Beware of Comcast

[luvdzne]

For those of you that have to keep calling Comcast every 6 months or so when their "promotional" rates expire an FYI.....

My promotional rate was up and I was sick and tired of every 6 months having to call and have a new one reinstated. I called and was canceling the service and going to AT&T. The girl told me that she could give me a promotional package that was for a year if I stayed. Fine whatever, it saves me the time and hassle of switching. Nothing was mentioned about signing a contract nor have they ever had a contract. Well today I get a 1 yr contract to sign saying that if the service is canceled before the 1 year there is a penalty. I called and they said they just started this. That means if my phone that is on a 6month promo expires they can raise it to whatever they want because they have me stuck with them for a year. Needless to say I am done with Comcast.

 

[friskykitten]

That is not good. I am trying to see how cheap I can get the internet from them and cancel the phone and cable until I can pay off the credit cards. They havn't mentioned signing a year contract to me yet. Now you have me wondering if they will be sending me one too. I guess I will have to call them back. When you really don't know what is going to happen from one day to the next contracts can really bite you when you need to get rid of monthly expenses.

 

[Jennifer in MI]

Also, watch your bills after you get it lowered! We got our decreased two months ago. Since then, they've tried tacking on all sorts of new things. We've had to call and get them taken off. I wonder how often that works for them? Last month it was a "one time fee" of $50!!! I called and they tried to tell me it was for a repair visit. When I mentioned the fee we're charged every month for "maintenance" they took it right off.

Weird.

 

[luvdzne]

Also, watch your bills after you get it lowered! We got our decreased two months ago. Since then, they've tried tacking on all sorts of new things. We've had to call and get them taken off. I wonder how often that works for them? Last month it was a "one time fee" of $50!!! I called and they tried to tell me it was for a repair visit. When I mentioned the fee we're charged every month for "maintenance" they took it right off.

Weird.

I waiting to get the bill for them being out here the other day. We called to reset the pin # on our box so we could block out the HBO that they "gave" me and I didn't want. They sent the wrong signal and fried our box. They claim they wouldn't charge us for the visit but I've dealt with them long enough to know they try to get away with everything. I'm sure most people don't go through their bills closely like they should and that is why they get away with it. I can't tell you how many mistakes I have caught and of course it is always in their favor.

 

[dzorn]

Heck I tried switching to them and they never showed for the instillation. Call and they wanted to charge me more than the price I agreed to. I said "Why would I switch if I would be paying more?" Supervisor called and said he would take care of it and never herd from them again. With that kind of customer service glad I stuck with WOW.

Denise in MI

 

[luvdzne]

Heck I tried switching to them and they never showed for the instillation. Call and they wanted to charge me more than the price I agreed to. I said "Why would I switch if I would be paying more?" Supervisor called and said he would take care of it and never herd from them again. With that kind of customer service glad I stuck with WOW.

Denise in MI

I wish we had WOW here. That is who we had when we lived in MI and never had any problems. Here it's comcast or now AT&T which I know nothing about but I don't care because anything is better than comcast at this point.

 

[maddiesmom0116]

I was screwed over by Comcast 10 years ago and will never go back again. They charged me over $500 for a box I returned to them and got a receipt even. I returned 3 boxes and didn't look at the receipt they gave me that stated 2 boxes were returned. I just tossed the receipt in my glovebox as it was a drive thru return / bill payment window. I argued this for months and they would never take care of it. This happened to a friend of mine right around the same time period and it cost him $500 too.

 

[chellewashere]

OMG I hate Comcast. We have had nothing but problems with them since we got them 2 years ago. It was all going good then my DH and I got an HDTV and had to upgrade our box...that is when it all went to crap. They messed it all up charged us a ton of money took away our free stations then charged us 20 bucks a month when we noticed we no longer had them and wanted them turned back on. I finally just gave up cancelled when my 2 years was up and went with directtv. Now I got a bill for 300 bucks that i had to show the receipt for the day I returned it and the fact that my 2 years was up. (Oh yeah they tried to say that i had anohter 2 years from the day I switched boxes...nope I dont think so) I say since there is other companies finally available...switch and never look back

 

[here757]

For those of you that have to keep calling Comcast every 6 months or so when their "promotional" rates expire an FYI.....

The girl told me that she could give me a promotional package that was for a year if I stayed. Fine whatever, it saves me the time and hassle of switching. Nothing was mentioned about signing a contract nor have they ever had a contract. Well today I get a 1 yr contract to sign saying that if the service is canceled before the 1 year there is a penalty.

u agreed to it on the phone.. its a legal thing.. they just want it in writting.
sucks.. i agree..
wrong... nah.. its just business..
do they offer fios LOL might be vios.. sounds the same to me ..in your area?
im thinking of going with them.. its a two year contract though

 

[friskykitten]

We had the same problem with DirectTV before we switched to comcast. They told us we were eligible for a free upgrade, sent us a DVR that was exactly what we already had then charged us $500 for that DVR even though we sent it back to them. It took them four months to send us our refund and the customer service rep actually told us that he had no reason to send us our refund at all since we were switching to comcast. Other than that incident we had no problems with them other than not getting a signal everytime it rained.

Comcast has been reliable but I have had to cancel phone and cable and I do not want to have to sign a contract with anyone. Are there any internet providers (not dial-up) that do not require a contract?

