 | I'm happy with them I would say that most people's complaints of service about Comcast are unfounded. |
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 BitPremium join:2009-02-19 00000 | Of course such a claim would similarly be unfounded. |
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 DaveDudeNo Fear join:1999-09-01 New Jersey kudos:1 | reply to 45071419 Please be a little more specific, my complaints are legit. It took 3 truckrolls to get cablecard working on my tivo, and 4 on a tv, which had worked for years. |
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 jmn1207Premium join:2000-07-19 Ashburn, VA | reply to 45071419 said by 45071419:I would say that most people's complaints of service about Comcast are unfounded. Apparently Comcast feels the same way that you do. Unfortunately their customer service, while having improved significantly, is still well below the average for this industry. Hopefully they will continue to make improvements. |
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 baineschile2600 ways to livePremium join:2008-05-10 Sterling Heights, MI Reviews:
·Comcast
·magicjack.com
2 edits | reply to Bit He is right though. If a computer contracts some serious malware, or has an EUD update that screws with the firewall and hinders connection, people blame the ISP immediately.
A common post "i have a router, one computer can access the internet, the other cant! comcast sucks!"
Of course there are legitimate complaints that are CC's problem that dont get fixed the first time around; hopefully for them, they improve on this drastically. |
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 jmn1207Premium join:2000-07-19 Ashburn, VA | said by baineschile:He is right though. If a computer contracts some serious malware, or has an EUD update that screws with the firewall and hinders connection, people blame the ISP immediatly. A common post "i have a router, one computer can access the internet, the other cant! comcast sucks!" Comcast is not alone in this type of negative feedback, every large company has to deal with similar customer rants. It's just that Comcast has more of this, as a percentage of their total user base, than most of their competition. |
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 BitPremium join:2009-02-19 00000 1 edit | reply to baineschile He's not right, it's pure conjecture.
You could say the same thing about every ISP or video service provider then. Why was Comcast at the bottom (ranked even lower than the IRS) and just now mediocre? Are Comcast subs just particularly stupid while Cox and DirecTV subs smart? |
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 fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium join:2005-05-20 kudos:3 1 edit | reply to DaveDude said by DaveDude:Please be a little more specific, my complaints are legit. It took 3 truckrolls to get cablecard working on my tivo, and 4 on a tv, which had worked for years. That's still not 100% comcast's fault either.
Cable card, for one, isn't "comcast technology".. second, the major problem with the cable card isn't necessarily the card itself, rather, many of the "issues" that have popped up from the card have been with the equipment makers themselves and problems with their firmware.
Not to be pre-argumentative here, but, the manufactures even are aware of short falls with their own firmware and have told cable companies 1) what they are, and 2) when they expect resolution..
All I'm saying is that it's not always necessarily comcast's, or cable in general, fault. All they can really do is plug the numbers into the computer, make sure the rates are there for CC, and that's it. The rest is typical signal, house drop, plant and other issues.
What comcast DOES need to do, as all operators, is place pressure on their vendors in a MAJOR way, to step up quality of the product ... while we're customers of comcast, comcast is a customer of Motorola, Cisco, and all everything else they touch.
My biggest gripe has been that they roll over and play dead with hardware manufactures and allow this crap to continue to flow unchecked. Its not like the consumer can call up Moto and bitch slap the company in anyway. |
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 baineschile2600 ways to livePremium join:2008-05-10 Sterling Heights, MI | reply to jmn1207 Yes, but CC has 15 million or so internet subscribers, with TWC or any other cable guy less than 8. So if 1% of people dont know what they are doing, you will obviously see more complaints about CC than any other cable company. |
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 BitPremium join:2009-02-19 00000 | reply to fiberguy Again as I mentioned earlier, if these hardware problems are 3rd party hardware problems they would be affecting all of the cable operators. Comcast would 'take' the same proportional hit as Cox. |
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 baineschile2600 ways to livePremium join:2008-05-10 Sterling Heights, MI | reply to Bit No, but Comcast subs have TV/Internet/Phone to deal with, so there is more potential for problems. The satellite guys only have 1 service. |
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 jmn1207Premium join:2000-07-19 Ashburn, VA 1 edit | reply to baineschile said by baineschile:Yes, but CC has 15 million or so internet subscribers, with TWC or any other cable guy less than 8. So if 1% of people dont know what they are doing, you will obviously see more complaints about CC than any other cable company. If the poll was conducted correctly, it should eliminate this type of bias. Wouldn't Comcast also have the most happy customers?
From a personal experience, my Comcast customer experience was excellent. My Verizon experience has not been as stellar. Day laborers are suing Verizon in my area because nobody wants to pay them for digging trenches in our yards. I can see how the cost of bringing fiber to the home has decreased, especially when you hire cheap laborers and decide not to pay them. And if you think Comcast struggles with CableCards, don't get me started about the tech that came to "install" mine.  |
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 BitPremium join:2009-02-19 00000 2 edits | reply to baineschile The index quoted by Karl was for cable and satellite television service. Telephone service was a separate ranking »www.theacsi.org/index.php?option···+Service and Comcast ranked last. Internet service wasn't ranked. |
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 DaveDudeNo Fear join:1999-09-01 New Jersey kudos:1 Reviews:
·Vonage
·ViaTalk
| reply to fiberguy said by fiberguy:said by DaveDude:Please be a little more specific, my complaints are legit. It took 3 truckrolls to get cablecard working on my tivo, and 4 on a tv, which had worked for years. That's still not 100% comcast's fault either. Not to be pre-argumentative here, but, the manufactures even are aware of short falls with their own firmware and have told cable companies 1) what they are, and 2) when they expect resolution.. All I'm saying is that it's not always necessarily comcast's, or cable in general, fault. All they can really do is plug the numbers into the computer, make sure the rates are there for CC, and that's it. The rest is typical signal, house drop, plant and other issues. What comcast DOES need to do, as all operators, is place pressure on their vendors in a MAJOR way, to step up quality of the product ... while we're customers of comcast, comcast is a customer of Motorola, Cisco, and all everything else they touch. My biggest gripe has been that they roll over and play dead with hardware manufactures and allow this crap to continue to flow unchecked. Its not like the consumer can call up Moto and bitch slap the company in anyway. So the problem is more with motorola , see i agree with you. As a large big dog like comcast, i would think they would demand more. Saying to motorola get your act together, or we will find another contractor. -- They Live... We Sleep...
