PDA

View Full Version : Comcast Users: Don't Waste Your Time



RavenOfOdin
July 8th, 2006, 09:31 PM
Or money!

I am absolutely INFURIATED with Comcast at this moment and I want to know if any of you have had the same experiences that I have with their tech personnel.

The start of my issues with them goes as follows: I had three techs out here and been on the phone with them 10 times because the cable failed miserably and the phones went dead every so often. So we get a free month of service. We got Comcast Digital Voice, they sent us an Arris TM402P, two more techs out here (AFTER THE ONE WHO INSTALLED IT AND COULDN'T DO A HALF DECENT JOB! PS: This same one also told us to run out and buy a NIC that we didn't need, thus wasting 50 dollars) to fix the cable lines AGAIN. Then we start to get on the phone with the head offices of Comcast -- in Philadelphia. Two free months now, and we're in touch with the head of their tech division as well as one of the company's bigshots.

The problems don't end there.
We get Comcast Home Networking and they sent us out a Netgear router, which the tech that came here to install it failed to install properly. So it was one computer in this house on Ethernet, one on Wireless Networking. I get the networking installed properly on both computers and we have to phone the head offices again. The phones die two more times, and we hear its because their boxes are faulty. So someone else comes and switches out hardware. Three free months and we're headed for four.

The Internet just died today on the PC in the office and we get a tech over here to check the issue out. Guess what he does.

He, in no particular order:

1) Said that touching port forwarding, or ANYTHING on the auto-configuration page, is a no-no. This after the tech who was out here the first time said he'd give me the username and pass for it, which he did not, and I had to speak with some guy named John at the Home Networking Support Center to get it, who said it is okay to self-configure port forwarding and blocking and all this which this new guy is now making the sign of the cross at.

And this also after it is noted that I play games which require an Internet connection.

His remark to back this all up is "this is how we do things in Comcast-land."
And he says I may as well get my own router if I want to diddle with some rather innocuous settings, because they have every gaming port locked down on their end. NOT good for a majority of customers, I'd assume.

2) Tells me that I have to format WinXP on my PC (!!!) which can't be done because my parents use it almost religiously and I don't have any XP disks. This is a Hewlett Packard I'm talking about and they don't give them out for this model any more. God knows I'd love to wipe XP off, but . . .just. . .whoa. Not this way.

3) Says that data on the Ubuntu Linux partition of my PC could have adversely affected data on the WinXP partition of my PC. . . .

:confused:

Doesn't that go against "Basic Partitioning 101?"
He recommended that I get a USB hard drive for special projects (ie: coding) and I honestly am not so sure of Linux's status with USB hard drives. Someone give me some info on this? Please?

4) Says in not so many words that the firmware on the old Netgear is fried because I changed the login password for the autoconfiguration prompt from "1234" (!!!)

I could understand if the issue with networking passwords was due to expediency, but. . .firmware FRIED? New box? This is INSANE!

:eek: :eek: :eek:

And he left our house with only one Internet connection working, thus job done in a half-assed manner.

I would strongly advise any Comcast Home Networking users here to just bail out of the deal. You don't want to be where I am now! TRUST ME!

I think I'm going to post this on Comcast.net and watch their so-called "support" base try to wiggle out of it.

(UPDATE: I've restored Internet connectivity to both computers by doing something their dumber-than-****-and-rocks tech apparently couldn't do. . .restore the Ethernet cable to the PC!)

(PS: Now that I've gotten this out, if any of y'all in the admin position wanna backyard this for I'm-going-to-slit-my-ISP's-throat type venting, then go ahead.)

mips
July 8th, 2006, 09:56 PM
I would not believe anything they tell you. They sound like a bunch of egits that have no clue what they are doing and trying to pull the wool over your eyes.

Max Luebbe
July 8th, 2006, 10:00 PM
Cut them some slack.
I bet they tried real hard at their local vocational school pc class, before it proved to be way over their heads, threw in a towel, and got a job at comcast.

RavenOfOdin
July 8th, 2006, 10:06 PM
Oh and did I mention the guy who was over here recently went up on the telephone poles and installed a NEW cable?

jpkotta
July 9th, 2006, 12:06 AM
Linux plays very well with external USB HDs.

jason.b.c
July 9th, 2006, 02:56 AM
So then didn't the service guy have any stupid comments to make about your ubuntu linux system being in your computer .? or the fact that you would be using there internet in ubuntu as well..??

