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Review by jesseb_66  - Location: Derry,Rockingham,NH
- Cost: $54 per month
Good "Plenty fast, Good for the money."
Bad "Not quite as reliable as my old connection"
Overall "Fast, Price is right. Reliability not quite as good as the past"
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I pay for 50 mbps down with I about 10 mbps up. It usually get those speeds or higher. 60 to 15-20 is usually what I test out at.
Connection has been reliable, but I've had a few times when I try to use the connection and its out. Lasts only a short while, but I'm use to pretty high reliability with my old ISP.
Over all I'm pretty happy with it. It comes bundled with a few basic channels + HBO for the next two years.
I will say its been tough to determine the channels I'm suppose to get. I am suppose to get Digital Economy, but its no where on their site. The lowest they list is Digital Starter which includes many more channels. Its been confusing at best 
member for 10.8 years, 2507 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 1 days ago
Comments:
| Review by Coelispex - Location: Wilmette,Cook,IL
- Cost: $87 per month (6 month contract)
- Install: about 1 days
Good "Great connection and service, I love it!"
Bad "Awful tech and customer support."
Overall "So far so good."
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On June 20, 2013, I decided to switch to a Double Play (Internet + TV) called "Blast Plus" promotion; basically you get Blast Trier HSI + Digital Economy (~45 channels). This promotion is for 6 months $69.99 then $79.95 after (this excludes state taxes, FCC fees, franchise fees, other government taxes). This promotion is not under contract or any agreements attached. I used my own equipment, a Motorola SB6141 SURFboard DOCSIS 3.0 instead of paying for an extra $7/month for rental fees.
Screenshot of the local channel line up:
»i.imgur.com/J3vNfk3.png
How was the order & install process?
Somewhat sketchy. One chat analyst told that me that my service address is fine for self-installation ($9.95). Another told me that my cable isn't installed by the tap and needs professional installation ($32.99). What a load of B.S. I disconnected and soon talked to a more experienced analyst. Order process took around 40 minutes. In the end, he told me to wait for the self-installation kit to arrive in 3-5 days. I didn't wait to wait that long. An hour later, I plugged in my coaxial cable from my 2-way splitter to my SB6141 modem, started the activation service online (took about 10 minutes) and BAM; got Blast Internet up and running on the same day. (I didn't have to wait for my self-install kit to arrive). Told you it was sketchy.
My first speedtest
»www.speedtest.net/result/2784965199.png
Overall, I can say that I'm very happy, one satisfied customer
P.S
I also made a excel spreadsheet for Comcast Double Play promotions and non-promotions for those who are interested in making the change. (Prices may vary depending on your location)
»docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?···=sharing
I will update this review periodically.
UPDATE 10/4/13
For the past 5 months, there has been about ~4 outages, lasting less than 3 hours. This is probably due to severe weather in my area (flooding, heavy rain, thunderstorm etc)
But my speed has increased by 1-2 Mbps more
»stage.results.speedtest.comcast.···8864.png
member for 124 days, 89 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 1 days ago
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| Review by Nightfall - Location: Grand Rapids,Kent,MI
- Cost: $100 per month
- Install: about 7 days
Good "Fast speeds! Great reliability!"
Bad "Tech support could be improved. Extra cost for non-CATV subscribers."
Overall "Awesome connection! If you have CATV, then it is worth the price."
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When Grand Rapids first got ATT@Home, I was excited to be one of the first to get it in my new apartment. My wife and I just got married, and having fast internet access was a must for both of us. She was taking college courses online and I am a techie that likes to use the internet heavily.
@Home came out and installed the cable modem within 14 days of me calling and setting up the appointment. The install tech was courteous and the service worked without a problem. The first couple months, the service was flaky to say the least. I was down on average 1 week out of the month for the first 3 months. After that, the line was stable and the speeds were top notch.
I moved into my new home a year later, and since then I have been using ATT@Home. My line went down maybe once in a three month span. I always got blazing fast downloads. Needless to say, I was happy. The main selling point of this technology in my opinion has to be the reliability of the connection. The speed is up there, but being able to get on all the time is simply a huge plus for me.
Now, I am on Comcast after the move from ATTBI and @Home. I am still not disappointed with the service. I am looking forward to the tiered pricing that Comcast is going to introduce sometime this year.
8/11/02 Update - Connection is still rock solid and speeds are very nice. Highly recommended!
