Finally a viable option to comcrapst, prism! (Denver, Colorado Springs: appointed, apartment)

[captain_hug99]

Originally Posted by Colorado xxxxx

And once google fiber goes nationwide both of them are done.

I can only hope it will be sooner rather than later

[allprolab]

Originally Posted by Colorado xxxxx

And once google fiber goes nationwide both of them are done.

Any knowledge on how long that is expected to take? I would think that with the funds that google has they would be in several cities already. Nationwide seems far off at this point. Crossing my fingers they get here soon!

[Teckeeee]

I have no idea when google fiber will fully roll out. Probably at least 5 years from now.

[otowi]

I've been hearing commercials about Charter cable TV lately - anyone using it? How does it compare to Comcast/Xfinity or Prism?

[huffdiver]

Only ONE cable company is allowed in Colorado Springs (and ALL other cities) and that is Comcrap here.


I have also seen ads for Time Warner Cable in Denver, but they are also a Comcrap city. Time Warner Cable is in Telluride, Gunnison and Crested Butte so the Denver stations are carried there thus the advertising in Denver.

You will never be able to get ANY other cable company in the city you are in, only one is allowed (thus the higher rates!).

DirecTv, Dish (satellite companies) and Prism are the only other options- Prism is NOT a cable company (it is a PHONE company) and that is why they are now allowed to compete w/ Comcrap here.

[DewKnight]

Originally Posted by PokerMunkee

Then downgrade to the 12Mbps plan. You know 12Mbps is as good as it gets in WP, so I wouldn't complain too much. I'm paying $45 for 7Mbps/896Kbps with CenturyLink and consider myself lucky with what others get around town. Businesses have to bond two phone lines to get 12Mbps/2Mbps with CL.

I guess you could try Baja if you can get it. I'm guessing you live in an area where CL is 1.5Mbps and nothing else is available, which is pretty much all the newer houses north of town.

I'd rather they just provide the speeds they advertise. If all they can provide is 12, then that should be their max plan.

I found out from former techs and from all of the monitoring that I've been doing that the company does in fact throttle the speed down in hopes that the customer won't notice. The guy who runs the company has always been a scumbag. I just hoped he had changed over the years.

I'm sticking with Baja for now, which by the way has 100Mbps in Woodland Park.

[PokerMunkee]

How much does the 100Mbps cost? What's your upstream? Might make the jump myself. I know they would need to run new cable under to my house.

[Sonic_Spork]

I must be one of the very few...but I've had good experiences with Comcast customer service. My only issue that seems to be a recurring thing everywhere is this:

If you have a technician out to your house, you may wind up with a subcontractor and I have had problem after problem with these guys. I've had them be rude, make messes and leave them, explain how they were going to only do half the job and then hand me hardware to do the rest myself, tell me wrong things about service issues and necessitate repeat visits.... Not just with Comcast though, even in Iowa with Mediacom (the "big cable" when we lived there) we had this issue.

So now, even if I have to wait and take off work due to scheduling it, I ask specifically for a Comcast guy in a company van with the logo on the side and on his shirt, I don't know why but every time if I can just get an actual Comcast person out, they fix my issue right up with no problem and I'm a happy camper. Even their attitude is better.

Sorry to anyone who might read this who does subcontracted work for the cable company, but I've had bad experiences.

Other than that, I think that the pricing structure that rewards new customers and punishes you for loyalty kind of stinks. I get irritated every time I outlast a promo. Just have good prices and stick to them for crying out loud...I shouldn't have to call and try to swing some kind of super sneaky secret squirrel of a deal every time a promo period expires. It's dumb.

I like the product, the technology. And I'm trying to get the X1 boxes, they look interesting.

I also had a guy from Prism come to my door one night recently. He was a very aggressive sales-dude. I was like "No thanks, we aren't interested" and he kept trying to yell even as I was shutting the door, "WHY AREN'T YOU INTERESTED? YOU HAVE COMCAST DON'T YOU? JUST TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT WE HAVE TO OFFER!!"

Next time someone that aggressive is at my door I'm just going to yell back, "WE DO NOT NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS!!" and slam my door in his face...

[mtngigi]

Originally Posted by Sonic_Spork

I must be one of the very few...but I've had good experiences with Comcast customer service. My only issue that seems to be a recurring thing everywhere is this:

If you have a technician out to your house, you may wind up with a subcontractor and I have had problem after problem with these guys. I've had them be rude, make messes and leave them, explain how they were going to only do half the job and then hand me hardware to do the rest myself, tell me wrong things about service issues and necessitate repeat visits.... Not just with Comcast though, even in Iowa with Mediacom (the "big cable" when we lived there) we had this issue.

