Warning about Comcast On-Demand Service

[asta]

I just want to vent about bad service from Comcast cable. Yesterday and last night we received 5-6 inches of snow then ice then more snow. Believe me when I tell you that you don't want to drive on southern roads in this condition. Perfect night to stay home and watch a movie or two. I popped popcorn and got the movie room ready but, guess what, couldn't get Comcast on demand to come up. After about 30 minutes of this I called Comcast. Their friendly technician tells me that they are so over capacity that there is no chance that my system will ever connect with theirs. His quote: "We are asking that you just enjoy watching network TV tonight."

I know this wasn't the end of the world. Just want to let others know that if you are going to be snowed in you probably need to hit Blockbuster up before the roads get too bad. After all, chance are your cable company hasn't invested enough to even get close to meeting their demand.

 

[LoraJ]

Meh, I guess it happens.

I can't get on-demand at all in my den. I have an HD TiVo that uses a Comcast cable card and you can't control it. But, I do get Netflix instant watch and Amazon UnBox on it, so I do have other options.

 

[asta]

I guess what bothers me is that cable likes to brag that they are so much faster than the phone company. What they don't tell you is that you are sharing that fast pipe with a lot of your neighbors. The actual amount of service you receive from them depends on how many of your neighbors are using it with you and what they are transmitting/receiving when you are trying to use it. What happened last night is an example of the type of service Comcast delivers. Kind of reminds me of the old party telephone lines of 50-60 years ago. They worked great too when no one else needed to use the line.

 

[maxiesmom]

I wonder if that storm was the reason why I couldn't pay my bill over the phone yesterday or today. Comcast said they were experiencing high call volume.

I do think it stinks that the system was overloaded and you couldn't watch a movie. I wouldn't have thought that possible.

 

[jackemail]

I just want to vent about bad service from Comcast cable. Yesterday and last night we received 5-6 inches of snow then ice then more snow. Believe me when I tell you that you don't want to drive on southern roads in this condition. Perfect night to stay home and watch a movie or two. I popped popcorn and got the movie room ready but, guess what, couldn't get Comcast on demand to come up. After about 30 minutes of this I called Comcast. Their friendly technician tells me that they are so over capacity that there is no chance that my system will ever connect with theirs. His quote: "We are asking that you just enjoy watching network TV tonight."

Comcast in Memphis stinks...I'm impressed that the guy you talked to was at least polite. The ones who answer the phones here are not helpful, and usually downright rude.

We have several inches of plain ice here....the streets are awful, the drivers are worse, I am staying in.

 

[pittsburghmarc]

DirecTv

 

[browneyes106]

The same things have happened to my sister and friends that have Comcast on Demand. They have said customer service is bad.

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

We've had experiences like that with Comcast many, many times. Problems with On-Deman, things that we DVRed wouldn't play and our internet would go out, sometimes for hours at a time.

We switched to Verizon Fios about 2 months ago and have not had any of those problems at all.

 

[browneyes106]

I know about 10 people who have switched from Comcast to other cable/satellite services. My sister lives in north facing apartment so she is unable to get satellite. She is hoping to get a house or another apartment within the next 6 months.

 

[LukenDC]

I hate Comcast. Worst service I have ever received.

 

[phorsenuf]

I've had Comcast for over 8 years and never had any issues.

 

[asta]

I don't even know why I am bothering with them anymore. After no access last night, I was able to connect to On Demand service around noon today, select a movie and pay for it. The only problem is that it won't let me access the menu to play the movie. After 30 minutes on hold, their service rep tells me that she needs to reset my box, I need to wait at least 30 minutes and then I can view the movie. Do all of that and I still can't get the danged thing to work. Another 30 minute call. They agree to take the charge off my bill but now they tell me that the two cable boxes in my house have both gone bad at the same time and they need to be replaced. This is possible but I doubt this is the problem. There is no charge for this but I really think there is a bandwidth problem. I guess I can always watch the Miss America pagent tonight, I don't think I'll be watching the movie I've been trying to view since last night.

I wish Shaq really had my back but he hasn't shown up yet.

 

[LoraJ]

I've had Comcast for over 8 years and never had any issues.

Me neither. There were a couple of times that the On-Demand went out, but it wasn't the end of the world. I had DirectTV prior, and I am much happier with Comcast. The amount of stuff that is available on On-Demand is great.