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 fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium join:2005-05-20 kudos:3 | reply to Bit um, .. they are affecting all operators... Comcast is MUCH larger compared to all the rest of the providers and have also been larger for longer. As has been discussed for many years here, Comcast is going to take a larger beating because of that.
The only thing that really separates one cable company from other is their operating policies. Their technology is all purchased from the same group of available vendors.
I can, if I cared to, scan and post a list 6 pages long from TV makers, and Tivo, of "known problems" with their devices, their firmware, and what they are doing to work out the problem. This is not to say that CableCard itself doesn't have some issues as well.. However, when the makers themselves have put pen to paper, I'm going to go with that as one of the points of weakness.
The problems are becoming less and less as new hardware is manufactured.. however, just becuase new hardware is on the market didn't do a thing to change the TV/Box already owned an in place by existing customers that don't have the fix or new firmware installed.
If you're using BBR as a gauge to measure the proportion of complaints, then you're not doing your homework correctly.. BBR is not a place where I'd conduct any scientific polls. The Qwest forum, for example, is rather quiet compared to the others which is that way based on numerous things.. their system is built a little different.. there have been MANY 3rd party support groups available.. those customers tend to be in areas with different life styles..
But don't think that for one moment that Cox, Time Warner, Charter, MediaCom, and all the rest all don't have a fair amount of cable card problems either. And, to be honest, considering the number of cable cards in circulation as we speak, the population to bitch is small anyway. Comcast just gains a lot of attention no matter what.. I'm sure at some point, Comcast will get blamed for the Iraq war by SOMEONE.. it's just a matter of time. |
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 fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium join:2005-05-20 kudos:3 | reply to DaveDude Exactly!
To be honest, Comcast, like all cable providers, should be happy about the July ruling of separable security... they should use that and approach other vendors to manufacture boxes to what customers want.
PERSONALLY, I think the Tivo thing was a good "IDEA" but they went around it all wrong.. both of them did.
Instead of making software for current boxes, they should have just gone to Tivo and said "Make us a box that works with our DAC, on the Tivo Platform and make sure it can do all of the following..." Instead of making a hack software attempt, they should have gone with the route of all new boxes and discontinued the relationship with Moto in buying any additional DVR boxes. |
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 DaveDudeNo Fear join:1999-09-01 New Jersey kudos:1 Reviews:
·Vonage
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comcast should have asked Tivo for a cheaper box, and had it premade for comcast. Video on demand could have been remade, to look like netflix, or amazon. Everyone would have been happy, it would have inspired others to re-create it. Instead we got the flatliner motorolas we have today. |
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 BitPremium join:2009-02-19 00000 4 edits | reply to fiberguy I'm just looking at the rankings and see Comcast as previously horrible, close to the worst in the video services industry and now merely mediocre. I then see people trying to explain why saying it's hardware issues, it's how many customers they have, etc but if that were the case, Cox would be horrible as well and they aren't.
Telephony rankings are the same way. Cox is at the top and Comcast at the bottom. That isn't a technology problem, that is purely a customer service practices problem. When you have mediocre rankings over a couple of different services that is a company philosophy problem in either company wide training problems, barriers of making customers jump through hoops to get to competent assistance, very long hold times, horrible automated phone navigation systems, company wide billing issues, etc.
But given their telephony rankings bounce up and down, this small increase in video results (that still aren't as high as they were in '06) can be a similar anomaly and not any revelation of a Comcast turn-around. Even with the improvement, if not for bankrupt Charter, Comcast would be tied with Time Warner for worse video service provider in the ranking just as they're the worse telephony provider in the rankings.
IOW, this is nothing for Comcast to be proud of. They have plenty of hard work ahead if they want to improve their reputation. |
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 fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium join:2005-05-20 kudos:3 | reply to DaveDude That's what I was basically saying... instead of asking them for software on their current crappy hardware from Moto, they should have just went to Tivo with what they needed and let Tivo make a box that would do it all. I BET that customers, for the first year or two even, would have ate those boxes up like crazy.. Then, its my guess, that Tivo would have been releasing new boxes to market on a regular basis as well.. it would have been a win win.. it would have put Tivo up there on the lines of Motorola and S/A-Cisco as box makers and shored up their financials for sure! (To be honest, I think if they did that, Motorola would have gone the way of the former AT&T.. either died off, completely or absorbed by another company all together)
Moto is behind the time anyway.. their hardware is lackluster, they can't design ANYTHING with style,.. I could go on.. But, it's a company that's stuck in the 1980's with a lackluster attempt to style it for modern times. |
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 BitPremium join:2009-02-19 00000 | said by fiberguy:they can't design ANYTHING with style,.. You mean you don't like giant grey bricks wider than every other AV component on the market and top vents that preclude you from stacking anything on top? Geez, a little picky aren't we? LOL. |
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