11/05/02 Update - Still as solid as a rock. Fast speeds and virtually no downtime.
3/14/03 Update - Getting some sparse outages on occassion where rebooting my router will fix the problem. Otherwise, top notch speeds! Comcast is doing work in my area which could be part of the problem.
3/26/03 Update - Found out my router was the problem. Replaced the router and no downtime so far. Will report back later next week.
5/31/03 Update - Only downtime I had was due to a power outage in my area that lasted for 3 days. Otherwise, life has been good.
6/16/03 Update - Still rock solid. Nexland fixed the Comcast issue in a firmware update. Going to put the Nexland back in place and start it back up in the next week or so. Otherwise, I am just glad the packet dropping and other issues were router related and NOT ISP related.
7/14/03 Update - Still going with no downtime!
10/01/03 Update - Comcast is still rocking and rolling for me. If you can, prepay for a year of service to save even more money. Instead of paying $42.95, I pay $467.45 for a year and I get a free month. If you leave anytime during that time, you get your money back. A good deal to say the least.
11/10/03 - Still working. No downtime. Fast connection. Nuff said!
1/12/04 - This connection is still totally rock solid. However, Comcast has caught up to me. Since I went with Directv about four months ago, I found out that prepaying for a year of service will keep my internet the same price and I could ditch cable TV. This has now changed. Now, I have to keep at least basic cable TV which is $13.50 plus taxes. Either that or my internet goes up to $61. Let me see...$61 or $56 a month. I still prepay a year in advance which saves me a little money, so it brings the cost down to $53 a month as the total price per month. I have decided to try out SBC DSL this month sometime. I will go for the $37 package which includes 1500 down and 256 up. If it works out well, and it may since I am less than 7,000 feet from the CO, it will lower my internet cost by $16 a month. Don't get me wrong, I love Comcast cable internet. If SBC DSL sucks, you can bet I will spend a little more and keep the Cable internet. My hope is the DSL service rules! I have already gotten input on DSL in this area and it does look promising. I will report back on this review later.
2/17/04 - I called and canceled Comcast cable internet about one week ago. I am up and running on SBC DSL. Comcast was excellent in my area, and if not for the price increase for non-cable TV subscribers, I would have stayed. The $26.95 price tag is all I could qualify for, but I am getting 1500/256 which is excellent speeds for the price. Reliability so far is equal to Comcast cable internet. Latency is the same, which is excellent. I get nice steady pings in the 30-40 range which is excellent. This is my final review on Comcast, but it was a very positive experience for me. If you can get it in your area, give it a try.
6/28/06 - I finally budgeted out to get dual broadband lines in my house. Since I have SBC DSL for $15 a month, I decided to take the plunge and get Comcast again. I had a very favorable review of Comcast in my area so I was hoping nothing had changed. I found a offer online for Comcast HSI for $20 a month for 6 months with a $100 cash back offer. In order to get that lower price, I had to pay $13 for basic cable TV which sucks, but there isn't much I can do about that but complain. I placed the order on 6/22. Install was set up for Saturday 6/24. I opted for the basic install since I had all the equipment. Saturday came and went with no installer coming out to the house. I called Comcast and they explained that the installer was running very late on a few other installs and they would need to reschedule. They even gave me free installation to make up for the trouble. The new install date was 6/27 and it went through without a hitch. Modem came right up and internet speeds were top notch at 6000/384. I put both lines in my dual WAN router and just stressed the heck out of them both last night. So far, 1 day later, connection is as solid as it was when I left Comcast a few years ago. Aside from the installation reschedule and the fact I have to pay $13 a month for basic cable TV, I am very happy.
1/5/07 - Running Comcast HSI and SBC DSL on my dual wan router and it is a match made in heaven. I love the redundancy, but not that I have had to have it. I use both lines of upload bandwidth quite heavily, which is very nice. Service is solid.
10/25/07 - Service is still solid. No outages at all to report. The service just works and I love it. Still have both SBC and Comcast on my dual WAN router and both services work great.
1/28/08 - After a few years of running with a dual WAN connection, I have dropped Comcast once again. My DSL service is $25 a month while Comcast is much more expensive since I don't get their cable TV. Its a shame actually cause their service here rocks. Maybe I will pick it up again later. Right now though, I am happy with DSL and to save the money over a dual wan connection.
