We’ve had cable and internet service with Comcast for three or four years now, and if you had asked me before a few months ago, I would have told you that they were great, I loved the dvr, and we didn’t have any issues. Then, they changed to Xfinity. That’s when all the problems started. They changed all the menus and dvr settings, and now it’s a lot harder to find shows. Plus, even if you have something set to record, there’s no guarantee it will actually record. I can’t tell you how many episodes of things we’ve had to go find either online or on OnDemand because the dvr didn’t record like it said it was going to. Those issues are annoying, but it didn’t really seem worth going through their extensive automated process to complain. Then, the internet started acting up.
Now, Mike loves World of Warcraft (WoW for short.) He’s always on the computer playing, and gets really upset when the internet service we’re paying for starts cutting out. About a month to a month and a half ago, it would get so slow and bogged down at night, that he wasn’t able to play, I couldn’t use the wireless to look at anything online, and you could hang up trying to use Netflix. We called quite a few times, and every time we called in we were told that the signal was fine, reset the modem and it should clear the problem up. Every time the problem would come back just as bad. On one call they actually told him that the reason it was running slow was because we hadn’t paid the bill yet (it was just now due), and that as soon as we paid it, it would start running faster again. Mike laughed at him, and a friend asked us if they had some twist ties, and tightened them down to stop the internets from coming into our house as fast. Finally Mike got them to send a tech out to look at it, but I was the only one that could be there during the time he was scheduled to come.
The tech came and was very nice, and told me that we had two lines running into the house and one had stronger signal strength. It just so happened that the one we were plugged into wasn’t the “good” line. He swapped things around and got ready to leave, and I asked him point blank if there was anything I needed to sign or a charge or anything before he left. He assured me that no, it was all fine, and left. That night, the signal was as bad or worse as in the past, and Mike was furious.
A few days later, I came home from work to a cable box that was in an infinite reboot cycle. It would be on and working for about 10 minutes, then reboot itself and say it was downloading stuff. After about 5-10 minutes it would come back on and start working fine. Then 10 minutes later, the entire cycle started over again. I had stuff to do that night, so we left it alone, thinking it would work itself out. By the time I got home from work the next day, it was still doing it. I called in, the guy tried to get it to stop and couldn’t, so I was told to take it in the next morning and swap it for a new box. We got the new box home and it seemed to be working fine.
I went online to pay our bill over the next few days, and I noticed there was a $40 charge on there. I called and asked, and it turns out it’s because the tech came out to our house and swapped our cables around. I told them that he told me there wasn’t a charge, and thankfully they said they would put in to have it removed. Mike called back when he got home that night and complained that we had the cable issue, the internet still wasn’t working correctly, and now we have this issue with the charges. They were very nice on the phone, and had another tech come out between 5 and 7 at night (our internet problems usually start about 7 or so.)
That tech came out, and actually saw the issues we were having. He agreed that there was a problem, but basically told us there was nothing they could do. The system was overloaded, and until they upgraded, we were screwed. The next day he tried calling AT&T to see what service would cost with them, but had to wait until Monday before they were open. We tried back this past Monday, and he was put on infinite hold with them. Also, I came home Monday afternoon and our brand new cable box was in a reboot cycle. We called, spent over an hour trying to get someone on the phone with me, then he told me how to force it to reboot and said “We can send a tech out.” We set up the tech appointment for today, I asked to talk to a Customer Service Account Executive, and they had one call me back. Mike talked the the account executive, then sent an email to the Vice President of Consumer Operations. He told them about all the issues we’ve been having, how frustrated we are, and made a point to tell them that if he hadn’t been on infinite hold, we’d be with AT&T now.
The cable box finally worked out whatever it’s issue was, but the internet is now the worst it’s ever been. He was told by the account executive to take screenshots of the program he used to determine the speeds and packet loss, so we have about 10 of them on his computer, waiting on the tech to get there between 3 and 5 today. We also got a response back from the VP’s office, basically telling us if we aren’t fully satisfied after the tech leaves today, contact them again, and they’ll take care of it out of their office. Also, they’d be more than happy to issue a credit to our account because of the issues.
