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Review by MySpareBrain 
member for 12.9 years, 4007 visits, last login: 1 days ago
lodged 309 days ago
 Pearland,Brazoria,TX
 $130 per month about 7 days "Rock solid connection, fast speeds" "None" "Much better than home service in my area"
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Comcast Business Class is MILES better than their home service. I had 50mb down, cut back to 25mb with business to keep the cost around the same, but that's okay. The connection hardly ever goes down, except for occasional maintenance, which usually happens at night.
My brother always had issues with home service. Got him to switch to Business Class, and he's happy now.
Comments:
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Review by rmmill3
member for 10.8 years, 52 visits, last login: 188 days ago
lodged 324 days ago
- Littleton,Douglas,CO
 Business customer- $120 per month
- (36 month contract)
- "At this point, nothing."
- "Terrible Service, rude technical support, I have no choice"
- "Before we moved locations I loved my internet service. Now that we have issues we must look for other options."
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(ratings well below consensus)
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We have moved locations and we are a home based business right now. At our old location we had a fairly good success. Now we are in our new location I am experiencing 49% packet loss from the modem, 33% packet loss from my second hop (96.168.174.1) 33% pack loss from my third hop and 54% packet loss from my fourth hop.
When I called Comcast to begin with I had an "engineer" tell me everything was fine and if I wanted someone to come out, they would charge me $99. Not only was he rude he wanted to challenge my engineering skills. He didn't want to see my logs nor hear about my setup. This went on and on until I finally escalated as high as I could go. I actually had an awesome field engineer come out and replace what he could, but I'm still stuck with this issue.
No idea what the problems are at this point but I cannot continue working this way. I'm afraid I will have to go with Century link and hope for the best. I'm very disappointed in Comcast. If you want to provide business class then understand you must support us as if this was your business.
This is the cost of having almost no competition, I have no real choice at this point in time.
Comments:
 Reviews:
 ·MegaPath
 ·Verizon FiOS
| Email the execs Every time I've had a problem with Comcast, I've always responded to the last "tech" that helped me, and cc'd the CEO and other executive. Things that have gone on for weeks or even months (I have multiple business locations with Comcast), I get high level help the same or following day.
»consumerist.com/consumer/executi···0438.php
brian_roberts@comcast.com | |
| | | I would question your skills too... If you have packet loss to your modem, anything beyond that is irrelevant. Who cares if you have packet loss further down the line - of course you will have packet loss further down the line.
Sounds like another self-proclaimed know it all that the Comcast tech called BS on. | |
| | Reviews:
 ·Comcast Business..
| Re: I would question your skills too... Wow Wirelessdog, you are SUPER helpful. The modem problem is new since the replacement of the old modem. They came and replaced the "new" modem and found out there was a line problem in two places.
But hey, take your A+ cert and go become one of them tech's. Good luck buddy. | |
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 Review by michieru
member for 3.8 years, 1116 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 326 days ago
- Miami,Miami-Dade,FL
- $67 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 3 days
- "Quick and painless installation and speed is exactly as advertised."
- "None at this time."
- "Got exactly what I ordered, thanks."
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Installation was on time, and I got the call from the tech letting me know he was arriving as promised over the phone during the time of purchase. Installation took about a hour and half because it was the first time cable was installed at this location.
After installation, services were quickly up and running and the tech took care of activating the modem. All I had to do was sit and watch him get the job done.
So far very happy with my cable service but I will update once I get my first bill.
UPDATE 2012-07-01: Got my first bill today for $172 this is correct because of the $99 installation charge plus the $66 dollars for internet service not including tax which was around 7 dollars. Without adding a few cents here and there it's almost exactly what I expected. I also got my bill in the mail 15 days before the balance was due so that was sent on time too.
No problems with service so far.
