OT: Comcast Woes

Rosie

I'm sorry for this completely off-topic thread. The past two weeks I have had nightmare times with Comcast. I won't go into the details, but I'll say that I have spent probably ten hours of my life dealing with them and it's not over. I almost cried tonight. I'm bound to having them for my cable and internet in my building, though.

I'm curious how many of you have cable. Is there anyone who doesn't have high speed internet at home? I have scaled back my cable so much, I don't really care about it much these days. But, I don't know how to deal without internet yet am not ok with paying almost $60/month for it if it is my only service with them. (Now I pay $90 for phone, internet and basic cable.) What do you all do?

15 years ago

General

8 replies

Latest reply was from Beth

Katiepea

(website)

Veteran

Hi Rosie!

Being in Australia I am unfamiliar with Comcast, but I am all too familiar with telecommunication woes! I have had my own battles with a telco provider in the past and ended up complaining to the telecommunications ombudsman in Australia in order to get a resolution. It worked. (Do you have a telco ombudsman in the US? If so, they can be great to approach if you have a valid issue which your telco won't address to your satisfaction.)

Cable isn't super big in Australia, so I don't have cable - I only watch free to air TV.

Now, given that I have survived (for many more years than I'll ever admit(!)) on free-to-air only, I'm going to be blunt and play devil's advocate for a moment.... (Take a deep breath and know that I'm only asking for your own good!)

Do you really need to pay thousands of channels of (primarily) outdated nothingness?

Do you even need five channels of (mostly, bar for a couple of hours per week) outdated nothingness?

To help give you greater clarity in regard to this issue, as a first step I'd be inclined to go through a programme and circle all programmes that I really "must" watch and see how much is free-to-air and how much is cable. If the free-to-air is much higher to cable, I say, get rid of the cable. I promise, promise, promise you will survive! (I have a slight nervous twitch that is nearly gone! )

In terms of broadband and internet, Australia is an absolute backwater! So much so that faster and more reliable internet is actually an issue for debate in the upcoming federal election! (Soooo, keep this in mind when I write my views on broadband vs dialup....)

I have only just got ADSL2+ in the past month. (I am not sure if this is an Aus or International term, but means higher speed broadband than was in existance before.) It's great, so much easier to zip around the net! I can say that if I go over my usage limit and am relegated to dial-up speed that it can be painfully slooooooow. (At least it is here in Aus, not sure about US.) As such, I'd think about it before you go to dial-up (although it could be a great way to curb an internet addiction - when it takes 10 minutes to load up one page, it sure turns you off quickly!).

Good luck sorting them out Rosie - I hope the issue is resolved to your satisfaction very soon!

15 years ago

Laura

(website)

Veteran

I have Comcast too and was on the phone with them (at least the phone still worked ...) three times last week.

Monopolies. Ugh.

All I can offer is sympathy!

15 years ago

anne

Veteran

Hmm. Katipea has covered the australian situation very comprehensively!

I have never had cable. I don't even have time to watch all the programs I have recorded to watch on free to air TV!

I do have broadband internet and wouldn't like to lose it. Mind you I have not had email at home for a couple of months and that is a pain!

15 years ago

Ana

(website)

Veteran

We don't have cable TV at all. We don't even get the free channels. We do have high speed Internet, and pay about $40 a month for that (we don't have the super high speed, but don't really need it). We watch TV for free on Hulu.com, which is great! We also have a Netflix account and watch their "instant watch" selections and get two DVDs out at a time for about $14 a month. We get cable shows on DVD from Netfix when they are released. All in all we save over $100 a month watching TV this way.

Can you get DSL through a phone provider?

15 years ago

Rosie

Veteran

Thanks, all, for commiserating! Laura, thanks for letting me know I'm not alone. Katie, I have to reread your post when I have more time to learn the intricacies of Australiain cable!! In January I dropped all the fancy tv I had and I have the most minimal channel package I could have in order to get phone, tv and internet at a combined rate. Since I have done that, I pretty much watch tv like Ana.

Ana, Hulu and Netflix (which I actually also can stream through my Wii) are pretty much the only ways I watch tv right now. I have to ask my building about the cable, but in the past it was Comcast or no one...for close to $60! I'd gladly pay $40 and ditch everything. I can't believe how expensive it all is anymore. That $100 can go towards clothes!

Thanks everyone - I needed a boost with this!

15 years ago

yublocka

(website)

Veteran

We don't even have a television so I am not much help here!!

15 years ago

Alecia

Veteran

I wish I could convince hubby to ditch our cable. I think it's such a waste of time and money. We just recently bundled our services with comcast. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. It's been a bit of an inconvenience, but it is less expensive that cable, phone, internet separately.

15 years ago

Beth

Veteran

Oh, do not get me started on this one. We had all the technological marvels when we lived in the city and it never crossed my mind that it would be that different in the country. HA.

We went from broadband DSL to dial-up (I never thought I'd hear that squealing eee-onnn, eeee-onnn again) and from cable to satellite dish. It was a shock to say the least.

It's gotten a little better. Television off the dish isn't that much different than cable and we now use a portable cell modem for internet. It's still too slow to stream music or videos and there's a data limit each month but at least I can see pictures now. :O Still, it's so much more expensive for so much less. No bundling options since they're all different providers. We pay nearly $200 a month for mediocre internet, telephone and cable. Bleh.

15 years ago

Category