Comcast Cable, Internet & Phone

Comcast Cable, Internet & Phone

September 7, 2005

Comcast Cable Lies to get your business, then doubles the price! - Pittsburgh, PA A few years ago, I cancelled my digital cable service because I just couldn't afford the expense. About 6 months later, I started receiving calls from Comcast practically begging me to but cable. I didn't want to speak to them but one particular caller was very nice & extremely sympathetic to my concerns, so I gave her a chance. She assured me repeatedly that this wasn't some sort of promo & that this would be my price permanently, barring normal rate increases.I didn't trust her so I even had a friend pick up the phone & hear the whole pitch. After asking his opinion for loopholes, caveats, etc., I decided to go for it. The deal was, I would receive expanded basic & digital classic for about $23.99 per month, which is about 50% of the charge for that package. When I asked why Comcast would give ME 50% off on my service, her exact words were, "We would rather have your business at a lower price that you can afford then lose you as a customer completely." Soon I had the service & all was well. Twice, I came home to find no service. Both times, techs came out & completely "reinstalled" my entire service, charging me only for new wires. About a year later, I moved & had my service transferred to the new address, no problem. Six months after that, I came home & found no expanded basic channels -- which, let's face it, are the good channels. Basic is nothing & digital classic is lame, only had digital so I could have "on demand". When I called Comcast to inform them of a problem with the service, an extremely smug jerk named Jason was delighted to tell me that they had turned off some of my service because I hadn't been paying for it. I spent 4 hours on the phone that night & it was the beginning of a 6 month ordeal with Comcast to try & get them to honor their promise to me, to no avail. According to Comcast, no such promotion ever existed, the telemarketer I spoke with lied but no one can identify her as that call was conveniently not taped. Additionally, the tech that turned on my new service accidentally hooked me up for exactly the service the telemarketer promised. His paperwork accidentally checked off the promised services, 2 other techs that came to that address to reinstall bad service also accidentally gave me exactly what the telemarketer promised, a third tech that installed the service at the new address when I moved also accidentally gave me exactly what the telemarketer promised, the TEAM of 2 techs that came to my new address to fix my service after an outage ALSO accidentally gave me exactly what the telemarketer promised, and the cherry on top it that for 18 months or so, Comcast also accidentally gave me exactly what the telemarketer promised, for the quoted price. Needless to say, I refused to pay double & promptly cancelled my service once my Dish Network was hooked up. It's cheaper, better picture, great channels that Comcast charges extra for (NFL Network, for one). I wouldn't go back to Comcast if they wanted to pay me to do so. Incidentally, when they came to disconnect my cable, they didn't -- but did accidentally disconnect the internet service instead, which I was going to keep. Since they said it would take almost a week to get the internet running again, I told them to forget it. Within hours, I was using Verizon DHL & it's actually faster than Comcast was on my computer. Just for closure, I cancelled my Comcast phone as well so that they won't get a dime from me ever again. It's been almost 2 months & Comcast is still billing me for cable, internet & phone service even though they actually owe me credits of approximately $80, since they bill you in advance. If this industry was properly regulated, this company would get shut down. To say that their customer service reps are incompetent, stupid and unnecessarily rude is an understatement. I just don't understand how they can be permitted to monopolize so much of the market? For anyone else that hates Comcast: Verizon DSL & Fios are fantastic & both Dish Network & Direc TV are excellent (& economical) alternatives. Don't allow yourselves to be held captive any longer -- you do have a choice & if you're with Comcast, you're making the WRONG choice!

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