Topic '[Business] Comcast Business HSI Versus Comcast Regular HSI' in forum 'Comcast XFINITY' - dslreports.com

Re: [Business] Comcast Business HSI Versus Comcast Regular HSI

Sat, 13 Dec 2014 15:16:40 EDT

keason posted : You also get hosted exchange accounts, with one private domain supported, plus AV software and discounts on gotomeeting. The exchange accounts are very nice for a shared calendar.

Re: [Business] Comcast Business HSI Versus Comcast Regular HSI

Fri, 12 Dec 2014 23:26:00 EDT

micro9mm3 posted : As someone who has had both regular residential comcast HSI and business class, I would certainly recommend NEITHER. If there is any reasonable alternative, do that. I am on here to post a complaint about the service of their business class, saw this post and had to make a comment.

Here's that post if you want to see what you're in for:
»[Business] Business class incorrectly disconnected me and won't do anything

Re: [Business] Comcast Business HSI Versus Comcast Regular HSI

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 23:01:43 EDT

ualdayan posted :

said by noc007:

No caps. Rates don't change during the contract so you're not fighting with them annually or biannually to keep your rate below a certain figure. No mystery charges on the bill; just service and optional equipment rental. Cancellation within their guidelines is pretty painless. TOS allows you to run a server.

Keep in mind though that 'rates don't change' doesn't mean your bill stays the same. They can, and have, changed other fees and add on costs and tried to claim 'nothing changed' because they kept the base internet fee the same. For example when I first signed up for business they included modem rental in the cost of service. Midway through they up and decided business would now have to pay modem rental - and they didn't think that my contract's line that said 'total monthly bill' counted. This was years ago - but if they decide they wanted to add some new fee (never doubt their imagination on what they can come up with - just look to residential TV and the sudden price increase supposedly for content prices rising, and then an added broadcast TV fee on top of that) they wouldn't flinch at charging you the add on fee and claiming your base amount stayed the same so you're still in contract.

Re: [Business] Comcast Business HSI Versus Comcast Regular HSI

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 20:53:36 EDT

Zenit_IIfx posted : Loudoun County has the highest per-capita income in the nation...so property values reflect that. Its also considered a suburb of the metro-Washington area. Fairfax County and Prince Georges county are similarly insane for property prices.

Most normal people are getting the hell out and moving over the blue ridge to Fredrick or Clarke counties where people can actually afford to live.

Even with the insane amount of money in this county broadband sucks, plenty of people cant get DSL or Cable, let alone FIOS. The western half only has Comcast coverage or VZ DSL in the most major population centers, and a very tiny FIOS buildout hitting ritzy subdivisions in the countryside. The east has a dense FIOS and Comcast build out.

There is no such thing as a starter home in this county anymore. Everything is built big. Townhomes are starter homes, and even they are expensive now.

Its a huge bubble built off of wealth from all the defense contractors, government contractors, and IT firms locating close to DC. The bubble will continue to inflate to the point that most people can no longer live anywhere near the DC area (50+ miles) without becoming a debt slave or having a 6 figure job.

Re: [Business] Comcast Business HSI Versus Comcast Regular HSI

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 19:24:01 EDT

SpottedCat posted :

said by Zenit_IIfx:

with houses starting in the "low" 500's

This may be off topic, but I have to say it...

$500K for a starter home... WTF is going on?

Re: [Business] Comcast Business HSI Versus Comcast Regular HSI

Tue, 04 Nov 2014 08:46:00 EDT

Zenit_IIfx posted : Yeah, about Comcast not building out much, I see it in my market too. Our franchise is very light-handed with regards to density and distance requirements (100ft!) so that if your not building a subdivision right next to existing Comcast plant, chances are it wont get service unless its not too far (less than 1 mile for sure) from fiber for a new node.

There are many subdivisions coming in that are 2 miles from the nearest Comcast plant, with houses starting in the "low" 500's. Comcast is ignoring them! Oddly enough Verizon is building out fiber even though the whole area had nothing before - no DSL.

Comcast has become perhaps too conservative with plant expansion of their own, instead they look to buy other Cable companies to do it.