 

[cabanafrau]

I guess what bothers me is that cable likes to brag that they are so much faster than the phone company. What they don't tell you is that you are sharing that fast pipe with a lot of your neighbors. The actual amount of service you receive from them depends on how many of your neighbors are using it with you and what they are transmitting/receiving when you are trying to use it. What happened last night is an example of the type of service Comcast delivers. Kind of reminds me of the old party telephone lines of 50-60 years ago. They worked great too when no one else needed to use the line.

That's exactly why DH was so set on AT&T u-verse service for internet. The high speed service they offer is yours and yours alone -- something the cable guys don't offer.

When you're snowed in is the perfect time for on-demand to work for you. I'm sorry it didn't in your case.

 

[TN Hockey Mom]

We didn't even have cable at all for the first half of the day today. I'm assuming it's because of the snow, however, my grandmother, who lives about 2 miles from me, had cable all day. Maybe it's because we have digital cable and she doesn't - who knows? I never could get thru to Comcast. It eventually started coming back a few channels at a time. Luckily, we never lost internet service, which is also thru Comcast. Therefore, after playing in the snow with the kids, I was at least able to get our taxes done thru Turbo Tax. Disney money is on it's way (in 7-14 days).

 

[tasha99]

I do not miss "On Demand" because for some reason, we would preview movies and then blip blip, it was purchased--despite having programmed in a pin that was never asked for. It was awful. When it happened to my daughter, I thought she was telling stories and making excuses for purchasing a movie without permission, but then it happened to me too!

 

[bicker]

I've had Comcast for over 8 years and never had any issues.

There are only marginal differences between the subscription television service providers. In some places, such as here, Comcast television service is actually better in some ways than FiOS TV, while FiOS TV is better in other ways. However, it depends greatly, in both cases, on how old the service delivery infrastructure is. FiOS is, of course, brand-new everywhere it is. Comcast varies, depending on where you are, from relatively new to very very old. As time goes on, of course, FiOS will eventually get "old" and at some point, the very very old Comcast systems will be upgraded -- or perhaps, at some point, Comcast will start deploying the next level of technology, leap-frogging FiOS, if that next level of technology is really warranted. Time will tell.

 

[phorsenuf]

There are only marginal differences between the subscription television service providers. In some places, such as here, Comcast television service is actually better in some ways than FiOS TV, while FiOS TV is better in other ways. However, it depends greatly, in both cases, on how old the service delivery infrastructure is. FiOS is, of course, brand-new everywhere it is. Comcast varies, depending on where you are, from relatively new to very very old. As time goes on, of course, FiOS will eventually get "old" and at some point, the very very old Comcast systems will be upgraded -- or perhaps, at some point, Comcast will start deploying the next level of technology, leap-frogging FiOS, if that next level of technology is really warranted. Time will tell.

Yeah. My husband (and I ) have been in that business for over 26 years now. He started out in CATV and now is in fiber. I used to analyze and document the fiber as it was built and spliced to make sure it met spec.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

We hve Comcast too and I can't stand it. Seems every time I want to watch on Demand I turn it on and a message comes up that its timed out. I have always had good customer service, but after calling, waiting for someone to pick-up, time to fix the problem 1/2 hour to 45 min go by. By that time, we don't even want to watch the movie anymore.

My inlaws have a dish and they say its even worse than cable. Plus you have that ugly thing hanging off your house.

 

[bicker]

Yeah, on demand with satellite seems really like a flaky idea.

By the way, when talking about Comcast, these days, you need to talk about three different Comcasts: Post-Calvary, Pre-Calvary, and Adelphia/SA acquisitions. The issue is that Comcast is in the process of rolling out substantial enhancements nationwide. Internally, they call it Project Calvary; externally, they call it the "World of More". Post-Calvary, Comcast is pretty close to FiOS, at least with regard to television. (FiOS still has an advantage with regard to high-speed Internet.) Pre-Calvary, of course, isn't, but figure that it won't be more than a year or so before you're post-Calvary.

However, there are a few small cable systems -- mostly poorly-designed systems that Comcast acquired from other, smaller companies, especially Adelphia -- which are simply crap. These other companies build them as crap, and never upgraded them to be better than crap, and they're so crappy that it would cost far more to upgrade them now that it is worth. So those few small areas will be at a disadvantage until either consumers generate sufficient profit motive to upgrade those systems, or until costs come down radically. What's worse is that these areas are often crappy because they were not-so-good places to do business from the start. That's why crappy companies like Adelphia were able to get the contracts to provide service there in the first place. So, it isn't likely that suddenly they're become so much better places to do business. Indeed, because of this, it is very unlikely that competitors, like FiOS and U-Verse, will bother offering service in those places, either.