-Michieru
Comments:
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 Review by lacibaci
member for 13.1 years, 5765 visits, last login: a few hours ago
lodged 334 days ago
- Export,Westmoreland,PA
- Business customer
- $80 per month
- (36 month contract)
- about 3 days
- "Download/Upload speeds, low latency, PowerBoost, no ports blocked"
- "Installers don't always know what to do (static IP setup)"
- "Great for now"
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Had it for a couple of weeks now. No problems so far. Coming from DSL the speeds are insane 
Comments:
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 Review by lev
member for 11.9 years, 6268 visits, last login: 2 days ago
lodged 348 days ago
- Chicago,Cook,IL
- $80 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 7 days
- "Better price/performance ratio than AT&T, better bundled anti-virus, North American based tech support"
- "If area has power outage > 12 hours, service will die"
- "For small business needing a static IP, Comcast has surpassed AT&T"
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I've had Comcast Business Class service since April of 2009. AT&T took their sweet time in providing faster DSL or Uverse to my area. I finally had enough of the almost 2Mb/512K service that should have been higher, which regularly lost sync, paid $15/month more, and had rock solid reliable 12Mb/2Mb service with access to better features, including 25 installs of Norton Internet Security for Windows OR Macintosh.
I don't like Comcast residential services; they are a horror to deal with. The business services are something completely different.
Very satisfied customer, and I thought it'd be a cold day in hell when I said that about any relationship with Comcast.
Comments:
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Review by cmslick3
member for 9 years, 2402 visits, last login: a few hours ago
lodged 1 year ago
- Joliet,Will,IL
- $68 per month
- (36 month contract)
- about 7 days
- "Guaranteed 12MBps connection, Comcast provided equipment, and dedicated 24/7 support. My streaming experience has been great so"
- "Haven't found anything yet."
- "If you're a heavy streaming user Comcast BC is you best bet. Oh and did I mention no CAPS!"
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I ordered Comcast Business Class to replace my aged DSL line. I got the starter package 12Mbps/2MBps. I consistently test in the 25 to 35 rang on downlink and 4 to 5 on uplink.
VOiP phones work great and my streaming is wonderful. I am able to watch full HD on Hulu with no interruptions. I need to test Samsung Explore 3D for a real stress test.
Comments:
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Review by The Grif
member for 12.3 years, 4154 visits, last login: 6 days ago
updated 1.4 years ago
- Geneva,Kane,IL
- $119 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 6 days
- "Speed and Relative Cost..."
- "None So Far..."
- "Fast Connection, No Caps, Static IP's all at a Reasonable Cost..."
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I had Comcast HSI residential package for several years with no complaints. I recently upgraded to Comcast Business Class service because I wanted:
No monthly usage caps
Static IP's
Servers allowed
The price difference for the upgrade was reasonable IMHO...the speeds are faster than my residential service. I am consistently getting 30 Mbps down and 7 Mbps up...with 5 static IP's for $79.60 month...not too bad. Reliability seems great thus far...
Update:
After 1 year of trouble-free service...my Comcast Business class is now nothing short of terrible. I have daily outages...for the last 8 weeks...sometimes 3+ hours per day. I have had 4 tech visits, they have rewired and replaced all cable and hardware between my modem and the tap...no improvement at all.
Comcast customer support has given me many excuses for these issue...the latest was that there was a cable damaged by a construction crew nearby and it will take a month to get the required permits from my city engineer to fix the damaged cable. Well...I called the City Engineer and she stated that Comcast has no outstanding permits, etc.
So...at this point, my last hope is Comcast Direct...I am hoping that Comcast Steve can help me.
Update 08/24/2011:
I am still having daily outages on my Comcast Business Class service. Often times 3+ hours per day. Comcast has done nothing to help. I have had broadband since the old @Home days....in the early 90's...and this has to be...by far...the worst experience I have ever seen. Absolutely awful customer support.
I cannot run my business with this kind of service...no way...
Update 08/31/2011:
The infamous construction project was finally completed on 08/27/2011. My service has now been returned to normal. I have experienced no outages since.
So...in summary, my service was extremely intermittent for 10 weeks...with daily outages of 1-3 hours for both my phones and Internet. It appears to be repaired at this point, however, I just do not see how it could take over 2 months to repair service. Once again, this is not my idea of a "Business Class" service that I pay for.
It is nice to have it back, however, speeds are outstanding.
Update 09/12/2011:
Connection has now been rock-solid for the last 2 weeks...no outages whatsoever. Comcast has also now given me 2 full months of credit.
Although I did have major issues this summer...I still believe Comcast provides a great connection technology.
Update 12/12/2011:
Connection remains rock solid. Fast with low latency. I have ordered an upgrade to the 22/5 DOCSIS 3 business class speed tier which will be installed tomorrow.
I will review the new faster service in 30 days.
