As the old saying goes, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, and if anybody needs proof of that, I invite them to switch from their current cable company to Comcast Cable. Unless, of course, you have the distinct displeasure of doing business with them already, in which case you have my condolences. I, of course, have Comcast at a disadvantage since I worked at Cox Communications prior to moving to Georgia and therefore know a little bit about the cable business. Even if I didn’t, though, I would definitely miss the level of service I received with Cox, a level Comcast doesn’t even come close to matching.

Customer Service
I found this out when I first tried to order cable for my new home and experienced sub-par customer service to say the least. To begin with, Comcast only has someone available to talk to between the hours of 8 to 6 Monday through Saturday. That is inexcusable. Problem with your digital cable on a Sunday afternoon? You’re out of luck until Monday morning. Quite often, such problems can be resolved over the phone and as a result Cox maintains 24-7 tech support for its customers. Comcast doesn’t seem to feel this is necessary.

As you can imagine, the fact that the time in which you can call Comcast is so limited means that when you do call, you’re going to be on hold for a while, and on hold I was, for almost twenty minutes when their system dropped my call. I had to call back and hold another 15 minutes to speak to someone. When I finally got someone on the line, he had no clue about a current promotion (which was advertised in a full-page spread in the local newspaper), and he put me back on hold for another ten minutes before he finally applied it to my order.

Channel Selection
This is about the same as I’ve seen anywhere else, about 80 channels. Prices for expanded basic are fair ($35) but HBO is outrageous at $16 a month, fully $5 more than in Rhode Island or on the Dish. It is, however, less expensive with digital cable, but digital will still run you about $5 more here per month.

High Speed Internet
I was quoted $45 a month, which is $10 a month more than in Rhode Island and Connecticut. In addition, the connection speeds are atrocious. Just before I left Rhode Island I was gauging my connections at 1100k+ on Toast.net, in the Comcast office I was getting an abysmal 51k (yes, that’s right!) and others in the area have told me the highest they have ever seen was 120k.

When the technician arrived to install my cable, I told him I had worked in the industry and we chatted for a while. He explained that the entire area had not undergone a fiber optic rebuild, which explains the poor performance of the Internet service. Keep in mind that this is true for the Rome, Georgia area, and not necessarily indicative of the performance of this service in other areas, but it does reflect poorly on the company in my opinion that they offer the service when it clearly is not what it is advertised to be: high speed.

Then again, when we moved to Atlanta, Comcast didn't get any better. We could not, for example, transfer service within the same state for some arcane reason. When we arranged for an install, the tech showed up: two days late. That's right. And when we complained to their customer service people, we got an attitude.

In fact, in the last month (December 2005-January 2006) Comcast has gotten worse. You can't even get through to their customer service anymore. Literally. We had a problem with out digital cable, and when you're lucky, it will take you at least thirty minutes to get through to them. On three seperate occassions we got an all circuits busy signal for their number; when we finally did get through the automated systems said too many calls were already holding and hung up on me, asking me to call later. Yeah, that's Comcastic.

As if that were not bad enough, we arranged to have a DVR digital box installed one fine Saturday afternoon in May of 2005. Would that I could have just picked it up and installed it myself, but they do not permit this. You have to have a technician come out and pay a $29.51 install charge. Anyway, he was supposed to arrive between 11 and 2.

He never showed up. We called just before 2, half a Satruday already wasted. We were advised that he would be tracked down, and we would get a call back. We did at 2:30, and were told that he would be here no later than 4:30. He wasn't though, and so we called again, my wife very frustrated. A supervisor would be calling back, we were assured. One never did.

Unbelieveably, it was 7:30 before the installer showed up (after much cajoling of a dispatcher by my wife). To make matter's worse, he decided that the box he had brought couldn't be connected to my bedroom TV and said he would have to leave. He seemed very unwilling to take the time to do his job, as if we were a major inconvenience to him somehow.

So, I connected the box myself and had it up an drunning in about 5 minutes, much to his dismay. I called Comcast and advised I certainly was not going to pay for an install that I had to do myself. Almost a month later, I am still fighting for a credit. Just another example of the horrible service we have received every time we deal with Comcast.

Wire Maintenance Plan
Just about every cable and telephone company these days is very eager to sell you something called a wire maintenance plan. It’s usually mandatory to be offered by a customer service representative on every call you make if you don’t already have it. The rep will usually get a nice commission for offering it to you, too. There’s a good reason these plans are pushed so hard: you’ll probably never use them, and therefore it’s a few extra bucks a month out of your pocket and into the cable or phone company’s.

As a rule, the company that provides you with service generally covers the wires running from the pole to the outside of your home. Therefore, if a storm knocks down your phone or cable drop line, the appropriate company will come out and repair it free of charge. Wires within the home, however, are your responsibility. If a line within your wall shorts out, it can be expensive to have repaired, which makes the wire maintenance plans rather attractive. $3 or $4 a month to the cable company or phone company and no more worries, right?

Not exactly. Though many utilities tell you they will repair your lines with these plans, most won’t “wall fish”, or run a line through a wall. This means that what they will do is a run a line along the floor for you, which doesn’t exactly enhance your home’s décor. In many ways, these plans are one of the biggest scams out there. If you live in an apartment, you especially don’t need one of these plans. Wherever you live, I advise checking out your monthly bill to see if you’re being billed for such a plan. If you are, canceling it is a great way to save a few bucks a month.

There is an exception to this rule. If your cable company offers free house calls with their plan, it might not be a bad idea to take it if you need them to come out frequently and reconnect your VCR or auto-program your TV. These are not generally considered to be cable-related problems and many companies will charge you $25 or so to come out if you don’t have their plan. If you think you’ll need at least one house call a year, a wire maintenance plan might be worth your while.

Comcast offers a wire plan called Cable Guard that covers service calls and inside cable wiring. They charge 48 cents a month for this, a reasonable rate to be sure. Of course, it would have been nice if they asked me if I wanted it before they added it to my monthly bill. But they did, and for 48 cents I’m not inclined to call them back and spend another year on hold. Such is life.


Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 125