How is less channels an upgrade

Posted Wed May 9, 2012 11:04 pm, by Richard S. written to Comcast Corporation

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I am very furious over the service I have received from Comcast over the past two months. During the first few months of this year I kept receiving notices that beginning April 3rd Comcast would be upgrading their services to a digital format and I would have to get receivers. I figured I would not need these receivers because 3 out of 4 TV’s in my house are new TV’s that are already capable of receiving a digital signal. To be on the safe side, I requested 3 of the receiver boxes be sent to me. On April 3rd, I came home and had no cable reception. The message on the TV said I needed the receiver boxes hooked up. I installed these boxes and as expected I had issues. So I called your customer service department to get help. We were able to get the boxes working. At this time, I inquired as to why I needed the receivers when I had digital TV’s that were already getting a digital signal. The agent claimed it was a change that was mandated by the government. This is a lie because the mandated change occurred in the summer of 2009. Since that time I have been getting a digital TV signal WITHOUT the use of receiver box. I called back later that evening seeking an answer to my question and was told by another agent, that Comcast decided to scramble the signal. This was a better explanation, but still left me furious. Before your mandated receiver boxes were required I was getting MORE channels on my TV than I was after. I was able to get the digital stations BEFORE the mandated receiver boxes were required. Please explain to me how this change was an UPGRADE to my service. After this upgrade, I am getting FEWER channels than I did before and now I need some stupid box to watch fewer channels. This does not sound like an upgrade to me. This supposed upgrade happened right after you raised my rates. Nice timing.

Needless to say, I ended dropping your cable service and have switched to a competitor. When I cancelled my service, I was told I would need to return your receiver boxes. What should have been an easy process was a hassle. Because I work during your normal business hours, I had my roommate drop off the 3 digital receiver boxes at your office in Romeoville, Illinois. He waited in line for over an hour. With a wait like that you would have expected at least 60 people to be ahead of him inline. Nope there were only 10 people. To make matters worse there were two “customer service agents” waiting on people. None of the people in front of him had pressing issues that required a lot of time. Some just wanted to pay their bills and exchange broken DVRs. The customer service agents at this location are rude, not helpful and work as slow as molasses. I have seen snails move faster than your workers. When my roommate finally got to the counter to return the boxes on my behalf, the customer service agent refused to take them back because his name was not on the account. What kind of service is this? I have never heard of a more ridiculous thing. Your boxes were being returned because the service was cancelled. What difference does it make who is returning them? The agent still refused to take them. My roommate said to your agent “I am not leaving here (your office) with this boxes. You need to find a way to take these boxes back.” Again what difference does it make who is returning the boxes. Do you think people just return the boxes out of the blue as if they are getting money back for returning the boxes? Your agent could have checked his ID to see he lived at the same address and checked to see that the cable service was in fact deactivated. My roommate also offered to call me and let me speak to the agent but again that was not an option either. Rather, she chose to argue and put up a fight over the return of the boxes that no longer do me any good.

Is this how you treat customers? Yes I am still a customer of Comcast because I have high speed internet service, but after the customer service I have received the past two months I will be getting rid of that as well.

I did eventually find out why Comcast is making the receiver boxes mandatory. It is so Comcast can monitor the usage of its customers and move bandwidth to other high usage areas when usage is low in other areas. You are doing this because Comcast is too cheap to actually upgrade their outdated equipment.

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Re: How is less channels an upgrade by McJohn Posted Thu May 10, 2012 @ 6:49 AM First off it was a government mandate that all cable signals go digital, it just took longer for some cable companies to complete the changeover. As for returning the boxes they need you to sign for them. What if your roomate was just being vindictive and returning your stuff as he moved out to inconvenice you? Its not that farfetched, when I was in college my roommate took our cable box when he moved out and I had to pay $300+ to replace it because it was under my name, and the whole time he claimed he returned it to the cable company. lastly, if you had the roommate return the boxes than how does this work? " I have seen snails move faster than your workers" You werent there, how did you see how fast they were going? Reply good point - how can the OP know how fast the workers were working if she/he wasn't even there? n/t by PepperElf Thu May 10, 2012 @ 12:33 PM