rocco augusto

Shoot me in the Face - Day 1 - A Comcast Story

Posted: Aug 3, 09:47 AM

I woke up this morning to my daughter turning on the TV and hearing nothing but static. Since I am a Comcast customer, this isn’t terribly unheard of. When it comes to reliability and dependency, Comcast’s service is like dating a crack head – you have no idea what is going to happen at any given time of the day and the only thing you are sure about is once a month they’re going to steal $100 or more from your wallet.

Since the cable was out and everything else was working I decided to call my own personal Comcast liaison, which I got the last time I publicly complained about Comcast’s service. After she pulled up my account she informed me that Comcast had sent a technician out to put a “trap” on my line and downgrade me to their basic cable television service. Seeing as how I did not request my service to be downgraded, and that I am STILL waiting for a second technician to come out fix my Internet problem, I inquired as to how they had the time to cut my service off but not fix my “horribly degraded” cable lines so I can actually use the Internet I am paying for. It turns out since I returned my DTA box, this horrible little black box that Comcast forces you to lease if you want any cable station above 30, that it automatically reduces your service to their basic cable package.

I explained to my liaison, that I was receiving those Clear QAM channels long before having the DTA box and that I returned it because both her and my technician told me I could since I was only using Clear QAM but she insisted that I’m just not“getting it.” According to her, if I wanted to use the Clear QAM channels – those channels that are broadcast for individuals that do not need a DTA box because their TV is capable of picking them up – I must in fact lease a DTA box from Comcast. As I am told all of those Clear QAM, or over the air channels as Comcast likes to call them, are not provided by Comcast so if I am not using their equipment then they are required to come out and put a “trap” on my line to prevent me from accessing them.

So now not only am I forced to pay $40/month for 30 channels I will never watch, I also have to lease a useless box that I will never use to pick up the rest of the channels I should be getting with the service package I am pay for. On top of that if I happen to lose or damage this box I will never use, I get charged out the freaking bum for it! I could just cancel my cable TV but then if I do that my cable Internet costs will jump up to basically what I am paying for both TV and Internet. No matter what, if I want TV or Internet, I’m screwed and have to settle for this ridiculous cluster *&#$ of what Comcast considers service.

If there was another cable provider in my area I would happily switch over immediately but unfortunately Comcast appears to have a monopoly in the Portland area so my only options are to either continue to deal with only being able to use my Internet for 20 minute stretches at a time and to not get over half the channels I am paying for – without leasing equipment I don’t need of course – or to keep publicly complaining about it until Comcast fixes the problem for more than a week at a time.

I would move to satellite, but unfortunately I am not allowed to mount a satellite dish in my building. I would also just move to watching TV online and use services such as Hulu or NetFlix’s Watch Now, but that is next to impossible as I can’t make it through a whole show without my Internet connection dropping 800 times.

Since I am not a fan of sitting around and twiddling my thumbs I have decided to take the proactive approach and keep a daily journal of how horrible my Comcast service is. While I do feel bad about it because my liaison is incredibly nice and keeps telling me I am will get special discounts and promotions – that so far have never appear on my bill – I highly doubt my service will get any better anytime soon unless I continue to make a stink about it.

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RECAP 08-03-2009
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1. Comcast Internet is worse off now then before the technician came out to fix it
2. Comcast put a “trap” on my line because I returned their DTA box that I did not need because I had Clear QAM access.
3. Comcast informs me if I want Clear QAM access then I have to lease a DTA box from them… which defeats the whole purpose of having Clear QAM access.
4. Liaison is trying her hardest to get someone to come out ASAP to remove the “trap” that was put on my line earlier today
5. I was once again promised the same discounts and promotions I was promised last month that have still not shown up on my account