11/21/09 - After about a 2 year hiatus, I have returned to Comcast. My DSL connection was tapped out at 4000/768 and after some flaky connection issues, I decided to give Comcast another go. I am proud to say that Comcast is still great in this area. I will be monitoring the connection to see how it goes.
12/09/09 - The install went as expected. I had my own modem and Comcast wanted to charge me for installation. I got that charge removed though. Still, billing should know when they see a "self install kit" on the billing information that a "install technician" should not be billed. Ah well, at least the line was installed and working quickly. I got introductory pricing at $19.95 per month for six months with no cable TV, phone, or additional costs. My Comcast line is up and running at 8000/1000 and working great. No problems to report at all. My line monitoring service has not detected any issues with the line or quality so I am pretty happy. I am also gaming on my comcast line with zero problems.
11/21/10 - Comcast cable internet is awesome here. I currently have the blast internet along with digital cable service. The extra speed is nice. With Directv, I was spending $85 a month. Now, with cable internet and TV, I am spending only $99 a month which is much better than then $85 + $43 I was paying before on the basic package. I know that my price will go up later, but I will call to renegotiate. The key here is that I have good service.
4/14/11 - Comcast service continues to be rock solid. I did have a couple issues about a month ago where my internet service would stop working and I would see a "No Ranging Response Received" in my modem. Rebooting my modem and resetting it to defaults both did not fix the problem. I used the Comcast Direct forum here and put my trouble ticket in. With help from the techs there, the problem has been fixed and life is good again. I also updated the price I was paying to the full TV + HSI package I am paying for.
11/30/11 - Comcast service continues to be solid. I had a couple issues a few months ago with some service issues. My modem would say that there was a timeout of some kind but the service would never drop off the cable modem. Comcast looked into it and sent a tech out to look at the problem. The tech checked my signal levels, did some tweaking, and I haven't had any issues since. Awesome job Comcast Direct and Comcast!
6/11/12 - Comcast continues to set the bar high. The service is solid with virtually no downtime. We had a power outage in our area about 4 months ago, and our comcast internet service was still running while we were on the generator. I can't see any reason to move away from them.
12/24/12 - Another 6 months of solid service. No downtime. My blast speeds are incredible. I am very happy!
10/3/13 - It has been about 10 months since I updated this review, but things are still very good for me on my Comcast connection. I enjoy the 50/10 blast connection very much, and my internet is rock solid. I had an instance of downtime on a Saturday about a month ago and that was because someone hit one of the comcast boxes in my area with his car. Within 5 hours, the connection was restored and all is good. I get about 55/14 on my connection when I test it, and that is great for me. TV is still very good as well. I have no plans to move on.
member for 12.1 years, 5433 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 2 days ago
Comments:
  jc
@sbcglobal.net | billing department full of shit it show on my credit that i did not pay comcast for the amount of $200 dollars and it show up on my credit report i dont remember that i owe them money i ask them to take my service out due there cable tv is a peace of shit they even send me a refund for the last month then they said that my account is delinquent | |
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| Review by Aozora - Location: undisclosed location
- Cost: $62 per month
Good "Good speeds for a premium price"
Bad "Latency, tech support, bundling, and caps(depending on your area)"
Overall "Overall one of the better options in my area"
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You better be able to troubleshoot your connection with AT&T and Comcast if experience has taught me anything. You need to be able to see if something looks wrong and head to one of these forums to fix the issue. If you can't do that, then you're going to be in for the ride of your life. I have the most experience with AT&T and Comcast, so if you have another company in the area, it might be different. These two companies are identical when it comes to support, and that is that the support is outsourced to India and you're going to get some person reading the manual and wanting to transfer you to about 50 departments before anyone does anything. Just hope the tech that comes has a clue what he is doing or you're going to get a headache from the frustration you are going to experience.
Who comes to install your service varies. I have moved around the Chicago area and each install seems to be different. You might get a very good tech out there who will leave with you with a rock solid connection or you might get the tech that cuts the neighbor's dish service and leaves you with a connection that stays on for 10 mins tops.
RCN isn't available to me always when I move so I don't always get them since their upload is also slower. I've had them for a few months and their TV packages are better for the price so if the TV aspect is more important to you and you can get serviced by them then don't pass them up.Their Internet is slightly cheaper, but you also get about half the upload that you get with Comcast which is why I'm not fond of them.
