AndyHoffner.com

Right before I moved into this new apartment, my cable bill had slowly creeped up to a staggering $150 a month. It wouldn’t be that big a deal, it’s just that their service was pretty terrible to boot. The internet was slow (~3-4 Mbps equivalent) – the firmware problem I wrote about in August TWO YEARS AGO still persists with no end in sight. The HD channels were sparse, and the “On Demand” was worse than worthless. The signal quality was just good- not great, especially in HD, featuring lots of undesirable pixel-shear. It hardly seems worth almost $2000 annually. I could buy Blu-Ray sets of all the shows I watch every year for less than that.

So moving to a new apartment presented us with a fantastic opportunity to try some new options. There was a satellite mounted on the patio already, so we figured we’d go ahead and make the switch. I looked into Qwest for internet too – but unfortunately they only offer 1.5 Mbps service in the new complex, and the hub is on the other end of town, so I could probably expect at maximum bandwidth 100 kb/s downloads. It’s mind boggling that was the best they offered in this day and age – I mean my iPhone gets faster service. So Qwest was out of the picture. I’d love to try out FIOS from Verizon, but it looked like they were years away from getting lines at all in Colorado, let alone in this area. So while it looked like I could probably get Dish for TV, I’d unfortunately be stuck with Comcast if I wanted any kind of internet.

I called them up, told them I was moving, wanted to cancel the phone and TV and just keep the internet. The lady told me I’d have to turn in my cable box first, at the local office. A little ridiculous that she couldn’t just swap over the services I was keeping then and there, but honestly I didn’t have high expectations for that phone call from the start. So the next day I made the trip, the guy at the store there cancelled the two services, and scheduled a date the following Thursday to have the line turned on for internet. The appointment window I was told was Noon to 5 PM.

Jennie skipped class to stay home and wait. The window came and went, and no one showed up. I called them Friday morning, the rep told me the tech came out, but there was no answer at the door, so he tried to call me but the line was disconnected.

Wait. I ask, “What number did he call?” He told me the number, which I recognized as my home Comcast telephone number. “Um,” I replied, “you disconnected that line Tuesday. Didn’t you realize you were disconnecting the only line on my account?” Apparently they can shut off telephone service, but don’t care about adding another line to the account for just such occasions. Again, my low expectations kept me from getting too upset. I gave him a different number, and he began to set up a new appointment. But then he supposedly made a discovery.

“The line is actually on, did you try it out yet?” he asked. Well, I hadn’t yet – I had been told it had to be turned on first, which I explained to this CSR. “Well,” postulated the CSR, “its possible the tech that came out turned it on anyways.” He explained that they are technically required to meet with the resident to turn it on, but the tech might have just done us a ‘favor’ and turned it on anyways. He said all I have to do is go home, plug it in, and I’ll be prompted by my browser to call back and have them send a modem activation signal to my cable modem.

I can’t believe I trusted this guy blindly. I went home after work, tried out the modem, and there was nothing. Being an ex-IT consultant, I troubleshooted everything I could think of, resetting my modem a billion times, messing with every setting on my router/computer, until I gave up. Wasted a solid hour and a half.

I called them back the next day.

“The line is definitely not on. I’m not sure why you were told it was,” explained the new CSR on the phone, “Someone will need to come out.” He set up an “expedited appointment” for the next available time. Next Thursday, 8 AM. So a week goes by, the rep shows up, turns in on. And I finally have internet.

Three weeks later. I can’t believe it took me three solid weeks to just get internet at my apartment. Keep in mind they charged me for the full three weeks of service I didn’t have.

So, still burning from this, I set up Dish Network to come out and set up HD TV, via a very slick online system (no terrible phone calls!) for the very next business day. Total cost: $38 / month. Twice the HD channels, 6 months of free HBO/Starz/Cinemax, a much more sophisticated DVR. That’s 1/3 the cost of Comcast and roughly twice the service offering. Even after the promo deals expired, I was still saving almost $50 a month.

Unfortunately when the Dish Network guy came out, who was btw very friendly, he explained that I didn’t have line of sight to either of their satellites. He showed me on this electric compass device, to the east I was blocked by another building, to the right by a massive cottonwood tree. He apologized, called their offices and had my deposit refunded on the spot, but suggested that I do try DirecTV, since he knew their satellite was more southerly directed that theirs, instead of going back to cable. He even gave me some paperwork to give to my HOA to request a commercial account, so they could get a dish on the roof of the complex instead. Even though they couldn’t help me, I really was ten times more satisfied with them than Comcast.

I contacted DirecTV (the dish we already had was from them) but when they came out it was a similar story. Apparently the existing dish couldn’t get signal anymore, a tree due south had grown in, and was about 3 feet too tall. There wasn’t line of sight for them either. Similar story though, they were very friendly, took time to show me the problem exactly, explained how to petition for a corporate account, apologized, refunded me, and left.

But I was stuck with cable. I was going to have to crawl back to Comcast.

Or was I? I had gone a whole month without TV. And honestly – it really showed me that the mediocre offering from Comcast wasn’t at all worth $110+ a month. Not by a long shot. Don’t get me wrong – I love TV. I normally watch a ton of it, and even if I’m not sitting right in front of it, it’s always great background noise. But I really staunchly disliked Comcast. I talked to Jennie – and she really had the same sentiment – it had become Satellite TV or bust. So we decided to just not have TV.

We’d rather have no TV than Comcast TV.

The real deciding factor — we could get free shows on Hulu, Netflix, and torrents — spend almost nothing, and get roughly the same content. With Boxee (which I’ll discuss in another post) I can even get them all on my TV without a keyboard and mouse, and can use my phone as a wi-fi remote.

In many ways I haven’t looked back. But in others – I’m still being screwed by Comcast. Their connection to the Hulu server is terrible. I can traceroute the server connection, and the response times are atrocious. I get an average 2 Mbps down to most of Hulu’s streaming servers. That’s almost unwatchable. It basically means that I have to buffer for 6 minutes to get 5 minutes of content. My regular connection is still just OK – 3-4 Mbps average, its enough to get streaming Netflix movies without any trouble. But Comcast makes me want to chuck my computer in the trash when I’m on Hulu. Over a few weeks its gotten better, but it still fluctuates.

Oh, and if I wasn’t angry enough, I just got my bill:
Monthly Internet – $22.99
“Install at new address” – $0
“One Time Charges – Change of Address” – Priceless.

Oh no, wait, I misread that last one- Its actually $65.26 Having the tech come out on-site to turn a switch was free – but it cost me sixty-five bucks to have them change my address in a computer.

I hate you Comcast.

Related posts:

1. Comcast Now 51% More Evil
2. Comcast Responds!
3. Comcast “Bird for Brains” Internet
4. Two Weeks With Boxee
5. Comcast Followup

-Andy

Tags: boxee, comcast, tv

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 30th, 2009 at 12:19 pm and is filed under Rant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.