Update 12/16/2011:
I upgraded to the 22/5 service on 12/14. A new SMC D3 modem was installed and the old SMC 8014 was removed. The service is much faster. I am seeing 54 Mbps down and 8.5 Mbps up with PowerBoost. Sustained rates are now 25 Mbps down and 8 Mbps up...a real improvement.
So far...very pleased with the new tier.
Comments:
| | CEO Why not email the CEO's Office? you do know they read those emails right? | |
| | | | Re: CEO That is a good idea...I think I will do just that...can't hurt...
Thanks
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"This place makes Cambodia look like Kansas..." | |
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Review by Hylas
member for 11.9 years, 356 visits, last login: 50 days ago
lodged 1.7 years ago
- West Hartford,Hartford,CT
- Contract price not specified.
- (24 month contract)
- about 14 days
- "FAST!"
- "None"
- "Free, Fast, 100% Up Time"
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After years of AT&T DSL, I couldn't be more happy with Comcast Business Services. My old AT&T service would require me to reboot the modem and my router almost weekly. VOIP would drop constantly.
I got a new job; working from home. My employer put in Comcast Business Services. I don't have a bill to pay and I've had rock solid connection for 9 months now. In fact, other than when I lost power for hurricane Irene, my Internet has never been down. My uptime on my router was over 8 months. Once the power came back on, my internet was there, waiting and fast as ever.
I'd love to hate Comcast but with a bill of $0 and 100% up-time, I've got to give them a perfect score!
Comments:
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 Review by jbeckva
member for 8.9 years, 2391 visits, last login: 18 days ago
lodged 1.7 years ago
- Powhatan,Powhatan,VA
- $59 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 7 days
- "Solid for the most part, and great tech support when it's not"
- "Can't seem to find anything to fill in here!"
- "Want to not worry about caps? Pay the extra and stop complaining"
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I'm on the 12/2 business class at 59 per month. Looking to go to the next level, as I'm relying on it more and more.
I've had this for about a year now, upgraded from regular consumer class when it was the same per month for the same speeds (why not, eh?). Only a few outages.. maybe 2 max. One was a problem with the SMC D3 modem, but since then absolutely no issues. In all cases, the business support tiers are there to help, and definitely much better.
Glad I upgraded. I was able to get "off the grid" with TV, saving over a 100 per month. No caps to worry about.. works for me!
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Review by muranternet
member for 3.5 years, 644 visits, last login: 43 days ago
updated 1.9 years ago
- Saint Paul,Ramsey,MN
- $52 per month
- about 5 days
- "Decent speeds, fairly good uptime"
- "Sometimes variable speeds late night, stupid SMC 8014 gateway, inconsistent support"
- "Good option for >250GB traffic, esp. if in a low usage node"
| Pre Sales information:
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I was on a Comcast residential account in my address before this one, when it took over from the AT&T Broadband account at my loft in Lowertown. I was apprehensive due to widespread negative reviews but I have to say I have been very lucky with Comcast overall, with a few exceptions. (Had a node-wide problem that took me a LOT of calls to get resolved, but that was when I was on residential and had to suffer through lousy tech support calls.)
I signed up for Comcast workplace through my employer after pondering it for about a year. I wish I had done it sooner. I moved from a residential account with basic cable TV, standard broadband service (was getting about 16mbps/30 with powerboost down), and the usual taxes and mystery charges that go with them, totalling around $57/mo. (I bought a modem.) When I switched to business class, I dropped the basic cable TV, as that was really only there because of Comcast's pricing structure that essentially forces you to get some kind of TV service, or it actually costs more. Note: Basic cable services are always available, if you are interested in that sort of thing.
Speed has basically been about the same, and my account rep was surprised when I told him what sort of bandwidth I was getting under my residential account. I suspect I'm in a low usage area, with a lot of people using DSL instead of cable, so I may have lucked out. I know other people in different metros do not have the same experience, so YMMV. I think my old residential account was supposed to be 12/2, and my business account 12/2, but since I was basically running faster than rated anyway I saw no difference. Unfortunately I don't think the speedtest.net node in the Twin Cities is available anymore, so I can't apples to apples compare my speedboost. Sustained throughput is about the same, however.
