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Comcast Corporation Complaint - HDTV Cable Box Problems - HDTV Cable Box - with New and Improved Update!

HDTV Cable Box - with New and Improved Update! - Complaint
Review by gogaterz on 2006-11-01
What a nightmare I’m having with Comcast. Let me first say that I have basic cable, tier II cable, Silver package with the HBO channels, and high speed internet. I pay them almost $150/month for crappy service. First, had visual, but no sound from my HD cable box. I called on a Thursday afternoon and after being on hold for 34 minutes, the Comcast support rep had me unplug my box (their cure for everything), like I haven’t tried that before. Of course then everything needs to reset and you can’t use “On Demand”. That lasts until you turn the box off. Turn it on again….no sound. Nice. The support rep told me they couldn't send anyone until that Tuesday and someone had to be home. So, on top of no cable for 6 days, my wife had to stay home from work to let the cable guy in. He shows up, on time though, says the box is bad, takes it and installs a new one and says everything is fine. My wife checks before he leaves and sees that 90% of the channels don’t work and “On Demand” doesn’t work. He tells her the box is resetting and it will be fine in 30 minutes. 30 minutes later they still don’t work. Oh, and I had about 20 hours of prime shows taped on the DVR cable box. He took them with him in the old box. Two hours later, still no channels. I call and after holding for 20 minutes, I get a support rep who tells me to unplug the box again, of course it doesn’t help and she tells me they can have someone to my house on Friday, I ask to speak to a SUPERVISOR. They give me a SUPERVISOR who tells me they need to send someone out again, and he can have someone at my house the next day (Wednesday) at 10:30 and I have to be home. So I take Wednesday off from work so someone can be here at 10:30 as per the SUPERVISOR. No one shows up at 10:30. I figure maybe they got held up. Finally at 1:00 I call and ask to speak to another SUPERVISOR, who tells me there is no appointment because it had to cancel and someone should have called me to tell me that. After much complaining and telling the SUPERVISOR that I was going to cancel my account, she checked into some things and said they'll have someone to my house by 5:00 this afternoon. So basically we’ve gone one week without cable, and two days of missed work. That's a lot more than my monthly bill for cable. I'm not going to pay my bill this month because I have lost probably four months of cable bill costs just missing work. I'll bet you they’ll be very fast to contact me to find out why my bill has not been paid. Actually they’ll probably be even faster to shut off my service. Funny how they have that down pat. Maybe it's time we all switched to DSL and a sattelite dishes. The monopoly of cable needs to stop..........(UPDATE)...Well somebody came out and said that the LAST REPAIR PERSON should have known that the latest box was bad because they are supposed to test them before they leave. He said THE LAST REPAIR PERSON probably tested it and saw a problem, but told us everything was good because he probably just “wanted to get out of here”. So he said he tested it and everything is fine with ANOTHER BRAND NEW BOX. So I finally felt satisfied and tonight went in to watch television and guess what………….NO SOUND AGAIN. I called Comcast, waited for 15 minutes to get someone and they told me they can have someone out to fix my box on Friday. Here it is Wednesday and I have the original problem I had last Thursday when I called. I asked for a Supervisor and they told me none was available. This will get posted on line again with the latest update. Oh, and I’m mailing a copy to the local newspaper and the Chairman of Comcast. Proobably have an update Friday when it’s not working for another reason!
Comments:
Posted by Sparticus on 2006-11-01:
We had a very similar problem with Comcast and our HDTV box. After numerous "reboot" the box calls to their useless customer service, we finally took matters into our own hands. I located a local comcast office and drove their with my old box. Swapped it out for a new box and remote. Everything has worked great since. We did however have to call one more time after getting the new box so it could be "activated" or something. We had a similar problem where the channels would not show up. They activated it and it worked great after that. One trick, try calling and selecting the menu option for new customers. You get through a lot faster (2 min versus 30 min) and they can remotely activate your box. Good luck!
Posted by momtoss on 2006-11-29:
Did you ever get anywhere with comcast? Have had similar problems, gave me a bad HDTV box, set me up for appointments and they don't show up,then when I call they say they don't show an appt. for me. Have also asked for supervisor and there is never one available, they say one will call me back but they never do. I'm the big fool, I have cable, internet and phone service with them. I am so sick of Comcast, customer service is such a joke and their techs that come out are useless. They want to get in and out ASAP, they will tell you anything to get out of your house. I have their wires hanging all over the outside of my house like spaghetti. I have asked them to hang them right and they totally ignore me. I thought companies where not allowed to have a monopoly on the market, but that theory goes out the window, just look at FPL (electric co.), my goodness that's a whole other complaint post. I hope your problems have gotten attention and hope that you don't have anymore.
Posted by missd1975 on 2006-12-18:
I hate Comcast SO MUCH. I just got cable 2 weeks ago, and already I have problems. Menu, signal coming in, no picture. Saturday I called customer (dis)service, and after being on hold for about 30 minutes, I was told a rep was going to try sending a stronger signal to my box and I would get a call back in 2 hours. YEAH RIGHT. Like I believed that!
Today I called back, and of course the woman on the phone had no idea what my problem was, even though she confirmed that all the notes from my Saturday call were in the system. So, you know, you would think that would answer the questions she was asking me...since they were the same questions I was asked the first time...
Now I have a tech coming tomorrow, and thank goodness for the fact I work from home, because otherwise that would be two days off work for cable service. I am actually stunned my technicians showed up for the first time. But hey, since I live in Chicago, now I have to worry that my technician might be a serial killer!! GREAAATTT!
If Comcast can't fix this, I am done with them. It sucks so bad that they are my only option. I realize most cable companies have their issues, but I had great luck with RCN and...oh, hey...Comcast is the first one I ever heard about that had a murderer contracting for them!!

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