Something like you can't use a linux system because " Our software needs to be installed in your computer in order for our internet service to work properly" "Thats why your having these problems.!" or " You can't really expect our service to work that well in a linux system because we only offer windows support " "You should consider just using windows to insure uninterupted service "...


And he says I may as well get my own router if I want to diddle with some rather innocuous settings, because they have every gaming port locked down on their end. NOT good for a majority of customers, I'd assume.

What..?? Thats freakin ridiculous..! They're supposed to open those port options up to you if you ask for it.. And why should you have to get your own router..?! Thats stupid too..!

BarfBag
July 9th, 2006, 04:03 AM
$17 a month for Verizon DSL. Their support sucks, but not THAT bad. ;)

rbmorse
July 9th, 2006, 05:23 AM
Jeebus. The last Comcast guy I had out here gave me a hard time for running kubuntu, too, but mostly because he's a Gentoo freakaziod.

briancurtin
July 9th, 2006, 05:43 AM
yeah comcast is the worst. their technicians never know what they are talking about when the come out here, and most of the time they dont even come. take this for example...
1. comcast made an appointment for friday in like a 4 hour time-range...and the guy didnt come. my mom calls and asks what the hell is going on, we cannot wait any longer because its been out for a week. we get like a free month of service and a GUARANTEE that the guy will be there monday, and they will call monday with the exact appointment time
2. monday morning we get a call and the guy will be there AT ANY HOUR TODAY BEFORE 5:00...because apparently we have people to stay home all day long for the comcast guy, but this works out alright. my mom, who only works part-time till 12:30 tells them any time from 12:30-5:00 is fine, so its on.
3. 5:30 rolls around and theres no comcast guy and she calls them up to find out that the guy cancelled our appointment and is on his way home. see, thats not going to work. she had the supervisor call this jackass up and when he was halfway home he had to turn around and go to my house, and make it work 100% before he left.
4. the guy didnt know ****, but he fixed it because he just strung a whole new cable from a new source. he got lucky.

BetaguyGZT
July 9th, 2006, 06:45 AM
AT&T Yahoo DSL. No fuss, no muss. They have 3 speed packages which range from 1.5 meg (slowest) to 6 meg (Elite). Support is top-notch and a LOT cheaper than Comcast (whose "Tech Support" needs support). I pay 20 bones a month for the first year, then 25 a month thereafter. No caps, no issues at all with gaming, and you don't even have to use their software. I got the midrange model, and it's plenty fast enough for me (319 on download). No issues with routers or networking either.

Just my $.02. :D

Rich3077
July 9th, 2006, 07:34 AM
AT&T Yahoo DSL. No fuss, no muss. They have 3 speed packages which range from 1.5 meg (slowest) to 6 meg (Elite). Support is top-notch and a LOT cheaper than Comcast (whose "Tech Support" needs support). I pay 20 bones a month for the first year, then 25 a month thereafter. No caps, no issues at all with gaming, and you don't even have to use their software. I got the midrange model, and it's plenty fast enough for me (319 on download). No issues with routers or networking either.

Just my $.02. :D

I just got the same deal, ditching Comcast in a few days as soon as my equipment arrives. I am going with the Elite service because this household uses a lot of bandwith and between us all someone is on the internet almost 24/7. I had to pay a little more because I dont have a traditional landline so I had to have one installed. Overall I get the landline and elite service for less than my internet alone with Comcast. I have had a lot of bad experiances with Comcast so I am happy to see them go.

Peace
Rich

rcarring
July 9th, 2006, 08:22 AM
I just told Comcast that I wasn't happy with my download speed and bullied him into fixing the node so that I get a decent 6mps connection. I bought a router that takes wan from the cable modem and provides for four ports all 10/100.

I think the wifi probably freaked them. It would me too, as I am not convinced there are not freeloaders around here just waiting to grab the hotspace.

weasel fierce
July 9th, 2006, 08:29 AM
comcast havent given us any issues yet, but then, we havent had to call support for anything.