Under a business account, Comcast forces you to use their modem, not a privately owned one, but at least they don't charge you for it. The bad news is that unless you get a higher tier account you wind up with an SMC 8014 business gateway, one of the most reviled pieces of hardware ever. DO NOT USE THIS AS A ROUTER. After having it crash several times a day due to poor handling of routing tables, I just set my own router to a static in the gateway's address range (10.1.10.x I think, check your nonexistent manual) and stuck it in a DMZ. The gateway works passably for a straight modem, though I'm still unhappy with it as it still occasionally hiccups and the double-NAT setup results in weird things like tracert not working. After talking with tech support a couple of times, they said they had seen people go crazy trying to make this work for a while, and suggested I just get a surfboard modem and provision it. Some of them will tell you you cannot do this on a business account, but this is absolutely not true unless you need a static (which I don't), so just keep hounding. I have not changed this yet, as I keep thinking I'll drop by the local Comcast office and just pick up a modem, but I have not found the time yet.
Phone support is worlds away from residential support. On residential, when my entire node was having problems, I would have to call about 12 times (no kidding) until I finally got someone on the phone, delayed them for a while, and then told them to look right at the moment that an intermittent drop was occurring in order to get anyone to fix a problem. On business class, your first call is basically to tech support 2, with people who have (so far) known what they were talking about, and had actual information and the ability to fix problems. Apparently, a truck roll is guaranteed within 4 hours of a call, though I have not had to try this yet. I may tonight, just to change out my modem.
Note that if you change from residential to business class, your old account with disappear (at least mine did) and you will be assigned a new address under Comcast. This can be pretty frustrating since I got minimal documentation when my account was changed over, and I needed to call up and find out what my new login information was. I autoforwarded all my mail so I didn't lose anything, but if you actually use your comcast.net address, make arrangements to move all your stuff to Gmail or a similar service before it poofs.
I am also a moderately heavy user with videoconferencing, streaming services, FTP, etc., and I'm sure I must have come close to the 250GB cap a couple of times in the past. The fact that business class caps are, if not non-existent, at least much more lenient (I've heard from 750GB/mo to 1-2TB/mo), is very comforting. Your sales rep may say "no cap" but that's not entirely true. What I generally hear is that the real rule is, "don't bring the node down."
I cannot comment on the other services offered with the account such as Sharepoint, Outlook server, static, rDNS, etc. as I don't use them and have intentionally turned off as many of them as I could.
In conclusion I think this is a very viable option for people who work at home, or who have employers who offer a program for it, or just people who know a bit more about what they are doing and want higher quality tech support and service. I don't know if I would be comfortable running a 20+ person small business using this as my only pipe (maybe as a backup or one of 2 "prosumer" linked pipes), and I still don't think QoS is high enough to reliably serve from a Comcast account, but at this tier of service you are basically paying slightly more (or less) for a souped-up residential account with much better support, not a five 9s service. I am quite happy about it.
UPDATE 2/17/10: 4 months in, very satisfied. I still have not changed out my SMC8014, but it has gone down maybe once very early. Has not crashed since turning off all options and DMZing my DD-WRT router to handle all port assignments and DHCP. I have gotten a couple of different answers every time I call in about changing out the gateway, from "just pick up a modem at the local office and we'll provision it" to "we have to roll a truck out and swap your SMC at the same time." As long as the SMC doesn't give me any problems I won't worry about it.
One thing to note about support is that if you call during business hours M-F you get the local office and very good techs. If you call outside of those hours you get a call center with techs who are slightly better than the residential techs but much more limited. I'm lowering support to 4 because of this and the modem swap answer flipping but still satisfied.
My contract was for 12/2, not 16/2; have update the review to reflect this. Sustained speeds are minimally 12/2, occasionally higher.
UPDATE 2/24/10: I called into support this morning at 2 and 5AM after experiencing 5% loss and effective tested uploads at 0.06-0.20Mbps for a few hours. The tech thought it might be a problem with the gateway, and offered to swap it. I asked for a SB5120, to finally be rid of the 8014, and set up an appointment for the afternoon.
However, at 1PM, speeds were fine, and I called into support again to find out how much of their troubleshooting ability they lose if I switched to a 5120, and the answer was "most of it." Therefore I have made the surprising decision to keep the 8014, double NAT and all, rather than switch to a standard bridging modem just to keep better remote support capabilities. Time will tell if it works out or not.
