Comcast service

[goldenmom]

We just asked Comcast to drop some of the movie channels that we have to lower our monthly bill. The representative said that they are not allowed to downgrade service and that they can only do upgrades. Has anyone else gotten this response from them? Needless to say, we are going to check into Direct TV and other companies. My cable bill keeps increasing constantly and at some point you have to draw the line!

[Mrs. Mom]

Originally Posted by goldenmom

We just asked Comcast to drop some of the movie channels that we have to lower our monthly bill. The representative said that they are not allowed to downgrade service and that they can only do upgrades. Has anyone else gotten this response from them? Needless to say, we are going to check into Direct TV and other companies. My cable bill keeps increasing constantly and at some point you have to draw the line!

I called them a few days ago when I was deciding between DirectV and Comcast. I was told that after the initial year they can offer a higher priced package to get you on another bundle price but they cannot offer you something less than what you have. How stupid. It made the decision easy for me, off to DirectV and Qwest I went.

[Biopace]

Originally Posted by goldenmom

We just asked Comcast to drop some of the movie channels that we have to lower our monthly bill. The representative said that they are not allowed to downgrade service and that they can only do upgrades. Has anyone else gotten this response from them? Needless to say, we are going to check into Direct TV and other companies. My cable bill keeps increasing constantly and at some point you have to draw the line!

When my wife called to drop our premium channels, Comcast told her that after dropping those channels, our bill would be the same (obviously they mess with the numbers to avoid any downgrading). We called Direct TV that day. SO happy to be done supporting Comcast, especially their 10% yearly increases. Our previous $90/month cable bill is now $45 through Direct with more channels. If you use Qwest for DSL and/or phone, you will get an even greater package discount.

[goldenmom]

Thanks! You have just helped me to decide that the best Comcast plan is no plan at all!

[Mikieo415]

Can you use quest for DSL alone without telephone as well?

[SomeRandomGuyM]

Originally Posted by goldenmom

We just asked Comcast to drop some of the movie channels that we have to lower our monthly bill. The representative said that they are not allowed to downgrade service and that they can only do upgrades. Has anyone else gotten this response from them? Needless to say, we are going to check into Direct TV and other companies. My cable bill keeps increasing constantly and at some point you have to draw the line!

When my parents moved to a new house, they signed up for comcast's 1 year special deal. $99 a month for digital cable, internet, and phone. This included I think 2 digital cable boxes and 1 premium channel (HBO) which was actually about 6 or 7 HBOs, plus on demand. After the one year was up, they called to cancel one of the digital cable boxes and remove some channels, including HBO. This would have reduced the bill to less than $99 per month. The Comcast person on the phone tried to convince them to keep the service, and when that didn't work, they just offered to continue the $99 a month special indefinitely, even though it was only supposed to last a year.

It seems really weird that so many people have all these complaints about Comcast. My parents also had problems with slow internet and dropped connections, and when they called Comcast about it, they sent someone out the very next day who ran all new cables through most of the house, tested every outlet, and fixed the problem for free. It was something about old low quality cables and too many splits reducing the signal strength. Comcast definitely has issues and screws things up like any other company, but I haven't seen the types of horrible customer service that a lot of people here are talking about, it seems like the exact opposite to me.

[NickMan7]

We have DirecTV for tv and Comcast for computer. We have no complaints about either. We have found DirecTV's customer service quite acceptable and they have always fixed any minor issues we have. Our bill has remained unchanged for several years. We have had 0 issues with snow or ice.

[nelumbo]

I downgraded my comcast cable last summer with no problems - just called, said I wanted to switch to a lesser plan, and they changed it within minutes. I was switching from 'regular' cable to 'absolute minimal' cable, though, no movie channels involved....

[Biopace]

Originally Posted by Mikieo415

Can you use quest for DSL alone without telephone as well?

Yes, they have a deal where you can get DSL w/o a land line (smart biz decision given how many folks these days only have a cell). My sister-in-law did this and did not have any issues.

[themaster]

Ahh.. my field of expertise.. internets mainly (not so much the cable)

This is what I know about the cable.. years ago before HD.. DirectTV was always better, I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing exists still today, I don't think comcast deployed the best HD technology or has enough spectrum as of yet for HD.. this is kind of like a fresh coat of paint on a used fiesta or 76' ford (it’s my understanding that eventually the DOCSIS 3.0 rollout will allow more bandwidth for HD, that and getting rid of analog)

As for as internets go..

Comcast
Pro's
- Fastest Downloads bar none (especially if they allowed all the speed they have..)
- Best routing (they use AT&T bandwidth, were as Qwest uses qwest.. everything with qwest goes through dallas?)
- Future broadband deployment of Docsis 3.0 (already available in 2 test city's) with 50 mbit of download
- 10 ms first hop

Con's
- Cherry pick customers based on downloads or if your top 3% user expect a phone call
- Charge a lot
- Currently filtering torrent downloads (which brings up a lot of issues like what else would they filter voip etc?)

Qwest
- Cheapest provider (though covad resold through AT&T/others may be $20 for 1st year)
- Doesn't care what you download (giving 5 to 7 mbit now for comcasts base rate)

Cons
- Have to have a phone line and if you don't sometimes get hit with dry line DSL fee
- Seems to not even upgrade their customers to higher speeds.. I've seen a few of my customers (I work on computers) running at 256k still or 640k..
- More noticeable outages (while comcast basically never goes down or rarely.. I've seen quite a few qwest modems work iffy as of late.. there are supposed issues with comcast but I've never seen one in many, many years of service work)
- 40 ms first hop and note I consider qwests network a downer.. takes 100 ms to get anywhere on it.. not acceptable to all gamers..

Covad ADSL (resold through earthlink/cyberonic/AT&T etc. if you don't buy it resold prepare to pay a fortune)

Pro's
- Level 3 and XO bandwidth, very nice (the level 3 anyway)
- 10 ms first hop when working in FAST mode (but if your too far out it may not be stable)
- 40 ms first hop working in stable mode (earthlink seems to do this a lot)
- Static IP with some (I think you have to pay for this with qwest and comcast no longer has the option I believe)

Con's
- May not be stable in FAST mode
- Depending on reseller or direct you may pay a lot.. (depends)
- You may also be looking at some expense of "Dry Line" fee