Calling any tech support is always a 50/50 gamble. Either you get someone that knows exactly what is going on, or you get something that have no friggen clue

prizrak
July 9th, 2006, 04:51 PM
My ex g/f was having the same kind of issues with them, she ended up switching to Verizon DSL. (She in Baltimore).

BWF89
July 9th, 2006, 04:57 PM
I'm getting Comcast digital cable, digital phone, and cable internet on the 17th.

yabbadabbadont
July 10th, 2006, 02:56 AM
I just got the same deal, ditching Comcast in a few days as soon as my equipment arrives. I am going with the Elite service because this household uses a lot of bandwith and between us all someone is on the internet almost 24/7. I had to pay a little more because I dont have a traditional landline so I had to have one installed. Overall I get the landline and elite service for less than my internet alone with Comcast. I have had a lot of bad experiances with Comcast so I am happy to see them go.

Peace
Rich

I too have the SBC/Yahoo (ok ATT/Yahoo) Expert Plus DSL package. I live only 1200 feet from the main switch. 624Kb/s is my normal download speed. (the first time I downloaded a linux ISO, I did a happy dance around my chair) In the two years I've had it, I've only had two outages. The first lasted for a couple of hours when an authentication server was down. They gave me the required dial-up settings without hassel over the phone. (I didn't use them since the auth server was down...) The second was corrected on their end while I was on the phone with support. (they were rebooting an authentication server it turned out) The two support people I spoke with were actually helpful and didn't require me to try trouble shooting steps that only apply to winblows. I found it helps to tell them up front that I'm already looking at the connection diagnostics webpage built into the modem.

MetalMusicAddict
July 10th, 2006, 04:07 AM
I'm getting Comcast digital cable, digital phone, and cable internet on the 17th.

Honestly man, DONT get their voice service. Get Vonage (www.vonage.com). $25 vs. $40? Not a hard choice. Vonage has been great. Best thing about it (for me) is that if I get a voicemail it emails it to you. I check my email more. :)

Comcast hasnt been too much of a bother here. Their techs are idiots. I mostly dont like their pricing.

rcarring
July 10th, 2006, 06:09 AM
You probably saw the slashdotted item about increased taxes on VOIP services such as Vonage?

Polygon
July 10th, 2006, 07:46 AM
i have had no problem with comcast, most likely because my dad is "manager of computer services" where he works. and set everything up himself.

MetalMusicAddict
July 10th, 2006, 12:37 PM
You probably saw the slashdotted item about increased taxes on VOIP services such as Vonage?
Yea, Ive seen some articles. A couple of charges have already been applied. Its not a big deal though. Even if it goes up to $30 a month it still kills others VOIP and phone services. I have it hard-wired to the whole house. :)

Stealth
July 10th, 2006, 12:52 PM
I've had Comcast and so far its been half and half.

On the upside, when it works perfectly, I get up to some 700kb/sec on downloads and have a constant connection, which is very sweet.

On the downside, some times the connection likes to drop constantly for some hours, and sometimes it just gets slow.

I definitely noticed that the people who came in really didn't know too much on what they were doing. I was standing behind the guy while he used my computer to connect and stuff, he couldn't find the IE icon (I run XP mainly, Ubuntu on dual-boot) and apparently did not even know about Firefox as he skimmed over the icon twice on my quicklaunch bar, AND in my recent apps on the start menu. Also, in XP I've sorted my programs into categories, just like Ubuntu, to keep it neat and what-not. He is skimming through all the sections (Accessories, Arts & Development, Games, etc.) and even passes the one that says "Internet" and then asks me where IE is. So I go into Internet, and open Internet Explorer...:P

Also, we only will have this for 5 months before we move, and sine we'll be paying $10 for the first 3, it's a VERY good deal...

MetalMusicAddict
July 10th, 2006, 01:19 PM
He is skimming through all the sections (Accessories, Arts & Development, Games, etc.) and even passes the one that says "Internet" and then asks me where IE is. So I go into Internet, and open Internet Explorer...:P
I like telling techs I dont have IE. Theres usually a long pause. :)

Tech support has to start to realize there is more than 1 browser out there. Even if they just knew about Firefox it would be a step in the right direction. Hell Safari would even be a good step. Theres a good amount of MAC users out there.