This is not the story in every county though. 2 counties over they made a really good franchise and they have to deploy service even into the sticks, so Comcast service is near universal anywhere the population is over 10-15 units per sq mi. (While Verizon has very tiny pockets of FIOS and DSL, with most of that area only eligible for POTS).

Re: [Business] Comcast Business HSI Versus Comcast Regular HSI

Mon, 03 Nov 2014 21:38:35 EDT

noc007 posted :

said by Joe1632 :

After reading all the horror stories about dealing with Comcast, we would like to know if there is any advantage to signing up for Business class versus regular.

said by Joe1632 :

Are the business CSI's better informed?

YMMV. I've read some people have had much better experiences than when they were on Residential. My personal experience was I had to have been talking with a Residential rep every call.

said by Joe1632 :

Do they have the ability cut through corporate BS if there are issues?

None that I am aware of unless you consider how cancellations are handled differently.

said by Joe1632 :

Are there any other advantages or disadvantages by going the business route?

I covered the advantages at the beginning. The price is probably more than Residential. You're locked into a contract that auto-renews for an additional year. You need to give them a 60 day notice before the contract is up if you want to cancel and not renew for another year.

said by Joe1632 :

We prefer to buy our own equipment, including modem. Is that possible with business internet?

Things may have changed so this info may be a year or so out of date. More than likely they'll require a tech to come out and professionally :uhh: install one of their gateways (modem & router combo) regardless. You may or may not get charged for this depending on your sales rep and the length of the initial contract; I'd guess 3 years since you need a new line run anyways. After that you should be able to provision your own modem via the Walled Garden and return their equipment so you're not charged an additional rental fee. I provisioned a Zoom 5341J (on the approved Residential list, but not Business) without issue and returned their gateway to one of their offices; they didn't like me returning BCI equipment, but I wanted to ensure I got that golden receipt.

said by Joe1632 :

Anything else we should know

I recommend evaluating your tolerances for pricing BS and overall needs. Unless you're getting FTTH, you're on the same infrastructure as residential so don't expect any differences in quality. If you transfer more than 300GB of data in a month, Business may be the better option even if there aren't caps in the area right now; expect caps on Residential later. For me it came down exceeding the cap and the cost of the service; I am willing to play their locked-in pricing game on Residential up until it's cheaper to switch back to Business and cut the Residential TV entirely.

Re: [Business] Comcast Business HSI Versus Comcast Regular HSI

Mon, 03 Nov 2014 12:44:39 EDT

bryansj posted : Yes, just my lot. I refer to it as the selfish option. I don't blame them since it would have cost a lot more to deploy to all lots. The first Comcast tech said they don't just wire up areas anymore. They were getting burned by automatically hooking up the developments, but then just one or two homes would get built and the builder would go bankrupt during the housing bubble burst a few years ago. The wouldn't get their ROI. Now the developments get submitted to a return on investment board before getting funded. The other homes will have to repeat what I did or wait for the ROI to get approved.

The old house was old. It was basically a 1 bed 1 bath shack. If it did have service I wouldn't be surprised if the cabling was obsolete. If it had anything it was probably aerial runs that came down when they tore down that house.

The builder should have reported to them. Supposedly my house was sitting vacant for about six months after being built because of utility and permit approvals. The realtor listings did show High Speed Available = Yes...

Re: [Business] Comcast Business HSI Versus Comcast Regular HSI

Mon, 03 Nov 2014 11:01:39 EDT

Zenit_IIfx posted : So, when Comcast deployed coax to your lot, they ignored the other lots and only left your lot with a tap?
Wow what a planning fail! When the construction team was there they should have just done the run for all five lots, it would have been quick and simple.

No phone service is interesting - did the old house not have POTS? It would be odd for the builder to rip out AT&T owned facilities in the process of subdividing.

The fault does lie with the builder, for not reporting to the utility companies to get services ready for customers.

Re: [Business] Comcast Business HSI Versus Comcast Regular HSI

Mon, 03 Nov 2014 10:52:18 EDT

bryansj posted : I just went through a similar situation. I recently moved to a new house. It had an old small house on a lot of property that the builder purchased and removed the house and sub-divided the land into five lots (~.6 acres each). The homes will sit further than 200 ft from the poles which are across the street.