As of right now, we have crappy internet, a cable box that may or may not work at any given time, an extra $45 in fees on our bill ($40 for the first tech visit - which they still haven’t removed - and $5 in late fees because we haven’t paid the most recent bill that’s due because of the issues.) Mike is taking off work today to be there between 3 and 5 when the tech is supposed to arrive, and I’m curious to see what happens after this is all over. We can’t get UVerse here, and AT&T’s internet is WAY slower than what we are supposed to have with Comcast. However, if it means we actually HAVE internet service, it may be worth it to swap. It should be an interesting afternoon.
Now, Mike loves World of Warcraft (WoW for short.) He’s always on the computer playing, and gets really upset when the internet service we’re paying for starts cutting out. About a month to a month and a half ago, it would get so slow and bogged down at night, that he wasn’t able to play, I couldn’t use the wireless to look at anything online, and you could hang up trying to use Netflix. We called quite a few times, and every time we called in we were told that the signal was fine, reset the modem and it should clear the problem up. Every time the problem would come back just as bad. On one call they actually told him that the reason it was running slow was because we hadn’t paid the bill yet (it was just now due), and that as soon as we paid it, it would start running faster again. Mike laughed at him, and a friend asked us if they had some twist ties, and tightened them down to stop the internets from coming into our house as fast. Finally Mike got them to send a tech out to look at it, but I was the only one that could be there during the time he was scheduled to come.
The tech came and was very nice, and told me that we had two lines running into the house and one had stronger signal strength. It just so happened that the one we were plugged into wasn’t the “good” line. He swapped things around and got ready to leave, and I asked him point blank if there was anything I needed to sign or a charge or anything before he left. He assured me that no, it was all fine, and left. That night, the signal was as bad or worse as in the past, and Mike was furious.
A few days later, I came home from work to a cable box that was in an infinite reboot cycle. It would be on and working for about 10 minutes, then reboot itself and say it was downloading stuff. After about 5-10 minutes it would come back on and start working fine. Then 10 minutes later, the entire cycle started over again. I had stuff to do that night, so we left it alone, thinking it would work itself out. By the time I got home from work the next day, it was still doing it. I called in, the guy tried to get it to stop and couldn’t, so I was told to take it in the next morning and swap it for a new box. We got the new box home and it seemed to be working fine.
I went online to pay our bill over the next few days, and I noticed there was a $40 charge on there. I called and asked, and it turns out it’s because the tech came out to our house and swapped our cables around. I told them that he told me there wasn’t a charge, and thankfully they said they would put in to have it removed. Mike called back when he got home that night and complained that we had the cable issue, the internet still wasn’t working correctly, and now we have this issue with the charges. They were very nice on the phone, and had another tech come out between 5 and 7 at night (our internet problems usually start about 7 or so.)
That tech came out, and actually saw the issues we were having. He agreed that there was a problem, but basically told us there was nothing they could do. The system was overloaded, and until they upgraded, we were screwed. The next day he tried calling AT&T to see what service would cost with them, but had to wait until Monday before they were open. We tried back this past Monday, and he was put on infinite hold with them. Also, I came home Monday afternoon and our brand new cable box was in a reboot cycle. We called, spent over an hour trying to get someone on the phone with me, then he told me how to force it to reboot and said “We can send a tech out.” We set up the tech appointment for today, I asked to talk to a Customer Service Account Executive, and they had one call me back. Mike talked the the account executive, then sent an email to the Vice President of Consumer Operations. He told them about all the issues we’ve been having, how frustrated we are, and made a point to tell them that if he hadn’t been on infinite hold, we’d be with AT&T now.
The cable box finally worked out whatever it’s issue was, but the internet is now the worst it’s ever been. He was told by the account executive to take screenshots of the program he used to determine the speeds and packet loss, so we have about 10 of them on his computer, waiting on the tech to get there between 3 and 5 today. We also got a response back from the VP’s office, basically telling us if we aren’t fully satisfied after the tech leaves today, contact them again, and they’ll take care of it out of their office. Also, they’d be more than happy to issue a credit to our account because of the issues.
As of right now, we have crappy internet, a cable box that may or may not work at any given time, an extra $45 in fees on our bill ($40 for the first tech visit - which they still haven’t removed - and $5 in late fees because we haven’t paid the most recent bill that’s due because of the issues.) Mike is taking off work today to be there between 3 and 5 when the tech is supposed to arrive, and I’m curious to see what happens after this is all over. We can’t get UVerse here, and AT&T’s internet is WAY slower than what we are supposed to have with Comcast. However, if it means we actually HAVE internet service, it may be worth it to swap. It should be an interesting afternoon.