Cut them some slack.
I bet they tried real hard at their local vocational school pc class, before it proved to be way over their heads, threw in a towel, and got a job at comcast.
Here in MD. The guys that come to the house are sub-contractors. Once I had an actual Comcast guy come out.

BWF89
July 10th, 2006, 01:29 PM
Honestly man, DONT get their voice service. Get Vonage (www.vonage.com). $25 vs. $40? Not a hard choice. Vonage has been great. Best thing about it (for me) is that if I get a voicemail it emails it to you. I check my email more. :)

Comcast hasnt been too much of a bother here. Their techs are idiots. I mostly dont like their pricing.
Well the cable internet, digital phone, and digital cable with some extra channels is only going to cost us around $100 a month.

I didnt' know digital phone ment VOIP.

Rich3077
July 29th, 2006, 07:16 AM
For VOIP I use Sunrocket (www.sunrocket.com) I was in it in the early days and had a couple of outages in wich they gave me "points" for. I can now exchange my points for $50 in American Express gift certificates.

You can get a year of service for $199.00 regular price and they give you a set a wireless handsets worth about $90 for joining. They also run specials from time to time for 13 to 15 months of service for the same price. They include many features like caller ID and free long distance to the US and Canada as well as a monthly credit for other international calls. Sunrocket simply rocks.. so tell Comcast to meet it or beat it.

unisol
January 3rd, 2008, 05:07 PM
i had trouble with comcast high-speed internet disconnecting in the beginning, and after about a month of calling and have service techs come out and they ran a seperate line into the house that connects to one cable box and cable modem. it has worked great ever since. the only problem i have is in philly, they have wireless from earthlink, and my linux box in the garage connects to it and i refuse to pay another account. maybe things will improve down the road.

eljoeb
January 3rd, 2008, 05:27 PM
I've been using Comcast for a while without incident. Its definitely faster than the DSL I used to have, so I'm a happy camper.

unisol
January 3rd, 2008, 05:35 PM
Oh and did I mention the guy who was over here recently went up on the telephone poles and installed a NEW cable?


RavenOfOdin; did the install a seperate line for your cable modem? i have three cable boxes in my house and there were too many splitters. thus the seperate line.

Crashmaxx
January 3rd, 2008, 07:17 PM
Or money!

I am absolutely INFURIATED with Comcast at this moment and I want to know if any of you have had the same experiences that I have with their tech personnel.

The start of my issues with them goes as follows: I had three techs out here and been on the phone with them 10 times because the cable failed miserably and the phones went dead every so often. So we get a free month of service. We got Comcast Digital Voice, they sent us an Arris TM402P, two more techs out here (AFTER THE ONE WHO INSTALLED IT AND COULDN'T DO A HALF DECENT JOB! PS: This same one also told us to run out and buy a NIC that we didn't need, thus wasting 50 dollars) to fix the cable lines AGAIN. Then we start to get on the phone with the head offices of Comcast -- in Philadelphia. Two free months now, and we're in touch with the head of their tech division as well as one of the company's bigshots.

The problems don't end there.
We get Comcast Home Networking and they sent us out a Netgear router, which the tech that came here to install it failed to install properly. So it was one computer in this house on Ethernet, one on Wireless Networking. I get the networking installed properly on both computers and we have to phone the head offices again. The phones die two more times, and we hear its because their boxes are faulty. So someone else comes and switches out hardware. Three free months and we're headed for four.

The Internet just died today on the PC in the office and we get a tech over here to check the issue out. Guess what he does.

He, in no particular order:

1) Said that touching port forwarding, or ANYTHING on the auto-configuration page, is a no-no. This after the tech who was out here the first time said he'd give me the username and pass for it, which he did not, and I had to speak with some guy named John at the Home Networking Support Center to get it, who said it is okay to self-configure port forwarding and blocking and all this which this new guy is now making the sign of the cross at.

And this also after it is noted that I play games which require an Internet connection.

His remark to back this all up is "this is how we do things in Comcast-land."
And he says I may as well get my own router if I want to diddle with some rather innocuous settings, because they have every gaming port locked down on their end. NOT good for a majority of customers, I'd assume.

