I don't know which Disney news is worse in my local paper....

[Rock'n Robin]

Which makes me more depressed? The guy from Comcast (is Burke his name?) who would be in charge of folding Disney into Comcast saying he has EXTENSIVE plans for the cartoon division and the theme parks? That can't be good.
OR, is it seeing the horrible headline "Disney World's Pluto killed by Parade Float"??? Holy Cow, what if my kids had seen that??? Did they have to mention that it was Pluto?
Jeez. I guess I won't read the paper for a week or two.
Robin M.

 

[goofy4tink]

I'm right there with you Robin. All I could think of this morning is..what if they had a headline like that. And, so it seems, they did. Poor taste!! Poor little ones that see that. I know that I won't be able to see Pluto in the future without thinking of that poor man.

 

[Credit Man]

Sad indeed!

 

[chager]

That headline is right up there with the "Santa Claus is Dead" headline we had one time Sometimes I wonder if they really think about the headline before they print it.

 

[currycook]

If you have a link to that story it would be nice. thanks.

 

[Pop Daddy]

hey disney needs a man with a plan

 

[Rock'n Robin]

I can't post a link (I am link-impaired) but here is the passage of the story that bugs me:
"Stephen B. Burke, preseident of Comcast's cable operations, would mastermind the integration of Disney into Comcast. Mr. Burke, who spent 12 years working in top positions at Disney running three of its four major operations, said he has extensive plans to improve Disney operations, including ABC, the cartoon studios, and the theme parks."
So this guy has worked at Disney before, anyone familiar with him? Sounds like he has an agenda of his own.
The whole story would probably be at the Toledo Blade website. Sorry about not being able to link. I'll figure it out someday.
Robin M.

 

[Rajah]

And a CM friend of mine said they had another loss yesterday, too. Someone who worked at Epcot's World Showcase, I think a security person, had a heart attack in the parking lot.

Yesterday was a rough day for Disney.

And I'm still concerned about this Comcast stuff.

 

[Karel]

The whole comcast thing scares the bejeebers out of me. What a nightmare. I hate hate hate comcast. My cable bill goes up $1 every month and customer service is miserable.

Will we be visiting...Comcast World?? Ugh.

(is that the proper spelling of bejeebers?)

 

[battricia]

You can read some interesting (and intelligent) points of view in the rumors board. You will get a better feel for the whole comcast situation, rather than just thinking 'i had comcast cable and didn't like it, so i don't want them taking over my precious disney world!' As for the two people who died, my heart goes out to their families, and the disney cast member family.


tricia.

 

[Chim Chiminy]

My Dh asked the kids last night if they were excited about our upcoming trip to Comcastland.
I corrected him--it would be Comcast World.

I haven't read the story yet about the CM. That is terrible.
I hope my son doesn't read that in the paper at school. Pluto is one of his favorites.

I feel badly for the CM and his family. Our thoughts will certainly be with them, as well as the other cast members.

 

[barbeml]

Tricia--

My problem with Comcast taking over Disney isn't just that my cable is out all the time and the cable modem at work goes down for hours every day. My problem is that in my dealings with them from home and at work, they have shown nothing but UTTER CONTEMPT for me as a customer. Whenever I mention Comcast, everyone has a story about how abusive they are to customers.

Since I have dealt with more than two dozen of their employees, including a VP in Philadelphia, with the same poor treatment down the line, I believe the culture there is not one that I would want to see running WDW.

I certainly do not want to be lied to and called "cheap" (Why aren't you getting our digital cable? Are you too cheap?) on my vacation.

Some say Comcast only wants certain parts of Disney. So who do they sell the parks and resorts to? Six Flags? Sorry, not ingterested in going to Gang World.

Does Disney need help, new blood, fresh ideas? Sure, what company doesn't? But I am pretty sure Comcast is not the answer.

Barbe

 

[gshoemate]

You can go to any of these news sites and find the story.

www.wesh.com
www.local6.com
www.orlandosentinal.com

 

[battricia]

sorry double posted.

 

[battricia]

I had comcast for 2 years and had excellent service. The one time I did have a minor problem, I called and the problem was taken care of IMMEDIATELY. As in I had a service man come out to the apartment within two days to issue and install a new cable box. With that in mind, should I use my personal experience with their customer service as reason to want comcast to take over disney? After all their customer service with me was AMAZING. Since I've moved from the philadelphia area, we've delt with a small cable company that has terrible technical support. We've called numerous times (since september) to get our internet to stop going out (every 5 minutes) and their response to us is CONSTANTLY "Well we don't see any problems on our end, it must be over on your end" and that's it. They hang up. On top of this, every month they charge us atleast 10 dollars more than what they told us in the beginning would be our 'package price', and almost every month they send us a letter saying they're going to be charging an extra 1 or 2 dollars per month from now on to provide us with a channel/group of channels that they previously provided at no additional cost. Quite honestly I wish the cable company would SELL their company to comcast so that I could receive the same reliable service that I received for 2 years with them. My point is that I don't believe our own experiences with one location's customer service from the cable service section of the Comcast company should dictate whether or not we believe the take over of Disney is a good thing or not. There are many other factors involved.

tricia.


*edited because I messed up the quote code.

 

[jipsy]

In case you don't know it, Disney is already partnered with Comcast in one of their many various holdings. On top of owning various radio and TV stations, Disney also owns:

The Disney Channel

Toon Disney

ESPN Inc. (80% - Hearst Corporation owns the remaining 20%) includes ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN News, ESPN Now, ESPN Extreme

Classic Sports Network (with Liberty)

A&E Television (37.5%, with Hearst and GE)

The History Channel (with Hearst and GE)

Lifetime Television (50%, with Hearst)

Lifetime Movie Network (50% with Hearst)

E! Entertainment (34.4%) - Comcast, MediaOne and Liberty Media each have 10.4% stakes this station, by the way, broadcasts the infamous Howard Stern Show

Fox Family (from News in July 2001)

TVA (20% with Hearst) - Brazilian group controlled by Abril

Disney owns ABC. Disney has various holdings abroad. They also own many film/television production studios, including Miramax films, one of the most violent and sexy producers of films around (think "Kill Bill" and "Hellraiser" to name 2).

They also own magazines, publishing companies, and even have crude petroleum and natural gas holdings and various record labels.

The point is, there is alot more at stake here than just a few theme parks. This is not Walt's Disney, this is big business and it will be played that way whether you want it to be or not.

 

[barbeml]

Tricia--I'm glad you have not had the experience I had with Comcast. I would not wish it on anyone.

My experience with Comcast employees, from corporate to billing to service, leads me to believe that they do not have a customer friendly culture.

They applied my payment to someone else's account and then harrassed and threatened me for SIX MONTHS, despite the fact that my bank sent them direct proof of payment three times. I made so many calls, sent letters and faxes over and over again, and still they refused to acknowledge my payment. When it was finally resolved (after I faxed them every half hour for an entire day until someone called me), I did not get an apology. I got a nasty letter from one of their VPs in Philly.

So here I am, a good customer who pays my bills early, and that is how I was treated. Since I dealt with about 15 Comcast employees before someone fixed the mess, this is not just a case of one lousy staff member. (I won't even go into the service problems, credits that never materialize and shady rate increases).

FYI, our township had to hold a public hearing because they were flooded with so many complaints about Comcast. But the right palms were obviously well greased, because Comcast is still here.

Barbe