So now, even if I have to wait and take off work due to scheduling it, I ask specifically for a Comcast guy in a company van with the logo on the side and on his shirt, I don't know why but every time if I can just get an actual Comcast person out, they fix my issue right up with no problem and I'm a happy camper. Even their attitude is better.

Sorry to anyone who might read this who does subcontracted work for the cable company, but I've had bad experiences.

Other than that, I think that the pricing structure that rewards new customers and punishes you for loyalty kind of stinks. I get irritated every time I outlast a promo. Just have good prices and stick to them for crying out loud...I shouldn't have to call and try to swing some kind of super sneaky secret squirrel of a deal every time a promo period expires. It's dumb.

I like the product, the technology. And I'm trying to get the X1 boxes, they look interesting.

I also had a guy from Prism come to my door one night recently. He was a very aggressive sales-dude. I was like "No thanks, we aren't interested" and he kept trying to yell even as I was shutting the door, "WHY AREN'T YOU INTERESTED? YOU HAVE COMCAST DON'T YOU? JUST TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT WE HAVE TO OFFER!!"

Next time someone that aggressive is at my door I'm just going to yell back, "WE DO NOT NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS!!" and slam my door in his face...

I've not had problems with Comcast either - but when I have issues, I'm aggressive about getting help and don't take any you know what from them.

"Other than that, I think that the pricing structure that rewards new customers and punishes you for loyalty kind of stinks. I get irritated every time I outlast a promo. Just have good prices and stick to them for crying out loud...I shouldn't have to call and try to swing some kind of super sneaky secret squirrel of a deal every time a promo period expires. It's dumb."

This is so true ... the ups and downs and all arounds of trying to get a decent package with a price that will stay the same past 6 months or a year, is beyond annoying. For those of us who work from home and need that high-speed, Comcast will always pretty much be the only choice.

In the end - even if all those other choices seem good at the beginning, I have a feeling they end up costing the same as or close to what Comcast charges.

[manxcat]

I recently moved to Colorado Springs in the Briargate area and initially was very excited to NOT have Comcast. My previous experiences with Comcast were not the best. I also was excited about the TV technology and dedicated data line from CenturyLink. I signed up, the installers came out, and they could not make it work. One guy spent an entire 8 hour day at my house. He said my house lines were bad and ran new house lines, they were not bad. He said I had been partitioned wrong and spent hours on the phone with CenturyLink trying to get that fixed, it did not fix the problem. He ended up taking most everything with him when he left except the data modem which was not working well. Very slow speeds with massive lag spikes and random disconnects. A few days later, another tech showed up and after poking around, he told me the lines TO my house were bad.
A week later, I found couple of people poking around the box at the street, they told me the strands from the hub were bad and there were extra strands in a large cable bundle under the ground. He said in a few days some people would show up, dig a hole, grab some new strands, and I would be up and running. A week later, I called to ask when anyone was gonna show up again and I was told they could not see anything in my file about what was going on because the techs were independent and didn't have to report anything to CenturyLink about what was going on with their customers.
Another week went by with no word and by this time, my 30 days to cancel at no charge were about up so I called to get a status and again was told they could not see anything that was going on. I told them I wanted to cancel at this point because they could not seem to make it work. I suggested taking my modem into the local CenturyLink store to return it and was told the store employees could not be trusted to properly credit the modem to my account. They would send me a return shipping label...well, the installer took the box so I asked if I could get a box with the label.
2 days later I started getting calls from a collections agency...apparently I had been turned over to collections for not returning the modem which I had not even received a shipping label for yet!!! I called and complained and was told the collections agency would be turned off for 4 weeks giving me time to return the modem and they would sent out a second shipping label. 3 days later, the first label showed up with no box. I quickly found a box and shipped it back anyway.
2 weeks later, I received a bill for the modem. By this time, I had already filed a BBB complaint and had a POC I could email at the company. I sent him an email demanding to know why the modem had not been credited to my account when I could see by the tracking information that it had been received at the warehouse over a week earlier. I recieved an email back explaining that they did not have the tracking information for the return label they had sent me. He thanked me for the tracking information and assured me that the modem would now be credited to my account.
A month later, I received another bill.....Once again I called, and this time I was told that the modem had been credited to my account but it was not credited fast enough to prevent another bill from being mailed. I was assured I could ignore the bill and that I would not get another.

As of today, I have not received another bill...and I will NOT do business with CenturyLink. Their technology doesn't work is MOST houses AND their customer service is actually MUCH worse than Comcast.
My experience with Comcast has been pleasant...although they did give me a faulty modem which they replaced at the local Comcast store. I think they charge too much, I do experience slowdowns at peak usage hours...but at least they didn't turn me over to collections.

Jeff