 

[plummer925]

We had the same problem with DirectTV before we switched to comcast. They told us we were eligible for a free upgrade, sent us a DVR that was exactly what we already had then charged us $500 for that DVR even though we sent it back to them. It took them four months to send us our refund and the customer service rep actually told us that he had no reason to send us our refund at all since we were switching to comcast. Other than that incident we had no problems with them other than not getting a signal everytime it rained.

Comcast has been reliable but I have had to cancel phone and cable and I do not want to have to sign a contract with anyone. Are there any internet providers (not dial-up) that do not require a contract?

I have RoadRunner (Time Warner) and have no contract.

For cell phone I have T-Mobile and have no contract.

So, it is possible!

 

[SandrA9810]

I would not mind signing a contract. I mean I'm stuck in the apartment for a year, so it's unlikely that I would cancel. But aparently no other company services my apartment complex besides bright house. And well bright house is more expensive because they have the no contract thing. Think of bright house as the metro pcs of cable companies.

My biggest problem was that I could get dish tv and home phone but not DSL through embark, ATT, or comcast. And since my porch faces the east, I'm out of luck on that because the satelites have to face south west.

I can't say I'm extremly happy. but they did start a promo for 90$ of standard cable, DVR box, and 7mbps internet. With 3 months free of HBO and some other movie channels. Plus the first month free.

 

[luvdzne]

u agreed to it on the phone.. its a legal thing.. they just want it in writting.
sucks.. i agree..
wrong... nah.. its just business..
do they offer fios LOL might be vios.. sounds the same to me ..in your area?
im thinking of going with them.. its a two year contract though

Ahhh, no I didn't! In fact the girl kept telling me if I went with At&T I would have to sign a contract and that Comcast does not make you sign a contract. I have never signed a contract with Comcast and never will.

The contract says that they may change anything such as service, fees, and programing at any time. Also they will only give you a "special" rate on phone and internet for 6 months. Then when it is up they will be able to charge you whatever they want and won't have to give you a "special" rate anymore. You are then stuck with them till the end of the Cable contract. So the great rate they are making you sign a contract for isn't so great when they raise your bill by $75.

 

[tasha99]

Also, watch your bills after you get it lowered! We got our decreased two months ago. Since then, they've tried tacking on all sorts of new things. We've had to call and get them taken off. I wonder how often that works for them? Last month it was a "one time fee" of $50!!! I called and they tried to tell me it was for a repair visit. When I mentioned the fee we're charged every month for "maintenance" they took it right off.

Weird.

We lowered our service to the basic cable, and they made the adjustment price on our bill a week after we actually got it. That little "mistake" was $30 in Comcast's favor, plus they charged us $11 to downgrade. I went in and had all that removed, but it was a hassle. They're a horrible company, but we can't get a line of site for a dish. I'm seriously considering putting up rabbit ears and even canceling what little cable we have. It's snowy half the time anyway, so I can't see that it's all that much better than an over the air signal.

 

[amynorth]

You read right! We had ATT Uverse and had freezing problems with it. My DH took it upon himself to switch us to Comcast BIG Mistake. We had it for not even 1 week, 6 days and 20 hours and we get a bill for 260$. So we called and said you are kidding right. I did not know all the info since he ordered it. But they were trying to charge 50$ for internet installation. I was the one who installed it, we had no phone for 3 days because they did not do that right and the people who set it up were in a hurry and did not take the time to do it properly. Anyway we have ATT Uverse coming out today to fix us up again...

 

[JimmyJr'sMom]

They ran a series of ads around here for several months with the slogan "Comcastic." Well all you had to do was google Comcast and you would see NUMEROUS sites and forums saying how it was really "CRAPTASTIC."

Needless to say- they no longer run those ads.
We had Comcast for almost 8 years- then when my $80 month cable bill climbed to $210 and I had to keep calling and calling and calling- we switched to FIOS.

 

[DebMcDonald]

We have no other option in our town besides comcast, which I hate, so I'm very jeleous of people that have other options.

 

[kinntj]

We're waiting for AT&T Uverse to come here. They always call here wanting us to get internet from them and I told them that once they have Uverse in our area, I'll consider switching everything from Comcast.

 

[JB2K]

If Comcast (the nation's largest cable operator) is now putting their customers under cell-phone style contracts, you can expect the rest of the pack (TimeWarner, Cox, etc.) to follow suit.

For those who are Charter customers, that company recently filed for bankruptcy, meaning they, too may switch to these tatics to keep their current customers aboard.

As for alternatives, there are some, but it all depends on where you live.

FiOS - you must live in a Verizon (wireline) service area (typically, Virginia and points north to Massachusetts as well as some pockets in TX and CA).

U-verse - you must live in an AT&T wireline (former SBC & BellSouth) service area.

Satellite - which is not without its' own set of problems (they, too, do the contract thing).

While I can't speak for Verizon, I can say with confidence that AT&T's service is head-and-shoulders about what the incumbent cable operator (Charter) offers in my town.

By the way, if any AT&T customers need a referral offer for U-verse, you can PM me.

 

[ericm078]

I got rid of Comcast back in Dec. They were BAD! Thank god ATT Uverse came in to our area. More channels less money! And the few times Ive had to talk to them on the phone they have been extremely nice.