Comcast vs Centurylink (Fort Collins, Parker: home, price, centers)

[Sunbees]

Moving to Ft Collins...have experienced Qwest/Centurylink previously so am considering Comcast. Fast internet only with no contract is preferred. No internet is perfect but I'm not in a contract (finally) so would like to make the best choice. Thanks!

[Get Bit]

I would go w/o any service before I went with Comcast.. They have horrible customer service, at times pathetic quality and performance plus they are way over priced..

We have Direct for TV and centurylink for internet.. We just switched after 10 years from dish network because they pissed me off with taking away channels that we've had for years because of some mistake on their end.. Other than that they were fine.

[Mike Weber]

We have been with Qwest / Centurylink for several years and are satisfied with the service. One or both kids are often streaming video while I am working without issues. We have not had TV service for 20+ years, so I have no input on that.

[DKarp82]

I have a Comcast for both internet and TV. True it is more expensive than Century Link/Qwest with a satellite dish but the internet is noticeably faster and you don't have to worry about satellite dish going out in bad weather or the satellite companies getting into a fight with the networks and dropping coverage of your favorite channel(s).

I've never had any problems with Comcast customer service or with any kind of service disruptions. Qwest was a nightmare from my experience and it's a common joke among Qwest employees to call their company "Qworst."

[ELCO5280]

Thing to keep in mind is Comcast does not guarantee speed like CenturyLink, that's because it's a bandwidth pool. Sure your connection will rocket when few are in the pool, however when you have more people coming home from work and turning on their digital cable and getting online you'll notice the drop in speeds.

[Teckeeee]

Having worked in that industry it's hit or miss. DSL is distance sensitive from the central office, where they make dial tone and internet, cable not. Comcast is typically better if they have been in the area a while. It's just superior tech. I have friends that work at both companies. Both companies have good and bad cust. service experiences. It's like anything once it's working you don't want to switch unless it's really bad, people don't like change. If you can ask some neighbors what they have and like or not go that route. Comcast had little network in the Springs for ex., so no one liked them. In Parker, we have plenty of network for both companies so I go Comcast.

[iheartcle]

I don't think in my 31 years of life, have I ever found a more disappointing product, than Comcast cable. Comcast is ridiculously overpriced, they're hardware blows, customer service does suck, Internet is the only thing I like.

I could come up with a dozen reason/features Comcast dvr is light years behind, lets say a time Warner cable dvr. They are more expensive than than time Warner, after our first year a $125 cable/Internet bill, 1 dvr and a regular cable box, with standard Internet speed, won't even get you National Geographic or the Science channel!!

Customer service failed to mention it would cost $50 dollars for someone to come out and look at a faulty cable box. Time Warner came out to my place for free, I just assumed it was industry standard. If Comcast wants to charge people $50 for that, fine, just tell people what the service cost, very shady.

I usually don't go on rants like this, for a few reasons, but in my 31 years, Comcast is easily the most disappointing product, service I have ever used, darn shame there is a cable monopoly here.

[poseidon1157]

Comcast oversubscribes their loops pretty aggressively, so what they sell you isn't guaranteed. For Fort Collins they have no infrastructure redundancy which has lead to 3-4 outages in the past two years. Their business services aren't on differentiated links/nodes so those outages would've applied to their "business class" services as well. Their contact centers are aggressively outsourced (as are CenturyLink unfortunately), and their queues contain advertisement so if you ever call in for support/service two things happen: First, they try to sell you an in-home outsourced technician (usually very good people who are subcontracted and treated poorly) which constitutes a conflict of interest for tier 1 support, and second they don't have access to technical resources within Comcast. Further you have to listen to advertisements until some random call center is ready to read a script in order to help you.

[bluescreen73]

I realize the thread's a few months old, but I recently ditched Comcast for Centurylink because I was able to bundle the home phone & internet for less than what I was paying previously. Additionally my broadband went from 20mbps down/5 mbps up to 40 mbps down/20 mbps up. No brainer.

[poseidon1157]

Originally Posted by Colorado xxxxx

Having worked in that industry it's hit
or miss. DSL is distance sensitive from the central office, where they
make dial tone and internet, cable not. Comcast is typically better if
they have been in the area a while. It's just superior tech. I have
friends that work at both companies. Both companies have good and bad
cust. service experiences. It's like anything once it's working you
don't want to switch unless it's really bad, people don't like change.
If you can ask some neighbors what they have and like or not go that
route. Comcast had little network in the Springs for ex., so no one
liked them. In Parker, we have plenty of network for both companies so I
go Comcast.

Sorry, better technology? The DS loops all (d)mux to the same box, but that's not usually a very large area is it? So what you're really talking about is nexthop? Wouldn't they both use the same technology or are you saying that Comcast's investments have been more forward-facing?