AT&T is more expensive, has slower speeds, and has caps so I don't recommend them at all if they are in your area. They really don't seem to care about the HSI line and it shows. AT&T used to be far better 10 yrs back, but nowadays I would never consider them if you can get Comcast or something else.
I have the 50Mbps tier and I get 57Mbps down/11+ Mbps up. When it works, it works well, but if any issues arise, it's going to be hell to fix with their horrendous tech support who believes rebooting your modem is the only solution to every problem.
If you have very few options in your area and Comcast is one, they can be alright. Obviously if you have FIOS, Google Fiber, or anything similar in your area I highly recommend passing Comcast up. They are alright, but nowhere near as good as those options seem according to users here and general public perception. Comcast increases prices roughly yearly along with other providers. Lack of competition really shows, especially in their TV packages. You can't always get what you want, but you may find what you need(hopefully). Comcast is what you need, but not what might want or hope for. It gets the job done.
EDIT: Updated the review since the old one was not relevant nowadays. AT&T support has drastically gone down along with Comcast's.
member for 4.8 years, 532 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 2 days ago
Comments:
| Review by johnhharvard - Location: Minneapolis,Hennepin,MN
 Business customer- Cost: $70 per month
- Install: about 4 days
Good "Business class service consistent, stable and no outages - can run full bandwdith of 16/3 continuously with no iossues."
Bad "So called technical support and their management are a bunch of talking heads"
Overall "You the consumer need to manage the service provision to satisfaction"
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A business service over coax is used at two different sites and works very well - but we are networking people who ensured up front that everything worked at provisioning time and we have monitoring equipment via our enterprise class switches and firewalls. So from a service perspective, the business class service does exactly what it should and we've had no issues over 2 years
The "installers" know nothing and "just follow the procedure" and plug stuff in and look at numbers on their analysis device for signal levels and so on. Provided that all goes well, which as far as we can see it normally does, then all ok. Install co-ordination from the central provisioning team sucks - they use independent installers over whom they have no control and with whom they cannot communicate and so one will be told all sorts of things re dates and times that simply go by the wayside until the time the installer decides to show up and actually do something
However beware if there is ever a problem and you need to talk to technical support or even try their management - a bunch of know nothing talking heads. Their Tier 1 Support (the people who answer the phones) stand ten deep and ensure you will get nowhere and get nothing and in any case have no clue, no expertise, nothing at all it appears that they understand, can test or can do. One is quite simply fobbed off.
member for 45 days, 23 visits, last login: a few hours ago
lodged 3 days ago
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| Review by peterponds - Location: Lula,Hall,GA
- Cost: $64 per month
- Install: about 7 days
Good "always on"
Bad "speed not constant"
Overall "pricey but dependable connection"
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Lula, Ga
Install was great. Tech 30 minutes late, but i consider that basically on time. pleasant guy. did good job. install was Free. house had never had cable, so he had to carry the ladder, climb the pole,mess with the wires, run cable down pole, to house.
Support iffy. had 2 issues. they fixed one. i had to figure the other one out myself.
Connection. stable. never goes down.
Speed. Terrible. i have 6MB service, and though speed testing at various sites shows high 3 to high 4MBs, in actual use i'm getting 300KB/s. Sometimes 700KB/s, but ususlly 300. I wonder how that would change if I downgrade.
Price summer special of $20/mo. after that it will go to about 45 with cable tv, or 60 something w/o. good deal now, but 300KB/s for 60 bucks is a lousy deal.
Bottom line: give comcast points for service( can't believe I'm actually saying this), but connestion is way too slow the the price(60). i would switch to dsl if i could have it w/o a landline.
update 7/08/07 screamed along at 800kB/s last night. Ooooeee! (does comcast read BBR?
update 3/5/08 shortly after last update got promised speed(6MB) all the time with no down time ever for many months. although i Hate them for their appalling business practices, i have to admit the connection was very good( i don't file share so not subject to all the sandvine controversy). but in the past 2 weeks connection has gone down almost daily for minutes to hours. Price has risen steadily to $52/mo. now, including basic cable(which is so basic i don't even have the cable box plugged in as there is nothing but religeous, shopping, local acces on it besides 2-3 network channels.)
update 5/17/08 service down on 3 separate days last week, for several hours each time.
update 9/30/08 exit interview. all the introductory pricing expired, so now paying over $60 for 6meg plus basic cable i never watched( cable box not even plugged in.) swithed to dsl. $48 for 6meg.
