month. Quit and restart anytime. Comes with UNLIMITED "recording" (in the cloud) which is really just indexing of every show or episode you want to save into the future. Get channels I didn't get before with Comcast TV. Our data use is less (50%) than Comcast's monthly cap of 122GB. Only channel we sorta miss is the Weather Channel. (There are other weather stations however.) They are working on adding it to the lineup. YouTube-TV (a Google product) can be added to almost any smart TV or Roku Box or other streaming stick, even the old ones that now sell for $10. You can upgrade to 4K if you want to be amazed and you have a new 4K set. And no outages during storms like with satellite services.
We love YouTube-TV.
I tried VOIP for phone service but it didn't work for me. So if you bundle to get phone AND internet, make sure you have a way out of the "year long contract" if the service doesn't meet your expectations.

Skip

[TNKYGAL]

We are fairly new to The Villages. We used Spectrum until recently in our other home and have used both AT&T and Direct TV in the past. Spectrum isn't available in our area of TV, so we chose Xfinity for our internet service. We are not yet full time in TV, so a part of our decision-making was that we did not want to pay year round for television in either place. So we dropped our Spectrum TV and have gone to YouTube TV. YouTube TV allows us to change our home area twice per year, so we only need one service for both locations. Their service is is about $20/month less than we were paying (the main difference being the broadcast & equipment fees), and again, it stays with us for both locations without having to pay additional for TV in TV!
YouTube TV has unlimited DVR, but programs stay for only 9 months. We really like some of the features, especially when recording & watching sports. I know the OP expressed that there is no interest in a streaming service, so based on my experience, research, and options for our locale, I'd recommend Xfinity. But should there be a change of heart, look into You Tube TV, especially if you still maintain two homes!

[rogerrice60]

.we use Spectrum for everything and we'll pleased with their service

[Fenster]

I had Comcast as well. They are thieves.
They programming is not bad, but their business practices are larcenous. I called several times to complain and got nowhere.

[jedalton]

When I tried to continue a recorded program that I began last night, I found it and most of the programs I have recorded over the years had disappeared overnight. Tried to have technical services help but they said the programs had disappeared from the cloud. My DVR only has 19% being used. Her suggestion was to either buy the movies or record them again. Not possible since many were from commercial channels or not available any more. So, tomorrow I plan to bid Comcast adieu. We could return to Direct Tv but we also need internet and a landline. How is Spectrum? We are not interested in “cutting the cord” or some of the other methods some people choose to use. My sister did that and by the time she subscribed to the streaming services, it costs her more than before and she has less. I think Spectrum and Direct Tv are the only options for where we live. Looking for feedback from people who use either of those. Thanks.

and I will show you what I have done for a lot of the villagers. Average savings $125/mth757.748.6060

[jedalton]

boy, all of you are wasting a lot of money.
how about this:
all local, sports, movies, series, including NFL network, red zone all nfl games, all MLB, NHL and much more.
$27/Mth after firestick setup.

[DaddyG]

This is interesting, I had my DVR die, and was told that all the recordings went with it. I got a replacement, hooked it up and the next day all the recordings were back! No idea why or how this happened.

The same thing happened to me. The DVR appeared to be erased by a power surge. I ordered a replacement thinking all was lost. Then I bought a surge protector. Next day, I unplugged the DVR, plugged it into the surge protector and it rebooted completely and restored all the recordings I thought were lost. Lesson learned: always reboot before surrendering.

[jdgerman]

I tried the T-Mobile internet. Could never get it to work even with many hours and calls to tech support. It then took me hours and hours and multiple phone calls to get the account canceled. The most miserable experience I have ever had with a vendor. I would never use T-Mobile Internet or any other services. Be warned.

[Babubhat]

Unless you have had Cablevision you don’t know what horrible is. Spectrum a close second. Good luck with them

[Hifred]

Funny you write about this topic. I finally said no to spectrum that I have had for 2 years. Spectrum keeps raising my rates $30 each year. We are going with Dish TV and Century Link internet. Initially when we looked up our address online it said we weren't able to obtain century link. However, I called them directly and they offer fiber optic internet in our area. The price for dish and Century link for the same channels and internet is $55 a month less than what I was paying. If you don't think Century Link services your area I recommend you call them. We live in 32163 and they do cover us.

[Janet1946]

Does anyone know of any streaming service that includes the local public television channels? I haven't been able to find one.

[Rsenholzi]

I changed to Spectrum and am now considering going back to Comcast. I was told I was getting certain channels and don’t get any of them. In addition, I am constantly going offline with the internet . Then it is very difficult to get back on. Sometimes it drops me at midnight and I can’t get back on until the morning. Very frustrating

[champion6]

Spectrum is owned by comcastCompletely false.

Charter Communications is an American telecommunications and mass media company with services branded as Charter Spectrum. It is the second-largest cable operator in the United States by subscribers, just behind Comcast, and third-largest pay TV operator behind Comcast and AT&T.

[ThirdOfFive]

When I tried to continue a recorded program that I began last night, I found it and most of the programs I have recorded over the years had disappeared overnight. Tried to have technical services help but they said the programs had disappeared from the cloud. My DVR only has 19% being used. Her suggestion was to either buy the movies or record them again. Not possible since many were from commercial channels or not available any more. So, tomorrow I plan to bid Comcast adieu. We could return to Direct Tv but we also need internet and a landline. How is Spectrum? We are not interested in “cutting the cord” or some of the other methods some people choose to use. My sister did that and by the time she subscribed to the streaming services, it costs her more than before and she has less. I think Spectrum and Direct Tv are the only options for where we live. Looking for feedback from people who use either of those. Thanks.
We have xFinity thru Comcast (internet only) and are more than satisfied. Lightning quick and the tech support to date has been good the only two times I needed to contact them. We also have Amazon Prime and they usually have a (fairly) good selection of movies, YouTube has a vast and increasing amount of stuff, we have one of those Roku thingies (one-time expense) and a good digital antenna will pull in a lot of local channels for news, stuff of interest locally, etc. Total breakdown is that we pay less than $90 per month for far more TV than we could ever watch.

The only fly in the ointment so far is that xFinity charges $100 per service call, which seems like a lot, though in fairness the tech stayed with it for over four hours until he figured out what was wrong.

[Madelaine Amee]

Xfinity has a store front in Lady Lake and real LIVE people will take care of you, just take a number and wait in comfort. I have had my cell phone and other problems handled right there.

[ThirdOfFive]

Xfinity has a store front in Lady Lake and real LIVE people will take care of you, just take a number and wait in comfort. I have had my cell phone and other problems handled right there.
Amen.

Used 'em just this Sunday, as a matter of fact. One of our remotes went on the fritz, so I brought it in to hopefully exchange it. Guy at the door saw me come in, said "need a new clicker, hey?", grabbed a new one out of a large box by the door, took mine and chucked it into a box right next to it which was about half-full, and that was that. No name, no account number, nothing. In and out in less than 20 seconds.

Must be a common problem.

[JoMar]

Spectrum is the worst! I’m leaving spectrum this week to go to xfinity. To many problems with spectrum and customer service is awful!

Have had Spectrum for 7 years, great customer service plus reliable service. Triple Play.

[charlieo1126@gmail.com]

There was an alert from Apple on last nights network news about a virus you go to settings then to general then to software update it doesn’t take long to download the program