Before closing on the house I looked online through residential and my new address wasn't available for service. A tech was sent out and I happened to be there with the builder at the same time. He said it was too far for an aerial run and there wasn't even a tap at that pole. He said the options were to wait for Comcast to determine the return on investment to connect the five homes (mine was the only one built and under contract) or pay to have the work done myself for just my home. Either way it would be a minimum of two months and the builder dropped the ball by not contacting them ASAP with the plat.

I then called Comcast Business and requested internet service (50/10). They said they would send a tech out for a line survey within a couple days. They contacted me within a couple days and said it would be $1,400 to run the line, but they would cover the entire cost. I also got $10/month off for using my own modem for a total of $99/month for three years. I assume they added a year to the standard contract due to running a new line of service.

It did end up taking about six weeks of no internet, but they did get me connected by the date they promised. It was a crew of six men running a line from the pole, under the road, then to a box at the corner of my lot (furthest away from the other new lots). Then a crew of three came in a bucket truck to run a line from another pole to my pole and connected the cable spooled up at the bottom of the pole from the other crew.

Within 24 hours my address showed up on the residential site (I was asked if it was a home business so they marked my account for residential). I ordered a TV package and that ended up being the first install. He ran the orange cable from the road to my house which was buried a few days later. The BCI install was a few days later and went off without any problems using my modem.

After being told of the service delays prior to closing I had AT&T set up to simply get DSL to bridge the gap. They sent out a tech for the install and canceled the install because there was no cable for him to connect. They rescheduled and the same thing happened. Rescheduled and canceled four times in a row until I talked to the supervisor. They basically said what Comcast told me from day one. They have yet to connect to the pole to provide service, but at this point I don't want them.

[Business] Re: Comcast Business HSI Versus Comcast Regular HSI

Sun, 02 Nov 2014 15:38:02 EDT

anon posted : Thanks for the reply.

The first thing I did was get a copy of the franchise agreement. It states 200 feet. We are about 800 feet from the cable on a clear right of way. The cable is hung on the power poles here. All poles are bucket truck accessible.

Local office has a very bad reputation. Said we were not serviceable, which makes no sense on the face of it. The 800 number said we were serviceable, but there would be construction costs. No survey done that I know of, but prior owner may have had one done.

[Business] Re: Comcast Business HSI Versus Comcast Regular HSI

Sun, 02 Nov 2014 13:35:35 EDT

Zenit_IIfx posted : Generally speaking, if you are ordering BCI (business class internet) Comcast is more willing to reduce or eliminate construction costs depending on the distance. Others have reported greater success ordering BCI over residential service when construction is involved.

If you choose to not order a static IP or voice service, you may own your own modem.

Some more information would be helpful:

1. What county or town are you located in? Cable franchise agreements dictate how much distance of construction Comcast must do for free. Could be 300 feet, could be 100 feet. It depends. We can look up the document and quote the relevant paragraphs.

2. Have you talked with your local office and had a construction survey done? Local people may be more willing to help than someone over the phone.

In my experience with dealing a business class account their phone reps are better informed and are a lot less annoying to deal with than the residential side of the house. The techs that handle BC are generally more experienced and are of a higher rank, while those that do resi could be new hires.

The disadvantage is in the contracts - business class comes with stricter contract terms. The cost of service is a little bit higher than standard residential service, and the base speed tier of 15/2 is less attractive than performance in most markets (25/5). Be sure you plan on staying in the location until the term is up.

Remember - while Comcast may be a pain to deal with, it is not impossible. It just takes effort. Know what you are getting into, and document everything.

[Business] Comcast Business HSI Versus Comcast Regular HSI

Sun, 02 Nov 2014 13:11:39 EDT

anon posted : Hi.

We will be getting Comcast HSI. It will be a new hook up. We expect it to be expensive due to the length of our driveway. There is no existing service here.

After reading all the horror stories about dealing with Comcast, we would like to know if there is any advantage to signing up for Business class versus regular. Are the business CSI's better informed? Do they have the ability cut through corporate BS if there are issues? Are there any other advantages or disadvantages by going the business route?

We prefer to buy our own equipment, including modem. Is that possible with business internet? We don't need or want TV.

Anything else we should know or information we can provide?

Thanks,
Joe