connection: A almost always on full speed at 6meg
support: C depends who you get
corporate: F-
update 7/28/09 $19.99/mo special brought me back again from ATT. have a steady 6megs with just a small stutter once or twice. works as promised
update 5/13/10 connection always on(rare exceptions). upgraded to 12 megs for free. thanks comcast !! speed now varies between 1 and 12 megs, when it was rock steady before at 6 megs, mostly pretty fast. have to give comcrap a pretty good grade for service right now. special pricing about to expire, and will go up to about 60/month(ouch)
update 6/6/13 only rare outages. 2 "free" speed upgrades have me up to 25Mbps down.
But paying 65/mo.
update 9/25/13 provisioned new DOCIS 3 modem(my own purchase, not comcast rented). no change on bill. forums are full of complaints of comcast adding modem rental charge to bill after any change in services made or any call by customer to tech support. Could not figure out how to provision myself, so i did call tech support. first bill ok, but holding my breath.
member for 11.7 years, 1789 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 10 days ago
Comments:
| Review by resmopar - Location: Morton Grove,Cook,IL
- Cost: $215 per month
- Install: about 7 days
Good "Speeds right at cap (50/10). Connection solid"
Bad "Nothing (except for annual price hike)"
Overall "Service very reliable. Worth looking into"
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Well, it's that time again. I figured I would update my review since I am now part of Comcast (former ATTBI subscriber). Overall, things have been smooth. I typically get speeds near 1800/256 cap. I do get momentary pauses now and then, but nothing major. As of late, Comcast's network has been acting up. One hop in particular seems to go on a high latency binge, taking speeds and browsing down with it. Hopefully this will not be a recurring problem and Comcast will get a handle on the situation and fix whatever needs to be fixed. As for email, never had a problem with it that I can recall. The only fly in the ointment is having to endure a third email change in a years time. At least Comcast is forwarding our ATTBI email to our new comcast.net email thru December, 2004. The news server had been very good for the most part. I don't know how much longer we former ATTBI people will be able to use netnews.attbi.com, but if you have the chance, use it while you can, before we are transitioned over to Giganews news service. As for customer support, I have contacted them only a handfull of times in the past year or so. Once for a billing issue, and a couple other times to report problems on their network, so I can't really give a long report on support. For those few times I've called in, it went pretty smoothly. As for the monthly price of $42.95, I do own my own modem and subscribe to cable tv and digital phone. In all, I'm very satisfied with Comcast, and hope they continue on where ATTBI left off.
Update 8/27/2003: High latency still plagues Comcast's network during the evenings from 7pm until 12am or sometimes later. Speeds are that of an equivalent 56k modem. Numerous calls and online chat to Comcast yield no answers as to when the problem will be resolved. Tech support leaves me feeling rather cold after talking to them. I have downgraded Connection Reliability and Tech Support for the time being. Hopefully, I'll have something more positive to update soon, only time will tell.
Update 2/29/2004: Latency issues that were reaking havok in the Chicago market were finally erradicated back in Nov. 2003. It's nice to have a broadband connection back again. Speeds were upgraded to 3000/256 Jan. 28th 2004. No problems on that front either. I've only experienced a handfull of momentary connection loss, but that's to be expected. I have upgraded my conneciton reliability to reflect the resolution of the latency issues that were plaging chicagoland area. In summary, everything is running smoothly here. We can only hope Comcast will keep a better watch on their network and not let it degrade as bad as summer/fall 2003.
Update 8/23/2004: I upgraded to the 4300/384 tier July 1st. Speeds are always at the cap no matter what time of day. Other than an hour of downtime a month ago, connection has been rock solid. Latency is still low since Comcast upgraded the network for chicagoland fall of 2003. Very happy with service and I recommend it to everyone in the area here.
Update 4/2/2005: Welcome to the new year and year of speed upgrades. Gold tier speed was raised to 6600/768 late February 2005 for the Chicagoland area at no charge. My connection has been very solid with no major issues to report. Speeds are right at the cap. Price is still the same too. In all, very satisfied and recommend service to others.
Update 10/11/2005: Connection is still solid as a rock. Now capped at 8800/768 Gold Tier. No slow downs or latency to report and speeds right at the cap at all times of the day. I'm still running my Motorola SB4100. It did suffer from that botched firmware upgrade a couple months ago by Comcast, but since they reverted back to an earlier version, all as been well. I have no problem getting speeds right at the cap.