2) Tells me that I have to format WinXP on my PC (!!!) which can't be done because my parents use it almost religiously and I don't have any XP disks. This is a Hewlett Packard I'm talking about and they don't give them out for this model any more. God knows I'd love to wipe XP off, but . . .just. . .whoa. Not this way.

3) Says that data on the Ubuntu Linux partition of my PC could have adversely affected data on the WinXP partition of my PC. . . .

:confused:

Doesn't that go against "Basic Partitioning 101?"
He recommended that I get a USB hard drive for special projects (ie: coding) and I honestly am not so sure of Linux's status with USB hard drives. Someone give me some info on this? Please?

4) Says in not so many words that the firmware on the old Netgear is fried because I changed the login password for the autoconfiguration prompt from "1234" (!!!)

I could understand if the issue with networking passwords was due to expediency, but. . .firmware FRIED? New box? This is INSANE!

:eek: :eek: :eek:

And he left our house with only one Internet connection working, thus job done in a half-assed manner.

I would strongly advise any Comcast Home Networking users here to just bail out of the deal. You don't want to be where I am now! TRUST ME!

I think I'm going to post this on Comcast.net and watch their so-called "support" base try to wiggle out of it.

(UPDATE: I've restored Internet connectivity to both computers by doing something their dumber-than-****-and-rocks tech apparently couldn't do. . .restore the Ethernet cable to the PC!)

(PS: Now that I've gotten this out, if any of y'all in the admin position wanna backyard this for I'm-going-to-slit-my-ISP's-throat type venting, then go ahead.)
I've had pretty good service from Comcast, but I only use their TV and internet. I think you made a couple mistakes here that are causing all your troubles.

First of all, DON'T LISTEN TO THE TECHS! Don't believe a word they say, don't waste any more time having them come out, don't even call Comcast for support. Not until you have a good idea what is actually wrong here. Otherwise, they are going to keep feeding you BS and wasting your time. I'm afraid you will be much better off solving the problem yourself, but I bet you only have a minor issue actually at play anyway.

Second, I would say getting digital voice was a mistake. When I first got Comcast, i had a decent amount of downtime for internet and even with those problems solved, the router still dies from time to time. This is an annoyance with internet, but would be a serious issue if my phone was going out. To make things worse, VOIP phones are going to have some 'dumb' auto way of connecting tote router and likely have no settings, so they may just fail to connect for no apparent reason. Which is REALLY bad for a phone. Personally, I would stick to hard lines or cell phones for that, but don't worry, I bet you can get it working 90% of the time with little effort.

So where do you go from here? First, DON'T TAKE ANY OF THE TECH'S ADVICE! Don't by anything, format anything, or any of that BS. Your computers are NOT the problem.

Start by checking your cable splitters if you know where they are and what they go to. And if you don't know which line is which, disconnect them one by one and see what TV loses cable and label them with some tape. Next, you want to have the cable modem (or router if they are one unit) connected to the FIRST splitter from your outside connection. Why, because while your TV's won't notice much with a little loss in signal, the internet connection needs the best signal possible. This should make your internet more reliable and faster.

Next is real simple, check that every wire is connected where is should be and has a good connection. Just go through all your cable connections and ethernet wire and unplug and reconnect them (don't bother with TV's).

Then, restart everything, but do it in order. Restart the cable modem first (if it is separate), then the router, then the computer if they don't reconnect to the internet, and once the internet is working, restart the phones (if there is some main piece connected to the router, restart that first). If you don't know how to restart these, the best way is just to disconnect the power cable, wait about 10 secs, maybe a min if you want, plug it back in, and wait for any lights to stop flashing then do the next device. Hopefully, that is all you need to do to have everything work.

If all those steps don't fix everything, post what is still not working in as much detail as possible and we will go from there. Some settings in something (most likely the router) may need to be adjusted. And when everything works, feel free to open any ports you need in the router (they don't block any I know of).

Most of our outages were solved by having Comcast increase the cable signal strength (AKA gain) on their end and redoing the splitters. Now the internet rarely goes out for us.

Hope you can get it fixed and enjoy all your free months of service they gave you. Too bad you tried to get help from the techs, they are just being lazy and trying to blame it on anything but them.

forrestcupp
January 3rd, 2008, 07:42 PM
The Comcast techs aren't necessarily the ones who should have felt dumb.