I'm pushing my support rating back up to 5 because I got excellent answers to my questions and support from the national call center, which I was a little leery of before.
[URL=http://www.speedtest.net][IMG]»www.speedtest.net/result/7283077···G][/URL]
UPDATE 11/1/10: Last week I had a network failure at about 3AM. I rebooted everything in my network and got nothing. The SMC8014 was visible, and had a public IP assigned but could not ping out. I called support. They were able to log into the modem but also could not ping out. After booting the modem again it was not visible, so they placed an order to have it replaced; I asked for a standard DOCSIS modem, and they agreed.
The next morning I got a call from the Tier 2 guy. Naturally at that time my network was working fine, and so they cancelled the call. He also stated that it was "not their policy" to use standard DOCSIS modems on business accounts, even dynamic ones. I told him every time I called I got a different answer on this, and personally knew 2 people who also had this service who were on standard modems, but he would have none of it. "Happy that I could resolve your problem," he actually said. I told him he really didn't do a thing.
Lowering my support score because of this unpleasant experience, but generally still happy with the service.
UPDATE 1/8/11: I've been experiencing severe upstream power drops and packet loss at night for over 2 weeks. The gateway got replaced (another 8014) and an old analog filter removed from my drop, but it wasn't fixed. I spent a week calling in most nights to report the problem, but the desk was less than helpful. Fortunately, I had a very good tech come out when the gateway was replaced, and he kept notes on the situation. I called him back directly, and he put the line techs onto it, and discovered that there was an area issue around my node. They're working on monitoring it now, which doesn't mean it's fixed yet. When I called the desk back to update the ticket, it was closed. This was because the issue had been escalated (to whom I have no idea). They did measure severed upstream power drop and loss. I got half a month's credit, but I'd rather have a working line available at night. I'm not changing my support rating, since like in all services it all depends whom you get on the phone or in the truck. I am lowering my reliability score though, because even though it's been pretty solid over the life of my service, an area line issue can still take forever to get fixed. You're still on the same infrastructure as residential customers, apparently with the same headaches if a problem happens.
UPDATE 6/21/11: Sorry I haven't updated this, but a couple of interesting things happened. First, Comcast FINALLY tracked the problem to a node in my area as they were measuring similar loss at other residences, including another business customer on the same node. It was finally taken care of. Of course, I had to call a higher level desk to get an analysis of the area done. I don't think they were very happy about a mere customer calling, but whatever it takes.
Second, I was contacted by a CC service rep on the East Coast who actually did bridge my SMC 8014. Hallelujah. I can no longer access the control panel for the modem as it no longer had a maintenance address, but since it no longer drops dead, I don't care. Powerboost speeds are also up to what they were on a 5101 residential modem (up to 30mbps boost). I posted this information in the HSI forum, and it set off a veritable cyclone of back and forth nonsense between extremely knowledgeable people who enjoy debating over what a layer 2 bridge really is and what the correct terminology is for a cable modem, all the while debating whether or not the 8014 could go into dumb modem mode. Nobody believed it until I posted the telnet command, at which point it was confirmed by a number of people who are also now out of their 8014 double-NAT hell.
Of course, nobody at CC can agree over whether or not this is a good thing, but then again nobody has actually honored my request for a standard DOCSIS modem for over a year. Therefore my support rating is not changing. To those helpful individuals who insist that the proper way to to things is to get a DOCSIS modem out of CC business: well, no shit. That's why I tried to get one for over a year. Why not ask Comcast why they don't just do things the proper way?
So I still think support is better than Residential support. Incalculably better. But how much better is still a function of who happens to answer the phone.
Attachments:
Comments:
| | Bridge It Once call to comcast and they were able to change the SMC to "bridge mode" - which they explained is really pseudo-bridge mode. My Cisco router sits right behind the SMC, and network speeds and reliability have improved substantially. I recommend this to everyone | |
| | Reviews:
·Comcast Business..
| Re: Bridge It From what I can gather pseudobridge is pretty much what I did, except that I also DMZ'd my router address just to avoid any other weird surprises. No problems with the box since that one I had. I expect to replace it probably within a year since the sucker must be getting close to EoL by now. | |
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| | To megawhizz: I stand corrected. Bridge mode forever, regardless of what people want to call it. | |
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