Update 6/15/2006: With the exception of some latency and slow browsing at times, my connection pretty much remains steady and strong. No problem maxing out at the caps (8800/768). I have yet to experience the new 'Powerboost' technology first hand. Perhaps it's not enabled yet for my area. Still using my Motorola SB4100 modem with no problems to report.
Update 2/17/2012: Switched to CDV from CDP Spring 2007 (due to CDP being discontinued). Tech installed an Arris TM502G modem. Immediately noticed Powerboost was working! I was still on the 16/2 tier at that time. April 2009, Upgraded to HD Premier Triple Play tier. Plan included an upgrade from 16/2 to the Ultra tier (22/5). I remain grandfathered in to the Ultra tier today. With powerboost, I have achieved up to 32/7. After which, speeds return to 22/5 solid. I also have a DCH3416 and a DCT3412 HD DVR and a DCT2000. No problems to complain about on the TV or CDV end of things. All work as expected. Just got hit with the annual price increase (about $12 a month) which started on the January 2012 bill.
Update 9/24/2013: Downgraded Triple Play package from Premier to Preferred January 2013. In doing so, internet speed went from 22/5 (was grandfathered in) to 25/4. Two months later in March 2013, Comcast upgraded speed to 50/10. Had an Arris TM502G Docsis 2 modem. Called in to get modem swapped out. Was sent an Arris TM822G Docsis 3 modem. Speeds are solid at 55/11.
member for 12.1 years, 3804 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 10 days ago
Comments:
| Review by nysports4evr - Location: Jensen Beach,Martin,FL
- Cost: $120 per month
- Install: about 10 days
Good "By far the fastest ISP in the area"
Bad "Customer support"
Overall "Fast and stable connection if you have good signals"
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Currently subscribe to the Extreme 105 tier with Limited Basic TV service. I always receive full speeds, even during peak hours.
Provisioned rate is 105/20.
member for 3.7 years, 1183 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 11 days ago
Comments:
| | Bad service... I just want to say is why at least two or three times a weak something goes out or off. The new system with the little black box just made it worse and forget trying to talk to some one about it because they just don't care. | |
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| Review by ayoustic - Location: Bellefonte,Centre,PA
- Cost: $69 per month (12 month contract)
- Install: about 14 days
Good "Great installers, reasonable pricing, reliable"
Bad "Hit and Miss Tech Support, mandatory equipment, horribly high install fees"
Overall "If nothing else is available, be Comcastic!"
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UPDATE: 09/23/2013:
Still humming along with the 16/3 upgrade. Not too happy about the $10 extra a month that was imposed. However, I still do have great service, my 6121 provisioned, and my RTN-16 behind it running smoothly.
IPv6 deployment hasn't really happened yet for business such that I don't get a WAN address at this point -- but for now, that's not a big deal.
Service currently supports at least 2 HD streams of Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Prime, multiple MMORPG type games, and lots of Youtube in HD/HQ. (Some Youtube buffering during peak periods, but that doesn't seem to be a service issue -- that's something on the grander scale methinks.
UPDATE: 07/01/2010
Since the Comcastic Cap was announced, I converted to Business Class HSI @ 12/2 for $59.95 a month, with a one year commitment. However, the order process was fairly UGLY to go from "resi" to commercial.
First, the install fee was atrocious, so I emailed We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com and asked if anything could be done since I was attempting to respect their business model and obey the cap of 250GB. Since we had two ROKU and lots of other stuff going, the most I ever hit was 200GB. (Patching Linux Machines, downloading WoW updates, hours of video in HD, etc.)
That said, I got a response the next day that indicated that since I indicated that I was freshly wired for Comcast the year prior, the only thing I should need is a modem on commercial, and I'm good to go. Hearing this, a business rep called me with a 0 install fee, so long as I agree to a one year commitment. After the contract, I fall to month-to-month, in this market. I would be provided a free SMC Gateway with dynamic IP access. I had also dumped phone and video since we had ROKU w/Netflix and moved to phone power to save $15-20 a month over CDV. (and got rid of the piece of crap TM502G EMTA!)
So, I got the E-Contract, signed it and 10 days later, Comcast installers (No contractors...Comcast employees from the regional office near me.) They were super awesome and checked all my levels, which were "perfect". Within 10 minutes, they were gone since the gateway provisioned with little trouble and I was showing 18/3 with powerboost, of course.
