Comcast is terrible
 

I spent 5 hours on the phone with them and I COULDN'T GET ANY RESULTS they kept directing me to different people there was two of them from foreign countries. The Villages needs more competion with the communications media as Comcast seems to have a total foothold in the villages. also watch your billing as they seem to bounce around on pricing some months.

Thumbs down for Comcast!
 

All I had to do was read the title....Comcast is terrible!

I wonder how Comcast can stay in business with their terrible Customer Service?

Up north, we had a company called Adelphia which was equally as bad. Bottom line....family owners were corrupt and they are now in prison.

We now have Time-Warner and they are fantastic. Comcast could learn a lot from Time-Warner.....A LOT!!!!

I agree with the service comments. Don't think TV is unique in only have one cable provider. We do have DirectTV or Dish as well as a provider that has Prism (can't remember the name).

It's real easy how they stay in business. They are the only game in town in many of their markets. People want lots of choices in TV watching so they get Comcast becasue there is no other choice. So Comcast has subscribers....they don't care if they are unhappy or not. Until there is real competition for them they won't change there's no reason for them to......sad state of business ethics or lack there of in the good ole USA. As long as you make money who cares about customer service or ethics.

Bingo !! You hit the nail right on the head !

Competition improves service and brings prices down all the time.

Time to Contact
 

It is time to start contacting our State Representative and writing letters.
Also, should write to the Gov.'s office and start a real push to get this monopoly changed. We are all being held hostage by a system that prevents competition. That always means abuse...: :rant-rave:

Competition in Sanibel
 

The new section of Sanibel (178) has competition. Comcast, Century Link, Direct TV and Brighthouse cable. I have called Brighthouse customer service, they were very nice. Triple play package is $115 for 4 TV's. No contract, cancel any time. The only problem is the area is so new they do not have it in their system. I met the contractor that was installing their cables. Their are pedistal boxes in our yard with "Brighthouse cable" on them. The customer service rep is supposed to call me back. They did not have the new Zip code 32163 in their system. Comcast and Century link did not have the new Zip code.

Now Penn, you know I really enjoy your opinions on things and think you are one smart guy.

But on this one, it ain't gonna change. Even big-ger cities like Cincinnati have these kinds of situations....but not with such AWFUL customer service. Comcast wins the ultimate prize for that.:rant-rave:Even Sweetie was about to bang the wall on that one.

We gave up and switched to Verizon for phones and internet and got Direct TV too.

After having comcast phone service for over a year and never missing a payment, they disconnected us and then told us that we never had phone service from them!! It took FIVE days and I can't tell you how many cell phone calls, to different agents to finally have our service restored with NO compensation for their mistake. This happened during a family emergency and I can't tell you how upsetting it was to have to talk to people who had NO clue what they were doing.

We definitely need an alternative.

I just read about Prism in another thread and will give them a call. We had Direct TV up north and liked it except for the blackouts every time it drizzled.

This is part of a direct quote from an article that AOL had in the news.

However, there are apparently people that are far more frustrated with Comcast. The country's largest cable provider lost 165,000 net cable subscribers in its latest quarter. This isn't some one-time quarterly fluke. Comcast has seen 443,000 more homes cancel than sign up so far this year, and that's after losing 757,000 accounts in 2010 after shedding 623,000 customers in 2009.

Thanks
 

Ruth and I were thinking this way also Graci. We have verizon phones and our Direct TV will move with us.

Still not sure about internet service

Thanks

My neighbors are in the process of switching to Century Link. I am interested in how they make out and how the service compares. I have Comcast here (TV) and up north as I require high speed Internet for work and they were the only option for bit. I have had very few issues over the years with Comcast as a technology (knocking on wood).

I have however had many stories due to the complete disconnect between what the folks on the 800 number tell me and reality.

The last I heard, Verizon did not have phone service in TV but was near to having Internet modem available. Has things changed? I have been a loyal Verizon customer forever.

CenturyLink
 

I did some research on CenturyLink, and also spoke with a friend who used to work for the predecessor company, which was Quest. Qwest, in turn, was the successor company to US West, one of the Regional Bell Operating companies set up as a result of the AT&T divestiture in 1984. There have been a series of mergers and acquisitions, reslting in CenturyLink, which has become a HUGE company.

Might want to give them a try.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am a Verizon retiree. I actually retired from its predecessor NYNEX.

We have Verizon phone service and Verizon wireless internet service too.

But...not perfect. The little mifi box requires rebooting a lot on some days and not so much on others.

That kind of technology is above this blonde head.

Actually Comcast does --they are in the process of surveying our home in Sanibel and will be providing service to us on January 11 --I hope!!

Comcast vs Verizon FIOS
 

At the time that I switched from Comcast to Verizon FIOS (March 2009) the cost for Comcast TV and Internet was equal to the cost of FIOS Triple Play (TV, Internet, and phone with unlimited long distance. Comcast was moving channels into packages that would cost extra, so for me the decision was easy.

Now, I get mail from Comcast, asking me to come back at a lower rate.

It all has to do with competition.

Latest Comcast offer
 

The latest Comcast offer just came in today's mail. If I "re-up," I get a "chance" to win a $500 Apple gift card.

WOW ! )-:)

Have not heard of this zip code before.....is it valid???

I recently (3 week ago) cancelled comcast and went to Century Link.
Prism is not available here, so they hooked up Direct Tv and scheduled a service call to hook up internet.
Direct TV came in three days and did hookup of all 3 tv's. Showed up on time and did a great job - real happy with Direct TV.
Century Link canceled their setup and said they would call to reset when they got "parts" in. Never called. Called a week later and went through 4 people and told the "engineer" would call within 2 days. Never did. Called Monday and they said they had no idea when the parts were coming in and if I didn't like that I could cancel the internet.
Problem is the internet and tv were a package deal and Direct Tv is using the inside cable cannection, so I have nowhere but the telephone lines to hook up internet. I have a temporary comcast connection for internet now, but they are going to double my internet charges and still possibly disconnect me because I cancelled TV portion of deal.
Comcast was rude and didn't even want to hear how I was upset with my bill going up 75%.
Century Link doesn't seem to be any better.

Wow
 

Wow, that's scary..!!:wave:

Tom, Thank you for posting this. That is interesting about Comcast shedding customers. I have Comcast for phone, TV and internet here in suburban Chicago - internet and TV since 2002, phone for 4 months. Can't say my service has been 100%, but no huge complaints with Comcast, not enough to switch. But at this rate of shedding customers, will Comcast be in business a few years from now? They spend tons of money advertising in the Chicago area -- maybe they are running scared?

In July we had Century Link install high speed internet 1.5 mbps (they called it 'to the curb' no modem) and home phone with unlimited long distance with no problems. We were told it would $54.99 a month plus tax, so expect about $70 a month plus the first month would have some installation charges.

Our first bill arrived and it was $202 which included $77 for our plan, not $54.99 and many other charges. I immediately called and they responded that they don't have any plans at $54.99. I still had the business card from the rep on Hwy 27/441 office that signed us up in person, so I told them this is the info he gave me and I wrote everything down. They said I was speaking with customer service in Orlando but they would connect me with "The Save Desk" in Charlotte, but don't tell anyone else that.

When the rep in Charlotte came on the phone I explained the problem and at that very moment I was looking at the Century Link website and they had a plan on their home page for $59.99 that included 10 mpbs speed internet and unlimited long distance telephone. He said fine, that's what you want, that' what you'll have, and besides that your bill is no longer $202, it's now $102, anything else I can do. On Monday my internet speed went from 1.5 to 10.0, I paid the $102 bill and my bills since have been about $75 with tax.