I tried to live with the SMC, but it's just crap! So, I called tech support and asked quite nicely if they could just retasked my resi modem, SB5101U, to the Commercial side of things. Begrudginly, they agreed after I demonstrated that I went from 18/3 (powerboost) to 30/5 (powerboost) from simply changing the device out! After a quick 2 minute wait, my resi modem was provisioned and all was well.
I got my first bill later, which was prorated, however I found that my conversion from resi to business didn't go precisely as planned. Comcast Business said they would take care of all of the stuff with my email, Comcast account number, and so on. However, the only thing they forgot to do was mark my drop in the system as commercial! So, even the SMC was getting a resi config file! If I would've went over cap, I'd be up the creek. After working with ComcastSteve, I figured out what happened and between a level 3 tech on the phone and Steve, we got the modem nuked and moved over to BCI successfully. The most unnerving part was calling Comcast to request a "soft disconnect" so that my residential service terminated, BUT they wouldn't roll a truck to trap the line, hence shutting me off! That completed without incident in the system and about 7 days later (total) all was straightened up, with my 5101 leading the way.
Right now, I'm signed up with Phonepower on the 1 year plan, Comcast Business and using Netflix streaming w 2 DVD plan. By debundling, I saved over $400.00/year in telecomm charges and taxes (and rental fees....damned Arris piece of crap!)
To this day, I've had ONE two hour outage that someone caused by wrapping their car around a telephone pole -- the modem recovered itself after a short nap and all was well and we've not looked back. Until FIOS hits or Comcast messes with Business pricing, I'm here to stay as long as the service maintains it's current excellence.
PROS: rock solid service once billing got their butts in line
CONS: "mandatory equipment" upon installation and now they won't let you install your own modem to replace their SMC crap. I've heard the DOCSIS 3 version isn't bad, but I'd prefer my own device that I have semi-control over and not have to pay 10 times it's street value over the course of a contract/term.
BOTTOM LINE: Converting from residential to business could've been smoother, but it beats getting kicked off for a year because Comcast is too cheap to upgrade their aging infrastructure to accommodate modern network and telecommunications.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
Ordered Comcast Triple Play Preferred plan for $109.00 for 12 months. Whined and cried a bit and got a $36.00 credit for the Arris EMTA/modem for the digital voice and Internet. Ordered on 6/30, scheduled for 7/11 from 3:30-5:30. Installers showed up early to do a site survey at about noon. Did a quick walkthrough and saw where they found where the cable come in and what they need for Internet/Phone equipment. The service was installed very professionally and swiftly as they replaced all splitters and runs with RG6 and low resistance splitters to get max signals. Install took about 1 hour since all of the runs had to be replaced, the Arris modem had to be phoned in since the Comcast "walled garden" sucks bad and didn't work. The contractors had some "secret" 800 numbers to bypass customer queues and get priority to get my cable, and MTA activated so that the equipment functioned properly.
After the install, I was showed briefly how to use on-demand and where the help sections were to answer any additional questions I might have thought of. Then, the installers said goodbye, and left. After they left, I found that my welcome kit included a coupon for a free pay-movie on on-demand.
Overall, installation of VOIP, cable, and Internet was rather painless, above expectations, and the Voice Quality is unbelievably good! Also, love all of the value-adds that Comcast throws in like caller-id, call waiting, all of of the stuff VZ wanted my my right arm per month for.
member for 9.6 years, 1857 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 12 days ago
Comments:
| Review by SolarPup - Location: Windsor,Weld,CO
- Business customer
- Cost: $59 per month (24 month contract)
- Install: about 5 days
Good "Fast speeds, Great Uptime."
Bad "Tech support (if i ever had to call) is a nightmare"
Overall "Great for the speeds, but if you want support, look for the closest techie instead of wasting your time on the phone"
| Pre Sales information:
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(ratings above consensus)
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Back again, with Comcast after moving to a new house. My business depends on static IP's, so went with the business class package again. Everything was great, speeds are awesome, and 4 hour support is amazingly good! (Better than residential - you talk to someone that knows what the hell they're doing!
With package deal of phone and internet, it was about $130 with static IP's and 50mb speeds.
member for 11.5 years, 2924 visits, last login: 12 days ago
updated 12 days ago
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